7SEVEN7seven7SEVEN7seven7SEVEN7

Hawk at Spontaneous Arising has tagged me for the Magnificient 7's meme.
If I over-analyse, I'll NEVER post this...so here goes nothing:


Seven Things to Do Before I Die


Love - as much as I can


Live - on the Canadian West Coast


Add Canine to my list of animal companions


Go completely vegan


Recrudesce my practice of Ashtanga Yoga (hopefully LONG before I die)


Visit a peaceful Middle East where I could drive myself anywhere I chose to.


Procrastinate less




Seven Things I Cannot Do


Remain silent in the face of injustice or suffering


Keep quiet at some times when I really should


Consider plastic surgery


Enjoy most music on the radio


Abide willful ignorance


Empathise with Conservatives


Patronise for the sake of ambition




Seven Things That Attract Me to Blogging


I always have an opinion


I learn something new every day (through one blog or another)


I met (and continue to meet) interesting people


It's EASY


I prefer the medium to others for self expression


It's more convenient than a soap-box


Youngfox




Seven Things I Say Most Often


"Come for your pilly!"


"Did I see that movie already?"


"It's already Monday tomorrow?"


"Yeah, well..."


"Where's the magic bag?"


"As a matter of legality, please remove my number from your call list"


"I love you."




Seven Books that I Love


Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins


The Secret World of Og - Pierre Berton


50 American Revolutions you're not supposed to know - MickeyZ


The Essential Rumi - Coleman Barks(a collection of Rumi's poetry)


The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Stephen Donaldson


The Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice


Manual of Woody Landscape Plants - Michael Dirr




Seven Movies That I Watch Over and Over Again (and some I just enjoyed once)


Gorillas in the Mist


The Silence of the Lambs


Dial M for Murder


The Life Aquatic


The Usual Suspects


Pulp Fiction


Batman Begins



Seven People Who Must Now Do This



Everyone's off the hook here because most of my blogging friends have already done this sort of post - but if you decide to run with it, I'm looking forward to reading...

Peace.

May you see the Golden Mean in all Things.

Stop The Landmines

You won't see this on 'the box' in the US.
A little too clear of a picture of what reality is like for many in the world.


I came across this Public Service Announcement from an Expendable in Scotland.
(the link is a browser window which plays a quicktime movie)



Apparently all US media outlets are refusing to carry this PSA in support of Stop Landmines .

Happy Winter Solstice to One and All

Newgrange in Co. Meath, Ireland is also known as Bru na Boinne. It's an absolutely beautiful place where ancient society marked the magic of Nature at the Winter and Spring Solstices. People still flock there today to see the sun rise through the narrow shaft and send a beam of warmth and life into a 5000 year old coffered-ceiling structure corbelled ceiling built into the earth like a cave. Beautiful sculptures and rock (originating far from the structure itself) was built by people long before the pyramids came to be and still we are uncertain of so many things about our own histories.




I hope everyone takes a moment to enjoy the day, the sun, the Life.


A rock at Bru na Boinne carved in the typical Irish pattern:




Winter Solstice illuminates the Mound:






The view at Solstice from inside:

Law Suits filed in an effort to have the Polar Bear declared "Endangered"

I can't beleive that they have not already been declared an Endangered Species. How can they not be?






Our world is warmer than has ever been previously recorded and these animals depend upon the annual onset of cold weather for their very survival.




For as long as modern man has walked this planet, Nanuk has wandered the North and been the most powerful individual ever to survive it's harsh and unique environment. They have forever wandered out onto the sheet ice, swimming from from one ice floe to another as they hunt, as is their very existance.




Now the Polar Bears are now drowning while they hunt, swimming from one ice floe to another is no longer as easily done. Sheet ice is melting and breaking up; ice floes are farther apart; the once fruitful shoreline is changed. Their prey now move to deeper water themselves and are no longer as accessible to the Great Nanuk.




They drown while they hunt because they are tired and hungry.



They drown because for so many generations we've talked about climate change and what we might do to prevent Catastrophe; but we've not done nearly enough.

Now a group of Conservationists in Alaska is doing what little they can to try and prevent these wondrous creatures of the North - an integral and identifiable part of what we think of as 'Canadian'- from slowly disappearing while nothing is done.

"ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP 12/15/05) - Three conservation groups say they will file a lawsuit Thursday under the Endangered Species Act seeking to protect polar bears from extinction.




The lawsuit says Arctic sea ice that bears depend on for hunting, mating and travel is melting at an unprecedented rate because of global warming.




Center for Biological Diversity spokeswoman Kassie Siegal says the lawsuit will be filed in federal district court in San Francisco.




The other plaintiffs are the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace.




The groups petitioned to have the polar bear listed as threatened last February.




The Endangered Species Act requires that the Interior secretary respond within 90 days of receiving such notice but the secretary has yet to comply.




Scientists with the US Minerals Management Service Wednesday released a report documenting the deaths of four polar bears found drowned in September 2004 when sea ice had retreated a record 160 miles north of the northern coast of Alaska.




The researchers say that more polar bears may have drowned that have not been found.

full article



The Center for International Environmental Law CIEL is helping.



I hope for all our sake's that the Polar Bears of the Arctic will continue to exist as they should - in the wild, hunting, swimming, playing, fighting, rearing their young, braving the harsh elements; not just in cages in zoos around the world.

Indigenous Colombians successfully using pacifism to stand their ground against violence

The indigenous natives of Colombia are standing their ground to keep their ancestral lands from violent marxist and government forces using nothing but their ceremonial staffs bound with the colours of their flag.




They are organised and determined.




Peace CAN be a force for change - even today.









Thanks to mr. damon who posted a great write up with many links at his site and at American Samizdat.
Check it!

In times like these, there's no time to waste

Thanks to Michael at Spontaneous Arising for this excerpt from Hazrat Inayat Khan

"Since there is faith these days, but absence of inner life, there seems to be a greater need of the inner life than there has ever been before. It is the head quality which is developed and it is the heart quality which needs to be developed in order to bring balance in life. Life, so balanced, is then prepared for the inner culture or spiritual life.



Many consider sentiment something quite unimportant, something that should be kept aside from the central theme of life today which is intellectuality. No one who has given a thought to the deeper side of life will deny for one moment the power and inspiration that manifest themselves once the heart is kindled.



A person with heart quality need not be simple, he need not discard intellect; only the heart quality produces that perfume in the intellect which is as fragrance in a flower. Morals learned from logic are dry morals, a fruit without juice, a flower without fragrance.



It is the heart quality that as a course of nature produces virtues which no one can teach; a loving person, a person with sympathy in his heart, teaches morals through himself. It is the balance of mind and heart, or the balance of thought and feeling that makes the ground ready for sowing the seed of the inner life."

We can but attempt to improve ourselves to be the change we want to see in the world.

