What is socialism?

Socialism is an economic system characterized by public ownership and centralized planning of all major industries (manufacturing, services, and energy), banks and insurance companies, agribusiness, transportation, the media, and medical facilities. Under capitalism, these giant enterprises dominate the economy but are privately owned and operated for the purpose of generating wealth for their owners by extracting it from working people who are paid only a small fraction of what their labor produces. Socialism turns this around so that the class that produces the wealth can collectively decide how it will be used for the benefit of all.

Translated by Sott.net reader
Before the dust from the previous meteor had settled down, a new meteor illuminated the night sky over the eastern part of Norway. Tonight's fireball was observed at 00.09.30 on the 14th of March, and was visible for just under 6 seconds, Steinar Midtskogen told Dagbladet.

The astronomy enthusiast had erected a camera that surveys the sky from Voksenlia in Holmenkollåsen. It is so far not possible to determine whether the object burnt up in the atmosphere or if parts of it reached the ground in the form of meteorites.

This one was weaker than the one we saw on March 1st. Whether it produced any meteorite downfall is too early to tell but it is definitely a candidate that should be followed up, according to Midtskogen.

In a national scene conveying a message to the whole world of the Syrian people's commitment to national unity away from foreign interferences and dictates, millions of Syrians on Thursday streamed into the homeland's streets and squares throughout the provinces in a global march for Syria.

Waving Syrian flags and banners with national slogans on them, the jubilant participants voiced rejection of foreign interference in the Syrian people's internal affairs and support to the comprehensive reform program led by President Bashar al-Assad to build the renewed Syria.

The reverberating echoes of pro-Syria and pro-leadership chants were heard all through the Umayyad square in Damascus, and Saba Bahrat Square in Deir Ezzor, Saadallah al-Jaberi Square in Aleppo, al-Mohafazeh Square in Lattakia and al-Raqqa, along the cornice in Tartous, the President Square in Hasaka, al-Baladieh in Misyaf, the main street of Salhab, the Post roundabout in Daraa and the neighborhoods of al-Zahra, al-Nuzha, al-Hadara and al-Sheirat in Homs.

Invisible Children disables comments on viral propaganda video + meet the real Joseph Kony.

As the US State Department, USAID centric Invisible Children psy-op KONY 2012 collapses, Invisible Children has disabled comments on their viral YouTube video.

When last checked, negative comments were voted to the top and a cascading effect of skepticism as well as damning facts began drowning out the initial confusion, sympathy, and emotional knee-jerk support the propaganda video purposefully created and preyed upon.

As comments are now being censored - it is suggested that people simply go to the video and click the "dislike" button to voice their opposition to this stunt. Most likely, even that feature will be disabled, and the video KONY 2012 will become the one-way Wall Street infomercial it really is, rather than the faux-participatory "social media" "activism 2.0" experience it masquerades as being.

The Establishment-Funded "Anti-Establishment" Charity

It has been revealed that indeed Invisible Children has been working with USAID, a US government agency that helps lay the groundwork for what could best be described as a modern-day imperial administrative network. It is now also revealed that Invisible Children attended the 2010 US State Department and Fortune 500 sponsored Alliance for Youth Movements (AYM) summit in London.

Four days of Israeli terror bombing left at least 25 Palestinians dead and dozens injured, some seriously. Human rights groups expressed outrage. So did Arab League states, Iran, Turkey, and Malaysia.

Israel's UN envoy Ron Prosor wants the Security Council to condemn Palestinian victims. Like Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, his audacity gives chutzpah new meaning.

On March 12, Egypt's lower parliamentary house unanimously approved a text declaring Israel Egypt's number one enemy. It called for expelling its ambassador, halting gas exports at below market prices, and reevaluating its 1978 peace treaty. It followed the 1978 Camp David Accords.

Its text said:

"Revolutionary Egypt will never be a friend, partner or ally of the Zionist entity, which we consider to be the number one enemy of Egypt and the Arab nation."

"It will deal with that entity as an enemy, and the Egyptian government is hereby called upon to review all its relations and accords with that enemy."

