Middle East Madness

This violence between Israel & Lebanon is such a nightmare. I simply can't imagine how the people living in both countries can cope with the destruction going on.

Even though Israel can seemingly kidnap and imprison anyone at will, the capture of 3 Israeli soliders at the Lebanon border is apparently enough justification to annhililate entire cities and suburbs of innocent people and civilian infrastructure. The outright lie that only Hezbollah positions are being bombed in Lebanon is an insult to the intelligence of anyone with eyes to see the photos and video of the ruined city. Hezbollah seems to have wanted to intitiate a prisoner swap for Palestinians in Israeli prisons, but, hey, why have tons of munitions subsidized by the American-taxpayer if you can't drop it on the heads of civilians and their homes?

If our leaders in the U.S. Gov't weren't such idiotic, malevolent bastards, they would sit down with all significant parties, including Iran & Syria, for an emergency summit and work to reign in both Israel and Hezbollah by threatening to cut off their respective funds. Of course, that would imply that the United States can control Israel, and not the other way around.

The really terrifying part, though, is the reaction of the U.S. Government and American mass-media.

• President War Monkey gets caught at the G8 Summit cursing about how this is somehow all Syria's fault with a mouthful of food, like the ignorant scumbag he is. Not to mention getting verbally slapped down by Russian President Vladimir Putin, groping the Chancellor of Germany, and caring more about a pig roast than a war that is costing significant human life. There is no way an American President can fuck up more times in the span of a few days unless he starts pissing on people's faces and eating live babies on TV.

• Our Ambassador to the U.N., the walrus-faced asshole John "Neocon" Bolton claims diplomatically that there "is no moral equivalent" between the Israelis who are being attacked and the Lebanese civilians being bombed. A dead civilian is a dead civilian, you obnoxious jackass.
(It is being claimed that Hezbollah is embedded in the Lebanese society, so civilian targets are justifed... but then, technically, the entire civilian population of Israel is a legitimate military target, since Israeli conscription is mandatory for all citizens! Anyway you slice it, though, it's all unnecessary murder.)

• The usual neo-conservative vampires are allowed on TV claiming that we must force regime change in Iran... even as Iraq and Afghanistan are still drowning in flames and blood. The question is... with what army?!? Oh, that's right, they want to use nukes and wipe out thousands more innocent lives. These lunatics should be run out of the country - they are doing everything they can to compromise our military and foreign policy.

• The Bush Administration irresponsibly gives the *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* for Israel to have free reign for a week to reduce civilian areas of Lebanon to ruins and hundreds of innocent people to corpses, while on another front, Gaza is being rolled over yet again for the crime of being the home to poor brown people on land that Israel covets. Hey, what's a little bit of war crimes and state terrorism on the way to grabbing as much useless desert sand as possible, right?

The ironic, and saddest, thing is that Israel is doing nothing but destroying it's own security and chances for peace by bombing a democratic nation and it's vibrant capital to rubble as the world watches. The more poverty-stricken Arab and Muslim people that Israel's hateful vengeance creates, the more Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al-Qaeda members will rise up to fight what they see as the injustice of a bloodthirsty apartheid state. If Israel were a true multi-cultural democracy in which the native Arab population was not a second-class race to be eradicated, there would not be so much hostility from the region and the rest of the world. It is a nation that was created on the principles of exclusion and division, and so it goes...

Why U.S. Soldiers are in the Middle East

Where can you even start?!?

Now, I understand that having a standing army is an indespensible part of any nation. However, the privatization of our armed forces and the twisted neo-conservative ideologies of pre-emptive war and American imperialism have hijacked the U.S. military for their own delusional goals.

So let's look at some possible reasons -

Of course, there's good ol' fashion corrupt war profiteering for the Bush Family Evil Empire -

• American Conservative Magazine:
"Billions of Dollars Have Disappeared, gone to bribe Iraqis and line contractors’ pockets."

• Guardian UK
"Billions Wasted in Iraq, says US Audit"


Then, there's the manipulations of America's favorite little U.N.-defying apartheid state -

• Asia Times:
"Iraq was Invaded 'to Protect Israel' - US Official"

• Whatreallyhappened.com
"Who is Congress Listening To?"

Well, isn't this idea of going to war which benefits Israel
nothing but anti-Semetic rubbish?
I'm sure the Israelis themselves will set the record straight...