America’s “Ghost Detainees” Shuttled to Morocco

“December 8, 2005 — North African nation hosting secret prisoners identified. According to informed intelligence sources, the country that is hosting most of the U.S. terrorist suspects moved from Eastern European secret prisons in advance of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s recent European visit is Morocco.



Many of the prisoners are being held at remote prisons established by former King Hassan II to torture political prisoners. Many of these prisons are in located high in the Atlas Mountains and are so remote, they can only be easily reached by helicopter.



The deal with Morocco was reached as a result of the close relations between Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and former Secretary of State and UN Special Envoy for Western Sahara James Baker, Baker’s Special Envoy assistant John Bolton, and former US ambassador to Morocco Margaret Tutwiler. Western Sahara is illegally occupied by Morocco but the Bush administration supports the continued Moroccan occupation of the oil and mineral rich territory. In return, Morocco has supported the holding of “Al Qaeda” suspects, interrogations by its security services, and close liaison with Israeli intelligence and military personnel.”

Thanks to Youngfox for posting this Wayne Madsen article at Pourquois Pas?.

National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

Pausing to mark a dark day in Canada's recent history.






So many women today, in so many countries, struggle for equality under the most adversarial conditions. We can immediately conjure up images of Afghani women and young girls who do not have the freedom to get an education simply by virtue of their gender; but we need not look so far afield to find examples of oppression.





While Western Nations or NGOs attempt to effect real and positive change around the world to empower women with the most basic rights, it would serve us well to remember that the underlying reasons for the discrimination against women are often learned at home.





Our own backyard still has many problems that need tending if we are to reach a truly equal society.

The Montreal Massacre






For 45 minutes on Dec. 6, 1989 an enraged gunman roamed the corridors of Montreal's École Polytechnique and killed 14 women.





Marc Lepine, 25, separated the men from the women and before opening fire on the classroom of female engineering students he screamed, "I hate feminists."





Almost immediately, the Montreal Massacre became a galvanizing moment in which mourning turned into outrage about all violence against women.

More stifling of the free press in Iraq

Aside from the obvious - indiscriminate violence all around, kidnappings, among so many inumerable atrocities, now they’re refusing entry to all non-Iraqi Arabs…




The government of Iraq has barred non-Iraqi Arabs from entering the country ahead of the Dec. 15 general elections.

"It covers all border points whether airports, land border crossings or ports," said one senior official.

An Interior Ministry official said it was "part of security procedures" reportedly implemented Nov. 29, with no formal announcement. No date for lifting the restriction has been set.

Here's where it gets really special:

An Associated Press correspondent of Egyptian nationality was also barred from boarding a plane Friday for Baghdad. Iraqi officials say there will be no exceptions to the new rule.

So the AP will now have to rely either on non arabic speakers to report the news from Iraq and/or journalists who speak Arabic as a second language. I realise there are doubtless many talented and hopefully scrupulous journalists who fit this bill, but wouldn't it be nice to know that your news is coming from someone who speaks Arabic as their mother tongue?


Looks like Iraq could be on its way to becoming a Belarus style democracy.

'Democracy' in Belarus

Conveniently this comes before an election set for 2006. It is already illegal to critcize the President who has so far remained in power for 11 years.

The parliament of Belarus has passed a law intended to stop mass protests - ahead of 2006 presidential elections.


The law will make it a criminal offence to "discredit" the Belarusian state both within Belarus and abroad - with a three year jail term for offenders.


The new law was passed overwhelmingly by the lower house of the Belarusian parliament on Friday.


Officials say it will help prevent protests similar to those that led to Ukraine's so-called Orange Revolution.


The new law makes it a criminal offence to deliberately make available to foreign states or organisations, false information on the political, economic or military situation in Belarus, or to discredit Belarus or its government.


Anyone found to have done so could face between six months and three years in prison.



Sanctions threat


The bill broadens the scope of existing legislation - it is already illegal in Belarus to criticise the President, Aleksandr Lukashenko, or any top officials.


The head of the Belarusian KGB, Stepan Sukhorenko, said the law was intended to stop a wave of protests like those in Ukraine last year during the Orange Revolution.

Swaziland cancels all World AIDS Day events by royal decree

I find it truly shameful that rulers of nations are still hampering the treatment, and thereby helping the spread, of HIV among the planets poorest and most destitute while the means exist to deter the spread and treat those already suffering.

In a royal decree, Swaziland's King Mswati cancelled the AIDS Day events, saying they would interfere with a month-long traditional ceremony.

Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang told an audience in Durban that they should eat lots of vegetables and garlic, for its anti-fungal properties.


She's been called "Dr. No" for her reluctance to support the use of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, which have been shown to prolong the lives of HIV/AIDS patients.

Jilin Chemical Catastrophe

The chemical plant explosion in Jilin that has loosed an 80km slick of carcinogenic benzyne into the Songhua river will soon reach the Amur river in Russia and result in the vast contamination of the rivers waters.
Russians are preparing for the emergency situation and to cut off the supply of drinking water as soon as the slick reaches them.


Only well water is potable at this stage and this seems to be largely accessible to corporate interests (McCains french fries need to keep the chinese KFC consumers happy) while the populations of tens of millions are scrambling to aquire adequate supplies of bottled water.




What I desperately want to know is this:



What's being done to clean up this spill and how has it already affected the ecosystem of the Amur and its tributaries???



Have any readers found any mention of the consequences of this spill (other than that of drinking water)?

Starved, tortured prisoners found in Iraqi cell

While the US is busy admitting to yesterday's news , today we hear of detainees who've had their skin peeled off.

The deputy interior minister was more explicit, saying he was stunned by the prisoners' treatment.


"I've never seen such a situation like this during the past two years in Baghdad; this is the worst," Hussein Kamal told CNN.


"I saw signs of physical abuse by brutal beating, one or two detainees were paralysed and some had their skin peeled off various parts of their bodies."

Depleted Uranium use = Nuclear War

A must read interview...



with Leuren Moret (a geoscientist whose credentials are listed at the top of the interview).





Here are just a few excerpts:

In April of 2003, the World Health Organization said they expect global cancer rates to increase 50 percent by the year 2020.

ICONOCLAST: What can soldiers expect when they come home?



MORET: If they were in Bradley Fighting Vehicles, they’re coming home with rectal cancer from sitting on ammunition boxes. The young women are reporting terrible problems with endometriosis. That’s the lining of the uterus malfunctioning, and they just bleed and bleed and bleed. Some of them have uterine cancer — 18 and 19 and 20 year olds.

ICONOCLAST: Does exposure to depleted uranium effect their psychological background when they come home?



MORET: Depleted uranium are these particles that form at very high temperatures. They are uranium oxides that are insoluble. They are at least 100 times smaller than a white blood cell, so when the soldiers breathe, they inhale them. The particles go through the nose, go through the olfactory and into the brain, and it messes up their cognitive abilities, thought processes.
It damages their mood-control mechanism in the brain. Four soldiers at Fort Bragg came back from Afghanistan, and within two months, those four had murdered their wives.

