By Old Holborn
I was involved in a rather interesting debate yesterday evening with none other than Lee Jasper, ex "advisor" to Ken Livingstone and champion of black only schools and forced reparations for slavery "of his people" by white folk.
The crux of his argument was ...
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Thursday, March 31, 2011
Truth, Propaganda and Media Manipulation
by Global Research
Never before has it been so important to have independent, honest voices and sources of information. We are – as a society – inundated and overwhelmed with a flood of information from a wide array of sources, but these sources of information, by and large, serve the powerful interests and individuals that own them. The main sources of information, for both public and official consumption, include the mainstream media, alternative media, academia and think tanks.
The mainstream media is the most obvious in its inherent bias and manipulation. The mainstream media is owned directly by large multinational corporations, and through their boards of directors are connected with a plethora of other major global corporations and elite interests. An example of these connections can be seen through the board of Time Warner.
Time Warner owns Time Magazine, HBO, Warner Bros., and CNN, among many others. The board of directors includes individuals past or presently affiliated with: the Council on Foreign Relations, the IMF, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Warburg Pincus, Phillip Morris, and AMR Corporation, among many others.
Two of the most “esteemed” sources of news in the U.S. are the New York Times (referred to as “the paper of record”) and the Washington Post. The New York Times has on its board people who are past or presently affiliated with: Schering-Plough International (pharmaceuticals), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chevron Corporation, Wesco Financial Corporation, Kohlberg & Company, The Charles Schwab Corporation, eBay Inc., Xerox, IBM, Ford Motor Company, Eli Lilly & Company, among others. Hardly a bastion of impartiality.
And the same could be said for the Washington Post, which has on its board: ...
Read more
Never before has it been so important to have independent, honest voices and sources of information. We are – as a society – inundated and overwhelmed with a flood of information from a wide array of sources, but these sources of information, by and large, serve the powerful interests and individuals that own them. The main sources of information, for both public and official consumption, include the mainstream media, alternative media, academia and think tanks.
The mainstream media is the most obvious in its inherent bias and manipulation. The mainstream media is owned directly by large multinational corporations, and through their boards of directors are connected with a plethora of other major global corporations and elite interests. An example of these connections can be seen through the board of Time Warner.
Time Warner owns Time Magazine, HBO, Warner Bros., and CNN, among many others. The board of directors includes individuals past or presently affiliated with: the Council on Foreign Relations, the IMF, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Warburg Pincus, Phillip Morris, and AMR Corporation, among many others.
Two of the most “esteemed” sources of news in the U.S. are the New York Times (referred to as “the paper of record”) and the Washington Post. The New York Times has on its board people who are past or presently affiliated with: Schering-Plough International (pharmaceuticals), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chevron Corporation, Wesco Financial Corporation, Kohlberg & Company, The Charles Schwab Corporation, eBay Inc., Xerox, IBM, Ford Motor Company, Eli Lilly & Company, among others. Hardly a bastion of impartiality.
And the same could be said for the Washington Post, which has on its board: ...
Read more
The New Colonialism
By Paul Craig Roberts
What we are observing in Libya is the rebirth of colonialism. Only this time it is not individual European governments competing for empires and resources. The new colonialism operates under the cover of “the world community,” which means NATO and those countries that cooperate with it. NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was once a defense alliance against a possible Soviet invasion of Western Europe. Today NATO provides European troops in behalf of American hegemony.
Washington pursues world hegemony under the guises of selective “humanitarian intervention” and “bringing freedom and democracy to oppressed peoples.” On an opportunistic basis, Washington targets countries for intervention that are not its “international partners.” Caught off guard, perhaps, by popular revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, there are some indications that Washington responded opportunistically and encouraged the uprising in Libya. Khalifa Hifter, a suspected Libyan CIA asset for the last 20 years, has gone back to Libya to head the rebel army.
Read more
What we are observing in Libya is the rebirth of colonialism. Only this time it is not individual European governments competing for empires and resources. The new colonialism operates under the cover of “the world community,” which means NATO and those countries that cooperate with it. NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was once a defense alliance against a possible Soviet invasion of Western Europe. Today NATO provides European troops in behalf of American hegemony.
Washington pursues world hegemony under the guises of selective “humanitarian intervention” and “bringing freedom and democracy to oppressed peoples.” On an opportunistic basis, Washington targets countries for intervention that are not its “international partners.” Caught off guard, perhaps, by popular revolts in Tunisia and Egypt, there are some indications that Washington responded opportunistically and encouraged the uprising in Libya. Khalifa Hifter, a suspected Libyan CIA asset for the last 20 years, has gone back to Libya to head the rebel army.
Read more
The Perils of Pop Sci
"NASA Study Acknowledges Solar Cycle, Not Man, Responsible for Past Warming" is the headline claim of a Daily Tech story. Reading the finer print, however, one learns that a Goddard Space Flight Center report concluded, merely, "that solar variation has made a significant impact on the Earth's climate."
