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"You get America out of Iraq and Israel out of Palestine and you'll stop the terrorism." - Cindy Sheehan

P I C T U R E   O F  T H E  D A Y
©SOTT

The Signs Kitchen was in shock when members discovered the number 1690 clearly revealed on a tupperware lid. Is it a date? A lost PIN? The number of hours, days, or minutes left until Doomsday? Research continues. Stay tuned.


By CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press
November 29, 2005
MIAMI - Miami police announced Monday they will stage random shows of force at hotels, banks and other public places to keep terrorists guessing and remind people to be vigilant.

Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about terror threats.

"This is an in-your-face type of strategy. It's letting the terrorists know we are out there," Fernandez said.

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Comment: Random shows of force, eh? Well, if the "terrorists" aren't going to terrorise the population, law enforcement agents will just have to do the job!

Nov. 27, 2005
PAUL BIGIONI
Toronto Star
When people think of fascism, they imagine Rows of goose-stepping storm troopers and puffy-chested dictators. What they don't see is the economic and political process that leads to the nightmare.

Big business is very well off, and successive Canadian and U.S. governments, of whatever political stripe, have made this their primary objective for at least the past 25 years.

Fascist dictatorships were borne to power in Germany and Italy by big business, and they served the interests of big business with remarkable ferocity.

At present, we live in a constitutional democracy. The tools necessary to protect us from fascism remain in the hands of the citizen. All the same, North America is on a fascist trajectory. We must recognize this threat for what it is, and we must change course.

Before the rise of fascism, Germany and Italy were, on paper, liberal democracies. Fascism did not swoop down on these nations as if from another planet. To the contrary, fascist dictatorship was the result of political and economic changes these nations underwent while they were still democratic. In both these countries, economic power became so utterly concentrated that the bulk of all economic activity fell under the control of a handful of men. Economic power, when sufficiently vast, becomes by its very nature political power. The political power of big business supported fascism in Italy and Germany.

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Comment: In his book Political Ponerology, Andrew Lobaczewski discusses states of societal hysterization.
It is practically impossible for hysteria to manifest itself as a mere individual phenomenon, since it is contagious by means of psychological resonance, identification, and imitation. Each human being has a predisposition for this personality’s malformation, albeit to varying degrees, although it is normally overcome by rearing and self-rearing, which are amenable to correct thinking and emotional self-discipline.

During happy times of peace and social injustice, children of the privileged classes learn to repress from their field of consciousness any of those uncomfortable concepts suggesting that they and their parents benefit from injustice. Young people learn to disqualify the moral and mental values of anyone whose work they are using to over-advantage. Young minds thus ingest habits of subconscious selection and substitution of data, which leads to a hysterical conversion economy of reasoning. They grow up to be somewhat hysterical adults who, by means of the ways adduced above, thereupon transmit their hysteria to the younger generation, which then develops these characteristics to a greater degree. The hysterical patterns for experience and behavior grow and spread downwards from the privileged classes until crossing the boundary of the first criterion of ponerology.

When the habits of subconscious selection and substitution of thought-data spread to the macro-social level, a society tends to develop contempt for factual criticism and humiliate anyone sounding an alarm. Contempt is also shown for other nations which have maintained normal thought-patterns, and for their opinions. Egotistic thought-terrorization is accomplished by the society itself and its processes of conversion thinking. This obviates the need for censorship of the press, theater, or broadcasting, as a pathologically hypersensitive censor lives within the citizens themselves. When three “egos” govern: egoism, egotism, and egocentrism; the feeling of social links and responsibility disappear; and the society in question splinters into groups ever more hostile to each other. When a hysterical environment stops differentiating the opinions of limited, not-quite-normal people from those of normal, reasonable persons, this opens the door for activation of the pathological factors of a various nature.

Individuals governed by a pathological view of reality and abnormal goals caused by their different nature develop their activity in such conditions. If a given society does not manage to overcome the state of hysterization under its ethnological and political circumstances, a huge bloody tragedy can be the result. One variation of such a tragedy can be pathocracy. Thus, minor setbacks in terms of political failure or military defeat can be a warning in such a situation, and may turn out to be a blessing in disguise if properly understood and allowed to become a factor in the regeneration of a society’s normal thought patterns and customs. The most valuable advice a ponerologist can offer under such circumstances is for a society to avail itself of the assistance of modern science, taking particular advantage of data remaining from the last great increase of hysteria in Europe.