I could keep quoting, but it's really worth reading the entire interview.


Another bunch of information that the general public (including me!) would prefer to believe is not part of our present reality.



Sad news for the Planet.







Thanks to Blondsense where I picked this up.






Also posted at Pourquoi Pas.

Remembrance Day...for everyone...

Remembrance day will be upon us tomorrow and there is so much strife in our present day that I think many of us will find little time to give a moment's consideration to all those individuals who have fought for the rights of their people.


It is not only our organized military men and women serving in war-time (past & present) who deserve remembrance.


Many people around the world have made personal sacrifices and Ken Saro-Wiwa's story is but one of countless stories from around the world of the ultimate sacrifice being paid by non-violent protesters fighting against corporate and governmental sidelining of the interests of the people:



Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa (October 10, 1941 - November 10, 1995) was a Nigerian author, television producer and environmental activist.

The Ogoni people of the Niger Delta are still as confident, proud and strong as Ken Saro-Wiwa left them 10 years ago but they have little to smile about on the anniversary of his tragic death.


Their youths roam idly about their peaceful oil-rich land with no hope of employment, and their schools and hospitals are but a shambles.


~ full article

In 1990, Saro-Wiwa founded MOSOP, to advocate for the rights of the Ogoni people. The Ogoni Bill of Rights, written by MOSOP, set out the movement's demands, including increased autonomy for the Ogoni people, a fair share of the proceeds of oil extraction, and remediation of environmental damage to Ogoni lands. In 1992, Saro-Wiwa was imprisoned for several months, without trial, by the Nigerian military government.


In January 1993, MOSOP organised peaceful marches of around 300,000 Ogoni people - more than half of the Ogoni population - through four Ogoni centres, drawing international attention to his people's plight. The same year, Shell ceased operations in the Ogoni region.


Saro-Wiwa was arrested again and detained by Nigerian authorities in June 1993, but was released after a month. In May 1994, he was arrested and accused of incitement to murder following the deaths of four Ogoni elders, believed to be sympathetic to the military. Saro-Wiwa denied the charges, but was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death by a specially convened tribunal. The trial was widely criticised by human rights organisations.


~Ken Saro-Wiwa

US used chemical weapons in Fallujah

This is the sort of behaviour that would justify outrage so otherwise misplaced and vainly held aloft as though a golden calf.


This is the sort of behaviour that people will be called to answer for.

This is unforgivable behaviour that has no valid excuse.


This is making enemies in the world.

Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.

Generosity of Spirit

A 12-year-old Palestinian boy shot in the head and chest this week by Israeli soldiers died of his wounds on Saturday, Palestinian officials said. His father said his family had decided to donate the boy's organs to Israeli children who needed them.

"We want to send a message of peace to Israeli society, to the Defense Ministry and the Israeli parliament," he said. Israeli forces "killed my son who was healthy and we want to give his organs to those who need them."

Americans & Canadians: please help TODAY

I'm sharing an email alert I received today (along with many others) and I'm asking humbly for your help:

Hello.


Sorry to bother you but times are desperate for the Refuge and if we can all send the information below to anyone we know in the U.S., plus other Canadians so they can send it to their contacts in the U.S. too, we could really help.


Also, please take the time to send a new letter through www.beingcaribou.com asking the PM to stand up to his strong statements to "pull out all the stops to ensure the integrity of the calving grounds".


The time may have come for him to figure out what those stops will be, and start pulling. Thanks for your help. We still believe that together we can stop this from happening, and that it's only over when the last person who cares, gives up. So please don't give up. We need your help.


Sincerely, Being Caribou Arctic Drilling Proposal on Senate Floor Drilling in the Arctic Refuge will be under debate today on the floor of the US Senate (Wednesday, November 2) while the Senate is debating the overall Budget Reconciliation bill. It is possible Arctic champion Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) will again offer an amendment to remove the Arctic drilling provision from the budget reconciliation bill. Debate is expected to go all day Wednesday and most of the day Thursday. Drilling in America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has no place in the federal budget reconciliation bill.


This proposal has nothing to do with lowering gas prices. According the Government’s own Department of Energy, drilling in the Refuge will lower gas prices by only a penny per gallon 20 years from now. This proposal has nothing to do with reducing our dependence on foreign oil. The Department of Energy estimates that even when the Arctic Refuge is at peak production, our country will still be importing 66% - a whopping two thirds of all of our oil.


Drilling in America’s Arctic Refuge has nothing to do with the budget – it is a backdoor effort to ram an unpopular proposal through the Senate, sidestepping the usual process of open debate. The American people have made it clear that they want the Arctic Refuge protected. There are some places that are too special to ruin with oil drilling, and America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of them. WE NEED AMERICANS TO CALL THEIR SENATOR NOW!!


Please take a moment and call your Senator – tell them to please protect America’s Arctic Refuge and vote against the budget reconciliation bill.


Every Senator is important, but it is critical that the following swing Senators hear from all U.S. residents:
Snowe (R-ME) • Collins (R-ME) • McCain (R-AZ) • Smith (R-OR) • Coleman (R-MN) • Dewine (R-OH) • Chafee (R-RI) Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121


To send an email, click here


If this bill passes the Senate, we will still have a chance to stop it in the House, and indications are looking better all the time that the House will not accept a budget with Arctic in it. But if we can stop it in the Senate, we don't have to worry about the House - please call your Senator today!


If you're not already a member, join the movement to protect Alaska's wild places. Visit www.alaskawild.org <http://www.alaskawild.org/> and click on the bear!


erica heuer publicist,
being caribou
p. 867.393.4440
seven cassino street whitehorse, yt

Lost & Forgotten?

The CIA's counting on it:

The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.

Now the countries who are aggin it will have to force the outing of the countries who are fir it so they can take their lumps.

The reports all say eastern Europe but I'm suspicious of democracy inviting itself to stay in places like Kyrgystan where the public's never even heard of the place, let alone what they might be doing there.

Cheney pushing to legalise torture

emphasis is mine.

Vice President Cheney is aggressively pursuing an initiative that may be unprecedented for an elected official of the executive branch: He is proposing that Congress legally authorize human rights abuses by Americans.

The CIA is holding an unknown number of prisoners in secret detention centers abroad. In violation of the Geneva Conventions, it has refused to register those detainees with the International Red Cross or to allow visits by its inspectors.


Its prisoners have "disappeared," like the victims of some dictatorships. The Justice Department and the White House are known to have approved harsh interrogation techniques for some of these people, including "waterboarding," or simulated drowning; mock execution; and the deliberate withholding of pain medication.


