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Ayn Rand is Running the TEA Party

(Boston Globe)

There have been many valid questions raised as to just exactly who is running the much talked-about “TEA Party.” Is it Rush Limbaugh? Sara Palin? Glenn Beck? Joe Wilson? Rupert Murdoch?

Nope. It’s a dead author. An egomaniac novelist-philosopher that makes up some of the founding principals of libertarianism, but certainly was not directly involved with the conservatism movement in the least.

From beyond the grave, she now rules over the ever-pandering Republican Party and this so-called “tea party.”

--

Ayn Rand claimed to “individualism,” but had no interest in allowing for individual disagreement over her logic within her “inner circle,” and preached “objectivism,” but refused to be objective in terms of literary-criticism of her novel “Atlas Shrugged.”



Here is this new “ethic” born of Ayn Rand that we see dominating the political right:

1. If you are poor, it is always your fault.
2. Asking for and receiving help is always wrong and a weakness.
3. Drive all compassion out of yourself.
4. You and your view are perfect, and cannot be wrong about anything.
5. Greed is holy.

--


Before anyone thinks I’m making all this up, let’s take a look at Ayn Rand in the news:

Gentlemen’s Quarterly (GQ) has named Ayn Rand “Writer of the Year of 2009” and Andrew Corsello spoke in his article of the "youth appeal" to Rand and as to his own experiences with her writing that greatly mirror my own.

2,000 pages of you’re-either-a-lion-or-a-leech ideology, loathing over Shakespeare, Beethoven, Marx, government, “subnormal” children, “simpering” social workers, homosexuals, and all of it with no grace, no subtly.

Philandering Republican Governor Mark Sanford was hiking the Appalachian Trail with Ayn Rand in the November 2nd issue of Newsweek.

While Rand's philosophy was based on individual's absolute freedom, Rand herself exercised a dictatorial control over her followers. Her chief acolyte (and lover), Nathaniel Branden, once circulated a list of rules for Rand's inner circle to follow; one of them read, "Atlas Shrugged is the greatest human achievement in the history of the world"; another said, "Ayn Rand, by virtue of her philosophical genius, is the supreme arbiter in any issue pertaining to what is rational, moral, or appropriate to man's life on earth."

Ayn Rand has shifted in and out of favor, but she may be more relevant today than ever.

Lastly, do not forget that the anti-reformist TEA Party have long since adopted this mantra of “Who is John Galt?”

--

I feel I have the answer these people seek, as to the identity of John Galt. It is rather simple:

“John Galt” is nothing but what you read now, something that came from the mind of another.

I created “Little Suzy” for the sake of a online discussion in regards to the health care debate in the U.S.

“Little Suzy” and “John Galt” are one in the same, yet different sides of the same coin. Pure fictions created solely for the purpose of enforcing a point of view. In the case of “John Galt,” he is a construct for the protagonist to encounter and in the case of Ayn Rand's writing to promote the concept of the "individual capitalist." In the case of "Little Suzy," she is a collaboration of non-fictional individuals in the real world who have suffered at the hands of the for-profit medical insurance agencies and she exists as both the protagonist and the antagonist in a story where she dies from treatable cancer after being exempted from insurance coverage.

Who is Little Suzy?

She is the little girl who died because any time someone speaks of "health care reform" in the U.S. the hounds of arrogance and venom are unleashed by the nearly completely partisan right-wing, thereby serving no purpose except to prevent all rational debate and civil discourse.

Ayn Rand and her TEA Party enjoy saying statements such as: "Some opinions are just wrong."

Completely false and obviously founded in high levels of hubris. Nobody can ever be "wrong" about their own opinion. You can, however, be "wrong" about the facts.

The rejection of all facts is not "objective." nor is it representative of "individualism" so much as it is a practice of willful ignorance.