A greater resistance to hysterization characterizes those social groups which earn their daily bread by daily effort, where the practicalities of everyday life force the mind to think soberly and reflect on generalities. As an example: peasants continue to view the hysterical customs of the well-to-do classes through their own earthly perception of psychological reality and their sense of humor. Similar customs on the part of the bourgeoisie incline workers to bitter criticism and revolutionary anger. Whether couched in economic, ideological, or political terms, the criticism and demands of these social groups always contain a component of psychological, moral, and anti-hysterical motivation. For this reason, it is most appropriate to consider these demands with deliberation and take these classes’ feelings into account. On the other hand, tragic results can derive from thoughtless action paving the way for spellbinders to make themselves heard.


He points out that Europe entered such a period at the end of the nineteenth century, a period that gave birth to two wars, fascism, and communism. Living in the United States in the early 80s, he saw the signs of the same process taking place.

At the same time, America, especially the U.S.A., has reached a nadir for the first time in its short history. It is hard to judge whether we are observing the symptoms of incipient upward movement, although it seems likely. Grey-haired Europeans living in the U.S. today are struck by the similarity between these phenomena and the ones dominating Europe at the times of their youth. The emotionalism dominating in individual, collective and political life, as well as the subconscious selection and substitution of data in reasoning, are impoverishing the development of a psychological world-view and leading to individual and national egotism. The mania for taking offense at the drop of a hat provokes constant retaliation, taking advantage of hyper-irritability and hypo-criticality on the part of others. This can be considered analogous to the European dueling mania of those times. People fortunate enough to achieve a position higher than someone else are contemptuous of their supposed inferiors in a way highly reminiscent of czarist Russian customs. Turn-of-the-century Freudian psychology finds fertile soil in this country because of the similarity in social and psychological conditions. America’s psychological recession drags in its wake an impaired socio-professional adaptation of this country’s people, leading to a waste of human talent and an involution of societal structure.

If we were to calculate this country’s adaptation correlation index, as suggested in the prior chapter, it would probably be lower than the great majority of the free and civilized nations of this world, and possibly lower than some countries which have lost their freedom.

A highly talented individual in this country finds it ever more difficult to fight his way through to his right to self-realization and a socially creative position. Universities, politics, and even some business areas ever more frequently demonstrate a united front of relatively untalented persons. The word "overeducated" is heard more and more often. Such "overqualified" individuals finally hide out in some foundation laboratory where they are allowed to earn the Nobel prize. In the meantime, the country as whole suffers due to a deficit in the inspirational role of highly gifted individuals.

As a result, America is stifling progress in all areas of life, from culture to technology and economics, not excluding political incompetence. When linked to other deficiencies, an egotist’s incapability of understanding other people and nations leads to political error and the scape-goating of outsiders. Slamming the brakes on the evolution of political structures and social institutions increases both administrative inertia and discontent on the part of its victims.

We should realize that the most dramatic social difficulties and tensions occur at least ten years after the first observable indications of having emerged from a psychological crisis. Being a sequel, they also constitute a delayed reaction to the cause or are stimulated by the same psychological activation process. The time span for effective countermeasures is thus rather limited.


The blatant disregard for the truth of the Bush administration and its supporters is certainly part of this hysteria. The self-censorship of the press on the issue of the conquering of Iraq and its blind dismissal of the questions arising from the official account of 911 also fits the bill.

And taking offense at the drop of a hat? Sound familar?

by Paul Craig Roberts
lewrockwell.com
A month ago senior US commanders in Iraq said that the US-trained new Iraqi army only had 700 troops who could operate independently of US support.

Now suddenly the new Iraq has the troops to do the job and America’s soldiers can come home. What this means is that Republican pollsters have made it clear that the Republicans cannot win next year’s congressional elections if the US is still mired in Iraq.

The war, in other words, no longer serves the Republicans’ political interest and must be got rid of. So much for "staying the course."

