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that we are not alone.”. Jerry Dawson, Italy.
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the UP! //:-) 199 // june 25, 2004
la- la- la- lap-toppling da system!
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our democracy needs //YOU to speak UP!
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and everything that’s happened since has confirmed my view.
the GOOD NEWS is that we can afford to take our eye off the Big Picture and reward ourselves with a happy summer! we not only deserve it, but we need to get out there and enjoy the planet we’re fighting to save!
which is what i’ve been doing, as well as making the final edit of ‘One Man’s Dopinions’. wotta trip that one is! as i re-read it i see how far out all this stuff still is for the average reader! it’s gonna take a very courageous publisher, but i truly believe it has the potential to be a bigger sensation than On The Road. it blasts the door open into the new culture that’s been going strong since kerouak; but it’s much more controversial! :)
bush behind kerry even on
“likely to do a better job in fighting terrorism!”
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when the dinos chickened out at the nonBattle of Fellujah, like i said when i reduced the UP! from a weekly after april 20, it was the sign, to their opponents in iraq if not yet to everyone over here, that they were beat and on their short or long way out of History. the dino approach was proven too dangerously outdated for the complex world in which we now live. they’ve been on the retreat, if not the run, ever since.
and now, for the first time, a Washington Post/ABC News survey shows Bush trailing Kerry, not just for the presidency(by 45:53%), but in what was considered his strongest suit: the fight against terrorism!
after 3 months in which his foreign policy strategy has been under the spotlight like never before, and with more than enough previous bad karma out there and yet to be reported, the American public is already & finally turning against the Iraq war. like the rest of the planet!
even the record $100m advertising campaign to discredit Kerry, which regular journalists assumed would be so effective, has been as nothing to the karmic torrent of bad news - worsening Iraq violence, damning reports on pre-war intelligence failures and 9/11 attacks, begging to the U.N, and, above all, the prison abuse scandal (doomed to broaden, deepen and lengthen).
most worrying for Republicans are Bush's plunging poll ratings in what commentators assumed was his strongest suit - the "war on terror". instead it’s Kerry who’s judged likely to “do the better job in fighting terrorism”. it’s only 48:47%, but in last month’s poll it was 39:52%! at this rate, by next month’s poll it could be 57:42% and that’s only in Bush’s strongest area!
the war on dinosaurism
am still the only person predicting it, but Bush is on his way to the biggest electoral defeat in recorded history, and it’s not just him it’s the whole dino headspace & modus operandi. a New World Order, which the dinos had only been trying to co-opt, is verily on its way, only the NEW part will see the Unacceptable Face of Capitalism banished. forever. and america (under kerry and then nader if he doesn’t obey the will of the people) will rejoin a much more partnership-based planetary society.
WEAPONS OF MASS DISAPPEARANCE
check out the other findings of the poll:
51%, only, believe the war has improved the long-term security of the US. (stymieing any attempt to ‘arrange’ any further attacks!)
71% say the level of US casualties in Iraq is "unacceptable". a record.
52:47% feel the war was not worth fighting.
52:47% disapprove of Bush's job performance.
52:39% consider Kerry more "honest and trustworthy". Bush has based his political ‘image’ on straight talking.
60:40% believe Kerry "better understands the problems of people like me." Wasn’t Bush the "regular guy" and Kerry the wealthy patrician north-easterner with little in common with ordinary Americans?! and it’s not that Kerry does, it’s that they’ve now seen that Bush doesn’t!
not since Harry Truman in 1948 has an incumbent president been so low in the polls at this stage and still won a second term.
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Dark Ages Of Continuous Warfare Coming To An End
His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has declared that the world will take a definite turn towards peace within a few months. "Forget about the past," he said. "The dark ages of continuous warfare are coming to an end. It doesn’t matter how long a hall has been in darkness because with one little candle light the darkness will disappear."
Maharishi emphasised that his proclamation of a better world is not based on empty hopes but rather on 50 years of experience in bringing enlightenment to millions of people worldwide.
Maharishi announced that "a great gift of enlightenment and peace" awaits mankind through the total knowledge of Natural Law, which administers the universe with perfect order. That is why, Maharishi said, Vedic universities, colleges, and schools are being established in every major city throughout the world. Maharishi said these educational institutions will deliver total knowledge to all the people - students, working adults, and retired people - to unfold the tremendous capabilities within everyone’s own inner Being.
In this way, Maharishi said, the Vedic universities will fulfil the ideal of a true university by providing students with unified knowledge and not just the isolated knowledge of physics, chemistry, mathematics, etc., offered by all other universities. "A true ‘uni-versity’ should provide a unified basis to the diversity of knowledge. But no educational organisation today is worthy of that name. Instead, universities pride themselves on their big libraries and their ability to offer all knowledge in one campus. But who wrote those books? Illiterates- people half educated in the total knowledge of Natural Law."
In contrast, Maharishi said, Vedic universities will provide all knowledge in one brain. In this way, "Vedic education will raise the whole population to the supreme level of human development- Unity consciousness - and create prevention-oriented, problem-free administration in every nation and permanent peace in the world."
Occupation-based education is slave-based education.
Maharishi concluded by emphasising that every individual must take responsibility for creating permanent world peace by rising to enlightenment.
www.globalcountry.org
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THE DINO’S LAST HOPE! THE OLD CARD TRICK
THAT’S ALWAYS “KINDA WORKED”?
the news from “the new independent-democratic iraq” (puppet government) is only going to get worse and worse! check the Coalition Provisional Authority’s own poll, also out this month:
92% OF IRAQIS SEE
COALITION AS OCCUPIERS!
17 June 2004
A leaked private poll, commissioned by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), reveals that ONLY 2% of the Iraqis polled in mid-May saw coalition troops as “liberators.”
3% expressed support for Saddam Hussein (an answer to the desperate war supporter’s “but aren’t the iraqis better off without saddam?”?)
92% said they were occupiers.
>> but what would you tell a Coalition interviewer, probably with guards?
Thus is the Bush administration's last remaining justification demolished. These results are devastating for both Bush and Blair, who are fond of saying that future generations of Iraqis will thank them for liberating their country.
BUT EVEN WORSE IS TO COME!
54% believe all Americans behave like the Abu Ghraib guards.
71% said they were surprised by the guards' behaviour.
Safety and security emerged as a major concern for the population in general, as nearly half of Iraqis said they felt unsafe in their neighbourhoods.
55% said they would feel safer if the 138,000 US troops left immediately, nearly double the 28% who held that view in a January poll.
41% said the Americans should leave immediately, 45% preferred US forces to leave once a permanent Iraqi government was installed.
63% believed conditions would improve when the Iraqi interim government takes over at the end of the month, and 62% believed it was "very likely" the Iraqi police & army would maintain security without US forces.
The survey questioned 1,093 adults, selected randomly in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Diwaniyah, Hillah and Baquba from May. 14 23.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=532337
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The nonBattle of Fallujah //UPDATE
A top Marine officer in Fallujah says the compromise that gave control of Fallujah to an Iraqi brigade in exchange for the withdrawal of Marines may be a failure.
>> the “deal” was the failure. a free dino would have flattened the place.
"This was a noble experiment that may not work out," Col. Larry Brown, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force's operations officer, said this weekend. "The brigade has not performed as well as we had hoped."
>> the military always knew it wouldn’t work. how can you allow free territory to exist where opponents can gather, establish offices, bases and equipment, and where they can safely meet and plan larger and larger concerted attacks?!
His comments were the strongest indication from the U.S. military that the effort to contain the insurgency by depending on the Fallujah Brigade was failing. It also was a sign that the model - turning to former Iraqi military including those who served Saddam Hussein - will not solve security problems after the U.S.-led coalition hands sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.
Speaking at a U.S. base near Fallujah, Brown said most of the key demands have not been met.
• None of the men responsible for killing and mutilating the 4 U.S. contractors have been apprehended, even though last month the commander of the 1st Marine Regiment gave Fallujah police a list of 25 people sought in the killings.
• Few heavy weapons used in the fight against the Marines in April have been surrendered.
• The brigade has not been able to produce foreign terrorists the Marines are seeking.
Brown said despite the apparent failure of the Fallujah Brigade to end the insurgency, a new U.S. offensive in the city was unlikely. The fighting in April was believed to have contributed to Iraqi disaffection with the U.S.-led occupation.
>> which is precisely the rock on which the Dinos’ Last Stand was broken!
Brown said religious fanatics, disenfranchised tribal leaders, former members of Saddam's Baath Party, criminals, foreign terrorists and people disaffected by the fighting are vying to dominate the city. "The thing that unites them is they want us out," he said.
>> what he’s actually saying is not so much that they’re vying with each other but that they all have safe bases there from which to make long term plans for fighting a common enemy
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-06-13-fallujah-failure_x.htm
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Inside the Republican Crack-Up
by Danny Postel
Suddenly it’s Republicans (for a change!) who are at one another’s throats over Iraq. There’s even talk of a post election neocon purge. The Sun Sets On National Greatness Conservatism.
