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ABBREVIATIONS FOR SITES I OFTEN STEAL NEWS ITEMS FROM:

u = Progressive Review's Undernews

PUBLIC AFFAIRS/HISTORY READING:
(r) = re-reading

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The Buying of the President 2004: Who's Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers -- and What They Expect in Return

Arrogant Capital

Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual: How to Rebuild Our Country So the Politics Aren't Broken and Politicians Aren't Fixed

American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush

Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism & Toxic Warfare

The Velvet Coup: The Constitution, the Supreme Court and the Decline of American Democracy

Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists Expose the Myth of the Free Press

Amazon Light

Just consider what current events will sound like two thousand years from now -- the greatest nation on Earth bombing some of the smallest and weakest for no clear reasons, people starving in parts of the world while farmers are paid not to plant crops in others, technophiles sitting at home playing electronic golf rahter than the real thing, and police forces ordered to arrest people who simply desire to ingest a psychoactive weed. People of that era will also likely laugh it all off as fantastic myths...

It is time for those who desire true freedom to exert themselves -- to fight back against the forces who desire domination through fear and disunity.

This does not have to involve violence. It can be done in small, simple ways, like not financing that new Sport Utility Vehicle, cutting up all but one credit card, not opting for a second mortgage, turning off that TV sitcom for a good book, asking questions and speaking out in church or synagogue, attending school board and city council meetings, voting for the candidate who has the least money, learning about the Fully Informed Jury movement and using it when called -- in general, taking responsibility for one's own actions. Despite the omnipresent advertising for the Lotto -- legalized government gambling -- there is no free lunch. Giving up one's individual power for the hope of comfort and security has proven to lead only to tyranny.

from Rule by Secrecy by Jim Marrs

You had to take those pieces of paper with you when you went shopping, though by the time I was nine or ten most people used plastic cards. . .It seems so primitive, totemistic even, like cowry shells. I must have used that kind of money myself, a little, before everything went on the Compubank.

I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult.

It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics, at the time.

Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control.

I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?

That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.

. . . Things continued on in that state of suspended animation for weeks, although some things did happen. Newspapers were censored and some were closed down, for security reasons they said. The roadblocks began to appear, and Identipasses. Everyone approved of that, since it was obvious you couldn't be too careful. They said that new elections would be held, but that it would take some time to prepare for them. The thing to do, they said, was to continue on as usual.

from The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

By the time Oscar reached the outskirts of Washington, DC, The Louisiana air base had benn placed under siege.

The base's electrical power supply had long since been cut off for lack of payment. The aircraft had no fuel. The desperate federal troops were bartering stolen equipment for food and booze. Desertion was rampant. The air base commander had released a sobbing video confession and had shot himself.

Green Huey had lost patience with the long-festering scandal. He was moving in for the kill. Attacking and seizing an federal air base with his loyal state militia would have been entirely too blatant and straightforward. Instead the rogue Governor employed proxy guerrillas.

Huey had won the favor of nomad prole groups by providing them with safe havens. He allowed them to squat in Louisiana's many federally declared contamination zones. These forgotten landscapes were tainted with petrochemical effluent and hormone-warping pesticides, and were hence officially unfit for human settlement. The prole hordes had different opinions on that subject.

Proles cheerfully grouped in any locale where conventional authority had grown weak. Whenever the net-based proles were not constantly harassed by the authorities, they coalesced and grew ambitious. Though easily scattered by focused crackdowns, they regrouped as swiftly as a horde of gnats. With their reaping machines and bio-breweries, they could live off the land at the very base of the food chain. They had no stake in the established order, and they cherished a canny street-level knowledge of society's infrastructural weaknesses. They made expensive enemies. . .

Louisiana's ecologically blighted areas were ideal for proles. The disaster zones were also impromptu wildlife sanctuaries, since wild animals found chemical fouling much easier to survive than the presence of human beings. After decades of wild subtropical growth, Louisiana's toxic dumps were as impenetrable as Sherwood Forest.

from Distraction by Bruce Sterling

and s-integrator

Saturday, February 15, 2003

"I want to make something very, very clear at this point: We do not want individuals or families to start sealing their doors or their windows"

Ridge calls for "no panic in the face of terror"

Just remember to duck and cover.

Oh, and don't pick up any glowing space junk either.

