SOTT Focus:


No Entry

SOTT Focus: 'Ashteria' is a Pretext to Shut Down International Air Travel

Volcanic revolution
© SOTT.net
The pathocracy's desperate push for control is leading many otherwise intelligent people to believe they are seeing things that are not really there. On April 15 British airports were told by the British Civil Aviation Authority to begin grounding flights. At the same time, the Air Traffic Control Service for the UK (Nats) imposed restrictions on where planes could fly after the government's Meteorological Office warned that ash could damage jet engines. By April 17 most routes in northern Europe were suspended and the shutdown had spread to TransAtlantic flights. All the while Europeans were subject to nauseating platitudes from politicians about passengers' safety being their "paramount concern." If jet engines could not withstand the "dangerous ash cloud" that had magically disguised itself as clear blue skies, why then was NATO playing multiple war games over European airspace during the lockdown? At least 60 aircraft (including fighter jets) from Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, USA, France, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom and Sweden took part in the Brilliant Mariner maritime exercise... while all commercial jets were grounded (because "safety was our paramount concern"). In fact, there may have been more military exercises taking place during this time.

If passenger safety was the primary consideration throughout this fiasco, why then has the airline industry and the relevant regulatory authorities repeatedly suppressed the findings of independent studies that sound the alarm over a very real danger facing passengers and crew alike during air travel?

Book

SOTT Focus: Satire: Leaked Reports Declare Obama's Unwritten Novel Wins the Lost Man Booker Prize

Obama book
© unknownObama shares ideas for his new book with critics
London - Leaked reports reveal that on Wednesday, début Hawaiian novelist Barack Hussein Obama II, 49, will win the Lost Man Booker Prize, one of the world's most prestigious literary awards, with "No Peace for the wicked!". It will be the first time in it's 41-year history that an unwritten book will claim the award.

He will receive a designer bound copy of his novel (once it is published) at a gala dinner in London and can expect not only overnight literary fame but also a sharp rise in much needed popularity he has lost in the run-up to House of Representatives and Senate elections.

The Lost Man Booker Prize is a one-off prize to honour the books which missed out on the opportunity to win the Booker Prize in 1970.

To pre-empt any potential controversy, Booker organizers have announced that they have a written certificate dated 1970 that clearly shows Obama had an intention to write a book about peace one day. The organizers have stated however, that this certificate will never be released to the public and they should just take their word for it.

Phoenix

SOTT Focus: Connecting the Dots: Plane Madness Redux and Looking-Glass Weather

Image
Mother Nature revealed its awesome beauty this month as our Big Blue Marble continues to open up in breathtaking fashion. The sight of Eyjafjallajokull coming to life, while beautiful to behold, may set a terrifying trend as volcanoes wake from their slumber and impact our climate in a sudden and system-changing way. Perhaps it is not without meaning that the first significant volcanic eruption to draw people's attention to our rapidly cooling climate took place in IceLand... the harbinger of IceWorld?

April witnessed deluge after deluge of torrential rains bringing flooding, landslides and misery to many in the Americas and China where large cities are underwater. Arctic-cold weather in the least expected places, more frequent earthquakes and hailstorms of unusual ferocity have extended winter in the northern hemisphere into May, raised seabeds and pelted homes with ice.

Dramatic and significant though it was, did the volcanic eruption in Iceland really merit the unprecedented shutdown of European airspace for a week, with knock-on effects across the world? Who made the call, and on what basis? These are important questions to ask because Eyjafjallajokull's wandering ash cloud now apparently holds the near-term fate of international air travel in its plume, so to speak. With cosmic bombardment underway and magma erupting from the oceans' floor, wrangling over the immediate fiscal losses detract from necessary preparations for the approaching ice age.

As always, the stresses and strains in our environment are mirrored back at us in the political and social events of which we play a more immediate role. We will analyse the mysterious circumstances surrounding the Polish government air crash, the political and corporate back-room manipulation of "Tea Party" activism and the psychopaths on Wall Street's engorgement upon humanity through economic terrorism. We'll observe how The Big Brother Surveillance State and naked scanner racketeering expand unchecked, and consider the geopolitical chess moves behind the Kyrgyz and Thai "Red Shirt" revolutions.

