My country shouldn't be doing this to me
In their sleepless search for answers, the family of Jeff Weise, the teenager who killed nine people and then himself, say they are left wondering about the drugs Weise was prescribed for depression.
http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=B069A504-BB4B-4AF7-BA44-5D110C2C169A
Red Lake tribal officials have relaxed restrictions on media covering the tragedy, allowing a slighter greater freedom of movement on the tribe's land. The restrictions are one indication of a culture clash that often occurs when non-Indians suddenly come into contact with the Native American world. Some reporters and media organizations complained this week that limited access contributed to the slow stream of information in the first days following the shooting. But tribal members say they've been overwhelmed by the arrival of pushy and demanding outsiders.
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/03/25_khoom_redlakemedia/
[Is a so-called conservative ever not angry?]
Some conservatives are angered by opinionated quotes that Starbucks puts on its cups.
http://sptimes.com/2005/03/25/Business/Coffee_with_steam.shtml
Big Brother microphones tested
Picardi said he's even experimenting with a Big Brother bonus for unmarked police cars: a tiny microphone positioned near the windshield so powerful it can pick up conversations on the street.
"You could pull into a street corner and, if there's a drug deal going on a half-block away, you can hear what's going on. You could have all the windows shut and the air-conditioning on and you could hear everything going on outside the vehicle," Picardi said.
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/march2005/250305havecameras.htm
[This is an incedible amount of debt. These people have more credit card debt than I make in a year.]
Hart said that while the average American carries credit card debt of about $9,000, the average credit counseling client she sees has debt more in the neighborhood of $20,000 to $30,000.
She said the change from 2 percent of the balance to 4 percent of the balance would translate into the monthly amount due for a client with $9,000 in debt going from $180 a month to $360.
But for those with $20,000 in credit card debt, that monthly payment will change from $400 a month to $800 a month.
http://creditcardsmagazine.com/ManageArticle.asp?C=90&A=8018
"What are you telling me man? I have three kids out there man! I fought for my country man. My country shouldn't be doing this to me."
"It's terrible to know that he's not the only one crying in his car," Lohaus said.
"This may sound like an insensitive question, but why should anyone care? About Herold? About the others?" Pitts wanted to know.
"These are the folks who are protecting us and we are treating them this way, who is going to sign up? Who is going to do it next time?"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/25/eveningnews/main683247.shtml
The San Francisco Chronicle lists three other amazing statistics from the study, illustrating the racial and income gaps in California's school system:
• Black and Latino students are three times more likely than white students to attend one of the state's "dropout factories" - a school with graduation rates of 60 percent or less.
• Only 10 percent of black students and 7 percent of Latinos attend schools that graduate 90 percent of students.
• Schools with healthy graduation rates usually have few students from poor families: At 80 percent of such schools, fewer than 1 in 5 students is low-income.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/3/24/112510.shtml
[At the bottom of the above link I noticed this ad:
“God wants you to be rich, not poor! Find out the secret biblical lessons to success ñ Click Here Now”
Perhaps you may recall Mark 10:23 “Jesus looked around at his disciples and said to them, ‘How hard it will be for rich people to enter the Kingdom of God!’”
and Mark 10:25 “It is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”
Now everyone knows the phrase “the eye of the needle”, but how far has this country come from being a supposedly Christian country than you can advertise biblical secrets to get rich quick. If this were really a Christian country then you wouldn’t even bother to try to make an ad like this because people would know as soon as they looked at what a farce it must be.]
Congressional investigators will look into whether the Bush administration violated any laws when it paid syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher to help promote a marriage initiative, Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy and Frank Lautenberg said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=536&e=3&u=/ap/20050325/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_paid_columnist
Between February 2002 and June 2003, TSA had a role in 14 transfers of data involving at least 12 million records obtained without passengers' knowledge or permission from America West, American Airlines, Continental, Delta, Frontier and JetBlue.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/03/25/passenger.privacy.ap/index.html
"Apparently the making of terroristic threats against those who don't share your views is a high art form among a certain core audience," said Kimery, 45.
Formerly a registered Republican, even a precinct captain, Kimery became an independent in the 1990s when he said the state party stopped taking input from its everyday members.
Kimery now contends Fox News' top-level management dictates a conservative journalistic bias, that inaccuracies are never retracted, and what winds up on the air is more opinion than news. "I might as well be reading tabloids out of the grocery store," he says. "Anything to get a rise out of the viewer and to reinforce certain retrograde notions."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/tv_fox_blocker
[I predict these “compliance blows” will be coming to a police station near you. These guys over there are either already cops or a lot of them will go on to be cops. They will say, “hey we did something over in X that worked pretty well, let’s try it out.”]
An Army reservist accused of killing a detainee in Afghanistan told investigators that the blows that caused the man's death were commonly used to deal with uncooperative prisoners and that his superiors approved of the technique.
Other soldiers testified at a hearing here that they were taught to administer the so-called "compliance blows" in an Army course covering non-lethal tactics and that the blows became an accepted way of dealing with detainees who were considered "combative."
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/nation/11235395.htm
[So the Iranians say they need this stuff to combat the drug trade coming out of Afghanistan. Why is there a drug trade in Afghanistan? Because we put it there. So either the Iranians can sit back and watch their country get flooded with drugs because of us, or they can get raked over the coals for stockpiling weapons because of us.
That’s what you call a box.
If they are stockpiling weapons against an American invasion you could hardly blame them.]
