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Student Questions From Tripoli
By FRANKLIN LAMB
Al Nasser University, Tripoli
"When I grow up, I want to be just like you guys,” this increasingly flaccid middle-aged American visitor joked to his teenage to early 30’s Libyan interlocutors, as we parted last night and promised to meet again soon to continue our dialogue on our chosen subject of “What the hell is going on in Libya and why?”
Except I wasn’t entirely joking and I felt wistful as I reflected on our latest five-hour conversation that seemed like it began only 30 minutes earlier. Rather like one of those rare college classes during which the professor’s lecture and the classroom discussion were so interesting that you felt disappointed when the class ended.
New Jerusalem
By John Waters
July 13-15 2011, New Jerusalem performed live at the Skirball Cultural Center
David Ives’ New Jerusalem stars Tony Award winner Richard Easton and Emmy winner Ed Asner.
The play follows young philosopher Baruch de Spinoza as he faces excommunication from the Jewish community for his provocative, subversive new ideas. With his special blend of cerebral language and wry humor, critically-acclaimed playwright David Ives gives Spinoza a chance to defend himself in a mock trial to the Jewish community and Dutch society.
The 'absolute philosopher', Spinoza, was a passionate advocate of rationalism, the idea that a man's intellect is superior to his senses. Spinoza is at the center of the 17th century clash between religion and rationalism.
Spinoza's metaphysics of God is neatly summed up in a phrase that occurs in the Latin (but not the Dutch) edition of the Ethics: Deus, sive Natura ("god or nature"): “That eternal and infinite being we call God, or Nature, acts from the same necessity from which he exists” (Part IV, Preface).
Spinoza, like all modern philosophers, was influenced by the changes brought about during the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages, through a twist of religious dogma, changed the orientation of mankind’s “dispositions and beliefs” throughout the western world, from worshipping the Earth/Gaea/Natura (Pantheism) to worshiping Jesus Christ, Allah and Yahweh (monotheism).
Until the Dark Ages, the populations of Pantheists (pagans) saw themselves as belonging to Nature (Natura) and the wider Universe. Until the Dark Ages, the pagan populations believed they were only a part of “creation” and that each piece played a significant role in the contentment and survival of the other. [1]
Then in the name of Jesus Christ, native peoples (pagans) were slaughtered along with the animals because they didn’t believe in Jesus Christ and therefore could not have a soul.
Christianity spread the belief that humans were now the greatest and most important part of Natura. Thanks to Jesus’ free gift of salvation, that whosoever believeth in him need not live in harmony with, or obey, the laws of Natura. The “good news” was that God wanted us clothed, fed and car-ed.
Does Life Have Meaning or Are We Merely Bobbleheads in Bubbleland?
John W. Whitehead, head of the Rutherford Institute, "a kind of evangelical Christian civil liberties union" is an attorney and author who has written, debated and practiced widely in the area of constitutional law, social and human rights.
In his essay, Does Life Have Meaning or Are We Merely Bobbleheads in Bubbleland? Whitehead believes we have missed our purpose and the meaning to life because we didn’t listen to Martin Luther King Jr.
In April 1967, King said [W]e as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motive and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
John’s commentary: “We didn't listen then, and we still have not learned: Material things don't fill the spiritual void. People need more than possessions to give meaning to life.”
And the “more,” of course is religion, specifically Christianity. John believes we, as a nation, have lost our way because of a corrupt repressive government in the service of godless immoral secular humanism.
John’s mission is to promote Christianity and the ”good news” [2] with his work in social and human rights and he has an interesting insight re: our purpose:
“Are we all aimless beings, mere products of chance, here merely to consume, grind out a living and die? Or is there some bigger purpose behind the stage play we call life?”
“There are those who view us as mindless beings trapped in a spiritual void, cut off from both reality and the outside world, chasing fulfillment in "things"--consumer zombies imprisoned in a series of shopping malls. According to author and journalist Nicholas von Hoffman, Americans are "bobbleheads in Bubbleland.... They shop in bubbled malls, they live in gated communities, and they move from place to place breathing their own private air in bubble-mobiles known as SUVs."