And, of course, we couldn't connect the dots in April without acknowledging the high strangeness of the global UFO wave...

Eye 2

SOTT Focus: An Odd Rash of Stabbings

Image
It had been so long since I checked in with a "mainstream" news site, I decided to visit cnn.com this morning for fun.

An article that caught my eye was (All bold print in this article will be my added emphasis):
Minnesota man charged with stabbing 29 pigs (5-5-2010)
A drunk man stabbed 29 pigs in Minnesota, hurting them so badly they had to be slaughtered, according to charges filed against the man by police.

Curtis Adams, 23, said he did not remember stabbing the pigs, but did not deny having done it, Detective Matt Owens said in court papers. (continues)
It turns out the man was drunk, but something struck me as odd. I decided to search via Google News to see what other stabbing events, if any, had occurred recently.

Comment: There has been yet another fatal multiple stabbing incident reported in China today (May 10):
Eight killed in stabbing spree in East China
Zhou allegedly killed his 10-year-old daughter Zhou Xiaomin at home first, before stabbing his 80-year-old mother despite the woman's pleas for mercy, media reported.

He then broke into a neighbor's home and allegedly killed his wife, 36-year-old Kang Qiuying, their neighbor Hu Dongsheng and Hu's 83-year-old mother, Wu Xiu.

Two other villagers, Ye Wen'e and Zhou Nian Mei, tried running away from the scene of the attack to seek help from the police. But Zhou allegedly stabbed them to death as well. A man, Zuo Huasheng, reportedly became Zhou's eight victim when he ran into the suspect in the street.

Local villagers considered Zhou to be a genial person before the attacks, the village's Party chief, surnamed Gao, told China Daily.

Zhou and his wife also have a 5-year-old son. The family's financial status is reportedly not good and Zhou sometimes went to cities to do odd jobs while his wife farmed at home.

"There has never been such a serious case in the village. The villagers are now very nervous," Gao said.
Update There has been yet another multiple stabbing at a kindergarten in China today (May 12):
Man Hacked 7 Children and 2 Adults in Latest Attack at School
An attacker with a cleaver hacked to death seven children and two adults at a kindergarten in northwest China on Wednesday, the latest in a string of savage assaults on the country's schools. Eleven other children were wounded.

The killer, 48-year-old Wu Huanming, returned home after the attack on the outskirts of the city of Hanzhong and committed suicide, the local government reported. A motive wasn't known, although reports indicated he and the school administrator may have known each other. [...]

The attack began at about 8:20 a.m., as children were arriving at the private Shengshui Temple Kindergarten in Hanzhong's Nanzheng county, the government statement said. The area is on the city's rural outskirts in a relatively poor part of the country.

Wu killed the school's administrator Wu Hongying and a student on the spot, then hacked at 18 others, the statement said. Six students and Wu Hongying's mother later died in hospital, it said. [...]

"I saw him (the attacker) before and he looked quite normal," said the man, who would identify himself only by his surname, Li. [...]

Early reports on Wednesday's attack were removed from Chinese Web sites or moved from the home page to inside sections, an apparent attempt to play down the incident. There was no mention of it on state television's national noon news report. [...]

State media has also steered clear of examining what might be motivating school attackers, preferring to focus on increases in security.



Book

SOTT Focus: The Psychopath: A New Subspecies of Homo Sapiens

Image
© AgentSeta
Contrasting Several Evolutionary Hypotheses

The psychopath is a unique and quite dangerous subgroup within our species. He, or she, is capable of deadly manipulations executed with unbelievably cold, calculated intellectual and emotional maneuvers. Charming, lacking in empathy, guilt, responsibility and the normal range of human emotion, they move among us with an often impeccable mask that makes them virtually undetectable. There are several evolutionary hypotheses which attempt to explain their behavior, however the best fit is that they represent a cheating reproductive strategy, one geared towards the production of many offspring for which they afford no long term care.