CIA personnel have been implicated in the deaths during interrogation of at least four Afghan and Iraqi detainees. Official investigations have indicated that some aberrant practices by Army personnel in Iraq originated with the CIA. Yet no CIA personnel have been held accountable for this record, and there has never been a public report on the agency's performance.

How can the American public continue to blindly go on with their daily lives as their silence indicates a complicity and agreement with their governments policies of abuse and repression?

The world can't wait any longer!

Just another wacky conspiracy, you say?

Powerful Government Accounting Office report confirms key 2004 stolen election findings

Let's see how the administration deals with their own pesky General Accounting Office now.

Spread the news on this one - people need to know.

As a legal noose appears to be tightening around the Bush/Cheney/Rove inner circle, a shocking government report shows the floor under the legitimacy of their alleged election to the White House is crumbling.

The latest critical confirmation of key indicators that the election of 2004 was stolen comes in an extremely powerful, penetrating report from the General Accounting Office that has gotten virtually no mainstream media coverage.

I'm asking for your help...

... to preserve the some of the fruitful waters in the North Atlantic.

The Canadian government needs to know that while fishermen are out catching our dinner, we 'consumers' (gawd I hate using that word!) do care about, and want to ensure that the region's ecosystem is saved from destruction.









Sign the WWF petition to help save a region in our nation that is dangerously close to complete ecological collapse: The Grand Banks, off the shores of Newfoundland.

In this region, tonnes of marine life is being caught unintentionally, and dumped overboard dead or dying every year because of appalling fishing practices.

Among this "bycatch" are scores of endangered leatherback turtles, dolphins, porpoises, and ancient cold-water corals. As a result, the Grand Banks’ entire ecosystem is at risk.

Rosa Parks still has something to teach us

Rosa Parks individual action resulted in everyday freedoms being afforded to many. We take those freedoms for granted today, but the most important lesson she can teach us is that individuals CAN make a difference.


Civil disobedience is necessary behaviour when the representative government in a democratic nation no longer represents the citizens, nor acts democratically.

"People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true.
I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day.
I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was 42.
No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in."
Rosa Parks 1913 - 2005

Impeaching George Bush would be neither disobediant, nor illegal. All it takes is determined action through the systems laid out for just such a situation wherein the President of the United States is not fit to serve the office.


Now is such a time. It is long overdue and while citizens of the US allow him to remain in power, the world suffers.


Impeach GWB.


The picture and quote come via MickeyZ

The World Can't Wait!

Drive Out the Bush Regime!
Mobilize for November 2, 2005!


Your government, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights. Your government is openly torturing people, and justifying it. Your government puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.


Your government is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.


Your government suppresses the science that doesnÕt fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.


Your government is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.


Your government enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.


People look at all this and think of Hitler — and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.


Millions and millions are deeply disturbed and outraged by this. They recognize the need for a vehicle to express this outrage, yet they cannot find it; politics as usual cannot meet the enormity of the challenge, and people sense this.


There is not going to be some magical "pendulum swing." People who steal elections and believe they're on a "mission from God" will not go without a fight.


There is not going to be some savior from the Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into "leaders" who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.

Brazilian deforestation 60% worse than we thought

Scientists from Brazil and the US say new research suggests deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon has been underestimated by at least 60%

Mules in Pakistan providing relief to quake survivors

Nine days after the killer quake struck Kashmir and parts of northern Pakistan, the army mobilised its animal transport units (ATUs), or what's left of them, to reach inaccessible areas - sometimes without any human assistance.

I'm never happy to see creatures other than humans drafted to military service, but the current work of these so called 'beasts' of burden is most valuable and unique.

I hope they fare well.

Footage shows US troops burning bodies of 2 Taliban

The footage showed flames licking two charred corpses, their legs and arms outstretched, and a group of five US soldiers standing watching from a rocky ledge.


Footage showed two US soldiers reading two messages from a notebook that they said had earlier been broadcast.


"Attention Taliban you are cowardly dogs," read the first soldier, identified as psychological operations specialist Sergeant Jim Baker.


"You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be."


The other unidentified soldier read a second message, part of which said: "You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Talibs but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are."

Is anyone suprised? I certainly am not. I'm quite certain that this is just one example of the sort of activity that psyop officers are specifically instructed to carry out.

The occupation is little more than an excercise in stripping away the dignity of citizens while the corporations strip away the resources of their countries.

18th of October....

On this date, NASA took this lovely picture:

These people were born:





















Chuck Berry




Pierre Elliott Trudeau




Lee Harvey Oswald




Wynton Marsalis








And I met a very special cat:

Couple killed after being branded witches

In Calcutta (I'm supposed to say 'Kolkata' now - can't make the switch - sorry!):

A tribal couple has been hacked to death in West Bengal by villagers who suspected them to be "witches" responsible for a wave of malarial fever in the area.

So while we talk of human rights and advancing equality in the world - some people are so woefully uneducated that they are acting like 17th century colonial puritans - their compatriots who live in the big city are busy taking your call about your car insurance.

Talk about a disparity.

Reports reaching here on Friday said 55-year-old Soli Oraon and his wife Mungri were branded witches by inhabitants of Darjeeling's Mill Bagan tea estate and killed Wednesday night.

They were held responsible for malaria and other diseases affecting slum dwellers in the locality.

On Wednesday night, some villagers dragged the elderly couple to a nearby jungle and killed them.

The couple had reportedly been living in the area for a long time and had been practicing witchcraft.

Witch hunting is common in many tribal dominated areas of West Bengal. In many cases, women are branded witches and killed by relatives for their property.

Another article on the same topic here (CNN), or an older report here (Indian source called Frontline).

Celebration in the midst of disaster

In spite of the terrible toll that the recent earthquake in Kashmir, Pakistan & Afghanistan continues to take on all those in the region; the rich culture of India is unabated.

This week was Kali Durga Pooja for millions - a celebration of the Goddess Kali.

She is the Destroyer of Demons, allowing the natural balance of the world to be resumed.

Canadians right to privacy is being eroded

Paul Martin's government will be putting forward 'The Lawful Access Bill' next month. The bill will legislate that telecommunications companies be required build in the technology to enable wire taps in any future equipment upgrades .

Paul asks us to beleive him when he says:

"When the government brings forth this kind of legislation obviously the
question of civil rights is first and foremost in our minds and they will be
protected"

Meanwhile, our federal privacy commissioner has cold feet:

"We remain sceptical about the need for these potentially intrusive and
far-reaching measures."

Now I realise there are a lot a good number of distinctions remaining that differentiate us in Canada from our neighbours to the south; but gawd damn - I don't think most Canadians want a fear based administration as they have south of the all important 49th parallel; and I sure as hell don't need my rights diminished and diluted because the government can't afford the manpower to keep up with technological advances without doing so.

Apparently some police officers think that a good way to defray the costs of this legislation would be to tack another quarter onto our phone bills.

They want us to bend over and then pay them for it??

Really - get in touch with your local MP and express your outrage at this proposed legislation.