• Israeli Ynet News:
"Prime Minister Olmert to Ask U.S. to act against Iran"

• London Times story:
"Attack Iran the Day Iraq War Ends, Demands Israel"

• Pakistan Daily Times:
"Israeli official: Israel will hit Iran in the next few months"

Ummmm, never mind!

If, God forbid, the last headline comes true in any shape or fashion,
the World War III that the lunatics in power so desperately want
will erupt, and our American men & women in uniform
will be trapped in the middle of Armageddon...
exactly as intended.

I can't make our situation in the Middle East any clearer than this!

I hope (more than anything I've ever hoped for) that I'm wrong... but the corruption, irrationality, and murderous brutality of the gangsters in both the American and Israeli governments don't allow much room for optimism. The only possible remedy for potential disaster is awareness and overwhelming opposition to the act of mass-murder for profit that we call "war."

The Insanity of Nuking Iran

"Iran Must Get Ready to Repel a Nuclear Attack"

This analysis I read last month by a Russian general is a sobering look at the situation in the Middle East. I don't know what kind of miracle can stop this madness, since everything in the article is happening as stated. Between the naval buildup in the Persian Gulf and the sudden barrage of "It's Iran's fault!" stories in the news, it looks like deja vú all over again. The most frightening reality is that the U.S. and Israel policy-makers do not want peace in the region. They want power & empire, which means destroying all opposition, which means creating widespread chaos:

"This will solve the problem of completely destabilizing the region, a task of major importance for the US and especially for Israel. The war in Iraq was just one element in a series of steps in the process of regional destabilization."

I metioned the lust for power, which goes along with the main reason for every war - greed and lust of money:

"...what matters to the Americans is not how big the shock is, but how high are the revenues of their military-industrial complex."


Here's another article worth reading, an interview with M.I.T. Professor Noam Chomsky:

"On Iran, Iraq, the Democrats and Climate Change"

Operation AIPAC Fury

 Operation AIPAC Fury

“There are only two reasons why you should ever be asked to give your youngsters. One is defense of our homes. The other is the defense of our Bill of Rights and particularly the right to worship God as we see fit. Every other reason advanced for the murder of young men is a racket, pure and simple.”

“A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war, a few people make huge fortunes.”

 -War is a Racket - Major General Smedley D. Butler

 

The nature of war is based in humanity’s selfish & violent primitive tendencies, that manifest in divisions of nationalism, religion, and economic class. The senseless waste of lives, money, & energy is depressing to all of us who wish better for the world.

As it’s been said many times- the fact that we cannot provide universal healthcare, education, and other social resources for our citizens… but can spend billions upon billions of dollars to bomb the shit out of people on the other side of the world, shows just how fucked our national  priorities have become. 

I've been posting about Israel's sway over the United States' Middle East policy for a couple decades now. Looking back on my old posts, there was fear around 2006 that the Bush Administration was going to attack Iran due to Israel's influence. Of course, even Dubya's cabal of wackjobs wasn't as mindbogglingly stupid and completely insane as Trump, Inc.

Now, because Trump is so easily manipulated & willing to blow up the whole world to distract from the fact that he is a disgusting pedophile piece of shit, we are in an absolute global catastrophe. It's unbelievably frustrating to think how we've progressed in so many ways- but the greedy, power-hungry, fascist bullshit persists & is somehow getting worse. 

I worry about the incomprehensible madness that my kids & future generations are going to have to deal with if we don't figure out how to safeguard against the worst humanity has to offer, from the likes of Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, Musk, Theil, Karp, and so many others. Insatiable desire for money & lust for power over others is the common denominator of all these bastards. Money as a medium of exchange has its use, but we need to prioritize humanist values to really advance the human race in a positive way. We have to speak out and act responsibly now, to manifest a better future for ourselves & the human race.

"Birther" Madness

Factcheck.org:
The Truth About Obama's Birth Certificate.

I was never under the illusion that remnants of America's collective "Bizarro Bush" mentality (or lack thereof) would completely disappear after the last election.

Unfortunately, life is messy & there will always be countless disagreeing viewpoints that may seem crazy to other people. I try to balance on that tightrope of viewing things from a cosmic, Dr. Manhatten-esque perspective, while always simultaneously trying to internalize the endless practical "real" concerns of humanity.