2:47 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Letter from a reader of Undernews
MITCH BUROKER, TRUMBULL, CT - Patriot Act 2 is at the ready to swoop in after the next 'inevitable' terrorist attack. Unfortunately this is all beginning to look like the Reichstag Fire all over. We are being played by darker and more sinister forces than even most of us liberals care to admit. "Outrage Overload" is what Tom Tomorrow calls it. But it's worse than that.

Sam, there are going to be a lot of people losing their citizenship before they get their lethal injection for treason in the coming years. And once Mr. Bush either suspends elections in 2004 (this extremely sore loser will not suffer a real election this time either) or declares himself President For Life in Patriot Act 3, we're screwed. Truly, we've got the real live Manchurian Candidate on our hands.

Thank you for your service to this great country, Sam. We're entering times as dangerous for men of conscience as the 1770's were for our founders. These are perilous times and "We must all hang together, or surely we'll all hang separately."

2:22 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Friday, February 14, 2003

Columbia shuttle was carrying radioactive material, particularly Americium -- which the Israelis have been researching as a potential propellant for space travel (Americium is used in smoke detectors too.)

Susan says the reports of sick animals have shown up on TV news.

Watch Nacogdoches County for a long-term rise in cancer rates.

shrubco will employ nuclear energy in its plan to militarize space, of course.

10:35 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Whitley Strieber (on record as being for the Iraq War, BTW) interviews The War on Freedom author Nafeez Ahmed tomorrow on his Dreamland show (Windows Media)

Looks like this is Net-only for some reason.

10:10 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Welcome to the Village"

ACLU-benefit: Total Information Awareness Gift Shop

9:54 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

The US water infrastructure crisis and privatization [u]

9:49 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Excellent article from the Maryknoll Lay Missioners on on the role of the media in the Venezuela crisis [u]
For fifty three days, since the December 2nd initiation of the strike, the four major Venezuelan television stations have not shown one single commercial ad. They do, however, show approximately twelve commercials per hour, or around one hundred a day). Each and every one of the commercials is an anti-Chavez ad. They are strikingly slick, smooth, moving, and obviously very professional and expensive. We can only wonder where the funding for this is originating. When we try to imagine a similar situation in the U.S., we realise how truly disconcerting this is. Imagine that ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN showed not a single commercial ad for fifty three days, but instead showed one hundred ads a day directed at removing President Bush from power, comparing him to Hitler and Satan. Imagine as well, that every day the channels invited the public to anti-Bush marches, showing, over ten times a day, the hour, location and title of each daily march. This situation is of course of grave concern to us, not only because it results in an unbalanced and inaccurate portrayal of the crisis in Venezuela, but also because the use of the press to incite violence rather than to inform is very disturbing.

9:43 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Study Finds Many Doctors Performing Surgery Lack Practice [u]
In only one area, cardiac surgery, does the state limit which hospitals can enter a particular field, a practice followed by many other states. New York issues "certificates of need" to more than 30 of New York's more than 200 hospitals, allowing them to do things like coronary artery bypass operations.

A study reported last fall in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that among the 27 states (and the District of Columbia) that require certificates of need, the death rate for bypass patients is significantly lower than in the 23 states where any hospital can perform such surgery.

"It's time for the state to seriously consider applying certificate of need to other surgeries," said Arthur Levin, director of the Center for Medical Consumers. "The volume data tells us that there are doctors and hospitals out there doing some surgeries so rarely that it could put people seriously at risk."

[...]

Officials at several hospitals said that keeping a tighter rein on what operations surgeons can perform would require unneeded new layers of bureaucracy, and would cause internal political problems.

9:33 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

From the censored Yellow Times site, an Imad Khadduri article (Google archive) that disputes Khidhir Hamza's Saddam's Bombmaker story about Iraq's nuclear capabilities [u]
Since my departure from Iraq in late 1998, one cannot help but notice the mien of those former nuclear scientists and engineers as being but a wispy phantom of a once elite cadre representing the zenith of scientific and technical thought in Iraq. Pathetic shadows of their former selves, the overwhelming fear that haunts them is the fear of retirement, with a whopping pension that equates to about $2 a month.

Yet, the American and British intelligence community, obviously influenced by the war agenda, vainly attempts to continue to provide disinformation. For example, a consignment of aluminum pipes (the intelligence experts opine) might conceivably be used in the construction of highly advanced, "kilometers long" centrifugal spinners. The consideration that there are no remaining Iraqi personnel qualified to implement and maintain these supposed spinners seems to have eluded the intelligence agencies' reports.
How reliable Khadduri is -- and how much he knows about what's happened since he left -- is open to question.

