America is "finished"

[Laziale]

America is "finished"

No, America is not going away any time soon, but it is indeed finished when you consider what I mean by the word.

What is "finished", is what the vast majority of the world once saw in America. America was seen as a nation of fairness, freedom and opportunity, but that is no longer the case.

What the rest of the world thinks of America should not be taken lightly, as America prospered mostly because it enjoyed massive world wide support, and without that support it can no longer continue to prosper.

What do we see in America these days?

A nation is actually an imaginary thing. There are no real borders, only imagined ones. There are no laws, only imagines ones, there is no government, only an imagined one. When the perception of a nation changes dramatically, so to will the reality of how the nation functions, and in what form it assumes.

America as we once knew it no longer exists in our minds. What we now see is a massively corrupt ideology that has little to do with democracy and freedom, and everything to do with profits, infinite warfare, paranoia and greed over all else.

What has happened to America is happening to many other countries as well, and is a world wide phenomenon.

If we look at the bigger picture of what is going on, I think that "corporatism" is finally finished as the dominant form of governance.

America was once the shining example and proof that corporatism should be considered as the best system of governance possible. That view was always false because corporatism can only function as an ever collapsing pyramid scheme where critical resources are consumed faster then they can be replenished (if at all).

What we see going wrong all around us, are the effects of a pyramid scheme that is collapsing in on itself.

As corporatism continues to fail, those who support and feed from it, will engage in whatever is required to ensure the status quo. We can expect to see more warfare, more corruption and more shifting towards a police state ideology as a means to ensure the survival of corporatism.

Unfortunately for all of us, we live in interesting times, and many of us will resist the shift towards continued restrictions on what little is left of our freedoms.

Corporatism is a dying thought process, but it will not go down easily.

I do think that the world will be a much better place once corporatism is finally gone, but that depends on what kind of ideology takes its place.
http://www.libertyforum.org

[SetteCento]

When i was studying in Los Angeles I met some people telling me some personal stories of illusions that they had about the continent of dreams. Sacrifices they did so at the end they enter or stay in America. But they all turned hating America because America has just Fooled them.

[Neverwinter]

When i was studying in Los Angeles I met some people telling me some personal stories of illusions that they had about the continent of dreams. Sacrifices they did so at the end they enter or stay in America. But they all turned hating America because America has just Fooled them.America was once great my friend. It was before my time and yours. It was before my father's time and my grandfather's time. However, it is no myth. A continent squandered and betrayed. Europe...also betrayed. One day Canada shall join the current USA land mass and we shall have Vinland. We shall transform this dying land into what it should have been.

[Decima Mas]

America was once great my friend. It was before my time and yours. It was before my father's time and my grandfather's time. However, it is no myth. A continent squandered and betrayed. Europe...also betrayed. One day Canada shall join the current USA land mass and we shall have Vinland. We shall transform this dying land into what it should have been.

Fine words of wisdom my dear friend. Indeed both America and Europe have been betrayed by two faced, spineless traitors whose only goal is to enlarge their pockets even at the cost of our children's future. It will be a long struggle to retake what has been lost but it is a struggle that must be fought at all costs.

If we do not prevail, if people do not wake up and smell the coffee, if they do not realise that for all these years they have been taken for a ride then we shall be in dire straights. Unfortunately if this mess goes on any further I shrudder to think what future is awaiting my children.

[Gladiator]

America was what the American dream to every American was as well as to every human being on earth.

Everybody wanted to go and live in the US. Everything American was the it thing. The best education was a degree from a US University.

An American car was the ultimate piece of engineering.

What has happened to all this? All empires fall from within. Bad, lousy corrupt governments.


America hasn't won a war since the Second World War. Just the Panama adventure and Ronald Reagan's Grenada! It was like Gaddafi went and invaded Gozo.
Just look who the Americans voted in for the second time running?:eek: GWB.

[Decima Mas]

Unfortunately it is not an American problem only but also a European one. Both continents are corrupt and corrupt in a bad way. This corruption has led to many losing their jobs, thus burdening heavily on innocent families. My biggest nightmare as stated previously is what awaits my children's future.

[Neverwinter]

Fine words of wisdom my dear friend. Indeed both America and Europe have been betrayed by two faced, spineless traitors whose only goal is to enlarge their pockets even at the cost of our children's future. It will be a long struggle to retake what has been lost but it is a struggle that must be fought at all costs.

If we do not prevail, if people do not wake up and smell the coffee, if they do not realise that for all these years they have been taken for a ride then we shall be in dire straights. Unfortunately if this mess goes on any further I shrudder to think what future is awaiting my children.America in the early days proved that different Europid ethnicities could not only live together and amongst one another in relative peace but that they could actually build a beautiful and powerful nation from the untamed wilderness. America had such potential my Comrades! It makes me melancholy. The potential is still here. Vinland is yearning to be born. North America will undoubtedly become a very important continent for the future IE.

Thank you for your reply Decima Mas.
:)

[Marco Polo]

north america is as vital as europe. as is australia, africa and russia. land masses must be held globally.

[dDragonR]

for once I agree with you fully Marco:D

[Decima Mas]

America in the early days proved that different Europid ethnicities could not only live together and amongst one another in relative peace but that they could actually build a beautiful and powerful nation from the untamed wilderness. America had such potential my Comrades! It makes me melancholy. The potential is still here. Vinland is yearning to be born. North America will undoubtedly become a very important continent for the future IE.

Thank you for your reply Decima Mas.
:)


Correct, my dear friend, although Europeans and Americans may have different traditions the roots of our culture are basically the same. Unfortunately both America and Europe seem to be afflicted by the same disease which is slowly rotting our own traditions and culture: multiculturalism. We must lay thanks to this mess to our politicians and other daydreamers who believe in this cultural suicide.

Hopefully though, a new order shall rise from the ashes and restore our roots and traditions.

[Gladiator]

Unfortunately it is not an American problem only but also a European one. Both continents are corrupt and corrupt in a bad way. This corruption has led to many losing their jobs, thus burdening heavily on innocent families. My biggest nightmare as stated previously is what awaits my children's future.

Your children will have to pay for the father's sins.

[Laziale]

Few of the paper indicators are showing it, but America has been on the long downward slide to serious and lasting depression for years. Amid all the hoopla about outsourcing and unemployment and assorted economic indicators and statistics, one fact keeps getting air-brushed out of the picture: The jobs that are being created are all low-paying service industry jobs. Nobody has any MONEY in their pocket anymore. Americans rack up a massive debt when they’re young. They get mediocre jobs that can barely make the payments and then they buy overpriced new cars and insanely overpriced homes. If they should ever lose their jobs, it’s likely they’ll be buried under a mountain of debt. The dominoes are all set up for a 1929 style crash. The only difference is that the Second Great Depression is going to happen whether we slide gradually into it or we crash dramatically.

http://us.altermedia.info/images/depression_600.jpg
America's First Great Depression

Every dollar earned has a bill with its name on it. The American middle class, for a hundred years the bulwark of the entire capitalist establishment, is disappearing. A new survey shows that in the past three years, median incomes fell for householders under 45. Actual working income fell 8 percent, adjusted for inflation, for those under 35 and 9 percent for those aged 35 to 44.

The numbers fuel longstanding concern about whether younger generations of Americans will be able to foot the bill for the Social Security and Medicare retirement benefits of the Baby Boomers, as well as continue to pay for the massive welfare bureaucracy and a series of disastrous, money-gobbling foreign wars by the neocons who are still in power causing trouble. The new generation of workers simply isn’t earning enough to pay for it all, and at some point the house of cards will inevitably collapse, plunging America into a depression which will make the 1930s look like a picnic. It’s actually been happening for some time. Like the frog in the pot of water who doesn’t notice he’s slowly being boiled alive because the temperature rise is so gradual, we haven’t noticed the fact that we’re becoming terribly impoverished. Instead of some spectacular defining event –like the 1929 stock market crash, this process of slow economic leukemia has been going on for years.

“It’s a scary question,” says Carrie Brown, a young woman who runs a bakery in Boston. She says that for now, at least, she’s not keeping pace. She and her husband have delayed having children until “things get better” economically. They worry about whether the long, dreary, pointless wars in the Mid East will end before their future children reach 18. The fact is that things AREN’T GOING TO GET BETTER. They haven’t actually gotten better in any identifiable sense for a generation.

Her concern is shared by a lot of young White people, who are being tricked and bamboozled by blow-dried talking heads on Fox News and conservative talk radio pundits into blaming “greedy old people” instead of the series of corrupt regimes (including Clinton and both Bushes) who caused all these problems. One often-voiced worry is about “generational fairness in tax burdens” meaning that young workers are being stoked into resentment against old folks.

If America avoided these pointless wars, prevented the flood of illegal aliens and blocked the outsourcing of the last twenty years, it would be trivial to pay old folks their Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and more. But because thirty million Mexicans have flooded into the US and are bankrupting everything from the local school district to the federal government and because Bush Junior has blown 300 billion on the neocon war in Iraq, old people are going to lose out. There just isn’t enough money to pay for all the stupid things the federal government has done or let happen.

Some experts blame America’s problems on “An increasingly competitive global economy,” i.e. the hand-over-fist exportation of American jobs to Guatemala and India and elsewhere in the Third World. This is causing the drop in real income, as well as the presence in this country of huge numbers of illegal Third World immigrants willing to work without benefits for six dollars an hour. General systemic incompetence combined with boundless corporate greed has caused higher education and healthcare costs to soar through the roof. “Changing patterns of family life,” i.e. the destruction of the nuclear family, have forced millions of women into the job market, thus forcing wages down and making it even more difficult for the average man to earn a living wage and support a family.

Personal debt is soaring through the stratosphere. Over the past decade, the volume of federal student loans tripled, reaching $85 billion in new loans last year. Virtually everyone who graduates from college now does so owing tens of thousands of dollars. New laws make it harder than ever to declare bankruptcy.

One news article reports in 2003 “Personal debt excluding mortgages is about $19k per household on average, over half of which is on credit cards, a figure that is triple the statistic of 1990. Nowadays, over 40% (of) US families routinely spend more each year than they earn.”

While it’s true some Americans are fiscally conservative and go through life avoiding debt, they are becoming a smaller minority each year. The younger generation can expect to get tens of thousands of dollars in debt from their college education. Once they pay off that huge amount, they’ll face the highest-priced housing market in US history. A relatively mediocre new car costs close to $20,000. A used car that still has some life in it often costs $10,000. Yuppies who choose to buy a shiny new sports cars or the latest SUV can add $60,000 in debt, not to mention several thousand per year in additional insurance costs. Because of the illegal alien problem, public schools often fill up with Latino children forcing American families to send their children to private schools which cost about 15k per year per child.

All the rising expenses would not be that bad a problem if inflation-adjusted salaries were keeping pace. But they aren’t. New graduates are discovering that major corporations are outsourcing as many of these jobs as possible. The factory jobs at places like Ford and GM that used to provide good pay for skilled machinists without an education are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Only college grads are likely to get good-paying jobs today. Even then, the situation is very hit-or-miss. If you choose the wrong major in college, such as computer science, and Microsoft builds a giant business complex in India employing 50,000 people to outsource those jobs, you just wasted four years of costly education.