Iran is quietly building a stockpile of thousands of high-tech small arms and other military equipment -- from armor-piercing snipers' rifles to night-vision goggles -- through legal weapons deals and a U.N. anti-drug program, according to an internal U.N. document, arms dealers and Western diplomats.
The buying spree is raising Bush administration fears the arms could end up with militants in Iraq. Tehran also is seeking approval for a U.N.-funded satellite network that Iran says it needs to fight drug smugglers, stoking U.S. worries it could be used to spy on Americans in Iraq or Afghanistan -- or any U.S. reconnaissance in Iran itself.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/nation/0503/26/natio-129537.htm
[Possibility of blackouts? Huh?]
I can't figure it out. Where's the outrage?
Despite a mild winter - lowering the thermostat, wearing sweaters and sealing off chilly rooms - I am paying heating bills that are almost 100 percent higher than a year ago. Nationwide, heat costs 10 percent to 30 percent more because of the soaring prices of natural gas, propane and oil.
When I go to the gas station, it's a shock. The price of a gallon of regular gasoline goes up weekly. It is well over $2, and could reach $2.50 this summer.
Usually, such a leap would have frantic consumers jumping with demands for action. But this year, people seem resigned to paying more and complaining less.
President Bush commented about energy prices in Columbus, Ohio, earlier this month. "Higher prices at the gas pump and rising home heating bills, and the possibility of blackouts, are legitimate concerns for all Americans. And all these uncertainties about energy supply are a drag on our economy."
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/opinions/story/2259035p-10425020c.html
Don't be fooled. Dietary supplements, processed food used by vegetarians, and products labeled "organic" are some of industry's favorite places for hiding MSG.
2) California proposes to allow more crops to be sprayed with MSG.
3) Like so many other live virus vaccines, the Nasal Spray Flu Vaccine called FluMist contains MSG in the form of monosodium glutamate -- (Monosodium glutamate is described as a Mutagen and Reproductive Effector by the Center for Disease Control in their Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances)
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/
The Kremlin's rancorous confrontation with the oil giant Yukos entered dangerous new territory when state prosecutors asked a Moscow court to jail the former head of security at the firm for life after he was convicted of murder.
Yukos lawyers said the move was designed to further blacken the image of what was once reckoned to be Russia's most successful company. They also said it boded ill for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former chief executive of Yukos, who is on trial on fraud and embezzlement charges.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=623768
[These fools worry about tarnishing their image from having people associate the Marine dress uniform with people hadning out death notices, but they have no problem with tarnishing their image from non-prosceution of torture, even when their own investigators recommend prosecution?]
Despite recommendations by Army investigators, commanders have decided not to prosecute 17 American soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, according to a new accounting released Friday by the Army.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/26/politics/26abuse.html?hp&ex=1111899600&en=944c7841e51e4c65&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Texas' pension fund for teachers is $11 billion short of what it needs to pay the benefits promised to the state's educators, according to a report released Thursday.
The $91.4 billion pension fund is the 12th-largest in the world and pays retirement benefits and health care for nearly 1.2 million retired and active teachers.
The fund had been $8 billion short, but declined sharply in the last six months.
http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/032505/sta_032505098.shtml
Ney, who received $32,000 in political contributions from the tribe, is now dealing with questions about the source of funding for his golfing trip to Scotland in the summer of 2002.
An e-mail from Abramoff to Tigua consultant Marc Schwartz dated June 7, 2002, has the subject line "our friend" and goes on to say: "asked if we could help (as in cover) a Scotland golf trip for him and some staff."
The "friend," said Hisa, was Ney. Abramoff estimated the cost of the trip would be $100,000 or more. Abramoff wrote that "they could probably do the trip through the Capital Athletic Foundation."
Hisa said the tribe balked when Abramoff asked them for $50,000 to pay for part of the trip. However, the Tiguas did agree to seek funds from the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, whose Livingston casino was also shut down in 2002 and stood to be reopened under the provision promoted by Ney.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/nation/11228494.htm
Newly released government documents say the abuse of prisoners in Iraq by U.S. forces was more widespread than previously reported.
An officer found that detainees ``were being systematically and intentionally mistreated'' at a holding facility near Mosul in December 2003. The 311th Military Intelligence Battalion of the Army's 101st Airborne Division ran the lockup.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4893566,00.html
In a victory for free speech rights and the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, a federal judge ruled today that Evansville police violated a protester's constitutional rights by restricting his movement and arresting him for disorderly conduct before a 2002 appearance by Vice President Dick Cheney.
In granting summary judgment on John Blair's claim that his First Amendment rights were violated, U.S. District Court Judge Larry J. McKinney directly addressed the recent trend of using security concerns as justification for limiting advocates to so-called "protest zones" far away from official events.
"The restriction of protesters to an area 500 feet away from the only entrance used by attendees, and on the opposite end of the building from where Vice President Cheney would enter the facility . . . burdened speech substantially more than was necessary to further the Defendants' goals of safety," Judge McKinney wrote.
http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeSpeech.cfm?ID=17776&c=86
[Read “we are engineering another abrupt political upheaval.”
In the second quote, notice the so-called “democracy czar”. This tells you a lot about DC. The popularity of the term “czar” tells you a lot in general, but particularly with a democracy czar.
Those few of you out there who actually know what a czar is may remember that the Czars of Russia were particularly known as autocrats, supreme unquestioned dictators.
Now what is a “democracy czar”?
Also note I think this is Dick Cheney’s wife or something like that.]