Of course the ham-handed way Yellow Times was hit with DOS attacks when the article was published lends credence to his assessment. And according to this Guerrilla News Network article which discusses Khadduri's claims, Scott Ritter's account and others support it.

9:14 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Secret" UN document outlines severe humanitarian post-war crisis in Iraq [u]

8:48 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

FBI: OK to nuke, gas and bomb Iraq -- but no "patriotic hacking pranks" that might spur retaliation

What?

3:55 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Veteran Mexican guest workers of the 40s and 60s support a revival of the program that would "eliminate a lot of deaths in the desert"

3:05 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCOR) that overturned a lower court's decision to limit "the government's ability to share surveillance information between intelligence and law enforcement personnel" in November is revealed as a shrubco rubber stamp

Full transcript here.

2:31 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

The NRO and the evolution of satellite reconnaissance [FAS]
The NRO was different from most other government organizations in two ways-its very existence was classified and its key components were actually elements of the Air Force, CIA, and Navy. In the five years following their creation, the NRP and NRO were the subject of intense battles between the CIA and the civilian and uniformed Air Force officers who ran the NRO. At first the battles primarily focused on the authorities of the NRO and its director. Subsequently, a major aspect of the conflict involved decisions concerning new reconnaissance systems.

Only now, with the declassification of internal histories and supporting documents, as well as the willingness of key individuals to speak of their roles, is it possible to begin to examine in detail the battles that occurred between 1961 and 1965. The outcome of a number of those disputes had long-term implications for the way in which the NRP was managed for the next several decades as well as the nature of the U.S. reconnaissance systems which orbited the earth.

2:23 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Dish TV Channel 9415

Free Speech TV

Arundhati Roy on the Narmada Dam, Amy Goodman speaks to a sold-out crowd in Boulder, video on the US presence in the Philippines & May Ying Welsh from Baghdad.

1:52 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Spain finally begins to confront the legacy of Franco and the Civil War

1:29 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Greg Palast's book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters is out February 25th in paperback, with 100 pages more than the hardcover

From his email, highlights of the new material:
- Who is ringing the cash register on the Orwellian USA Patriot Act.

- Why the Bush administration is silent about Saudi support for
terrorism -- expanded new material from the Project Censored
award-winning report.

- The real story of Iraq's nuclear program: follow the money --
YOUR money.

- What's going on in Venezuela, including my interview with
President Hugo Chavez.

- Arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, George Bush Sr. and their strange
little gold mining operation.

- New, inside documents from the files of the World Bank; the
NEXT Enron (in the new chapter "Power Pirates") and an all new
conclusion, "Kissing the Whip."

12:48 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Thursday, February 13, 2003

"Yes, my Lord shrub"

"Executives worry that U.S. companies might steer future investments away from France and Germany to countries in southern and eastern Europe, which have pledged fealty to the Bush Administration." [link]
fealty
/"fi:lt/ noun (plural -ies) 1 fidelity to feudal lord. 2 allegiance.
À propos, n'est-ce pas?

11:55 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Demos accuse CIA (read: Tenet) of foxing Iraq inspections
[Senator] Levin said later he believed the CIA had, in effect, taken the decision to undermine the inspections. "When they've taken the position that inspections are useless, they are bound to fail," he told The Washington Post. "We have undermined the inspectors." [my emphasis]

6:21 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

The Research Unit for Political Economy's (R.U.P.E.) new online issue "Behind the Invasion of Iraq" seems an excellent overview on the US's neo-imperialist goals, particularly in Asia [xymphora]

I've just read the first two pages and it's pretty impressive.
Control of petroleum resources and pipeline routes is obviously a central consideration in US imperialist designs worldwide -- note the long-term installation of US forces from Afghanistan through Central Asia to the Balkans; the entry of US troops in the Philippines and the pressure on Indonesia to involve the US in a campaign against Islamic fundamentalists in the region; the drive for US military intervention in Colombia and the attempt to oust Chaves [sic] in Venezuela. (The systematic drive by the US in northern Latin America has close parallels with its campaign in West Asia.) The US is particularly anxious to install a large contingent of troops near Saudi Arabia, anticipating the collapse of, or drastic change in, the regime there. Saudi Arabia has the world's greatest stock of oil wealth. Indeed the US is contemplating using the invasion of Iraq as the springboard for a drastic political "cleansing" of the entire region, along the lines of the process long underway in the Balkans and continuing in Afghanistan-Pakistan. Indeed it is even willing to provoke, by its invasion of Iraq, uprisings in other states of the region, in order to provide it with an occasion to invade those states. All this is not speculation, but has been explicitly spelled out in various policy documents authored by or commissioned by those now in charge of the US military and foreign policy.