Bush’s war against Iraq might be over, but the police state Bush built at home is still in place. The Pentagon is expanding its domestic surveillance activity and that all sorts of proposals are afoot to allow military agencies to spy on law-abiding Americans and to build secret dossiers on citizens. The demand for police state powers is said to be necessary in order to fight the "war on terror."

Terrorist attacks in America are even more rare than an honest politician.

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12 November 2005
Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk Unmasks American Verbal Camoflouge and Lies: American journalists now refer to "abuse laws" rather than torture laws. Yes, abuse sounds so much better, doesn't it? No screaming, no cries of agony when you're abused. No shrieks of pain. No discussion of the state of mind of the animals perpetrating this abuse on our behalf. And its as well to remember that the government of Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara has decided it's quite all right to use information gleaned from this sadism. Even Jack Straw agrees with this.

So it was a relief to drive down to the US National Archives in Maryland to research America's attempts to produce an Arab democracy after the First World War, one giant modern Arab state from the Turkish border to the Atlantic coast of Morocco. US soldiers and diplomats tried to bring this about in one brief, shining moment of American history in the Middle East. Alas, President Woodrow Wilson died; America became isolationist, and the British and French victors chopped up the Middle East for their own ends and produced the tragedy with which we are confronted today. Prevail, indeed.

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Reuters
Mon Nov 28,11:48 AM ET
WASHINGTON - A chunk of marble fell from near the roof of the U.S. Supreme Court onto the stairs in the front of the building but no one was injured, a court spokeswoman said on Monday.

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Comment: How symbolic... Justice, law, and order are crumbling.

By Caroline Drees, Security Correspondent
Reuters
Mon Nov 28, 2:07 PM ET
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's yardsticks for progress in its fight against terrorism are inadequate and do not show whether the United States is winning or losing, a study by a congressional think tank says.

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By Silla Brush
Last week's guilty plea by Abramoff's onetime partner, a former top aide to the beleaguered Rep. Tom DeLay, darkened the skies further. Michael Scanlon's admission he had conspired to bribe public officials and defrauded four Indian gaming casinos of millions in fees effectively makes him the government's star witness in a probe that threatens to ensnare officials throughout the nation's capital.

U.S. News has learned that the conduct of at least a dozen representatives and senators is now being scrutinized by a small army of federal prosecutors and FBI agents.

So far, the investigation has resulted in the resignation only of the chief procurement officer at the White House Office of Management and Budget, who was indicted on charges of lying to investigators. Still, there are suddenly lots of folks with the shivers on Capitol Hill--and it's not just because of the change in the weather.

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2005-11-28
Trupiano held a "Take Back the House" rally last Monday in Michigan as the first event of his campaign. During a Q&A session, he was asked to name the first three pieces of legislation he would introduce if elected to Congress. The first that Trupiano named was a bill to restore value to the federal minimum wage. He never got to the third, because the second issue he named received such a huge response that the conversation took a new turn. That second issue was impeachment.

"The crowd went crazy," Trupiano said in an interview. "I mean the crowd absolutely went nuts. Some people who are consulting for the campaign said they cringed when I said impeachment, but when they saw how the crowd reacted they breathed easier. You know, we shouldn't be afraid of impeachment. Impeachment is there for a reason. If the President has not lied to us, if he is innocent of all of these charges, give us a chance to investigate. Impeachment is a non-partisan idea. It is the way to hold the government accountable."

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AFP
November 28, 2005
WASHINGTON - Intrigue deepened over the CIA leak scandal clouding the White House, after Time magazine said special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald had demanded testimony from another of its reporters.

The magazine said Sunday that Washington correspondent Viveca Novak would testify under oath about her conversations with Robert Luskin, lawyer for White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove.

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Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Tuesday November 29, 2005
The Guardian
Arab news channel al-Jazeera is to consult its lawyers in an attempt to pursue George Bush through the courts over the US president's alleged threat to bomb the broadcaster's headquarters.

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29 November 2005
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has denied receiving any details of a reported US proposal to bomb Aljazeera.

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Eric Schmeltzer
Huffingtonpost.com
The idea to bomb al Jazeera out of existence wasn’t an idea that had never been discussed on some level by people with influence. It had been discussed, and probably had been discussed within the Pentagon, via the prodding of Frank Gaffney.