If you don't already know who your MP is, find them using your postal code here.

Tell them you don't want your tax dollars wasted on this legistlation that will do nothing to prevent criminal activity, and everything to ensure that Canadians right to privacy is undermined.

Do we recognise our similarities are greater than our differences?

This article by Deepak Chopra sums up my sentiments about the recent earthquake in Pakistan / Kashmir / Afghanistan.

Can citizens of the world respond as they should to yet another vastly devastating disaster?

Kashmir is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and my sorrow over it
has lasted most of my life. Pakistan and India contend over this mountain
paradise strictly to keep religious bigotry alive. Now that the region has
suffered a calamitous earthquake which has caused up to 30 times more deaths
than Katrina, the world should draw together.

Not just to bring relief but to recognize that members of our own family have
perished.
For decades we've heard about major earthquakes affecting the
region from eastern Turkey through Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan. These are
among the most troubled spots on earth, and yet as much attention as we pay to
them politically, they are entirely ignored in other regards. Why is a
corruption scandal inside the Washington beltway more significant than massive
loss of life around the world?
It shouldn't be. World events are moving
quickly. Arab countries are no longer economically backward, yet as we see from
the pictures coming out of the disaster site, these overwhelmingly Muslim
victims live in primitive conditions as far from the wealth of Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia as the wealth of America. If the Muslim world hates colonialism and its
legacy, it's time for them to step up and provide an alternative. Arab relief
should be supplying hundreds of millions of dollars, not just to help out here,
but to build up the catastrophically backward towns and villages that fill this
whole region.
At the same time the Western powers should be standing beside
Arab nations as brothers in humanity. That we don't is due to religious and
post-colonial prejudices that are shameful. The time is coming soon when global
cooperation won't be a luxury but a necessity for our entire survival. We could
use this horrendous tragedy as the first step into a global future that crosses
the lines of nationalism, colonialism, and religion. What more fitting memorial
to our dead brothers and sisters?

Jehangir (the 5th Mughal Emperor) on Kashmir:

" If there is paradise anywhere on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here."

God

via Amsam.

I could agree with him...

...If he were referring to himself in the 3rd person...

"Evil men obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience must be taken
very seriously, and we must stop them before their crimes multiply.
.....
Defeating a militant network is difficult because it thrives like
a
parasite on the suffering and frustration of others."

~ preznit arbusto in his speech today.

So - when will the fucking impeachment get underway?

We must protect freedom of speech in Canada

While B'nai brith is claiming

that the 2nd Annual Canada Palestine Film Festival, which opens today at
Winnipeg's prestigious Cinematheque theatre, is "about propaganda not art."

Winnipegers must be vigiliant for us all. They are at the vanguard of what is a plan to curb the rights of anyone who might choose to speak against Zionism. (Not to mention that there is a UN resolution against Israel that has been ignored for years now. )

In their press release, B'Nai Brith legal counsel David Matas repeats his annual
claim that "the very title of this year's festival, 'Occupation Will Still Be
Televised,' denotes an attitude that is a priori prejudicial and harmful to
Israel, and blatantly misrepresents the facts on the ground."

It's not a court hearing - it's a film festival.

Film-makers have a right to make documentaries or fiction.

Even when they don't agree with a particular political view, and even when they are Palestinian.

Happy Ramadan from Boeing & Bell Helicopter

"It descends from the heavens, ironically it unleashes hell"

Two of the many providers of military aircraft have accidentaly published this ad twice now.

They didn't intend to demonstrate how the attitudes of the military are so disgustingly racist that this is their idea of promotional advertising.

They just blurted it out.

Twice.

Is anyone buying this shit?

Some choice tidbits from Israeli history & present, etc...

Israeli aggression is rearing its ugly head again in very disingenuous circumstances. Sharon is displaying his terrible brand of duplicity at the expense of innocent lives.

I am reminded again that history has much to teach us about context, so I decided (with some consternation) to post this array of assorted facts, quotes & information that I put together elsewhere earlier this year...






A few links:



IDF Israeli death stats

Red Crescent Palestinian death stats

Remember the Children

If Americans knew




On Jews and their part in the deaths of Jews:





1. Ben Gurion informed a meeting of Labour Zionists in Great Britain in 1938:

“If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Israel, then I opt for the second alternative.”

2. Chaim Weizmann reporting to the Zionist Congress in 1937 on his testimony before the Peel Commission in London, July 1937: Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, made this Zionist policy very explicit:

The hopes of Europe’s six million Jews are centered on emigration. I was asked: “Can you bring six million Jews to Palestine?” I replied, “No.” … From the depths of the tragedy I want to save … young people [for Palestine]. The old ones will pass. They will bear their fate or they will not. They are dust, economic and moral dust in a cruel world … Only the branch of the young shall survive. They have to accept it.

3. Salli Mayer:

“. . . what is happening in Poland are exaggerated stories. . . the way of the Ost Yuden. . .always asking for money.”

4.

“As is was everywhere else, in Bedzin, too, the basic difference between the observant individuals and the Zionist leaders and enlightened “intellectuals” of the city was graphically demonstrated. Practically all of the kapo officers were academicians – persons with degrees—who behaved like wild beasts and at times were more cruel than the Nazis. On the other hand, the observant Jews simultaneously increased their acts of kindness and mutual help”.

#3 & #4 are from this book site dedicated to informing the public at large about Torah Jews.

See p.58 of the book for details on the Swedish Zionists who requested that the Swedish gov’t REVOKE the law allowing 10,000+ Jews to claim refuge in 1939.






On more current affairs:





1. Ariel Sharon:

“Every time we do something, you [Shimon Peres] tell me America will do this and will do that… I want to tell you something very clear: Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.”

2. Ariel Sharon In an interview with General Ouze Merham, 1956:

“I don’t know something called International Principles. I vow that I’ll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child’s existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit I’ve killed 750 Palestinians (in Rafah in 1956). I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian women is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do.”

3.

“A bellicose man who seemed to be chomping at the bit to start a war.”

–President Ronald Reagan describing then defense minister Ariel Sharon in his autobiography “An American Life,” chapter 58.





A few facts:




1. In September 1953, Sharon escorted Unit 101 in an attack on Bedouins in demilitarised Al Auja (a 145 square km juncture at the western Negev-Sinai frontier), killing an unknown number. Al-Auja was declared a demilitarized zone in the 1949 armistice between Egypt and Israel because it was a major invasion route along the Cairo-Beersheva-Jerusalem axis. (Factoid#1a – A close Israeli friend’s parents (Arab Jews) were given shelter by the Bedouin for years and were driven to living in Israel by jewish violence)

2. Major David Mofaz testifying at an Israeli military trial investigating the mistreatment of Arab townspeople at the hands of Israeli soldiers stated in 1982 that

“Israeli soldiers were given orders to harass and beat up Palestinian residents.”