The global crisis of overproduction is showing up the underlying weakness of the US real economy, as a result of which US trade and budget deficits are galloping. The euro now poses a credible alternative to the status of the dollar as the global reserve currency, threatening the US's crucial ability to fund its deficits by soaking up the world's savings. The US anticipates that the capture of Iraq, and whatever else it has in store for the region, will directly benefit its corporations (oil, arms, engineering, financial) even as it shuts out the corporations from other imperialist countries. Further, it intends to prevent the bulk of petroleum trade being conducted in euros, and thus maintain the dollar's supremacy. In a broader sense, it believes that such a re-assertion of its supremacy (in military terms and in control of strategic resources) will prevent the emergence of any serious imperialist challenger such as the EU. In that sense the present campaign is in line with the Pentagon's 1992 Defense Planning Guidance, which called for preventing any other major power from acquiring the strength to develop into a challenger to the US's solitary supremacy. (A European foothold even in Iran could bring about a euro-based oil economy; this perhaps explains the puzzling inclusion of Iran in the "axis of evil.")

2:56 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King

William Pepper's exhaustive new book on the conspiracy to kill Martin Luther King Jr

Haven't read it, but it looks essential.
Twenty years after James Earl Ray was convicted, Pepper set out to clear him; in the process, he brought to light reams of evidence that were ignored in the original trial. The key to his case is Loyd Jowers, a bar owner who claims to have disposed of the murder weapon at the request of a local mob figure. Partially on the strength of the Orders to Kill [Pepper's prelude to Act of State] material, Pepper won the support of King's wife and children, who brought Jowers and "unknown co-conspirators" to trial in a civil wrongful death suit in 1999. Dozens of witnesses contributed to a forceful, detailed case that accused the FBI, the CIA, the U.S. military, the Memphis police, and local and national organized crime leaders. After only an hour of deliberation, the jury found for the King family.

1:54 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Mooning over the Nazis and toasting the Crusades

The weird rituals of Yale's Party of the Right [u]

1:38 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Venezuelan coup-plotters attempting insinuation into all sectors; assassination of Chavez key [u]
Salazar suggests that the thesis of physical elimination has gained ground among several young businessmen entrusted with infiltrating the President?s entourage and provoking an internal power struggle that would prepare the ground for political assassination. They also have the mission of playing around with government funds, offering money to key government officials and at the same time, destabilizing important resources obtained through government transactions.

1:31 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

One in three called up for UK military service in Iraq decline or don't show up [u]

That's the largest refusenik rate in British history.

1:16 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Not that anyone cares but. . .

Democracy will be a long time coming in Iraq after the "regime change": for at least 2 years an American general will replace Saddam, and the rest of the government will largely stay the same [a]
This formula sounds to some Iraqi opposition leaders as though much of Iraq's existing power structure, dominated by Hussein's ruling Baath Party, will maintain its role. "Power is being handed, essentially on a platter, to the second echelon of the Baath Party and the [Iraqi] Army officer corps," says Kanan Makiya, an adviser to Mr. Chalabi who discussed postwar Iraq with President Bush on Jan. 10. "It's going to have the opposite effect to what US wants it to have," he adds.
These are apparently soothing words for shrubco's Arab leader friends who are leery of democracy.

1:10 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

As terror psyops crank up in US, AAA alleges price-gouging at the pump

12:30 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Yellow Times silenced [Unknown News & Scoop]

4:29 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Split of opinion in FBI/CIA as well

Tenet & Mueller parrot shrubco on threat of terrorist attack, after dissenting officials weighed in yesterday

3:42 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Didn't know Arizona allowed jurors to ask questions, allowed only in civil cases in Hawaii, Colorado (may include criminal cases soon) & New Jersey

"Five states ban the practice - Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, Nebraska and Minnesota."

