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Light Saber

Best of the Web: People Power! Ireland's largest demonstration in 30 years draws over 100,000 onto Dublin streets

Henry McDonald & Andrew Clark
The Guardian
Sun, 28 Nov 2010 02:15 UTC
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© AP Photo/Peter Morrison
One of the largest demonstrations in the Irish Republic's history brought more than 100,000 people on to Dublin's streets in protest over the international bailout and four years of austerity ahead.

As European officials thrashed out the finer details of an €85bn rescue package, huge crowds braved freezing temperatures to demonstrate against the cuts, aimed at driving down Ireland's colossal national debt.

The main march to O'Connell Street passed off peacefully but there was an uneasy standoff outside the Irish parliament as two lines of Garda Siochána officers hemmed in around 100 leftwing demonstrators who had broken away from the union-organised protest. Fireworks were thrown at gardai outside the gates of the Dail as protesters shouted: "Burn it down, burn it down." Extra police were rushed to the scene to surround the ad hoc demonstration by leftwing and anarchist groups, who also set fire to a picture of the taoiseach, Brian Cowen.

Among those on the main march there was deep anger that most of the €80bn-plus from the EU and IMF will be used to shore up Ireland's ailing banks.
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Sheeple

Best of the Web: The Naive Vegetarian

Barry Groves, PhD
Second Opinions
Sun, 09 Jun 2002 09:14 UTC
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© Unknown
There is . . . but one categorical imperative: Act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

~ Immanuel Kant (The Categorical Imperative)
Vegetarianism, as a way of life, has been around for millennia - with relatively few adherents. Recently, however, reports in the news media, have suggested that a vegetarian way of life is healthier. Not surprisingly The Vegetarian Society has capitalised on these reports using them to persuade members of the lay public that their way is better for the animals, the environment, and, not least, for human health - and numbers are growing.

Forms of vegetarianism

Vegetarianism has evolved several forms. Generally the person who calls himself a vegetarian does not believe in killing animals and so does not eat meat and, sometimes, fish. He does, however, eat eggs and dairy produce. This form of vegetarianism, known more correctly as lacto-ovo-vegetarianism, is the most common form. There are also more extreme and restricted diets: the vegan diet whose followers exclude all animal products, but otherwise eat anything from the plant world. More restricted again are the Zen macrobiotic diets which consist almost exclusively of cereals and there are several variations on raw food - vegetarian - diets.

Vegans do not eat or use animal products, animal by-products, or products tested on animals. The term vegan, formed from first three and last two letters of the word veg etari an , was coined in London in 1944 by seven vegetarians who founded the Vegan Society.
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Alarm Clock

Best of the Web: Intraspecies Predator: How A Psychopath Sees The World


Dr. Robert Hare
Sat, 27 Nov 2010 09:59 UTC
Vitally important information.

Scientific studies show that psychopaths' brains work in very different ways to the brains of normal human beings. According to Robert Hare, the psychopath seems to interpret, process and use emotional information as if it was neutral information. The psychopath cannot extract emotional information from words as normal people do. Words like "murder, rape and death", provoke NO reaction in the mind/brain of a psychopath. They respond 'in a very superficial manner' to concepts that cause an emotional and distressing reaction in normal people.

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Heart

Best of the Web: People Power! "Road to Hope" Aid Convoy Enters Gaza!

Ken O'Keefe
Press TV
Fri, 26 Nov 2010 04:58 UTC

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© Agence France-Presse
A humanitarian aid convoy carrying aid supplies for the people of the besieged Gaza Strip has entered Gaza through Egypt's Rafah border crossing.

The convoy, known as "Road to Hope", left London on October 10 and arrived in Gaza on Thursday. It comprises of 30 vehicles and 101 humanitarian aid workers that include eight survivors of the Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla in May that killed nine people onboard.

The Egyptian negotiators first allowed three members of the convoy, including its leader, to enter the territory, Press TV correspondent, who was present at the Rafah border crossing, reported late Thursday.

The convoy leader told Press TV that the aid fleet crossed France, Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya on its way to Gaza. In Libya, he said, "we were supposed to take delivery of the 'Al-Quds Five' part of the convoy, but, unfortunately, it was not ready".

Moreover, Libya failed to grant permission for the transit of the aid convoy through Egypt by land, leaving it stranded for nine days at the Libya-Egypt border.
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Target

Best of the Web: America:The Silence of a Nation

MindCrimesInc
YouTube
Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:58 UTC
Excerpts from a speech by: Chris Hedges.

The author spoke at the Revolution Books Town Hall Meeting at Ethical Culture Society on January 13, 2009 condemning Israel and USA complicity in Israel's murderous destruction and genocide of the innocent men, women and children of GAZA and the West Bank.

Dedicated to the children of GAZA.

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Better Earth

Best of the Web: John Trudell Documentary


Youtube
Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:00 UTC
A chronicle of legendary Native American poet/activist John Trudell's travels, spoken word performances and politics.

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Book

Best of the Web: Cooking the History Books: The Thanksgiving Massacre

Laura Elliff
Republic of Lakotah
Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00 UTC
Is All That Turkey and Stuffing a Celebration of Genocide?

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© Republic of Lakotah
Thanksgiving is a holiday where families gather to share stories, football games are watched on television and a big feast is served. It is also the time of the month when people talk about Native Americans. But does one ever wonder why we celebrate this national holiday? Why does everyone give thanks?

History is never simple. The standard history of Thanksgiving tells us that the "Pilgrims and Indians" feasted for three days, right? Most Americans believe that there was some magnificent bountiful harvest. In the Thanksgiving story, are the "Indians" even acknowledged by a tribe? No, because everyone assumes "Indians" are the same. So, who were these Indians in 1621?