Although I hate the idea of labels (I'm registered as an Independent), my social & political sensibilities would probably be characterized as Progressive, although many things aren't so clear cut. for example, in economics I consider capitalism to be a practical system, but also believe there should be extensive regulation & oversight... Not only are there gray areas, but I try to see the whole spectrum of color, too! :)

I've always considered myself someone who appreciates wisdom, integrity, humor & creative thinking. That's why when people like the 'birthers' or 'health care rabble-rousers' come to my attention, my overwhelming instinct is to think, "these ignorant fools are focusing their anger in the totally wrong direction."

Not to say that Congress, or even Obama, shouldn't be taking heat for their decisions. However, people freaking out about "Socialized Medicine!" just end up seeming like disruptive shills for Big Insurance & Pharma. Those are the only players with a stake in maintaining the status quo of an immoral & impractical profit-based health care system.

In a way, it is good for elected officials to see The Mob passionate & pissed off... but not if it only serves to prevent intelligent dialogue and problem-solving from taking place by shouting ideological talking points.

The hysterical, ridiculous woman at the end of this clip whining about Obama's birth certificate & "getting her country back" made me want to smash my own head in. When she started screaming the Pledge of Allegiance along with the rest of the hollering f*cktards, I realized this was truly DEMOCRACY™ in action. In the age of Youtube, any emotionally-charged ignoramus can made his/her completely misinformed opinion be heard by millions! God Bless America!



It's all good though- because like I said, life is messy, & there will always be arguments until we are all subdued into "The Collective". It's better for people to be able to have a voice, as long as there are also other voices that can all variously dispute, agree, or state their total indifference. These "town hall" events, though, are starting to seem more like the Sarah Palin hate rallies.

I feel that all the nitwits wasting their time complaining that Obama hasn't proved he's a U. S. citizen should take the time to get to better know their hyper-ventilating leader:



Even if somehow there was a vast conspiracy to cover for 'Barry the Manchurian Candidate', I don't think that screeching wig-wearing freakazoid would've been the one to uncover it. Besides, after her 'Kenyan Birth Certificate' has been proven to be a truly inept forgery, Ms. Taitz has hightailed it back to Tel Aviv, Israel. Perhaps she knows her remarkable hackery is about to turn into a splattering shitstorm, or perhaps she is the Mossad's worst agent provocateur ever.

Whatever.... let the idiocy continue. It makes me feel like an enlightened genius watching people get worked up about the latest FoxNews-driven outrage.

Speaking of which, I'll end my rant about the sad state of political discourse by saying that Glenn Beck has accomplished an unimaginable feat....
By calling Barack Obama, the mixed-race President, "a racist"- he outdid that bonehead Sean Hannity by saying the most obnoxiously, astonishingly idiotic turd of verbal crap I've experienced in recent memory.

There, I'm done.

Iraq - An Intergalactic War?

Since my last post was about aliens & war, I had to post this wild article I came across. It turns out oil, Israel, and money aren't the only motivating factors behind the Iraq invasion...

"Researchers Suggest Iraq war was Centrally Motivated
from an Extraterrestrial-inspired Religion"

This editorial gem summarizes various other theories/stories I've seen which suggest that the land known as Ur, Uruk, Babylon, Mesopotamia, The Fertile Crescent, The Cradle of Civilization, the Garden of Eden, & now called Iraq was once an epicenter of extraterrestrial interaction with human beings. Here's a link to a much more detailed account of our mysterious alien-influenced past: The Babylonian Brotherhood.

Were the ancient sky gods, depicted in legends from around the world, some kind of beings from another world or dimension? Is the visible return of these advanced races through inter-dimensional portals in sacred areas of the world an imminent possibility? These questions are much, much too crazy for me to even pretend to answer, but I find them to be fascinating & terrifying to consider. The one thing I've learned is never rule out anything as completely impossible. It makes the world to be a much more interesting place. At the same time, though, I can never completely believe any of this kind of out-there creative speculation. I guess I'm a weird mix of skeptical pragmatist and open-minded conspiracy buff.

The Reptilians: Humanity's Historical Link to the Serpent Race

The Insane Horror of War

Although I'm fortunate to have never been in an active war zone, I've seen many, many horrific images of war. I don't want to shy away from those realities because it is necessary to really understand the many (sometimes disturbing) facets of human nature & our existence.

The video of the screenshot above really hit me hard, because it instantly reminded me of my 3-year old son (one of the 2 reasons I haven't been posting here as often). However, instead of his brown eyes being filled with the joy & playfulness that a child should be experiencing, this poor boy's eyes are filled with traumatic, debilitating fear. It's a sickening & disheartening scene, and reveals the unfathomable insanity & horror of war. 