The economic betrayal going on today is legendary. There is no light at the end of the tunnel because the tunnel has collapsed due to neglect. Our current crop of politicians are more like pirates than statesmen. They are only interested in what they can loot from the ruins of America before the final collapse. People today are more wage slaves than ever before. America could eventually recover from the outsourcing of our factories and production, but the burden created by thirty million Mexican immigrants is an anchor certain to drag the US economy to the bottom of the ocean. Only a political revolution that addresses these cancerous problems is likely to return America to the prosperity of the 1960s.

http://www.whitecivilrights.com/

[Ulfur Engil]

It is only a matter of time.

[Marco Polo]

americans are nuts. come to think of it most europeans are nuts fullstop.

[Arkon]

Sounds like Malta to me. All the symptons mentioned in the article have their parallel here: debts, disappearing middle class, taxes, badly paid jobs. So if America cannot sustain it for long and will collapse, we will just disintegrate.

[nowhere]

if the US faces a depression.. the economic world would have a huge impact.. a lot of countries are depending on the dollar (and yes.. even malta's LM depends on the dollar) and so the -ve affect would be global.. or so i fear

[Arkon]

if the US faces a depression.. the economic world would have a huge impact.. a lot of countries are depending on the dollar (and yes.. even malta's LM depends on the dollar) and so the -ve affect would be global.. or so i fear

Malta has now joined the ERM and its value depends 100% on the Euro. Nevertheless an American economic colapse will have disatrous effects on the whole global economy. It will unleash unprecedented poverty like there's no tomorrow.

[nowhere]

arkon's r8.. and the Lm dpended on the Sterling, Dollar and Euro (if I'm not mistaken)

[Marco Polo]

an american collapse would trigger a global collapse. i expect wars to follow.

[Neverwinter]

an american collapse would trigger a global collapse. i expect wars to follow.Exactly

[Gladiator]

Sounds like Malta to me. All the symptons mentioned in the article have their parallel here: debts, disappearing middle class, taxes, badly paid jobs. So if America cannot sustain it for long and will collapse, we will just disintegrate.


heheheheh make sure that you will switch the lights off, cause you will be the last to leave house!:D

[umberto]

if america sneezes, the world will catch a cold. someone said.

[Mirko]

if america sneezes, the world will catch a cold. someone said.

sa fejn naf jien l-originali kienet "When France sneezed, Europe cathces a cold"

[Mirko]

kull ma kelli hazin spelling mistake u ittra zejda. imnejjek RosmarK dejjem jidhol jikkoregini :P

[nowhere]

I guess China or Japan would be the next super power.. if America declines (?)

[Neverwinter]

Steele writes excellent articles. Enjoy comrades. - Neverwinter -

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Never Trust a Man with a Comb-Over
by Edgar J. Steele

August 15, 2006

My youngest daughter turned 16 two months ago. I have begun to give her the lowdown about men.

Basic Truths About Men and Women

Such as how men and women cannot just be friends. It isn't in the cards, because of hormones and genetic programming. The character played by Billy Crystal in the movie When Harry Met Sally was absolutely correct when he told Meg Ryan that men "basically want to jump them, too" (that is, have sex with every woman they meet). Sneakiest are the guys who say they want to be friends (especially those whose advance just was rebuffed). There simply is no such thing.

She also needs to understand that men and women respond to each other differently for a reason: Men fundamentally are polygamous and women monogamous because of the genetic imperative driving all of us to reproduce. You see, it takes only a few minutes for a man to transmit his DNA forward (less, in some cases), but a woman requires 9 months at minimum (and more, to ensure survival). That difference has led to the eternal double standard. Men know what I'm talking about, trust me. Men have to work at marital fidelity a great deal harder than do women. The only thing that saves the vast majority of men is lack of opportunity.

Never Trust a Man with a Comb-Over

I'm acquainting my daughter with other important things about men, too, including: Never trust a man with a comb-over. Yes, that self deception in which a balding man deludes himself into thinking that growing his hair out to an incredible length on one side of his head, then simply flinging it over to the other side, will cause others to think it looks as good as it does to himself. For example, take this fellow:

He actually thinks we don't notice that he is bald all the way to the back of his skull. He thinks that, somehow, we will believe he has a normal head of hair. He probably thinks that young girls my daughter's age find him attractive. I assume that a disproportionate number of perverts, child molesters and murderers of women and children have comb-overs - not to imply, heaven forbid, that this particular fellow should be viewed in that light.

Visualize him in the men's room mirror prior to this photograph, carefully patting it all down into place and then, smiling broadly, giving himself the thumbs-up and saying, "All right!!!" I've actually witnessed this routine when such a man didn't realize he had an audience.

I've always thought how singularly strange these guys look when outside, caught in a sudden gust of wind, the whole thing lifts up as a unit, revealing that hair spray had to be used to keep it all in place.

Really, now - would you buy a used car from this man? Seriously - think about it. Someone who thinks he can delude you with something as obvious as a comb-over? He could persuade himself that you might be deceived by anything he said or did, don't you think? Look at those close-set, sneaky eyes. In this picture, you can almost hear him chortling over some poor sucker whom he just fleeced, as he rubs his hands together, Scrooge like. Or, perhaps, he is plotting the abduction of some poor innocent and is considering where to hide the body.

What a Nation's Leadership Says About its Character

Coincidentally, the man with the comb-over pictured above happens to be Ehud Olmert, Israel's current Prime Minister and architect of the genocidal frenzy that has been taking place in both Palestine and Lebanon. Past Israeli Prime Ministers have included self-confessed assassins (Begin) and mass murderers (Sharon) who thought themselves fit to mingle in amongst normal, decent people. That such men are selected to lead should tell you a great deal about Israel.

Not that choosing a boob like Bush to lead America is not just as telling. H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) once observed: "As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

Mencken also said, "The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the greatest liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth." While I would like to think that this is why everybody believes Bush and not people like myself, I suspect that our Zionist pals have more than a little to do with it.

Since we're discussing how a nation's leader reflects his following, I cannot let it pass that the always-perfectly-manicured and -coiffed Tony Blair seems to me to be the penultimate symbol for the American poodle that Britain has become. Cheap shot? I think not.

Just for fun (or not, depending upon your outlook), here is a picture of the cadaverous Michael Chertoff, Jewish head of America's new Gestapo, the Department of Homeland Buffoonery. Chertoff was a prime architect of the Constitution-trumping Patriot Act. Chertoff also, while "serving" as Assistant Attorney General, was personally responsible for allowing countless numbers of Israeli terrorist suspects to flee back to Israel and then quietly killing the related investigations. Did you know that Chertoff is a citizen of Israel, too? Did you know that Chertoff hired KGB and Stasi officials to help him convert America to a full-on police state? Did you know that "Chertoff," literally translated from the native Russian, means "of the devil?" Just asking.

Do You Believe in Coincidence?

The just-announced plot by Muslims to blow up "a great many" airliners in flight from London to America using two-part liquid bombs, including the arrest of one of them, allegedly with the makings in a carry-on bag, happens at a very convenient time, indeed. Convenient for Bush, Blair and Olmert, in fact.

It must be just coincidence that the Bush/Blair poll drop due to the Iraqi fiasco suddenly accelerated into a freefall because of Israel's US-backed and -financed genocidal campaign against Lebanon and Palestine.

Also coincidental: both "leaders" were on vacation at the time and saw no need to rush back to the office to deal with this latest "event."

Another coincidence: One day prior to the latest "terrorist" announcement, pro-war Jewish Neocon (but I repeat myself) Joe Lieberman unexpectedly lost an important primary election to a nobody in an early demonstration of just how the public intends to deal with all pro-war elected officials in the upcoming November congressional election.

Just last week, for the first time, facts disputing the official 9/11 story were broadcast nationally, again and again, in the form of a taped, two-hour panel discussion on C-SPAN. This was a momentous event that garnered a good deal of attention - much more than C-SPAN anticipated, which is why it rebroadcast the program a total of five times during the week, prompting increased discussion in many quarters throughout America. Just coincidence, of course, that such a program got such attention just prior to unveiling of the "liquid bomber" plot.

Nor is C-SPAN the only one suddenly to be disclosing what really happened during 9/11. The official cover-up story about 9/11 fast is unraveling. America's largest church, the Presbyterian Church, just published a book discussing governmental responsibility for 9/11. Yesterday, former CIA official Bill Christison went public with the allegation that "significant parts of the 'official story' put out by the U.S. government and the 9/11 Commission are false." The timing of all this is just coincidental, of course.

In another coincidence, it has become clear that Israel's genocidal campaign in Lebanon went nowhere beyond the massive killing of women and children and destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure. Many outside America's government and its controlled media now are saying that Israel lost this battle, among them a great many Israelis.

After all, it is undisputed that 1500 Hezbollah members fought to a standstill tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers, all of them outfitted with the very best equipment and armaments that American money can buy - including tanks, fighter jets and guided missiles, not to mention white phosphorous and napalm bombs.

Quickly shipped by America and used by Israel in the last hours of fighting before the UN-sponsored cease fire: cluster bombs, which inflict maximum casualties and gruesome injuries when dropped amongst crowds. Ask yourself why America and Israel felt the need, not only to step up the campaign in the fashion that Israel did, once the impending cease fire was announced, but also increase the severity of the carnage thereby being wrought.

What seems lost in all the hoo-ha is the fact that Hezbollah had no part in formulating the cease fire that just took place. No signatures, no withdrawal, no retreat, no surrender, no laying down of arms. Israel needed time to lick its wounds and reformulate strategy because its much-vaunted military unexpectedly ran into a meat grinder. Suddenly, all of the Middle East realizes that Israel is not the undefeatable enemy that so many have thought. You can bet that Israel realizes the fix into which it now has gotten itself.

Israel desperately needed a distraction, not to mention more provocation to get its cannon fodder (your children and mine) in line to finish the fight Israel once again has picked, yet cannot finish by itself. Problem is, both Iraq and Afghanistan now have proven America incapable of finishing this sort of fight, either.

Coincidental, as well: Prime Minister Ehud "Comb-Over" Olmert last week replaced the Israeli commanding general responsible for the Lebanese fiasco, who simply fought Israel's last war, as generals are wont to do. Now Israel quickly needs to figure out how to fight this sort of decentralized and seemingly leaderless but coordinated enemy.

Any bets on how long before the fighting starts again? Odds are that the cease fire doesn't last a month and perhaps not even a week. Arabs soon will figure out that they should press the advantage gained in southern Lebanon, while the Israelis still are disorganized and shuffling generals and, possibly, leaders ... in other words, "Comb-Over" Olmert almost certainly now is on the bubble in Israel, just like all of America's incumbent congressmen. If the Arabs don't start things up again, you can count on Israel to create another deception like the alleged "kidnapping" of its soldiers (they were on Lebanese territory when captured) to justify resumption of its eradication of Arabs - just as soon as Israel figures out how to beat them, that is.

I'll bet it simply is coincidence, too, that the worldwide outcry against Israel reached fever pitch just prior to the current "terror plot." The "liquid bombers" conveniently draw attention away from what obviously is just a lull in a battle in progress. For those disappointed that WWIII apparently has not yet begun in earnest, relax. This is the way that wars are fought when the aggressor starts off by losing battles.