I am perfectly willing to debate differences in opinions about the role of government and the role of the private sector, but often those heavily influenced by Rand feel that they are justified in their self-critiques of themselves as "geniuses" and "gifted." One Randite, who goes by the name Malice (oddly enough), spoke in the GQ article of how Ayn Rand appeals to adolescents who are feeling dejected and find that the words of Rand are a reminder that, "you were right and everyone against you is wrong." I believe he phrased it quite well as to what the true motives and core beliefs behind this movement truly are: self-superior logic. If someone disagrees with you, they obviously are not as smart as you. Or some other perverted form of backwards-logic that truly only serves to allow for people to behave like fools and be smug rather than civil and then call that "sound logic" and "spreading the truth."

--

I feel I must disclose that part of my distate of Ayn Rand is more complex than simply that I believe she is over-rated and outright immoral; it how she very much resembles myself in certain ways.

I am a writer, but like Ayn I do not simply "write." From one writer to another reaching out across time I must admit I feel some connection to this woman. In my more jocular moments I speak of how the real problem with the world today is that nobody is listening to me as how to get things done. In a strange way, I suppose I could explain her appeal to someone who was completely flabbergasted by all of it. But I laugh good and hard about how silly and arrogant I sound, she was actually serious about similiar statements. There is a big difference, in the end.

I am composing a piece of societal-commentary right next to the creation of my own philosophical foundations along with simply writing fiction and short essays.

I am prone to start coining "-isms" and start throwing them around as if there is a movement going on. I am a "populist" for peace, a "realist" for media-integrity.

Perhaps most profoundly is that in haste and enflamed passion I might lean toward alignment with this notion that I am vindicated by some gift of intellect over any misdeeds I commit, that I can treat my opponents in a way that I would never wish to be treated and they are the ones at fault not I, that my bitter rage and frustration make up the whole of the picture.

When one takes a hard step outside of the ideological boxes that people like Ayn Rand and myself tend to create around ourselves it becomes clear that the two of us did share some common bonds beyond simply both being fiction writers.

In the name of compassion and mutual understanding I have to come to know this piece of what I call "wisdom" as to Ayn Rand's similarity to any person who strives to take their writing and use it as a tool to display what they see.

--

Alan Greenspan was one of many Randites who have come to see the failing in their former logic.

Greenspan, to his credit, came forward in the height of the global economic meltdown to speak out against the exact same kind of “free-capitalistic” business practices that caused the crash. He clearly stated that he found: “[a] flaw in the model that I perceived as the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works.”

Conservatives and libertarians greatly ignored and widely dismissed Greenspan and his unsubtle rejection of these “Ayn Rand Economics” or “Free-Market Capitalism” styled politics that he had once been a strong advocate of. I contend that these people do not care to explore flaws in their ideological stances and instead (in greater and greater numbers it seems) only seek to create an atmosphere of me-versus-you if any person is in anything but outright agreement if not an atmosphere of outright violence.

Ideals like "selfishness is a virtue" and "greed is good" above all else drove us into a lasting national recession while the GOP and the TEA Party continue to advance the abandoned ideologies of Greenspan that ultimately serve only to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. The disgusting and shameful element being that was the stated goal of these ungracious self-serving monsters to begin with: a war on the poor and the middle class.

Dishonesty and willful ignorance dominates the TEA Party, right along with the radical GOP, leaving me to assume that no less than Ayn Rand coming from beyond the grave is the one who is truly running the party.

Truth Is Truth Unto Itself, Not Because People Say It Is

"When hearing something unusual, do not preemptively reject it, for that would be folly. Indeed, horrible things may be true, and familiar and praised things may prove to be lies. Truth is truth unto itself, not because people say it is."

- Ibn al-Nafis, 13th Century physician

The White House Blog: "On This Thanksgiving"

Posted by Macon Phillips on November 26, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Given the holiday, we are releasing the President's weekly address today. In this video, President Obama calls to our attention the men and women in uniform who are away from home sacrificing time with family to protect our safety and freedom. He also talks about the progress of health care reform, the Recovery Act, and job creation to ensure that next Thanksgiving will be a brighter day.