Mofaz was certain these orders came from the top, from the Chief of Staff, and was himself “person-ally ordered to beat up Arabs by the West Bank military commander.” He stated further that

“the army had orders to harass the West Bank population, not just those involved in anti-Israeli demonstrations.”

The trial also heard evidence that then Defense Minister (now Minister of Trade), Ariel Sharon had not only encouraged Israeli soldiers to beat up school children but that, in giving instructions to the soldiers in the West Bank for dealing with the Arab protectors, he had told them to “cut off their testicles.” Sharon reportedly stated in these sessions that

“the only good Arab is a dead Arab.”

“By Way of Deception, Thou Shalt Make War” - Mossad motto

Gaza is being terrorized

Israel is now apparently creating sonic booms in the skies above Gaza to torment it's citizens. The bombing has continued for consecutive days. It goes on primarily during 'rush hours' and has caused children to be afraid to go to school. Pregnant women are going into stress-induced labour.

This is a crime.

Dolphin Assasins are loose in the Gulph

Oh how I wish the basis for this story didn't exist.

Dolphins, all Cetaceans, are so much more intelligent than we give them credit for. I'm convinced that they are more evolved than humans as a genus. They are not alone...sea lions and orcas are also used by the US Navy.

The suffering of these creatures at the hands of humanity is disgraceful. Even this article is slightly light hearted about the trained dolphins but I'll be attempting to add to this post soon with more background info when time allows me to.

The US military has gone to great lengths to further their dolphin programme and to keep it from becoming public knowledge. They know how disgraceful it is. They just find their own ends will justify any means, as always.

How many bullets does it take to kill 1 Iraqi Insurgent?

Apparently 250,000.

US forces are using up so ammunition so quickly that they're buying them from the supplier for the IDF.

Maybe it's that the administration simply can't build the US deficit quickly enough unless they pay $10 billion more than it would cost to make the ammo at home; that would lower unemployment at home too. (can't have that)

Get to your local protest tomorrow!

Check the information and details for your area:

Toronto

Canada

U.K.

Washington D.C.

Seattle

Ireland

Hunger Striking Terror Suspect hospitalized in Toronto today

Mohammed Mahjoub has been on a hunger strike for over 75 days, drinking only juice and water.


He has been held for five years in a facility not designed for such a longterm detention.


He wishes to be granted contact visits with his wife and childen.



All excerpts are direct links to sources:

Mahjoub has said, 'I'm happy to wait for these decisions, but provide me with livable living conditions in the meantime.' You wouldn't treat a dog like this, nor should you," said social justice activist Matthew Behrens, one of the man's most vocal advocates.

He is one of five people being held by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service on security certificates based on secret evidence. Under federal law, the government can hold suspects indefinitely if they convince a judge the suspect is a threat.

He is accused by security officials of belonging to the Vanguards of Conquests, a militant group with ties to the terrorist organization al-Jihad.

Mahjoub has admitted meeting Osama bin Laden in Sudan in the 1990s when he worked in an agricultural plant owned by bin Laden. But he denies any links to terrorism.

Canadian authorities tried to deport Mahjoub a year ago, but a federal judge stayed the deportation order against Mahjoub, saying she was convinced he might be tortured if forced to return to Egypt, where he was convicted of having terrorism links.

Dictatorships Allow Touch Visits in Prison: Why Not Ontario????

Mahjoub and his family hope that while he is hospitalized, health care authorities will be able to properly investigate the conditions which have led to his hunger strike, including his Hepatitis C, and his knee injury.

Agents Provocateurs - finally some proof?

2 undercover SAS detained in Basra were caught by Iraqi police after one of their own was killed in gunfire exchange. The two plainclothes operatives refused to state the mission they were on and their car has been reported as being full of explosives.



In attempting to forcefully free their compatriots, British forces came under attack from Iraqis; causing their very own demise while attempting to undermine the very force attempting to keep order under occupation.

The SAS are not in the business of running patrol duty. These are specialists who are trained and experienced in covert and undercover operations.

Their training includes extensive psychological preparations and methodology to use psyops effectively as required.

Read more here, here, or here.

Don't Drill, Storm Capitol Hill

The Alaska National Wildlife Refuge is still under threat.
The 2006 U.S. budget contains plans to open the Refuge to drilling
(for what amounts to a paltry 6 month supply).
The fight isn't over yet! The Porcupine heard successfully calved in ANWR this spring and have made their way back to their fall grounds.

Help ensure that their existance continues. When they arrive in their calving grounds next spring will they find a familiar place to bear their young, or will they find themselves in the midst of human destruction with no safe harbour in time to bear their young?

The amazing folks from Being Caribou will be in Washington on the 20th of September and they need your support.

I'd be there if I could, I hope you all lend a hand in whatever way you can.

Bee in the Neocon Bonnett

Hugo Chavez has addressed the U.N.

"We believe it is time to think about the creation of an international city with
its own sovereignty, with its own strength and morality to represent all
nations of the world. Such international city has to balance five centuries
of unbalance. The headquarters of the United Nations must be in the South"

Chavez's speech (translated to English by Nestor Sanchez) makes no illusion of his purposes or ideals - and the man is aiming high.
I love every word of it.
It's sure to have raised the ire of all the Usual Suspects because he suggests of all things - the nerve of the man - that people should prosper from their Nation's wealth.
Here is a National leader who has the means to achieve his ends. Other world leaders may wish to stand up to the Neocon purpose and their assigned parts in the agenda, but few have the oil money with which to do it.
He's demonstrated that he has the wherewithal to lay his socialist agenda bare before the world. His opposition to Western developed, US led hegemony has been made clear, and while the Neocon backroom will be busy furthering their plans to oust the Venezuelan leader; I wonder if they will make the mistake of underestimating the will of the people of the developing world? After all, complacency in North America is easily understood since most people wallow in the comfort of their material goods and luxurious conveniences but those in South America and many other places on the globe have not nearly as much to lose by throwing their fervent support behind the actions of such a leader. What they have to gain is an enviable and very achievable equity among themselves.
Chavez implores the U.N. to act on it's own past resolution:

"In the Resolution 3021, May, 1974, the Assembly expressed its will to work with
utmost urgency in the creation of a New Economic International Order based on-
listen carefully, please- “the equity, sovereign equality, interdependence,
common interest and cooperation among all states regardless of their economic
and social systems, correcting the inequalities and repairing the injustices
among developed and developing countries, thus assuring present and future
generations, peace, justice and a social and economic development that grows at
a sustainable rate.”

I wait anxiously to see the results of his speech. Who knows, maybe I'll even see it covered in the mainstream media?!

The End must be nigh...

...for the appointed puppet-emperor has said "I take responsibility" for the government failure to respond in any meaningful way to the devastation that hurricane Katrina has wrought.

If only the american people would take this opportunity to impeach this criminal while they have it.

