THE MAGIC OF MUSHROOMS

MEDICAL STUDY EXPLORES THERAPEUTIC BENEFITS OF HALLUCINOGENS



By Darryl Mason

Imagine if a major part of the recovery process from surgery or massive psychological trauma was as simple as taking a trip through your own mind.

Studies are now underway to determine if magic mushrooms should be regarded as medically beneficial, after decades of demonisation in the West. Ancient Mexicans, of course, knew that some kinds of mushrooms were far more magic than others.

One of the first positives from the studies has been the claim that cluster headaches could be more effectively treated with mild doses of magic mushroom-derived medications than virtually any pharmacueticals currently available.

Expect any positive results from the studies detailed below to be countered by another storm of demonisation hype and misinformation.

It is curious indeed that while easy-to-grow natural remedies like magic mushrooms, opium or cannabis are blamed for everything from rape and murder to psychotic children and the breakdown of society, tens of thousands of people die every year around the world from overdoses and the gut-reaming side effects of easily available pharmaceuticals like paracetemol. But what 'evil drug' scares hit the front pages and the news headlines? The ones connected to drugs that you can grow yourself, and that produce no profits for the trillion dollar a year worldwide pharmaceutical industries.

It's not all good news, bad trips can be haunting horrorshows, but the ancients had knowledge we've lost along the way. If there is something beneficial to humankind to be found in mild doses of magic mushrooms (in controlled conditions) then the information should be made public.

From the LA Times :

Resting on a hospital bed beneath a tie-dyed wall hanging, Pamela Sakuda felt a tingling sensation. Then bright colors started shimmering in her head.

She had been depressed since being diagnosed with colon cancer two years earlier, but as the experimental drug took hold, she felt the sadness sweep away from her, leaving in its wake an overpowering sense of connection to loved ones, followed by an inner calm.

"It was like an epiphany," said Sakuda, 59, recalling the 2005 drug treatment.

Sakuda, a Long Beach software developer, was under the influence of the hallucinogen psilocybin, which she took during a UCLA study exploring the therapeutic effects of the active compound in "magic" mushrooms. Although illegal for general use, the drug has been approved for medical experiments such as this one.

Scientists suspect the hallucinogen, whose use dates back to ancient Mexico, may have properties that could improve treatments for some psychological conditions and forms of physical pain.

The medical journal Neurology in June reported on more than 20 cases in which mushroom ingestion prevented or stopped cluster headaches, a rare neurological disorder, more reliably than prescription pharmaceuticals.

In July, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reported that mushrooms could instill a sense of spirituality and connection, a finding that scientists said could lead to treatments for patients suffering from mental anguish or addiction.

The research has been driven in part by the success of mood-altering pharmaceuticals, such as the antidepressant Prozac, which work on the same brain chemicals and pathways.

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Forty years ago, the study of hallucinogens in therapy was a mainstream endeavor. The Swiss drug company Sandoz provided pharmaceutical-grade tablets of psilocybin and various researchers explored its use as a treatment for depression and other psychological problems.

Used for centuries during spiritual ceremonies by the Mazatec Indians in southern Mexico, mushrooms helped fuel the counterculture of the 1960s. Author Carlos Castaneda, while a graduate student at UCLA, wrote of his "magical time" with a Mexican shaman who introduced him to mushrooms and other hallucinogens.

In 1970, Congress made it illegal to posses hallucinogens, including psilocybin and LSD, by classifying them as Schedule I, meaning they had no legitimate medical use.

"All research was shut down," said UCLA psychiatrist Dr. Charles S. Grob.

In the late 1990s, regulators began approving experiments again, sparked by discoveries in neuroscience that illuminated the biochemical basis of mood and consciousness. The advances focused on the complex role of the brain chemical serotonin — a neurotransmitter that passes signals between cells.

Spread throughout the brain are a variety of receptors that respond to serotonin. In some instances, a flow of serotonin can alter moods, such as depression, euphoria, anxiety and aggression. The chemical is also believed to be involved with nausea, body temperature and appetite control.