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By LEWIS ALPER
November 26 / 27, 2005
Counterpunch
An Evangelical Christian Looks at Bush's Skull and Bones Initiation

"After this the initiate is brought before a picture of Judas Iscariot, whose name the group screams three times, and then he is led to the heart of the rite: the initiate is pushed to his knees before a human skull filled with blood placed at the foot of a human skeleton called Madame Pompadour.

The crowd "implores him to 'Drink it! Drink it! Drink it!'" and he does.

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by Nat Hentoff
November 28th, 2005
U.S. Senate proves as disdainful of the Constitution as George W. Bush. Be forewarned.

These are weighty and momentous considerations that go far beyond the detainees at Guantánamo. . . .[This amendment] . . . takes away jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is untenable and unthinkable and ought to be rejected.

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter , on the floor of the Senate, November 15, objecting to an amendment to the defense authorization bill by Lindsey Graham, Carl Levin, and Jon Kyl that would effectively close our federal courts to any charges of abuse, including tort ure, of Guantánamo prisoners. The amendment passed 84 to 14.

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Ward Sutton
November 28th, 2005
Cartoon. Click link above to chuckle.


By Jerry Ghinelli
Volume 1: http://www.jerryghinelli.com
“Should we return to the Middle East disguised as just plain American oil executives Bush Wayne and Dick Grayson-Cheney, so we could blend in more easily, Batman?”

“No, Dick—I mean, Robin; our mission is not about oil this time, it's about disarming the villains who want to turn smoking guns into mushroom clouds. You see, Robin, the people there are brainwashed by these villains, then reprogrammed and taught to hate America because we’re good and they’re not. We need to liberate these unfortunate people from the negative influences of dastardly villains like Osama the Riddler.”

“But the Riddler hasn’t been seen since the 2004 election, when his video helped us defeat the Flip Flopper, his Ketchup Widow and their video producer, the Fat Man Mr. Freeze Fahrenheit -32.”

“Yes, Robin. Just in the nick of time, the Riddler’s last video, on election eve, doomed the Flip Flopper and his running mate, the Breck Girl.”

“I guess there’s good in all people, even Osama the Riddler—right, Batman?”

“No, Robin, not quite. The Riddler crafts his riddles in mysterious ways. Helping us defeat the Flip Flopper and get us elected helps him to recruit more fiends who hate our freedoms, like—”

“No! You don't mean the mythical, magical, manipulator of mayhem—The Invisible Man, aBoo Zarqawi, do you?”

“Yes, Robin, I’m afraid so. That dastardly, diabolical, elusive, foreign-born phantom villain who escapes more often than Harry Houdini, has more lives than a cat, and has been wounded more times than Flip Flopper, has returned once again as the diabolical mastermind behind the evil Iraqi insurgency.

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26 November 2005
Robert Fisk
UK Independent
...I descended to the al-Jazeera newsroom where the Jordanian-Palestinian bureau chief, Tareq Ayoub, was trying to put together his next report. You, I told him, have the most dangerous television office in the history of the world.

I remarked how easy a target his Baghdad office would make if the Americans wanted to destroy its coverage - seen across the Arab world - of civilian victims of the Anglo-American bombing of Iraq. "Don't worry, Robert," Tareq had replied. "We've given the Americans the exact location of our bureau so we won't get hit." Three days later, Tareq was dead....

Back in Belgrade in 1998, I had watched the Americans bomb Serbia's television headquarters, an act which, as I wrote next morning, allowed Nato to strike at targets for the words men and women said - rather than the deeds they committed. What precedent did this set for the future? I should have guessed...

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DOUG THOMPSON
Publisher, Capitol Hill Blue
Nov 28, 2005
“There’s no shame in hitting up a lobbyist.” Stephen Brown, vice president and general counsel at Dutko Worldwide, told The Hill. “That’s why God gave you lobbyists — to buy lunch.”

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SOTT
November 29, 2005

Jamie Wilson in Washington
Monday November 28, 2005
The Guardian
With the White House under increasing pressure over its handling of the war in Iraq, senior administration figures are for the first time signalling the possibility of significant troop reductions. In a departure from previous statements the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said last week that the training of Iraqi soldiers had advanced so far that the current number of US troops in the country probably would not be needed much longer.