1/ In light of the "house of horrors" at Abu Ghraib, neocon stalwart Max Boot calls for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to step down. He thunders in the Los Angeles Times: "His failure to offer his resignation over the Abu Ghraib scandal is sadly typical of the lack of accountability that permeates the U.S. government.”
2/ The editors of the National Review, a bedrock of support for the war, call for "An End to Illusion" and urge their readers to "downplay expectations" in Iraq. "The administration clearly wasn't ready for the magnitude of the task that rebuilding and occupying Iraq would present."
3/ Crossfire host Tucker Carlson joins the ever-expanding conservatives-who-have-changed-their-minds-on-Iraq club: "I think it's a total nightmare and disaster," he tells The New York Observer, "and I'm ashamed that I went against my own instincts in supporting it. It's something I'll never do again. Never. No. I want things to work out, but I'm enraged by it, actually."
4/ One vice chairman at the American Conservative Union, Donald Devine, declines to shake hands with the president and does not applaud during George W. Bush's keynote address to the group. A Zogby poll shows that Devine is hardly alone, with 1 out of 5 Republicans not committed to voting for Bush, which conservative columnist Robert Novak says "could spell defeat in a closely contested election."
5/ In response to the rolling thunder of right-wing disaffection with the war, William Kristol tells The New York Times that the neoconservatives have "as much or more in common with the liberal hawks than with traditional conservatives. If we have to make common cause with the more hawkish liberals and fight the conservatives, that is fine with me … ."
And that's just what's been reported in the press. Republican anxieties and grumblings go considerably deeper. Conservative estrangement from the administration has now spread into the ranks of Republicans who supported the war but have either changed their minds or grown increasingly weary of the occupation - and who are concerned that it could cost Bush the election.
In the past few weeks, I've spoken with a myriad of conservative intellectuals, strategists, and insiders about the widening schism in the GOP and its implications for November and beyond. Much of what they told me was off the record or on background - not surprising, given the explosive and recriminatory thrust of the conversations. And given the stakes: A gathering storm now threatens to rupture the conservative coalition that came together around Ronald Reagan and has held firm for almost two generations. The already fragile mosaic of free-marketeers, religious and cultural conservatives, foreign-policy establishment types, and neoconservatives (think Milton Friedman, Pat Robertson, Brent Scowcroft, and Paul Wolfowitz) has been rattled to its core by the Iraq War. Indeed, many conservatives are contemplating seismic shifts in their coalition's architecture - whether Bush wins or loses in November.
The Morning After
Consider the following (not at all implausible) scenario. Bush loses the election. Polls show that Iraq was the decisive issue for swing voters, who were the determining factor in the outcome. In going over the film, as it were, Republican strategists meditate on what went wrong. They - especially the ones who went along with the war but were never really gung ho about it - ask, whose idea was this thing, anyway?
The war, one Republican strategist stressed to me, was "a completely inside-the-Beltway deal. … There was no grass-roots pressure to go into Iraq." To be sure, he says, most Republicans supported the idea once Bush made the case for war. "When the president said this is important, 90 percent of the party said, 'OK. You had a handful of intellectuals pushing it, and a handful of intellectuals opposing it. If the president had said, 'We're not doing Iraq,' everyone would have said, 'We're not doing Iraq.' If the Democrats had insisted on doing Iraq … Republicans would be against it."
Columnist Thomas Friedman put the point this way in an interview in Ha'aretz: "I could give you the names of 25 people (all of whom are at this moment within a 5-block radius of this office) who, if you had exiled them to a desert island a year and a half ago, the Iraq war would not have happened."
The election is still 4 months away, but the questions - about how this small group managed to incubate and hatch this war, about why other conservatives let it happen, about how the administration got so wrapped up with a character like Ahmad Chalabi - are already being asked. My discussions with conservatives reveal that should Bush lose the election and Iraq prove to be the deal breaker, the elements are in place for the GOP to undergo a major house cleaning. In a sense, that process has already begun - think of Chalabigate as the first strike in a much larger intra-Republican turf war.
In late May, at a party thrown by a young neoconservative writer in Washington, I was struck by the endgame-scenario mind-set: the sense of an imminent showdown, not between Republicans and Democrats, but between the neocons and the Republican establishment. Neocon Brahmin Lawrence Kaplan, writing in the June 21 New Republic, laments the waning influence of the neocons and admits, "It appears nearly everyone in Washington is a realist now."
Leopards in the Temple
The idea of cutting the neocons loose is nothing new in the Republican intellectual cosmos. The stakes are dramatically higher now, with the neocons inside the corridors of power rather than breathing fire from the sidelines, as they did during most of the last decade. But the Republican view of the neocons as loose cannons and ideological zealots has a history.
Though the neocons had their sights set on Iraq as long ago as the now-famous 1998 letter to President Clinton from the Project for the New American Century (and some neocons, to be sure, as soon as the Gulf War ended), it's largely forgotten that for most of the 1990s they were spoiling for a fight with … China. The Weekly Standard ran one sabre-rattling polemic after another in the mid-1990s about the need for a confrontation with Beijing. Not only did these yowls fall on deaf ears in the Clinton White House; they were - and are - an embarrassment to most Republicans. Many of the conservatives I've spoken to emphasise this chapter in neocon history - call it the China Syndrome - as a reminder of the unruliness of neocon thinking. The China Syndrome extended into 2001: when Bush apologised to Beijing for the shooting down of a Chinese plane that spring, Kristol and Robert Kagan complained in The Weekly Standard that the president had brought a "profound national humiliation" upon the United States and enjoined it to rescind China's trade benefits.
The neocons "got to" Bush after 9-11, a senior Republican strategist says, because "they were the only guys with a plan. After you do Afghanistan, and the bloodlust wasn't sated, what do you do? Afghanistan wasn't enough. There were no big buildings - nothing went 'boom!' It wasn't a big enough response to September 11. We needed something bigger. And these guys came in with Iraq."
Win or Lose
The spectre of an intraparty backlash against the neocons, says more than one Republican strategist, doesn't necessarily depend on a Bush loss in November. "I doubt, even if Bush wins," says one, "that anyone's going to say, 'Boy, oh boy, he won because everybody was so excited about Iraq.' It will be despite of Iraq." In which event, he says, the party will likely move to neutralise the neocons and the president will "return to his true self" - that is, to the "humbler," less ambitious Bush of the 2000 race who criticised nation building in the debates with Al Gore. To admit, in other words, that his "dad was right."
In fact, this strategist lays out a scenario by which a narrow Bush victory could make a purge easier to pull off. "If you almost lose," he says, "you have power and you can settle scores more easily than if you lose. If you lose, how do you expel the neocons? Where do you expel them from? From AEI? From the magazines [they publish]? You can't fire them from those jobs." But if the GOP retains the White House, the neocons can be quietly frozen out. "All it really takes is to stop listening. You don't have to stop taking people's calls, you just stop taking their advice. The way to do it is to invite them in for tea more than usual, and not take their advice." No one would notice they were being purged, he says, because the neocons "would never admit they were on the outs."
Freezing out the neocons wouldn't be as big a deal politically, he points out, as, say, freezing out the anti-abortion movement or the tax cutters, because those movements have troops behind them who can be mobilised. Freezing them out would mean "having a fight on your hands," whereas the neocons are too few in number to put up a real fight.
Too Late for a Clean Break?
Of course, it's still possible that the extraction process might not occur. For one thing, Republicans have been nothing if not disciplined; surely they will apply whatever Scotch tape and glue they need to in order to keep these rifts from becoming too public before November. For another, Iraq could yet "work out," at least in the sense that the situation will settle down a bit and elections will be held as scheduled.
But whatever the future brings, something dramatic has already happened - and continues to happen every day behind closed doors in conservatism's rarefied redoubts, where the quiet whir of confident manifestoes being typed out on computers has been replaced by the more insistent buzz of knives being sharpened. Irving Kristol famously defined a neoconservative as "a liberal who has been mugged by reality." Many Republicans - reaching the point of critical mass - are now coming to define themselves as conservatives who’ve been mugged by neoconservatives. If Bush loses the election over Iraq, their ranks will only grow more critical and more massive. But even if he wins, listen closely for the sounds of silence.
www.prospect.org
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Israeli Intelligence Misled Own Leaders!
by Yehudith Harel
Israel Military Intelligence chief Amos Malka, in an interview in Haaretz, has alleged that, back in 2000, the head of Military Intelligence's research division, Amos Gilad, distorted evaluations regarding Arafat's intentions and the reasons for the intifada's eruption after the collapse of the CD2 talks.