In 1620, Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower naming the land Plymouth Rock. One fact that is always hidden is that the village was already named Patuxet and the Wampanoag Indians lived there for thousands of years. To many Americans, Plymouth Rock is a symbol. Sad but true many people assume, "It is the rock on which our nation began." In 1621, Pilgrims did have a feast but it was not repeated years thereafter. So, it wasn't the beginning of a Thanksgiving tradition nor did Pilgrims call it a Thanksgiving feast. Pilgrims perceived Indians in relation to the Devil and the only reason why they were invited to that feast was for the purpose of negotiating a treaty that would secure the lands for the Pilgrims. The reason why we have so many myths about Thanksgiving is that it is an invented tradition. It is based more on fiction than fact.
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Bad Guys

Flashback Best of the Web: Fascism, Genocide, and Extinction: An Indictment Against Civilization

Sean Swain
Russell Means Freedom
Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00 UTC
"...It is iron and wheat which have Civilized men and ruined the human Race."
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourses on the Origin of Inequality (Rousseau 24)

"It would be better to dump the whole stinking system and take the consequences."
- The Unabomber (Kaczynski #179, Unabomber 140)
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© Russell Means Freedom
Just as human activity has taken the world to the brink of ecological destruction, Al Gore has emerged as the ecosystem's ostensible messiah, mobilizing millions to change their habits of consumption. Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" has made it fashionable to "go green," to "save the planet." His analysis, however, seems somewhat mitigated compared to the more urgent descriptions of others who contend that this generation "is on the verge of the most profound catastrophe the human species has ever faced. Death threats to the living earth are coming from all sides. Water, sunlight, air and soil are threatened" (Koetke 155). With "every organism on the planet" threatened (Koetke 155), the intentions of Al Gore and his millions of "go green" proselytes - who want only to scale back consumption - are called into question; is their conservation message truly designed to save the planet, or merely postpone the inevitable through a drink-slower-party-longer approach to global warming, then they in no way save the environment; they save civilization. In other words, scaled-back consumption will still destroy the environment - it will simply take longer before the destruction causes civilization to sputter out.

So, the question arises: What if it is civilization itself - the very thing Gore and friends are saving - that is the cause of ecological catastrophe? "For the first time in more than three billion years of life, a living system is relentlessly creating the means not of self-preservation, but self-destruction" (Schmookler 175); that "living system is civilization. In the proper historical context, civilization is revealed to be a fascist system of control, a ten thousand-year genocide against sustainable ways of life that pushes humanity toward extinction.
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Bad Guys

Flashback Best of the Web: "God Given Right:" Palestine and Native America

Robert Robideau
CounterPunch
Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:00 UTC
The recent election windfall victory of Hamas has sent shock waves through the United States and the European Union. They swiftly announced their threat to withhold $400 million in aide if Hamas refused to recognize the state of Israel and disarm.

Hamas, which has promoted itself as a militant alternative to the discredited Fatah government, now has to live up to its own rhetoric of providing an alternative to the long suffering Palestinian people.

Mr Zahar, the leader of Hamas who rose to power in 1989, reportedly said, "Spies and thieves must fear us," and "thieves are those who steal our land". As a member of the American Indian Movement, I know full well that the roads into the Americas were paved by thieves. It was A government spy sent to create internal disruption, who set the stage for the execution of Anna Mae Aquash, an icon in Indian country; and while over 150 government police terrorized communities on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota reservation in the summer of 1975, the federal government stole one eighth of the Pine Ridge reservation land.

The state of Israel sets on land that was originally Palestinian but Zionist movements in Europe and the United States claimed that the "land was given to them by God" and their belief that their race possessed some "natural superiority". Euro- Americas pray to "god and country" and teach their future generations to pray homage to the gangsters, outlaws and thieves who stole the country from Indian nations in god,s name.

The European idea that they possessed a "God given superiority" not only had brought them into conflict with the Palestinian people, but also North American Indian Nations in the 1800s.
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Handcuffs

Best of the Web: Sarkozy's Mask Slips With "Paedophile" Outburst At Press

John Lichfield
The Independent, UK
Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Agence France-PressePresident Sarkozy told a journalist: 'I am personally convinced you are a paedophile'
President Nicolas Sarkozy was yesterday accused of calling French journalists "paedophiles" in a furious off-the-record exchange at the Nato summit in Lisbon last week.

The Elysée Palace denied that the President had ever used the word but a news magazine and an investigative website reported that Mr Sarkozy had lost his temper when questioned about "Karachigate" - allegations of kickbacks on French submarine sales to Pakistan in the 1990s.

The magazine L'Express and the website Mediapart said that President Sarkozy was briefing the Elysée press corps on Friday night about developments at the Nato summit. A journalist asked him a question about the latest developments in the Karachigate affair: allegations that the cancellation of commissions on a French submarine contract led to a bomb attack in Karachi in May 2002 in which 11 French engineers and four Pakistanis died.

Mr Sarkozy is then reported to have launched into a tirade about press ethics and the use of unnamed sources. "You say ridiculous things. You check nothing," he said to the journalist who asked the question.

"I have nothing against you but it seems that you are a paedophile. I am personally convinced of that fact. I have spoken to the security services but I won't tell you which ones. I have seen someone but it was just a verbal exchange. But now I am personally convinced that you are a paedophile."

After a stunned silence, the briefing moved on to other subjects. Before he left, President Sarkozy is reported to have said to the journalists: "So long paedophiles, see you tomorrow."

Comment: Isn't it great when the mask slips and we get a view of the real psychological profile of these 'leaders'...

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