Are humans schizophrenic? This is a serious question. In general terms, a schizophrenic is defined as someone who engages in abnormal social behavior and fails to understand reality. You could argue that those two criteria are more or less the same, or at least that one leads to the other. If you fail to grasp reality, you can't have normal social interactions, and if your interactions with others are faulty, there's something you're missing when it comes to understanding the reality around you.

But 'failure to understand reality', now that one really describes the average human being (and in particular some of the above average ones). Granted, there are degrees of such faulty comprehension, and true schizophrenics are obviously on the extreme end of the spectrum, but it's all the same condition. So it's not surprising that a more rational and objective analysis of schizophrenia defines it as social illness rather than strictly genetic or physical, i.e. it is the result of the toxic influence of our wonderful, modern social mores and 'norms' on a person's mind, body and soul. Schizophrenics may be extreme cases, but we're all affected.

Is there any essential difference between a schizophrenic who believes something because voices told them to, and an entire nation of people believing that the US invaded Iraq to bring freedom and democracy because their government told them to? In both cases, the person/people are being manipulated by a bogus, manipulative authority. The only important distinction I can think of is that in the first case a single person's life is negatively affected, in the second, millions of lives are not only negatively affected, but destroyed.

So I'd argue that everyone is 'schizophrenic' to one degree or another, and anyone who disagrees should go see a shrink. But a specific example of people's maladaptation to truth or reality was brought to my attention when reading a story on RT.com about a wonderful recent event at Kruger national park: a lion ate a buffalo. Not impressed? Well the 'highlight' of this event for observers (and half the internet) is the fact that the lion tore open the (female) buffalo's stomach and pulled out its unborn fetus and carried it off to a few other lions who all ate it.

As it burrows its head in the bloody cavities of the dead animal it can be seen pulling out a fleshy object.

'What is it?' the man watching wonders, 'It looks like a bit of stomach.'

Then suddenly, as the big cat makes off with its find, the woman gasps in shock, 'It's a baby!' she cries.

'That was pregnant, it got the baby out,' she says in disgust, 'Oh my goodness, gross.'

Al-Nusra and the so called "moderate" rebel opposition in Syria have no intention of calling off their alliance with which they intend to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad. In the same vein, the US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, who sponsor these "moderates", have no intention of ending their alliance, which has the same objective. Russian intervention has turned the tide and ensured there will be no regime change. The US has responded with Plan B, ominously presented as a plan to "counter Russia" and which may lead to the partition of Syria.

Sputnik News reported that on Wednesday, 5 May, Vitaly Churkin, Russia's representative to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council that "Western-backed opposition forces in Syria have not broken off ties to the al-Nusra Front group despite their promises to do so."

Al-Nusra was a leading member of a coalition of Islamist groups called Ansar al Sharia, formed in 2015 for the purpose of capturing government-held regions of Aleppo. This followed its membership in the formation of Jaish al-Fatah ("Army of Conquest") in the Idlib province earlier in the year. Besides Al-Nusra, these alliances include hard-line Islamist groups such as Ahrar ash-Sham, Jund al-Aqsa, Liwa al-Haqq, Ansar al-Din, Jaysh al-Sunna, Ajnad al-Sham, and Faylaq al-Sham. Jaish al-Fatah has fought together in Aleppo, Latakia, Hama, and Idlib Governorates. Through this alliance Al-Nusra has gained easy access to weapons such as the US anti-tank TOW missile. On 6 May Jaish Al-Fatah launched an offensive in south west Aleppo by a suicide bomb attack in the town of Khan Tuman.

On this week's episode of the Health and Wellness Show we discussed the rise of pornography that has hijacked the sexuality of our entire culture. What are the psychological, physical and emotional effects of pornography on the personal and societal levels? How does it impact intimacy and relationships with others? How is porn tied to the objectification of women, pedophilia and sex trafficking? The porn problem is epidemic and often hides in plain sight. Our society is saturated in it through advertising, popular music, fashion and social media. Prior to the collapse of great civilizations there was a marked increase in hedonism and debauchery. If history repeats, does this mean our current civilization is on the road to ruin?

Whether you use pornography or not, it affects us all. Listen in for an in-depth discussion of this important topic. And to lighten the mood afterwards, stay tuned for Zoya's Pet Health Segment on proper nutrition for your cat or dog.