Tell me, do you really believe in coincidence?

Terror Plot du Jour

Bothersome about the latest alleged terror plot:

It took the Brits a week after arresting the perps suddenly to decide the danger required canceling all trans-Atlantic flights and suddenly imposing draconian new restrictions on passengers. Some unnamed officials say they knew about the plot for weeks in advance, if not months, so ask yourself why now? Why not when they first learned of the scheme?

Confiscated liquids and pastes are being tossed into the same barrels, where many containers leak and bottles break. The danger supposedly is in the mixing of two separate liquids, yet there is no problem with mixing them there in the terminal? One has to wonder why those barrels are not handled with anything resembling that necessary for dealing with hazardous materials, as logic dictates.

Some airports are forwarding unopened bottles of perfume and the like to needy institutions (I'm sure that none of it finds its way home with employees, of course), which makes one wonder why they were confiscated in the first place as potentially hazardous materials.

The liquids involved in the alleged bombs - peroxide, acetone and an acid catalyst - are clear, easily detectable and quite different from virtually all the paraphernalia now being confiscated from airline passengers.

The alleged makeshift bombs are difficult to mix, unstable and very weak. The quantities of liquids required to be effective easily can be detected simply by the previous already-too-draconian protocols in place at airport terminals.

Many of the alleged perps do not possess passports, so one has to wonder just how they intended to get aboard the jets the government claims they intended to blow up.

After being informed of the presence on board of someone "suddenly" discovered to be on some government watch list, the pilot of the jet involved was ordered to continue on to Boston, where American officials could snag the perp, search his bags and discover the "bomb" ingredients, then announce the plot. Unexpectedly, the pilot disregarded orders and, instead, turned his plane around and returned to London. Thus, the impact upon Americans largely has been lost. Undoubtedly, the pilot's intransigence explains the one-week delay in announcing the "plot," while officials endeavored to put together another attempt, then decided that world events had overtaken them sufficiently to require its disclosure as is.

In a detailed and highly-plausible article, Alex Jones alleges that the plot actually was hatched to save Blair from behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Prince Charles and others to replace him as Britain's Prime Minister, in precisely the manner by which Blair's replacement of John Major was orchestrated.

Bush and Blair: Proven Liars

Remember the Sears Tower "terror plot" disclosed by a breathless Attorney General Alberto "Torture is OK" Gonzalez a few months ago? Government and its lapdog media terrorized all of America with that one for a while. The FBI busted 7 homeless guys hanging out in a Miami warehouse, studying the Bible (hint: Christians, not Muslims) and calling themselves "soldiers of God," but Gonzalez could never explain exactly why. Not one shred of evidence of a plot was found, no weapons, no bomb-making materials, no nothing. Oh, a couple of the guys "had been to Chicago before." What was relevant, however, was that Bush's poll ratings had been dropping prior to the bogus terror scare. Go here for an on-line video of a segment from Comedy Central's Jon Stewart that hilariously covers all the foregoing points about the Sears Tower "event."

Do you recall last year's "London 7/7" train and bus bombings, supposedly pulled off by members of a Muslim terror cell carrying bombs in backpacks? Eyewitnesses stated that the blast went up through the floors of the trains, which in itself disproves the government story, similar to the OKC false-flag bombs which blew outward from the Murrah Building, not toward the building from where McVeigh's truck supposedly sat. What's more, just like 9/11's malfunctioning airport cameras that filmed no terrorists boarding planes, the London-7/7 on-bus cameras allegedly weren't working, so as to catch the perps in the act. And, just like so many other of these little "terrorist" acts, the government had been running simultaneous exercises concerning the very thing that they claimed was done by Muslims. How coincidental.

Nor should we forget about Bush's bald-faces lies concerning the Al Qaeda connection and Weapons of Mass Destruction that justified his invading and destroying Iraq, thereby losing over 10,000 American soldiers to date (the government admits to only a fraction of them).

Muslims as Victims - of Our Deception

Now, maybe the guy arrested recently really thought he might be able to blow up the plane, unlikely as experts say that would be, given the quantities of materials he is alleged to have had. Maybe, in some misguided way, like Tim McVeigh and the Okalahoma City bombing, he saw himself fighting the good fight. If so, I virtually guarantee you that he was led into it by government agents, just like the first World Trade Center bombing, which history shows that the involved "terrorists" were recruited, organized and provided all necessary materials and equipment, including explosives, by America's own FBI. At minimum, evidence of advance knowledge on the part of government officials of an impending terrorist attack, an attack then allowed to take place, in itself justifies prosecution of those same officials.

Word has filtered down from "unnamed sources" that many at the highest levels of government wanted the perps taken down only after a few planes had been blown out of the sky. What is wrong with this picture? In an honest courtroom, we could get convictions of all government officials with prior knowledge of these events - and not just on conspiracy charges, either.

False Flags Fluttering in History's Breeze

Alex Jones also has posted an instructive article in which he recounts and documents a great number of past "false flag" terror alerts and events later shown to have been government hoaxes or masterminded by government. He describes one operation that particularly stands out as providing the template for the current claims of Blair and Bush:

"Associated Press reports that the dastardly new terror plot is a re-hash of Operation Bojinka - a 1995 plot to blow up 10 Western airliners simultaneously. What they don't report is that its ringleader - Ramzi Youssef - was protected by the US government in 1992. In September of 1992 Youssef entered the US with Ahmad Ajaj. Ajaj's luggage contained documents on how to make bombs and was stuffed with fake passports and ID's. Ajaj was arrested - amazingly, Youssef was released.

"Youssef later masterminded the WTC '93 bombing after FBI agents provided the terrorists with real explosives under cover of a supposed sting operation.

"Ramzi Youssef is a US government agent and his Bojinka plot - supposedly foiled by his intelligence agency bosses - is now being used as the latest monster under the bed to scare US and UK citizens into surrendering what's left of their rights. Isn't it amazing that US government officials claimed ignorance of any Bojinka style plans before 9/11 and yet now they re-hash one for a faux terror alert."

Of course, then there is 9/11, the mother of all false-flag events, for which both the Afghani and Iraqi wars allegedly are being fought, and in which the evidence of Israeli and American government complicity is even more overwhelming than is America's in the case of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Films like Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9-11" and the truly masterful "Loose Change" (which can be downloaded from the preceding URL) do a good job of dislodging one from the notion that box-cutter-wielding Arabs with no real flight training somehow pulled off 9/11.

The official cover-up story about 9/11 fast is unraveling just lately, too, just as I noted earlier in this article.

The FBI certainly wants all of us to forget the first World Trade Center bombing, mentioned above, in which the FBI was caught red handed providing the explosives that were used.

At minimum, Israel is proven to have had advance knowledge of the 1983 Beirut US Marine Corps barracks bombing, yet it did not warn America. Therefore, Israel is complicit in that bombing, as well.

History is rife with far too many false flag events: The Reichstag Fire, Pearl Harbor, Sinking of the Lusitania, for example. Like 9/11, far too many bear Zionist fingerprints of one sort or another.

After all this time and all these "events," you no longer believe in coincidence, do you? Surely, I can be forgiven for simply assuming that this latest plot to terrorize Americans and Brits is just another in a long string of government-sponsored "false-flag" operations. In fact, it was so obvious that something was coming that even I announced at the outset of this month: "9/11 Comes in August this Year," the name of a piece in which I gave many of the reasons why another contrived terror event like this had to happen.

Here's the bottom line when dealing with these events: Always follow the money ... always ask, "Who benefits?" a question that will lead to the truth each and every time.

Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

Our ongoing problem: This past week's two-part liquid plane bomb dog just isn't hunting. The only people buying this event as genuine are those who insist upon believing our government-controlled mainstream media.

Then, of course, despite recent lessons proving that neither Israel nor the U.S. can win these wars against seemingly defenseless Arab countries, the Neocon warmongers still need something to induce the American and British public to get behind the Israeli-dictated attack against Iran, one Middle Eastern country that actually seems capable of defending itself.

"They" will have to up the ante with something even worse, likely something that results in the loss of a great many innocent American and/or British lives. A small price to pay to ensure the political careers of Bush, Blair and Olmert and, of course, the nonstop flow of American money and arms to Israel so that it can kill even more Lebanese women and children. At least, this time the money trail is more than a little obvious. And they have to do it soon, because the American mid-term Congressional elections get ever closer.

In the fullness of time, I wager that, as with 9/11, in addition to elements of both America's and Britain's current criminal regimes, Israel's fingerprints will be detected all over the recent "liquid bomber" plot, not to mention the upcoming disaster that still needs to occur. Don't forget: Never trust a man with a comb-over.

Of course, it is an Israeli company that already is responsible for American airport terminal security, isn't it?

The money. Don't forget to follow the money. Always, the money will lead you straight to the one responsible for a given event - the one who benefits from it.

http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/combover.htm

[Neverwinter]

Nickel Rant:
Liquid Bombers Prove:
"They Hate Our Freedoms!"
by Edgar J. Steele

August 19, 2006

My name is Edgar J. Steele. This is a Nickel Rant.

Muslims were planning to blow up a bunch of jetliners enroute from London to America - or so say George Bush and Tony Blair.

Muslims without tickets.

Muslims without passports.

Muslims without bombs.

Muslims without a clue ... and they aren't the only ones, it turns out. Without a clue, that is.

What kind of bombs? TATP bombs, short for triacetone triperoxide. What's more, Bush and Blair told us that Muslims favor the TATP bomb, mixed on the spot with separate liquids. With that lie, both Bush and Blair foreclosed any possibility that the Muslims involved actually were guilty. With that lie, both Bush and Blair disclosed themselves for the treasonous, lying criminals that they are. Why? Glad you asked.

To Build the Impossible Bomb

You see ... it can't be done. It quite simply cannot be done. Not in any airplane toilet. Not with any resources that might be available aboard any airplane other than Tom Swift's Flying Lab. Not with the time afforded by a Trans-Atlantic flight. And certainly - not by anybody without chemistry lab training and experience - not under the circumstances claimed, anyway.

If Muslims favor TATP bombs - and there is evidence to support the claim that Muslims use TATP bombs - then Muslims who might do so know full well the limitations and hazards inherent to such an explosive. No Muslim in his right mind would attempt what has been claimed, because he would know it can't be done - and, believe me, doing it under any circumstances would require a Muslim in his right mind. At best, the guy simply would kill himself, and do little damage to the plane's toilet. Regardless, nobody would be allowed the opportunity to spend hours in the toilet ... not aboard a jetliner. In a moment, I will prove to you why TATP simply cannot be made aboard jetliners, but first, please be really clear about the significance of that fact: that it conclusively proves Bush and Blair to be lying weasels. Not just dumb. Not just stupid. Lying, treasonous, unforgivable, murdering bastards.

TATP or Not TATP? - That is the Question

A friend with a doctorate in chemistry sent me the following:

"According to the official government story, TATP (triacetone triperoxide) was the explosive these conspirators were planning to manufacture aboard the airliners.