Amidst public consternation, the allegations have now been supported by another senior intelligence official. (Akiva Eldar, Haaretz 11.6.2004 Yoav Shtern 13.6.2004 )
What should mainly worry Peace and anti-occupation activists, however, is not how come and why Amos Gilad fabricated and circulated a baseless and misleading conception, thus serving his own political biases and that of his superiors. Sure, this is a most important issue, particularly in its fatal impact on decision making in Israel in the critical days of the late Summer and Fall of the year 2000, and ever since.
But these matters should be dealt with by formal institutions in the Knesset, the media and elsewhere.
What must worry the bruised "leftover" of the so called "Peace Camp" - is HOW and WHY such a false & deliberate "conception" won over so instantly the leadership of the Zionist Left - both parliamentary and non parliamentary, the Labor left, the government and Meretz, as well as Peace Now.
How could the Zionist left Intellectuals and so many other political leaders and major peace activists turn themselves so eagerly into cheap propagandists of Barak and his military establishment? How could they have swallowed a fabrication that inevitably dealt an instant death blow to the vision of Peace without exercising any independent thinking or critical attitude?
What happened to their mythological analytical and critical minds? What happened to their years long established communication channels with their Palestinian partners, of which they were so proud?! Why didn’t they check and double check the information the military establishment and other Barak propagandists were feeding them?
Where were Gov. Ministers Beilin, Ben Ami, Sarid and Tamir, and the Peace Now leadership (Aviad, Golan, Goldblum, Reshef, Jacobson et. al) when Gilad and Barak were pushing the "no partner" myth, plus the most important 'revelation,' namely that Arafat and the Palestinian leadership were never genuinely committed to OSLO and to a TSS? Where were all the Peace Now intellectuals who so eagerly supported Barak and his "NO PARTNER" myth in the fatal 2001 elections?
These are the questions to be answered before anyone can ever again trust these people as political leaders or "sources of intellectual inspiration" who can lead us towards a just Peace.
Take one of the leading members of Israel's Leftist Peace camps, Amos Oz. Already in late July 2000 he "knew" from "reliable sources" all about the reasons for the collapse of CD2... ("The Specter of Saladin” in the NYT). He "knew" that the tragic collapse of CD2 was caused by Palestinian insistence on the ROR, etc. By publishing a series of articles in Israel and abroad he was most helpful in making sure that his followers in the mainstream Israeli Peace camp "knew" too.
Note also how this national ultra-propagandist portrays Yusuf Sallah A'Din ibn Ayyub, the man who, having partly liberated Palestine and Jerusalem from brutal Crusader occupation, then invited the Jews, his allies as he thought, to return to Jerusalem... Historical accuracy has no meaning to a cheap political propagandist like Amos OZ. He spreads Gilad’s smear of Arafat and his "hidden" motives, while pointing up the Right of Return as the major cause CD2’s collapse, and eventually even of the Israeli Peace Camp... Nor did shame stop him from laying the blame for Barak's failure to be re-elected in 2001 on the Palestinians, and on the Israeli Palestinian citizens who refused to vote for the man whose policy led to the murder of 12 of their brother citizens in the October 2000 demonstrations.
Such, and similar articles are very revealing about the "psyche" and political mentality of the Zionist left at large, one that’s vulnerable to theories like those propagated by Gilad. These people, rather than fighting and opposing the brutal military oppression of the uprising, the systematic use of snipers to shoot unarmed demonstrators straight in the head (thus greatly escalating the fighting), rather than fighting tirelessly against the "novelty" of targeted assassinations introduced by Barak and his "Peace" government in December 2000 (before the suicide bombings!) were too busy, on two levels.
While some were busy at Taba, on the public level they opposed neither the above mentioned atrocities, nor the "no partner" myth. Others were collecting signatures for an ad demanding the Palestinian leadership give up the Right of Return, "stop the violence and resume the negotiations." By January 2001 all of them were working for the re-election of the man responsible for the above conception- Ehud Barak.
For those who’ve followed events since the outbreak of the Al Aqsa Intifada, these new revelations hold no surprise. What is new is that the criticism of the "No Partner" myth comes from the very heart of the Israeli Intelligence establishment. Too little and much to late.
What’s needed now is a fresh and untinted leadership for the peace movement, one with a credible, invigorating vision for a Just Peace based on full equality and partnership between the two peoples. A vision is needed of universal values of Justice and equality for all, without a "Wall," and without separation, but rather with hope for a shared future.
[An Israeli peace activist in 2001 Arabic Media Internet Network - Internews Middle East]
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TEXT JOCKEY // TJ PHRASER (Fraser Clark) & THE MEDIA EVOLUTION
MIXING THE TRACTS LIVE ON THE KEYBOARD @ A MEDIA-MEME RATE OF 160 IPP *
* Ideas Per Paragraph
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Late last night, I was sitting in the living room, doing complicated things with my Mum's hi-fi and my MD player. I was making a copy of an old tape, one that's been in our family for years, though nobody can remember exactly where it came from.
I picked up the headphones to check the recording level, and listened.
It’s a collection of Aztec/Inca-style pan-pipe music, and as I closed my eyes to let the sounds wash over me, I was suddenly transported .. somewhere.
Wherever I was, I become aware that I was holding something in my hands, clutched tightly to my chest. Something gigantic. Without having to look, I knew what it was. The Earth. The whole goddamned planet, cradled there in my arms. And she was so beautiful. Can you fall in love with a planet?
It seems like I did that night. And I was crying my eyes out.
She can't die here. Not now, not like this.
I will not allow it!
steve dodd, uk
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>> My Planet Made Me Do It!
i've written somewhere about something i call The Activist's Alibi.
am hoping there could be some legal validity to the concept/plea that "i did this illegal act of protest because my love of my planet drove me to it". or even “my planet made me do it”.
any legal brains out there able to see a way of driving a coach & horses through something here?
just possibly it might combine with this legal precedent, a statement from the Nuremberg trials, quoted in UP!198:
"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience... Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."
The Nuremberg Tribunal, 1945-1946.
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Listen to the Universe’s sound on your iPod
Dr. Mark Whittle, a professor of astronomy at the University of Virginia, has converted the cosmic background radiation of the universe into sounds, condensing a million years in five seconds.
http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=3416&m=5435
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1,300 Gallons of Veggie oil… 25 People… 7 Countries… 2 Buses… 1 Dream - CARAVAN a reality movie
In November of 2003 the Sustainable Solutions Caravan set out on an epic journey from San Francisco to Costa Rica in two buses and a truck powered by vegetable oil.
Living together in close quarters, travelling long distances, and working continually with a group can cause even the most patient and seemingly evolved of individuals to get a little testy. How will this group of travellers deal with the pressures of the road and their conflicts with each other as they journey into a new world? They’re living their dreams and taking part in a social experiment that they hope will provide others with inspiration to live more conscientious lives. CARAVAN is about people cooperating for a common purpose.
Extended trailer at
www.earthtribefounation.org
The EarthTribe Foundation is working in cooperation with The Sustainable Solutions Caravan (www.SustainableSolutionsCaravan.org), Center for Creative Communications (www.IC3.ORG), Real Energy ( www.RealEnergy.net ) on their upcoming project “Tribe: a Cooperative Reality Television Series”.
In August 2004 TRIBE will begin s grassroots US bus tour to inform and empower voters across the US before the November Presidential elections. Everyone knows we are living in a time of crises; we are divided. Businesses and politics are endemically plagued with corruption; we are overwhelmed with information and shocked into apathy. People feel powerless to stop the pollution and the dissolution of the American Dream, the erosion of freedom, and the crushing tidal wave of media-hyped fear. TRIBE will spread the word that there are alternatives to endless war and a poisoned Earth. If we work together sharing and implementing social and environmental solutions we can shape a beautiful future for ourselves and for our children.
A weekly hour-long reality television series, TRIBE will explore real problems (racism, voter apathy, environmental degradation…) and reveal real solutions while taking viewers on a wild ride across the United State of America. The TV series reveals the personal and group challenges faced by a multinational cast, cultural luminaries, and celebrity guests as they embark on exciting adventures, and direct action stunts.
Viewers will be invited to take part in grassroots media events in selected cities. These TRIBE gatherings are part classroom and part concert/festival. Each week: new cities, new celebrations, new lessons, and another step towards a better world.
THEY NEED YOUR HELP! Like all nonprofits they’re only able to carry out their work with financial support from generous people. If you’d like to make a donation follow this link and it will guide you through the steps: www.earthtribefounation.org/donations.htm
If you would like to be involved in our project or contribute in any other war e-mail
info@earthtribefoundation.org
UP!
the UP! is a theglobal edutainment round-up, broadcast weekly to =[13,037]=
Alternative// Activist// Zippy// Trance// New Age folks recommended to the
Parallel YOUniversity// Megatripolis Dance Dept as "showing signs of life".
Since many recipients choose to forward it or parts of it to their own lists,
we conservatively estimate 30,000+ direct recipients.