Running Time: 01:45:20

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"Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief."

¬ Frantz Fanon

Mr. Fanon couldn't have been more correct, because I can't go a day without seeing someone on the internet rationalizing, ignoring, and denying something that doesn't fit into their core beliefs. I constantly see people outright dismissing any information contrary to their political views and world-views with comebacks like 'well, that's just your opinion and this is my opinion' - as if opinions have any relationship to facts. Often, such pearls of wisdom come from people I know don't actually read anything substantial - like, a non-fiction book. You know, those stacks of paper with words on them, bound between two covers?

Few things annoy me more than hearing someone say 'well, that's just your opinion.' These are the people who obviously think their opinion is as valid as anyone else's, and this is simply not true - in my opinion (pun intended). Sure, everyone is entitled to their opinion, just as anyone is entitled to respond to your opinion with factual data and information that refutes it. So let's get it straight: not all opinions are equal. In fact, not all 'opinions' are actually opinions. Whoever told you that nonsense did not understand the meaning of education. It is the labor of collecting and evaluating facts, data, and information that validates an opinion, giving some opinions more weight than others, or even making opinions not opinions at all, but hard facts.

"The earth revolves around the sun."

"Oh, that's just your opinion!"

To say 'all opinions are equal' is an insult to every learned person in history, who had to be wrong so many times before ever getting close to being right.

Devastating earthquakes, flash-floods occurring with increasing regularity in most every region of Earth, Spring snowfalls, hailstones the size of baseballs, tornadoes in the Middle East, wildfires raging in northern latitudes, meteors exploding in the atmosphere, and residential/industrial buildings exploding all over the place...

The Powers That Be tell us that that is all due to 'man-made global warming', and that the environmental chaos can be arrested or mitigated by implementing their judicious solutions.

But is that the real story here? How can paying carbon taxes or 'going green', for example, stop the cosmos from sending increasing numbers of meteor fireballs our way?

In the space of 24 hours last month, two major earthquakes on either side of the Pacific Ring of Fire killed several hundred people. The quake in Ecuador was followed by extreme rainfall, while the quake in southern Japan was followed by hundreds of tremors - and foam; lots of bizarre, white foam of unknown origin.

Here is just a selection of 'the signs' in April 2016, signs that the planet/cosmos/Living System is gearing up for a major 'reset'...

Where would we be without Bin Laden? Or rather, where would the US Empire's rationale to justify wars of aggression be without Bin Laden?

Wherever he is right now, the lanky Saudi playboy cum jihadi has every right to feel proud of the role he was co-opted to play by the pioneers of the phony war on terror. After all, he and he alone 'did' 9/11. The scramble to 'get him' for 'doing 9/11' allowed for a US military take over of Afghanistan and, with a few blatant lies repeated ad nauseam by the Western press, Iraq was overrun too. That's a lot of return on the energy invested in turning the son of a Saudi millionaire into the bete noire of the freedom-loving peoples of the world.

Once Afghanistan and Iraq were 'done' however, Osama was retreated to his mysteriously inaccessible-to-all-but-Allah mountain cave, and 'al-Qaeda' took over for the next few years of securing freedom and democracy for the Middle East, which took the unusual form of destroying as much of it as possible.

By the time 2011 rolled around, US and NATO warmongers were getting a bit peckish again, and Syria and Libya were lined up for obliteration. But al-Qaeda had become a bit 'old' and no one had seen Osama for years, except in the form of grainy videos of some guy who looked a bit like him. So from the rubble of Iraq, "ISIS" was launched onto the geopolitical scene to replace 'al-qaeda' who the USA government was now actively funding and arming in Syria and Libya.

But to facilitate his definitive exit from the stage, bin Laden was to take one last hit for the Secret Team as the victim of the 'heroic Navy Seal raid' on his 'compound' in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a popular retirement and holiday retreat for Pakistani military and civilian intelligence. This was a bizarre choice of hiding place for the world's (then) most wanted man, especially since it was located just a few kms away from the Pakistani equivalent of West Point and the CIA had an office there. Then again, very little ever makes sense in the phony war on terror that is used as a cover for imperial wars of aggression.