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Those who have used hallucinegenic mushrooms in the U.S. to ease their headaches are all lawbreakers.

They have become part of a new mushroom underground. Many of its denizens are like Bob Wold — a 53-year-old maintenance worker and Little League coach who had never taken hallucinogenic drugs before. He knew they could be dangerous.

Wold, who lives near Chicago, said his headaches felt like an ice pick being jammed through his eye. Once, they made him drive his fist through a plaster wall at home. Another time he pounded his head against the shower tiles so hard some of them cracked.

Seeking help, Wold stumbled across a website for cluster headache sufferers touting hallucinogenic mushrooms.

A man he met on the Internet mailed Wold 20 dried brown mushrooms. The recipe called for a very light tea, not strong enough to cause hallucinations.

After that, Wold started growing his own mushrooms.

Wold has formed an organization to fund research aimed at developing a pharmaceutical version of psilocybin.

Go Here To Read The Full Story

CHINESE DRAGON ROARS INTO LIFE, UNITED STATES FADES AS KEY WORLD POWER

From 'The Fourth World War' blog :

While the United States is emptying its Treasury into the 'War On Iraq' - distracted, trapped and deeply troubled - China has been busily sewing up massive energy and trade deals with four nations set to become the biggest power players on the international stage in the next decade : Saudi Arabia, Iran, India and Pakistan.

And that is to say nothing of China's quiet, slow infiltration of Africa and its renewed 'friendship' with Russia.

Of course, it's easy to argue that China's military strategists well knew, as did many others around the world, that the United States would sink into an Iraq War quagmire once Saddam Hussein was deposed and the Iraqi Army and police forces were disbanded. Stripping the Sunnis of power in Iraq had long been under discussion in the NeoCon 'think' tanks, but none of the great political, military minds of the world actually thought the US would be dosey enough to do it.

Then along came Paul Bremer.

Regardless of whether or not China knew what would become reality in Iraq, they were none the less ready to make the massive world power plays now unfolding.

It's also decidely clear now that Russia and China will neither back major sanctions against Iran, nor support any military action by the United States to take out its nuclear energy facilities. And the same goes for North Korea.

Behind the scenes, Russia and China have made it well clear to the US and Israel that they will not tolerate any sabotage (in lieu of officially military strikes) on Iran, nor further moves to destabilise the country, the regime or the region.

As the United States begins the long, horrific struggle to extricate itself from Iraq, China stands back and waits, holding more than a trillion US dollars in its reserves, prepared to take massive losses on its US debt holdings now the US is buying less and less Chinese products.

The question now is what will the United States do to counter the continual, rapidly increasing rise of China to the top ranks of world powers?

When China can literally destroy the entire US economy in a matter of days - by utterly dumping its US debt holdings on the world markets at the first signs of true aggression - it seems the United States has no cards left to play.

No cards, that is, outside of friendship, honourable diplomacy, respect and good relations. All things that Russia insists on the United States supplying in large doses. And not just ack to China, but to Iran as well.

As China moves to solidify its enormous financial power on the world economic stage, so too it is arming itself to cope with any and all the military strengths of the United States.

China is rapidly closing the gap with the United States in regards to military strength. And that's only what they're currently disclosing, or allowing American spies and intelligence agents to know.

The true secrets of China's military strength, and future combat systems, are buried far below the earth, well out of sight of the United States' and Israel's spies and spy satellites.


Go To The Fourth World War Blog For The Full Story


China Quietly Resumes Crude Oil Exports To Isolated North Korea

Disinformation : China Official Admits Difficulties In Dumping Vast Reserves Of US Dollars

United States Domination Of Middle East Ending As China Moves In

China In The Middle East Is A Minefield For The United States

BUSH TO NORTH KOREA : NO MORE 'MR NICE GUY'

SUPPLY OF iPODS, PLASMA TVS AND JET SKIS TO BE CUT

North Korea was told by the US, Australia, most of the world, "Do Not Dare Test A Nuclear Weapon, Or There Will Be Consequences."

But North Korea went ahead and tested (some kind of) nuclear explosives in early October.

