Oprah calls out a liar on corporate TV. Could it be her flames were meant for someone else?

The headlines of the corporate media in the US have been full of stories of another liar in recent days. The man's name is James Frey and his lies were contained in a book that he claimed was based on his life. Oprah Winfrey gave the book a recommendation, and that's when things went south. It came out that Mr. Frey had stretched the truth a bit in recounting some of the events in his past. He'd lied.

Well, poor Oprah went ballistic, and she called Mr. Frey back onto her show to give him a piece of her mind. She felt duped, and she had he courage to call out Mr. Frey on her show, an act so courageous that the pundits made certain it became headline material...for some book that will be forgotten in a year. Simply because he made her look bad. Poor Oprah's ego couldn't take it, and she had to set the record straight.

Gold closed at 558.90 dollars an ounce on Friday, up 0.9% from $553.80 at the previous week's close. The dollar closed at 0.8269 euros on Friday, up 0.3% from 0.8241 euros the week before. The euro, then, closed at 1.2094 dollars, compared to 1.2134 at the previous Friday's close. Gold in euros, then, would be 462.13 euros an ounce, up 1.3% from 456.40 the week before. Oil closed at 67.76 dollars a barrel, down 1.1% from $68.48 a barrel the Friday before. Oil in euros would be 56.03 down 0.7% from 56.44 euros a barrel the week before. The gold/oil ratio closed at 8.25 barrels of oil per ounce of gold, up 2.0% from 8.09 at the previous week's end. In the U.S. stock market, the Dow closed at 10,907.21 on Friday, up 2.2% from 10,667.39 the week before. The NASDAQ closed at 2,304.23 for the week, up 1.5% from 2,247.70. The yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury note ended at 4.51%, up 16 basis points from 4.35 at the close of the previous week.

Gold continued its rise last week and the U.S. stock market rallied on Friday, regaining much of what it lost the previous Friday. Oil eased a bit as well.

What did you do today? What are your plans for tomorrow? Normal stuff? Go to work? Pick up the kids? Preparing dinner? Maybe a drink in the bar with some friends, or stay at home with the latest blockbuster movie? If so, then you are doing pretty much the same thing as billions of other people around the world, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Life goes on after all. Or does it? I mean, will normal life go on indefinitely? You see, I was checking the news today and… well, "oh boy" is the best way I can describe it.

If the world is a mirror of those who inhabit it, what can the issue of climate change tell us about ourselves?

Everybody talks about the weather. It is the one safe topic when you meet a stranger or are stuck next to a colleague you don't know very well waiting for a meeting. If you live in a rural area, the weather has a direct affect on people's lives as a year's crops depend upon how much or little rain may fall, an incident of hail that wipes out young fruit, or how early or late a frost may come. If you are in a city, with only your weekends off, then whether or not your free days are rainy or sunny can assume a grand importance.

In short, everyone has something to say about the weather.

There is a lot of talk these days about climate change and global warming. We hear predictions of everything from the melting of the ice caps leading to a rise of the ocean level enough to flood New York City and other low-lying areas, to a sudden change in the Gulf Stream that would usher in a new ice age, to complete silence. Some give timelines of a thousand years' transition. Others tell us it could happen much more rapidly in two to five. Some say it isn't going to happen at all.

The Bush administration continues to insist there is not enough scientific data in hand while the "Peak Oil" apologists use climate change as another argument in favour of massive population reduction and the end to an oil-based economy.

SmokingMirrors: And Down Will Come Baby, Cradle and All.

Reading the above linked blog nearly made me cry. Why? Well, because I have heard the same frustration and despair expressed by other sincere activists for World Peace in the past couple of weeks. The despair of the front line is setting in. Yes, it looks like COINTELPRO is winning. The depression is spreading among those who have been keeping up the good fight for so long; we are succumbing to the disease. But is that really true?

Perhaps with understanding we can find a remedy, a Bridge Over Troubled Water.

When you're weary, feeling small, when tears are in your eyes, I'll dry them all. I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough and friends just can't be found, like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down. Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down. When you're down and out, when you're on the street, when evening falls so hard, I'll comfort you. I'll take your part, oh, when darkness comes and pain is all around, like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down. Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down.

Sail on silver girl, sail on by. Your time has come to shine, All your dreams are on their way. See how they shine, oh and when you need a friend, I'm sailing right behind Like a bridge over troubled water, I will ease your mind. Like a bridge over troubled water, I will ease your mind. [© 1969 Paul Simon]

Just in case you forgot, in March last year, the presidential commission concluded that Saddam had no WMDs and that the widespread belief to the contrary was due to the US intelligence community's inability to communicate intelligence.

Gold and oil prices continue to climb while the markets in Japan and the US begin to shake. Precursors of a larger crunch?

Yesterday, the BBC, along with many other mainstream news sites, ran a story about Bush's backing of the plan for Iran proposed by the Russians. The story was essentially the product of a White House press conference yesterday morning and most mainstream news outlets directly quoted Bush's words from the conference.

The BBC Article stated:

"Iran wants further talks amid some reluctance to give up control of a key part of the nuclear cycle.

'The Russians came up with the idea and I support it... because I do believe people ought to be allowed to have civilian nuclear power,' said Mr Bush.

But he added that he did not believe 'non-transparent regimes that threaten the security of the world should be allowed to gain the technologies necessary to make a weapon'.

Russia should also collect nuclear waste of use in weapons, he added.

'The Iranians have said We want a weapon and it's not in the world's interests that they have a weapon,' Mr Bush said in Washington.

It was not immediately clear to what Iranian statement the US leader was referring."

In his latest fireside chat with the western world, Osama has, yet again, gone to great lengths to support the "war on terror" propaganda of the Bush government.

Let's have a look at some excerpts:

[...] "I plan to speak about the repeated errors your President Bush has committed in comments on the results of your polls that show an overwhelming majority of you want the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. But he (Bush) has opposed this wish and said that withdrawing troops sends the wrong message to opponents, that it is better to fight them (bin Laden's followers) on their land than their fighting us (Americans) on our land."

Indeed, Bush did say that the invasion of Iraq was about fighting the "war on terror" and that al-Qaeda is in Iraq. So we would of course expect Osama to counter such claims and tell us the real reason for the US invasion of Iraq, right? Think again, this guy isn't getting paid to contradict the Bush government!

Osama: "I can reply to these errors by saying that war in Iraq is raging with no let-up, and operations in Afghanistan are escalating in our favor, thank God"

In a riveting display of modern technological efficiency that undoubtedly thrilled the editors of Popular Mechanics magazine, last Friday, by way of a Predator drone aircraft, the CIA fired missiles at a group of houses in a village on Pakistan's north-western border with Afghanistan. Eighteen Pakistani villagers, including women and children, were either blown to pieces, burned to death or crushed as their homes collapsed on top of them as they slept in their beds.