3:32 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

"not related directly" to anti-American sentiment

US military presence soon to be drastically reduced in Germany & South Korea

No doubt this administration wants to leave its imprint on any aspect of the US military it can, and would likely have done this anyway. But the fact that there's friction with the governments -- and popular sentiment openly opposing the US -- in these countries is obviously a factor.

It struck me today how deeply the shrubco agenda has already changed the post-Cold War alliance structure.

How deep a hole -- political as well as economic -- will shrubco dig for the US?

3:19 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

"Orange Alert" bogus

FBI & CIA sources claim White House "playing politics"
"In the end, it was a political decision as much as anything else," a White House source admitted Monday evening. "Better to elevate the threat level and have nothing happen than say nothing and get hit by another attack."

1:26 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Tuesday, February 11, 2003

The Bush administration is intent on running national parks and forests just for the profit
We go to national parks for the experience, for the expertise that the interpretive staff and park scientists provide, for the care they take to preserve our common heritage. What will our experiences be like when services, professionalism and even wildlife are managed for profitability?

Can you picture former airport security guards stuffed into Park Service uniforms -- disgruntled, unqualified, and underpaid -- in charge of our national treasures? Will carnival rides be installed next to Old Faithful to augment the income stream?

We may speculate about the future, but this administration's actions over the past two years sets a chilling trend. Despite this administration's claim that they favor local control and public involvement, they consistently undermine, curtail and retract proposals that do not align with industry desires.

Working under the business paradigm, science and common sense are abandoned on the road to fast riches -- not for local communities but for corporate coffers.

12:44 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

One of 3 reasons Blair might want to do a 180
Britain has signed on to the International Criminal Court. Blair and Bush may be able to get away with this dirty war on their feeble excuses now, but some years from now when the true disaster of the war becomes apparent, the world will see what a sham it was. Blair is still a relatively young man, and he will have to spend the rest of his life waiting to be arrested on war crimes charges, charges which a court will probably find quite convincing. Unlike Bush, once Blair is out of power he will lose his protection from the state, and his political enemies will probably be happy to feed him to the wolves. Someone has to tell him he may have to enjoy his shares in Carlyle from a cell in The Hague.
Not bloody likely he's thinking that far ahead though.

10:18 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

US invasion definite even if Saddam leaves [last 2 posts via Antiwar]

10:05 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

CIA vets warn Iraq War "would further widen the divide between the Western and Islamic worlds and increase the incidence of terrorism."
Terrorism, the CIA veterans said, is like malaria. "You don't eliminate malaria by killing the flies. Rather you must drain the swamp. With an invasion of Iraq, the world can expect to be swamped with swamps breeding terrorists. In human terms, your daughters are unlikely to be able to travel abroad in future years without a phalanx of security personnel."

[...]

They observed that the Arab-Israel conflict was among "the root causes not only of terrorism" but also provided Saddam Hussein with an excuse to arm himself.

[...]

They said the last time the United States sent more than 600,000 troops to the Gulf, one of three came back ill -- many with unexplained disorders of the nervous system.

"Today's battlefield is likely to be even more sodden with chemicals and is altogether likely to yield tens of thousands more casualties," they added.

10:01 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Guess Bush just bought stock in duct tape

Americans not scared enough, paying too much attention to logic and economy: shrubco takes action
Q: What are the duct tape and plastic sheeting for?

A: If authorities tell you to stay in your home during a chemical or biological attack, seek shelter in an internal room or basement and turn off all ventilation, including heating and air-conditioning units. Use the plastic and tape to seal off doors and windows. This will help prevent lethal agents from seeping into your home.

Q: Are U.S. officials worried about causing panic?

A: Yes, and they say that they do not mean to scare people with the warnings. They say they just want people to learn how to survive an attack.
rightright.

9:42 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Monday, February 10, 2003

lol

Experts Predict No Windfall From Oil Production in a Post-War Iraq

Oh yeahhhh.

I know -- get American taxpayers to rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure!

For Freedom!

3:22 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

95,000 Bethlehem Steel workers to lose pension benefits as company bellys up

Some will see $6 monthly medical payments spike to $200-$300.
Joe Pancoe, who worked for Bethlehem Steel for 31 years with spray paint and asbestos, said that at 81, he has asthma and a hacking cough, and uses a slew of pills and inhalers to soothe his battered lungs.

