How
'bout Something Controversial? How
'bout Something Controversial?
This file is dedicated to current and past issues that make for interesting reading and, hopefully, lively discussion:
14. ???
13. Here's a couple interesting links to check out. What sorta caught my attention was that this particular organization has as its stated objective to "protect the well-being of all participants, and especially vulnerable populations." Very cool!
Well.. what "vulnerable populations"? And... protected from whom? Thugs? Drug dealers? Pot smokers? The Proud Crowd and their active rainbow coalitions? How about... Gangster in South Central, L.A.? Maybe Preachers... or all those brain-washed church-goers... (you know.. those the imminent lunk-headed scientist from Oxford University calls: ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but [he'd] rather not consider that...) just because some of us do not believe in evolution...) So I ask... protected from whom?
I mean! After all... any... AND all these popularly identified, vial groups and perniciously evil, sub-human professions are daily thumped into our brains by the ever-watchful, yet very subtle Media agenda, right? And you may say... I'm glad somebody's watchin' those good-for-nothin's!! You may say... you're glad somebody... ANYbody... is willing to protect us vulnerable folk.
Unfortunately, we're not talking about Media fluff! We're not talking about ineffectual news reporting that simply gives the appearance of care and concern -- and nothing changes! (except maybe a talkin'-head's hair-do...) Other than that... NOTHING changes!
Instead, we are talking about... the dilemmas surrounding organ procurement and donation. We're talking about a variety of ethically dubious practices, including the sale of organs and the use of organs from executed prisoners... and unsuspecting, more remote people-groups. Unfortunately, we're talking about science. We're talking about medicine. We're talking about doctors, PhD's and other educated types! We're talkin' about... systematic procedures and calculated, big business!
Organ Watch, is an investigative task force composed of social scientists, transplant surgeons and human rights activists, exploring the ethical dimensions of organ donation and procurement practices around the world.
Organ Watch grows out of the recommendations of the Bellagio Report. This report examined the international trafficking of vital organs and the real and potential abuses in organ procurement practices. It noted the vagueness of existing guidelines and international declarations on organ transplantation and the absence of procedures and mechanisms to enforce existing standards.
We're talking about a shortage that has stimulated allegations of babies and children kidnapped and murdered for their vital organs. We're talking about missing children...
If this is reported, can you imagine what goes... un-reported?!
12. Is it true that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has misrepresented facts in order to approve certain genetically altered foods? And is it true that the FDA's motivation to promote the biotech industry was so strong that it not only disregarded the warnings of its own scientists about the unique risks of gene-spliced foods, but also dismissed them and took a public position that was the opposite?
It is interesting to note that although FDA experts advise that genetically engineered foods should be subjected to special testing, those in charge (yes, more bureaucrats!) proclaim some foods require no testing at all. The FDA's records reveal it declared genetically engineered foods to be safe in the face of disagreement from its own experts and suggest a broad scientific consensus supporting its stance. On the other hand, internal reports and memoranda disclose: (1) agency scientists repeatedly cautioned that foods produced through recombinant DNA technology entail different risks than do their conventionally produced counterparts and (2) that this input was consistently disregarded by the bureaucrats who crafted the agency's current policy, which treats bioengineered foods the same as natural ones.
Even Dr. Jim Maryanski, the FDA Biotechnology Coordinator, acknowledged there is no consensus about the safety of genetically engineered foods in the scientific community at large, and FDA scientists advised they should undergo special testing, including toxicological tests.
For more, read the website of Dr. Ron Epstein, San Francisco State University:
11. The best in American politics at tax payer's (that's YOU and ME...) expense -- (this is something I'm watching... and trying to figure out).
In light of the recent Kosovo crisis with all its concomitant propagandizing to us looking on... and with NATO smart bombing campaign to reduce the risk of collateral damages, here's the question I pose: WHO is really benefitting from all this?
(Straight up let me tell you -- I subscribe to the ancient notion that the... Love of King Dollar... is somewhere at the heart and core of even this issue. Or course, Kosovo is being cloaked in a shroud of stopping the truly terrible ethnic cleansing... and other nice-sounding, lofty ideals about the brotherhood of mankind... and peace at any price which, I suspect, nobody really believes in anyway! My suspicions arise from sitting this morning at the Pantry Cafe having breakfast in the heart of Los Angeles... I observed, once again, nobody noticed as an endless stream of cars hurried to work... in order to meet their mortgage payments... loan obligations... making ends meet... possibly hoping to have something left over for an ever-so-brief and discrete liason... all the while realizing there's usually not enough... since taxes are constantly grabbed by Uncle Sam.. bless his pea-pickin' name! King Dollar in somebody's pocket is behind much of this... I'm sure.)
