I missed Chinese New Year
Happy Year of the Boar and Happy Fat Tuesday! Last night some of the hike leaders got together for a potluck dinner to plan events for April and May. I'll wait until June to start leading hikes, though, and I'll cut back to about five hikes. I started seeds yesterday. I figure giving them ten to twelve days to sprout will give them about six weeks under the grow light and another six weeks of real sun in the cold frame before planting. I haven't changed much. Ten varieties of tomatoes, five peppers, two melons and a pumpkin. I had no luck with melons last year, as expected in this cooler area, but I did get one pumpkin. I found it hiding in the bushes. It's weird that the bees found a flower there but ignored everything in the open sunlight. It's getting colder again this week, maybe some snow forecast near the weekend, but spring is coming. I can see it in the sunlight.
In “modern” Afghanistan, “prosperity” is defined as a per capita annual income of just US$500 and education and annual health expenditures of less than US$5 per person--to be achieved in 10 years’ time.
--Harvey Thompson
The largely ruined or neglected state of much of Afghanistan’s basic infrastructure enabled US construction companies, following the invasion of 2001, to use the billions of dollars of international “development aid” as a huge slush fund.
--Harvey Thompson
It's now four months since The Most Important Election In The History Of Whatever, yet the world-historical consequences seem strangely ... muted. Meanwhile, it's "On to the next thing!" for the pwoggies and the Dems. We didn't even get to take a breath after the last Most Important Election, and now we're supposed to gird our loins for the next one. It's like that Ivan Ilyich line: the reward of success in schooling is ... more schooling. The reward we get for Democratic victories is the precious opportunity to give the Democrats more victories. What benefit we receive from this deal does not clearly appear.
--Michael J. Smith
Mossad's motto is "by way of deception thou shalt wage war" and all of the evidence points to their taking their motto absolutely literally. Over the years, Mossad has worked tirelessly to further the 'interests' of Israel and has made extensive use of False Flag operations to create the appearance that Israel is surrounded by terrorist regimes. From the demonization of Saddam, leading up to the first Gulf War, to the 9/11 attacks, nothing, it seems, is a bridge too far for the world's most ruthless and bloodthirsty intelligence agency.
--Joe Quinn
The Emil Jones brand of Black politics is based on the assumption that African American aspirations are limited to a simple desire to see Black faces on display in high places, no matter the public policy content of that representation. It is as if emancipation of the slaves could be achieved by moving Ol' Massa out of the Big House, and installing the Black butler in his place, while the conditions of life and labor in the fields remain unchanged. After all, the butler is one of "ours." The slaves should be happy to experience a vicarious freedom, through their "son." Further, it would be downright unfamily-like to pester our own kin about the need for forty acres and a mule per household.
--Glen Ford
No investigation is conducted into why the US invaded Iraq or why the ruling elite considers the war so critical. No review is made of the propaganda campaign carried out by Bush, Blair and Howard, consisting of outright lies, that was aimed at suppressing the truth: that Washington sought to seize control of Iraq’s vast oil reserves, construct permanent military bases in the country, and use its territory as a platform for further criminal acts of aggression throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. No assessment is undertaken of the latest propaganda emanating from the White House about Iran, or what the consequences would be of a US war on that country.
--Patrick O’Connor
Just as 9-11 has been used to justify the enhanced powers of the “unitary” president, the evisceration of civil liberties, and a permanent state of war; so too, the bombing of the Golden Mosque has been used to create a fictional narrative of deeply ingrained sectarian animosity that has no historical precedent. Both events need to be exposed by thorough and independent investigations.
--Mark Whitney
Fidel Castro, on the other hand, learned fast. He used Washington and Miami to improvise material for three chapters in future releases of Machiavelli’s The Prince, the classic text on political realism.
--Saul Landau
When you have a person who's off his nut in a position of authority, whether it is in your house, in your office, driving a car or running your country, you need to do something to prevent them from causing harm. It won't do to say, "It's too much trouble to confront him," or "He'll get angry if I challenge him."