According to an article in the New Yorker magazine by Seymour Hersh, the possibility of using airpower as a substitute for American troops on the ground has caused unease in the military...

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By Robert Verkaik
Published: 28 November 2005
UK Independent

By BILL STRAUB
Nov 27, 2005
64 percent of those questioned in the most recent Harris Interactive Poll believe the administration "generally misleads the public on current issues."

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By Martin van Creveld
November 25, 2005
Foreward Magazine
A complete American withdrawal is not an option; the region, with its vast oil reserves, is simply too important for that.

First and foremost, such a presence will be needed to counter Iran, which for two decades now has seen the United States as "the Great Satan." Now that Iraq is gone, it is hard to see how anybody except the United States can keep the Gulf States, and their oil, out of the mullahs' clutches.

For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president's men. If convicted, they'll have plenty of time to mull over their sins.

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Mon Nov 28, 2005
Reuters
He said Hariri had told him he was convinced Syria was behind the truck bomb that killed his father, but needed Hosam's testimony to prove it.

Hosam also accused Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh of arranging for other witnesses to testify falsely to Mehlis.

Hosam said his captors had wanted him to implicate Maher al-Assad, a brother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and his brother-in-law, Major General Asef Shawkat, the head of military intelligence.

Hosam said he had been tortured, injected with drugs and offered $1.3 million by Lebanese Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa to tell the investigators he had seen the truck used in Hariri's killing in a Syrian-controlled military facility.

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Barbara Ferguson
Arab News
28 Nov 2005
The study also argues that Israel’s action would persuade other Middle East countries, Egypt or Algeria, to “follow suit and mothball their own nuclear facilities,” which would lead to a regional halt to the production of fissile material that would be the most effective method to successfully isolate Iran.

“An Iran with advanced nuclear capabilities that put it close to having a bomb would likely be a more assertive Iran. Iran might well want to throw its weight around,” co-author Patrick Clawson said during a recent discussion of the study at the Washington Institute. “For example, it could claim that the fate of Jerusalem is a matter that concerns all Muslims and therefore Iran should have a say in any settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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By Paul Taylor
Reuters
Mon Nov 28, 2:56 PM ET
BARCELONA - The European Union salvaged a face-saving agreement with Israel and its Arab neighbours on Monday on a joint code of conduct to fight terrorism, at the end of a lackluster summit from which most Arab leaders stayed away.

The 35 nations adopted a five-year work program extending a decade-old economic, political and cultural partnership into sensitive areas of security and combating illegal migration.

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November 28, 2005
BY SALLY BUZBEE
Chicago Sun Times
Egypt, the world's most populous Arab country, is suddenly roiling with a wide-open, combative election that seems certain to end with the country's main Islamic group, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, as a big winner.

The country's rulers, longtime American allies, are starting to show signs of panic: Police have barred voters from polls and thugs have attacked Brotherhood supporters in recent days in an apparent effort to blunt the group's growing momentum.

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Charles Glass
29 November 2005
UK Independent
Will it be illegal one day to say that the US committed war crimes in Iraq?

David Irving has stated that Hitler knew nothing of the genocide of Europe's Jews. It is a crank outburst here, but a crime in Austria, Germany, Poland and France.

The United Nations General Assembly passed by unanimous consent a resolution on 1 November that "Rejects any denial of the Holocaust as a historic event, either in full or in part". If a historian says - as the leading Holocaust historian of our time, Raul Hilberg, does say - that the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis was 5.2 million rather than the six million, will he be tried before an international tribunal for denying the orthodox version "in part"? Should historic inquiry cease, because the UN and the courts of Austria and Germany have stated their position on the Holocaust? That is no way to suppress fascism. It is fascism.

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by Scott McLarty
November 22, 2005
Significant numbers of Democrats in Congress swallowed the Bush Administration's deceptions and brushed aside contrary evidence, voting enthusiastically in October 2002 to transfer their constitutionally mandated war power to the White House, and cheering the invasion that killed over 2,000 American servicemembers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Nearly all congressional Dems voted for the USA Patriot Act. Now they're having second thoughts. As the Iraq venture turns more and more disastrous, we may see eleventh hour conversions among warhawks like Sen. Clinton as the 2008 race heats up. Will The Nation reward such feeble demonstrations of leadership with an endorsement?