And let's not forget that it was the American People themselves who put Barack Obama in office with our own donations and our own votes:

Obama's victory in the general election was aided by his tremendous fundraising success. Since the start of 2007, his campaign relied on bigger donors and smaller donors nearly equally, pulling in successive donations mostly over the Internet. After becoming his party's nominee, Obama declined public financing and the spending limits that came with it, making him the first major-party candidate since the system was created to reject taxpayers' money for the general election.

Source of Funds:

Individual contributions $656,357,572 88%

PAC contributions $1,830

Candidate self-financing $0

Federal Funds $0

Other $88,626,223 12%

"ClimateGate" and the Biased Conservative Media

Have you heard the latest right-wing, anti-environmentalist talking point?

ClimateGate

Tony Hake of The San Francisco Examiner was one of the first to break the real story on the web:

Britain’s Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia, suffered a data breach in recent days when a hacker apparently broke into their system and made away with thousands of emails and documents. The stolen data was then posted to a Russian server and has quickly made the rounds among climate skeptics.

The electronic break in itself has been verified by the director of the research unit, Professor Phil Jones. He told Britain’s Investigate magazine's TGIF Edition "It was a hacker. We were aware of this about three or four days ago that someone had hacked into our system and taken and copied loads of data files and emails."

Update, 3:45pm MDT: In regards to the authenticity, not one report disputing the veracity of the emails has come out. Many sources have talked to some of the email authors and they have not disputed the messages.

Megan McArdle commented on the matter under pressure from her readers at The Atlantic:

I'd say that the charge that climate skeptics "are not published in peer reviewed journals" just lost most of its power as an argument against the skeptics. But I don't see any reason to think that the AGW scientists have actually falsified data to create a consensus reality which is known to be false-to-fact. What I see is that the people who are the custodians of the currently dominant paradigm have an unhealthy ability to exclude people who might challenge that paradigm from expressing those views in important forums. Powerful scientists using their power to marginalize anyone who might challenge the authority of them, or their views, is sadly not uncommon in the history of science.

That doesn't mean their paradigm is wrong; rather, it means we need to be less romantic about the practice of science. No scientific consensus is ever as powerful as its proponents claim, because no scientists are ever as perfect as we'd like to imagine.

Wired.com has covered the issue from mainly an internet-based perspective:

The stolen cache includes more than 1,000 e-mails and more than 3,000 documents, some containing code. They were posted anonymously to an FTP server in Russia. The hacker then posted a link to the 61-MB file of data on the blog Air Vent.

The hacker’s message that accompanied the link read: “We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to be kept under wraps. We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code and documents.”

The e-mails, which cover a decade of correspondence, are getting a lot of attention among bloggers who point to statements in them that they say suggest the scientists colluded and manipulated data to support their global warming viewpoints.

Bloggers allege that an e-mail from Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, suggests that reality contradicts scientific claims about global warming.

But Trenberth, who acknowledged the e-mail is genuine, says bloggers are missing the point he’s making in the e-mail by not reading the article cited in it. That article – An Imperative for Climate Change Planning — actually says that global warming is continuing, despite random temperature variations that would seem to suggest otherwise.

The right-wing biased media sources and persons were sure to spread this around as solid truth, and most likely have no interest in considering the source of these emails as well the entirely of the body of science rather than a single entity.

To wrap a bow on the bias dripping over every inch of conservative-media from Fox News to Real Clear Politics here is a real-time political polling statistic from RCP:

Direction of Country -- RCP Average

Right Direction

37.7

Wrong Track

57.2

Spread -19.5

The "wrong track" is getting more and more obvious to more and more Americans by the day to be the conservative ideology, and these numbers they reluctantly post are growing proof that I am right about this assertion.

When it comes to rushing to interpret the facts without any level of rational approach and spreading self-superior biased media they are the all time champions.

=================================================

UPDATE!

InformationIsBeautiful.net has an excellent explanation of the debate over climate science as it truly stands minus the political hack-job elements coming from skeptics.