"This story is not plausible for a number of reasons, but let's take a quick look at just enough of the science so as not to provide anybody with a guide to making an actual bomb: TATP is made from hydrogen peroxide solution, acetone and sulfuric acid. The reaction can be carried out with just about any concentration, but is best done with concentrated solutions of both peroxide and acetone.

"The peroxide and acetone can be pre-mixed, but the acid must be added, a drop at a time, to the solution, all the while continuously stirring it and keeping it continuously chilled. This step of the process will take several hours, during which the fumes given off will be substantial and quite overpowering, thus a lab-quality air evacuation system is required. (ES: right here, the whole idea of a TATP bomb becomes ludicrous. Difficult in a lab, but impossible in an airplane due to the environment - the toilet - and the time requirement.)

"One then must let the resulting solution stand for an extended period at temperatures above the freezing point, but definitely below 10 Celsius (50 Fahrenheit). Above 10 Celsius, the TATP does not form; instead, diperoxide forms, which is so unstable it cannot be worked with. The time required for the reaction to go to completion is at least 24 hours and often several days.

"Once the TATP forms, it crystallizes as snowflakes from the solution and must be harvested by filtration and the liquid discarded. The TATP then is dried and carefully stored until needed. It must be stored below 10 Celsius or it converts spontaneously to the unstable diperoxide.

"There is neither the time, the workspace nor the other materials required to make TATP on an airliner. The time required, the temperatures required, the workspace required and the need to dry the chemical prior to use preclude this story being reasonable. This chemical process is much more sensitive than making, for example, nitroglycerin."

The technically proficient reading this will recognize that a necessary step has been omitted and some others have been altered in critical ways. None of these purposeful camouflages alter the ingredients or the time, care and equipment required. Nor will I describe how TATP can be fabricated beforehand and then detonated aboard an airliner in flight. After all, though we want to demonstrate the impossibility of what has been claimed, we don't want anybody actually trying this at home - and there really are some genuine whack jobs out there. After all, we elect some of them to public office.

An excellent (and humorous) on-line discussion by British writer Thomas Greene, also as to why TATP simply cannot be made aboard a plane: "Mass murder in the skies: was the plot feasible?" Mr. Greene agrees with my friend, the PhD in chemistry, and concludes his description of the process of creating TATP with: "So the fabled binary liquid explosive - that is, the sudden mixing of hydrogen peroxide and acetone with sulfuric acid to create a plane-killing explosion, is out of the question."

So it's impossible to make TATP as claimed, yet still they confiscate liquids from us, including sodas and baby formula, not to mention toothpaste and, even, lipsticks? Even if possible to make TATP as claimed, the individual smells of peroxide, acetone and sulfuric acid are obvious enough to preclude people having to be shaken down and terrorized by the airport Gestapo in this fashion. You have to wonder: Just exactly what is going on?

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

Incidentally, British officials often claim that the "London 7/7" train/bus bombings, without any proof whatsoever, were done by Muslims with TATP in their backpacks. Those explosions, per eyewitnesses, came from beneath the floors, where the explosive had to have been placed earlier, then detonated either remotely or via timer. And Blair fed Bush some of the lies he has been caught out in by so many. Need any more proof that Blair is a liar, as well?

Did you know that, with a huge and increasingly restless Muslim population in England, only 12% of all British Muslims arrested on terror charges ever end up being charged with a crime, while only 2% get convicted, almost always of something minor and never of anything related to terrorism? You heard about the arrests, though, didn't you? Why the difference? Because the war on terror quite simply is a war on us, not on Muslims.

In the government's eyes, we are the terrorists. In the memorable words of my buddy, Al: "The Patriot Act - so named because it was designed to find and eliminate Patriots before they expose how corrupt our government has become." Why does government fear us so? What does it know that we do not? In other words, exactly what is it that our government officials intend to do to us, such that they feel the need to create a police state so as to protect themselves from us?

They Hate Our Freedoms

Don't forget: They hate our freedoms. Bush, Blair and the others, that is. Not the Muslims. However, the Muslims are getting downright pissed about our wading into their countries, either directly or via Israel, then killing and maiming everybody in sight and destroying their villages, roads and cities. The Muslims now have every reason to hate us. Honestly - do you really blame them?

One week after 9/11, in a televised speech to Congress, Bush laid down the mantra - his justification for eternal war: "Americans are asking, why do they hate us? ... They hate our freedoms..."

I nearly puked when I first heard Bush say it. I cannot tell you the response it now provokes, else they would come and take me away, for sure.

Just for fun, click here for an excellent video accounting by MSNBC's otherwise lamentable Joe Scarborough on the verbal and mental acuity of our President.

Bush has run out of the sort of lies that "fool all of the people some of the time." Now he is left only with fooling "some of the people all of the time." Regrettably, those people, who believe anything told them by CNN and Fox News, are beyond our reach because, as comedian Ron White likes to say: "You can't fix stupid!" There is a segment of both America and Britain that quite simply will roll along, believing anything that Bush, Blair and their controlled media have to say.

However, now you and I know better, don't we? In fact, most of us no longer believe anything that Bush and Blair tell us. What's more, we now know better than to believe anything Bush and Blair ever did tell us!

Yes, it has become more than clear why there is so much killing all around the world these days. They hate our freedoms. There's only one problem: "They" are you, Mr. Bush ... you and the other members of the blood-thirsty and oil-hungry Zionist regime running America, Britain, Israel and most of the rest of the Western World these days.

You clearly have demonstrated, Mr. Bush, with your appointment of Zionists and incompetent sycophants (all too often, one and the same) into every crack, crevice and cubby of your administration, with your stacking of the courts, with your abandonment of the rule of law, with your purging of the military officer corps, with your shocking misuse of our military enlisted personnel and with your treasonous disdain for the Constitution ... that it is you who hates our freedoms! You sort of told us the truth back in 2001. What you neglected to mention was that you meant your entire administration and the criminal cabal for which you are but a belly-crawling, lickspittle lackey.

You first proved just whom you meant hated our freedoms with your abysmally-misnamed Patriot Act. With the increasing revelations of your involvement in 9/11, still more of us awakened. Torture. Murder. Illegal spying on us. Now, with event after event, lie after lie, there is a huge number of Americans wise to your lying. And our number grows every day!

To Dream the Impossible Dream

Meanwhile, your days are numbered, Mr. Bush. First, we're going to replace every single Congressman, Republican and Democrat alike, who voted you the right to conduct war in our name without a formal declaration - every single Congressman who voted support for Israel's campaign of genocide against innocent civilians in the Middle East. Lieberman was just the first. Then we're going to impeach and convict you, then remove you from office, for the highest crimes ever committed against America by a sitting President. Then, Mr. Bush, you will be handed over to an appropriate tribunal to be tried for your war crimes. Finally, Mr. President, it will be our singular honor and pleasure to witness your being hanged by the neck until you are dead, as judges like to say, for your unspeakable crimes against humanity, both at home and abroad.

Oh ... and, Mr. Bush? May your soul burn in Hell for all of eternity.

My name is Edgar J. Steele. Thanks for listening. Please visit my web site, www.ConspiracyPenPal.com, for other messages just like this one.

http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/rants/theyhate.htm

[etoile noir]

excelent article. thanks for bringing it here neverwinter.

a must read for anyone who wants to know. who wants to see why they waited for hours at departure lounges, why flights were delayed and cancelled. why millions of dollars/pounds were wasted to convince the world that moslem terrorists are going to make bombs using toothpaste, shampoo and matches in the superhuman time of 5 mins locked in the confines of an airplanne loo.

[Marco Polo]

a couple of great articles neverwinter.

i got it confirmed by an industrial chemist that the liquid bombs are a lie.

[Blood Axis]

Brilliant .....Cheers comrade

[Angelfish]

You will find similar brilliant , unbiased and eccellent articles on warfolly.com. I gather that it is a mine of eccellent reference for ngos like Graffiti, AD and similar leftie groups.

[Marco Polo]

You will find similar brilliant , unbiased and eccellent articles on warfolly.com. I gather that it is a mine of eccellent reference for ngos like Graffiti, AD and similar leftie groups.

and that would make them incorrect because they arent parroting the same plattitudes as fox news?

leftist is not always equal to wrong.

one can also find unbiased articles on faithfreedom.org

or we can do as i do and send israel and the muslim world a big middle finger.

i refuse to hate my people (unlike many leftists) and i refuse to die for israel (like zionists send goy to do). I'll stick to what my own mind tells me.

[Angelfish]

There he goes. Mentioning muslims again! You are catching the Daphne bug.
;)

[shadow cup]

excelent article. thanks for bringing it here neverwinter.

a must read for anyone who wants to know. who wants to see why they waited for hours at departure lounges, why flights were delayed and cancelled. why millions of dollars/pounds were wasted to convince the world that moslem terrorists are going to make bombs using toothpaste, shampoo and matches in the superhuman time of 5 mins locked in the confines of an airplanne loo.
Incredible but not completely unsuspected. O_o;;; Are the trials of these persons going to be conducted in public or in some dark secret place for "security" reasons?

I am pleasantly surprised that the twin towers incident and a bunch of other "terror" incidents have not joined the Holaucaust as written history beyond historical dispute.

I wonder... if the twin towers incident were to be officially recognized as the murderous haox that it is... would this mean that such "popular" measures as the patriot act would be withdrawn without having to wait for a trial or referendum on the basis that the first "approval" was based upon lies and treachery?

Would it also mean an impeachment for Bush and hope for the liberation of the Americans? Would it also mean that Israel's infiltration of the country would be weakened?

Out of curiousity... what are the implications of a summarized version of the facts above making it to the papers when the trials begin (if they ever do - Guantanamo comes to mind ~_~)?

[Marco Polo]

There he goes. Mentioning muslims again! You are catching the Daphne bug.
;)

well the only reason your grace stuck her oar in was coz it wasnt a rant and rave on how evil iran is no? ;)

[Neverwinter]

The Axis of Hubris
by Edgar J. Steele

September 1, 2006

"The war in Iraq was conceived by 25 neoconservatives, most of them Jewish, who are pushing President Bush to change the course of history."
--- Ari Shavit, Ha’aretz News Service (Israel) April 5, 2003

"How good bad music and bad reasons sound when we march against an enemy."
--- Nietzsche

"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it."
--- George Orwell

Two days ago, in a speech to the American Legion, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld likened those of us who criticize the Bush regime to Nazi appeasers of seventy years ago. In a rare moment of good sense, Rumsfeld stopped short of calling us traitors.

Three years ago, Rumsfeld made a similar accusation when he suggested that administration critics were aiding American foes.

Why does Rumsfeld keep making these accusations? Because he's the only guy in this Administration who can do so with a straight face. You see, Rumsfeld is the only one in a position of authority with the current regime who is not a certified and proven draft dodger and/or military deserter.

Yet, this past March, in a rare moment of candor, Rumsfeld admitted: "If I were grading, I would say we probably deserve a D or a D-plus as a country as to how well we’re doing in the battle of ideas that’s taking place in the world today. And I’m not going to suggest that it’s easy, but we have not found the formula as a country." It's okay for him to fault America, but I'm a traitor if I do so? What is wrong with this picture?