So let me repeat the question: WHO is really benefitting?
Here's a couple recent eNews clips from OMRI Daily Digest:
"U.S. SEEKING OIL CUT-OFF FOR YUGOSLAVIA. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has recently appealed to foreign ministers of several unnamed European governments to support a "cut-off" of shipments of refined oil to Yugoslavia in order to deny oil to the army, AP reported on 20 April. She noted in Washington the previous day that Croatia has already closed its pipeline to Yugoslavia. A State Department spokesman said that Albright hopes that ships en route to Yugoslav ports could be stopped and searched at sea, but the spokesman did not use the term "blockade." Elsewhere, U.S. diplomats called on foreign governments not to allow the shipment of oil to Yugoslavia. Meanwhile in Paris, unnamed French officials said they doubt whether an oil cut-off is possible under international law without a declaration of war. They added that the EU and countries bordering Yugoslavia should "find a formula" to regulate the flow of oil supplies to Yugoslavia." PM
So... after 4 weeks into this crisis... NO blockade of oil for their war machines. Things don't change much. Just as in the great World Wars, OIL COMPANIES... other vested corporate interest entities... as well as foreign countries ARE continuing to profit from helping both sides of this War. How come that doesn't surprise me? Makes you wonder which Banks and Financial institutions are also profitting, doesn't it? (But notice... OUR Oil prices recently sky-rocketted!)
Hey... one last thing: Whatever happens to all the bank accounts of these high priced international terrorists? How come that money isn't seized and used to settle war debts?
"FIRST SHIPMENT OF U.S. GRAIN ARRIVES... The first shipment of grain under a $1 billion U.S. Department of Agriculture aid program arrived in Vladivostok, RFE/RL's correspondent there reported on 20 April. The grain is the first batch of more than 3 million metric tons of food, including wheat, corn, rice, powdered milk, poultry and seeds, that will be delivered. The foodstuffs will be distributed by ship and rail to eight cities throughout the Russian Pacific region. Distribution of humanitarian assistance packages in Magadan from its sister city, Anchorage, Alaska, began on 19 April", ITAR-TASS reported (see "RFE/RL Russian Federation Report," 31 March 1999). JAC
So... the ordinary U.S. Joe-citizen TAX PAYERS... (after all that is the meaning of our generous U.S. Department of Agriculture... AID PROGRAM) ARE still losing.
$1 billion bucks down the toilly! NOT to improve public schools (built over old sewage cesspools and waste dumps -- by the way... WHAT a statement about the value placed on our public school children by budgetary decision-makers!!), libraries, public roads, parks... for our dilapidated inner cities and needy kids. NOPE! The politicians will soon... be coming to pick-pocket all of us... with their attempts at tear-jerk issues in order to float more school, health and safety bonds.
But that's next year's campaign agenda. For now... they need to save the world... at OUR expense! Have you noticed... from all the fashionable photo-ops taken at all those refugee camps... just how good a job they're doing?! All this reminds me of the Attorney General's statement about "saving all those children" in the ATF Waco, Texas fiasco.
Now... 'cause government bureaucrats have become the self-appointed saviors of the world... it's on to other nations! Even though they can't even keep our own kids... (the kids of we taxpayers)... safe from chemical polution... in our own back yards. (Please -- Be watching for the law suit filed by LAUSD's very own... Jefferson New Middle School children... who have begun to expose questionable corporate dealings and health related issues at their own school site... thereby making national attention.)
"...AS GRAIN IN STORAGE HITS LOW LEVELS. As of 1 April, Russia's grain in storage was 51.4 percent down on the level at the same time last year, Interfax reported on 19 April. By early July, according to the agency, grain levels will be at their lowest in recent years. Already, storage levels are especially low in Kamchatka and Magadan Oblasts and the Republics of Komi and Karelia, all of which have less than 5 percent of what they had accumulated by this time last year." JAC
So... the ordinary U.S. Joe-citizen TAX PAYERS... (after all that is the meaning of our generous U.S. Department of Agriculture... AID PROGRAM) TAX PAYERS ARE still losing. (Oh... I already said that!)
Another $1 billion bucks down the toilly!
For a total of $2 billion!
"RUSSIA DEFAULTS ONCE AGAIN ON SOVIET DEBT. Russia will not be able to make a $1.2 billion payment on Ministry of Finance bonds maturing on 14 May, First Deputy Finance Minister Mikhail Kasyanov told Interfax on 20 April."
WOW!! I didn't have a clue just how wealthy a tax payer I was! Still another $1 billion bucks down the toilly! (Oops!! Tax payer, I am. Mathmetician, I ain't.) Make that $1,200,000.00 MORE!