A further 30,000 read it on the YOUniversity's site. And, because of its 'mix' of
'specialist' & 'general' content, it's increasingly being posted on a variety of sites worldwide,
making an estimated total weekly readership of =[275,000+]=
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- 7.
One to deny a lightbulb needs replacing,
One to question-attack the patriotism of anyone who questions the lightbulb situation,
One to blame the previous administration for the lightbulb situation.
One to arrange the invasion of a country rumoured to have secret stockpiles of lightbulbs,
One to brainstorm with V.P. Cheney how to pay Halliburton Industries a million bucks per lightbulb,
One to arrange a photo-op session of Bush changing the lightbulb dressed in a flight suit and wrapped in an American flag,
And one to explain to Bush the difference between screwing a lightbulb and screwing a country.
UP!
The Secret Life of Plants
by Mark Pilkington
Cleve Backster was a respected operator in the controversial field of polygraphy, the use of lie detectors. But in February 1966 he became known for plant telepathy.
Curious to measure how long it took water to reach the leaves of a dracaena cane plant, Backster attached polygraph electrodes to it. These measure galvanic skin response - electrical conductivity - and should, he thought, register a change when water reached the leaf. Unexpectedly, he noticed that the plant showed readings similar to those of a human.
Wondering if the plant would effect the polygraph in other ways, he dipped a leaf into warm coffee. When nothing happened, he started to consider burning the leaf and claims the polygraph "went wild. The pen jumped right off the top of the chart". Could the plant have registered a stress response to Backster 's thoughts of harming it?!
He then dropped brine shrimp into boiling water and the plant appeared to register the shrimps' distress. Was the plant demonstrating some kind of sentient, even telepathic, awareness?
Backster thought so and named it "primary perception". His work appeared in the International Journal of Parapsychology (1968), and in Tomkins and Bird's book The Secret Life of Plants (1973). Soviet scientists invited him to chair a panel at the first Psychotronic Association conference in Prague.
Encouraged, Backster experimented further, wiring up yoghurt bacteria, eggs and human sperm. The results seemed to demonstrate that "primary perception" could be measured in all living things, echoing the beliefs of hindus, buddhists and the neo mystics of the 3rd millennium.
http://www.researchers-of-truth.com/ET_elementals.htm
>> i seem to remember he found that if he stuck a pin into his hand the plant would register it, after which he took it as far as standing in the middle off oxford street and finding, when he got home, that the plant had registered his pain at the exact moment! false memory or wot?
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elementals, my dear watson
Daskalos considered the study of our elementals to be of the most important for all human beings.
Every thought, emotion and desire creates and transmits an elemental - also called thought-form - that carries on an existence of its own and can never be destroyed, only disenergised (no longer fed with etheric vitality).
We create and regenerate 2 types of elementals.
When our ideas, desires and emotions pass through reason and love, we create reasoned thought-forms, or thought-desires.
But when negative emotion prevails over thought, we create emotional thought-forms, or desire-thoughts.
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If you look at the behaviour of a network you effectively see the distillation of the behaviour of the nodes. The strongest signals are those that coincide between the nodes. A network acts to filter out the weak signals, and integrate the stronger impulses into a coherent form.
This is what we are. There is no ‘They’.
Instead of continuously searching for dots to connect in our conspiracy theories, perhaps we should be spending that time learning more about how our human hive mind works and how to tame it. We are certainly encountering a strong hive mind in the U.S. these days - primarily in the form of the lunatic Christian fringe. Alarmingly, they seem to have gained control of the electoral processes in the US.
On the positive side, however, The Empire is crashing. My guess is that what we call the USA today will not exist in anywhere near its present form 10 years hence. This country is cracking apart ... and not a moment too soon!
Lorenzo Haggerty, LA.
>> uno, our fear of the European Superstate is really that the sheer scale must mean greater distance from any sense of a citizen’s power over it. u would never get US to agree to the Uncontrollable Dinosaur of a System YOU guys suffer under! would the nation state of texas have gone ahead and bommed iraq if montana and colorado had been against it? :)
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IF YOU CANNOT VIEW THIS PROPERLY, TELL US AND WE’LL PUT YOU ON A SPECIAL UNFORMATTED LIST.
TO REPLY TO FRASER OR THE UP! SIMPLY HIT REPLY.
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The perfect intelligent ‘mix’ of healing, holistic living, music, dance, meditation & celebration. @ Wellington, Somerset
www.buddahfield.com
>> simply the best :)
UP!
HOW TO DETECT A 2-WAY MIRROR
Place the tip of your fingernail against the reflective surface. If there’s a GAP between your fingernail and the image of the nail, then it’s a GENUINE mirror.
But if your fingernail DIRECTLY TOUCHES the image of your nail, then IT IS A 2-WAY MIRROR! (There’s someone seeing you from the other side).
The reason there’s a gap on a real mirror is because the silver is on the back of the mirror under the glass. With a two-way mirror, the silver’s on the surface.
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a letter & appeal from michael moore
Friends,
We're less than a week away from the nationwide opening of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and not a day goes by where we don't have some new battle to fight thanks to those who are still working overtime to keep people from seeing this film. What's their problem? Are they worried about something?
1. Roger Friedman at FOX News reported that the head of the company which first agreed to fund our film “got calls from Republican friends” pressuring them to back out. And they did. But... Miramax immediately picked up the film! Except that...
2. Michael Eisner, chairman of Disney, then blocked Miramax (a company owned by Disney) from releasing the film once it was finished. But... public attention and embarrassment forced Disney to let the Weinstein brothers of Miramax find another distributor! But...
3. Instead of a new distributor stepping right in - as predicted by all the media - it took another month. Thanks to various pressures, several distributors were afraid to get involved. It looked for a while that we’d be distributing this ourselves. But then Lions Gate and IFC Films rode in to the rescue!
So the only thing in the way of you now seeing "Fahrenheit 9/11" is this Republican big-money front group trying to force theaters not to show it.
www.fahrenheit911.com
www.michaelmoore.com
UP!
Leeds
MAD PRIDE WEEK!
As part of the annual international Mad Pride celebrations in July there will be 2 events in Leeds.
SAT JULY 10 - picnic on Woodhouse Moor.
THURS JULY 15 - gig at Josephs Well, with the Ceramic Hobs, Salvo, The Schizos, Jack Simpson and poetry from Johnny Solstice.
madprideyorks@hotmail.com
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uk
JULY 30 AUG 1
3 days of natural living in natural time at a beautiful location in South West England.
Magnetic Moon 5-7 / Year Of Blue Crystal Storm / Blue Electric Night / Red Overtone Serpent. The first gathering in the dominion of time!
Eco-trance education camp.
A collective participatory event featuring - The Art Of Living Performance Arena * Solar Cinema * Organic Cafes * Circus * Workshops * Healing * Astro Info * Earth Wizardry * Health Spa * Experimental Art and Music * Sauna * Showers * Hot Tub
100% Ecologically powered / 100% Family Friendly / 100% Magickal
Supported by EartHeart, the Planet Art Network Avalon and friends. Magick Hat event. Please contribute generously. (suggested minimum donation is £22). Please come prepared to participate.
Info Lines: 01458- 834725, 0795-2999094
www.faerykindom.org.uk
www.wavespell.net
UP!
//YOU FEEDBACK
fraser! way to go! UP!198 was one of best ever thanks for Leary Evolution post! one of my favourites!
mike shields, LA.
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the tyrannosaurus rex is tottering, but please keep UP! going - far and away the best news out there (and the further out there, the better). The dinos may be slouching toward Endsville but navigating the shockwaves of the approaching temporal singularity is a lot easier with advance warning...
John Michael Greer, Washington, US.
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Hi Fraser,
Dunno mate, we haven't actually won anything.... yet. There is still no agreement on greenhouse gasses, no trials for war crimes and the inhuman treatment of prisoners relating to the last debacles, no proper regulations for GM foods, somebody somewhere is eavesdropping on you whilst someone else patents your DNA.... I could go on all night but I'll leave it at that. I mean, after all these years of trying, we still have not yet managed to get rid of nuclear weapons, not even our own.
Sorry, I wasn't trying to depress you, and I would be the first to admit there was a day not long ago when somehow you felt a corner had been turned - that the lid was being slowly prised off Pandora's Box - and we were inside it.
It was meant to be a word of sincere encouragement. We need you, Fraser, we're out there dotted about in cyberspace, many of us I am sure feel like we have somehow woken up in a lunatic asylum, and you are a kind of fine thread linking us all and giving us the infinitely precious knowledge that we are not alone.
That seems like a big deal to me. Don't even think about deserting us.
Jerry, Italy
p.s. How much time do you get to spend on an average day explaining things? I'll be more specific - I spent quite a while yesterday evening explaining why the oil price was shooting up - just the facts - because here the news service had been appalling on the matter, and some friends of mine were missing some of the important bits that you need to be able to join the dots, as it were. That too is what the UP! is all about.