This more specific information does not quite confirm the impression given by the heading that solar variation "Not Man, Responsible for Past Warming," but the article's penultimate paragraph leaves no doubt that the implication of the heading was intended:
This more specific information does not quite confirm the impression given by the heading that solar variation "Not Man, Responsible for Past Warming," but the article's penultimate paragraph leaves no doubt that the implication of the heading was intended:
Is that a cool hybrid, or what?
General Motors says that its new Mi-ray Concept, which debuts at this week's Seoul Motor Show, pays tribute to the sports car heritage at Chevrolet. Specifically, GM points out that the Mi-ray is "small and open" like the 1963 Monza SS, and "light and purposeful" like the 1962 Corvair Super Spyder. ...
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Psst. Don't tell anyone, it's secret: Obama authorizes secret help for Libya rebels
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday. ...
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Koussa, Hess, Lockerbie, Robert Halfon
By Aangirfan
Gaddafi's foreign minister Moussa Koussa - blamed by the CIA for the Lockerbie bombing - is being questioned in a 'secure location' in the UK, following 'pressure from MI6'.
Our old friend Robert Halfon (Rob's Blog), a UK Conservative MP who has tabled parliamentary motions on Lockerbie, said Koussa's arrival in the UK was comparable to that of Hitler's lieutenant, Rudolf Hess, during the Second World War.
(Libyan foreign minister Musa Koussa in UK.)
Robert Halfon's family is Jewish-Italian and Robert's grandfather lived in Libya. (Rob's Blog: My father thinks he shook hands with Gadaffi)
Robert is Political Director of Conservative Friends of Israel.
We assume Rob has done his research on Hess and on Lockerbie ...
Read more
A related posts by Aangirfan: Libya, CIA, Koussa, Hifter
Gaddafi's foreign minister Moussa Koussa - blamed by the CIA for the Lockerbie bombing - is being questioned in a 'secure location' in the UK, following 'pressure from MI6'.
Our old friend Robert Halfon (Rob's Blog), a UK Conservative MP who has tabled parliamentary motions on Lockerbie, said Koussa's arrival in the UK was comparable to that of Hitler's lieutenant, Rudolf Hess, during the Second World War.
(Libyan foreign minister Musa Koussa in UK.)
Robert Halfon's family is Jewish-Italian and Robert's grandfather lived in Libya. (Rob's Blog: My father thinks he shook hands with Gadaffi)
Robert is Political Director of Conservative Friends of Israel.
We assume Rob has done his research on Hess and on Lockerbie ...
Read more
A related posts by Aangirfan: Libya, CIA, Koussa, Hifter
Forty civilians killed in allied air strikes on Tripoli: Vatican official
ROME (Reuters) - At least 40 civilians have been killed in air strikes by Western forces on Tripoli, the top Vatican official in the Libyan capital told a Catholic news agency on Thursday, quoting witnesses.
"The so-called humanitarian raids have killed dozens of civilian victims in some neighborhoods of Tripoli," said Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli.
"I have collected several witness accounts from reliable people. In particular, in the Buslim neighborhood, due to the bombardments, a civilian building collapsed, causing the death of 40 people," he told Fides, the news agency of the Vatican missionary arm.
Read more
"The so-called humanitarian raids have killed dozens of civilian victims in some neighborhoods of Tripoli," said Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli.
"I have collected several witness accounts from reliable people. In particular, in the Buslim neighborhood, due to the bombardments, a civilian building collapsed, causing the death of 40 people," he told Fides, the news agency of the Vatican missionary arm.
Read more
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Libya: Gadhafi's forces adapt to airstrikes, pound rebels
AJDABIYA, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi's ground forces recaptured a strategic oil town Wednesday and moved within striking distance of another major eastern city, nearly reversing the gains rebels made since international airstrikes began. Rebels pleaded for more help ...
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Libya: Obama's Unconstitutional War
By Patrick Buchanan
In ordering air and naval strikes on a country that neither threatened nor attacked the United States, did President Obama commit an impeachable act?
So it would seem. For the framers of the Constitution were precise. The power to declare war is entrusted solely to Congress.
From King William’s War to Queen Anne’s War to King George’s War to the Seven Years’ War, the colonists had had their fill of royal wars. To no principle were they more committed than that the power to declare war must be separate from the power to wage it.
And Obama usurped that power. ...
Read more
In ordering air and naval strikes on a country that neither threatened nor attacked the United States, did President Obama commit an impeachable act?
So it would seem. For the framers of the Constitution were precise. The power to declare war is entrusted solely to Congress.
From King William’s War to Queen Anne’s War to King George’s War to the Seven Years’ War, the colonists had had their fill of royal wars. To no principle were they more committed than that the power to declare war must be separate from the power to wage it.