--Dave Lindorff
The rise of Muqtada has been one of the surprises of the four years since the US invaded. Saddam Hussein must have been astonished as he went to his execution to hear the name: "Muqtada! Muqtada! Muqatada!" shouted by jeering onlookers. Had Saddam realised the potential of this strange, enigmatic young man before the invasion then he would doubtless have killed him, as he did Muqtada's father and two of his brothers eight years ago.
--Patrick Cockburn
Of course, the Israelis really don’t prefer the establishment of an Islamic state in Palestine, but the illusion of one projected on Palestine’s prison walls.
--Kurt Nimmo
Counting on our persistent amnesia, or lack of attention altogether, the Pentagon expects us to believe, as the miscreant Krauthammer expects us to believe, that Iraq’s death squads are a homegrown phenomenon, when in fact there is plenty of evidence they are trained and coordinated by the Pentagon. It is not merely happenstance or “ancient animosities” driving the current wave of sectarian slaughter in Iraq. As Max Fuller reported last November, al-Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army has worked closely with Interior Ministry commandos, most notably in Balad in October.
--Kurt Nimmo
Meanwhile, here's [four] places you can watch the video that Google & Friends apparently don't want you to see: 1 2 3 (fuzzy titles from older version) 4 (fuzzy titles from older version)
Political events in the past year have confirmed the analysis we made at the meeting of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site in January 2006. Instead of moving into a new era of ascendancy, the world capitalist system has entered a period of war and revolution.
--John Chan
The danger of imperialist war is compounded by the deepening economic crisis of world capitalism. After three decades of globalised production, the advanced capitalist countries, the US in particular, have discovered that the economic crisis that they sought to avoid by diverting manufacturing to cheap labour countries has returned home on a much larger scale.
--John Chan
If my conspiracy theory refers to an ongoing issue, I want it to provide predictions of future events. For example, if the specific plans don’t mention an attack on Iran, because in fact Iran doesn’t lie on the territory of Greater Israel and because Iran is an obvious doctrine-of-the-periphery ally of Israel, I want to be able to make the prediction that the Zionist-controlled United States won’t attack Iran.
--Xymphora (Xymphora's on the line now)
PNAC types are fond of the idea of stringing up their opponents, not surprising as the philosophical foundation of neoconism runs back to the Trotskyites and the Leninist thinking of Max Shachtman and James Burnham, the latter serving as an inspiration for Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984.
--Kurt Nimmo (Everyone wants a piece of that story. Trotskyists are allowed to defend themselves but I have to fix the dead link to Miller's book)
In “modern” Afghanistan, “prosperity” is defined as a per capita annual income of just US$500 and education and annual health expenditures of less than US$5 per person--to be achieved in 10 years’ time.
--Harvey Thompson
The largely ruined or neglected state of much of Afghanistan’s basic infrastructure enabled US construction companies, following the invasion of 2001, to use the billions of dollars of international “development aid” as a huge slush fund.
--Harvey Thompson
It's now four months since The Most Important Election In The History Of Whatever, yet the world-historical consequences seem strangely ... muted. Meanwhile, it's "On to the next thing!" for the pwoggies and the Dems. We didn't even get to take a breath after the last Most Important Election, and now we're supposed to gird our loins for the next one. It's like that Ivan Ilyich line: the reward of success in schooling is ... more schooling. The reward we get for Democratic victories is the precious opportunity to give the Democrats more victories. What benefit we receive from this deal does not clearly appear.
--Michael J. Smith
Mossad's motto is "by way of deception thou shalt wage war" and all of the evidence points to their taking their motto absolutely literally. Over the years, Mossad has worked tirelessly to further the 'interests' of Israel and has made extensive use of False Flag operations to create the appearance that Israel is surrounded by terrorist regimes. From the demonization of Saddam, leading up to the first Gulf War, to the 9/11 attacks, nothing, it seems, is a bridge too far for the world's most ruthless and bloodthirsty intelligence agency.