In the mid 1850s, right-thinking Americans faced a national crisis for which the existing system and prevailing political parties offered no humane resolution, and the abolitionist Republican Party was founded. A new, independent party, one that seeks to abolish corporate domination, empire, and reckless ecological policy, is no less a necessity at the beginning of the 21st century.

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November 27, 2005
Byas Anand
Times of India
Within days of announcing 30,000 job-cuts in the US, automobile giant General Motors Corp will this week unveil plans to increase its workforce in India by nearly 30%.

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By LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press Writer
November 28, 2005
TUCSON, Ariz. - President Bush said Monday he wants to crack down on those who enter the country illegally but also give out more visas to foreigners with jobs, a dual plan he hopes will appease the social conservatives and business leaders who are his core supporters.

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By Kevin Morrison
Financial Times
November 29 2005 10:04
Gold on Tuesday broke through the key psychological level of $500, its highest level since December 1987.

Gold held above $500 for just one day in December 1987, while in February 1983 it managed a few attempts, peaking at $509, before falling to $340 by the end of that year.

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Comment: The question is how long the dollar will remain "de-coupled" from the price of gold. As we have repeatedly pointed out on the Signs page, the fundamentals of the US economy are in an abysmal state. While it seems that the US and world economies are entirely fabricated, the signs of a collapse are mounting. Consumer spending is weakening, debt is at an all-time high, unemployment is high, and the housing market is beginning to fall apart. Given Bush's decreasing popularity, an economic crash would be just the thing to either distract the masses, or get them so fired up that provisions of the Patriot Act could be employed to "restore order".

November 29, 2005 edition
Christian Science Monitor
By Mark Clayton, Staff writer
When natural-gas prices have been high during past power crunches, some power companies have elected to sell their gas rather than burn it for electricity. Such "economic outages" occurred in 2004 during one of the sharpest New England cold snaps in years.

On the bitterly cold day of Jan. 14, as winter power demand headed toward a new record, power companies failed to heed grid operators' urgent call to get every functioning power plant in the region online immediately.

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By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
The Washington Post
Nov. 29, 2005
Lobbyist, lawmakers face possible prosecutions — and ballot box uprising

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27 November 2005
From New Scientist Print Edition
Rowan Hooper
The huge potential of DNA evidence is often blocked by criminal justice systems that refuse to consider it even when it could confirm innocence or guilt.

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By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
17 November 2005
UK Independent
Researchers found an 18 per cent rise in blood fat and an 8 per cent rise in a protein linked with LDL cholesterol among decaffeinated coffee drinkers compared with the those who drank caffeinated coffee or none at all.


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26 November 2005
From New Scientist
James Kingsland
Thorkild Sørensen of Copenhagen University Hospital and his colleagues looked at data from the Finnish Twin Cohort Study, in which volunteers filled in questionnaires about their health and lifestyle, first in 1975 and again in 1981. These included questions about height, weight and motivation to lose weight. Even after controlling for smoking and excluding anyone with a chronic illness that could have led to weight loss, Sørensen found that overweight or obese people who intended to lose weight in 1975 and succeeded were nearly twice as likely to have died by 1999 compared with those who had no intention to lose weight and stayed about the same (Public Library of Science Medicine, vol 2, e171).

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25 November 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Helen Phillips
“The effect of meditation seems to reverse the usual cortical thinning that occurs with age”

Early trauma seems to cause changes in the brain too. In imaging studies of the emotion centres, the response of people to positive and negative images was analysed. Those who had been through an early life trauma had a blunted response to positive stimuli and heightened reactions to the negative. There were also structural changes in the hippocampus, an area important for learning and memory. Some of these changes have been reported in depression before, Nemeroff points out. "But I am beginning to wonder whether other findings about depression are actually about early trauma. I have no doubt that this is a totally different pathological sub-type."

On the flip side, if experiences can trigger the problem, then perhaps experiences can also treat it. In a study that would have made Sigmund Freud proud, Nemeroff compared antidepressant drug treatment with psychotherapy. His preliminary analysis showed that the techniques had roughly equal effectiveness and a slightly better outcome in combination. But looking at just those people with depression who had been through early trauma, psychotherapy was significantly more effective than drug treatment, and led to remission in 45 per cent of people, even though they had suffered the condition for as long as eight years.

