Klimaatverandering 70

Stel u ziet plotseling vlak voor u een auto opdoemen. U schrikt enorm en springt meteen weg. Dat is een natuurlijke reactie.

Maar nu een ander voorbeeld. U hoort James Hansen, directeur van het Goddard Institute for Space Studies van de NASA, verklaren: 'We are on the precipice of climate system tipping points beyond which there is no redemption.' Reageert u enorm geschrokken en verandert u meteen uw koers?

Nee, dat doen we niet. De vraag is: waarom niet? Waarom laten we onze politici doorgaan met hun uitzichtloos gemodder? De overleving van de soort is miljoenen jaren lang de belangrijkste drijfveer geweest in het leven. Sinds zeer kort is dat instinct vernietigd. Hoe komt dat? Waarom zijn onze kinderen niet meer het belangrijkst? Waarom is de materialistische levenswijze het belangrijkste motief geworden in het menselijk bestaan? Waarom zijn we bereid zelf onze ondergang en die van ons nageslacht te bewerkstelligen? Zijn we genetisch veranderd of is dit het product van dagelijkse propaganda? Zijn het biologische factoren of ideologische of een combinatie van beide die tot deze - als het ware - doodsdrift hebben geleid? Waarom wordt er hierover niet serieus gesproken in de commerciele massamedia? Heeft u al een serie goed gedocumenteerde tv-documentaires gezien van de zogheten 'publieke omroepen' over de gevolgen van de klimaatverandering voor iedereen? Nee! Waarom niet? Een van de belangrijkste symptomen van autisme is dat de patient geen dreigend gevaar kan herkennen. Is er sprake van een collectief autisme? Of is het verdringing?

Lees The Last Generation van de gerenommeerde wetenschapsjournalist Fred Pearce zodat u weet wat er gebeurt zodra het gebeurt. U kunt dan niet meer zeggen dat u het niet geweten heeft. Ik las vandaag dat het ongewoon warm is in New York deze winter. Vindt u het ook niet erg zacht voor januari? Wat zou er toch aan de hand zijn? Wanneer nu zelfs degenen die het meest verdienen aan de klimaatverandering, de grote concerns zoals Shell, waarschuwen voor de ingrijpende gevolgen van de klimaatverandering, wordt het dan niet tijd dat we uit onze winterslaap komen?

Wijsheid 14

"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget. "

Arundhati Roy

The Empire 125

De filosoof Zizek schrijft in de New York Times:

'Denying the Facts, Finding the Truth.
By SLAVOJ ZIZEK.

ONE of the pop heroes of the Iraq war was undoubtedly Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, the unfortunate Iraqi information minister who, in his daily press conferences during the invasion, heroically denied even the most evident facts and stuck to the Iraqi line. Even with American tanks only a few hundred yards from his office, he continued to claim that the televised shots of tanks on the Baghdad streets were just Hollywood special effects.
In his very performance as an excessive caricature, Mr. Sahhaf thereby revealed the hidden truth of the “normal” reporting: there were no refined spins in his comments, just a plain denial. There was something refreshingly liberating about his interventions, which displayed a striving to be liberated from the hold of facts and thus of the need to spin away their unpleasant aspects: his stance was, “Whom do you believe, your eyes or my words?”
Furthermore, sometimes, he even struck a strange truth — when confronted with claims that Americans were in control of parts of Baghdad, he snapped back: “They are not in control of anything — they don’t even control themselves!”
What, exactly, do they not control? Back in 1979, in her essay “Dictatorship and Double Standards,” published in Commentary, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick elaborated the distinction between “authoritarian” and “totalitarian” regimes. This concept served as the justification of the American policy of collaborating with right-wing dictators while treating Communist regimes much more harshly: authoritarian dictators are pragmatic rulers who care about their power and wealth and are indifferent toward ideological issues, even if they pay lip service to some big cause; in contrast, totalitarian leaders are selfless fanatics who believe in their ideology and are ready to put everything at stake for their ideals.
Her point was that, while one can deal with authoritarian rulers who react rationally and predictably to material and military threats, totalitarian leaders are much more dangerous and have to be directly confronted.
The irony is that this distinction encapsulates perfectly what went wrong with the United States occupation of Iraq: Saddam Hussein was a corrupt authoritarian dictator striving to keep his hold on power and guided by brutal pragmatic considerations (which led him to collaborate with the United States in the 1980s). The ultimate proof of his regime’s secular nature is the fact that in the Iraqi elections of October 2002 — in which Saddam Hussein got a 100 percent endorsement, and thus overdid the best Stalinist results of 99.95 percent — the campaign song played again and again on all the state media was Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”
One outcome of the American invasion is that it has generated a much more uncompromising “fundamentalist” politico-ideological constellation in Iraq. This has led to a predominance of the pro-Iranian political forces there — the intervention basically delivered Iraq to Iranian influence. One can imagine how, if President Bush were to be court-martialed by a Stalinist judge, he would be instantly condemned as an “Iranian agent.” The violent outbursts of the recent Bush politics are thus not exercises in power, but rather exercises in panic.'