I'm sure that George will have to have his medication dose increased after today. He's sure to succomb to an apopleptic fit if his brain chemicals are allowed to get out of whack.

Words of Truth are Timeless

“…In order to secure their power and to rest at heart's
ease

they have armed the Durzi to fight the Arab;

Have instigated the Shi'i against the Sunni;

Have incited the Kurd to slaughter the Bedouin;

Have encouraged the Mohammadan to fight the Christian

-How long is a brother to fight his brother on the
breast of the mother?

How long is a neighbour to threaten his neighbour near the
tomb of the beloved?

How long are the Cross and the Crescent to remain apart before
the eyes of God?…”

~Khalil Gibran (1883-1931)

Read the full poem

photo by Alex Crick

Canadian Frank Stronach brings evacuees to Palm Beach

Stronach is doing Canada proud. He's house a few hundred evacuees in his Palm Beach horse training facilities, providing them with "everything we needed". He has pledged to be in this for the long haul, supporting the victims for up to 5 years.

He's already put millions into the effort, and is planning to spend $2million US to buy 1000 acres in Louisiana upon which he'll build a community complete with a school to help the affected people be able to rebuild lives for themselves.

Now how about hearing similar stories about Bill Gates or any others on the Fortune 500?

read more

Vancouver aids in rescue before the US feds arrive.

Sheriff Stephens, interviewed on the Cajun Queen, also said federal assistance had been minimal. "I have Royal Canadian Mounties who have gotten here faster than the federal government,"

from NY times




Apparently it's easier for a municipality on the Pacific coast of Canada to organize and begin rescues on the ground in Louisiana than it is for 'Brownie' or Crypt-Keeper (striking resemblance, don't you think?) Chertoff to organize the forces of the most powerful nation on the planet to help people in St. Bernard's parrish.

Just another striking example of the incompetance of FEMA & Homeland 'Surveillance' Departments.

A Louisiana state senator has praised a Canadian search and rescue team. Senator Walter Boasso said a Vancouver-based team reached St. Bernard parish five days before the U.S. army got there.
"Fabulous, fabulous guys," Boasso said. "They started rolling with us and got in boats to save people ... We've got Canadian flags flying everywhere."

from the CBC (still locking out it's employees)

Vancouver's Urban Search and Rescue Team arrived home safely on Tuesday, September 6, 2005 from Louisiana after assisting in the search and rescue efforts in the areas of the state ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The team was deployed on August 31 and worked with Louisiana State Troopers and the U.S. National Guard.

Vancouver Urban Search and Rescue

Homeless Companions

Please donate to the Louisiana SPCA.

The animals need your help too:

You'd want someone to help your animal companion, wouldn't you?

The Texas SPCA is en route to New Orleans.

Help them to help the animals.

Blogday.

Blogday links:

Tom's Astronomy Blog


Look at the sky. Blick den Himmel. Regardez le ciel. Mira el cielo.

Hot Sauce


Tasty! Geschmackvoll! Savoureux! ¡Sabroso!

Gumbies


Foreign adventure. Fremdes Abenteuer. Aventure étrangère.

Iraqi Faithful encounter more tragedy

Even when Iraqis are attempting to go about something like their normal routines or traditions there is some instigator to precipitate horror:

"Officials had earlier suggested that someone in the crowd deliberately triggered the stampede by saying they had seen a suicide bomber."

This is a hallmark of a covert operation carried out by occupiers wishing to instill fear in civilians without any care for the deathly consequences. It makes me sick.

"People swarmed the bridge. There had to be a search operation at the end of the bridge, so crowds gathered and a certain scream caused chaos in the crowds and the crowds just reacted and this sorrowful incident took place."

I'm no civil engineer, but perhaps it would have been wiser to have the check point where people were getting onto the bridge?

Three days of mourning have been declared as though this is some sort of unforseeable accident; Iraqis have much to mourn but this is no accident.

It's at best a result of poor planning and at worst a planned culling of the peaceful to instil fear in a population struggling to overcome a fear they've been living for years.

Hello Humans...

Hello Humans.
Just surfacing to remind you that in the 21st Century you do not need tosmash my face in with a club to survive.



This post is ripped from my buddy Youngfox

If Dahr Jamail can maintain hope, it's hope for all of us

Meanwhile in the Crawford “Green Zone,” Mr. Bush chooses to ignore the resistance movement that is standing outside his fence. But that is alright, because the hundreds of people there now protesting represent tens (if not hundreds) of millions across the country who, like the Iraqi resistance, are not going to go away.

Dahr Jamail's latest writings on the situation on the ground in Iraq "Two Green Zones" suggests that events there are going to bring the political situation in America to a head.

I think many Americans who've not been brainwashed must be getting as sick of the right's tactics as I am at this point. This whole Cindy bandwagon where I see so many articles criticizing her for smiling because they claim she must therefore be feigning grief....

The type of arguments they continue to present are so pre-school intelligence level that I can't even begin to entertain them with much vigour.

The same sentiment applies to any notion that this occupation is going at all well (for all concerned who are actually there themselves) and any support of it at all.

All the expressions: "freedom isn't free" ...blah blah blah... They just sicken me with boredom.
Who's freedom? It's a legitimate question and it should be answered prior to mocking.

As the article mentions, the people protesting won't go away. If the govt. there continues to attack peaceful protesters with tear gas and tazers and attack party-going ravers, the youth might just be compelled to vote next time and the democrats can attempt to perform again, hopefully in some sort of globally responsible manner. (if any of the parties is still capable of that)

Extradite Pat Robertson to Canada:

Since we have an extradition treaty and it appears that Pat Robertson’s hate speach may have broken Canada’s Broadcasting act:

“Earlier Friday, the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commsion said it has received about 20 complaints about Robertson's statements. The CRTC will look at whether the TV preacher's comments broke Canada's Broadcasting Act. Some Canadian TV stations carry Robertson's program.”

We should ask for Pat’s extradition to Canada.



It’s only reasonable since the empire is busy extraditing Canadians.

Time to redefine ties with U.S.

It is indeed time for Canada to take some control over our relations with our Empirical neighbours to the south before they really let loose ...

There is a chronic and dangerous failure to fully appreciate the shift going on in the political demographics of the U.S. and how this change affects attitudes not only toward Canada but also to the broad U.S. approach to its international role.

~Lloyd Axworthy

via Vive le Canada

Helen Keller: Not Blind to War Crimes

“How can our rulers claim they are fighting to make the world safe for democracy,” she asked, “while here in the U.S. Negroes may be massacred and their property burned?”

~Helen Keller

This great article at press action is a must read.

I had no idea that Helen Keller was such an outspoken character aside from the basic facts of her childhood experience that most of us are familiar with.

What a woman.

If you like the article, you could also check out Mickey Z. the author's personal site

Israelis doing a good deed

and I don't say it sarcastically.