A few days of loud fury and finger wagging from President Bush and PM Howard, but then it all went quiet. For a moment, it seemed as though the world was tottering on the edge of a nuclear calamity. Then it all went quiet. Too quiet.

Not any longer.

North Korea is about to pay a heavy price for their insolence.

The international man of action, President Bush, is not going to mess around with these clowns anymore. What's he going to do? Well, we gave it away in the headline, but just in case you've already forgotten, Bush is going to push hard to enforce sanctions on iPods, Cognac, Jet Skis, big screen TVs and (wait for it) Segeway scooters (!) to North Korea banned.

That'll show Kim Jong-Il. Do Not Fuck With Us.

You can feel the tremors of fear and shock rumbling all the way from North Korea already.

The U.S. government's first-ever effort to use trade sanctions to personally aggravate a foreign president expressly targets items believed to be favored by Kimg Jong-Il or presented by him as gifts to the roughly 600 loyalist families who run the communist government

....the list of proposed luxury sanctions, obtained by The Associated Press, aims to make Kim's swanky life harder: No more cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles or even personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis.

The new ban would extend even to music and sports equipment. The 5- foot-3 Kim is an enthusiastic basketball fan; then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented him with a ball signed by Michael Jordan during a rare diplomatic trip in 2000. U.S. officials acknowledge that enforcing the ban on black-market trading would be difficult.

Yeah, just a bit.

Let this be a lesson to all who think they can defy the power of the United States and Australia.

You will be punished.

You will pay the price.

Are you listening, Iran? Test a nuke and the West may consider cutting off your supply of...Playstation 3s.

UPDATE :

An unexpected controversy surrounding the planned ban of 'luxury goods' setting sail for North Korea has already erupted.

One of the 'luxury goods' on the black-ban list released by the US Commerce Department are Jet Skis. Kim loves them, apparently, saw them in some old James Bond movies, had to have one for himself

But the Washington-based Personal Watercraft Industry Association is objecting to Jet Skis being referred to as a 'luxury item'.

PWIA not only objected, they "bristled".

However, they do not object to the ban, because :

"The thousands of Americans and Canadians who build, ship and sell personal watercraft are patriots first," said Maureen Healey, head of the trade group.

The US Commerce Department is taking the right sort of tough, decisive action.

Patriotic American watercraft do not belong in North Korea.


American General Says North Korea Is Engaged In "Nuclear Blackmail" - North Korean Nukes Are A "Political Instrument"

North Korea Says It's Now Ready To Begin Fresh Six Party Talks Over Nuclear Program

FEED YOUR HEAD

Time Magazine claims President Bush made Five Fatal Errors in dealing with the Middle East, including the extremely obvious invasion of Iraq, ignoring the Palestinians and alienating Muslims. What a legacy, what a genius.


England already has more than 4.2 million surveillance cameras, one for every 14 people, but now they are considering rolling out a new technology that will allow these cameras to also record, and interpret, private conversations. Apparently the listening technology will be able to determine whether someone is about to commit a violent act by the tone of their voice and the speed at which they talk. England is not yet a police state, but it will soon have all the laws and technology of the once science fictionary society of George Orwell's '1984'.


Hitler dreamed of a United Europe. On the 75th anniversary of his coming to power in Germany, it looks like that dream is about to come true. German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is expected to use the country's six month presidency of the European Union to get the 'Treaty Of Berlin' rammed through in March, 2007. Voters won't get to have a say.


Is Freedom Of Speech one of the first, and most pronounced, 'victims' of Global Warming? Meanwhile, the inventor of the 'Gaia' theory predicts the Earth is facing a "planetary wipeout".


The famed second-hand bookshops of Charing Cross Road, in London, are feeling the immense impact of the enormous growth of online book sales. I lost three days one December in Charing Cross Road, and sent home a large box of books I have never found for sale anywhere else, including online. As this story points out, the true magic of a good second-hand bookshop is that you find books you weren't looking for, on subjects you didn't even know existed, on events you never thought you would be interested in. And this something the internet bookstores simply cannot yet replicate.


