Greetings again!
#OccupyWallSt is back in the news, and I've been keeping tabs on worldwide #OWS events, and posting them to: http://Reddit.com/r/occupy2point0.
Stay in the know!
- Steve
WHY WE FIGHT? OIL.
I'm old enough to remember the Arab oil embargo of 1973 and long lines for gasoline in the United States. A joke that circulated among my schoolmates caught the spirit of the moment. It involved calculators, which were fairly new back then for the masses. It went like this: 142 Arabs fight 154 Israelis for control of 69 oil wells for five years. Who wins?
The America That Once Championed Human Rights, Freedom And Democracy Is No More
America has, over many years, done an excellent job of portraying itself as the bastion of human rights, freedom and democracy. However, there is only one problem with that wondrous self-assessment; it is simply not the case as it has become very evident that, based on this nation's hubristic actions around the world and it continued repressive actions domestically, it has forfeited the right to that distinction. We might say that a nation that no longer practices what it preaches, should just stop preaching.
America's Descent into Poverty
The United States has collapsed economically, socially, politically, legally, constitutionally, and environmentally. The country that exists today is not even a shell of the country into which I was born. In this article I will deal with America's economic collapse. In subsequent articles, I will deal with other aspects of American collapse.
The Human Cost of War on Iran
The bodies of Vietnamese men, women and children piled along a road in My Lai after a U.S. Army massacre on March 16, 1968. (Photo taken by U. S. Army photographer Ronald L. Haeberle)
Ryan: Rape Survivors Must Have Rapist's Baby
his morning, Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) revealed that GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan urged him to drop out of his U.S. Senate race after Akin's "legitimate rape" comments made him a liability to Republicans nationally. Yet Ryan's attempt to stick a knife into the increasingly toxic senate candidate cannot be squared with Ryan's long record of working with Akin to curtail reproductive freedom and redefine rape. Ryan and Akin cosponsored a "personhood" bill that would not only prohibit rape survivors from seeking an abortion, but would likely treat terminating a pregnancy that results from rape as a homicide crime. Similarly, Ryan and Akin partnered on a bill seeking to prevent Medicaid recipients who are raped from obtaining an abortion unless they are victims of "forcible rape."
Romney says tax returns would publicize private Mormon tithing
(RNS) Mitt Romney says in a new interview that one of the reasons he’s distressed about disclosing his tax returns is that everyone sees how much money he and his wife, Ann, have donated to his Mormon church, and that’s a number he wants to keep private.
Leaving kids in hot cars is dangerous and unfortunately nothing illustrates that better than the tragedy it causes.
In just the first week of August,
eight children diedfrom being left in hot cars. Since the beginning of the year 23 children have died, reports ABC.
FDA trying to ban gay men as sperm donors
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is preparing to implement new rules that will ban men who have had sex with other men from acting as anonymous sperm donors. The agency claims to be adopting the measures as a means of protecting recipients from HIV transmission, butaccording to the Associated Press, LGBT rights groups have been quick to point out that not only is the policy discriminatory on its face, it isn’t based in scientific reality.
David Axelrod, Stephanie Cutter, And How the Obama 2012 Team is Its Own Worst Enemy
President Obama has a problem on his hands. More serious than the fact that Mitt Romney has caught up with him in quite a few polls, more immediate than the edge Paul Ryan surprisingly has with seniors, and more disheartening than the fact that many experts are now predicting that he very well could lose in November.
Romney Campaign Admits Oil and Gas Industry Wrote Their Energy Plan
Not even trying to fool anyone anymore, the Romney campaign has admitted that their energy policy was written by the oil and gas industry.
Equality, human rights and religion or belief: time to get out of the courtroom?
A new report for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) by researchers at London Metropolitan University, including myself, explores these controversies. It is based largely on interviews and roundtable discussions with around 100 religion or belief groups, human rights and/or equality organisations, employers, public service staff, academics and lawyers. It is concerned as much with differing perceptions and understandings of the law as with the law itself. It also examines the practical application of the law in the workplace and public services.
