Ron Paul - The Last Nail, House Floor Speech May 25, 2011

Ron Paul, a luminary in a House packed with dunces and shills, speaks the truth about how far gone we are.  Debt by design, fascism, and unmitigated shenanigans.  Someone find me a unicorn, I need a ride out of this bad dream.

Pakistan Feeling Threatened by US, China to Expedite Delivery of Fifty JF-17s to Pakistan

In response to the simmering geopolitical confrontation between the U.S. and Pakistan, China is making its position clear with the announcement that Pakistan will be recieving an expedited shipment of fifty state-of-the-art JF-17 fighter jets on credit.  There has been a number of significant events in Pakistan recently, from the outing and subsequent departure of the Pakistan CIA station chief, to the arrest of CIA contractor Raymond Davis, to the alleged and fake CIA mock-up Osama bin Laden raid, the U.S. is up to something and, whatever it is, the stench is thick.
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From the Pakistan Daily Times:

Pakistan, China likely to ink agreement on JF-17 Thunder

BEIJING: Pakistan and China are expected to sign an agreement today (Thursday) for the provision of 50 JF-17 thunder aircraft to Pakistan on emergency basis, it has been learnt by Daily Times. According to official sources, these aircraft will be equipped with sophisticated avionics. Not only will the aircraft be handed over within weeks, China will also foot the bill initially. Although Pakistan and China have been jointly developed this multirole combat aircraft in the past, in the aftermath of the US operation in Abbottabad, serious questions have been raised about Pakistan’s defence capabilities. According to a strategic expert, the speedy delivery of 50 pieces of this aircraft, originally to be done over two years, is expected to allay apprehensions of not only the Pakistani public but will also send a message to the world that Pakistan’s defence is not weak. It might be remembered that not only has the Indian military chief speculated on the possibility of a US-style strike from the Indian side to take out jihadi outfits in Pakistan, there has been escalation on the Pakistan-India border near Sialkot recently. Also, observers believe that in a situation when the speculations are rife that Pakistan may not be able to resist another US attack inside its territory if it so decides, this agreement will send a clear message to the world on which side China stands.
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For further reading, if you don't trust anything that doesn't come from the mainstream media (I'm sorry), here's a link to the Wall Street Journal's coverage of the situation:  China to Fast-Track Jets for Pakistan

We will see in the coming weeks what all this posturing will amount to, but I am hoping the U.S. doesn't get too brazen and start some conflict with Pakistan that entangles China.  In this scenario, the rabbit hole goes deep.

"Just Keep Going, You Got Nothing To Lose"

Moving film made by Luke Rudkowski of We Are Change.  At the beginning of the video he mentions how lonely he has been feeling recently, a sentiment I have felt recently, too.  People never talk to each other, there is too much silence.  We need to reach out to each other, because, like the title of the video says, we have nothing to lose.  Thanks, Luke.

James Corbett on the Alleged Death of bin Laden

Brought to our attention by williambanzai7, contributing writer for Zero Hedge, James Corbett of the Corbett report providing some unbiased and balanced perspective over the alleged death of bin Laden.  I had been under the impression from several sources that he had died in 2001 and I do not buy into this bullshit at all.  Obama, shame on your political opportunist, lying ass.

9/11: No More Confusion, Denial & Silence

Since 9/11, our country has been driven into a dizzying state of confusion.  The cultural psyche has been divided and threatened and confused by what people perceive as real, right, and permissible.  What topics are off-limits, what is too controversial?  For me, 9/11 has been an issue that is uncouth, too controversial, and impolite to mention, because I am a "9/11 truther".  What a disparaging term people use to dismiss a perfectly rational mindset.  There are many good reasons to question the official account of 9/11, but there is a stigma surrounding such skepticism.  Why?  Fear, mostly, I guess.  It is not 'okay' to believe these things, for it is too bold, too dangerous, too different.  People tell me, "The truth would have come out if 9/11 was an inside job, it would be too hard to coordinate without keeping it secret, why would they do that?"  Qui bono?  Who benefits?  War is profitable, I have learned over the years, and since 9/11, which was used directly as a reason to invade Afghanistan and then Iraq, we have seen the U.S. government launch wars with no legal justification.  All the reasons we have been given have been proven untrue (WMD's, yellowcake uranium, Saddam-al Qaeda ties), yet there have been no reasons given in the conspicuous lack of any justification's place.  Instead, the wars are a given, something we are not able to question, something that we aren't supposed to actually think about.  Well, I question them, and do everyday.  What happened to the realization President Eisenhower left us with about the military-industrial complex?  How can we trust ourselves and pretend that all the avarice and fraud and greed isn't actually there.  Obama almost pretends the wars aren't happening.  That's also a sentiment I see on the streets everyday.  We don't act like a country at war.  We act like a confused and self-absorbed people, running around like rats everyday chasing dollars that the Federal Reserve continues to devalue.  Why don't we stand up??  I am tired of being silent about these issues and do not plan on maintaining my silence anymore. 