No Israeli comment followed.

"What struck both of us was that there were huge gaps in Houdini's life story and some puzzling inconsistencies. So we embarked on a journey to discover the real man. Early on, we discovered an important connection that most biographers seemed to miss."

From the Introduction to The Secret Life of Houdini, by William Kalush and Larry Sloman, 2006

As noted earlier in this series, there is considerable debate over the question of whether Harry Houdini ever lived in the Laurel Canyon home known locally as the "Houdini House" (the History Channel's Brad Meltzer's Decoded recently aired an episode on Houdini that included a segment filmed at the site, which was unreservedly identified as the former Houdini estate; the series, however, doesn't appear to be overly concerned with accuracy).

Even if Houdini did live in the home that now lies in ruins, his story would seem to have little relevance here. After all, Harry Houdini, widely considered to be the consummate entertainer of his era, reached the peak of his career long before there was a Laurel Canyon - before there was even that magical place known as Hollywood. What then is there to gain through an examination of the life of Harry Houdini? Quite a bit, as it turns out.

What are generally claimed to be the basic details of Harry Houdini's life can be found in countless published biographies and web posts. Born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary on March 24, 1874, he was the fourth of seven children born to Rabbi Mayer Samuel Weisz and the former Cecelia Steiner. The family later changed the spelling of their names and Houdini became Ehrich Weiss, known by friends and family as "Ehrie," which ultimately became "Harry." His stage surname was an homage to famed French magician Robert Houdin.

In mid-1878, Rabbi Meyer, with his five sons and pregnant wife in tow, set sail for America, arriving on July 3, 1878. The family first put down roots in Appleton, Wisconsin before later moving, in 1887, to New York City. Four years later, Houdini launched his career as a magician, at first performing basic card tricks. He had little success and at times would make ends meet by performing in circus freak shows.

In 1893, he met singer/dancer Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, known as "Bess," who would become both his wife and lifetime stage assistant. The pair though, performing as "The Houdinis," continued to find success an elusive goal.

To say that Houdini's fortunes changed in 1899 would be a bit of an understatement. As recounted by Kalush and Sloman, "Within months, he had gone from cheap beer halls and dime museums to the big-time - vaudeville. In one year's time, he had gone from literally eating rabbits for survival to making what today would equal $45,000 a week." After finally hitting it big, however, Houdini then did something rather inexplicable - he abruptly sailed off to England to begin a lengthy European tour.

"Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed. Results like these do not belong on the résumé of a Supreme Being. This is the kind of shit you'd expect from an office temp with a bad attitude. And just between you and me, in any decently-run universe, this guy would've been out on his all-powerful ass a long time ago. And by the way, I say "this guy", because I firmly believe, looking at these results, that if there is a God, it has to be a man. No woman could or would ever fuck things up like this. So, if there is a God, I think most reasonable people might agree that he's at least incompetent, and maybe, just maybe, doesn't give a shit. Doesn't give a shit, which I admire in a person, and which would explain a lot of these bad results."
― George Carlin

"Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."
― George Carlin

I'll let you in on a secret: I'm tired of writing about religion. Honest to gods, I'm tired of it. But every damn subject you care to name has been religion-ized by the GOP. Honestly: try to think of something. Odds are, some conservative has appealed to scripture - even teacher's pay, or how employers should treat employees.

Probably, it will turn out that God is against water saving toilets. Surely Jesus had something to say about that.

And completely without surprise is Jesus' retroactive support for plutocracy. Yes, it turns out the champion of the poor really did have a big ole soft spot for the rich. Guess we've been misinterpreting his comment about the difficulties of rich people going to heaven.

I guess it would be unthinkable today for Jesus to even begin his ministry today without corporate sponsorship. Imagine the Sermon on the Mount, brought to you by Monsanto and its genetically engineered fish and loaves.

This is an interview with Shelley Schlender, KGNU radio, Boulder, Colorado. Thank you Shelley for the article, graphics and the interview below. You can learn more about Shelley and her passion for exposing the truth in health at her website, www.meandmydiabetes.com

Ron Rosedale says to keep your cells sensitive to leptin, insulin and other hormones for better health.