The Inevitable Consequence of Hubris

Incidentally, am I the only one who considers it the height of hubris for chickenhawk draft dodgers like Bush and Cheney to be prosecuting the endless war foreseen by George Orwell's prescient novel 1984? A war that Bush announced in his 2002 State of the Union address to be prosecuted against the "Axis of Evil?"

Perhaps I should mention in passing that the word "hubris" implies an overweening display of arrogance. My dictionary defines hubris as: "The excessive pride and ambition that usually leads to the downfall of a hero in classical tragedy." It's the "downfall" part of that definition that deserves special attention.

The Iraq Lie

Bush and Blair marched America and Britain into Iraq and we confirmed what those UN inspectors had been saying all along: No weapons of mass destruction. We certified Iraq clean long ago, yet we continue to bombard and kill Iraqis and lose American soldiers in ever-increasing numbers. Why? Because we have so much invested in the war in Iraq, says Bush. In other words, because your kid died there, now mine has to, as well. Tell me, has the entire country gone through the looking glass or is it just me?

Well, here we are, four years later, actually in danger of losing the war in Iraq and losing ground yet again in Afghanistan. We never found Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and we never found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. What's more, America now admits to never having had any evidence linking Iraq to 9/11 or Osama. Nor did bin Laden mastermind 9/11 as initially alleged.

Dr. Kevin Barrett, America's foremost expert on Osama bin Laden, now has certified all those bin Laden tapes we saw on the six-o'clock news to be forgeries, likely fabricated by the very organization that "verified" them before they were released: America's CIA. However, there is one tape that cannot be examined. Shortly after 9/11, bin Laden released a tape in which he denied having anything to do with the 9/11 World Trade Center bombing. The CIA kept us from hearing it, claiming it might contain "secret codes" that might "activate terrorist cells." But it released the other tapes in which bin Laden supposedly claims credit for 9/11 - tapes now proven to be forgeries.

Also of note was a letter released by bin Laden late in 2002, in which he explained in detail why Muslims had declared jihad (holy war) against America and what we must do to end it peacefully.

In an article entitled "The Lie of the Century," Michael Rivero does an excellent job of proving exactly how the American public and Congress were lied into supporting the Iraq war by the Bush and Blair administrations, a war that can be described only as what Mr. Rivero calls it: A "war of conquest."

The 9/11 Lie

A literal mountain of evidence has been developed, with new revelations coming out almost every day, that 9/11 wasn't pulled off by Arabs at all, but rather was an inside job, involving both Israel and elements of America's own government and private sectors. For example, just last week, I learned for the first time that New York's mayor Giuliani had been told that the World Trade Center Towers needed to be dismantled no later than 2007 because of corrosion and that controlled demolitions could not be employed because of the health hazard. Though the twin towers cost 1.2 billion to build, the estimate to dismantle and remove them was ten times that amount! Talk about having a motive to create a diversion which would cover controlled demolition, which could be accomplished for a tiny fraction of the cost of dismantling them!

Now we know why "Lucky Larry" Silverstein bought the leases and insured the towers just weeks prior to their destruction! With that condemnation order pending, nobody in his right mind would buy out the leases unless something akin to "Jewish Lightning" was forecast. For an excellent recap of just some of the evidence that 9/11 was an inside job, see James Patton's excellent article: Seekin that Ol' 911 Truth.

Most disturbing, of course, is the tremendous loss of life sustained when New York's twin towers were taken down via planned, controlled demolition, under cover of the illusion of jetliners causing their collapse. That is the thing that keeps people from believing any of the incredible truths about government that get dismissed as "conspiracy theories," such as the Oklahoma City Bombing, Waco and so many other events that served as turning points for government action and policy changes that otherwise would not have been countenanced by the public.

The Why of Lies

You say that you can't get past the notion that our own government willingly kills its own citizens? Recall, if you will, how the pre-written "Patriot Act" sailed through Congress after 9/11 on a voice vote without being read by a single congressman. Recall, also, how a bare allegation of involvement by Osama bin Laden and Iraq by our intellectually-challenged President served to cause Congress to delegate to him the unbounded ability to declare war whenever and wherever he chooses. Recall "Lucky Larry's" twin insurance payoffs (two towers, donchaknow).

Lies and the lying government officials who tell them. That is the recurring, consistent theme running through all government pronouncements since long before George W. Bush stole his first presidential election. The most recent big lie concerns those phony "liquid bombers" allegedly foiled in London.

"But, why?" you ask. "Why should we even want to invade Iraq and Afghanistan unless they attacked us first?" I previously have explained this at great, even excruciating, length: Because of Israel, of course.

This is not about George Bush. He is as much a puppet to our real rulers, the Council on Foreign Relations, as Britain is a poodle to America. And for the overwhelmingly Jewish CFR, Israel is everything, it seems. George Bush is expendable and infinitely replaceable. Israel needs America more than America needs Israel, which is why George Bush needs Israel more than Israel needs George Bush.

We have "rescued" both Iraq and Afghanistan largely by destroying them, just as we did to Viet Nam in another generation. And, just as we did in Viet Nam, we are losing. So, naturally, what are we about to do? Withdraw? No. Incredibly enough, now we are gearing up to invade Iran, though it appears that we intend to let Israel pick the fight first, due to overwhelming opposition by Americans and Britons.

Israel, of Course!

Israel - you recall it - that sh***y little country whose much-vaunted, numerically-superior military got cut to ribbons by a bunch of Arabs with carbines and RPGs, popping in and out of holes in South Lebanon. Yet another fight picked by Israel that it cannot finish by itself. Over a couple of their soldiers taken prisoner while on Lebanese soil.

In response to the world outcry against the carnage being wrought by Israel in south Lebanon during last month's aggression, and while standing alongside Hillary Clinton at a New York rally, Israel's UN ambassador Dan Gellerman said, "(T)o those countries who claim we are using disproportionate force, I have only this to say: you're damn right we are!" Nor is Gellerman the only Israeli possessed of world-class levels of hubris. For example, there is Israel's current Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, whose presumption I discussed a couple of weeks ago. Israeli racism toward Arabs is endemic, even pandemic.

In a truly breathtaking display of hubris, and before it dawned upon Israel that it was losing to Hezbollah, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon justified the genocide then taking place in Lebanon by saying, "All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah." Mr. Ramon did not address the issue of Israeli jets bombing Lebanese civilians as they attempted to flee to the North, just as instructed by Israeli leaflets.

When it did became clear that it was losing, and losing badly, Israel suddenly decided that a cease fire was in order, something the US refused to demand, contrary to near-unanimous world (and American) opinion. What did Israel learn in South Lebanon? Why, that it needs to kill more Lebanese, of course. That comes next, along with Iranians and more Iraqis. The Israeli eradication of Palestinians, meanwhile, continues unabated.

The Axis of Hubris

I have spoken of American hubris before. And I wrote an extended piece entitled "Holy Holocaust," in which I argued that hubris really should be a Yiddish term, since it is so intertwined with the Jewish group mentality, particularly as manifested by Israel. I have mentioned before that America has become a Jewish country, just as the Arabs believe. Most Americans think I am joking when they hear me say so, but I will dispel that impression when I finish a piece now in progress wherein I make the argument that we Americans essentially have become Jews.

Yesterday, I had "lunch with the boys," so called because I keep trying to talk them into allowing me to record our lunch conversation for broadcast over the Internet. If ever they consent, then you will understand why I think you might find it fascinating to listen in. My buddy Al, who has taught me so much about Jewish hubris, expressed his disbelief that America still might invade Iran, given its experience in Iraq and Israel's recent humiliation in Lebanon. "Ahh," said I, "so, the pupil becomes the teacher at last: Because both countries are Jewish, of course."

If Iraq, Iran and North Korea comprise the "Axis of Evil," then surely America, Britain and Israel qualify as the "Axis of Hubris." "Excessive pride and ambition," don't forget. Oh...and that part about hubris usually leading to one's "downfall." That last part is of particular significance.

Not simply defeat, either: Downfall.

America as Villain

During his speech to the American Legion, mentioned at the outset of this column, Mr. Rumsfeld also asked: "(C)an we really afford to return to the destructive view that America, not the enemy, but America, is the source of the world's troubles? These are central questions of our time, and we must face them honestly." Obviously, he meant it rhetorically, intending to silence those of us, like myself, who might answer with a resounding, "Yes!"

Well, Mr. Rumsfeld, after all, you brought it up.

http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/axis.htm

[Marco Polo]

another great piece by steele.

[Neverwinter]

US housing slump fuels crash fears

Foundering American property market could spark global slowdown worse than dotcom collapse

Heather Stewart, economics correspondent
Sunday August 27, 2006
The Observer

The downturn in the US housing market will force businesses to slash 73,000 jobs a month in the new year and could be more damaging to the world economy than the dotcom crash, economists have warned.

After official figures last week showed that the number of new homes sold in July was 22 per cent lower than a year earlier, while prices were almost flat, fears are mounting that the 'orderly' housing slowdown predicted by the Federal Reserve will become a full-blown crash.

'Things do seem to be getting worse very quickly. Freefall is a strong word, but I think it's the right one to use here,' said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics.

House prices have been rising at unprecedented double-digit rates in recent years, giving homeowners massive windfalls and supporting a wave of investment in new construction. However, the number of unsold new homes is now at a 10-year high.

Ashworth reckons 30 per cent of all the jobs created since the end of the last recession in 2001 - 1.4 million - have been in sectors related to the housing market boom, from construction to DIY stores. As the boom runs out of steam, Capital calculates that 73,000 jobs a month will be lost.

The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged for the first time in 18 meetings earlier this month, as chairman Ben Bernanke weighed the risks of high inflation and the threat to growth from the long-expected housing market crunch.

Stephen Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, predicts that the property slowdown will shave at least 2 percentage points off GDP growth next year, taking the US perilously close to recession, as construction spending plummets and homeowners lose the cushion of extra wealth that comes from rapid price rises.

'For a wealth-dependent US economy, the bursting of another major asset bubble is likely to be a very big deal,' he said, warning that, with US fiscal and trade imbalances now larger than five years ago, the fallout for the rest of the world could be more devastating than the aftermath of the dotcom boom. 'A bursting of the property bubble poses equally serious risks for America's key trading partners and for the rest of an increasingly integrated global economy,' he added.

Anxieties about the fragile US housing sector come as analysts in the UK debate whether this month's rise in interest rates will dent prices here. Property website Hometrack will warn tomorrow that the so-called 'mini-boom' that has buoyed the market in London over the past few months will be snuffed out by higher mortgage costs.

Fionnuala Earley, group economist at Nationwide, said she believed the market could ride out the rate hike, but expects it to slow going into the new year. 'There are supportive factors: buy-to-let figures are strong, and immigration suggests there's going to be tenant demand, and there are property supply constraints,' she said. 'But if the MPC's raising rates, it's a warning shot, and people are going to think again about whether they should move and whether they should stretch themselves.'

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1859024,00.html

[Marco Polo]

US housing slump fuels crash fears

Foundering American property market could spark global slowdown worse than dotcom collapse

Heather Stewart, economics correspondent
Sunday August 27, 2006
The Observer

The downturn in the US housing market will force businesses to slash 73,000 jobs a month in the new year and could be more damaging to the world economy than the dotcom crash, economists have warned.