The denial and silence is overwhelming, and I have contributed to it, enabled it, rolled over for some master that has made me fearful of what it might do.  I know the truth about 9/11 from a multitude of information I have seen, but what pushed me over the edge years ago to finally concede 9/11 was an inside job (because, for me, it took years to be able to believe it could have been -  I know it is hard) was my own gut instinct.  I was living in China at the time in 2007 and, being outside the U.S. propagandized culture, I was able to see through the surface level constraints placed upon the culture preventing the truth from arising.  Even people who disagreed with the war during the Bush years, even after all his infuriating stonewalling, couldn't come to see that 9/11 was an inside job - no matter how many lies he told, how much we as a citizenry were left in the dark, 9/11 couldn't be a lie, people thought, because we were so caught off guard and cowwed into believing the official story.  9/11 was different, people still think.  But it isn't.  9/11 is still the issue people need to come to grips with, because it affects how one thinks about all these other massive issues we have to deal with.  If you trust the official story, you are being used, you are being toyed with so that you allow other nefarious things to take place.  It isn't necessarily your fault that you believe the official story because of the massive amount of resources in place to control your thoughts, but it needs to change, and that change starts with you.  There is a tremendous amount of information on the internet about 9/11, you just need to be open to changing your perception and to seriously pay attention to all the different factors the information covers.  I list a number of websites on the sidebar of this site that offer information about 9/11, the best of which covering the subject are Infowars.com and George Washington's blog. 

Japan's Nuclear Crisis: No Longer Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

I would first like to say that we need to pray for Japan and the teams responding to the catastrophe at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.  May they be spared from further devestation for the good of life on planet Earth.

Japan's nuclear crisis is highlighting the question of whether nuclear power is sustainable.  The answer is an emphatic NO.  Humans are neither capable of safely operating nuclear power plants nor are they prepared for such adverse natural disasters, much less geologic changes throughout long periods of time.  There is too much risk in using nuclear power, which the Fukushima crisis is sadly illustrating.  If we cannot adequately deal with the downside of using a technology, maybe we should not be using it.  Research and design is one thing, arrogance and ignorance are another. 

International institutions should see what options are available for substantially reducing energy consumption.  Like a holistic doctor might prescribe a patient, we need to address core issues affecting the health of our world by redacting the amount of abstraction the current energy economy generates.  Conservation will have to reassess the viability of nuclear power plants that are currently in operation.  We must close the gaps between our means of sustaining life and the pitfalls of fossil fuel and nuclear energy dependency.  In the past year, we have experienced the Deepwater Horizon explosion, unrest all over the Middle East and North Africa, which affects OPEC production, and now the Fukushima nuclear crisis - all huge events that are directly related to the structure of energy economy.  We are sustaining ourselves on technologies and processes that we cannot control, much less claim we can.

3.15.11

"So, Does It Matter?"

Kevin Spacey spoke this week at the 24th Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.  In a stimulating and thoughtful forty minutes, Spacey offers a brilliant and moving account of the arts' as a Pegasus, a fountain of possibility and opportunity for people in a world of struggle and torment.  A question he repeatedly poses throughout the lecture about art, "So, does it matter?"  is one I have recently been asking myself.  I play guitar with a few different bands and enjoy making music, but with such pressing matters all around I question if that time wouldn't be better spent doing other things?  Does it matter?  Kevin Spacey, thank you for your valuable insights, they are an inspiration.