In an interview, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United States is talking to "as many people as we possibly can" about the situation in Syria, as well as in Lebanon, to ensure that Washington is prepared in the event of yet another abrupt political upheaval.
...
A meeting Thursday, hosted by new State Department "democracy czar" Elizabeth Cheney, brought together senior administration officials from Vice President Cheney's office, the National Security Council and the Pentagon and about a dozen prominent Syrian Americans, including political activists, community leaders, academics and an opposition group, a senior State Department official said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2028-2005Mar25.html?referrer=emailarticle
There are over 40 food ingredients besides "monosodium glutamate" that contain processed free glutamic acid (MSG). Each, according to the FDA, must be called by its own, unique, "common or usual name." "Autolyzed yeast," "maltodextrin," "sodium caseinate," and "soy sauce" are the common or usual names of some ingredients that contain MSG. Unlike the ingredient called "monosodium glutamate," they give the consumer no clue that there is MSG in the ingredient.
...
The glutamate industry is adamantly opposed to letting consumers know where MSG is hidden. Why? Because the glutamate industry understands that MSG is a toxic substance: that it causes adverse reactions, brain lesions, endocrine disorders and more. And the glutamate industry must understand, as we do, that if MSG in food, drugs, and cosmetics were disclosed on product labels, people who reacted to those products might realize that it was MSG they were reacting to, and might, therefore, refrain from buying products that contain MSG.
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/II.WhereIsMSG.html
These ALWAYS contain MSG
Glutamate Glutamic acid Gelatin
Monosodium glutamate Calcium caseinate Textured protein
Monopotassium glutamate Sodium caseinate Yeast nutrient
Yeast extract Yeast food Autolyzed yeast
Hydrolyzed protein
(any protein that is hydrolyzed) Hydrolyzed corn gluten
These OFTEN contain MSG or create MSG during processing
Carrageenan Maltodextrin Malt extract
Natural pork flavoring Citric acid Malt flavoring
Bouillon and Broth Natural chicken flavoring Soy protein isolate
Natural beef flavoring Ultra-pasteurized Soy sauce
Stock Barley malt Soy sauce extract
Whey protein concentrate Pectin Soy protein
Whey protein Protease Soy protein concentrate
Whey protein isolate Protease enzymes Anything protein fortified
Flavors(s) & Flavoring(s) Anything enzyme modified Anything fermented
Natural flavor(s)
& flavoring(s) Enzymes anything Seasonings
(the word "seasonings")
In ADDITION...
The new game is to label hydrolyzed proteins as pea protein, whey protein, corn protein, etc. If a pea, for example, were whole, it would be identified as a pea. Calling an ingredient pea protein indicates that the pea has been hydrolyzed, at least in part, and that processed free glutamic acid (MSG) is present. Relatively new to the list are wheat protein and soy protein.
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html
[When the Zimbabweans get sick of this guy, they will get rid of him.]
Four million people are starving in Zimbabwe, a quarter of the population, and thousands of Robert Mugabe's political opponents are being turned away empty-handed from emergency food stations, The Independent can reveal.
Only five days before a crucial general election, the embattled president is deliberately starving opposition supporters in a desperate bid to prop up his discredited Zanu-PF Party. What little food is available is being ruthlessly used in a cynical food-for-votes policy to force people to vote for the pariah president.
http://www.rense.com/general63/mug.htm
Participants in the high-stakes test of wills, who spoke with The Miami Herald on the condition of anonymity, said they believed the standoff could ultimately have led to a constitutional crisis - and a confrontation between dueling lawmen.
"There were two sets of law enforcement officers facing off, waiting for the other to blink," said one official with knowledge of Thursday morning's activities. In jest, one official said local police discussed "whether we had enough officers to hold off the National Guard."
"It was kind of a showdown on the part of the locals and the state police," the official said. "It was not too long after that Jeb Bush was on TV saying that, evidently, he doesn't have as much authority as people think."
http://www.rense.com/general63/drer.htm
More than one-fifth of schoolgirls have had three sexual partners by the age of 14, according to a new survey. The survey of 2,000 younger teenagers found that 22 per cent had had sex by the age of 14. Many had slept with multiple partners despite regretting their first experience.
The findings show that, of the 22 per cent of 14-year-olds who had had sex, most said they had between two and four partners, almost two-thirds did so unprotected (65 per cent), and almost half had had a one-night stand and taken the morning-after pill. Most experienced their first "proper kiss" by the age of 12, while 16 per cent of under 14-year-olds also said they had had sex. A third said they did not like their sexual partner, with more than a quarter claiming he had forced himself on her. Six per cent said they had been assaulted.
http://www.rense.com/general63/22per.htm
Skimming the peaks of mountainous waves, plunging into space then hitting the bottom of watery canyons with a great slap that leaves your stomach some way behind, the inflatable boats tear across the English Channel towards the target.
The Greenpeace boats are heading for two French trawlers, which appear intermittently between rolling blue hills of water. Trailing between them is a massive net, its presence under the waves signalled by two buoys on the surface a couple of hundred metres behind the ships.
At that moment, many feet below, this net is scooping up the loose shoals of the gleaming prize, fish which gather to spawn at this time of year; sea bass in Britain, loup de mer to the French. And among the sea bass may be dolphins, gorging on a smorgasbord of smaller fry, unsuspecting of the nets that will haul them in.