Now... totalling: $3.2 billion
"RUSSIA AMASSES HUGE TRADE SURPLUS. Russian exports fell by 18.2 percent in January and February 1999 and its imports by 49.9 percent, compared with the previous year, according to the State Committee for Statistics, ITAR-TASS reported on 19 April. The trade surplus totaled $3.8 billion." JAC
Finally... at least somebody has some GOOD NEWS to share! The Russian's $3,800,000.00 trade surplus... (hmm? I've heard that term recently this year... I wonder what it means?!)
And President Clinton is requesting an additional $6 billion dollars... not to mention how much has already been spent.
Simple calculations:
$ 1 billion + $1 billion + $1.2 billion + $ 6 billion + $ ?? billion for April = $ 10... $ 11... $ 12??? billion already. Aren't you glad Yugoslavia is a small country? Can you imagine all the waste in all the other departments... all the generous handouts of what government agencies making backroom deals... to give a perception of War... or Peace... and..... all this... at Tax payers expenses.
Keep working folks! Uncle Sam not only WANTS YOU!! But... LOVES YOU, too! Luv ya, babe!!
(Folks... The seriously humorous thing while writing about this particular issue is... I'm sitting home preparing to attend to my civic duty -- that of sitting on a Jury in a Criminal case -- to be more exact... possession, by some punk kid... of a rock cocaine... which I believe was about the size of a teaspoon! And in this civic experience, we were even asked if we'd like to contribute our gas mileage allowance... to the Jury Assembly Room (what... a sleeze-ball, hell hole of a reality that must have double for a wing of the insane assylum in "One Flew Over the Coo-coo's Nest" -- obviously, not often frequented by many politicians or bureaucrats...) fund! No lie!!)
___ CURRENT AND BACK ISSUES ON THE WEB Back issues of RFE/RL Newsline and the OMRI Daily Digest are online at: <http://www.rferl.org/newsline/search/>
10. Recently, John Greenewald, Jr -- a 17 year old Senior high school student... interests have carried him to much national attention pursuing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). His comprehensive website The Black Vault has many fascinating declassified government documents. As John puts it: "Where Government Secrets... Become Known!"
9. To begin wading through the recent confluence of insanity... resulting in the normalcy of evil... we need to define a few terms for a simple reason. When any portion of our Constitution is violated... EVERY portion is endangered. That's the danger of the faulty thinking of those News print and Talking Heads who verbally pounce on and denigrade those who practice the first of all freedoms: freedom of religion (no matter how silly some zealous folk really might appear to be). Or when some religionists with zeal (though lacking in knowledge) attempt to silence free thinking and speaking opponents to whatever their cause is.
If one freedom goes, they all can. And when one freedom is qualified and further restricted by government, the other freedoms will soon follow. We're in this mess together folks... whether we like it or not. Stuffing our heads in the sand just leaves our hinder parts exposed.
For my past comments on a now out-dated topic: Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution states: The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors... go here!
By the way... what, if any... are Independent Council Kenneth Starr's AND even Republican Asa Hutchinson's (Representative from Arkansas...) past (present?) political connections to Mr. Clinton? I've read so many things it's hard to tell.
8. After viewing "The Clinton Chronicles" video... which, by the way, was hand delivered to ev...er...y member of Congress... though kept out of the public eyes by the ever-watchful US media (you know... those folks who always claim and selectively charge whomever to "open up" because of our "right to know"), I thought it interesting to check out the subject on the Internet.
Actually, I had never heard about the death of two teenagers chronicled in "The Boys on the Tracks" who supposedly died in a freak train accident... after having discovered drug traffickers in Mena, Arkansas. Mrs. Ives' poignant yet gruesome account of her son Kevin's death was captivating.
I guess I'm too late to put up anything of intrigue connected with drug running events at Mena, Arkansas, the death of Clinton's friend from childhood -- Vince Foster, the Whitewater real estate affair, the Rose Law (Hillary Clinton's) Firm, or even the assortment of appointments to various and sundry positions within state and federal government as well as private enterprise. I can see why the feminist movement loves our current President... 'cause he loves so many of them.
Enjoy reading the 30-page video transcript of "The Clinton Chronicles". You might even empathize with those currently in office who have been surrounded with soooooo many who have sadly fallen victim to suicide... (at least according to the official police reports). Then again... you might not!
7. Donald P. Scott, age 61, owned and lived on a 200-acre property known as the Trails End Ranch, 35247 Mulholland Highway, in the Ventura County portion of Malibu, California. On October 2, 1992, while serving a search warrant on Scott charging him with growing marijuana plants at his ranch, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Deputies Gary R. Spencer and John W. Cater, Jr. shot at Scott, resulting in his death. Subsequently, no marijuana was found.