"Ask not what your country can do for the arts, ask what the arts can do for your country."  Kevin Spacey, 4.4.2011

For the full video, which is not on Youtube yet, follow this link:  Kevin Spacey @ the 24th Annual Nancy Hanks lecture.

Kartell - La Jeunesse Retrouvée

Alleyways

Alleyways have been intriguing to me for a few years now.  I first became fond of them when I was living in Boulder, walking through them for shortcuts and ease.  After starting to notice them more I preferred to walk through them, to be a part of their wayward character, to experience their uninhibited disregard for appearances.  Alleys might seem dangerous, dark, smelly, but they are the real thing; they aren't dressed up, designed and pretentious - they are haphazard and nonchalant.  It's this disregard for appearances that most attracts me to them.  In alleys, one can observe the subtleties and pace of life, the back reality of a decadent front that culture often feigns.

In the absence of my own collection of alleyway pictures, which I've wanted to amass, here are some pictures taken by others.  Alleys all have their own character depending on the neighborhood and region of the country/world.  I particularly like Western dirt alleys and the graffiti found in urban ones.

"He's Caught Like Sylvester with the Canary in His Mouth"

Alex Jones' interview with Mancow Muller about the revelation that Don Rumsfeld did not know about the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, which I referenced in a previous post.  There's really no way around the fact that Rumsfeld is obviously lying.  Even if he hypothetically did not know about it, he was Secretary of the Department of Defense on 9/11 - how is someone in that position not aware of all the relevant facts about 9/11, an event they then used to launch a state into war?


Alex sums it up, "He's there playing dumb, caught like Sylvester with the canary in his mouth."
"Yeah, he's spittin' out feathers,"  Mancow replies.

It appears zero accountability is perfectly acceptable for some of our highest government officials - or should I say their government officials?

Up The Ante

What if our wishes comes true?  What if what rely on for the here and now is no longer available?  How do present circumstances dictate our perseverence, our inspiration?  If and when things change, do the things we hold on to become osbolete?  Everyday we form thoughts that we believe necessary for continuing whatever path we might like to set upon. 

Up the ante.  This is changeable.  Convince, persuade, pursue, but do not lie.  We yearn for so much, but what if these things we yearn for manifest themselves?  How does our yearning leave us empty?  If the goal one seeks is obtained, one must be ready to change in the absence of an erstwhile endeavor. 

Clarity of purpose rewards the initiator.  Accept failure and growth the same, for a goal needs both.  Up the ante - you will be rewarded in kind.

Radiohead - Feral

Off Radiohead's brand new album, a track called 'Feral.'  Thought I would post it due to this blog once being named the Feral Continuum.  Download the album here:  Radiohead - King of Limbs

Rumsfeld Doesn't Know About WTC 7

In yet to be aired information, Donald Rumsfeld will apparently claim he has no knowledge of the collapse of World Trade Center 7.  World Trade Center 7 was a third building that was not hit by a plane on 9/11, but also collapsed tidily into its own footprint later that day.  It was brought down by implosion, like towers one and two, and Rumsfeld knows it - how shameful.  9/11 has defined United States foreign policy for at least the last ten years, but if people don't know the truth about it, it is impossible to respond correctly and adequately to geopolitical and cultural events.  I adamantly believe 9/11 is an enormous cover up and that it was an "inside job."  If you don't believe so, I'm sorry.  It's not your fault that you don't know the truth, just as it's not your fault you were attacked.  But, you are able to change your perception.  There is an incredible amount of information available about 9/11 that undeniably crushes any validity the official story seeks to maintain.  From high-tech explosives found in dust from the collapses, to the 9/11-like simulated war games simultaenously taking place that day, to FBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds revealing that Osama bin Laden was a CIA asset up until the day of 9/11, to Operation Able Danger, there are too many red flags.  The list really goes on and on.

9/11 is a hot-button issue.  I'd be surprised if you are still reading this if you believe the official story.  Either way, the problems we face today largely stem from 9/11 and its implications.  Bring the troops home, investigate 9/11, and indict the criminals.  This might save the "economy" and restore some cultural dignity.  Until this happens, we'll have to continue slogging through the pain of dealing with this issue and the effects such a monumental lie has on our world.  I think it's appropriate to here thank the people who have woken me up to the truth.