London Rivals To Clash In Crunch Game - Betting Tips with Betfred

Chelsea could deal another hammer blow to their punch drunk Premier League title rivals if they win the London derby against Arsenal this weekend.
However, Theo Walcott is 'gunning' to bring the trophy to the north of the capital.

Arsenal currently sit in third place in the Premier League table, eight points behind the Blues but with a game in hand, and know a victory at the Emirates on Sunday could propel them right into a title battle.

They are well-fancied @ 6/4 to beat their rivals with Betfred and could be well-backed by many punters.

The Gunners have been hit hard with injury problems, with an ankle problem keeping top scorer Robin van Persie out for anything up to five months, while Gael Clichy and Nicklas Bendtner are also missing.

Arsene Wenger’s men were also not aided by young defender Kieran Gibbs suffering a broken metatarsal in the Champions League victory over Standard Liege, which will see him spend a lengthy time on the sidelines.

One man coming back into the team is Walcott, who made only his fourth appearance against Liege and now wants to fill Van Persie's role through the middle for Arsenal to help fire them to Premier League glory.

Walcott has predominantly been played as a winger by Wenger and said upon his return to the first team that he now feels great and his problematic knee is fine.

He is priced at football odds of 12/1 with Betfred to open the scoring at the Emirates, and could be a good bet against a Chelsea side which has struggled to deal with pacy forwards in the past.

"I would love to play up front, it was my position," said the forward.

"I played up front at Southampton but it has been quite a while. I will play anywhere for this team."


My Tip Of The Weekend:
Arsenal to win 2-1 @ 10/1 with Betfred may be a good price for a side looking to bounce back from last week’s disappointing defeat to Sunderland.


By Charlotte Cook
(Guest writer from Betfred on behalf of Beer Footy and Birds!)

Beware of The Big Bad Wolf Sale. It's Crowded and Eats Your Cash.

Apparently, it was madness on the first day of the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale at Amcorp Mall just now.

I wouldn't know, because I went yesterday and already went through most of it. Jacqueline of BBW/Bookxcess told me they had opened 80% of the boxes by then, so I'm happy in the knowledge that there is unlikely to be anything else I want there.

Considering my bag was full within 15 minutes of getting there, I'd say it was a pretty damn good sale.

So, what did I get?

1. 3 x Asterix 3-in-1 Omnibus = RM12 each
2. 3 x little cartoon books = RM5 each
3. Dexter In The Dark (Jeff Lindsay) = RM8
4. BatManga = RM20
5. Tan Tuan Eng's A Gift of Rain = RM8
6. 2 x Will Eisner graphic novels = RM8 each
7. 2 x cookbooks = RM10 each

And a couple more I can't remeber. I only spent RM150 this time because I only BROUGHT RM150 this time, and no credit card. WHEW!

I also saw:

• The Scholastic coloured Bone graphic novels going for RM8 each (which I already had, having bought them for full price, GRRRR),
• A gorgeous leatherbound hardback of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare for RM80. I didn't buy it. No more money
• Loads of Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin's Dreamsongs, Dune books and assorted fantasy, for RM8 each.
• An awesome Pop-up X-Men children's book. I didn't buy it either. No money. SIIIGH.
• A book called 'Lose Weight, Get LAID, Find God'. Who READS these things?
• Loads of imported magazines for RM3-5

There's a lot more I didn't mention because I can't quite remember what else there was. I'll try to post pictures later!

Oh, and unlike the last one where the books were strewn all over the place with no system whatsoever, this time all the books are sorted according to genre - fantays, fiction, romance, non-fiction, cookbooks etc etc.

The sale is on until December 2, and opens from 10am onwards. And BTW, if you're going these next few days, be prepared to queue up for a while just to get in, and also when you're checking out. The venue is smaller than usual, and I reckon there'll be a LOT of people going there during the long weekend...

Don't say I didn't warn you....

I Survived The Scariest Movie of 2009.....