Both the shooting and the events leading up to it have raised a number of issues of concern to various law enforcement agencies as well as the public. The following link summarizes an investigation and its conclusions.
A watchful group for constitutional rights presents: Journal of the Times
6. Or... how about that IRS? Now, there's a fine organization worth supporting! Did you know that in case of nuclear attack, the IRS has written procedures to still collect taxes though they will understandingly give additional time for areas hardest hit! Doesn't it make you wonder who writes their material?
Please... PLEASE, don't believe everything you're about to read!
Yahoo! - IRS Employees Testify About Abusive Practtices
AllPolitics - IRS Nightmares Get Senate Hearing - Sept.. 24, 1997
BUT, BELIEVE SOME OF IT!!
5. Is it true that Ritalyn is the drug of choice for coke addicts who can't get their Cocaine because they can't tell the difference between cocaine and Ritalin until they do not "crash"? And, is it true that with the exception of drug-clearance, the neuropharmacology of Ritalin and Cocaine are identical? Finally, why does NOT the US Military allow people who used Ritalyn beyond the age of 12 to enlist? I wonder?!
Ritalin Use Puts Military Service Off-Limits -- a New York Times article dated 12/02/96
4. Do you suppose that the great Medical Associations and research institutes which have billions of dollars pouring into their coffers on a regular, annual basis... do you suppose that they are really interested in finding cures for the numerous diseases that plague the populas? And if there was a cure for Cancer or Aids/ HIV complications or any other illness or crippling disease, wouldn't that put some of these agencies out on the streets?
Nowdays, AIDS is big business. Cancer research is bigger business; always has been. The following is a link to successful Cancer treatment first discovered by a guy, Dr. William B. Coley (1862-1936), a graduate from Harvard Medical School. His discovery was first tolerated, then ridiculed, and finally suppressed, although it played a significant part in establishing all modern immunotherapy research and treatment.
3. Isn't it a curious thing that in a free (as in freedom of speech) society, you hear said the two most politically incorrect subjects to discuss are religion and politics?! A sort of up-front censorsious mind-set maintaining complacency and mediocrity.
I have often wondered if this attitude exists because everyone from grandpa to Joe Blow considers himself expert on one, the other, or both. Perhaps, they don't want to handle (maybe can't handle) an educated challenge to their wisdumb?
Well, here is perhaps the finest presentation on what is undoubtedly the most controversial issue I know. The theme is: SuperNut or SuperNatural? -- a lecture presented by Dr. Gene Scott. Look around his website. You're bound to find some interesting topics you've never studied before.
2. Now, here's a reason to make you PROUD of Government; its insatiable desire to tax and spend; and, worthless bureaucratic policies:
Michael Parenti has compiled some grim statistics that'll probably make you shudder especially when you consider the startling amount of hardship, abuse, affliction, illness, violence, and pathology in our country - a country absent of leadership... a country gone adrift.
With an estimated 40,000,000 abused, neglected, and discarded children (more than the total population of Canada) living on streets from Alaska to Panama, disease, indignities and often death to these nameless kids are commonplace. Check this out if you care to make a difference:
Recently, I heard some peanut-headed talk show host on KPFK Radio's very own Up For Air suggest that church folk ought to take care of the poor. After all, why do churches exist if not for that reason?, he quiered. Wouldn't the governments love to wash their hands of the peoples they've made and kept poor? (With 40 million needy kids out there, do you suppose Mr. Up For Air is or is NOT one of those church folk? Or, is he just another one of those critical slammers who knows what the other guy's supposed to do?) And by the way, I haven't heard of any media folk hitting home runs in this area that I'd like to emulate. They're good at talkin'; some not so good at readin'. And none not so good at doin' (except to be seen of men).
1. To what extent was (and is) the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) involved with drug trafficking in the supposed "war on drugs"?
-- -- According to the L.A. Times, the CIA has finished a year long (WOW...!) investigation of itself and was unable to find any evidence to substantiate the following claims found in an article found from a San Jose Newspaper. (Now, isn't that comforting to know? So, Ladies and Gentlemen... WE can all rest easy tonight! It must be true... after all the Newspapers reported it!!) --
By the way, don't expect to hear anything of substance from the Network News broadcasters. They don't possess the courage necessary to pursue a story like this one. It takes more than the latest in technological gadgetry, and, quite honestly, media/ news readers just don't have the equipment. In spite of the recent gloss over to this subject by most media outlets, I still applaud Congresswoman Maxine Waters' attempts to bring this subject to national attention. Go Maxine, go!
Feel free to e-mail me with additional information or suggestions!