Campaigners say dolphins, who have to come up for air every six minutes or so, are dying in their hundreds, possibly thousands, each year, drowning entangled in the nets of these "pair" trawlers.
...
Sure enough, a big metal shackle is lobbed at the other boat, landing harmlessly. Those on board have already donned climbers' helmets. There is momentary alarm when we see men on the closest non-fishing boat fiddling with black objects that could be flare guns; they soon turn out to be cameras.
http://www.rense.com/general63/nets.htm
[Now how much have we spent on Iraq and Afghanistan? Hundreds of billions that we know about. How much are we spending to send mutliple carrier groups to the Persian Gulf to stick it to Iran? Hundreds of millions at least.
And yet it seems we have no money for actual problems here in our own country. While they are out fooling around in the Middle East a whole Middile Eastern army could have WALKED into this country and no one would be the wiser.]
The Border Patrol acknowledges that control efforts close to the border would stop much of the damage farther into the desert.
What's lacking, however, is money, not only for technology but for the increased manpower and other equipment needed to draw a tighter net around a porous border, said Joe Brigman, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Yuma sector.
http://www.rense.com/general63/desrt.htm
And if you're homeless! These lawyer made 'anti-vagrancy' laws mean if a American loses their job, winds up sleeping in their car or on the street, you guys roll on them and give them a ticket to the nearest homosexual rape palace-which you call the county jail.
...
The militia isn't a bad thing actually. If you actually read the older historical accounts there are examples-like during the 1800's when the James Gang got cut to pieces in Minnesota; the townsfolk got their guns and resisted, and won. Likewise, in Athens, Tennessee in 1946; returning GI's tried to win a local election to clean the crooks that had been running the town into the ground for decades. The crooks attempted to rig the election and went so far as to hide in the jail and shoot at gunpoint anyone who tried to stop them. The GI's borrowed some National Guard rifles and shot it out with them, and won. More recently, a few years ago, the State of New York attempted to enforce cigarrette taxes on a Native American Tribe and came with dozens of State Troopers; the entire Tribe greeted them with muzzles of their assault riflesÖ the Governor wisely negotiated a compromise.
...
A second hand personal story: days after the Columbine massacre a public school mandated ID tags for every studentÖ obstensivly to stop a massacre. A bunch of them got together and smuggled in water guns painted to look like real guns, and objects made to look like sticks of dynamite. They presented them to the principal and asked him if ID tags stopped them from bringing in their made up weapons, and would it stop real weapons from getting inÖ the ideal was scrapped
http://www.rense.com/general63/derar.htm
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a salt form of an amino acid that is used in food preservation and flavoring. It has been noted that MSG can trigger headaches in susceptible people. It is frequently added to oriental foods as flavoring and is found in many processed meats and canned goods. Reactions can occur as early as 30 minutes after ingesting MSG, which is rapidly absorbed in the stomach.
MSG reaction can cause other symptoms such as perspiration and tightness and pressure over the face and chest. Research has suggested that the effects of MSG may be minimized or avoided by countering these effects by consuming at least one cup of a complex carbohydrate, such as rice or pasta, as part of the meal.
http://www.headaches.org/consumer/topicsheets/msg.html
4. The Monkeysphere?
Yes, the Monkeysphere. That's the group of people who each of us, using our monkeyish brains, are able to conceptualize as people. If the monkey scientists are monkey right, it's physically impossible for this to be a number larger than 150. Most of us do not have room in our Monkeysphere for our friendly neighborhood Sanitation Worker. So, we don't think of him as a person. We think of him as The Thing That Makes The Trash Go Away.
5. Hey! I like my garbage man!
Maybe, but one way or another we all have limits to our sphere of monkey concern. It's simply the way our brains are built. We each have a certain circle of people who we think of as people. Usually it's our own friends and family and neighbors and classmates and coworkers (or at least the ones in your department) and church or suicide cult.
...
That's not my fault! I don't know those people!
Right. And they don't know you. That's why they don't mind stealing your stereo or vandalizing your house or cutting your wages or raising your taxes or bombing your office building or choking your computer with spam advertising diet and penis drugs they know don't work. You're outside their Monkeysphere. In their mind, you're just a vague shape with a pocket full of money for the taking.
That's the whole thing, right here. Life on Earth, in a nutshell. We are hard-wired to have a drastic double standard for the people inside and out of our Monkeysphere and those outside make up 99.999% of the world's population.
...
If you've just now protested that you shouldn't have to care for the customers for minimum wage, let me assure you that if you don't feel sympathy for your fellow man at $6.00 an hour, you won't fee anything at $600,000 a year.
Or, look at it the other way. If you're allowed to be indifferent and even resentful to the masses for $6.00 an hour, just think of how angry the average Pakistani man is allowed to be when he's making the equivalent of six dollars a week. And so on.
...
It's not all the French's fault. The truth is, all of these monkey management schemes only go so far. For instance, today one in four Americans has some kind of mental illness, usually depression. One in four. Watch a basketball game. The odds are at least two of those people on the floor are mentally ill. Look around your house; if everybody else there seems okay, it's you.