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Fraser,
Keep UP the great work. It is quite valuable and very much appreciated.
Peace and Love,
David / Glastonbury
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can’t believe you'd even consider shutting down or off loading the up.
might i suggest u take on helpers? young women are recommended...
then perhaps adding a noticeboard section at the end where artists for freedom etc, like myself and other enlightened souls, could coagulate our combined efforts for a peaceful world to inhabit by networking to that end around the globe via the UP?
der brian x, shepherds bush dep't of corrections, london.
>> how would that work? how can bolivian writers, chinese activists and french artists ‘coagulate’ their efforts exackly?
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perhaps shorter UP's targeted to one topic, and less discussion... and then once every quarter a big one? and of course... 3 pleasant young ladeeeze helping with stuff would be like a breath of warm fresh air!
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i love getting your UPdates! Please keep the funny quotes coming, it cheers my day up!
neil, glastonbury, uk.
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Wish you'd continue the UP! I don't think it's over yet.
In fact I think they'll just have to ramp it up.
Take a break and come back! We'll need you.
Johanna Harman, London
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so glad to see a message from you today... and a new UP! at that... siriusly one of the best yet!
very intrigued with the yellow bamboo, always love the dino skulduggery of course, secretly cheering on the world of fukuoka style organic farming and permaculture and bicycles! thanks fraser... you're the best.. coming to the states anytime soon? the east coast needs ya!
peace in chaos,
Charles Ferris, Boston
UP!
R U AN MSG-Treated Rat?
MSG - Slowly Poisoning the West?
I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the massive obesity epidemic. So did a friend of mine, John Erb, who was a research assistant at the University of Waterloo, and spent years working for the government.
He made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals for a book he was writing called The Slow Poisoning of America. In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies.
No strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, nor other mammals nor humans. So the scientists have to create these morbidly obese creatures by injecting them with a chemical when they are first born. The MSG triples the pancreas’ production of insulin, causing them to become obese. They even have a title for the race of fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats" .
I was shocked too. But nothing like when I went to my kitchen!
MSG was in everything! The Campbell's soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays flavoured potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals, Kraft salad dressings, especially the 'healthy low fat' ones.
The items that didn't have MSG had something called Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein, which is just another name for Monosodium Glutamate. It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our children everyday are filled with this stuff.
They hide MSG under many different names in order to fool those who catch on.
But it didn't stop there. When our family went out to eat, MSG and Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein were everywhere. Burger King, McDonalds, Wendy's, Taco Bell, every restaurant, even the sit down ones like TGIF, Chilis', Applebees and Denny's use MSG in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to be the WORST offender: MSG was in every chicken dish, salad dressing and gravy. No wonder I loved to eat that coating on the skin, their secret spice was MSG!
So why is MSG in so may of the foods we eat?
Is it a preservative or a vitamin? No.
According to my friend John, in his expose of the food additive industry The Slow Poisoning of America,
MSG is added to food for the addictive effect it has on the human body.
www.spofamerica.com
Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers lobby group supporting MSG explains that the reason they add it to food is to make people eat more. A study of elderly people showed that people do eat more of the foods that it’s added to. Well now, the Glutamate Association lobby group says eating more benefits the elderly - but what does it do to the rest of us?
www.msgfacts.com/facts/msgfact12.html
Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an addictive substance: NICOTINE for FOOD
The Cheeseburger Bill
Since its introduction into the American food supply fifty years ago, MSG has been added in larger and larger doses to the pre-packaged meals, soups, snacks and fast foods we are tempted to eat everyday.
The FDA claim it's safe to eat in any amount.
Even as you read this, George W. Bush and his corporate supporters are pushing a Bill through Congress. Called the "Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act" also known as the "Cheeseburger Bill", it bans anyone from suing food manufacturers, sellers and distributors even if they purposely added an addictive chemical to their foods.
The Bill has already been rushed through the House of Representatives, and is due for the same rubber stamp at Senate level. It is important that Bush and his corporate supporters get it through before the media lets everyone know about MSG, the intentional Nicotine for food.
Several months ago, John Erb took his book and his concerns to one of the highest government health officials in Canada. While sitting in the Government office, the official told him "Sure I know how bad MSG is, I wouldn't touch the stuff!" But this top level government official refused to tell the public what he knew.
The big media doesn't want to tell the public either, fearing legal issues with their advertisers. It seems that the fallout on the fast food industry may hurt their profit margin.
Hidden Sources Of MSG
As discussed previously, the glutamate (MSG) manufacturers and the processed food industries are always on a quest to disguise the MSG added to food. Below is a partial list of the most common names for disguised MSG. Remember also that the powerful excitotoxins, aspartate and L-cystine, are frequently added to foods and according to FDA rules require NO LABELLING AT ALL.
Food Additives that ALWAYS contain MSG: Monosodium Glutamate, Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein, Hydrolysed Protein, Hydrolysed Plant Protein, Plant Protein Extract, Sodium Caseinate, Calcium Caseinate, Yeast Extract, Textured Protein (Including TVP), Autotyped Yeast, Hydrolysed Oat Flour, Corn Oil.
Food Additives That FREQUENTLY Contain MSG: Malt Extract, Malt Flavouring, Bouillon, Broth, Stock, Flavouring, Natural Flavors/Flavouring, Natural Beef Or Chicken Flavouring, Seasoning, Spices.
Food Additives That MAY Contain MSG Or Excitotoxins: Carrageenan, Enzymes, Soy Protein Concentrate, Soy Protein Isolate, Whey Protein Concentrate.
UP!
Life goes on without 'vital' DNA
Researchers deleted huge chunks of the genome of mice without it making any discernible difference to the animals. The result is totally unexpected because the deleted sequences included so-called "conserved regions" thought to have crucial roles.
NewScientist.com News
>> well, i for one am not in the slightest surprised. as i’ve said b4 there are 2 types of people, those who think we’ve solved 96% of what it’s all about, and those who think we’re still basically on the second percentile of Knowledge. the whole DNA is the Answer to Life propaganda (what else would u call it?) was just the latest of Science’s absurdly arrogant claims. then came news of all the “junk” that was in there too, did u catch that in that news? yes, it turns out that the DNA part is less than 20% of the whole thing. next came findings that what the scientists had dismissed as “junk” might actually be a tool kit that every living thing carries and passes on for possible future use. that “junk” term reminded me ironically of how scientists used to describe “chaos” (a collection of meaningless events, including you and me). and now DNA isn’t actually involved in even the things we thought it was involved in :)
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Vibrant Downtowns
Time to Rekindle Local Currency Concept
by Susan Witt
We residents of the Southern Berkshires realize how lucky we are to have the complex of locally owned stores and restaurants that help shape our community. Main Street hums with activity. Consumers know that Great Barrington shops are unique to the Berkshires; a welcome change from the monoculture look and products of franchises. Visitors are surprised by the originality; regulars are proud and loyal patrons. The owners and clerks and chefs and waitpersons are our neighbours and friends. We sit on school boards together, gather at town meetings, and stroll past each other on the River Walk. Our youth prefer to spend free time on Main Street rather than at the mall. They experience and contribute to the vibrancy of our "downtown."
Part of what has led to this successful local entrepreneurship is an informed citizenry who understands that keeping dollars local supports the cultural, environmental, and social fabric of the Berkshires. They ask for locally grown food at restaurants; they make weekly visits to the farmer¹s market as a household ritual; and they hire local professionals before distant impersonal firms.
Another factor in the success of our local businesses is the plethora of still locally owned and managed banks in the Berkshires. With all of the changes in regulation and the consolidation in the banking industry, a handful of local banks remain in our region, an important resource for the health of our Berkshire economy.
One of those quintessential local bankers, Eugene Hannon, died at the end of April. He was a very active member in many aspects of the community. I have my own favourite memories of Gene relative to the development of a local currency for the Southern Berkshires.
Deli Dollars
In 1989 Frank Tortorelli, the owner of the popular Great Barrington Deli, turned to Gene for a bank loan to renovate a new site for his restaurant. But bank regulations were getting tighter, Frank's figures didn¹t compute, and Gene had to turn him down. Frank then came to the SHARE loan collateralisation program that I managed at the time and asked for help. We told him he didn¹t need our group of local investors because he already had a strong customer base to whom he should turn for a loan through pre-sales.
And so the "Deli Dollar" was born! Frank sold each Deli Dollar note for $8, redeemable for $10 worth of his colourfully named sandwiches once the new space was open. He raised $5,000 in 30 days, repayable not in hard-to-come-by federal dollars but in product. The Deli Dollars were dated over a year's time to prevent them all coming due the first month of operation and so cause a cash-flow problem. Frank had structured his own loan repayment schedule.
