I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV’s while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

We know things are bad - worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’

Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get MAD! I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot - I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad. (shouting) You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being, god-dammit! My life has value!’

So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’

Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’

Howard Beale, Network, 1976

For an excellent review of recent history and why the world is where it’s at, see Zeitgeist, The Movie.

Ron Paul on the Federal Reserve, gold standard and money market manipulation.

Watch the video…

Sensible comments.

I don’t often post articles relating to politics, because politics is just a distraction from the real issues in life, but this one surprised me with it’s intensity and that it’s hosted by MSNBC, who are typically fairly supportive of the US government.

Nov. 5: Keith Olbermann comments on Pres. Bush and Michael Mukasey’s response to allegations of waterboarding in the Bush administration. Why was an Acting Assistant Attorney General forced out – just because he had the guts to do what Pres. Bush couldn’t?

Special Comment: On waterboarding and torture

This is a collection of news headlines and articles tracking the global economic recession slowly unfolding.

There are three points to keep in mind when scanning these:

1. The Financial Times, the main source, prides itself in non-sensationalist news - these articles are pretty sensationalist if one reads between the lines;
2. Over the past 200 years, the average length of time between depressions has been 22 years; it has been 24 years since the last depression in 1982 - See Brief History of Western Depressions;
3. Newspapers invariably report on events after they’ve occurred, and seldom report on trends. Neither do they predict outcomes. The real value of this collection is if you, dear reader, are able to identify the trend for yourself and postulate what the outcome may be. As a hint, here are a few concepts to keep in mind: The Great Depression of 1929; Zimbabwe in late 2000’s; China becomes world superpower in second decade of 21st Century.

Each link opens in a new window, and each is from 2007. Simply hovering your mouse over each link will give you a feel for what the article is about. (Note that the FT limits you to 5 articles per day without registration.)

Continue reading

I just came across this fascinating video of Richard Miller and John Trojanowski debating the topic “Alzheimer’s Research and Basic Science of Aging: Is There a Better Balance?”. The discussion addresses a number of important issues concerning sorting out priorities in a situation of scarcity, plurality of worthy causes in need of funding, and uncertainty concerning the likely benefits of scientific advances. How much should we invest in tackling Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus aging itself?

Here are some facts about Alzheimer’s from the Alzheimer’s Association:

There are now more than 5 million people in the United States living with Alzheimer’s.

Every 72 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s.

The direct and indirect costs of Alzheimer’s and other dementias amount to more than $148 billion annually.

Continue reading

When the President Does it That Means That it is Not Illegal

copyright © 2007 Betsy L. Angert

Today is as yesterday was. Some of the players remain the same. Vice President Dick Cheney helped to expand Presidential power three decades ago. Today, he pushes the envelope further. As Americans stand on the brink of self destruction, we might ponder the past. Perhaps we can learn from it. Bill Moyers, of Public Broadcasting Services offers a bit of perspective. He asks us to . . .

Remember “The Lives of Others” - the movie that won this year’s Academy Award for best foreign language film . . . a story of life under East Germany’s secret police. The critic Roger Ebert said: “The movie is relevant today, as our government ignores habeas corpus, practices secret torture, and asks for the right to wiretap and eavesdrop on its citizens. Such tactics, he said, did not save East Germany; they destroyed it, by making it a country its most loyal citizens could no longer believe in.” You want to say it couldn’t happen here but we’ve been close before. During the cold war with the Soviet Union and then the hot war in Vietnam, a secret government mushroomed in this country.

Please Review the transcript . . .

The relative success of Trutherism has peaked and is now on the decline. Its genesis lies in right-wing populist conspiracism that was repackaged post-9/11 to appeal to left-of-centre consumers who felt traumatised and disenfranchised as a result of GOP dominance of US politics to 2006. An explanation of 9/11 as a plot masterminded by Bush or his associates appealed to some on the left, as another example of the illegitimacy of the Bush Administration and an example of their evil.

One of the greatest blows to the Troof Movement was when the Democratic Party took Congress in the 2006 Mid-terms. It destroyed the notion of “BushCo” as an all-powerful clique that controlled space-time, controlled all media, and could steal any elections it wanted. As Katrina, Iraq, and Afghanistan have unfolded, the capability of the Bush Administration to orchestrate the greatest deception of all time has been severely dented.

Since 2006, Trooferism is returning to the right-wing populism from which it was originally-derived. Trooferism’s love affair with Ron Paul(1) is rather indicative of this, as well as Trooferism’s bolder assertions that the Democratic Party was also “in on it”. On the progressive messageboard DemocraticUnderground, resident Troofers are becoming bolder in smearing leading Democrats such as Bill Clinton and John Kerry.

read more »

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Assault On Reason

I wrote in a previous post that I’m afraid. I don’t know if afraid is the appropriate word. I nearly lost a leg so I understand the word terror. And I’ve lived my life on the outside of most circles, so I understand wary and I comprehend apprehension. I don’t live in fear because my life isn’t threatened. So I don’t know which word suits my emotion.

I know I haven’t earned the tools to ease the task.
I know I’m capable but I’m aware I’m culpable.
I know that contrition must not contain attrition.

A woman stood in the hall of a hospital and I asked her how she was. She answered, “I’m surviving.” I said, “Surviving is a good verb.” She replied, “Thriving is a better one.” And I knew I was in the presence of the profound.

I will meet my matched. Yet I’m aware that each moment in the synchronicity of Divinity is a pass or fail moment. I didn’t always pass in my past. I’ve failed to do and I’m justly due. In my present and in my presently, I’ll pass and I won’t fail. Yet I’ll merely pass. I should have surpassed.

I am not the man I should have been.
I will never be the man I could have been.
It’s not a matter of living with that loss.
It’s the awareness of living with that less.
I’m not afraid. I’m ashamed.

© 2007 - Mark R Trost - All Rights Reserved

Rollins on impeachment

copyright © 2007 Betsy L. Angert

“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.”
~ George W. Bush, June 18, 2002
“War is Peace”
~ Big Brother in George Orwell’s 1984
Many believe impeachment is not likely. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi will not consider it. Presidential candidate John Edwards thinks the process is a distraction. Many Americans forget that until impeachment was proposed and investigations began, there was no evidence to convict Richard M. Nixon. When asked to assess the past people only recall the spectacular. Sex scandals are dicey! Continue reading

Following on from my How to Change the World post, I thought I’d start a discussion about my future planned social network site, which will be a Facebook equivalent for enlightened souls who believe it’s time to leverage the Group Consciousness for good.

Feel free to chip in and add your own thoughts, ideas and comments at the end of this post, or use the Contact Form if you’d prefer to comment without it being publicly visible. The idea is still very much in draft, and all input is welcomed. Continue reading