Vatican issues new green message for world's CatholicsThe Vatican yesterday added its voice to a rising chorus of warnings from churches around the world that climate change and abuse of the environment is against God's will, and that the one billion-strong Catholic church must become far greener.
At a Vatican conference on climate change, Pope Benedict urged bishops, scientists and politicians - including UK environment secretary David Miliband - to "respect creation" while "focusing on the needs of sustainable development".
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Pat Tillman and the “Elaborate Lies” of Psychopathic RulersLies. For the Bush neocons, they are second nature, as predictable as the sun coming up in the morning. Bush and crew lied about the events of September 11, 2001, about “al-Qaeda” in Afghanistan, about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction.
Pat Tillman, the football star who walked away from an NFL career to fight a manufactured enemy in Afghanistan, where he was shot dead by his own troops, was shamelessly exploited by the Pentagon, and became part of yet anoth... (more)
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How three million Germans died after VE DayGiles MacDonogh is a bon viveur and a historian of wine and gastronomy, but in this book, pursuing his other consuming interest - German history - he serves a dish to turn the strongest of stomachs. It makes particularly uncomfortable reading for those who compare the disastrous occupation of Iraq unfavourably to the post-war settlement of Germany and Austria.
MacDonogh argues that the months that followed May 1945 brought no peace to the shattered skeleton of Hitler's Reich, but ... (more)
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I Know I'm Not Alone
Michael Franti, world-renowned musician and human rights worker, travels to Iraq, Palestine and Israel to explore the human cost of war with a group of friends, some video cameras and his guitar.
A compelling soundtrack, visual and musical montages and Franti’s in... (more)
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Today's Anti-Smoking Purge Is Borrowed From The Nazis A wealth of overlooked yet frightening literature concerning the Nazi crusade against smoking provides a clear parallel to contemporary developments and an alarming warning that state restriction of personal habits is the pre-cursor to dictatorship.
Beginning in the early 1930's, as part of the Nazi agenda for racial purity, Hitler spearheaded a national campaign to ban smoking in all public buildings, and denounced the practice as a b... (more)
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LSD as Therapy? Write about It, Get Barred from USAndrew Feldmar, a well-known Vancouver psychotherapist, rolled up to the Blaine border crossing last summer as he had hundreds of times in his career. At 66, his gray hair, neat beard, and rimless glasses give him the look of a seasoned intellectual. He handed his passport to the U.S. border guard and relaxed, thinking he would soon be with an old friend in Seattle. The border guard turned to his computer and googled "Andrew Feldmar."
The psychotherapist's world was about to tur... (more)
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GM crop failure a warning, says US adviserA former agricultural adviser to US presidents says the failure of a genetically modified field pea trial should act as a warning for future GM crop testing.
The 10-year CSIRO trial was abandoned when tests found the peas were making mice seriously ill.
Dr Charles Benbrook, who advised presidents Carter, Bush senior, Reagan and Clinton says the field pea trial failure shows current GM crop testing is grossly inadequate.
"I don't believe that this new ... (more)
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5-Year Prison Sentence For Brown As New Waco Draws Nearer A federal judge sentenced tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown to more than five years in prison yesterday, giving them sentences at the top of the range recommended by probation officers but below sentencing recommendations offered by the prosecutor.
The couple did not attend the hearing, and Ed Brown refused to recognize the sentence or the federal court that issued it.
"I've been convicted of crimes?" he asked in a phone interview yes... (more)
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Rosie Tells ABC To Screw Its 9/11 CensorshipABC is reporting that it has been unable to come to a contractual agreement with Rosie O'Donnell. As a result, her hosting duties on The View will come to an end mid-June.
An article by ABC news states:
So here we are a year later, and while we've tried to come to terms on a deal that would extend ... (more)
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Fascist America, in 10 easy stepsFrom Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all.
Last autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list. In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martia... (more)
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Housing Bubble BoondoggleTreasury Secretary Henry Paulson delivered an upbeat assessment of the slumping real estate market on Friday saying, "All the signs I look at" show "the housing market is at or near the bottom."
Baloney.
Paulson added that the meltdown in subprime mortages was not a "serious problem. I think it's going to be largely contained."
Wrong again.
Paulson knows full well that the housing market is headed for a crash and probably won't bounce b... (more)
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War and the Police State: Complicity of the American People "We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth…. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not..? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know.. it — now." Patrick Henry, 1775.
In this era of perpetual warfare, escalating domestic tyranny, governm... (more)
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Time of the Death SquadsDeath squads are returning to the streets of Baghdad despite the security plan for the capital launched with great fanfare by the US two months ago.
As Iraqis bury the 230 people killed or found dead on Wednesday, ominous signs are appearing that the Shia militias have resumed their tit-for-tat killings. There is a sharp increase in the number of dead bodies found bearing signs of torture, with 67 corpses discovered dumped in Baghdad in the first three days of the week.
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"Handcuffed and blind-folded, I was told to keep my mouth shut"KANDAHAR , 23 April 2007 (IRIN) - MS Noori works for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in the volatile province of Kandahar in the south of Afghanistan. On 1 April 2007, armed men raided his house. He told IRIN of his bitter experience.