Gene Hannon was the first to buy a set of Deli Dollars
A loan for Frank's Deli wasn't bankable under current national standards, but this local banker knew that Frank's community credentials were excellent. He knew Frank would be there to make the sandwich when the note was redeemed.
Berkshire Farm Preserve Notes followed, jointly issued by two farm stands, Taft Farms and the Corn Crib. A head of cabbage replaced the head of George Washington. The logo read "In Farms We Trust" rather than "In God We Trust."
We had created a "Berkshire Farm Preserve Note" rather than a "Federal Reserve Note." And we all had fun doing so.
In May of 1991 the Deli Dollar was front page news in The Washington Post with a story of "Yankee Ingenuity." ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Tokyo TV all travelled to the Berkshires for prime-time stories of these Berkshire currencies. Gene had to tell and retell on camera why he couldn't make the loan but would support the Deli by purchasing Deli Dollars. In the process he became a spokesperson for our small local businesses.
In the summer of 1992 seventy Main Street businesses got together through the Main Street Action program of the Chamber of Commerce to issue BerkShares. During a six-week period BerkShares were given away to customers shopping in the participating stores {one BerkShare for every ten dollars of purchase.) Every store signed the back of each BerkShare before it was issued so that we could track the source. Then, during a 3-day period in the middle of September the BerkShares could be redeemed at any of the participating stores. We attempted to have a standard redemption policy, but the stores had differing needs. Most accepted BerkShares as payment for 20% to 50% of the cost of any item. The Snap Shop on Railroad Street understood that we were introducing a local currency that would benefit the whole community and therefore permitted 100% redemption. Some lucky folks collected enough BerkShares to purchase that long-dreamed-of new camera.
There was a spirit of festivity on Main Street and in the larger community. Second-home owners called their year-round neighbours to say, "I can't make it up for BerkShares weekend, so please go to my kitchen and on the shelf over the sink you will find a stack of BerkShares. Get something nice for your kids."
Over seventy-five thousand BerkShares went into circulation, representing three-quarters of a million dollars in trade. Twenty-eight thousand were used in a three-day redemption period (a remarkable return on a give-away item.)
With that success in place, the BerkShare committee of the Chamber called a meeting of banks to discuss issuing BerkShares at the holiday period. A similar program was implemented in several prairie communities on the Canadian border. In November these prairie banks launch a 0% interest loan program for holiday shopping. The loans are made in a local currency to insure that the purchasing remains local. The local money cannot be spent at chain stores or for catalogue or Internet shopping. The banks and merchants thereby create a local economic tool to encourage support of small regional businesses. Local merchants redeem the notes at the participating banks at 97 cents on the dollar, thus sharing the cost of the program with the bank.
At the meeting it was Gene Hannon who said, "Why are we putting time and energy into another short term issue? Why don't we just work for a year-round local currency?" I remember asking him how he thought such a program would work. He suggested a 10% discount note. Consumers would purchase BerkShares at participating banks for 90 cents each. Participating merchants and producers would accept BerkShares at a dollar equivalent in payment for goods and services. As long as the BerkShares stayed in circulation (for change, partial payment of salaries, and purchase of goods) they would keep full dollar value; however, when merchants accumulated too many in their cash registers, they could redeem the notes at their banks for 90 cents on the BerkShare.
Purchasing BerkShares would be a citizen's way of voting for local businesses and keeping money local. Non-profits might purchase a $10,000 block of BerkShares for $9,000 and then sell them to their members at full value as a way of fundraising and as a way of showing that a healthy local business economy is deeply connected to a healthy arts, environmental, educational, and social services community.
Gene Hannon's challenge to introduce a year-round local currency has remained tucked in a drawer since that meeting, but the E. F. Schumacher Society is pulling it out and dusting it off in the face of the powerful impact of the global economy on all local economies. The Society has undertaken a campaign to raise first-year funding for such a program. Much work is ahead. It will mean reconvening the business and banking sectors for their input and advice as to how to shape such a program. It will require the cooperation of concerned consumers.
In order to bring as many resources as possible together around the history, theory, and practice of issuing local currencies, the E. F. Schumacher Society is organising an international conference at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, titled "Local Currencies in the Twenty-First Century," to be held June 25-27. Bernard Lietaer, Margrit Kennedy, Edgar Cahn, Paul Glover, Richard Douthwaite, Thomas Greco, Michael Linton, Mary-Beth Raddon, Michael Shuman, and other leaders in the local currency movement will speak. The event is co-sponsored by many groups including The Nation Institute, The Utne Reader, Acres USA, NOFA Mass, The Ecologist, Coop America, The Orion Society, Investor's Circle, BALLE, CELDF, Center for Community Futures, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Resurgence, Time Dollar Institute, Ithaca Hours, E Magazine, Dollars and Sense, New Economics Foundation, Maine Time Dollar Institute, Hawthorne Valley Association, and Chelsea Green Publishers. Honoured guest Pete Seeger will close the event on Sunday with a Local Food Fest and Concert.
http://www.localcurrency.org
Gene knew about the conference. I’d hoped he’d be well enough to attend, but he knew it would be otherwise. He was a champion of the strong, diverse local businesses that are at the heart of our Berkshire community. He would have been pleased to see folks gathered together to create new economic tools that would further support those businesses.
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RONALD REAGAN ENDED THE COLD WAR? RIGHT :(
Did Reagan’s Fundamentalist America bring the Soviet Union to its knees or did it stimulate the Soviet Fundamentalists to fear & resist the inevitable changes Gorbachev was introducing?
Within months of Gorbachev taking the helm as the reform-minded general-secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in March 1985, he had decided privately to pull Soviet troops out of Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of Soviet troops had died; military morale was crumbling; popular protest - unheard of, till then, in Communist Russia - was rising.
One reason was that Reagan’s intensely ideological CIA director, William Casey, was feeding billions of dollars in arms to Afghanistan's Islamic resistance because they saw the battle as a titanic struggle in the war between Eastern tyranny and Western freedom. Yes, Jimmy Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski had started assisting the resistance, but with far less largess or ambition.)
At a Politburo meeting of Nov. 13, 1986, Gorbachev laid his position on the table: The war wasn't working; it had to be stopped: “People ask: "What are we doing there?" Will we be there endlessly? Or should we end this war? ... The strategic objective is to finish the war in one, maximum two, years, and withdraw the troops. We have set a clear goal: Help speed up the process, so we have a friendly neutral country, and get out of there.”
In early December, Gorbachev summoned President Najibullah, the puppet leader of Afghanistan, to give him the news: Soviet troops would be leaving within 18 months; after that, he was on his own.
On Feb. 23, 1987, Gorbachev assured the Politburo that the troops wouldn't leave right away. First he had to foster a stable environment for the reigning government, and to maintain a credible image with India, the Soviet Union's main ally in the region. The exit strategy, he said, would be a negotiated deal with Washington: The Soviets would pull out troops; the Americans would stop their arms shipments to the rebels.
FOUR DAYS LATER Gorbachev learned to his surprise that Reagan had no interest in such a deal. In a conversation on Feb. 27 with Italy's foreign minister, Giulio Andreotti, Gorbachev said, "We have information from very reliable sources … that the United States has set itself the goal of obstructing a settlement by any means," in order "to present the Soviet Union in a bad light." If this information is true, Gorbachev continued, the matter of a withdrawal "takes on a different light."
Without U.S. cooperation, he couldn't withdraw. Instead, he allowed his military commanders to escalate the conflict. In April, Soviet troops, supported by bombers and helicopters, attacked a new compound of Islamic fighters along the mountain passes of Jaji, near the Pakistani border. The leader of those fighters, many of them Arab volunteers, was Osama Bin Laden.
In his magisterial book, Ghost Wars (possibly the best diplomatic history written in the past decade), Steve Coll recounts the fateful consequences:
“Bin Laden and 50 Arab volunteers faced 200 Russian troops… The Arab volunteers took casualties but held out under intense fire for several days. More than a dozen of bin Laden's comrades were killed, and he himself apparently suffered a foot wound… Chronicled daily by several Arab journalists, the battle of Jaji marked the birth of Osama bin Laden's public reputation as a warrior among Arab jihadists.
“After Jaji bin Laden began a media campaign to publicise the heroic resistance by Arab volunteers against a Superpower. In interviews and speeches, he sought to recruit new fighters to his cause and to chronicle his own role as a military leader. He also began to expound on expansive new goals for the jihad.
Had Gorbachev thought that Reagan was willing to strike a deal, the battle of Jaji would not have taken place - and the legend of Bin Laden might never have taken off.