Is it any surprise? I just watched a whole news special on the Obesity Epidemic. I've had this worry laid on my shoulders about millions of other people eating too much. What exactly am I supposed to do with that information? I know what to do about the fact that I'm fat, but why am I getting upset about 80 million other people whose diets I don't control? You're harshing my buzz with the pork-laden plight of people outside my Monkeysphere and now I carry that useless weight of worry around like, you know, some kind of animal on my back.
http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/monkeysphere.html
http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=B069A504-BB4B-4AF7-BA44-5D110C2C169A
Red Lake tribal officials have relaxed restrictions on media covering the tragedy, allowing a slighter greater freedom of movement on the tribe's land. The restrictions are one indication of a culture clash that often occurs when non-Indians suddenly come into contact with the Native American world. Some reporters and media organizations complained this week that limited access contributed to the slow stream of information in the first days following the shooting. But tribal members say they've been overwhelmed by the arrival of pushy and demanding outsiders.
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/03/25_khoom_redlakemedia/
[Is a so-called conservative ever not angry?]
Some conservatives are angered by opinionated quotes that Starbucks puts on its cups.
http://sptimes.com/2005/03/25/Business/Coffee_with_steam.shtml
Big Brother microphones tested
Picardi said he's even experimenting with a Big Brother bonus for unmarked police cars: a tiny microphone positioned near the windshield so powerful it can pick up conversations on the street.
"You could pull into a street corner and, if there's a drug deal going on a half-block away, you can hear what's going on. You could have all the windows shut and the air-conditioning on and you could hear everything going on outside the vehicle," Picardi said.
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/march2005/250305havecameras.htm
[This is an incedible amount of debt. These people have more credit card debt than I make in a year.]
Hart said that while the average American carries credit card debt of about $9,000, the average credit counseling client she sees has debt more in the neighborhood of $20,000 to $30,000.
She said the change from 2 percent of the balance to 4 percent of the balance would translate into the monthly amount due for a client with $9,000 in debt going from $180 a month to $360.
But for those with $20,000 in credit card debt, that monthly payment will change from $400 a month to $800 a month.
http://creditcardsmagazine.com/ManageArticle.asp?C=90&A=8018
"What are you telling me man? I have three kids out there man! I fought for my country man. My country shouldn't be doing this to me."
"It's terrible to know that he's not the only one crying in his car," Lohaus said.
"This may sound like an insensitive question, but why should anyone care? About Herold? About the others?" Pitts wanted to know.
"These are the folks who are protecting us and we are treating them this way, who is going to sign up? Who is going to do it next time?"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/25/eveningnews/main683247.shtml
The San Francisco Chronicle lists three other amazing statistics from the study, illustrating the racial and income gaps in California's school system:
• Black and Latino students are three times more likely than white students to attend one of the state's "dropout factories" - a school with graduation rates of 60 percent or less.
• Only 10 percent of black students and 7 percent of Latinos attend schools that graduate 90 percent of students.
• Schools with healthy graduation rates usually have few students from poor families: At 80 percent of such schools, fewer than 1 in 5 students is low-income.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/3/24/112510.shtml
[At the bottom of the above link I noticed this ad:
“God wants you to be rich, not poor! Find out the secret biblical lessons to success ñ Click Here Now”
Perhaps you may recall Mark 10:23 “Jesus looked around at his disciples and said to them, ‘How hard it will be for rich people to enter the Kingdom of God!’”
and Mark 10:25 “It is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.”
Now everyone knows the phrase “the eye of the needle”, but how far has this country come from being a supposedly Christian country than you can advertise biblical secrets to get rich quick. If this were really a Christian country then you wouldn’t even bother to try to make an ad like this because people would know as soon as they looked at what a farce it must be.]
Congressional investigators will look into whether the Bush administration violated any laws when it paid syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher to help promote a marriage initiative, Democratic Sens. Edward Kennedy and Frank Lautenberg said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=536&e=3&u=/ap/20050325/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_paid_columnist
Between February 2002 and June 2003, TSA had a role in 14 transfers of data involving at least 12 million records obtained without passengers' knowledge or permission from America West, American Airlines, Continental, Delta, Frontier and JetBlue.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/03/25/passenger.privacy.ap/index.html
"Apparently the making of terroristic threats against those who don't share your views is a high art form among a certain core audience," said Kimery, 45.
Formerly a registered Republican, even a precinct captain, Kimery became an independent in the 1990s when he said the state party stopped taking input from its everyday members.
Kimery now contends Fox News' top-level management dictates a conservative journalistic bias, that inaccuracies are never retracted, and what winds up on the air is more opinion than news. "I might as well be reading tabloids out of the grocery store," he says. "Anything to get a rise out of the viewer and to reinforce certain retrograde notions."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/tv_fox_blocker
[I predict these “compliance blows” will be coming to a police station near you. These guys over there are either already cops or a lot of them will go on to be cops. They will say, “hey we did something over in X that worked pretty well, let’s try it out.”]
An Army reservist accused of killing a detainee in Afghanistan told investigators that the blows that caused the man's death were commonly used to deal with uncooperative prisoners and that his superiors approved of the technique.
Other soldiers testified at a hearing here that they were taught to administer the so-called "compliance blows" in an Army course covering non-lethal tactics and that the blows became an accepted way of dealing with detainees who were considered "combative."
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/nation/11235395.htm
[So the Iranians say they need this stuff to combat the drug trade coming out of Afghanistan. Why is there a drug trade in Afghanistan? Because we put it there. So either the Iranians can sit back and watch their country get flooded with drugs because of us, or they can get raked over the coals for stockpiling weapons because of us.
That’s what you call a box.
If they are stockpiling weapons against an American invasion you could hardly blame them.]
Iran is quietly building a stockpile of thousands of high-tech small arms and other military equipment -- from armor-piercing snipers' rifles to night-vision goggles -- through legal weapons deals and a U.N. anti-drug program, according to an internal U.N. document, arms dealers and Western diplomats.