Lees verder: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/05/opinion/05zizek.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Het Universum

De Independent bericht:

'The universe gives up its deepest secret.
It is the invisible material that makes up most of the cosmos. Now, scientists have created the first image of dark matter
By Steve Connor, Science Editor

One of the greatest mysteries of the universe is about to be unravelled with the first detailed, three-dimensional map of dark matter - the invisible material that makes up most of the cosmos.
Astronomers announced yesterday that they have achieved the apparently impossible task of creating a picture of something that has defied every attempt to detect it since its existence was first postulated in 1933.
Scientists have known for many years that there is more to the universe than can be seen or detected through their telescopes but it is only now that they have been able to capture the first significant 3D-image of this otherwise invisible material.
Unlike the ordinary matter of the planets, stars and galaxies, which can be seen through telescopes or detected by scientific instruments, nobody has seen dark matter or knows what it is made of, though calculations suggest that it is at least six times bigger than the rest of the visible universe combined.
A team of 70 astronomers from Europe, America and Japan used the Hubble space telescope to build up a picture of dark matter in a vast region of space where some of the galaxies date back to half the age of the universe - nearly 7 billion years.
They used a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, first predicted by Albert Einstein, to investigate an area of the sky nine times the size of a full moon. Gravitational lensing occurs when light from distant galaxies is bent by the gravitational influence of any matter that it passes on its journey through space.
The scientists were able to exploit the technique by collecting the distorted light from half a million faraway galaxies to reconstruct some of the missing mass of the universe which is otherwise invisible to conventional telescopes.
"We have, for the first time, mapped the large-scale distribution of dark matter in the universe," said Richard Massey of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, one of the lead scientists in the team. "Dark matter is a mysterious and invisible form of matter, about which we know very little, yet it dominates the mass of the universe."
One of the most important discoveries to emerge from the study is that dark matter appears to form an invisible scaffold or skeleton around which the visible universe has formed.
Although cosmologists have theorised that this would be the case, the findings are dramatic proof that their calculations are correct and that, without dark matter, the known universe that we can see would not be able to exist.'

Lees verder: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article2134891.ece

11 September 2001 (18)

Kreeg ik net via email:

'Geef de 11 septemberkalender cadeau!
Wie moet er volgens u iedere dag opnieuw worden wakker geschud door:
de voorspellende gaven van Donald Rumsfeld
de werking van het onnavolgbare veiligheidsapparaat van de vs
de doeltreffende onderzoeksmethoden van de fbi
de verrassende informatiebronnen van burgemeester Giuliani
het briljante informatienetwerk van de cia
het scrupuleuze, diepgaande onderzoek van de 9/11 Commission
de verbluffende jacht op al-Qaeda
de wonderbaarlijke gedaanteverwisselingen van Osama bin Laden
de onverwachte wederopstanding van sommige kapers
en vooral het snelle, doortastende optreden van George W. Bush
… en dat 365 dagen lang?
Stuur diegene de digitale 11 septemberkalender en hij of zij ontvangt in 2007 iedere dag een pagina van de scheurkalender in zijn mailbox. Gratis!
Een jaar lang genieten onder het motto:
De werkelijkheid is vele malen bizarder dan de wildste samenzweringstheorie.

Stuur deze kalender naar:
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Zie: http://www.lemniscaat.nl/911kalender/

De Pro-Israel Lobby 21

De pro-Israel lobby in de Verenigde Staten krijgt steeds meer steeds meer kritiek te verduren.

'Zionists Vs Truth -The Wheels of Justice Battle for Andover.

By Joe Carr.
http://lovinrevolution.org/beta/?q=node/36

Last night was one of the most contentions events I’ve ever done. Whoever
thought that a simple talk in the library of Andover High School in a small
suburb of Massachusetts would make so many headlines.

It all started last October, when six social studies teachers invited the
Wheels of Justice Bus Tour to talk to a couple classes. The Wheels of
Justice Tour (http://www.justicewheels.org/) brings eyewitness accounts of
war and occupation in Iraq and Palestine to communities across the US,
including hundreds of high schools. I was on it for several weeks at the end
of October.