UFO sightings. Alien abduction accounts. These topics have been so fraught with misinformation, sensationalism and pure speculation over the years that to learn what is actually occurring can be a very difficult undertaking even under the best of circumstances. There are a few out there who succeed in doing so.

Joining us for this episode of The Truth Perspective is retired Professor of History David M. Jacobs, author of such well-known titles as The UFO Controversy in America, Secret Life and The Threat. In his most recent book, Walking Among Us: The Alien Plan to Control Humanity, Dr. Jacobs takes his research another step further and presents his latest findings and conclusions about the alien presence here on Earth.

In his well-grounded and concrete style, Dr. Jacobs goes into detail to explain the rigors of his study, as well as how he has come to understand this topic of topics. If you have ever wondered what the truth about aliens was, you'll want to listen in!

The Truth Perspective is brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events.

Running Time: 02:08:50

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Here's the transcript of the show:

As the shaky Aleppo 'regime of silence' stumbles on, here's some of the latest news from Syria. First, South Front reports: "Infighting is ongoing between militants groups in East Ghouta, near Damascus, amid Syrian government forces' gains in the area. The situation is tense between Jaish al-Islam and Failaq ar-Rahman."
Further north, in Idlib, a refugee camp was bombed, killing at least 28 people. The U.S., Syria, and Russia all denied that it was one of their airstrikes. UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond blamed the Syrian Army. ("The Assad regime's contempt for efforts to restore the cessation of hostilities in Syria is clear for all to see," he said. The Right Honorable Gentleman (sic) had better look up the meaning of the word 'clear'.) The Russians probably have the right idea:

The refugee camp could have been shelled from multiple rocket launchers used by al-Nusra Front terrorists in the region, the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said Friday. "Judging by the nature of destruction seen on photos and videos, the [refugee camp in Idlib] could have been either intentionally mistakenly struck from multiple rocket launchers, which are now often used by al-Nusra Front terrorists in the area," Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

According to Konashenkov, photos of the site on social networks show that "there are no shell craters from aircraft ammunition and other traces of airstrikes." He also said that no flights were carried out by aircraft, Russian or other, over Sarmada in Syria's province of Idlib, near the border with Turkey where the refugee camp had been struck. "We have carefully analyzed the information from flight control area in that region on May 4 and May 5, 2016. There were no flights by Russian or any other aircraft over Sarmada."

Today on the Health and Wellness Show we connected the dots to get an overall picture of what's happening to our state of health in an ever-changing world. Among the topics we covered were the growing concerns regarding the medical-industrial complex as described by Professor Mary Holland in her recent speech at the UN: Vaccinations and Human Rights. Are vaccines really safe? Should the state force them upon children, and deny them fundamental rights like education, if they refuse them? What would a sane and ethical vaccine policy look like?

We also discussed disease outbreaks among heavily vaccinated populations, the incompetency of the US medical system, the disturbing trend of female genital cosmetic surgery, sexuality and cultural health syndromes. As always, Zoya joined us with the Pet Health Segment - "Why do cats act so weird?"

Running Time: 01:34:51

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NATO displayed its truly destructive and sadistic nature when it obliterated Libya 5 years ago. Those who expose what happened, and what is still occurring there, are 'soft-killed'.

What began in 2011 with a violent assault against Libyans ended in a NATO-requested and UN-approved 'no-fly zone' that resulted in a massacre of unprecedented proportions. Nicholas Kristol at the New York Times had the audacity to claim that Libyans were running around shouting, as bombs fell on their heads, "Thank you, America!" The murder and mayhem was necessary, we were told, to 'protect civilians' from their leader. A glorious and benevolent act of kindness, the 'humanitarian intervention' would usher in a new 'civilized' regime and 'up-lift' ordinary Libyans.

In reality, an entire population was killed, maimed and terrorized while NATO and its 'rebels' displayed apparent enjoyment at tearing the country apart.

When NATO left and the bulk of 'Islamist' mercenaries were moved on to Syria, Libya was left mired in civil war hell. At which point the West changed its narrative - no longer was the intervention a 'triumph of Western values'; now it was 'a regrettable mistake'. The utility of this change in narrative lies in the fact that they're now saying they'll have to go back and 'fix the mess' (that they made). It's like the psychopath returning to the scene of its crime.

But they have no intention of 'fixing' anything - rather, they want to make sure the victim has no chance of recovering and telling her side of the story.