"We, the old timers, were part of the industrial revolution. And now, we are part of the medical revolution. We have the emphysemas, we have the cancers. We have everything," he said.

3:16 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

shrubco floating abolishing income tax for consumption tax

I'm sure this is another bone for the investor class, but the fact that it's on the table I find encouraging. I think the income tax should only apply to an income bracket above a livable income level, and the whole stock market scam needs a review (despite Enron et al., this isn't even close to happening).

I'm not against throwing a lot of the way things are done up for review. A progressive consumption tax might be a good idea.

Of course, the things I think should be basic rights for everyone in a civilized country would choke most libertarians, and they have to be paid for somehow. Universal health care, a livable (I mean really livable) minimum wage, the end of drug prohibition, genuinely equal educational opportunities (including a college education that everyone can afford) and citizen oversight of corporations along with a method of accountability that eliminates the hegemony of the corporatocracy.

As I've said before, Kevin Phillips's idea of dissembling the Washington bureaucracy and moving the capital to a western city, and Daniel Lazare's suggestion that the Constitution needs a good going over are essential to making things really change. Also, Steven Hill's ideas on revamping the electoral system.

And how about those voting machines, and who owns them?

12:57 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

Sunday, February 09, 2003

Dartmouth researcher relates 80% of ADHD cases to heavy metal (particularly lead) toxicity (Stratiawire registration required; see here for "Toxins, Brain Chemistry, and Behavior" essay by Roger Masters]
"The horror is that one very frequent pathway is heavy metal neurotoxicity, esp. lead neurotoxicity. This is evident from the work of Dr. William Walsh at Pfeiffer Treatment Center: where ADHD children have high lead levels in blood or hair, Walsh told me that for at least 80% of cases, nutrient based chelation of toxic heavy metals over six months results in the end of symptoms with NO medication (i.e., no Ritalin). If nothing else, evidence that for some individuals, heavy metals can coincide with ADHD symptoms, with chelation and removal of the heavy metal (at least lead) coinciding with an end of symptoms.

[...]

"In this context, relying on quick-fix changes through medications like Ritalin is terrible (it may make parents and teachers feel good and doctors feel powerful, but it?s hard to see why we would prescribe the estimated 11 million children to take Cocaine, so why prescribe a medicine with similar functional effects?)."

9:25 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Open source "significantly challenging" Micro$uck pyramid

6:02 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Authors plagiarised for UK Iraq report mighty pissed off [a]
[Jane's Intelligence reporter Sean Boyne] said: "I don't like to think that anything I wrote has been used for an argument for war. I am concerned because I am against the war."

The other main source was a thesis by post-graduate student, Ibrahim al-Marashi, the US-born son of Iraqis, who lives in California. His research was partly based on documents seized in the 1991 Gulf War.

He said: "This is wholesale deception. How can the British public trust the Government if it is up to these sort of tricks? People will treat any other information they publish with a lot of scepticism from now on."

After the dossier's origins were revealed, Mr Blair was accused by his own MPs of theft and lies. The fiasco has deeply damaged his attempts to win backing for military action.

1:30 PM - [Link] - Comments ()

Aparently genuine democratic election "experiments" -- touted by new Party Chairman Hu Jintao -- could portend Chinese perestroika

3:30 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

West Nile decimates bluejay and crow population in Chicago [Sassafrass]

2:01 AM - [Link] - Comments ()

REVIEWS

from Sassafrass (9/23/02)
"Unconventional viewpoints at 'charging the canvas'

Opinions that will ruffle feathers, from someone who clearly knows their way around information and the blogosphere."

Blog of the Day
1/18/02

WEEKLY QUOTE

In the eyes of posterity it will inevitably seem that, in safeguarding our freedom, we destroyed it; that the vast clandestine apparatus we built up to probe our enemies' resources and intentions only served in the end to confuse our own purposes; that the practice of deceiving others for the good of the state led infallibly to our deceiving ourselves; and that the vast army of intelligence personnel built up to execute these purposes were soon caught up in the web of their own sick fantasies, with disastrous consequences to them and us.

-- Malcolm Muggeridge

Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.

-- Mark Twain

NOT IN OUR NAME
(link to list against Iraq War)

CULTURE LINK

Philip K. Dick

DEEPER NEWS LINK

PR Watch

charging the canvas

The Link Section