The YouTube video is labeled as a Palestinian child, who was showing signs of shock, being comforted by a doctor after an Israeli attack in Rafah in southern Gaza. This took place not long after the ruthless Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas. I have been wanting to write this post for awhile now, with this boy's terrified face haunting my mind.

I've always been generally anti-war particularly when it comes to wars of aggression, but having become a father has taken my disgust for humanity's brutality to new depths. Seeing what happens in wartime to innocent people, and especially children like this, is just gut-wrenching to the point of despair.

What in the hell are we doing to each other, our fellow human beings on this Earth?? ...and for what?!?

As I get older while now being a dad, the more I grow in pure wonder & amazement at this world we inhabit, while simultaneously being completely fed up by the fucking stupidity of people. War is one of those things that makes me realize we're still just idiotic apes bashing in each other's skulls, 2001: A Space Odyssey-style.

The Israeli/Palestinian situation has been fucked up for so long, that it's seems like a conflict with no end and no solution. I'm not going to rehash the recent history of the region, but I will say that it's a cycle of violence that will self-propagate indefinitely... unless some triumph of human spirit and resolve can work toward a better path for all the peoples involved.

It is an unbelievably tough situation- you can't let murderous terrorists invade towns full of innocent people and wreak havoc, but... goddamn, retaliating by bombing out whole civilian population centers & infrastructure is a sure way to continue the hatred & resentment in future generations. Fighting terrorism by terrorizing innocent people is such an obvious hypocrisy, but psychos can still justify it by dehumanizing people they deem as The Other", instead of seeing them as fellow humans and living, feeling, thinking beings.

I'm old enough to remember the days of Ariel Sharon while Dubya was President & the atrocities of that time. I cynically knew that this horrible event would be used as a pretext to eliminate the Palestinian presence altogether. As I've watched the catastrophic aftermath unfold with the rest of the world over the past several months, it has turned out to be true:

Netanyahu’s apparent rejection of a post-war Palestinian state
adds to tensions with Biden administration

Of course, there are elements on all sides who want the conflicts throughout the world to continue, for various perverse reasons- war profiteering, consolidation of power, & what seems to be a driving force for so much of the bullshit... nationalistic / religious ideology.

People are so childish when it comes to nationality and religion, everyone thinking that their thinking is the only way to think... but they're really not thinking at all. That's the most depressing thing about the Middle Eastern conflict- Jews and Muslims hate each other because they believe a bunch of old stories & laws that are kinda the same, but different enough to get all tribal about it. Everyone believes that their religious ideas are correct. It's all mental constructs that people have mistaken for external reality. Then, you also have certain Christians basing their loyalties in this battle on their own beliefs about Jesus magically re-appearing. It's all so ridiculous, but countless people are murdering other people over it.

This, of course, is not a new phenomenon, nor is it only a feature of the Abrahamic religions. People have been murdering and brutalizing each other en masse all over the world, forever. This is something I always emphasize to those who lament at the current state of affairs. I've been listening to the awesome podcast, "Fall of Civilizations" during my commute to work, and it's a stark reminder about how fucking violent humans, & the societies they create, have always been.

There's so much fighting and hatred over imaginary lines in the desert sand, & whose self-righteous ideas about the world and the Infinite God are the best... it's all just insane, horrible shit. There is no foreseeable end to all the war & fighting in the world. That is the unfortunate, but inescapable fact. So, we just have to try to be a light in the realm of influence we have, to try to make the world a slightly better place.

Oil & War - Business First for Bush, Inc.

CNN: "$20 Billion Arms Sale to Saudis"

I thought this cartoon from Bartcop.com pretty well summed up the total hypocrisy of anything that comes out of The War Monkey's mouth, especially regarding the propaganda promoting the inherently un-winnable arms & security profit bonanza called "The War on Terror".

Supposedly, most of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.
However, since that country is sitting on black gold, & the Saudi royal family controls the country, America has formed an oil-money-weapons symbiosis with the Saudis.

Speaking of 'symbiotes', what's the saddest part of the whole deal? There is a certain country/imperial outpost that our compromised government officials must now openly receive permission from before any move is made. Acting truly "Holy", as usual... as in "Holy Crap":

MSNBC: "Israel OK's U.S. Arms Sale"

Bush & Cheney's America is like a rich addict who does business with a drug dealer, even if the dealer smashes & shoots up his Ferrari... and then sells the dealer more weapons while buying more drugs at the same time, instead of taking steps to get out of his mess.