And Obama usurped that power. ...
Read more
Japan nuke disaster
Japan: Full reactor meltdown in progress: Disaster worse than Chernobyl?
(RT Video Interview with Prof. Chris Busby, member of the EU Committee on Radiation)
Radioactive iodine in Pennsylvania rainwater ten to 30 times Federal drinking water standard
The numbers reported in the rainwater samples in Pennsylvania range from 40-100 picocuries per liter (pCi/L). Although these are levels above the background levels historically reported in these areas, they are still about 25 times below the level that would be of concern. The federal drinking water standard for Iodine-131 is three pCi/L.
(1 pCi produces an average of 2.2 nuclear disintegration per minute.)
(RT Video Interview with Prof. Chris Busby, member of the EU Committee on Radiation)
Radioactive iodine in Pennsylvania rainwater ten to 30 times Federal drinking water standard
The numbers reported in the rainwater samples in Pennsylvania range from 40-100 picocuries per liter (pCi/L). Although these are levels above the background levels historically reported in these areas, they are still about 25 times below the level that would be of concern. The federal drinking water standard for Iodine-131 is three pCi/L.
(1 pCi produces an average of 2.2 nuclear disintegration per minute.)
Libya: Mr. Cameron's Illegal War
By Craig Murray
Wow, we have advanced not one jot from the Blair years. The ludicrous strained interpretations of UN security council resolutions to justify war are a precise throwback to early 2003. Not only is bombing the pro-Gadaffi population of Sirte ahead of the rebel advance apparently necessary to “protect the civilian population”. We now have language so tortured as to become meaningless as Hague tries to claim that Security Council Resolution 1970 imposing an arms embargo, is overridden by a patently non-existent provision in SCR 1973 amending it:
The first phrase is self evidently true from the Resolution. Plainly, if the first phrase is true, the second phrase cannot be true. Indeed it isn’t true – it is a blatant lie by Hague to justify arming the rebels in direct defiance of the UN Security Council.
The negotiating history of a Security Council Resolution is acknowledged by all international authorities as an important factor in interpretation. Lord Goldsmith has testified that ...
Read more
Wow, we have advanced not one jot from the Blair years. The ludicrous strained interpretations of UN security council resolutions to justify war are a precise throwback to early 2003. Not only is bombing the pro-Gadaffi population of Sirte ahead of the rebel advance apparently necessary to “protect the civilian population”. We now have language so tortured as to become meaningless as Hague tries to claim that Security Council Resolution 1970 imposing an arms embargo, is overridden by a patently non-existent provision in SCR 1973 amending it:
Our reading of those resolutions is that the arms embargo applies to the whole of Libya – that it might allow equipment to be given to people purely to defend themselves in certain circumstances in a limited way.
The first phrase is self evidently true from the Resolution. Plainly, if the first phrase is true, the second phrase cannot be true. Indeed it isn’t true – it is a blatant lie by Hague to justify arming the rebels in direct defiance of the UN Security Council.
The negotiating history of a Security Council Resolution is acknowledged by all international authorities as an important factor in interpretation. Lord Goldsmith has testified that ...
Read more
Meantime, in Syria
Libya, says Eric Margolis, in spite of its oil treasures, is strictly a sideshow in the great game of nations. We should be keeping our eyes on highly strategic Syria, a potentially combustible nation of 22.5 million that lies at the very heart of what we call the Mideast.
Read more
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The Perils of Humanitarian Intervention: Telling the Goodies from the Baddies
By Adam Curtis
The idea of "humanitarian intervention" which is behind the decision to attack in Libya is one of the central beliefs of our age.
It divides people. Some see it as a noble, disinterested use of Western power. Others see it as a smokescreen for a latter-day liberal imperialism.
I want to tell the story of how this idea originated and how it has grown up to possess the minds of a generation of liberal men and women in Europe and America.
It is the story of a generation who became disenchanted with traditional power politics. They thought they could leap over the old corrupt structures of power and connect directly with the innocent victims of war around the world.
It was a grand utopian project that began in the mid-60s in Africa and flourished and spread across the world. But in the 1990s it became corrupted by the very thing it was supposed to have transcended - western power politics.
And the idea seemed to have died in horror in a bombing of a hotel in Baghdad in 2003.
What we now see is the return of that dream in a ghostly, half-hearted form - where the confidence and hopes have been replaced by a nervous anxiety.
Read more
The idea of "humanitarian intervention" which is behind the decision to attack in Libya is one of the central beliefs of our age.
It divides people. Some see it as a noble, disinterested use of Western power. Others see it as a smokescreen for a latter-day liberal imperialism.
I want to tell the story of how this idea originated and how it has grown up to possess the minds of a generation of liberal men and women in Europe and America.
