Archive for June, 2007

Somthing Kennedy Said

Saturday, June 30th, 2007

“The very word secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society. And we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, the secret oaths, and secret proceedings. We are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covet means for expanding its fear of influence. On infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of election, on intimidation instead of free choice. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific, and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no secret is revealed. The Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed ‘it is a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy’. I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. Confident that with your help, man will be what he was born to be, free and independent.”

– JFK

– JFK may have thought he was talking about the Communists and their methods. But I think we can view his words in quite a different light these days.

– thx to Lisa G. for this quote.

070628 – Thursday – Missing

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

I’ve not been posting lately. I’m in a deep rethink on several subjects:

– idealism vs. pragmatism
– focusing on the dark side vs. the light

I’ve not come to the bottom of it yet but I think they’ll be some changes to samadhisoft’s focus in the future.

Great doubt, great awakening.
Little doubt, little awakening.
No doubt, no awakening.

– Zen Koan

U.S. Corporations and Terrorism

Monday, June 18th, 2007

Kyle de Beausset, of Immigration Orange, has been Blogging on an issue that has to do with the recent revelation that the Chiquita Brands International company paid 1.7 million dollars to right-wing paramilitaries (a designated global terrorist group) for eight years in Colombia to protect their interests and their personnel. And, there are other American companies who’ve allegedly done the same thing including Drummond (coal giant), Nestle and Coca-Cola.

Kyle’s post on this references a story in the Christian Science Monitor which details Chiquita’s admission of the payments. Kyle has asked other Bloggers to post on this as well because the story has been getting virtually zero traction in the U.S. popular press. In fact, the silence in the main stream media, as they say, has been deafening.

I strongly agree with Kyle on this issue. I think it is wrong for US companies to pay terrorist groups for protection.

Perhaps these companies get ‘protected’ for their money but along the way they are also putting big dollars into the hands of these groups. And that can only strengthen the ability of the groups to implement their agendas – and let’s be clear, these are terrorist agendas.

I hope people will follow these links and familiarize themselves with this seriously under-reported story. And, I admire Kyle for taking this issue on.

070617 – Poem – Pythia’s traces

Sunday, June 17th, 2007


What prevents your witness of this place
   but the urges of your blood and all the drama that follows?

Here where the sun pours liquid, you pass by in a vision
   captured by nature's dream of fitness and the raging of genes.

In and out of the still point you turn like dream warriors
   reflected in your inner eye and in the stories you tell yourselves.

But past the end of the dance something waits still and serene
   the quite moment when your water's been poured
      but hasn't yet run down to the sea.

Here, there is no dance, no counterpoint, no singing in the wires
   just a moment of freedom to commune with the sun's blessing
      and to witness the rise and fall of the fields of flowers.

Time to see the dance and the singing as if for the first time
   without the urge to spill yourself.
A time to witness the children's faces smiling new at that same beauty,
   before they begin, that you see, now that you are done.

The puppy at play, the gentle wind in the grass, the light that can shine
  from an eye with love - be it animal, child or man.
That sweet blessing behind the play of forms, that beneficent something
   that embraces all of this coming and going, all the mystery and beauty.

Oh, Beloved, carry my sweet Pythia away into your light,
   and blessed One, whisper to her her softly how well she was loved.

gallagher
   17 Jun 07

				

070616 – Saturday – to dip a finger into the river of insanity

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

So, I read that 2007 is shaping up to be the hotest year ever and then a bit later I read that the Southern Baptists here in the US (16 million members) have voted that they, as a group, “question the prevailing scientific belief that humans are largely to blame for the [global warming] phenomenon.”

– research thx to Climate Progress

Are global market bubbles set to blow?

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

– One of the contributing factors in the Perfect Storm hypothesis is that there’s an inherent and growing instability in the belief that we can continue to grow our economies, increase our populations and satiate our every consumer desire without running smack into the fact that this is a finite planet with finite resources.

— — — — —

From the BBC:

There is a strange fascination in blowing a bubble, when despite your better judgement, you keep willing it to get bigger regardless of the dangers.

Then, suddenly, the violent pop that leaves you picking bubblegum off your eyebrows, or crying soapy tears.

For many observers, global markets are getting dangerously close to such a bursting point.

Until recently, we have been living in a period of low global interest rates that have let consumers and companies borrow money cheaply.

That has driven demand for mortgages, let companies pay increasingly large sums for takeovers, and allowed consumers to spend freely.

And the results of this credit splurge are hard to ignore:

  • UK house prices have doubled in the past 10 years.
  • China’s main stock index has quadrupled in value since the start of 2006.
  • The UK’s FTSE 100 and US S&P 500 stock indexes are at levels not seen in almost seven years.
  • Commodity prices have been buoyed by strong global demand, pushing some such as copper to records.
  • Merger and acquisition activity has taken off, and private equity firms are now in control of some of the world’s biggest brands.