UP!
a review of a funeral
Goodbye Jasper, Cosmic Joker
Jasper would have been proud... so many of the alternative culture's Usual Suspects (including me) turning up to his farewell to this bodily plane phase of his existence... and everybody was on time too - even Fraser (with his faithful reincarnated hound-god Jonti, now a dog) made it before the hymns started... what's going on here... years ago counter culture people would have been too stoned to be on time for 'formal' events like these... the funerals they are 'a changing'…
there had been a bit of scepticism (and even argument) about the formality of a Church ceremony for someone as unChurchlike as Jasper, but Penny (Jasper's sister) was determined it was going to happen and, after a few minutes in the wonderful old Church in Iffley Village, Oxford, I knew she’d been right, and that everything was going to be alright... especially when the Vicar (if that's what he was) started reading from the Bhagavad-Gita!…
Claire, Jasper's most recent female companion, had come out of hospital (so she told us) to write a beautiful tribute to Jasper which, when read out, was very moving... her love for Jasper was evident as was the love by family members who spoke... Jasper, like few other people I've known, inspired LOVE... he gave it and he received it... simple maths... his story was read out by the vicar (written by Penny).. from the owl which flew into his room at birth, to his University days, to his English Sadhu in India adventures, to his last months here in Oxford as he tried to find a quiet peaceful mode of living, and, though Penny's words could only begin to describe what was truly an amazing life, everyone was transfixed... and everyone sang the Christian hymns as if their lives depended on it even if they had not been near a Church in the last 20 years... I am the Lord of the Dance would have won Pop Idol easy... all my Pagan friends singing these Christian hymns! oh, what miracles Jasper has wrought from the Other Side! somehow Jasper would not let us feel sad... and even the Pall Bearers (of assorted heights, which gave the carrying of the coffin a funny effect) looked optimistic!!...
so off we went to the country pub chosen by Penny... a lovely outside area was set aside for us, and the weather was lovely too, and when the food started rolling out (everything from pork pies to smoked salmon pastries to crackers with lovely creamy looking toppings to strawberry and cream tarts to cakes) I thought hmmm I could get used to this (except for the problem that I am a health food freak on an anti-candida diet so I could eat none of it)… within a short period of time, with the hashpipes passing around and the wine (sherry) flowing, there was a real 'buzz' around the place.
I was busy catching up with all the Usual Suspects... as usual in the alternative culture the conversations seem to pick up where they left off even if it's been years since the particular people have seen each other… admittedly they usually start with 'I', and this gathering was no exception... within a short time I had learnt that Fraser was already exploring a book deal, Susanna was having the millionth film made about her and her ever increasing pack (she's a grandma twice), Neal (author of everyone's favourite play, The WARP) had discovered the absolute truths of the inner and outer iniverses (yet again), Claudia is involved in her usual million projects (a different set this time), James's writing is getting even closer to some sort of culmination, and Sue usually eats organic but had put it aside for this day. and there was Greg whom I hadn't seen since the Human Be-In of 2002 and who, if it hadn't been him, I'd have been thinking oh no he's in a wheelchair what do I say but the guy so defines our alternative culture with his mix of loving and doing energy that you harldy ever think of his disablement.
and, oh yeah, some of the Usual Suspects, in best alternative culture break-up style, are not talking to some of the other Usual Suspects and, though I won't go into detail, it did strike me as funny seeing certain well known alternative culture Suspects not stray over to tables where certain other suspects were... better than East Enders for sure.
the Jasper stories were running fast and thick too...'I knew Jasper from 106 in the seventies'...'ah but I knew Jasper from the sixties' or I didn't know Jasper till the ‘90's which did surprise me (thanks for confessing Susanna)... my own private 'joke' was that I hardly knew Jasper at all though I’d met him at the legendary Haverstock Hill House in London in the 70's, and I’d hung out with him in Oxford (we are even in a photograph together) in the 90's a few times, but by that time Jasper's substance abuse (especially the booze) was far greater than my own and I had to make my excuses... the amazing thing about Jasper was that, even though you hardly knew him, he made you feel like a much loved close companion, as if you'd been hanging out every day for the past 10 years... did he even remember my name, I’d wonder, then he'd mention a detail about me I’d told him 20 years before... remarkable... my ex who was there had rented a room to Jasper for a while (relatively recently) and was friends with Penny so she knew more about Jasper's recent life than I did... but there I was taking my place among the alternative culture elite for in fact, despite all the pretension otherwise, that's exactly what we were... an alternative culture elite, brought together by the passing of one of its own stars (and Jasper was a star make no mistake about it) contemplating itself... and I was glad to be one of them, I'd worked hard to be one of them (Sue had remembered me (in conversation at the pub) as a young innocent American looking for a place to stay which she and Dave gave me at the Lancaster Grove squat in 1973, and we reminisced about the 'good ole days' of damp walls, money in the meter, and the ultimate Jewish restaurant on Finchley Road, The Cosmo, and even then I was determined to be one of the Tribe and here I was spewing out reminisces with the best of them!!
by the way, even within this bunch of 'Usual Suspects,' there were overlapping subcultures... there was the proper 'hippy' segment (Fraser, Susanna, Neal etc.), the 'arty' segment (Claudia, Neal again, Chris Jagger etc.), the ‘bohemian’ segment (Dave, Sue, Tony, Erica etc) and probably a few others as well... and people could easily be placed in two or more segments... Goddess knows which segment I was in, but like I said the most important thing for me was that I was there... and I think that went for all of us, even if many would officially deny being an elite... we each liked being part of this special something... some of us (like me) had to work harder than others to get in the gang (Jasper was born to it) but none of us was resigning... you just don't resign from a ruling club like this, even as you do deny its existence and rail against the concept of it!
so back in the real world several people were taking the microphone to tell their Jasper reminisces… let's see... Tony sang his special song, twice (Jasper, Cosmic Traveller in UP! 198)... Fraser couldn't remember an exact reminisce (blame the hash) but he did say something funny about the Hopi Indians… Erica got emotional about Jasper and talked about England and Oxford and related them to Jasper and she became my 'man of the match' (she was a true star on the night so to speak and got a big ovation)... Susanna revealed how she didn't know Jasper till the 90's which was my 'shock of the day' since she and Jasper were the two people who knew everyone and for them not to know each other till the 90's… live and learn as Alanis said... then an incredible poet friend of Erica’s performed an amazing long poem parodying England and English imperial culture and I thought typical Jasper getting people who didn't even know him to do tributes for him... meanwhile the reminisces at the tables were going fast and furious... some about Jasper, others about scenes many of the Usual Suspects had been involved in... it was like an alternative culture mini-history lesson... who needs schooling or even personal phone conversations or e-mails when you have funerals like these!? I learned more about my past at Jasper's funeral than anywhere in recent memory... I can't wait for the next funeral.
of course, me being me, I was asking myself, as I looked over this wondrous gathering, who would be the next to cop it, hopefully it wouldn’t be me (love thy neighbour hippy consciousness stopped at death it seemed)... did this gathering of Suspects realise how close most of them were to seeing Jasper under different circumstances (in that otherworld for alternative culture elite), that within a few years many of us in that pub garden would have moved on... would people be saying such nice things at my 'ceremony'... I doubt it... I do have my particular Dylan version of ‘It's All Over Now, Baby Blue’ ready.
anyway slowly people departed into the loveliness of the canal area and the United Alternative Culture gatherees (my word) went back to their individual lives and situations... my own last thought (forgive me Jasper) was ‘can't wait till the next one’ (as long as i’m not the star attraction!)... much love to Jasper and everyone,
GoodJeff, Oxford.
P.S. I wondered aloud to Neal later: what if at funerals instead of emphasising the good about the deceased, people did the opposite, and looked at the weaknesses, like an est session or some new age psychoanalysis for the recently departed... why did so and so fail… why was so and so fucked up in such and such a way... in some ways I think funerals are too easy on their subjects... maybe that's how I'll organise mine - if I dare... maybe a mock practice session (can people practise for their own funeral?) to begin with?
>> no, but they can practise their own life. for those of us, myself included, who found we simply couldn’t feel sad over Jasper’s move:
up!
When Lao Tzu died, Ch’in Shih went in to mourn for him. He shouted three times, then left.
A disciple asked, ‘You were the master’s friend, weren’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then is it acceptable for you to mourn like that?’’
‘Yes,’ replied Ch’in Shih. ‘At first I took that to be him in there. But then I saw that it wasn’t him at all. When I went in to mourn there were parents mourning as if they were mourning their own children. And there were children mourning as if they were mourning their own parents. All these people gathered around his teachings - and isn’t it because they don’t speak whey they speak, don’t mourn when they mourn? This is to hide from heaven, to turn against the actual and forget that it’s all given to us. The ancients called this ‘the crime of hiding from heaven’. The master came in time with his own season and then followed it away. If you’re at peace with such seasons, if you’re at home following them, then sorrow and joy can never touch you. The ancients called this ‘getting free of the gods.’
Chuang Tzu, The Inner Chapters.
*Heaven: natural process: the constant unfolding of things in the cosmological process.
UP!