It is the story of a generation who became disenchanted with traditional power politics. They thought they could leap over the old corrupt structures of power and connect directly with the innocent victims of war around the world.
It was a grand utopian project that began in the mid-60s in Africa and flourished and spread across the world. But in the 1990s it became corrupted by the very thing it was supposed to have transcended - western power politics.
And the idea seemed to have died in horror in a bombing of a hotel in Baghdad in 2003.
What we now see is the return of that dream in a ghostly, half-hearted form - where the confidence and hopes have been replaced by a nervous anxiety.
Read more
President Obama Bullies PFC Manning
By Sherwood Ross
“If there's one goal of this conference (on bullying),” President Obama told those gathered recently at the White House, “it's to dispel the myth that bullying is just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up. It's not.” In fact, he added, bullying is “not something we have to accept.” The president explained that as a child he had been bullied and so identified with the victims.
All this, of course, is part of the Obama spin op, part of the art of putting a good face on a commander-in-chief of an imperial military machine that is bullying much of the world from 800 foreign bases, that is slaughtering in drone raids the innocent together with those it illegally decides to call guilty, and that is torturing PFC Bradley Manning, perhaps one of the few men in its own military with a conscience having the guts to expose the war machine's criminality. Manning is interrogated twenty times every waking hour, denied virtually all human contact apart from his invasive jailers, denied freedom of movement in his cell, forced to sleep naked and stand naked at morning roll call, and allowed to “exercise” while dragging chains! Not bullying?
“If there's one goal of this conference (on bullying),” President Obama told those gathered recently at the White House, “it's to dispel the myth that bullying is just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up. It's not.” In fact, he added, bullying is “not something we have to accept.” The president explained that as a child he had been bullied and so identified with the victims.
All this, of course, is part of the Obama spin op, part of the art of putting a good face on a commander-in-chief of an imperial military machine that is bullying much of the world from 800 foreign bases, that is slaughtering in drone raids the innocent together with those it illegally decides to call guilty, and that is torturing PFC Bradley Manning, perhaps one of the few men in its own military with a conscience having the guts to expose the war machine's criminality. Manning is interrogated twenty times every waking hour, denied virtually all human contact apart from his invasive jailers, denied freedom of movement in his cell, forced to sleep naked and stand naked at morning roll call, and allowed to “exercise” while dragging chains! Not bullying?
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
March 29, 2011
Why the US Tortures People
Why did the Bush Administration adopt torture on a mass scale in Iraq and elsewhere? According to the recently released notes of a CIA psychologist, the acquisition of information was only a minor part of it. More important, it seems, was inducing compliance, e.g., in obtaining useful false confessions such as those confirming Bush Administration lies.
But there was an additional reason for the obscene practices undertaken at Abu Ghraib and still continued elsewhere. It was to test theories about human exploitation, with the aim of devising techniques for turning victims into willing agents of their captors.
The sexual humiliation of American citizens
The implementation of sexual humiliation and X-irradiation of American air travelers by US Transportation, Security (so-called) Administration presumably represent a practical application of the developing technologies of human exploitation, the better to achieve compliance of the people in the destruction of the American Republic.
Bad news from Fukushima
Workers at Japan Nuke Plant 'Lost the Race' to Save Reactor, Expert Says. More here about the apparent meltdown Fukushima reactor 2.
Truth and decency: the first casualties of war
Former UK Ambassador, Craig Murray has a fine, short sharp piece today on the grotesque hypocrisy of those bombing brown people in Libya for their own good. And, here, for the British Moslem slant: "Democracy Will Bring Oppression," "Gaddafi and All World Leaders are Tyrants" and what I hesitate to endorse, "Shariah Will Dominate the World".
Global temperature: how to the declines were hid
For those interested in the forensic analysis of climate science, a fascinating summary of evidence of data manipulation by the anthropogenic climate warming science community in today's post at Climate Audit.
Canada: Election Campaign Frolics
Canada's national election is off to a brisk start. A couple of days ago, a billboard appeared at the main entrance to the University of Victoria announcing Patrick Hunt, Conservative. Overnight, someone added the words "I fear" before the candidate's name. By next morning the candidate's image had been enhanced by fearsome eyebrows, a Kaiser Wilhelm mustache, and fangs dripping with blood, which cheered my commute to the office greatly. This morning, the candidate's name had been revised from Hunt to, yes, you guessed it. Later, when taking a trip to the bank, I noticed a couple of fellows dismantling the billboard. I wonder what next. Will another candidate take their chances at the same spot? To be continued ....
Gaddafi not beat yet
Gaddafi strikes back. Libyan government tanks and rockets have driven back rebels who attempted an assault on Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte. Opposition fighters fleeing in a panicked scramble pleaded for international airstrikes that never came. Meantime, Obama defends US bombing of brown people. But seven out of ten Brits fear a Libyan quagmire, and Gaddafi accuses the West of a barbaric, Hitlerian, genocidal war against a developing nation.