Support for this thesis comes in a various forms. We know that psychopaths are callous, deceptive, promiscuous, and egocentric (Cleckley, 1941: 337-364). They are also mostly male: almost four times as many more psychopathic men then women (Sigvardsson, et al, 1982). This makes them ideal for mating with many women and then leaving them subsequently, once the deed is done, so to speak. It also confers a psychological advantage in that they have the ability to manipulate women by mimicking emotional attachment, or deceiving them about resources they can offer. The same is also true for female psychopaths, who can often create the impression of being in distress which elicits more financial and physical support from the men they mate with. There is a genetic basis to the trait, demonstrated in many twin adoption studies (Viding et al, 2005 & Larsson et al, 2006: 221-30).

Eye 2

SOTT Focus: Ponerology 101: Snakes in Suits

Image
The criminal psychopath has been observed and studied for almost a century. But except for a short mention by Cleckley, the idea of a successful psychopath - ordinary by almost all external standards - has remained shrouded in that pervasive "conspiracy of silence". As this series progresses, it will become clear why this is the case and what exactly are the ramifications of such a dangerous gap in knowledge and awareness. So far the only in-depth presentation of the problem of successful psychopaths has been Paul Babiak's and Robert Hare's book Snakes in Suits, published in 2006. The book is essential reading, and has the potential to save your life, literally. The information it contains is universal and can be applied to interactions on any social level.

Babiak, as an industrial and organizational psychologist, encountered his first corporate psychopath in 1992. By studying operators like "Dave" in the corporate environment, Babiak not only brought into focus the methods by which psychopaths infiltrate and ascend the corporate ladder of success, he shattered previous illusions about what was and wasn't possible for psychopaths to accomplish. Many in the industry thought psychopaths wouldn't be able to succeed in business. They thought that psychopaths' bullying and narcissistic behaviors would be off-putting to potential hirers, and that their abuse and manipulations would inevitably lead to failure within the company. In fact, the so-called "experts" couldn't have been more wrong. They seemed to have neglected the uncanny ability of psychopaths to present an image of extreme normality, and even excellence, to their victims. And that is what we are to them: victims, potential "marks", suckers.

Comment: Go to Part 4 in the Ponerology 101 series


Bell

SOTT Focus: Kerry Cassidy of Project Camelot Interviews Laura Knight-Jadczyk

Laura PC Interview
© 2010, sott.netKerry Cassidy interviews Laura Knight-Jadczyk
When Kerry Cassidy of Project Camelot stopped by to interview Laura Knight-Jadczyk in early February, we had our own cameras and microphones set up to record.

Laura shares a personal account of her search for the true nature of existence and her inquiry into the paranormal, past lives and the unknown, that has served as an inspiration for so many.



Cult

SOTT Focus: Down the Rabbit Hole - The Assassination of JFK, Bishop Jim Humble And The Nexus Conference

Image
The Mad Hatter - constantly asked nonsensical and unanswerable questions.
...Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
So began Alice's adventures in Wonderland and, in a similar way, my own adventures down a very deep rabbit-hole of sorts. It's the strange event that doesn't make sense that can get you wondering; the thing that you might just let slip by as curious. But then you look a little closer and, next thing you know...
"The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well..."

Comment: Addendum:

Sometimes following the thread of an event leads to unexpected, interesting connections. In this case, the event was the only successful hijacking of an airplane in the U.S. By successful, we mean that the person who hijacked the plane managed to not only collect ransom money, but also managed to get off the plane, with the money, within U.S. borders without being caught or identified.

This particular thread lead us back to Jim Humble via the Wandering Bishops.

The hijacker identified himself by the alias Dan Cooper--later misreported in the press as D. B. Cooper--boarded a 727 in Portland on November 24, 1971. He slipped a note to a flight attendant that read, "I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to me. You are being hijacked." He demanded $200,000 and two parachutes, both of which were delivered to him when the plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Once the demands were met to Cooper's satisfaction, the plane took off with orders to fly to Mexico City at the low speed of 170 knots.

Shortly after takeoff, Cooper opened one of the exit doors of the plane and parachuted to freedom. The FBI, unable to solve the case, declared that they did not believe Cooper had survived the jump.

One very likely suspect was named in the case, however--a man by the name of William Gossett. He was a decorated veteran of the wars in Korea and Vietnam, a survivalist and an experienced parachutist. He spoke often of D. B. Cooper, once telling his wife that he could "write the epitaph for D.B. Cooper," and had told all three of his children definitively that he was the hijacker. He even walked into the office of a Salt Lake City judge and confessed to the crime, who told him to shut up and never talk about it again.