On the other hand, if you have gone so far down the rabbit hole that you don't think there were Saudi hijackers, then I guess that analogy is partly bogus.

The World's Oldest Mask

While browsing Reddit, I came across this image of the oldest surviving mask.

It is made of stone, from the modern-day Palestinian territories in Israel & dates to 7000 BCE, making it 9,000 years old!

Musée de la bible et Terre Sainte 

It is an simplified, archetypical human face, whose generic appearance would make it seem familiar to people in any time period.

Is it any wonder that this ancient mask also resembles the "happy face" ☺, probably the most used emoticon in today's digital communications?

On a side note, I definitely think that this should be the mask of choice for political & civic protests from now on.

Besides being an expression of what the late Terence McKenna called "The Archaic Revival", it is a perfectly creepy & uniform visage for protesters to hide their faces.

People should start wearing these en masse- instead of the Guy Fawkes mask from "V for Vendetta", which is owned by corporate giant Time Warner. Instead of ironically paying a faceless corporation for protest masks, individuals should print out or make their own 3D versions of this neolithic mask.

It would represent a conscious return to basic human values & those timeless qualities that we all want to uphold:

Creative freedom, artistic expression, the right to some degree of privacy, the ability to explore our multifaceted identities, & the simple pleasure of personal happiness.

The Fate of Oppression

One of the basic tenets of Buddhism is that 'suffering' is an unavoidable consequence of mortal existence.

However, another basic idea is that our individual & collective negativity can be transformed through right practice & awareness.

As long as we all have bodies of flesh, misery of every kind is to be expected. Therefore, it is tough for a skeptic like me to believe we can even make a tiny dent in the unfathomable behemoth that is human suffering.

Right now, the instant reporting of events is possible anywhere a person has a camera & internet access. In spite of this, the world's most powerful national bodies continue to flaunt their technologically superior, but morally inferior, methods of brutality. The civilian leadership of the US and their neo-con puppetmasters used our military and our financial resources to viciously decimate inferior nations. Russia continues to try exerting control over its satellite states to ward off American influence. Israel continues to propagate the fantasy of security through cultural segregation. China continues a senseless quest for domination over the people of Tibet, a nation of monks & villagers. The Chinese government's characterization of the Dalai Lama and his Tibetan followers would be laughable if it wasn't such a tragic situation.

These huge movements of Oppression vs. Dissension could be an indication of a tipping point for a collective rejection of all the paradigms we've been culturally brainwashed into accepting as inevitable reality. Such a drastic shift could have tremendous positive results, but also tremendously negative consequences. Will the result be an apocalyptic wasteland or a harmonious utopia? Probably.... neither.

I'd like to think that we are capable of creating a more positive reality for as many people on this planet as possible. Perhaps the people of the world will eventually reject the idea of subjugating other humans and finally unite as a global force of infinite diversity & productivity.

Unfortunately, I'm no starry-eyed optimist. It easily as possible that justified dissent will continue to be crushed in more efficient and widespread ways. There seems to be unlimited power in the soulless entities such as nations and super-national corporations that seem to feed off ever-increasing control of human beings. From the rise of ubiquitous surveillance to the growing Doomsday Robot Army, there are plenty of reasons to think everything in our future is not going to be all rainbows & jelly beans.

That is, unless the military robots are going to spray psychedelic colors and shoot out candy to overwhelm the world with joy...

Two Visions of the Future:

Choice #1:
Choice #2:

Choose Wisely!

Sarah, Queen of the Teabaggers

I'm a political Independent & would never join a particular party.
Anyone who knows my views would probably lump me into the 'Liberal' category. I prefer the word 'Progressive' (even though infamous albino Glenn Beck is trying to make that a dirty word). Regardless, I think such broad labels usually have a tendency to distract the debate on any given issue.

Politics is - ideally - problem solving for the benefit of society. In our crazy human world of myriad personalities & clashing ideologies, politics is actually a much more grotesque creature that is anything but pragmatic. Despite the obstructionism of Republicans & incompetence of Democrats in DC, the government isn't completely dysfunctional. There are still good Congresspeople trying to get things done.