The buying spree is raising Bush administration fears the arms could end up with militants in Iraq. Tehran also is seeking approval for a U.N.-funded satellite network that Iran says it needs to fight drug smugglers, stoking U.S. worries it could be used to spy on Americans in Iraq or Afghanistan -- or any U.S. reconnaissance in Iran itself.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/nation/0503/26/natio-129537.htm
[Possibility of blackouts? Huh?]
I can't figure it out. Where's the outrage?
Despite a mild winter - lowering the thermostat, wearing sweaters and sealing off chilly rooms - I am paying heating bills that are almost 100 percent higher than a year ago. Nationwide, heat costs 10 percent to 30 percent more because of the soaring prices of natural gas, propane and oil.
When I go to the gas station, it's a shock. The price of a gallon of regular gasoline goes up weekly. It is well over $2, and could reach $2.50 this summer.
Usually, such a leap would have frantic consumers jumping with demands for action. But this year, people seem resigned to paying more and complaining less.
President Bush commented about energy prices in Columbus, Ohio, earlier this month. "Higher prices at the gas pump and rising home heating bills, and the possibility of blackouts, are legitimate concerns for all Americans. And all these uncertainties about energy supply are a drag on our economy."
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/opinions/story/2259035p-10425020c.html
Don't be fooled. Dietary supplements, processed food used by vegetarians, and products labeled "organic" are some of industry's favorite places for hiding MSG.
2) California proposes to allow more crops to be sprayed with MSG.
3) Like so many other live virus vaccines, the Nasal Spray Flu Vaccine called FluMist contains MSG in the form of monosodium glutamate -- (Monosodium glutamate is described as a Mutagen and Reproductive Effector by the Center for Disease Control in their Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances)
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/
The Kremlin's rancorous confrontation with the oil giant Yukos entered dangerous new territory when state prosecutors asked a Moscow court to jail the former head of security at the firm for life after he was convicted of murder.
Yukos lawyers said the move was designed to further blacken the image of what was once reckoned to be Russia's most successful company. They also said it boded ill for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed former chief executive of Yukos, who is on trial on fraud and embezzlement charges.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=623768
[These fools worry about tarnishing their image from having people associate the Marine dress uniform with people hadning out death notices, but they have no problem with tarnishing their image from non-prosceution of torture, even when their own investigators recommend prosecution?]
Despite recommendations by Army investigators, commanders have decided not to prosecute 17 American soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004, according to a new accounting released Friday by the Army.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/26/politics/26abuse.html?hp&ex=1111899600&en=944c7841e51e4c65&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Texas' pension fund for teachers is $11 billion short of what it needs to pay the benefits promised to the state's educators, according to a report released Thursday.
The $91.4 billion pension fund is the 12th-largest in the world and pays retirement benefits and health care for nearly 1.2 million retired and active teachers.
The fund had been $8 billion short, but declined sharply in the last six months.
http://www.lubbockonline.com/stories/032505/sta_032505098.shtml
Ney, who received $32,000 in political contributions from the tribe, is now dealing with questions about the source of funding for his golfing trip to Scotland in the summer of 2002.
An e-mail from Abramoff to Tigua consultant Marc Schwartz dated June 7, 2002, has the subject line "our friend" and goes on to say: "asked if we could help (as in cover) a Scotland golf trip for him and some staff."
The "friend," said Hisa, was Ney. Abramoff estimated the cost of the trip would be $100,000 or more. Abramoff wrote that "they could probably do the trip through the Capital Athletic Foundation."
Hisa said the tribe balked when Abramoff asked them for $50,000 to pay for part of the trip. However, the Tiguas did agree to seek funds from the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, whose Livingston casino was also shut down in 2002 and stood to be reopened under the provision promoted by Ney.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/nation/11228494.htm
Newly released government documents say the abuse of prisoners in Iraq by U.S. forces was more widespread than previously reported.
An officer found that detainees ``were being systematically and intentionally mistreated'' at a holding facility near Mosul in December 2003. The 311th Military Intelligence Battalion of the Army's 101st Airborne Division ran the lockup.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4893566,00.html
In a victory for free speech rights and the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, a federal judge ruled today that Evansville police violated a protester's constitutional rights by restricting his movement and arresting him for disorderly conduct before a 2002 appearance by Vice President Dick Cheney.
In granting summary judgment on John Blair's claim that his First Amendment rights were violated, U.S. District Court Judge Larry J. McKinney directly addressed the recent trend of using security concerns as justification for limiting advocates to so-called "protest zones" far away from official events.
"The restriction of protesters to an area 500 feet away from the only entrance used by attendees, and on the opposite end of the building from where Vice President Cheney would enter the facility . . . burdened speech substantially more than was necessary to further the Defendants' goals of safety," Judge McKinney wrote.
http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeSpeech.cfm?ID=17776&c=86
[Read “we are engineering another abrupt political upheaval.”
In the second quote, notice the so-called “democracy czar”. This tells you a lot about DC. The popularity of the term “czar” tells you a lot in general, but particularly with a democracy czar.
Those few of you out there who actually know what a czar is may remember that the Czars of Russia were particularly known as autocrats, supreme unquestioned dictators.
Now what is a “democracy czar”?
Also note I think this is Dick Cheney’s wife or something like that.]