"It was 7:40 to 7:50 pm and we were watching TV powered by a generator. There was a bang at our door that scared all of us in the room. We were all numbed and at a loss as to what to do. Seconds later, my brother, who work... (more)
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The War Goes Ever OnIs the Iraq war to become a permanent feature?
The war persists despite the opposition of a majority of Americans and Iraqis.
The war persists despite warnings from US generals that the stress is breaking the US Army.
The war persists despite its enormous cost in red ink and dependence on foreign loans.
The war persists despite its total failure.
The war persists despite the known fact that it was based on Bush administra... (more)
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The Plot Against the First AmendmentIn June, a case is slated to go to trial in Northern Virginia that will mark a first step in a plan to silence press coverage of essential national security issues. The plan was hatched by Alberto Gonzales and his deputy, Paul J. McNulty—the two figures at the center of a growing scandal over the politicization of the prosecutorial process. This may in fact be the most audacious act of political prosecution yet. But so far, it has gained little attention and is poorly understood.
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Who Grieves For Them?While spending my usual Sunday morning, watching the news shows on television, I founds myself in total empathy with the parents of the slain college students at Virgina Tech. Having lost a child of my own a year ago, I understand intimately the pain which they now must bear. I thought of how nice it is that some find solace in speaking to the nation which mourns with them about their lost sons and daughters via the television interviewers. Also, according to the news, grief counselors are being... (more)
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Canadian MP wants to cleanse the Internet with the scratchy sponge of censorshipCanadian MP Joy Smith introduced a new bill this week designed to cleanse the Internet of child pornography, racial hatred, and material that promotes violence against women. All noble goals, to be sure, but the cure might be almost as bad as the disease: Smith's plan calls for government censorship and the licensing of all ISPs in the country.... (more)
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'Not guilty' but not freeThe woman's body lay in the Nacogdoches woods, partially unclothed and stabbed repeatedly.
The 7-year-old boy lay crying in the back seat of a nearby Buick, blood leaking from 20 stab wounds.
Nothing connected the white woman and black child beyond blood splatters running from the car to the woods. But nine days later, police made an arrest that linked both brutal attacks to a local man: Jimmy Lee Page, a convicted murderer out on parole.
It was Augus... (more)
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Are we safe from robots that can think for themselves? Robots that can think for themselves could soon be caring for our children and the elderly and policing our streets, say experts.
Scientists told yesterday of a new generation of robots which can work without human direction.
They predict that in the next five years robots will be available for child-minding, to work in care homes, monitor prisons and help police trace criminals.
And while it may sound like somethin... (more)
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Forget robot rights, experts say, use them for public safety Scientists have criticised a government report which advocated a debate on granting rights to super-intelligent robots in the future as "a distraction". They say the public should instead be consulted over the use of robots by the military and police, as carers for the elderly and as sex toys.
The robotics experts were commenting on a report published by the Office of Science and Innovation's Horizon Scanning Centre in December. The authors of Robo-rights: Utopi... (more)
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The dramatic suffering of Leszek BalcerowiczBuilt in the early 1950s as the Soviet Union’s “gift” to Poland, the Palace of Culture and Science dominates the Warsaw skyline. Many adult Poles associate this Orwellian behemoth with crude state propaganda. While America’s commercial media have more subtle influences on public perceptions, crude propaganda does make its appearance every so often. An example is a recent column in the Washington Post about Poland and free market reform.
In the American ... (more)
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'Little girl Rambo' Jessica Lynch decries US propagandaThe former US private Jessica Lynch today condemned what she said were Pentagon efforts to turn her into a "little girl Rambo", and accused military chiefs of using "elaborate tales" to try to make her into a hero of the Iraq war.
Speaking at a congressional hearing on the use of misleading information, an emotional Ms Lynch described how she suffered horrific injuries when her vehicle was hit by a rocket near the Iraqi town of Nasiriya in March 2003, killing several of her compan... (more)
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We Just Marched In (So We Can Just March Out) Before the U.S. House of Representatives, April 17, 2007
All the reasons given to justify a preemptive strike against Iraq were wrong. Congress and the American people were misled.
Support for the war came from various special interests that had agitated for an invasion of Iraq since 1998. The Iraq Liberation Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton, stated that getting ri... (more)
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Poverty in America: American Dream Now a Nightmare for MillionsNew Haven, Connecticut (April 16, 2007) From Combined News Services and Evolution Solutions Newsroom -- A 2004 analysis of data by the US Census reports that 60 million Americans now live on less than $7 per day. That's one in five in the U.S. living on less than $2,555 per year. At the same time, the richest 1 per cent now garners about 16 per cent of national income, double what they earned in the 1960s.[1]
While global income inequality is probably greater than it has ever been... (more)
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Neolib Rulers Hail Dead Pathocrat YeltsinIt’s enough to induce uncontrollable vomiting. “It is with sadness that I learned of the death of former president Yeltsin. He was a remarkable man who saw the need for democratic and economic reform and in defending it played a vital role at a crucial time in Russia’s history,” declared the neocon poodle, Tony Blair. “He is best remembered when standing up to the coup d’etat aimed at restoring a dictatorial regime in Russia. With great personal courage he had... (more)
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