People claiming that our government is falling to Marxists & Communist Liberals under Obama are pretty much hysterical. These are the same buffoons that gave Bush the benefit of the doubt while his neo-con cabal was bankrupting the nation morally & fiscally with unpaid wars and tax cuts, creating unprecedented federal bureaucracies, and undermining the institutional foundations of the country. Now one year of trying to clean up after the nearly decade-long catastrophic failure of Neo-conservatism, the Obama administration is suddenly guilty of The Fall of the Republic.

Now that my attempt at civil discourse is over & I've started indiscriminate name-calling, let me get to the reason I wrote this post. I'm about to prove this asswipe correct & just be plain condescending. It seems that a fringe of the 'conservative' political spectrum have recently been graced by the presence their Populi$t™ Queen- the insufferable Sarah Palin, whose $100,000 speaking fee screams out, "I'm you're average Joe Six-Pack!"

Although she spoke at the Teabagger convention, the general Tea Party movement is fairly widespread & diverse in their particular views. However, that fringe subset of American culture who adore Sarah Palin have a specific overall identity: Idiots, with a capital 'I'- as in "'I' am an idiot for thinking Sarah Palin can answer America's problems in any meaningful way."

Sarah, aka. "Moosilini", gave the national political scene plenty of material to work with this week. First of all, her beligerent speech was full of absolutely ridiculous political redmeat for her gathering of like-minded cretins. I wonder how Sarah would react to someone making that speech about a conservative President "during a time of war". Since she's the biggest partisan hypocrite in politics, she obviously would say something totally different in that case.

She also claimed in an interview that President Obama should start a war with Iran- because we are not doing enough to help our perpetual aid beneficiary, Israel. Both statements are obviously insane & not worthy of my time to comment.

The coup de grâce, however, was her notes that she was spotted with written on her palm. It was for her Q&A session- where she actually looked down at her hand to read items that should be embedded in that wacked-out brain of hers:

Energy
Cut -----
Tax
Lift Americas Spirits

"Palin's Tea Party Crib Notes"

Forget the predictable content of her scribblings... Who in their right mind writes notes on their hand when they're trying to be considered a serious political figure?!? This is just the latest antic that proves she's just a kook to everyone but her delusional followers.


I subject myself to reading comment boards on political websites of all viewpoints, although I almost never try to converse with the raving masses myself. Most of the discussions seem to be people calling each other Fascist Palin-drones & Socialist Obama-bots. It is particularly mind-boggling, though, how the special breed of doofuses vigorously defending Palin's honor can twist their brains to even defend this 'palm notes' silliness, even to the point of claiming that it makes her superior to Obama who "reads off a teleprompter." This kind of argument is a turd in the cesspool of political ignorance.

I imagine the backwards fools devoted to the Sarah Palin get a kick out of the negative reaction "Elitist" (intelligent) people have to her "Real American" (shitty) attitude. It's not that people like me are intimidated or threatened by her. The problem is more of the fact that she is encouraging an ignorant & regressive mindset among people whose rational faculties are barely functioning as it is. This creates a sideshow distracting from substantial policy debates. I'm more scared of the destructive effects of Teh Stupid among the voters than of Palin herself.

I'll let my hero & the genius of our generation, Stephen Colbert, have the last word on The Teabagging Queen:

Colbert Report:

Sarah Palin Uses a Hand-o-Prompter

Ethics 101

• Morality:

"Irish Refused Bombs Sent to Prestwick Airport."

• Immorality:

"U.S. Rushes Bombs to Israel"

Webs of Maya

This is an amazing video that shows geometric patterns being formed by vibrating a metal plate covered with sand at different frequencies. If you turn the sound off and watch it (so the high-pitched tones don't make you crazy), it becomes like a Magical Morphing Mandala.

Click Here

On another level, this could be seen as a experiential metaphor for the structure of reality - a flux of ? forming patterns we perceive as matter, mind, & energy.

Through Google, I found this on the website of a jewelry designer from Israel who has amazing designs and thought-provoking articles on the site:

"When we start to examine what matter is made of we get to molecules and then to atoms. Atoms are composed of particles moving around each other at great speed. When scientists searched for what these particles are made of they found various wave lengths (frequencies).

The simplest way to understand a vibration is to imagine constantly repeating "movement" and "rest". The human ear can hear 30 to 16000 vibrations ("movement" and "rest") per second.

In fact, everything is made of frequencies, even the "matter" we previously mentioned."