In an interview, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the United States is talking to "as many people as we possibly can" about the situation in Syria, as well as in Lebanon, to ensure that Washington is prepared in the event of yet another abrupt political upheaval.
...
A meeting Thursday, hosted by new State Department "democracy czar" Elizabeth Cheney, brought together senior administration officials from Vice President Cheney's office, the National Security Council and the Pentagon and about a dozen prominent Syrian Americans, including political activists, community leaders, academics and an opposition group, a senior State Department official said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2028-2005Mar25.html?referrer=emailarticle
There are over 40 food ingredients besides "monosodium glutamate" that contain processed free glutamic acid (MSG). Each, according to the FDA, must be called by its own, unique, "common or usual name." "Autolyzed yeast," "maltodextrin," "sodium caseinate," and "soy sauce" are the common or usual names of some ingredients that contain MSG. Unlike the ingredient called "monosodium glutamate," they give the consumer no clue that there is MSG in the ingredient.
...
The glutamate industry is adamantly opposed to letting consumers know where MSG is hidden. Why? Because the glutamate industry understands that MSG is a toxic substance: that it causes adverse reactions, brain lesions, endocrine disorders and more. And the glutamate industry must understand, as we do, that if MSG in food, drugs, and cosmetics were disclosed on product labels, people who reacted to those products might realize that it was MSG they were reacting to, and might, therefore, refrain from buying products that contain MSG.
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/II.WhereIsMSG.html
These ALWAYS contain MSG
Glutamate Glutamic acid Gelatin
Monosodium glutamate Calcium caseinate Textured protein
Monopotassium glutamate Sodium caseinate Yeast nutrient
Yeast extract Yeast food Autolyzed yeast
Hydrolyzed protein
(any protein that is hydrolyzed) Hydrolyzed corn gluten
These OFTEN contain MSG or create MSG during processing
Carrageenan Maltodextrin Malt extract
Natural pork flavoring Citric acid Malt flavoring
Bouillon and Broth Natural chicken flavoring Soy protein isolate
Natural beef flavoring Ultra-pasteurized Soy sauce
Stock Barley malt Soy sauce extract
Whey protein concentrate Pectin Soy protein
Whey protein Protease Soy protein concentrate
Whey protein isolate Protease enzymes Anything protein fortified
Flavors(s) & Flavoring(s) Anything enzyme modified Anything fermented
Natural flavor(s)
& flavoring(s) Enzymes anything Seasonings
(the word "seasonings")
In ADDITION...
The new game is to label hydrolyzed proteins as pea protein, whey protein, corn protein, etc. If a pea, for example, were whole, it would be identified as a pea. Calling an ingredient pea protein indicates that the pea has been hydrolyzed, at least in part, and that processed free glutamic acid (MSG) is present. Relatively new to the list are wheat protein and soy protein.
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html
[When the Zimbabweans get sick of this guy, they will get rid of him.]
Four million people are starving in Zimbabwe, a quarter of the population, and thousands of Robert Mugabe's political opponents are being turned away empty-handed from emergency food stations, The Independent can reveal.
Only five days before a crucial general election, the embattled president is deliberately starving opposition supporters in a desperate bid to prop up his discredited Zanu-PF Party. What little food is available is being ruthlessly used in a cynical food-for-votes policy to force people to vote for the pariah president.
http://www.rense.com/general63/mug.htm
Participants in the high-stakes test of wills, who spoke with The Miami Herald on the condition of anonymity, said they believed the standoff could ultimately have led to a constitutional crisis - and a confrontation between dueling lawmen.
"There were two sets of law enforcement officers facing off, waiting for the other to blink," said one official with knowledge of Thursday morning's activities. In jest, one official said local police discussed "whether we had enough officers to hold off the National Guard."
"It was kind of a showdown on the part of the locals and the state police," the official said. "It was not too long after that Jeb Bush was on TV saying that, evidently, he doesn't have as much authority as people think."
http://www.rense.com/general63/drer.htm
More than one-fifth of schoolgirls have had three sexual partners by the age of 14, according to a new survey. The survey of 2,000 younger teenagers found that 22 per cent had had sex by the age of 14. Many had slept with multiple partners despite regretting their first experience.
The findings show that, of the 22 per cent of 14-year-olds who had had sex, most said they had between two and four partners, almost two-thirds did so unprotected (65 per cent), and almost half had had a one-night stand and taken the morning-after pill. Most experienced their first "proper kiss" by the age of 12, while 16 per cent of under 14-year-olds also said they had had sex. A third said they did not like their sexual partner, with more than a quarter claiming he had forced himself on her. Six per cent said they had been assaulted.
http://www.rense.com/general63/22per.htm
Skimming the peaks of mountainous waves, plunging into space then hitting the bottom of watery canyons with a great slap that leaves your stomach some way behind, the inflatable boats tear across the English Channel towards the target.
The Greenpeace boats are heading for two French trawlers, which appear intermittently between rolling blue hills of water. Trailing between them is a massive net, its presence under the waves signalled by two buoys on the surface a couple of hundred metres behind the ships.
At that moment, many feet below, this net is scooping up the loose shoals of the gleaming prize, fish which gather to spawn at this time of year; sea bass in Britain, loup de mer to the French. And among the sea bass may be dolphins, gorging on a smorgasbord of smaller fry, unsuspecting of the nets that will haul them in.
Campaigners say dolphins, who have to come up for air every six minutes or so, are dying in their hundreds, possibly thousands, each year, drowning entangled in the nets of these "pair" trawlers.