Bombing Libyans to save them: a report from the ground
Who and what we are bombing today? According to an Open Letter From Russian Doctors In Libya To The President Of The Russian Federation:
... Today, 24 March 2011, NATO aircraft and the U.S. all night and all morning bombed a suburb of Tripoli – Tajhura (where, in particular, is Libya’s Nuclear Research Center). Air Defense and Air Force facilities in Tajhura were destroyed back in the first 2 days of strikes and more active military facilities in the city remained, but today the object of bombing are barracks of the Libyan army, around which are densely populated residential areas, and next to it – the largest in Libya’s Heart Centers. ... Bombs and rockets struck residential houses and fell near the hospital. The glass of the Cardiac Center building was broken, and in the building of the maternity ward for pregnant women with heart disease a wall collapsed and part of the roof. ...
Significant nuclear fallout from Fukushima reaches Western Canada
Iodine-131 from Japans shattered nuclear reactors has now reached the Canadian West coast. "On March 18," the Globe and Mail reports, "the level was zero, but on March 19 it was 9 Bq/l and on March 20 it was 12 Bq/l. On March 25 the level was 11 Bq/l.
"In Japan, a health warning was issued recently when iodine-131 levels reached 210 Bq/l in drinking water. The Japanese standard for iodine-131 in drinking water is 100 Bq/l if the water is to be consumed by an infant, and 300 Bq/l if the water is to be consumed by an adult. ..."
Why did the Bush Administration adopt torture on a mass scale in Iraq and elsewhere? According to the recently released notes of a CIA psychologist, the acquisition of information was only a minor part of it. More important, it seems, was inducing compliance, e.g., in obtaining useful false confessions such as those confirming Bush Administration lies.
But there was an additional reason for the obscene practices undertaken at Abu Ghraib and still continued elsewhere. It was to test theories about human exploitation, with the aim of devising techniques for turning victims into willing agents of their captors.
The sexual humiliation of American citizens
The implementation of sexual humiliation and X-irradiation of American air travelers by US Transportation, Security (so-called) Administration presumably represent a practical application of the developing technologies of human exploitation, the better to achieve compliance of the people in the destruction of the American Republic.
Bad news from Fukushima
Workers at Japan Nuke Plant 'Lost the Race' to Save Reactor, Expert Says. More here about the apparent meltdown Fukushima reactor 2.
Truth and decency: the first casualties of war
Former UK Ambassador, Craig Murray has a fine, short sharp piece today on the grotesque hypocrisy of those bombing brown people in Libya for their own good. And, here, for the British Moslem slant: "Democracy Will Bring Oppression," "Gaddafi and All World Leaders are Tyrants" and what I hesitate to endorse, "Shariah Will Dominate the World".
Global temperature: how to the declines were hid
For those interested in the forensic analysis of climate science, a fascinating summary of evidence of data manipulation by the anthropogenic climate warming science community in today's post at Climate Audit.
Canada: Election Campaign Frolics
Canada's national election is off to a brisk start. A couple of days ago, a billboard appeared at the main entrance to the University of Victoria announcing Patrick Hunt, Conservative. Overnight, someone added the words "I fear" before the candidate's name. By next morning the candidate's image had been enhanced by fearsome eyebrows, a Kaiser Wilhelm mustache, and fangs dripping with blood, which cheered my commute to the office greatly. This morning, the candidate's name had been revised from Hunt to, yes, you guessed it. Later, when taking a trip to the bank, I noticed a couple of fellows dismantling the billboard. I wonder what next. Will another candidate take their chances at the same spot? To be continued ....
Gaddafi not beat yet
Gaddafi strikes back. Libyan government tanks and rockets have driven back rebels who attempted an assault on Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte. Opposition fighters fleeing in a panicked scramble pleaded for international airstrikes that never came. Meantime, Obama defends US bombing of brown people. But seven out of ten Brits fear a Libyan quagmire, and Gaddafi accuses the West of a barbaric, Hitlerian, genocidal war against a developing nation.
Bombing Libyans to save them: a report from the ground
Who and what we are bombing today? According to an Open Letter From Russian Doctors In Libya To The President Of The Russian Federation:
... Today, 24 March 2011, NATO aircraft and the U.S. all night and all morning bombed a suburb of Tripoli – Tajhura (where, in particular, is Libya’s Nuclear Research Center). Air Defense and Air Force facilities in Tajhura were destroyed back in the first 2 days of strikes and more active military facilities in the city remained, but today the object of bombing are barracks of the Libyan army, around which are densely populated residential areas, and next to it – the largest in Libya’s Heart Centers. ... Bombs and rockets struck residential houses and fell near the hospital. The glass of the Cardiac Center building was broken, and in the building of the maternity ward for pregnant women with heart disease a wall collapsed and part of the roof. ...