Organizational Theories

I have run across a number of things recently worth sharing.  Some of them I have studied before, like Kondratiev waves, but others, such as entelechy, are new to me;

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teleology |ˌtelēˈäləjē; ˌtēlē-|
noun ( pl. -gies) Philosophy
the explanation of phenomena by the purpose they serve rather than by postulated causes.
• Theology the doctrine of design and purpose in the material world.


entelechy |enˈteləkē|
noun ( pl. -chies) Philosophy
the realization of potential.
• the supposed vital principle that guides the development and functioning of an organism or other system or organization.
• Philosophy the soul.

telos |ˈteläs; ˈtē-|
noun ( pl. teloi |ˈteloi; ˈtēloi|) chiefly Philosophy or poetic/literary
an ultimate object or aim.

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Kondratiev waves (also called supercycles, great surges, long waves, K-waves or the long economic cycle) are described as sinusoidal-like cycles in the modern capitalist world economy.^[1] Averaging fifty and ranging from approximately forty to sixty years in length, the cycles consist of alternating periods between high sectoral growth and periods of relatively slow growth. Unlike the short-term business cycle, the long wave of this theory is not accepted by current orthodox economics.

Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems in general, with the goal of elucidating principles that can be applied to all types of systems in all fields of research. The term does not yet have a well-established, precise meaning, but systems theory can reasonably be considered a specialization of systems thinking and a generalization of systems science. The term originates from Bertalanffy's General System Theory (GST) and is used in later efforts in other fields, such as the structural functionalist sociology of Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann.

Organizational studies, sometimes known as organizational science, encompass the systematic study and careful application of knowledge about how people act within organizations. Organizational studies sometimes is considered a sister field for, or overarching designation that includes, the following disciplines: industrial and organizational psychology, organizational behavior, human resources, and management. However, there is no universally accepted classification system for such subfields.

Organizational dissent is the "expression of disagreement or contradictory opinions about organizational practices and policies" (Kassing, 1998). Since dissent involves disagreement it can lead to conflict, which if not resolved, can lead to violence and struggle. As a result, many organizations send the message – verbally or nonverbally – that dissent is discouraged. However, recent studies have shown that dissent serves as an important monitoring force within organizations. Dissent can be a warning sign for employee dissatisfaction or organizational decline. Redding (1985) found that receptiveness to dissent allows for corrective feedback to monitor unethical and immoral behavior, impractical and ineffectual organizational practices and polices, poor and unfavorable decision making, and insensitivity to employees' workplace needs and desires. Furthermore, Eilerman (Jan. 2006) argues that the hidden costs of silencing dissent include: wasted and lost time, reduced decision quality, emotional and relationship costs, and decreased job motivation. Perlow (2003) found that employee resentment can lead to a decrease in productivity and creativity which can result in the organization losing money, time, and resources.

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There is a book out there titled Enabling Creative Chaos: The Organization Behind the Burning Man Event.  Burning Man's hybrid, alt-economy might be something to focus on to study how people function without money.  Granted, most everything people bring into Burning Man is bought prior with money in the "real economy", there have to be principles underlying Burning Man that point to methods of efficient product creation.  Money is really just a veneer, a hologram.  What happens underneath money, above it, or within and between people is the real source of wealth.

Just wanted to share these blurbs and summaries, I will try to delve deeper into them at a later point.

Banksy Goes to Hollywood

guardian.co.uk

Last, but especially not least, my boy Kyle Fish* in Wewo.  He took the above two photos, the top three were taken from The Guardian (linked below the Micky Mouse tag).  I'm most drawn to the Asian boy with the gun tag; the juxtaposition of imagery serves a nice portion of cognitive dissonance.  Guerilla art speaks truth to power, but maybe more importantly truth to culture.  We need to speak truth to culture, for in this way we make a target out of the socially engineered perspectives, as opposed to the social engineers (who are quite inaccessible, it seems).  Dismantling socially engineered perspectives defeats the social engineering.