He also has a page for the Flower of Life, the ancient pattern of circles that I studied as a design student & used to form the DaVinci's Challenge gameboard:

"The "Flower of Life" contains the patterns of creation as they emerged from the "Great Void". Everything is made from the Creator's thought."

Petroleum Wars

I read somewhere the idea that one day our invasion and occupation of the Middle East will be known as the Petroleum Wars. I think this is as fitting a name as any; and although there are countless complex reasons for the global situation we are in it is amazing how much oil and big business play into it.

The article linked below sums up some of the major reasons that we are tossing our military and, with it, our economy, into the Persian Gulf. As usual, all of the policies and strategies of the Bush Administration shamelessly revolve around getting their corporate cronies as much wealth as possible at the expense of the American people and Treasury. Pretty much the daily routine since Day 1. The only problem is that insatiable greed for money and power has now put our entire country into a financial and strategic situation that is seemingly unmanageable under the current leadership of the US and its major allies. The 'War on Terror' and the hypocritical demands that Israel, Britain, and the US are putting on Iran's nuclear ambitions all revolve around the only thing these maniacs are concerned about, their true gods... Money & Power.

In March, next month,... "Iran is scheduled to shift its petrodollars into a euro-based bourse. The effect on the value of the dollar will be significant, if not, in the long term, disastrous. At present the dollar is, on paper, a worthless currency bearing the burden of a national debt exceeding $8trn and a trade deficit of more than $600bn." "That oil is traded in dollars is critical in maintaining the dollar as the world's reserve currency. What the Bush regime fears is **not ** Iran's nuclear ambitions but the effect of the world's fourth-biggest oil producer and trader breaking the dollar monopoly. Will the world's central banks then begin to shift their reserve holdings and, in effect, dump the dollar? Saddam Hussein was threatening to do the same when he was attacked."

Iran: The Next War

People who are unimaginative enough to be bound by prophecy and ideology are also bound to fulfill them.

If we had intelligent, visionary, rational leadership the world could easily work out even the most dreadful problems. Instead, we have deranged thugs in control who can't even kill a bunch of goddamn pheasants without shooting each other in the face. We can sleep easy knowing the nuclear button is under the finger of Twitchy Fingers Cheney.

Guns don't kill people...

Day 1: War with Iran

USAF veteran, Douglas Herman correctly predicted the aftermath of the attack on Iraq in his column: "'Shock & Awe'... followed by 'Block-to-Block'."

In this article, he describes the disasterous scenario of a possible Israeli/American military engagement with Iran.

Day One - The War With Iran

"Just before the sun rose over Tehran, moments before the Muslim call to prayer, the missiles struck their targets. While US Air Force AWACS planes circled overhead--listening, watching, recording--heavy US bombers followed minutes later. Bunker-busters and mini-nukes fell on dozens of targets while Iranian anti-aircraft missiles sped skyward."

It is horrifying that the leaders of the nations who have the most influence on this situation are war-mongering fundamentalists with no positive creative thinking ability whatsoever. The leadership of the US and Israel are at least as guilty for the escalation of rhetoric and aggression in this situation as is President Ahmadinejad of Iran. We have two psychopaths at the head of our own government who are war profiteers and corrupt beyond comprehension, looking for anything to distract from their criminal behavior. We have a Congress that is on the leash of the myriad lobbyists in DC like AIPAC and ongoing investigations into the spies embedded in the Pentagon and the Executive Branch. Finally we have the multi-headed beast of oil and military-industrial behemoths whose unholy appetite now seems to demand the mass-murder of Iranian civilians and the theft of their resources and sovereignty.

I hope my sense of dread is unfounded, but the fools at the helm of the ship have given me no reason to be assured. Can the American people put on enough political and financial pressure quickly enough to halt the path to disaster being tread? The problems facing the world right now seem insurmountable, but it is definitely an interesting time to be alive, to say the least.

Apocalypse Now, or Later?

With increasing criticism of the Bush Administration for about a million different reasons, and the pressure on the Israeli government because of Ariel Sharon's decision to pull his settlers out of the Gaza Strip, I get more and more nervous each day that these fools will do something crazy in an attempt to restore a post 9-11 sense of control.

To me, the absolute worst-case scenario is that something happens to Bush, and Cheney puts the country on lock down and retaliates against a chosen target nation(s).

This is another nightmare situation that is scary because of how possible it is.
We may have just had a close encounter with the above situation.
(Imagine if a missed rocket attack drives up oil prices 3%, what will happen if we attack Iran or Venezuela?)