After official figures last week showed that the number of new homes sold in July was 22 per cent lower than a year earlier, while prices were almost flat, fears are mounting that the 'orderly' housing slowdown predicted by the Federal Reserve will become a full-blown crash.

'Things do seem to be getting worse very quickly. Freefall is a strong word, but I think it's the right one to use here,' said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics.

House prices have been rising at unprecedented double-digit rates in recent years, giving homeowners massive windfalls and supporting a wave of investment in new construction. However, the number of unsold new homes is now at a 10-year high.

Ashworth reckons 30 per cent of all the jobs created since the end of the last recession in 2001 - 1.4 million - have been in sectors related to the housing market boom, from construction to DIY stores. As the boom runs out of steam, Capital calculates that 73,000 jobs a month will be lost.

The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged for the first time in 18 meetings earlier this month, as chairman Ben Bernanke weighed the risks of high inflation and the threat to growth from the long-expected housing market crunch.

Stephen Roach, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, predicts that the property slowdown will shave at least 2 percentage points off GDP growth next year, taking the US perilously close to recession, as construction spending plummets and homeowners lose the cushion of extra wealth that comes from rapid price rises.

'For a wealth-dependent US economy, the bursting of another major asset bubble is likely to be a very big deal,' he said, warning that, with US fiscal and trade imbalances now larger than five years ago, the fallout for the rest of the world could be more devastating than the aftermath of the dotcom boom. 'A bursting of the property bubble poses equally serious risks for America's key trading partners and for the rest of an increasingly integrated global economy,' he added.

Anxieties about the fragile US housing sector come as analysts in the UK debate whether this month's rise in interest rates will dent prices here. Property website Hometrack will warn tomorrow that the so-called 'mini-boom' that has buoyed the market in London over the past few months will be snuffed out by higher mortgage costs.

Fionnuala Earley, group economist at Nationwide, said she believed the market could ride out the rate hike, but expects it to slow going into the new year. 'There are supportive factors: buy-to-let figures are strong, and immigration suggests there's going to be tenant demand, and there are property supply constraints,' she said. 'But if the MPC's raising rates, it's a warning shot, and people are going to think again about whether they should move and whether they should stretch themselves.'

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1859024,00.html

u have more options than we do neverwinter. we can only buy metals. you can arm yourself. if nothing happens you can always sell again later.

[Gladiator]

Perhaps that's when all the Mexicans return home then?

[Marco Polo]

Perhaps that's when all the Mexicans return home then?

the viscious circle! we arrive at a point where although the cancer is killing the country, removal of it will cause massive damage.

[Neverwinter]

How Would Jesus Kill Hugo Chavez?
by Edgar J. Steele

September 10, 2006

"God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East."
--- George W. Bush, 43rd US President and self-professed Christian, to Palestinian PM Abu Mazen, during a meeting in Aqaba, Jordan (early 2003)

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
--- Ann Coulter, pundit and self-professed Christian, This Is War (NRO, 9/13/01)

Occasionally, I speak of my brother, the Southern Baptist. He's a good sport and never has complained. We are a study in contrasts, he and I; each trying to sway the other to his own point of view. I'm going to win. You see, I have God on my side.

Regularly, I receive inquiries from others as to my personal religious beliefs. Always, I have kept my beliefs to myself. Until now. Even so, regular followers of my musings, particularly those who have read my book, Defensive Racism, will find no real surprises here today.

For those who routinely delete anything they receive that smacks of religion, be reassured that, while today's piece is about religion, at least in part, it is not religious. In fact, you might find it of especial interest because I expect to anger a great many so-called Christians.

I was raised around Seventh-Day Adventists. I attended church, Sabbath (not "Sunday") School and summer camps. My cousins all were pretty devout. In my immediate family, only my mother ever was devout in the classical sense, though, later in life, my oldest brother fell under the spell of Southern Baptists.

It could be worse. After all, my brother could have become a snake handler like Bush's last Attorney General, John Ashcroft. Worse, he could have become whatever it is that enables our current Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, offspring of illegal immigrants, somehow to find support in the U.S. Constitution for torture, not to mention anything else that George Bush wants done, most notably the illegal wiretapping of American citizens.

A Spiritual Awakening ... of sorts

The Adventists running the church to which I was taken as a youngster so loved to dwell upon scaring their children witless with the specter of Hell that they managed to scare religion right out of me at a very early age. Even at that age, I could reason well enough to know that there was something fishy about a universe so obviously perverted. After all, I hadn't yet had a chance to do anything wrong. Why, I hadn't even begun to think of becoming a lawyer. Call my realization an epiphany - in every sense of the word, both secular and religious.

Though I didn't know it at the time, I was like the little boy who replied, when asked just what he was so hard at work drawing: "God." Told that nobody knew what God looked like, the little guy redoubled his effort and muttered, "They will in a minute." Seriously. I could have taught the adults in that church a thing or two, even then. Instead, church thereafter became a strictly social thing for me. Until it wasn't - about when my hormones kicked in - which is when I stopped going.

It took another thirteen years or so for me to become spiritually curious again, when I undertook a Masters Degree program in "Mysticism and Comparative Religion." Ultimately, I quit that course of study when I realized that, rather than becoming enlightened, I merely was learning about enlightenment and, in the process, adopting the limitations that religious figures down throughout history had imposed upon themselves. Letting them stand on my shoulders, so to speak. The real meaning of life began to dawn on me.

Revealed: The Meaning of Life

Ever since, I have been on an individual spiritual quest that I expect to endure for the rest of my life. I have settled into a benign tolerance of all different religious points of view that do not attempt to harm me or mine. Because politics and philosophy merely are reflections of that of which religion speaks, my tolerance has extended well afield in those areas, as well. Am I "religious?" Dunno. You be the judge:

I believe in God, just not the sort normally depicted. Of course, God is right in there with me on this because, even in the Bible, He says that we "cannot look upon" Him, a euphemism for our being fundamentally incapable of comprehending much of anything about God.

I believe in an afterlife, just not the sort normally depicted. Eternity quite simply is not the same as "non-time," which is the best way in which I have thought to express it.

I have a clear concept of Hell, just not the sort normally depicted: An eternity (see above) of regret (in contemplation of the harm that I have caused, in other words).

Suffice to say that I am spiritual, more than most, but really clear that the point of life is to ... live, quite simply. All is grist for the mill. Do no harm to others is my foremost precept. Look upon your life as a portrait that you paint, with each day a fresh brush stroke, is another. I could go on at book length and may actually do that someday, but I have other things to write - first and foremost, today's column.

My brother, the Southern Baptist, recently sent me the following email:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is part of an email I received recently:

Goodbye CITGO~ and KANGAROO

Cindy & Chavez

Venezuela Dictator Vows To Bring Down U.S. Government

Venezuela government is sole owner of Citgo gasoline company

Venezuela Dictator Hugo Chavez has vowed to bring down the U.S. government. Chavez, president of Venezuela, told a TV audience : "Enough of imperialist aggression; we must tell the world: down with the U.S. empire. We have to bury imperialism this century." The guest on his television program, beamed across Venezuela, was Cindy Sheehan, the antiwar activist. Chavez recently had as his guest Harry Belafonte, who called President Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world." Chavez is pushing a socialist revolution and has a close alliance with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Regardless of your feelings about the war in Iraq, the issue here is that we have a socialist dictator vowing to bring down the government of the U.S. And he is using our money to achieve his goal! The Venezuela government, run by dictator Chavez, is the sole owner of Citgo gas company. Sales of products at Citgo stations send money back to Chavez to help him in his vow to bring down our government.

Take Action

Please decide that you will not be shopping at Citgo AND Kangaroo stations. Why should U.S. citizens who love freedom be financing a dictator who has vowed to take down our government?

Very important. Please forward this to your friends and family. Most of them don't know that Citgo is owned by the Venezuela government.


YOU CAN VERIFY THIS ON THE CITGO WEB PAGE.
http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO.jsp

---------------------------------------------------------------

Selective Disinformation and Selective Boycotts

Now, I happen to know that, for years, Jews have mounted worldwide Internet campaigns of disinformation and blatant falsification in order to foster support for their causes, particularly Israel, and to vilify those whom they perceive to be their enemies, including myself. After sending my brother the reply that I reproduce in full below, I checked around on this Citgo story and learned that even Snopes, the "Urban Legend" debunking web site, equivocates about it and stops just short of calling it true. That is because the story's thrust quite simply isn't true. Chavez, though quoted out of context correctly, merely is reacting to what America has done to him and his country. And who wouldn't? Nor does Citgo's web site confirm anything except that it is Venezuelan owned, contrary to the impression given by the email I received from my brother.

Yet, now we are supposed to boycott Citgo, thereby disadvantaging far more Americans in its employ than in Chavez' employ.

Here's the real irony of the Citgo boycott campaign: America outlaws boycotting the products of only one country in the world - Israel. And that law is enforced, as Cook Composites and Polymers Company recently found out. Cook was fined $6,000 merely for responding "to a request from a customer in Bahrain...stating that the goods being shipped were not of Israeli origin and did not contain Israeli materials." (North Kansas City company settles charge related to boycott of Israel, Kansas City Star, June 25, 2003)

Our Initial Exchange

Here is the initial reply I made to my brother's forwarded email, which encouraged me to boycott Citgo: "You're not going to like this, but I wish there were Citgo stations around here for us to patronize..."

My brother answered with: "Well, Ed, I'm not surprised at your reaction. Like it or not, this nation is still your nation. Its military forces are protecting your property and your family. I certainly don't like a lot of what our government is doing, but I will support it, because the alternative is not a pleasant one for me." See? I told you he was a good sport, with all that the term implies: fundamentally, quite a good person and the first to admit that he is flawed.

What began as a two-paragraph rebuttal turned into today's column. I have elected to reproduce my full response to my brother the Southern Baptist because it almost immediately became apparent to me that I actually was writing for your benefit, gentle reader... and needed to add only this preface.

------------------------------------------------------------

My Considered Response

Consider me your loyal opponent.

While I disapprove of our (not just your) international policy being dictated by apocalyptic, end-times thinking, I still respect religions...all religions...with the possible exception of Judaism, which arguably is a form of atheism (human secularism) and certainly of racial supremacy (Jewish, of course). Anti-Jew? No. Anti-Judaism? Yes, when its objectives and precepts are imposed upon the rest of us. Anti-Semitic? Whatever that means...frankly, I don't care, which is why I like to respond to such charges with, "That's MR. Anti-Semite to you!"
I object to the current grip that fundamentalist/dispensationalists have upon American foreign policy through Bush and Cheney. Bush, who actually thinks that God talks directly to him, clearly is mad. If God were to talk to anybody it sure wouldn't be a guy responsible for so much bloodshed! Repeatedly, over the years, I have argued against Bush's election and reelection and for his impeachment.

I protest fundamentalist support of foreign war on the one hand and outright condemn its hypocrisy for ignoring the teachings of Christ regarding how one's fellow man is to be treated. I know that I thereby attack the very core of your religious beliefs, but where your religious beliefs impact my safety, my financial situation and my children's future, then I have a stake in just how your beliefs get applied.