Despite the tour’s well-regarded reputation for supporting nonviolence and
human rights, a group of parents and influential community members pressured
the school’s principal, Peter Anderson, to cancel our visit, claiming that
we are “anti-Israel” and “support terrorists”, even going so far as to call
us a “hate group”. Late the night before we were supposed to speak,
Principal Anderson called one of the teachers and told him the talks were
off.

We drove the bus to the school the next morning anyway, hoping that the
principal could be convinced that this was an unfair violation of the
teachers’ rights. But we were unsuccessful, and Principal Anderson, backed
up by an Andover Police Officer, asked us to leave.

The teachers’ immediately began organizing, starting with a protest in front
of the school that day. The students followed suit with a petition demanding
we be allowed to speak. They had 200 signatures by lunch time. Local Zionist
groups issued press releases taking credit for blocking us, though Principal
Anderson insists that it was his decision.

The teachers union joined with the ACLU and threatened to file a lawsuit
against the school district if they didn’t allow us to come back. The
school’s lawyers admitted that our case was strong and it could end up
costing the district a lot of money if he didn’t bring us back. Anderson
caved and bought me a plane ticket.

Zionist forces continued to try and apply pressure behind the scenes. They
attempted a court injunction, tried to insist students have permission slips
in order to attend, and threatened to hold a picket outside the school. All
of these failed, and we had an excellent day of classes.

Because of all the publicity, many more teachers were interested in hearing
us speak, so several talks took place in the library with combined classes.
All in all, we spoke to over 200 kids in four sessions. The students were
very respectful, and asked thoughtful and challenging questions. They seemed
to especially like my hip-hop song about Rachel Corrie. Though one student
did tape a sign made from notebook paper to an upper-level window that read
“YOU SUPPORT TERRISM”.

Because some parents demanded to know what we had said to their kids, the
principal agreed to host an evening event that would be open to the public.
He clearly had no idea what he was getting into.

By 7pm, Over 300 people were crammed into the library, standing room only,
shoulder to shoulder. I counted about 100 Wheels of Justice supporters, 120
Zionists, 80 high school students, nearly all of the administration, three
armed Andover police, two TV news cameras, and several photojournalists. You
could cut the tension with a knife.

Principal Anderson opened with a call for respect and civility, threatening
to cancel the event if there was any disruption. Mazin Qumsiyeh, a prominent
Palestinian-American activist, began his talk on Palestinian history. Within
5 minutes, Zionists began screaming at him and calling him a liar. Others
yelled at them to be quiet and let Mazin speak. Anderson got up and again
threatened to cancel the event, but one of the Zionist leaders took the mic
and encouraged her supporters to behave, or otherwise they’d never know what
we told their kids.

The event continued with frequent disruption, including threats of violence
and other missives. Anderson never removed anyone, even though there were
clearly individual provocateurs. Dr Hassan Fouda, an Egyptian-American
activist spoke next about his experiences with nonviolent resistance in
Palestine. Then I talked about my trip to Iraq, and ended with my song about
Rachel Corrie.

The opposition was a little less disruptive during my talk, perhaps because
it was on Iraq, perhaps because I’m not Arab-American. Though several people
in the back tried to distract me during my song about Rachel by making faces
and waving their arms. “These are adults?” I thought.'

Lees verder: http://lovinrevolution.org/beta/?q=node/36 En ook:
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/andoverhighschool/

De Israelische Terreur 141

Volgens de Sunday Times dreigt Israel nu met nuclaire terreuraanslagen:

'Revealed: Israel Plans Nuclear Strike on Iran .

By Uzi Mahnaimi, New York and Sarah Baxter, Washington.

The Sunday Times.

Israel has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.
Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear "bunker-busters", according to several Israeli military sources.
The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.
Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open "tunnels" into the targets. "Mini-nukes" would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.
"As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished," said one of the sources.
The plans, disclosed to The Sunday Times last week, have been prompted in part by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad's assessment that Iran is on the verge of producing enough enriched uranium to make nuclear weapons within two years.
Israeli military commanders believe conventional strikes may no longer be enough to annihilate increasingly well-defended enrichment facilities. Several have been built beneath at least 70ft of concrete and rock. However, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used only if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the United States declined to intervene, senior sources said.
Israeli and American officials have met several times to consider military action. Military analysts said the disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack.
Some analysts warned that Iranian retaliation for such a strike could range from disruption of oil supplies to the West to terrorist attacks against Jewish targets around the world.'

Lees verder: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2535310,00.html Of:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010707Z.shtml