John, like Spinoza did not see the connection of the “mindless beings trapped in a spiritual void,” to putting humanity at serious risk due to “the dangers of climate change, water scarcity, dwindling fish stocks, the pressures on the land, and the extinction of species”, according to the GEO4, a massive United Nations report.
But he does ask, if “”Are we merely “bobbleheads” in Bubbleland? Or have we been programmed to be so?”
What if the “bobbleheads,” according to the GEO4, probably passed the “unknown points of no return” [environmentally], because they were programmed to do so when they were converted from Pagans to Monotheists? [3]
Spinoza could not envision mankind undermining the ecological structures of the planet. Although the agrarian economies in the 17th century had an environmental impact, the damage was negligible because:
- They practiced sustainable farming.
- The population had not reached carrying capacity.
- It was against the law not to grow HEMP.
The eco-friendliest plant in all of history was so important that King Henry VIII in 1535 and Queen Elizabeth in 1563 signed into law that every landowner must grow HEMP. In colonial America, you could be jailed for refusing to grow hemp (Hemp in Colonial Virginia, G. M. Herdon).
Hemp was a major crop until the 1920s, supplying the world with its main supply of food and fiber (80% of clothing was made from Hemp). Natural biomass from hemp could provide the planet energy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. (Major Crop Chronology of Hemp throughout history)
The True Cost of America's Wars
By Jack A. Smith
During his speech on Afghanistan June 22, President Obama revealed that "Over the last decade, we have spent a trillion dollars on war." He knew this was a deceptive understatement, as did everyone who keeps close watch on the Bush-Obama wars all these years.
Few Americans , however, have closely followed Washington's 21st century wars of choice, so a trillion probably sounds right to them, but that amount in 10 years — when the annual cost of air conditioning alone for the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq amounts to $20.2 billion a year — is way off base.
(It's difficult to conceive of one trillion, so we'll repeat a method we've used before: Sixty seconds comprise a minute. One million seconds comes out to be about 11½ days. A billion seconds is 32 years. And a trillion seconds is 32,000 years.)
The latest objective estimate for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, made public June 29, is between $3.7 trillion and $4.4 trillion (140,800 years), according to the research project "Costs of War" by Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies.
July 4th -- From WHAT Did We Declare Our Independence? How's That Working Out?
By Jeff Gates
Dear Friends & Colleagues --
See below for links to a current 4-part series in Arab News continuing a theme touched on earlier in Mindset Warfare, The Enemy Within and in a 4-part video: The Hate Mongers Among Us.
It's difficult to imagine our nation and our national security becoming so endangered across so many fronts with all signs pointing to a common source -- yet nothing being done about it. Here is an analysis from July 2010 suggesting the source of the problem. And from July 4, 2010: From WHAT did we declare our independence?
What has this deceit cost us to date in blood and treasure? What costs are being imposed on the future? On other nations who now view us as delegitimized due to our continued support for this duplicitous source? What are the "but for" costs of not 'connecting the dots' and correcting this corruption at its internalized core?
‘Why should you die for a transfer?’
by Willie Ratcliff
This frame from a video shot by a bystander shows the teenager struggling to
lift himself out of a pool of his own blood as a San Francisco police officer,
one of several – aims his gun at the boy rather than trying to save his life.
– Video frame: TheOneNonly457
Having killed the boy at 4:44 p.m., according to the San Francisco Chronicle, in broad daylight at the main intersection – Third Street between Palou and Oakdale – in Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco’s last largely Black neighborhood, the police seemed eager to terrorize the community. They waited and waited and waited as the teenager stopped moving but continued breathing before eventually setting him on a gurney and taking him to the hospital, where the Chronicle reports he died at 7:01 p.m.“Why should you die for a transfer?” asked a witness known as Tiptoe in the crowd of hundreds of residents that soon gathered in the plaza at the Oakdale/Palou light rail stop. “Justice will be brought!” hollered one man repeatedly in a booming voice as the crowd shouted at the long line of police in riot gear standing between them and the dying youngster. “I saw the riot squad fly by me on Palou yesterday – five trucks in all,” wrote Bayview resident Sherry Bryson on Facebook.