--Joe Quinn
The Emil Jones brand of Black politics is based on the assumption that African American aspirations are limited to a simple desire to see Black faces on display in high places, no matter the public policy content of that representation. It is as if emancipation of the slaves could be achieved by moving Ol' Massa out of the Big House, and installing the Black butler in his place, while the conditions of life and labor in the fields remain unchanged. After all, the butler is one of "ours." The slaves should be happy to experience a vicarious freedom, through their "son." Further, it would be downright unfamily-like to pester our own kin about the need for forty acres and a mule per household.
--Glen Ford
No investigation is conducted into why the US invaded Iraq or why the ruling elite considers the war so critical. No review is made of the propaganda campaign carried out by Bush, Blair and Howard, consisting of outright lies, that was aimed at suppressing the truth: that Washington sought to seize control of Iraq’s vast oil reserves, construct permanent military bases in the country, and use its territory as a platform for further criminal acts of aggression throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. No assessment is undertaken of the latest propaganda emanating from the White House about Iran, or what the consequences would be of a US war on that country.
--Patrick O’Connor
Just as 9-11 has been used to justify the enhanced powers of the “unitary” president, the evisceration of civil liberties, and a permanent state of war; so too, the bombing of the Golden Mosque has been used to create a fictional narrative of deeply ingrained sectarian animosity that has no historical precedent. Both events need to be exposed by thorough and independent investigations.
--Mark Whitney
Fidel Castro, on the other hand, learned fast. He used Washington and Miami to improvise material for three chapters in future releases of Machiavelli’s The Prince, the classic text on political realism.
--Saul Landau
When you have a person who's off his nut in a position of authority, whether it is in your house, in your office, driving a car or running your country, you need to do something to prevent them from causing harm. It won't do to say, "It's too much trouble to confront him," or "He'll get angry if I challenge him."
--Dave Lindorff
The rise of Muqtada has been one of the surprises of the four years since the US invaded. Saddam Hussein must have been astonished as he went to his execution to hear the name: "Muqtada! Muqtada! Muqatada!" shouted by jeering onlookers. Had Saddam realised the potential of this strange, enigmatic young man before the invasion then he would doubtless have killed him, as he did Muqtada's father and two of his brothers eight years ago.
--Patrick Cockburn
Of course, the Israelis really don’t prefer the establishment of an Islamic state in Palestine, but the illusion of one projected on Palestine’s prison walls.
--Kurt Nimmo
Counting on our persistent amnesia, or lack of attention altogether, the Pentagon expects us to believe, as the miscreant Krauthammer expects us to believe, that Iraq’s death squads are a homegrown phenomenon, when in fact there is plenty of evidence they are trained and coordinated by the Pentagon. It is not merely happenstance or “ancient animosities” driving the current wave of sectarian slaughter in Iraq. As Max Fuller reported last November, al-Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army has worked closely with Interior Ministry commandos, most notably in Balad in October.
--Kurt Nimmo
Meanwhile, here's [four] places you can watch the video that Google & Friends apparently don't want you to see: 1 2 3 (fuzzy titles from older version) 4 (fuzzy titles from older version)
Political events in the past year have confirmed the analysis we made at the meeting of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site in January 2006. Instead of moving into a new era of ascendancy, the world capitalist system has entered a period of war and revolution.
--John Chan
The danger of imperialist war is compounded by the deepening economic crisis of world capitalism. After three decades of globalised production, the advanced capitalist countries, the US in particular, have discovered that the economic crisis that they sought to avoid by diverting manufacturing to cheap labour countries has returned home on a much larger scale.
--John Chan
If my conspiracy theory refers to an ongoing issue, I want it to provide predictions of future events. For example, if the specific plans don’t mention an attack on Iran, because in fact Iran doesn’t lie on the territory of Greater Israel and because Iran is an obvious doctrine-of-the-periphery ally of Israel, I want to be able to make the prediction that the Zionist-controlled United States won’t attack Iran.
--Xymphora (Xymphora's on the line now)
PNAC types are fond of the idea of stringing up their opponents, not surprising as the philosophical foundation of neoconism runs back to the Trotskyites and the Leninist thinking of Max Shachtman and James Burnham, the latter serving as an inspiration for Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984.
--Kurt Nimmo (Everyone wants a piece of that story. Trotskyists are allowed to defend themselves but I have to fix the dead link to Miller's book)