He gave this talk at the American Society of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP) meeting Oct 31, 2006. They're medical experts who work to reduce obesity. As part of the 2006 presentations, the ASBP included a special segment that featured low-carb diets, researchers and scientists who are connected to the Nutrition and Metabolism Society. Special thanks to Instatapes for recording this presentation.

SPEAKER'S INTRODUCTION: Dr. Ronald Rosedale is an internationally renowned expert on the biology of aging. He was at the International Conference on Aging Medicine at Rio de Janiero, and the first European Conference on Longevity Medicine and many more. He is the author of The Rosedale Diet: Insulin and its metabolic effects. He will be speaking to us this morning on the detrimental effects of too much protein. Please welcome Dr. Ronald Rosedale.

We might give a different view on protein intake and nutrition and actually health in general. First, you hear a lot about paleolithic nutrition, the idea being that ancient man can tell us how to be healthy. That we need to go back to our ancient roots and eat like they did, and then we'll be healthy. But you have to go back even further and understand what Nature is after. And there are two prime prerogatives of all life, since the beginning of life. And they both involve making more life.

How do you make more life? Reproduce. What do you do to reproduce? You have to eat. You have to eat and reproduce. It's all life does, and we evolved with those dictums.

We can't use Paleolithic Man. We evolved with a diet to not allow a man to live a long healthy life.
Nature does not care about us living a long healthy life, or any life, for that matter. Nature wants "Life" to live.

It's like, you don't care if there's a little cell on your hand that dies, as long as the whole remains. Nature doesn't care if you or I dies, or if all mankind dies. Nature wants life to live. The diet that ancient man grew up with was to maximize reproductive sense. Not necessarily the life of each individual.

We do know, there is a powerful connection between energy stores, reproduction and longevity. Certainly, we know that it takes a lot of energy to make babies. And if there was not a lot of energy around, Nature would put off reproduction, and it is that trick that we want to use. It puts off reproduction by allowing the organism to live longer. It appears that all organisms have genetic mechanisms to delay aging, to delay dying so that the organism can reproduce at a future more opportune time. And generally this is genetically controlled, and it's controlled by the availability of nutrients, whether it's good to reproduce now or put off reproduction into the future.

It's not difficult to understand why most people, including physicians, are convinced that high blood cholesterol is the major cause of heart disease and that elevated cholesterol is due to eating saturated fats.

It's easy to visualize how fatty foods raise blood cholesterol, which, despite being a large inert molecule, somehow precipitates out to infiltrate the inner lining of the coronary arteries, where it forms fatty atheromatous plaques.

These plaques slow the flow of blood and eventually completely obstruct it to cause the death of myocardial tissue. This sequence of events was similar to the gradual buildup of lime and rust in pipes, and the terms coronary occlusion, myocardial infarction and heart attack are still often used as synonyms.

What is hard to believe is that there is no evidence much less proof to support this entrenched lipid theory of coronary atherosclerosis. In point of fact, it has been completely refuted by numerous scientific studies. Consider the following half dozen examples:

Just over one year ago, a magnitude-9 earthquake hit the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan, triggering one of the most destructive tsunamis in a thousand years. The Japanese - the most earthquake-prepared, seismically savvy people on the planet - were caught off-guard by the Tohoku quake's savage power. Over 15,000 people died.

Now scientists are calling attention to a dangerous area on the opposite side of the Ring of Fire, the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a fault that runs parallel to the Pacific coast of North America, from northern California to Vancouver Island. This tectonic time bomb is alarmingly similar to Tohoku, capable of generating a megathrust earthquake at or above magnitude 9, and about as close to Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver as the Tohoku fault is to Japan's coast. Decades of geological sleuthing recently established that although it appears quiet, this fault has ripped open again and again, sending vast earthquakes throughout the Pacific Northwest and tsunamis that reach across the Pacific.

What happened in Japan will probably happen in North America. The big question is when.