Nuclear Weapons and Hypocrites in High Places
by Eileen Fleming
“Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon Arnon Milchan,” is an unofficial biography about the Hollywood producer, longtime weapons dealer, Israeli intelligence agent and close friend of Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Milchan met with the authors, Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman, answered their questions, corrected their mistakes and quoted Peres as stating, “I am the one who recruited him.”
In the 1970′s, Peres was Minister of Defense when he recruited Milchan as an agent for Lakam, a ‘secret’ unit in Israel’s defense ministry that purchased technological parts and materials for Israel’s WMD program.
“Since its founding in the mid-1950′s, the agency was headed by Benjamin Blumberg…Blumberg was Milchan’s friend, and used him (as well as other Israeli businessmen) to set up straw companies around the world, and to open secret bank accounts for financing the nuclear plant in Dimona and other Israeli security industries.
The Fix Is In: Washington's Planned Social Contract Destruction
by Stephen Lendman
The criminal class in Washington is bipartisan, united against working household interests. In fact, lawmakers yield on virtually everything big money wants, notably when banks and other corporate favorites are affected.
Last December, Obama capitulated to Republicans, rigging a deal for up to $1 trillion dollars in handouts, mostly to corporate giants and America's wealthy with working households almost entirely left out.
They still are, enduring a protracted Main Street depression, stiff-armed by Obama-led bipartisan crooks. In fact, he's more crime boss than president - stealing from the many for the few. More on his dirty scheme below.
As a result, America and other "(e)conomies are being turned into rentier ('tollbooths') to pay debts that ('real' ones) can't sustain," according to Michael Hudson. "It's a losing game," but goes on, criminally defrauding millions of people to assure creditors are paid, sucking massive amounts of wealth to their coffers, unreported by major media scoundrels, suppressing what people most need to know.
Michele Bachmann: Way Out There in the Blue
by Stephen Lendman
Frances Fitzgerald titled her 2000 book on Reagan's Star Wars Strategic Defense Initiative, "Way Out There in the Blue," leaving unsaid but letting readers conclude that America during his tenure was run by right wing extremists.
He and most others around him were ideologically hard right, their legacy including:
-- disdain for working Americans;
-- contempt for the rule of law, civil liberties, human rights, and democratic freedoms; and
-- support for concentrated wealth, power and budget-busting militarism.
They backed:
-- sweeping deregulation;
-- destructive "free trade;"
-- offshoring high-paying manufacturing, service, and other jobs;
America: Why Aren’t You Protesting?
by Andrew Smolski
As noted by Richard Heinberg on June 22nd, 2011, the media has lacked the ability to connect the economic situations in the Middle East and their uprisings to what is happening in Europe. I would avoid the word “Revolution” in the case of the Middle Eastern uprisings, seeing as no dramatic systemic changes have taken place, only the ousting of dictators. Same as I would avoid the words of social upheaval in the case of European protests, which have been quite calm and only demanding to maintain the social safety nets produced through years of labor struggle. Rather, the odd occurrence is the ostensibly quiet population of the United States who are in many cases having the same economic problems and austerity based government solutions. This is a place where the media does want to ask the public the question, “Why aren’t you protesting?”
Obama's Budget Betrayal - Questions and Answers
By Michael Collins
Question: Why did President Obama put Social Security and Medicare on the table in the budget negotiations when 80% of the people oppose cuts to these programs?
Answer: The president is not in office to represent those people. He was selected, funded and carried over the finish line by corporate America. Look at the appointment of Wall Streeter Timothy Geithner, the bailouts, and the failure to prosecute any of the crooks who caused the current recession. He's serving the people who put him in office. Those people don't need Social Security and Medicare.
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