The Fundamental Hypocrisy of Fundamentalist Dispensationalism

Quite aside from my belief that, regardless of one's religious disposition, a life led approximately according to the teachings of Jesus Christ is a life lived best, my denunciation of fundamentalist/dispensationalist, war-mongering hypocrisy is a form of prosyletizing right back at fundamentalists, in an attempt to sway their objectives. I merely point out how they violate everything that Christ preached and all that for which He both stood and died.

I fail to understand how those who reject Christ's peacemaking precepts expect somehow to slip into Heaven as a result of the mystical "salvation" granted by His symbolic death. Doesn't Christianity teach that salvation is granted only to those who accept Jesus Christ as his or her personal savior and follow His teachings? How does killing Arabs in any way fit into that fundamental requirement? How is merely standing by and allowing Arabs to be killed with your tax dollars any better? How is cheering on Middle-Eastern internecine warfare, as encouraged and funded by America between Iraq and Iran a few years ago, any better?
I absolutely object to non-defensive violence being done in my name and with my tax money. I have a fundamental right to do that, a right for the exercise of which Bush now labels me as being supportive of terrorism, in an attempt to shut down those who speak out as do I. How does supporting Bush in quelling dissent such as mine square with Jesus Christ's teachings about the pursuit of righteousness, even unto one's own death?

By the way, Hugo Chavez is anything but a "dictator," having twice been democratically elected by his people to the Presidency of Venezuela, the last time overwhelmingly so and currently enjoying an approval rating from his people well above 80%. We - the United States, via our CIA - forcibly removed him from office in 2002 after his last election and installed our own puppet. The Venezuelan people rose up en masse and revolted, forcing Chavez' resumption of his Presidency and thwarting more than one attempt by us - again via the CIA - to assassinate Chavez.

Fundamentalist/dispensationalist Pat Robertson last year publicly demanded that the US assassinate Chavez ! I have trouble imagining Jesus Christ making such a demand. The man who overturned the moneychanger tables in the temple would do something like that Himself, in any event, rather than calling for others to do it for Him.

How Would Jesus Kill Hugo Chavez?

Let's see now ... I wonder - just how would Jesus kill Hugo Chavez? Shotgun? Bazooka? F16? Cruise missile? Atom bomb? Or do you suppose that he might opt for something more personal, something like the traditional dagger, perhaps? Or would he call down natural disasters, plagues and famines for Venezuela, as did Moses upon Egypt's Pharoah - something quite like the droughts and weather disasters now befalling America, perhaps? Or do you suppose that Robertson, et al., just might not be speaking for God?

Do you suppose, perhaps, that God really did mean it when He said: "Thou shalt not kill?"

Do you suppose that Jesus Christ really meant what He preached during the Sermon on the Mount?

Bush - not Chavez - the Real Dictator

Contrast Chavez' election with the fact that it now has been proven, irrevocably and well beyond a reasonable doubt, that Bush literally stole both the 2000 election and the 2004 election with fraud and payoffs. By way of explanation, Major General William Boykin flatly stated: "George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States. He was appointed by God."

Also, consider that Bush, with an approval rating of 33% ( last year's was 34%), still insists upon doing whatever he wishes (actually, what he is told to do by the CFR) and otherwise acts every bit the part of "dictator," classically defined as one who wields absolute power. Bush considers himself above the law on all things, by his own admission, therefore he is a dictator, though he might sophomorically refer to himself as "the decider."

Now, honestly, as between Chavez and Bush, who is the democratically-elected leader and who is the dictator?

Our Real Danger: the Threat from Within

Since you bring it up, my family and property would not now be in peril from without, but for the imperialism of America, not to mention the hubristic and hegemonic demands of Judaism. American fundamentalists are only too eager to carry Israel's water because their leadership (Hagee, Falwell, Robertson, et al.) has been bought and paid for by Israel to support Israel's bloodthirst. Why? Because that support neatly dovetails into the Biblically-described Apocalypse and thereby supposedly hastens the Second Coming. Did you know that Israel gave Falwell a Lear Jet? You blindly follow them and thereby work against the plainly-stated will of God regarding peace and not killing. The Word as delivered by Jesus Christ is even less forgiving.

Do you suppose that Hagee, Falwell and Robertson never read Christ's Sermon on the Mount? Clearly, Christ stated that their sort will be cast aside on Judgment Day: "Not every one that saith unto me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works?' And then will I profess unto them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:21-23)

In fact, aside from the American Jews who have threatened my wife and each of my children and who threaten me almost daily, the only real danger currently presented to my family and my property seems to be from my own government. The fact that 9/11 was an inside job now has gone mainstream, as pointed out by a British newspaper a few days ago: "Around 75 top professors and leading scientists believe the attacks were puppeteered by war mongers in the White House to justify the invasion and the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries." ( "Fury as academics claim 9/11 was 'inside job,'" London Daily Mail, 9/6/06) And recall what the Feds did to members of Randy Weaver's family, who lived just up the road from me, on Ruby Ridge, not to mention the travesty that took place in Waco, Texas.

Here's the Real 9/11 Conspiracy!

Shortly after 9/11 took place, Bush himself stated: "Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th, malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists themselves, away from the guilty." I agree, although you have to ask just why Bush felt compelled to make such an odd statement at a time when virtually all of America was pulling together against those he claimed were responsible.

While today I think Bush is guilty as sin for the World Trade Center tragedy, it long has been well proven that Cheney was involved. Let us not allow Bush, Cheney and company now to delude us into thinking, via their "outrageous conspiracy theories" and "malicious lies," that it was Arabs with boxcutters and almost no flight training (many of whom still are alive, incidentally) who hijacked those jetliners. Never should we allow the finger of blame to point away from Bush, Cheney and their fellow criminals.

Never forget that the ongoing inquiry into 9/11 is a murder investigation - a cold-blooded and heartless murder of 3,000 of our fellow countrymen, committed by those in the highest levels of our own government! Their blood calls out to us from the pavement of New York City, where we helplessly watched so many throw themselves to their deaths from on high. We cannot - we must not - disgrace their memory by failing to bring their real murderers to justice.

When Claiming to Know Means You Really Don't Know

Why do fundamentalist/dispensationalists applaud the current Middle-Eastern genocide, quite aside from the issue of God's prohibition against murder? Do they really believe that they thereby can hasten the "end time?" If true, then they should be fearful, not joyful, concerning its imminence. I do recall the Bible saying that "No man shall know" the time of Christ's second coming (John 7:1), so it seems to me to be singularly presumptuous of them not only to think that they know when, but also to believe that they actually can make it happen sooner.

I also seem to recall the Bible saying that the masses will be deceived by a false Messiah and that a great many self-professed Christians will fall under his spell, "led astray" by "their shepherds." Look around yourself. I'm in the minority on this Middle-Eastern issue, not you. No, the Messiah is not yet come (if ever He will come, that is), but a great many fundamentalists certainly are being prepositioned to follow the AntiChrist, if I read the Bible correctly.

And fundamentalists certainly seem to me to be supporting some singularly un-Christ-like behavior. For another example, Christ preached, during His Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9) Certainly, our current government and its ardent supporters are a great many things, but "peacemaker" is not among them. Supporting Israeli genocide and advocating the assassination of foreign leaders runs directly counter to the concept of peacemaker. That is more than apparent, isn't it?

A Special Place in Hell

Recall what Christ ultimately has in mind for those who work against the will of God, yet point to their own righteousness and good works, just as I quoted above. Personally, I believe that, if there really is a Hell, then there is an especially horrible part of it reserved for the likes of Hagee, Robertson and Falwell. Particularly so, if Hell is anything like I believe it to be (that "eternity of regret" I mentioned earlier).

Now, I don't want to go all weak-kneed on you with this, but I and others like myself, including members of my own family, suffer mightily for our beliefs and for speaking out in support of that which we know in our hearts to be right. I like to think that we were spoken of by Christ during His Sermon on the Mount when He said, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:10)

Am I My Brother's Keeper?

There is room in my world for you and your beliefs. The problem is that there seems no room in your world for me and mine because your faith demands that war be made in my name and that others' blood be splashed upon my hands. Quite literally, your world is about to demand that my son go and kill others in our name. That I cannot allow.

Therefore, I must do all that I can to stop what now is taking place.

I must speak out like this.

I must throw fundamentalist preachments back at you.

Oddly enough, I must attempt to convert you to the very Christianity that you profess, yet which to my eye you reject.

I am, after all, my brother's keeper.

http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/chavez.htm

[Neverwinter]

Converting the Brainwashed
by Edgar J. Steele

September 24, 2006

"Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance."
--- Samuel Johnson (English poet, critic and writer, 1709-1784)

Note: The following article appears in the current (Sep/Oct 2006) edition of The Barnes Review under the title, "Conversing with the Politically Correct."

Tired of being the odd one at family gatherings?

Sick of friends who apologize for you to others by prewarning them that you are a “white supremacist” or a “racist?”

Having trouble meeting girls?

If married, do you have the sense that your wife slowly is slipping away? That your children are vaguely ashamed of you?

Tired of being angry and upset about any or all of the foregoing, but unwilling to “go over to the other side?” Get in line.

The good news is that you have lots of company. The bad news is that you keep shooting yourself in your foot. I’ve been there. I know.

Today, I have a healthy and robust family life with a wife of twenty-one years who respects my opinions and even shares a great many of them. My kids are proud of me, despite occasionally being tarred with the brush that regularly is used on me. We all are plugged into normal society, with normal friends (in my case, all things are relative, of course), normal interests and normal pastimes. We all love each other – a lot. I’m a lucky guy, for these are the things that really matter. But – is it really just luck?

Often, I remark to my children that the world is full of morons, a phrase that has become a mantra for us and turned into one of our longest-running family jokes. But it isn’t really a joke – not in the sense that I mean it.

It is simply amazing how stupid everyone can seem to be, isn’t it? Even close friends and family members can seem like empty-headed dolts when politically-incorrect concepts come up. It is a powerful urge to take them straight on and overwhelm them with the sheer strength of your logic, so that is just what you do. And, every single time, you end up dusted, muttering to yourself about how the world is full of morons. Does any of this ring a bell for you?

There’s an old joke that goes: “I can win any argument, just ask any of a number of my ex friends!” What? You’re not laughing?

Well, listen up. There is hope.

Dare to Be Normal

One of my closest friends brought me up short one day long ago when, in response to my chiding him for moving into one of those vast, rambling plastic apartment complexes: “Eddie,” he said, “character is something that comes from within. We don’t wear it and we can’t live in it.” When you hear a fundamental truth like that, it validates itself with an internal ring of authenticity, doesn’t it? Some things simply do not require proof.

Just look at so many teenagers and young adults, yet to discover their own inherent character (or lack of it) - putting on odd clothes and hairstyles in an attempt to distinguish themselves from their parents and teachers. Body Piercing. Tattoos. Profanity. Anything to be different, it seems. Anything to be an individual. Anything to have character. They haven’t learned what my friend so effortlessly knew by instinct.

In fact, their odd appearance and demeanor gets in the way of getting along with the rest of us, doesn’t it? Consider – why would it be any different for you?