New Moon
Not a review.
Wanted to stab my eyes out with a pen.
Using the BLUNT point.
OMG screaming tween girls.
OMG OMG OMG OMG.
OMG OMG OMG OMG
Stop screaming already.
Someday when you grow up,
You girls will look back at this movie,
And wonder why the heck you loved it so much.
Me, I had LOADS of fun... (in between stabbing my eyes)
Most fun I've had laughing and poking fun AT a movie since....
Oh. Since Twilight. LOL



Anyway, on to the movie.
Does ANYTHING ever happen in this movie?
All they ever seem to do is mope
sulk, mope, sulk, mope, sulk,
Stare into each other's eyes lovery dovey,
and say stupid, meaningless things.
Speaking of dialogue,
How DO they say those lines with a straight face?
How can you say something like 'Let's go watch Face Punch'"
And NOT burst out laughing at how absurd it sounds?
And OMG, those horrible conversations.
They make Episode II's infamous 'Sand' lines sound like Shakespeare.
If you think about it, they essentially say the same things,
OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.



And what the fuck is this.
One chick, one half-naked guy, one bedroom...
And all they did was TALK????
And so bias, WTF.
All the guys take off their shirts.
There's what, ONE lead female,
And we never even see a hint of cleavage?
(that said, that Alice chick has some groovy cleavage going on.)
She even goes swimming FULLY CLOTHED WTF.
But she does a MEgan Fox run in the end though.
Slow-mo and all.... but not as bouncy.



The Volturi were great though.
I'd watch a whole movie of them.
As long as there is no WolfBoyloveMopeyGirllovePaleBoy shit around.
Oooh, a jibe at zombie movies, so crever!
Mopey Girl should just go out with a zombie in the next movie
At least zombies won't leave her to 'protect' her.
And just eat her brains instead...
You know, for her protection.
Oh, and I have a theory on why Pale Boy was so reluctant,
And asked Mopey Girl to wait five years.
Maybe he wants her to grow a bit older,
So her boobs will grow bigger first,
And THEN only make her immortal.
LOL.



Huh? Edward? Jacob? Who're those people?

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Festive Xmas XI Of Former England International Players

• GK: Tim Flowers - Blackburn


• DEF: Ledley King - Tottenham
• DEF: Trevor Cherry - Leeds
• DEF: Barry Venison - Newcastle
• DEF: Terry Butcher - Ipswich

• MID: Harry Nutall - Bolton
• MID: Dennis Wise - Chelsea
• MID: Alfred Priest – Sheff Utd

• FWD: Albert Shepherd - Bolton
• FWD: John Cock – Chelsea
• FWD: George Holley - Sunderland

Fox News is Biased and Inaccurate Reporting

Megyn Kelly to Bill Burton:

"You attack, I'll defend."

"You save that for your friends on the other channels."

"Fox News has it fair and balanced, as always."

This interview / clash is a perfect example of why Fox News is most certainly not a bipartisan source of news.

Kelly literally shouts-down Burton as if it was talk radio, and then repeats the corporate motto like a good little Fox-minion.

I have been a long-time viewer (on and off) of Fox News and they have never been "fair and balanced." Recently they have become nothing more than the media-wing of the GOP; these people make up the “news” to suit their now very obvious political agenda.

I love how they all try to excuse their lack of evidence by the fact that their are a million-plus viewers of Fox.

As if their credibility record and their ratings scores are one and the same. It's just pure comedy to this as the retort from the Fox News Loyalists.

Almost everything Megyn Kelly said in fact applies were I to be speaking to the network-at-large:

You just keep attacking the truth, I'll just keep defending the truth.

You save this racist code language & these fearmonger-screeds for your friends in the White Supremacy movement and the zany antics of talk radio, where it belongs.

No element of Fox News, Fox News Talk, & the NY Post is in any way "fair and balanced." False advertising from the top-down. The network can repair it’s image by simply stating itself to be in favor toward the anti-Obama movement and in disfavor of the liberal-progressive movement. It is that simple.