Gossett was a man continually strapped for cash, due at least in part to a gambling addiction. He eventually became a private detective, specializing in money fraud, cults and missing persons. He even assisted the FBI in rescuing a woman from an alleged cult.

And then, in 1988, Gossett changed his name from William to Wolfgang and became a priest of Christ Catholic Church, a church claiming the same "apostolic lineage" that Jim Humble claims. Interestingly, given the fact that this man was a confessed hijacker with a gambling problem, his title was The Very Rev. William Wolfgang Gossett. Also interesting is that while his address in the church directory was listed as DePoe Bay, Oregon, his phone number has a 415 area code: San Francisco.

William
William "Wolfgang" Gosset compared to FBI sketch of "D. B. Cooper"



Ambulance

SOTT Focus: Snake Oil Humbles Nexus Conference

Image
COINTELPRO: 'Bishop' Jim not so Humble
As regular SOTT and SOTT forum readers will be aware, Laura Knight-Jadczyk was scheduled to talk at the May 1st 2010 Nexus magazine conference in Amsterdam. As the only female in a six person line up, Laura was planning to give not just a woman's perspective but also the perspective of probably one of the few people alive today whose knowledge and insight spans and plumbs the depths of just about every one of the problems currently facing the human race. As Richard Dolan noted in his review of her book "High Strangeness":
I believe that Laura understands, better than probably anyone you will ever know, just how dire is the plight of our civilization - the plight of our species. She also understands that to change one's life, one must be willing to fight.
Initially when asked to attend, Laura suggested to the Nexus conference organizers that Richard Dolan (a friend and colleague of Laura's) would be a great addition to the line-up and was indeed willing to attend. The response from the organizers was that, unfortunately, they only had space for 6 speakers in one day.

We were therefore somewhat surprised when we checked the conference web site on Saturday 24th April and saw the announcement:
"Breaking News! Jim Humble is coming to Amsterdam!"
Not only that, but Jim Humble is now headlining the conference.

Apparently the Nexus conference organizers had managed to find extra space for another speaker. So, we, and Laura in particular, were rather disturbed by this development for a number of reasons. Richard Dolan is recognized as the pre-eminent UFO researcher in the world today. He is a very entertaining speaker and his talks are always fascinating. So could Jim Humble really have been so important a figure that he deserved being 'squeezed' in? Who is Jim Humble anyway?

Bulb

SOTT Focus: Israeli Settler Syndrome? Barry Chamish Barely Groks Ponerology

Image
© Chabbad InfoBarry Chamish
Investigative journalist and critic of the Israeli government Barry Chamish has recently published a strange and telling review of Andrew Lobaczewski's Political Ponerology. Chamish is best known for his UFO research in Israel and theory that Israel's former minister of Foreign Affairs, Shimon Peres, and the Shin Bet were responsible for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, not the crazed Israeli "settler" Yigal Amir. He has also been highly critical of Ariel Sharon, the psychopath behind the massacre of Sabra and Shatila. And we at SOTT grew to appreciate his, as it appeared in the past, keen insight into the true nature of Israeli leaders.

But his recent review has caused the editors at SOTT.net to ponder some interesting questions.

Chamish begins his piece, "The Two Faces of Political Ponerology", with a poorly researched statement:
Ponerology is a term invented by the author and it means the study of the nature of political evil.
While Lobaczewki did invent the term pathocracy to describe a system of government saturated with psychological deviants, he didn't invent the term ponerology. Actually, as Lobaczewski makes clear in his book, ponerology is a theological term that means the study of evil. Lobaczewski adopted it for his own purposes in studying the nature of political evil, thus the title of his book: Political Ponerology. Chamish then writes:

Comment: The problem with this situation is that it is exactly what the pathologicals in power love to see - people that are mostly on the same side of the fence (compared to the elites) at each other's throats. It is unfortunate that the "good guys" (even the ones with blind spots) can't be smarter about how they are being manipulated and allow themselves to be manipulated (and confused). In this case, Barry is not being very smart.