War of the Words
Looking back, it's curious how much of it was a war of words, a re-definitional journey involving linguistic and legalistic contortions of the most remarkable sorts.
First was "war" itself. The US did not actually declare war. After all, who was war to be declared against? America was simply defined as being "at war."
And from this, a series of other definitions followed, perhaps the most important of which had to do with the people captured in this "war."
It might seem apparent that, having declared yourself at war, the people you thereafter captured might indeed be prisoners of war. But this presented a problem since the rights of POWs were so clearly defined by international treaties. So the administration simply redefined those captured in this redefined war as "unlawful combatants" or "illegal combatants." This and other terms used for them came out of a new Devil's dictionary; for once they’d been so defined, they could then enter the Bush administration’s offshore world of imprisonment - at least in their minds as the sorts of captives to whom a whole new series of definitions could be applied.
The third definitional problem was where to hold these prisoners, so that the holding itself (without charge or trial, potentially to eternity) could not be challenged either by the prisoners through any legal representation or through the courts of America itself. The administration needed a place where it could publicly practice its new definitional privacy and that turned out to be its military base at Guantanamo, which was redefined for the purposes of the moment as under "Cuban sovereignty," though this was obviously a brazen fiction.
But even this wasn't satisfactory for them. Guantanamo, off-limits as it was, still turned out to be far too "public" for what they planned to do to their "highest value" captives. And so, especially for them, they developed a special, CIA-run system of imprisonment that stepped beyond definition itself. As Human Rights Watch puts it in an invaluable recent report on our global torture system:
"Among the most disturbing cases, perhaps unprecedented in U.S. history, are the detainees who have simply been ‘disappeared.' Perhaps out of concern that Guantánamo will eventually be monitored by the U.S. courts, certainly to ensure even greater secrecy, the Bush administration does not appear to hold its most sensitive and high-profile detainees there. Terrorism suspects like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused architect of the September 11 attacks, and Abu Zubaydah, a close aide of Osama bin Laden, are instead detained by the United States in ‘undisclosed locations,' presumably outside the United States, with no access to the ICRC, no notification to families, no oversight of their treatment, and in most cases no acknowledgement that they are even being held. Human Rights Watch has pieced together information on 13 such detainees, apprehended in places such as Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates, who have ‘disappeared' in U.S. custody."
http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/indexprint.mhtml?pid=1494
UP!
Iraq ‘Prime Minister’ Was A Terrorist
Iyad Allawi, now the designated prime minister of Iraq, ran an exile organisation that sent agents into Baghdad in the early 1990's to plant bombs and sabotage government facilities under the direction of the C.I.A, several former intelligence officials say.
Dr. Allawi's group, the Iraqi National Accord, used car bombs and other explosive devices smuggled into Baghdad from northern Iraq, the officials said.
No public records of the bombing campaign exist, and the former officials could not even recall exactly when it occurred, though the interviews made it clear it was between 1992 and 1995.
The Iraqi government at the time claimed the bombs, including one it said exploded in a movie theater, resulted in many civilian casualties.
One former CIA officer who was based in the region, Robert Baer, recalled that a bombing during that period "blew up a school bus; schoolchildren were killed."
When Dr. Allawi was picked as interim prime minister last week, he said his first priority would be to improve the security situation by stopping bombings and other insurgent attacks in Iraq an idea several former officials said they found "ironic."
"Send a thief to catch a thief," said Kenneth Pollack, who was an Iran-Iraq military analyst for the C.I.A. during the early 1990's and recalled the sabotage campaign.
An American intelligence officer who worked with Dr. Allawi in the early 1990's noted that "no one had any problem with sabotage in Baghdad back then," adding, "I don't think anyone could have known how things would turn out today."
Some officials have also suggested that Dr. Allawi, while still a member of the ruling Baath Party in the early 1970's, may have spied on Iraqi students studying in London.
Dr. Allawi is not believed to have ever spoken in public about the bombing campaign. But one Iraqi National Accord officer did. In 1996, Amneh al-Khadami, who described himself as the Iraqi National Accord‘s chief bomb maker, recorded a videotape in which he talked of the bombing campaign and complained he was being shortchanged money and supplies. Two former intelligence officers confirmed the existence of the videotape.
Mr. Khadami said "we blew up a car, and were supposed to get $2,000" but got only $1,000, according to an account in The Independent in 1997. Mr. Khadami, it added, also said he worried that the C.I.A. might view him as "too much the terrorist."
>> no worries there then.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/09/politics/09ALLA.html?ei=1&en=037bb9c647212ea6&ex=1087816701&pagewanted=print&position=
up!
There is no justification, legal or moral, for the judgments made by Mr. Bush's political appointees at the Justice and Defense departments. Theirs is the logic of criminal regimes, of dictatorships around the world that sanction torture on grounds of "national security." For decades the U.S. government has waged diplomatic campaigns against such outlaw governments - from the military juntas in Argentina and Chile to the current autocracies in Islamic countries such as Algeria and Uzbekistan - that claim torture is justified when used to combat terrorism. The news that serving U.S. officials have officially endorsed principles once advanced by Augusto Pinochet brings shame on American democracy…. The administration's reasoning will provide a ready excuse for dictators, especially those allied with the Bush administration, to go on torturing and killing detainees.’ Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26602-2004Jun8?language=printer
up!
"He broke out into assholes and shit himself to death"
Woodward and Bernstein's "The Final Days" describes a historical moment which more than any other delineates the character of George Bush.
The scene was the Nixon White House during the final days of Watergate. White House officials, including George Bush, had spent the morning absorbing the impact of Nixon's notorious "smoking gun" tape, the recorded conversation between Nixon and his chief of staff, H.R. Haldemann, which could now no longer be withheld from the public.
In that exchange, Nixon ordered that the CIA stop the FBI from further investigating how various sums of money found their way from Texas and Minnesota via Mexico City to the coffers of the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) and thence into the pockets of the "Plumbers" who’d been arrested in the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate building. Such revelations were widely interpreted as establishing a "prima facie" case of obstruction of justice against Nixon.
That was fine with George, who sincerely wanted his patron and benefactor Nixon to resign. Bush’s great concern was that the smoking gun tape called attention to a money-laundering mechanism he, Bill Liedtke of Pennzoil, and Robert Mosbacher, had helped to set up at Nixon's request. They were "the Texans" and "some Texas people" to whom Nixon refers in the "smoking gun" tape. The threat to George's political ambitions was great.
The White House that morning was gripped by panic. Nixon would be gone by the end of the week. In the midst of the furore, White House Congressional liaison William Timmons wanted to know if everyone who needed to be informed had been briefed about the smoking gun transcript. In a roomful of officials, some of whom were already sipping Scotch to steady their nerves, he asked Dean Burch: "Dean, does Bush know about the transcript yet?"
"Yes" responded Burch.
"Well, what did he do?" inquired Timmons.
"He broke out into assholes and shit himself to death," replied Burch.
The essential George Bush, in a crisis, and for all seasons.
UP!
US MARKET COLLAPSE !!!!! PRAY FOR THE CHILDREN !!!
was long in yoga/meditation -- the falun dafa -- last night ...
imagining Santa Monica and Los Angeles, Auckland
and Tokyo, WITHOUT our mad automobiles and madder drivers.
without the violent need, and violating noise.
hearing the birds, the ocean -- feeling the cool breeze on my face.
greeting our neighbours in loving salutation.
getting up and planting the walks and gardens
and playgrounds -- where once were asphalt roads
and parking lots, slaughterhouses, and industrial 'butcheries'!
what a beautiful life it will be when we/they you/me
bring an end to this house of cards, this 'civilisation' of fraud and rapacity.
for then we can dance, and our children sing --
and honestly share and globally create!
and no longer will we be haunted in every moment
by the death cries of whale and dolphin, redwood
and rainforest, brown baby and black child and
yellow enfant -- for the murderous oil machine.
leaving behind the pain, and blame ... walking
out of our cars one day a week, then two days ...
learning to breathe! walk! bicycle! garden!
truly love!!!
only respect.
"give me love, give me love, give me ...
peace on Earth ... "
Millennium Twain
green growing mindedness ...
walking 'out' of our televisions and automobiles ...
in http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/BigMedicine/ we are coordinating volunteers who are stepping forward to chronicle the Last Ceremonies and Last Statements of all the worlds native/tribal/aboriginal peoples. please join us if you have native connections!
http://fireships.com
http://LivingLightHouse.Com
http://unamity.com/SoverAnia.jpg
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Aemortal/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheMessiah/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GoldenMillennium/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LeagueOfTheLastDays/
now in our 508th day of global fasting for world peace ...
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/worldfast
satyagraha -- fasting protest ...
Gandhi named this concept of action: "satyagraha" (combining the Hindu words for "truth" and "holding firmly.") background article at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LeagueOfTheLastDays/message/418
AmaNoGawa, UK.
UP!
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