...
Sure enough, a big metal shackle is lobbed at the other boat, landing harmlessly. Those on board have already donned climbers' helmets. There is momentary alarm when we see men on the closest non-fishing boat fiddling with black objects that could be flare guns; they soon turn out to be cameras.
http://www.rense.com/general63/nets.htm
[Now how much have we spent on Iraq and Afghanistan? Hundreds of billions that we know about. How much are we spending to send mutliple carrier groups to the Persian Gulf to stick it to Iran? Hundreds of millions at least.
And yet it seems we have no money for actual problems here in our own country. While they are out fooling around in the Middle East a whole Middile Eastern army could have WALKED into this country and no one would be the wiser.]
The Border Patrol acknowledges that control efforts close to the border would stop much of the damage farther into the desert.
What's lacking, however, is money, not only for technology but for the increased manpower and other equipment needed to draw a tighter net around a porous border, said Joe Brigman, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Yuma sector.
http://www.rense.com/general63/desrt.htm
And if you're homeless! These lawyer made 'anti-vagrancy' laws mean if a American loses their job, winds up sleeping in their car or on the street, you guys roll on them and give them a ticket to the nearest homosexual rape palace-which you call the county jail.
...
The militia isn't a bad thing actually. If you actually read the older historical accounts there are examples-like during the 1800's when the James Gang got cut to pieces in Minnesota; the townsfolk got their guns and resisted, and won. Likewise, in Athens, Tennessee in 1946; returning GI's tried to win a local election to clean the crooks that had been running the town into the ground for decades. The crooks attempted to rig the election and went so far as to hide in the jail and shoot at gunpoint anyone who tried to stop them. The GI's borrowed some National Guard rifles and shot it out with them, and won. More recently, a few years ago, the State of New York attempted to enforce cigarrette taxes on a Native American Tribe and came with dozens of State Troopers; the entire Tribe greeted them with muzzles of their assault riflesÖ the Governor wisely negotiated a compromise.
...
A second hand personal story: days after the Columbine massacre a public school mandated ID tags for every studentÖ obstensivly to stop a massacre. A bunch of them got together and smuggled in water guns painted to look like real guns, and objects made to look like sticks of dynamite. They presented them to the principal and asked him if ID tags stopped them from bringing in their made up weapons, and would it stop real weapons from getting inÖ the ideal was scrapped
http://www.rense.com/general63/derar.htm
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a salt form of an amino acid that is used in food preservation and flavoring. It has been noted that MSG can trigger headaches in susceptible people. It is frequently added to oriental foods as flavoring and is found in many processed meats and canned goods. Reactions can occur as early as 30 minutes after ingesting MSG, which is rapidly absorbed in the stomach.
MSG reaction can cause other symptoms such as perspiration and tightness and pressure over the face and chest. Research has suggested that the effects of MSG may be minimized or avoided by countering these effects by consuming at least one cup of a complex carbohydrate, such as rice or pasta, as part of the meal.
http://www.headaches.org/consumer/topicsheets/msg.html
4. The Monkeysphere?
Yes, the Monkeysphere. That's the group of people who each of us, using our monkeyish brains, are able to conceptualize as people. If the monkey scientists are monkey right, it's physically impossible for this to be a number larger than 150. Most of us do not have room in our Monkeysphere for our friendly neighborhood Sanitation Worker. So, we don't think of him as a person. We think of him as The Thing That Makes The Trash Go Away.
5. Hey! I like my garbage man!
Maybe, but one way or another we all have limits to our sphere of monkey concern. It's simply the way our brains are built. We each have a certain circle of people who we think of as people. Usually it's our own friends and family and neighbors and classmates and coworkers (or at least the ones in your department) and church or suicide cult.
...
That's not my fault! I don't know those people!
Right. And they don't know you. That's why they don't mind stealing your stereo or vandalizing your house or cutting your wages or raising your taxes or bombing your office building or choking your computer with spam advertising diet and penis drugs they know don't work. You're outside their Monkeysphere. In their mind, you're just a vague shape with a pocket full of money for the taking.
That's the whole thing, right here. Life on Earth, in a nutshell. We are hard-wired to have a drastic double standard for the people inside and out of our Monkeysphere and those outside make up 99.999% of the world's population.
...
If you've just now protested that you shouldn't have to care for the customers for minimum wage, let me assure you that if you don't feel sympathy for your fellow man at $6.00 an hour, you won't fee anything at $600,000 a year.
Or, look at it the other way. If you're allowed to be indifferent and even resentful to the masses for $6.00 an hour, just think of how angry the average Pakistani man is allowed to be when he's making the equivalent of six dollars a week. And so on.
...
It's not all the French's fault. The truth is, all of these monkey management schemes only go so far. For instance, today one in four Americans has some kind of mental illness, usually depression. One in four. Watch a basketball game. The odds are at least two of those people on the floor are mentally ill. Look around your house; if everybody else there seems okay, it's you.
Is it any surprise? I just watched a whole news special on the Obesity Epidemic. I've had this worry laid on my shoulders about millions of other people eating too much. What exactly am I supposed to do with that information? I know what to do about the fact that I'm fat, but why am I getting upset about 80 million other people whose diets I don't control? You're harshing my buzz with the pork-laden plight of people outside my Monkeysphere and now I carry that useless weight of worry around like, you know, some kind of animal on my back.
http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/monkeysphere.html
posted by abu nakba at 3/27/2005 01:24:00 PM
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