Peace is War: How Israel Induces America into War with Iran
America’s two leading newspapers featured strikingly similar opinion pieces, providing further evidence of a coordinated effort by Israel and its American partisans to induce the United States into waging another disastrous Middle East war. In the Washington Post, former chief of Israeli military intelligence Amos Yadlin helpfully suggested “5 steps Obama can take to avert a strike on Iran”; while President Obama’s former top Middle East advisor Dennis Ross advised readers of the New York Times “How America Can Slow Israel’s March to War.”
IDF is the World’s Largest Terrorist Organization
The poverty of the people obviously forced to live in what was for all intents and purposes an enormous outdoor prison run by sadist monsters and sociopaths was heartbreaking. I have been in more than a few impoverished nations but the combination of the struggle of everyday life coupled with the fact that these good people were occupied by the largest most barbaric brutal terrorist organization on earth was heartbreaking. Soldiers would beat and humiliate old women children and other defenseless civilians with a rage and brutality unparalleled in my experiences with terrorists in Nicaragua and El Salvador. The wanton murder of children was the crimes that will burn in my mind forever. Remember these brave people have their backs to the sea with no place to escape Israeli brutality.
My New Rule for Todd Akin and the Republican Party
New Rule: If your entire party tries to get rid of you, and you stay in, you can't talk about how easy it is for a woman to push a stupid prick out of her body.
Domestic Abuse: Why Women Stay
Wanting to be with someone who is clearly unhealthy for you -- not wanting to let go -- is often classified as "co-dependency" or "love addiction." It's like a drug, with potential loss of both mental and physical health, and can sometimes even be life threatening. All of the above have been true for me, so anyone who thinks a little dose of love addiction is some modern day jargon, I am here to tell you it is very real and has kicked my ass since I started having relationships as a teen.
Oops, A Republican Told The Truth – They Do Hate Black People
This story should be getting more media play than it has. In a rare moment of candor, one in which he thought he was off the record, Ohio’s Doug Preisse, a GOP campaign chair and an advisor to Governor John Kashich, admitted to the Columbus Dispatch that they don’t want African-American people to vote.
Idaho Republican: ‘I Don’t Think Women Even Know What Rape Is’
The latest pretend human being and closet sociopath to weigh in on forcible rape-gate is Idaho Republican Chuck Winder. Much like every single Republican state rep, Winder is ignoring that boring recession thingy and devoting tax-payer dollars to implementing virulently anti-woman legislation. For example, Winder is the sponsor of his state’s “Double Ultrasound Bill,” which requires women to have an ultrasound before they can access any abortion services. Now this lovely Adonis is curious as to whether those silly gals even know what getting thrown to the ground and sexually violated means.
U.S. Will Enter Recession If 'Fiscal Cliff' Not Avoided: CBO
The U.S. economy will sink into a deep recession and unemployment will jump back above 9 percent if Congress does not avoid a "fiscal cliff" waiting at the end of the year, according to a Congressional Budget Office study published Wednesday.
A US drone attack has killed at least 16 suspected militants in Pakistan's north-western tribal area, Pakistani security officials say.
Three compounds believed to be militant hideouts in North Waziristan, near the border with Afghanistan, were targeted.
The US believes the attacks are vital to combat militants who operate in the border region.
Biblical theme park turns donkeys into Wi-Fi hot spots
Sometimes it seems like your Wi-Fi network is powered by nothing more than a hamster on a wheel -- and sometimes, as is the case at a biblical theme park in Israel, the Wi-Fi is powered by donkeys. For real.
NSA Put A Premium On Collecting Info, But Not Making Sense Of It
You may remember that almost exactly a decade ago, the news leaked that key Iran-Contra political operative John Poindexter, still working for the US government, had been working with the NSA to create a system called Total Information Awareness or TIA. The news quickly went viral, with people (quite reasonably) worried about the government snooping on their private data. Suddenly everyone was against this program, Poindexter was soon out of a job, and the TIA was officially put on the shelf. Except... that's not quite what happened. As you should be aware by now, the NSA has been Hoovering up pretty much every bit of data it can, sometimes using confusing loopholes or legal changes to make it possible.