Dare to be normal. Look and act like everyone else and they will assume you are one of them. You are, you know. There is very little difference among us, when all is said and done. Go along to get along. No, not ideologically, though moderation might serve you better than extremism in that arena, as well. If you truly want to persuade others, then be as acceptable to them as possible, so that you can get close enough to plant those seeds of dissent into their psyches.

Go for the Easy Kill First

Because we all are pretty much the same (even liberals, believe it or not), our pushable buttons all are in the same places. Choose your points of entry with care when approaching others on politically-incorrect topics, to ensure you get initial agreement and acceptance. Once you have gotten someone to say yes a few times, it is much easier to keep them saying it.

Even liberals have strong feelings about unfairness. Consider just how unfair are things like affirmative action, hiring/school admission quotas, slave reparations and the like. Go for the easy kill first. You’ll be surprised at how easy the more difficult kill becomes after you have gotten them saying yes. Getting someone to voice displeasure with their kids’ education being crap because half their classmates belong in remedial institutions is a big step toward getting them to see what’s wrong with unlimited immigration, miscegenation and "no child left behind."

Listen

Ever notice how you seem to develop your thinking and your positions while you are busy talking? We all do that. Employ that fact as your main strategy. Get the other person talking and keep them talking. Get them to say what you want to say so that they actually end up defending their new-found position against your devil’s advocate questioning.

We all love to talk. We all love to be listened to. What is your objective, after all – stroking your own ego or persuading others? Listen. It’s easy. It is the basic strategy of true persuasion.

Nudge Them into Position

Persuading another can be likened to a tugboat guiding an ocean liner into her berth: you must apply constant pressure, pressure which barely is felt by the other. Otherwise, you create your own opposition and force them to defend (and, often, adopt) a position contrary to the very one to which you seek to bring them. You know what I’m talking about because you’ve done it far too often, haven’t you?

The primary technique employed in the strategy of persuasive listening is to ask leading questions - questions which suggest the very answer you seek. Questions to which you already know the answer. Questions which you know the other person will answer in a certain way, thereby taking the first steps down a path you have charted. Make it topical, if possible, so that the other person has some knowledge but has yet to harden into a position about the subject. For example: "Hey, did you catch the Academy Awards? Did you see Mel Gibson’s 'The Passion of the Christ?' What happened?"

A second technique is to share some compelling and honest portion of yourself, thereby forging a bond of intimacy and trust which compels the other person to respond in kind: "I feel like I’ve let my son down, somehow, simply because I can’t afford to send him to my alma mater, due to the amount of out-of-state tuition they want. Did you know that illegal aliens get that requirement waived?"

Ask the leading question or share yourself succinctly, then stand back. You will be amazed at the results.

Overcoming Objections

Sales people talk about handling a prospect’s “considerations,” enroute to closing a deal. Consideration: "This car’s pretty old." Response: "Yeah, but she sure does run well. They don’t make them like this any more, you know."

You will have to do the same. Consideration: "I take people individually, one at a time." Response: "Society doesn’t, you know. It passes out favors to whole groups – and we’re not in any of them." Or: "When was the last time you had the favor returned by any of them?" Or: "Is it simply coincidental that Blacks are fifty times more likely to commit violent crimes than Whites? Fifty times! Do you believe in coincidence? There’s something more fundamental than social or economic injustice going on there."

Bread on the Water

Don’t look for on-the-spot conversions. You won’t get them. But, that doesn’t mean you haven’t made a difference. Everything you say goes into the hopper. The more credibility you have with another, the more weight they accord to what you say.

People are kind of like a balance scale: Keep adding weight to the light side until, all at once, it suddenly swings into a different position.

Be satisfied that you were heard. Be there when they come back for more.

New America. An idea whose time has come.

http://www.conspiracypenpal.com/columns/convert.htm

[Neverwinter]

America is living beyond its means

China and India will be calling the shots when the US is no longer top dollar

Larry Elliott, economics editor
Monday October 2, 2006
The Guardian

It's 2056. After a coup in Saudi Arabia, the new government announces it is cutting off supplies of its dwindling stock of oil to the United States. The White House responds by sending in the troops, but is forced to withdraw after Beijing says it will only continue shoring up the dollar if the military action is called off.

Marking the 100th anniversary of Suez, the Americans have no choice but to comply. Fanciful? Ludicrous? Certainly, that would have been the reaction of the traders on Wall Street who last week sent the Dow Jones industrial average to within a whisker of its all-time high. But even if the US can avoid a hard landing in the short term, as equity dealers believe it can, the medium and long-term risks to the economy remain.

Article continues
Optimism seems to be inspired by falling oil prices and the expectation that the next move in interest rates from the Federal Reserve will be down. It is an optimism not shared by the bond market, which is sending out clear warnings of impending recession. It is possible those who have pushed the Dow back well over 11,000 points have got it right. Many economists believe, however, that the equity market has got it wrong. They can hear the sound of fluttering wings as the chickens come home to roost.

Stephen King, chief economist at HSBC, has downgraded his forecast of US growth next year to 1.9%, and believes that by the end of 2007 the economy will be expanding at only just over 1% a year. That, by US standards, is very slow growth and would certainly lead to a sharp jump in unemployment. The Fed would be cutting rates by this time next year in an attempt to get the economy going again. It may not be that simple. For one thing, the downturn in the housing market looks like it has a lot further to run. Activity and prices may continue falling for another year, and with US consumers already drowning in a sea of debt it's not obvious that they will be prepared to load up on any extra borrowing, whatever the level of interest rates. And the wisdom of curing the hangover from one bubble by another binge has to be questioned.

Consumers have been using their homes like ATMs - borrowing against rising prices - but this cannot go on forever. The US economy needs quite a prolonged period in which consumer spending grows more slowly than the economy: that is the only way that the trade deficit is going to be reduced. There are those who say that the trade deficit is not a problem for the US. They argue that it is perfectly sustainable to run sizeable deficits in perpetuity because the dollar's status as a reserve currency means that there will always be demand for US assets. But there are two points here. First, running a permanent trade deficit affects the structure of your economy. It means fewer manufacturing jobs where productivity tends to be higher and more jobs in the service sector, where productivity tends to be lower.

The US has struck a Faustian bargain with its trading partners, particularly China, responsible for about one third of the $700bn-plus trade total last year. As the American economist Tom Palley puts it: "US consumers get lots of cheap goods in return for which they give over paper IOUs that cost less to print. Meanwhile, China creates millions of jobs and builds modern factories that are transforming it into an industrial superpower, and it also accumulates billions of dollars in financial claims against the US. From this perspective, trade deficits don't matter because there are no limits to either government or private borrowing, and because manufacturing doesn't matter either." The logic of this, Palley notes drily, is that the US would benefit even further if China devalued its exchange rate and ran a larger trade surplus. The second point is potentially much more explosive: it is the one sketched out in the crystal ball gazing at the top of this piece. What would happen if, as a result of global developments over the coming decades, the dollar ceased to be the reserve currency of choice. This was a point raised by Avinash Persaud, one of the financial sector's more original thinkers, in a recent lecture in New York. Persaud's argument is as follows.

Throughout history, there has always tended to be one dominant reserve currency along with a host of lesser rivals. In the 19th century Britain was the pre-eminent economy and sterling was the main reserve currency. Yet currencies don't retain their dominance forever; part of Britain's problem at the time of Suez was that it was struggling to adjust to a world in which it was no longer the top-dog currency but the creditors came knocking at the door asking for their cheques to be cashed. The US is living beyond its means, hoping that nobody cashes the cheques it has been merrily writing as the current account has gone deeper into the red. That's the advantage of being a reserve currency, even though, as Persaud notes, there is no rule which says that you have to run current account deficits simply because you are a reserve currency.

Britain didn't a century ago. In the decade or so up to the first world war it had a trade surplus of 5% of GDP. "That is a mirror image of the US today. The UK was in surplus by as much as the US is in deficit." That deficit has enabled the Chinese to build up their industrial strength at a rapid rate, so much so that it is probable that China - and perhaps India - will have overtaken the US as the world's largest economy (on a purchasing power parity basis, at least) by 2050. Persaud thinks that the upshot of this will be that in the next few decades the dollar will start to lose its reserve status just as sterling did in the last century. "In the case of sterling's loss of reserve status, world war one and two accelerated a process that had begun more slowly before and ended abruptly with debt and inflation."

Today the process is also being accelerated - by wars where the end is as elusive as the enemy and by a consumerism built on a property bubble. Perhaps we will not have to wait until 2050. In my lifetime, the dollar will start to lose its reserve currency status, not to the euro but to the renminbi or the rupee. This would clearly have massive economic and geopolitical consequences. As Persaud rightly says: "If it was economically and politically painful for the UK, even though its international financial position did not begin from a position of heavy deficit, what will it be like for the US which has become the world's largest debtor. There will be an avalanche of cheques coming home to be paid when the dollar begins to lose its status."

And this "avalanche of cheques" is likely to make for the most horrendous geo-political tension. The idea that the US will give up global financial hegemony without a fight seems fanciful in the extreme.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,1885483,00.html

[dust commander]

Question!Which is the greatest threat to the US?A 'nuclear' Iran or an Iranian oil bourse trading in Euros?

Answer: none of the above. The greatest threat to the US is the democratic party of hillary and whiskey ted.

[dust commander]

How would the above two affect in the future the dollar ceasing to be the 'reserve currency of choice"?

Coz they will turn the US into a wimpy nation a la Jimmah Carter, and the world will not have any respect for anything involving the US.
Sepp, before the greenback ceases to be the rcoc me and you will be up there in that great battlefield in the sky. Hopefully on the same side.;)

[Marco Polo]

it is unlikely we will see china as the leading power unless europe makes a complete mess of things.

[Neverwinter]

October 10, 2006
On Borrowed Time (and Money)
Lost Wars and a Lost Economy

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

President Bush and his neocon flaks have simultaneously lost two wars and America's economic future.

Last Friday's payroll jobs report was a continuation of Bush's dismal record. Only 59,000 net new private sector jobs were created during September. That is about 90,000 less than would be needed to stay even with population growth. Like all jobs that the US economy has created in the 21st century, the September jobs are in domestic services.

Waitresses and bar tenders accounted for a quarter of the new jobs.
The remainder were in health care and social assistance, wholesale trade and transportation, financial activities, and accounting and bookkeeping services.

US manufacturing lost another 19,000 jobs. Since Bush took office, the US has lost 3 million manufacturing jobs.

Charles McMillion of MBG Information Services in Washington DC notes that the growth of total hours worked over the current "recovery" is less than half the average rate of all previous recoveries and is the worst performance on record. Due to offshoring, manufacturing hours worked have declined 6.6% since the recovery began in November 2001.

It has been years since the US economy has created high-productivity, high-paying jobs in export and import-competitive sectors. The US manufacturing trade deficit is now twice the size of the oil import bill. The years of deficits have destroyed America's creditor status in the balance of payments. At the beginning of this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that for the first time in 90 years, the US is now paying noticeably more to foreign creditors than it receives from its investments abroad."

Jobs offshoring and work visas for foreigners are dismantling the ladders of upward mobility that made America an opportunity society for American citizens. In the 21st century, real income growth has been limited to a few at the top, while median family income stagnates or decl