But as the records have continued to tumble, concerns have kept on mounting.

More…

– Research Thanks to the Cryptogon 

070614 – R.I.P. Pythia

Thursday, June 14th, 2007

– Our beloved cat, Pythia, passed away today. She was a very special and loving cat and she’ll be missed around here. May we meet again, my sweet and beloved cat.

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Blackwater Heavies Sue Families of Slain Employees for $10 Million in Brutal Attempt to Suppress Their Story

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

– I know a lot of people still have strong doubts about claims that corporations have become so powerful in America that they are deeply influencing how this country is run. Here’s an article about how one company is using its financial clout and connections to protect its interests – to the detriment of the American people.

— — — — —

The following article is by the lawyers representing the families of four American contractors who worked for Blackwater and were killed in Fallujah. After Blackwater refused to share information about why they were killed, the families were told they would have to sue Blackwater to find out. Now Blackwater is trying to sue them for $10 million to keep them quiet.

Raleigh, NC — The families of four American security contractors who were burned, beaten, dragged through the streets of Fallujah and their decapitated bodies hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River on March 31, 2004, are reaching out to the American public to help protect themselves against the very company their loved ones were serving when killed, Blackwater Security Consulting. After Blackwater lost a series of appeals all the away to the U.S. Supreme Court, Blackwater has now changed its tactics and is suing the dead men’s estates for $10 million to silence the families and keep them out of court.

Following these gruesome deaths which were broadcast on worldwide television, the surviving family members looked to Blackwater for answers as to how and why their loved ones died. Blackwater not only refused to give the grieving families any information, but also callously stated that they would need to sue Blackwater to get it. Left with no alternative, in January 2005, the families filed suit against Blackwater, which is owned by the wealthy and politically-connected Erik Prince.

Blackwater quickly adapted its battlefield tactics to the courtroom. It initially hired Fred F. Fielding, who is currently counsel to the President of the United States. It then hired Joseph E. Schmitz as its in-house counsel, who was formerly the Inspector General at the Pentagon. More recently, Blackwater employed Kenneth Starr, famed prosecutor in the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal, to oppose the families. To add additional muscle, Blackwater hired Cofer Black, who was the Director of the CIA Counter- Terrorist Center.

After filing its suit against the dead men’s estates, Blackwater demanded that its claim and the families’ existing lawsuit be handled in a private arbitration. By suing the families in arbitration, Blackwater has attempted to move the examination of their wrongful conduct outside of the eye of the public and away from a jury. This comes at the same time when Congress is investigating Blackwater.

More…

Grim Future For Europe’s Seas Predicted

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

Science Daily On the eve of World Oceans Day, a group of over 100 scientists from 15 countries has revealed new evidence for the declining state of Europe’s 4 regional seas.

Their models developed during a €2.5M EU funded research project have predicted dire consequences for the sea unless European countries take urgent action to prevent further damage from current and emerging patterns of development. The project coordinator, Professor Laurence Mee, Director of the Marine Institute at the University of Plymouth said “Europeans are just beginning to wake up to the fact that the area of their seas is bigger than the land and that it is already seriously degraded.

“In every sea, we found serious damage related to the accelerated pace of coastal development, the way we transport our goods and the way we produce our food on land as well as the sea. Without a concerted effort, to integrate protection of the sea into Europe’s development plans, its biodiversity and resources will be lost.”

More…

Study Shows Southern Ocean Saturated with Carbon Dioxide

Monday, June 11th, 2007

WASHINGTON — The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is so loaded with carbon dioxide that it can barely absorb any more, so more of the gas will stay in the atmosphere to warm up the planet, scientists reported Thursday.

Human activity is the main culprit, said researcher Corinne Le Quere, who called the finding very alarming.

The phenomenon wasn’t expected to be apparent for decades, Le Quere said in a telephone interview from the University of East Anglia in Britain.

“We thought we would be able to detect these only the second half of this century, say 2050 or so,” she said. But data from 1981 through 2004 show the sink is already full of carbon dioxide. “So I find this really quite alarming.”

The Southern Ocean is one of the world’s biggest reservoirs of carbon, known as a carbon sink. When carbon is in a sink — whether it’s an ocean or a forest, both of which can lock up carbon dioxide — it stays out of the atmosphere and does not contribute to global warming.

The new research, published in the latest edition of the journal Science, indicates that the Southern Ocean has been saturated with carbon dioxide at least since the 1980s.

This is significant because the Southern Ocean accounts for 15 percent of the global carbon sink, Le Quere said.

More…