And you guys just can't help yourselves, you just can't stand to ethical when being unethical is just so much more provocative!

Fox News has a long way to go before it can say it does anything but promote preconceived notions as reality and sell a pro-conservative, anti-Obama narrative.

These neoconservatives always talk about the "media is in the tank for Obama" but not one of them is willing to address just how heavily Fox News is in the tank for Palin / McCain / Bush / Cheney. They won't even address all these times when clearly, under review, Fox News failed to cover the story with the widely available credible evidence and footage.

Dishonesty and misinformation are the currency Fox News chooses to deal in.

Partisanship and political pandering is all the other networks are guilty of.

Add to that the matter of the New York Post being taken to court over allegations of promoting a hostile environment toward African-Americans and promoting a workplace environment friendly to sexual harassment and you have some of the final elements of this puzzle that the people at Fox Broadcasting are trying their hardest to scramble up before anyone takes a close look.

--

If I spread enough American Flags and say "God" enough times on this weblog, will I also be unchallengeable in the value in all of my blog-content and all of my internet-claims?

I'd like that very much.

If that were so it would be pure statement of fact to say that TEA Party members mainly did not vote in the Presidential 2008 Election.

I like where this is going…

Drudge is no good! (Then everyone just ignores Drudge from here out because I said so.)

--

Who the heck started The News Wars, anyway?

Oppositional Research certainly didn't start with Fox News, but they most certainly fired the first shot in this "war" of the commercialized-news.

What I detect is the same thing again and again that I heard expressed by Keith Olbermann of MSNBC:

"When we do, we're cool, but when you do you're Hitler." (In regards to some of Glenn Beck comments)

When they bring in oppositional researcher--Inside Edition smear merchant--Bill O'Reilly in and start letting him call himself a "journalist," the dam began to crack and when a Democratic President took office we then finally saw the true colors of Fox Broadcasting Company.

They will use any tactic they see fit to push through their political-social agenda and when called out on their actions they intend to label all who point out their inaccurate & biased coverage as the source of the problem instead of focusing on the issue.

An example: When I used a Beck-tactic on my weblog, and clearly labeled it as "satire," some people took huge offense and some tried to claim I was using the very tactic of "defamation" that I was decrying so often.

But it's a "comedic roast" on Glenn Beck, nothing more.

It was a "joke" when I said you should tell everyone.

The only reason I did it, is to show how very easy it is to just throw around wild rumors and place anybody you want on the “hot-seat” to explain themselves.

Some people were trying to say to me in course of throwing up red flags as Glenn Beck crusades against America that it: “doesn‘t matter.”

Oh, it matters. Who will they come after next? Who is the next target for them to demonize and spin? Maybe tomorrow it will be just everyone who is not in a “tea party” who is a “racist,” trying to “destroy” this nation with “socialism / communism.” If one dares to even call themselves a Republican instead of TEA Party or Conservative Party then they will have the attack-dogs unleashed to sew fear about them?

Opinions are great, but pure political-extremism combined with the bitter rejection of looking at the issue from multiple sources of information gathering is just plain willful ignorance. Not an opinion. Glenn Beck is an enabler for fringe anti-government groups, anti-black groups, anti-liberal groups and other hate-based organizations.

I once said I might sot down and talk broadcasting with him and other of the conservative-media feed. I take it back.

I have nothing to learn from these broadcasting-jackals that I could not learn reading Mad Magazine or listening to late-night AM Radio.

...

The News Wars started before there even was such a beast as MSNBC to bite back at that wild dog of "Fox News."

The News Wars started with people like me, and much more importantly people like LiberalViewer, who spoke truth to network-power and demanded better coverage from any network that would make such a bold claim as to be "fair & balanced news."

It may not be clear to millions of Americans what a "fabricated conspiracy theory" is, exactly.

But it is perfectly clear to me.

Barack Obama is no more a "socialist," than George W. Bush is a "fascist."

