What really happened in the Syrian town of Houla?

Some evil wretches are chomping at the bit to drop a little Depleted Uranium on Syria the way they did on Libya, in the name of stopping a massacre on innocent children. The question is, why would "brutal dictator" Assad kill a bunch of kids in his own country so that NATO gets the green light to remove him from power, opening the backdoor to war with Iran? Well, now we have proof that the Western Media, not only CNN this time but the "venerable" BBC is totally throwing fake propaganda at us, on the order of the fake incubator baby killings that helped launch the first Gulf War back in the early '90's.

Here's Northerntruthseeker's article, "Syrian Detour: LIARS In Media Caught Using Iraq Mass Grave Photo As Syria Propaganda." You might want to keep a paper bag nearby in case you have to puke.

If you believe they put a man on the moon ...

Seems there's quite a bit of discussion about the moon landings in Smoking Mirrors's comments this week. This is going to further strain the credibility of my blog, I know, but I've already said that I believe in reincarnation, UFO's, and chemtrails, so really, it shouldn't be that shocking to hear that I've always harbored doubts about the moon landings as well. But I happen to have at least a little expertise in a related area -- I graduated with a BA in journalism, emphasis on broadcasting. I know that as late as the early 70's network news shows arrived in Anchorage, Alaska *by plane* and had to air a day late. So you're telling me everyone got to watch the moon landing *live* from the *moon* in 1969? What kind of production team put that together? And the pictures from the moon landing were just too ... (iconic? slick? movie-like?) ... they had all the feel of a Stanley Kubrick film. So when someone showed me a website (this was in the mid 90's) that detailed how certain pictures were fake (shadows facing the wrong direction, etc.) I was fairly open minded about it. But in the end I didn't care much one way or the other. To quote Dave McGowan in his funny, must-read series of articles on the subject, Wagging the Moondoggie, it would be "a relatively benign lie." But I should have listened to the words of REM in "Man on the Moon":

If you believe they put a man on the moon, man on the moon,
If you believe there's nothing up their sleeve, then nothing is cool ...

Where do the elite get their power?

The answer is simple -- trite, really. Of course, they get it from the same 99% they wield it against. I was reminded of this recently by a number of things -- Les Visible's brilliant posts:

The Meaningless Lives of Endless Compromise.
and
Dessert Toppings and Floor Waxes.

this video:


[h/t Washington's Blog]

... and Mark Passio's most recent podcast.

Anyone who studies martial arts learns quickly that much of the power of the practitioner comes from the ability to turn their opponent's strength against them. That's how an 80 year-old master can easily defeat a much younger, stronger attacker. In the case of the 1% vs. the 99%, the difference is even more obvious. The 1% have no power, except that which we give them.

It's true they have us arranged in such a way we work against each other. They are at the apex of a huge pyramid designed to lock us in place. But it's up to us to examine what it is we contribute to the strength of that pyramid, and withdraw that support. Most people are unwilling to do this for fear the weight of the entire pyramid will come crashing down on them. But you know something? It's possible to do this. It has been done before. Contemplate on the victories of the past -- the Montgomery bus boycott, for example. There's a reason for this biblical verse: "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." Isaiah 40:4

It's about taking personal responsibility for our participation in the machine. Yeah, we've been tricked. Yeah, we're facing real hardship if we don't "go along to get along." But in the end the bad guys need us to act in certain ways to turn our power against us. We have the choice to deprive them of that power. There's my thought offering for the day ...

The Toronto Hearings on 9/11 - Uncovering Ten Years of Deception

[h/t: http://www.theominousparallels.blogspot.com]

Who is Bin Laden? Who is Al Qaeda?

These guys have been in the news a lot lately, but most Americans don't know anything about them except they are *bad guys* that "hate us for our freedom."

But what if, as this article asks, "bin Laden and his associates were in fact old CIA hands?"

During the 1970's, Russia was our main concern, not Islamic extremists. So the US funded what has now become the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood to the tune of *hundreds of millions of dollars*.

Does anyone remember the fact that George Bush Sr.'s business partners in the Carlyle Group were actually bin Ladens? Bush Sr. was actually meeting with bin Laden's brother on the morning of 9-11!!! And these guys were among the only ones to be able to fly out of the country just after 9-11 (the airports were closed to everyone else for a short time).

But you know, I doubt bin Laden himself lived much longer after that. So does this guy. There have been a lot of fake bin Ladens waved at us in the meantime, presumably to justify America's continued occupation of Afghanistan.

With new developments in Pakistan and Syria, I get the distinct feeling we're going to be hearing a lot more about al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood in the near future. Just remember who funded them in the first place. http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/fakealqaeda.php

Smoking Mirrors Blocked from Library

[***UPDATE: THIS MATTER HAS BEEN RESOLVED TO MY SATISFACTION. :) STILL, I CAN'T HELP BUT WONDER WHY I RAN INTO THIS PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!***]


Well, here we go. I went to check on one of my favorite websites, Les Visible's Smoking Mirrors (and another one of his to make sure, Petri Dish) and this is what I got:

Access to this web page is restricted at this time.

Reason:

This Websense category is filtered: Sex.

In accordance with the provisions of CIPA*, access to this website has been blocked by the library's filter. If you believe this site is blocked in error, or if you are an adult and have a legitimate need for unfiltered access to the internet, please see a staff member.

CIPA -- Children's Internet Protection Act

URL:
http://www.smoking-mirrors.com/

I immediately told the lab monitor the site doesn't have anything to do with pornography. There might be swear words on it, but it's a political blog. The lab monitor said he didn't have the authority to type in the password to bypass the block. I told him I wanted to talk to whoever did have that authority. He made a call and got her to remotely access my computer, but "it wouldn't take the password." Case closed? Um, not for me. I take my first amendment rights a bit more seriously than that, as you can imagine. The lab monitor won't give me a contact address for the IT dept., and neither will the IT dept.'s web page. But I guess I *can* email a regular librarian using this address: ask@acpl.info

I'm going to politely ask them why one of my favorite websites is blocked, obviously for political reasons, and isn't that a violation of my rights as a citizen? Let's see what they say ...

What a difference a day makes (music by Moby)

[I got the link for this video advocating Meatless Mondays from a comment on Portland Indymedia]

Bragging rights for being stupid and unjust.

Let's suppose for just a minute that Osama bin Laden really was killed a year ago. (He's been dead and gone a lot longer than that, but work with me here ...)

That means that Obama is acting like a hero for being stupid and unconstitutional. If they knew where bin Laden was, why didn't they take him alive? They've been torturing people in Guantanamo without due process for years now ... kind of doubt they have any intelligence value at this point ... and yet they're still being subjected to "enhanced interrogation techniques." Why the hell wouldn't they interrogate the undisputed *leader* of the organization they want so much information about? I mean, who else would have all the names, plans, locations, etc.?

Not only that, but in the United States, people are supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty in the court of law. What Osama bin Laden was accused of committing was a crime. If you call it an act of war, you have to follow the Geneva conventions. Even the Nazis were given a trial.

But no, in the post 9-11 world, the Bushies decided to make up a "special" category of people called terrorists who are afforded no rights whatsoever: enemy combatants. So that makes it perfectly peachy to go around and assassinate whoever they want to.

Of course the real reason Osama was "knocked off" and flown several miles to be dumped into the ocean with no real proof it was the "real" Osama (except for a bunch of phony pictures and the assurance of our DNA analysts, trust us) is that he actually died a long time ago, but his image was still being used for scare mongering and as an excuse for staying in Afghanistan.

BTW, now that he's "officially dead" why are we still in Afghanistan ...?