Significant nuclear fallout from Fukushima reaches Western Canada
Iodine-131 from Japans shattered nuclear reactors has now reached the Canadian West coast. "On March 18," the Globe and Mail reports, "the level was zero, but on March 19 it was 9 Bq/l and on March 20 it was 12 Bq/l. On March 25 the level was 11 Bq/l.
"In Japan, a health warning was issued recently when iodine-131 levels reached 210 Bq/l in drinking water. The Japanese standard for iodine-131 in drinking water is 100 Bq/l if the water is to be consumed by an infant, and 300 Bq/l if the water is to be consumed by an adult. ..."
Monday, March 28, 2011
UK Rejects first ever sensible EU proposal
The UK has rejected proposals from the EU which call for a ban on petrol and diesel cars from city centres by 2050.
The European Commission said phasing out "conventionally fuelled" cars from urban areas would cut reliance on oil and help cut carbon emissions by 60%. ...
The idea that it requires a noisy, pollution-creating, ton-and-a-half mobile living room with leather arm-chairs and a 200-horse-power motor to haul some commuter's arse across town at an average speed of about eight miles an hour is simply insane.
It is time for the developed nations to redesign and rebuild their cities and transportation infrastructure to provide a safer, healthier, more beautiful, and vastly more energy efficient human habitat.
City thoroughfares need to be multi-leveled. A belowground service tunnel should accommodate -- and provide immediate access to -- not only water, gas, electricity, sewers, and telecommunications, but rubbish disposal and parcel delivery services.
March 28, 2011
When Does a Nuclear Disaster End? Never, writes Tony Cartalucci, in an introduction to the BBC's Emmy-winning report on the Chernobyl disaster.
Fortunately, the disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant may prove to be orders of magnitude less catastrophic than Chernobyl, as Jeremy Bernstein explains.
Today, Aangirfan reports on Gladio-style terrorism in Syria.
In Sunday's French local elections, the socialists trounced Sarkozy's ruling party with 36% of the votes versus 18%, and the anti-immigration National Front surged to 11%.
As NATO conducted air raids on Tripoli and Col. Gaddafi's home town of Sirte, Libyan opposition forces claimed major advances, including the capture of two key oil facilities and the occupation of Sirte.
However much Col. Gaddafi would like to kill his own people, it is unlikely that he would do that in either his capital of Tripoli or his home town of Sirte. We can assume, therefore, that NATO bombing of those cities is intended to cripple the war fighting capacity of the Libyan government, thereby paving the way to victory for the rebel forces of Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and others allied against the Government. Thus we are witnessing what has been condemned by Russia as an intervention in a civil war not backed by the U.N. resolution authorizing no-fly zones.
The method of regime change now being employed by NATO was successfully used by the United States in Afghanistan in 2001 where US bombing provided the cover allowing the rebel forces of the Northern Alliance to occupy Kabul and drive the Taliban out of power.
Craig Murray, former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan has just called NATO's war on Libya illegal. A bit late, it seems to me, since I had informed him a couple of days ago that UK Government coalition leaders, Nick Clogg and that very nice Mr. David Cameron, are a couple of effing war criminals. But it is good to see someone with all the baggage of a diplomatic training getting the the point eventually, as probably no other of Her Britanic Majesty's representatives, former or otherwise, have yet done.
Nick Clogg seems to have screwed himself, as according to the Mirror, Public support for the Lib-Dem-Fascist War Party is now down to 10%. Why didn't Clogg break with the Cons over this, precipitate a new election and become PM himself? Is he not very bright, or what? Or perhaps the war was already on the drawing board when the coalition agreement was made.
But as the Mirror report indicates, Clogg is not finished yet, having "ordered strategists to consider dumping the flying bird logo and even changing the party’s name." LOL. I will award one free subscription to the CanSpeccy for the best alternative to the flying bird logo, since off-hand I cannot think what would look best wallowing in deep shit.
When home buyers strike: Garth Turner reports on the market down under.
Fortunately, the disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant may prove to be orders of magnitude less catastrophic than Chernobyl, as Jeremy Bernstein explains.
Today, Aangirfan reports on Gladio-style terrorism in Syria.
In Sunday's French local elections, the socialists trounced Sarkozy's ruling party with 36% of the votes versus 18%, and the anti-immigration National Front surged to 11%.
As NATO conducted air raids on Tripoli and Col. Gaddafi's home town of Sirte, Libyan opposition forces claimed major advances, including the capture of two key oil facilities and the occupation of Sirte.