If people in the public insist on extremist labeling then so be it, but no recognized network should be promoting this notion that extremist political labeling is an action of "fairness" or an element of "balance."

--

The irony of satire...

I have put on my "Colbert-suit" for a blog post, or two.

They circulated (to the best of my knowledge) in conservative-internet circles rather quickly.

But if I mimic the vile tactics of their new poster-boy Glenn Beck, I am a naughty & vile person.

I believe my form of internet-satire has some small value only that I will admit outright that is satire thereby meaning entirely ambiguous information. However, I believe I will lean away from internet-satire in that it goes greatly misunderstood even when clearly declared as just pure hyperbolic nonsense.

Unbeknownst to them of course that the one they were linking to would much such statements as:

The monopolistic-corporate power structure in companies like Monsanto and Fox pose a threat to the public if left unchecked and buried with corporate dollars at every turn.

--

I recently checked the pay-outs to Democrats versus Republicans in terms of Monsanto campaign slush-money, and while the totals are not significant the individual contributions to Congressmen are quite significant.

Two Democratic Congressmen took $500 each, one from my home state, and two Republican took $10,000+ each. Both in states where the corn market is more significant to the "big-agriculture" industry.

The fact remains that Canada has discussed banning the use of GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) in their food and Britain has a labeling procedure in place while North America continues to ignore the matter by and large.

Like many of a somewhat scientific persuasion, I believe further research is needed on the usefulness of GMOs and primarily concerned the matter of the repeated failure to disclose both sides of the story on the matter by major news outlets across the U.S.

I see now the great failing in alarmism and it more important to have a public making informed decisions on matters regarding our food, or even matters regarding our health care insurance, rather than being given misleading and omitted coverage from any news group.

It is important to note in a discussion of media-finance and corporate hush-money that the Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) recently started receiving corporate-donations from Monsanto. I am of the persuasion to believe that an entity like PBS would likely graciously turn down the money if only they had the public support in donations to do such a thing.

As it stands PBS remains a credible news source despite some amount of corporate funding and Fox (News Corp) is the least credible of any television broadcasting to date.

Open Letter to Harry Reid (Public Option)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

Firedoglake has a section entitled "FDL Action" in which I found an easy way to send Senator Harry Reid a little bit of my mind on the health care debate & the matter of the need for a government-run public option intact:

I doubt this message will reach you Senator Reid but it is important to impress that I support reconciliation not as a matter of due course but as pertaining to the current circumstances. The Republican filibuster must not be allowed to further mire the process and they surely intend to continue to pander to anti-government fears using misinformation tactics.

Reconciliation is needed, we cannot proceed without a public option.

Join in the cause to fight for reconciliation!

Also please join with me & Public Option Please (POP) in getting out the word that we need comprehensive health care reform in the U.S.

==========================================================

reconciliation: a legislative process of the United States Senate intended to allow a contentious budget bill to be considered without being subject to filibuster.

filibuster: a form of obstruction in a legislature or other decision-making body whereby one attempts to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a proposal by extending a debate on that proposal.

All Hail the Corporate Empire

All hail the Corporate Empire.

Poison-pushers and war-mongers rejoice; your neckties have absolved your sins.

The rusted wheelchair left to rust by the riverside finds a new owner.

A lonely overpass serves its intended purpose: a home for American families.

A toxic watershed refreshes a dry throat. Blessed are the war-makers; gifted are the clever thieves.

Someone, somewhere, made note of the misery and went wholly unnoticed.

Crying for the dream we all lost, she spoke of her true feelings.

Striving for the world we envision, he came to know his heart.

An exchange of blood for money; the transaction making us all a little bit evil.

A maniac takes his pound of flesh; just another day living under the Corporate Empire.

==============================================

Inspired by “Praise to the Highways” by Roberto Bolaño appearing in the December 2009 issue of Harper’s Magazine.

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Perhaps You Will Believe

"Perhaps you will believe with me that civilizations are not realities, but only dreams."

- Mark Twain