Animal charity Hakol Chai has sent volunteers and vets into the empty Gaza settlements ahead of an army-imposed deadline for bulldozers to level the buildings.

There are lots of negative things I could add here about the actions of so many other Israelis - not least those of the settlers who apparently didn't think enough of their pets to bring them with them

- but a good deed is a good deed and should be given credit as such without detraction by drawing attention to the actions of others.

I am truly happy to see that at least some abandoned animals will not suffer an unneccessarily cruel fate.

Pat Robertson's sorry...

...A sorry assed lying hypocrite.

"Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him."

~Pat Robertson as quoted by CBC news.

Pat Robertson is a man of no morals and he's now proven that he also has no backbone. I don't believe his 'apology' for a minute and he apparently no longer has the conviction of his words:

On Wednesday, Robertson initially denied having called for Chavez to be killed and said The Associated Press had misinterpreted his remarks.

This last quote is very true and explains everything in a nutshell.

Chavez, whose country is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of President Bush.

I saw Chavez answering a British interviewer's question of whether he planned to use oil $$$ to support Venezuela's policies throughout Latin America. His answer was brilliant: 'Venezuelan oil $$$ has supported the US for years; why should we not use it to support Venezuela?'

Sifaka says 'Take Action' !

Sifaka's real...he's from the WWF site!


I'm suprised I hadn't come across this new Internet directed World Wildlife Fund website before now. What is great about it is that you'll be able to find causes needing YOUR action no matter where you live on this planet.

I've tried in recent years to get more local with my actions, but there's never a good reason NOT to attempt to effect change for the better where conservation measures are involved.

Biodiversity needs your help. That doesn't mean you should rush to breed, it means you should rush to action - even if only online.

Get your passport today.

A magnetic pole shift is long overdue...

Could we be in the early stages of a polar shift on our planet?
Sound crazy??










Scientists are well aware of this phenomenon.
We are long overdue for such an event on Earth.

These things don't happen overnight, of course and no one's saying that our compasses are out of whack yet, but I do think that we're experiencing a few "minor" abnormalities that are mainly evident to us through
animal migration.



The reversal is inevitable, but unlikely to be completed in any of our lifetimes, but just imagine the havoc that it will wreak?








The results of short-sighted human activities (industrial or otherwise) have already placed so many barriers in the way of migrating species that I shudder to think how they will fare when nature itself undergoes this sort of paradigm shift.

Youngfox beat me to posting this topic over the weekend!

Hooray for Judge Coleman

Fogging communities with malathion has been on the minds of many Canadians, (and all Winnipegers, I'm sure) this year. It has become a mandatory action on the part of the government and no one has been granted the right to have their home or community exempted on the grounds of health concerns or otherwise.

I think the policy is unfair, and dimwitted. How does it justify subjecting an entire population and the entire ecosystem of the region to prevent a few people from potentially becoming ill from West Nile?

It's at best absurd, and at worst the thin end of the police state wedge.

Glenda Whiteman was charged for protesting last month outside Winnipeg's insect control yard on July 19.
Now she has received an absolute discharge and the Judge is to be commended for his frankness and willingness to fairly rule on her case.

"I admire and respect you for being both courageous and articulate as you have been in support of your particular position"

~Judge Howard Coleman upon rendering his verdict

I'm pleasantly surprised at this ruling that upholds the rights and freedoms of Canadians willing to stand up for themselves.

"george found remorse in iraq"

Hank Brusselback's art, via MickeyZ

Link of the day: Livid - part II

Check out this simple but poignant post at Cafe Bathos.

I have no pity for those who who would label themselves as more deserving because of their chosen faith while desecrating and destroying the lives of others.

Cafe Bathos' post illustrates why.

He CAN read!

Now that George has learned which way is up when holding a book, the reading list is rather disconcerting.

Here is what the holidaying emperor is reading this summer: (when he should be talking with Cindy Sheehan)
1. "Salt: A World History" by Mark Kurlansky. This book chronicles the rise and fall of what once the world's most strategic commodity and the cause of great strife. Synonymous with wealth, it was a backbone of many trade routes and France's tax on salt was a contributing factor in the Revolution. In the 20th century refrigeration came along and salt became ubiquitous.
Consider the similarities to our current 21st century addiction and dependance upon oil. It's only a matter of time before it's status as wealth is a thing of the past. In the meantime however, the covetting of it is destroying the very planet and our own humanity while a precious few grow shamefully rich at the expense of others. It seems shrub is making an attempt to actually inform himself as to the purp0se he's serving for his puppet masters! Where'd all this money and political capital come from anyway? Oh - salt, I mean oil $$$ The author's reaction upon learning that his book was on the WHcriminal's reading list: priceless....

"My first reaction was, 'Oh, he reads books?' "

(it's satisfying to know that Kurlansky is a bush critic who's spoken against the war. I guess they don't check out the authors before recommending reading to the puppet)
2. The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History" by John M. Barry. "This author is also a self proclaimed bush critic, but has consulted regularly with the white house regarding a possible future pandemic of influenza. I'd like to beleive, as the author seems to, that the administration is making preparations to deal with such an event. My more reasoned and jaded opinion is that they are preparing such an event. It would be another useful tool in the Empire's arsenal. They are more than twisted and evil enough to use bio weapons on a global scale while creating a pretense of attempting to vaccinate their own population against it. So a few million of their own will die...Big deal. Small price to pay for having wiped a few billion opponents of the Empire off the face of the planet, right?
3. "Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar" by Edvard RadzinskyBush obtained an advance copy of the English translation which is not due out for public consumption until November, so the WH has had their eye on this one for a while.
Alexander II ruled Russia from 1855 to 1881. was known as the "Czar Liberator" because he freed millions Russian slaves. (two years before Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.)
Alexander II's reforms were sweeping and caused great division even after he attempted to stop them: the right backlashed and the left resorted to violence and targetted killings. The author's claim:

"We, Russia, created the first great terrorist organization in the world, we are the father of terror, not Muslims."

All this backlash happened because Alexander was out of his depth...he'd emancipated the serfs but didn't want to give them too much - it would threaten his autocracy; so what does any good Emperor do: take repressive measures.After surviving a number of attempts on his life, it was ultimately ended by the home made bomb of 'anarchists' who felt that while they'd been given limited freedom, their status still did not give them equality with that of the 'educated' classes.
Shrub must be attempting to glean what he can of Alexander's mistakes. Not because he wants to be more fair, but because he no doubt worries about his own safety and how the vitriolic nature of opposition to his rule is growing. The left continues to rise in it's revulsion to his police state and any who are not among the elite few who are profitting from the war will come to see this sooner or later whether they want to or not. What will be his 'anarchist's' bomb? How will he avoid becoming a victim of his own reforms? How far can he push the police state before it's citizens take objections of real consequence?
Help us all....he's learned to read.