The DVD Is Dying. Hollywood's Plan? Do Nothing And Cede Ground To File Sharing
The DVD is dead and no one in control has realized it. The future lies in streaming movies, not plastic discs. It took the recording industry several years to realize the fact that its customers were not nearly as attached to its physical products as it was. Add to that the fact that many people prize convenience over ownership and it's clear that trying to steer people toward purchasing all of their entertainment isn't the way to go.
Romney's New Energy Plan Would Doom Humanity
Here's a frightening look at what a Romeny-Ryan ticket looks like for the environment and our future.
George Lakoff: How Romney-Ryan's Budget Would Destroy America's Soul
Budgets are moral documents. And a Devil's Budget, like Romney's and Ryan's, uses numbers for an evil purpose: to rob us of our basic everyday freedom.
How Punk Rock Made Me a Lefty
Rockers scold Ryan for misunderstanding their music, while the world fawns over Russian self-styled punks Pussy Riot. Who says political music is dead?
5 Scandalous Reasons Big Finance Is Trying Hard to Keep a Low Profile
Much of the public hates the banks right now, and with very good reason.
Legal groups asks US Supreme Court to hear DOMA challenge
A gay rights group urged [cert. petition, PDF] the US Supreme Court [official website] on Tuesday to review a provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) [text; JURIST news archive] that denies benefits to married same-sex couples. The Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) [advocacy website] specifically challenged Section 3 of DOMA, which restricts tax, health care and other benefits of marriage to married heterosexual couples. The petitioners in the case are six married same-sex couples and a widower who argue that Section 3 of DOMA unconstitutionally denies same-sex married couples' equal protection rights.
The End Of The Industrial Revolution
What a privilege it is to be alive in these times, in such a significant period in human history. It’s not always easy to see moments of great historical importance when you’re in the middle of them. Sometimes they’re dramatic, like the fall of the Berlin Wall or the landing on the moon. But more often the really big ones appear, from within them, to be unfolding in slow motion. Their actual drama and speed then only becomes clear in hindsight.
http://www.countercurrents.org/gilding240812.htm
German Catholic Church Profits from Selling Pornography
I'm not aware of any Christian churches that are even tolerant of pornography, much less that promote it, and the Catholic Church is no exception. Or are they? As it turns out, the Catholic Church is earning a massive profit every year on selling pornography.
German Nun?
Photo: Peter Dazeley/Getty
The Catholic Church owns Germany's biggest publishing house, Weltbild. Based in Augsburg, it has over 6,400 employees, makes €1.7bn every year, and is Germany's biggest bookseller after Amazon with 20% of Germany's domestic bookstore market.
Some of the titles Weltbild sells online are Sluts Boarding Schooland Lawyer's Whore. News of this came out in October last year and the Catholic bishops of Germany promised to sell of Weltbild. The company even went on the market, briefly, but as of January or February of 2012 it appears to have been taken of the market again and remains in Catholic hands, funding the Church with porn.
Talk Nation Radio: The War on Whistleblowers With Thomas Drake and Jesselyn Radack
Jesselyn Radack and Thomas Drake discuss their experiences as government whistleblowers, the retribution they've endured, and the currently worsening pattern of secrecy, intimidation, and persecution of whistleblowers in Washington, D.C.
"Be Honest About the History of Our Country": Remembering the People’s Historian Howard Zinn at 90
NYPD Admits Muslim Spy Program Generated No Leads or Terrorism Investigations — Only Controversy
Bill Maher & Chelsea Handler on Mormonism
Steve Dustcircle can be found at:
http://www.dustcircle.com
http://www.facebook.com/dissentingheretic
http://www.twitter.com/dustcircle
http://www.reddit.com/r/occupy2point0
http://www.pinterest.com/dustcircle
ife? The differences in life expectancy between wealthier and lower-income Americans are increasing, not decreasing.