However much Col. Gaddafi would like to kill his own people, it is unlikely that he would do that in either his capital of Tripoli or his home town of Sirte. We can assume, therefore, that NATO bombing of those cities is intended to cripple the war fighting capacity of the Libyan government, thereby paving the way to victory for the rebel forces of Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and others allied against the Government. Thus we are witnessing what has been condemned by Russia as an intervention in a civil war not backed by the U.N. resolution authorizing no-fly zones.
The method of regime change now being employed by NATO was successfully used by the United States in Afghanistan in 2001 where US bombing provided the cover allowing the rebel forces of the Northern Alliance to occupy Kabul and drive the Taliban out of power.
Craig Murray, former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan has just called NATO's war on Libya illegal. A bit late, it seems to me, since I had informed him a couple of days ago that UK Government coalition leaders, Nick Clogg and that very nice Mr. David Cameron, are a couple of effing war criminals. But it is good to see someone with all the baggage of a diplomatic training getting the the point eventually, as probably no other of Her Britanic Majesty's representatives, former or otherwise, have yet done.
Nick Clogg seems to have screwed himself, as according to the Mirror, Public support for the Lib-Dem-Fascist War Party is now down to 10%. Why didn't Clogg break with the Cons over this, precipitate a new election and become PM himself? Is he not very bright, or what? Or perhaps the war was already on the drawing board when the coalition agreement was made.
But as the Mirror report indicates, Clogg is not finished yet, having "ordered strategists to consider dumping the flying bird logo and even changing the party’s name." LOL. I will award one free subscription to the CanSpeccy for the best alternative to the flying bird logo, since off-hand I cannot think what would look best wallowing in deep shit.
When home buyers strike: Garth Turner reports on the market down under.
Imagine a place where housing’s hopelessly unaffordable. Where it takes six or nine times an annual income to get a home. Where young people, despite their inexperience and lack of money, are dangerously pushed into piles of debt. Where folks are told there’s a shortage of land, in a country that’s mostly empty. Where government has purposefully inflated real estate. Where anyone can flip on TV and see what housing excess did to the middle class in Britain or America. But where everything thinks it’s different.
And it ain’t Canada. Continued here.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Canadian Spectator moving to a new home?
By Alfred Burdett
Maintaining a Web server is something of a chore, beside costing a few pennies a day. The Canadian Spectator is thus contemplating moving here to Google's Blogger, where we have set up shop under title of CanSpeccy, which perhaps better expresses our modest ambition and mildly satirical bent than the august title under which we have operated heretofor.
A dubious advantage of posting with Blogger is that readers will be able to comment on the inadequacy of our humor, logic and information, with the possibility, thereby, of adding in some small measure to the sum total of human understanding.
It remains to be seen, however, whether this arrangement proves satisfactory and for the time being all posts will likely be at the canadianspectator.ca first, though any that strike us as passably coherent and possibly comment-worthy will be posted at the CanSpeccy too.
Maintaining a Web server is something of a chore, beside costing a few pennies a day. The Canadian Spectator is thus contemplating moving here to Google's Blogger, where we have set up shop under title of CanSpeccy, which perhaps better expresses our modest ambition and mildly satirical bent than the august title under which we have operated heretofor.
A dubious advantage of posting with Blogger is that readers will be able to comment on the inadequacy of our humor, logic and information, with the possibility, thereby, of adding in some small measure to the sum total of human understanding.
It remains to be seen, however, whether this arrangement proves satisfactory and for the time being all posts will likely be at the canadianspectator.ca first, though any that strike us as passably coherent and possibly comment-worthy will be posted at the CanSpeccy too.
Our boys bravely bombing Libyan hospitals, three French jets shot down
By Alfred Burdett
We now have evidence of NATO war crimes in Libya.
There is no reason to doubt that these inhumane acts were undertaken deliberately, just as NATO deliberately bombed the Dragisa Misovic hospital in Belgrade and the Grdelica passenger train during the dismemberment of Serbia.
And not a single party in the House of Commons voted against this campaign to save civilians by killing them.
Well at least people should know now not to vote in the upcoming Canadian general election. It's not a good idea to encourage any member of the criminal class.
The bit about three French jets shot down is unconfirmed.
We now have evidence of NATO war crimes in Libya.
There is no reason to doubt that these inhumane acts were undertaken deliberately, just as NATO deliberately bombed the Dragisa Misovic hospital in Belgrade and the Grdelica passenger train during the dismemberment of Serbia.
And not a single party in the House of Commons voted against this campaign to save civilians by killing them.
Well at least people should know now not to vote in the upcoming Canadian general election. It's not a good idea to encourage any member of the criminal class.
The bit about three French jets shot down is unconfirmed.
Britain's dud budget
Craig Murray writes:
Bankers were merely doing what all business people do, maximizing profits. The problem was inadequate regulation that resulted in a bubble economy. Bubbles collapse, and when they do, banks collapse too. Since the bubble was created by government decision to deregulate the financial services industry, it made sense for the government to shoulder the cost of the disaster that followed. The alternative would have been to ruin, among others, bank depositors, something that no government could hope to allow without itself becoming the target of a lynch mob.