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24 November 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Helen Phillips
Looking at the group averages, the differences in parents of the autistic children included an unexpected increase in the size of the motor cortex and basal ganglia, areas important for movement planning and imitation. The somatosensory cortex, neighbouring the motor cortex, by contrast, was smaller than average. This region is important for understanding social information such as facial expressions - one key skill that autistic people often lack. These parents also had reductions in the cerebellum, important for coordinating movement, and in a frontal region thought to be responsible for understanding the intentions and feelings of others - the so-called theory of mind area.

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26 November 2005
New Scientist Print Edition
Dan Jones
Philosophers have long been split into two camps: one arguing that moral judgments arise from rational thought, the other that the roots of morality are emotional. Now, as the subject of morality moves from the philosopher's armchair into the lab, the error of this dichotomy is becoming clear. Researchers looking at the psychological basis of morality are finding that reason and emotion both play a part.

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26 November 2005
New Scientist Print Edition
"If you could go back in a time capsule 4.4 billion years, you'd see a similar amount of continent, blue oceans, sandy beaches and blue skies."

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By Associated Press
Nov 23, 2005 - 07:33:28 am PST
Rockfall at Mount St. Helens kicked up a dust plume Tuesday that rose above the rim of the volcano's crater, drawing attention in the region.

"It's a nice sunny day and we're having the first couple of rockfalls that we've had in a while that are putting little dust plumes over the crater rim," said U.S. Geological Survey geologist Seth Moran at the agency's Cascade Volcano Observatory here, about 50 miles south of the mountain that erupted to deadly effect in May 1980.

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Kate Ravilious
Tuesday November 29, 2005
The Guardian
'Pinocchio' principle used to find key region
Study could lead to treatment for anorexia

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28 November 2005
UK Independent
Thousands of elderly people, mostly women, are being accused of witchcraft and then murdered or maimed by vigilante groups in Tanzania. But the police and government do little to prevent the deaths, reports Oliver Duff from Mwanza

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AFP
Nov 28 9:50 AM US/Eastern
The H5N1 strain of bird flu seen in human cases in China has mutated as compared with strains found in human cases in Vietnam.

Chinese labs have found that the genetic order of the H5N1 virus seen in humans infected in China is different from that found in humans in Vietnam, Xinhua news agency reported Monday. [...]

"But the mutation cannot cause human-to-human transmission of the avian flu," he noted. [...]



NEW! 9/11: The Ultimate Truth is Now Available!

On the fourth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, Laura Knight-Jadczyk announced the availability of her latest book:

In the years since the 9/11 attacks, dozens of books have sought to explore the truth behind the official version of events that day - yet to date, none of these publications has provided a satisfactory answer as to WHY the attacks occurred and who was ultimately responsible for carrying them out.

Taking a broad, millennia-long perspective, Laura Knight-Jadczyk's 9/11: The Ultimate Truth uncovers the true nature of the ruling elite on our planet and presents new and ground-breaking insights into just how the 9/11 attacks played out.

9/11: The Ultimate Truth makes a strong case for the idea that September 11, 2001 marked the moment when our planet entered the final phase of a diabolical plan that has been many, many years in the making. It is a plan developed and nurtured by successive generations of ruthless individuals who relentlessly exploit the negative aspects of basic human nature to entrap humanity as a whole in endless wars and suffering in order to keep us confused and distracted to the reality of the man behind the curtain.

Drawing on historical and genealogical sources, Knight-Jadczyk eloquently links the 9/11 event to the modern-day Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She also cites the clear evidence that our planet undergoes periodic natural cataclysms, a cycle that has arguably brought humanity to the brink of destruction in the present day.

For its no nonsense style in cutting to the core of the issue and its sheer audacity in refusing to be swayed or distracted by the morass of disinformation that has been employed by the Powers that Be to cover their tracks, 9/11: The Ultimate Truth can rightly claim to be THE definitive book on 9/11 - and what that fateful day's true implications are for the future of mankind.

Published by Red Pill Press

Order the book today at our bookstore.

 


 

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