The reality is, Dick Cheney and his buddy, Prime Minister Sharon, have already been gearing up for such a scenario.

Here is a report from the Christian Science Monitor.

Hopefully a higher public awareness of what these guys are doing will diffuse any destructive plans that are being created. I think if there is another major "terror attack" in the US soon, 2 things could happen.
1) Police State, international panic and fear, another invasion of an oil-rich country that is a threat to Israel (ie. exactly what the Bush/Cheney administration want)... or
2) The American people finally see through the Al-Qaeda "ooga-booga!" fear-mongering and demand accountability from our leaders for their disasterous foreign & domestic policies.

World-class Gangsters

The Iraq Invasion: Ten Years After

by Lewis Peake

"Of course it's about oil, 

it's very much about oil, and we can't really deny that."

-Gen. John Abizaid

It's was 10 years ago when the last President, George W. Bush, and his neocon cabal launched the invasion of Iraq.

I remember the insanity of those years all too well, & this blog was a regular outlet for my disgust over the disastrous policies of that administration.

Bush, Cheney, & Rumsfeld were truly the unholy trinity...

"Unholy Terror"

There have already been countless volumes written about the Iraq invasion & occupation. As people in the future look back & research it, there will continue to be endless analysis of the conflict.

However, I want to assert the fact that I personally thought the war was immoral from the start. To be crystal clear, I have nothing against the military or soldiers. Several good friends of mine have served. The problem was simply an Executive Branch that was run by sociopaths, who were being advised by suit-&-tie warmongers- like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, & Doug Feith.

Far from being a minority opinion, there were hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of conscientious people around the world actively protesting & marching in opposition of War. In the 'bizarro world' we were living in at the time, speaking out about the wars or The President in any way was seen as unpatriotic. Conservatives who now feel free to disparage the current President should remember that their motto during Bush's term was: "America, Love It Or Leave It!"

Unfortunately, the forces of Death & War prevailed over the voices of Reason. To keep the people in line, a climate of perpetual fear was fostered by the Bush Administration (& the HUGE 'security' bureaucracy they spawned) while fighting the conveniently abstract, never-ending "War on Terror".

seen on Bartcop

We've wasted absurd amounts of money, resources, & human life on 2 wars that may not even produce lasting progress for those countries.

Why was the war waged?...
• To make certain wealthy people & companies even more money,
• To gain control of oil resources & strategic geographic positions,
• To assert American military power, for the indulgence of sick bastards who thought they were playing with toy army men,
• To help give cover to our allies in the region,
• Mostly, it was a combination of desire for money and power- the nexus of all conflicts.

As time went on, it became clear that Dubya & Co. had no idea what they were doing. Even people who had foolishly believed we were there fighting for some noble purpose began to wake up.

The conflict went on for so long that the average person can barely comprehend the damage that was done. Luckily, there's plenty of documentation to preserve the horrors for later generations. Hopefully they can learn something from the tragedy to help prevent similar abuses of power.

There are many great photo essays revealing the many facets of the Iraq War, many of them horrifying:

Reuters:

Photographer’s Notebook: Iraq War

Denver Post: 

Photos: Tenth Anniversary of the Iraq War

Although I've seen many grotesque war images of destruction & corpses, the picture below really illustrates the worst aspects of the occupation- the senselessness, the effect on innocents like children, the utter despair of being trapped in a terrifying situation, and the complete degradation of the human being.

 (AP Photo/Jean-Marc Bouju)

An Iraqi prisoner of war comforts his 4-year-old son 

at a regroupment center for POWs of the 101st Airborne Division near An Najaf, March 31, 2003.  

Finally... we should "never forget" one of the most iconic images of the Bush Presidency, capturing the sheer lunacy & short-sightedness of the whole situation:

George W. Bush giving a thumbs up, in front of the infamous "Mission Accomplished" sign... only a couple months into a long, 8-year war.

Unfortunately, one of the lasting legacies of the war is the toxic effects of depleted uranium weapons. Like the once-dismissed "Gulf War Syndrome," our soldiers will also suffer from the consequences of using these horrible weapons.
 

Iraq War Anniversary: 

Birth Defects And Cancer Rates 

At Devastating High In Basra And Fallujah

 

Now, the Iraq War is officially over... but the Death Merchants are always looking for an opportunity to roll out new products:

Voice of America:

"Iran, Syria: Major Topics 

on Obama's First Day in Israel "