The deeper problem faced by managers of western economies is to maintain a position of permanent disequilibrium between their own high wage, high cost markets and the low wage, low cost markets of the emerging Asian giants. The method adopted has been to outsource manufacturing to Asian sweatshops, while attempting to close the resulting trade gap with export of financial services, high-tech weapons systems, and infrastructure projects to oil producers subservient to the NATO powers.
This solution is now failing because, first, the Asians are developing their own financial services industries, and second, the Asians, particularly the Chinese, are offering much better deals than the West can provide on infrastructure development. What's more, the Chinese will soon be selling high-tech weapons systems as well as everything else.
Hence the war for control of Libya's oil and gas wealth. The aim is not to steal it outright, but to ensure that the revenue is recycled in the West, not to China or other low-cost industrial competitors.
The overall Western strategy is failing, as evident from the ten-year recession we've already experienced. The alternatives are (1) the protectionist option of tariffs and state subsidized industrial re-development, or (2) restoring the natural global market equilibrium through massive devaluation of western currencies to bring wages in the West and the East into line. Option 2 is odious to many people because it would reveal what is in fact the case, that the West in not vastly wealthier than the East, even on a per capita basis. However, it would restore full employment and re-establish the incentives that are necessary if the West is to restore its fast dissipating industrial, scientific and technological skills.
...nobody denies that this appalling financial situation was caused by the collapse of the banking sector. Nor does anyone appear to deny that the collapse of the banking sector was caused by a system which hugely rewarded individuals for short term gains on multiple high risk speculative transactions, in a way which made a "Bubble" inevitable.
While the perpetrators -- a whole class of them -- took massive rewards for the short term gains of the complex bubble scheme, they did not get punished by its collapse. ...
Bankers were merely doing what all business people do, maximizing profits. The problem was inadequate regulation that resulted in a bubble economy. Bubbles collapse, and when they do, banks collapse too. Since the bubble was created by government decision to deregulate the financial services industry, it made sense for the government to shoulder the cost of the disaster that followed. The alternative would have been to ruin, among others, bank depositors, something that no government could hope to allow without itself becoming the target of a lynch mob.
The deeper problem faced by managers of western economies is to maintain a position of permanent disequilibrium between their own high wage, high cost markets and the low wage, low cost markets of the emerging Asian giants. The method adopted has been to outsource manufacturing to Asian sweatshops, while attempting to close the resulting trade gap with export of financial services, high-tech weapons systems, and infrastructure projects to oil producers subservient to the NATO powers.
This solution is now failing because, first, the Asians are developing their own financial services industries, and second, the Asians, particularly the Chinese, are offering much better deals than the West can provide on infrastructure development. What's more, the Chinese will soon be selling high-tech weapons systems as well as everything else.
Hence the war for control of Libya's oil and gas wealth. The aim is not to steal it outright, but to ensure that the revenue is recycled in the West, not to China or other low-cost industrial competitors.
The overall Western strategy is failing, as evident from the ten-year recession we've already experienced. The alternatives are (1) the protectionist option of tariffs and state subsidized industrial re-development, or (2) restoring the natural global market equilibrium through massive devaluation of western currencies to bring wages in the West and the East into line. Option 2 is odious to many people because it would reveal what is in fact the case, that the West in not vastly wealthier than the East, even on a per capita basis. However, it would restore full employment and re-establish the incentives that are necessary if the West is to restore its fast dissipating industrial, scientific and technological skills.
Libya: When is regime change not regime change? When it is partition
March 21, 2011: Mr Cameron told MPs that while he still wanted Col. Gaddafi to go, the UN resolution was “limited in scope” and “explicitly does not provide legal authority for action to bring about Gaddafi’s removal from power by military means.
The no fly zone plus “all necessary means” to prevent Gaddafi “from killing his own people” will prevent the Libyan Government from suppressing the separatist rebels in Benghazi. The consequence will be the UN-sanctioned partition of the country between the Eastern state of Cerenaica, most likely under a restored Sennusid monarchy, and a Western state of Tripolitania.
If by chance, Gaddafi and all his sons are killed in the application of “all necessary means,” it would likely hasten acceptance of the division of the country. Cerenaica, which has the oil and gas, would be subservient to Western interests, while Tripolitania, without oil and thus impoverished, would be left to its own devices however regressive its government might prove to be.
Gaddafi prospects thus appear grim. However, as Winston Churchill observed:
The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Antiquated War Offices, weak, incompetent, or arrogant Commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant Fortune, ugly surprises, awful miscalculations — all take their seats at the Council Board on the morrow of a declaration of war. Always remember, however sure you are that you could easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think he also had a chance.
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