The Iraq Insurgency has almost won the battle for control of the al-Anbar province. More than 1000 American soldiers have died fighting in the Sunni-dominated region. Tens of thousands of Coalition troops are expected to be pulled out of Al-Anbar and redeployed to the Battle For Baghdad.


The United States' most popular Conservative commentator, Rush Limbaugh, has a simple solution to deal with the spiralling chaos of the Middle East : "Just Blow The Place Up." This demented, sick egotistical freak actually calls this plan for the mass slaughter of Muslims, Christians and Jews 'The Limbaugh Doctrine'. And American Conservatives are wondering why they lost control of the US Senate?


Americans are more obese than ever, but most are too fat now to do anything about it. Or something. Americans make a whopping 250 choices regarding food every single day. Hilariously, a roomful of scientists who study and push good nutrition were given the choice, at a recent conference, between small and huge bowls of ice cream. Guess which sized bowl the majority of these 'nutrition experts' chose?


The Pentagon has determined that US war veterans, harmless Quakers, mothers of dead soldiers and pro-peace activists are terrorism-related "threats" to American society.


Winston Churchill was a nut for science fiction, in particular the work of HG Wells, the writer of 'War Of The Worlds', 'The Time Machine' and 'The New World Order'. Churchill was so inspired by the writings of HG Wells that he used key phrases from the writer's work in some of his most famous speeches. Like Wells, Churchill also believed in liberal ideas like welfare and free health care and, like Wells, was an advocate of selective human breeding and population control. Unecessary fact : Wells' classic works of the 1890s were not called 'science fiction', the term did not exist then. They were called 'scientific romances'.

BIZARRE EXCUSES FOR TAKING THE DAY OFF WORK

"I COULDN'T GET TO MY CAR...A BUFFALO KEPT CHARGING AT ME"

A list like this pops up in the media every year or two, detailing some of the more unusual, and downright bizarre, excuses workers come up with to explain why they didn't bother showing up at the office or factory.

But compared to previous lists I've seen, workers in the US are getting more and more creative.

But first, the majority of workers detailed by this survey said they took the day off to either catch up on work at home, to simply relax or to get extra sleep.

Far different factual reasons than previous years' surveys where workers commonly cited the pressing need to go to sporting events, get extra sex , spend more time in the local bar or to extend a weekend away by a day or two.

Some 32% of Americans have admitted to ditching the daily grind to stay home in the past year alone. One in ten admitted they had shirked work three times in the previous twelve months.

Here's my personal favourites from the list :

- Employee was poisoned by his mother-in-law.

- A buffalo escaped from the game reserve and kept charging the employee every time she tried to go to her car from her house.

- Employee called from his cell phone, said he was accidentally locked in a restroom stall and no one was around to let him out.

- A skunk got into the employee's house and sprayed all of his uniforms.

- Employee had bad hiccups.

- Employee blew his nose so hard, his back went out (!)

Go Here To See Them All

TOP SAS MAJOR CLAIMS AUSTRALIAN FORCES IN IRAQ DONT MAKE "ANY DIFFERENCE WHATSOEVER"

CLAIMS COALITION LEADERS BETRAYED SPECIAL FORCES FOR "MORALLY BANKRUPT" WAR ON IRAQ

PULLING OUT OF AFGHANISTAN HAS TARNISHED WORLDWIDE REPUTATION OF ELITE SOLDIERS

The SAS major responsible for key planning decisions for Australia's special forces insertions into Iraq and Afghanistan has ripped into the Australian government for screwing up the Afghanistan war in its rush to join the United States in the "morally bankrupt" War On Iraq.

From 'The Orstrahyun' :

(Excerpts only)

"I think the reasons that we went to war in Iraq were baseless," said ex-SAS major Peter Tinley.

"The Government sent us there under the idea of looking for weapons of mass destruction and they gave us the impression that there was a clear and imminent danger of them being used. We now know through our own tactical search on the ground in Iraq and certainly from the Iraq Survey Group, that that was not true at all."

"It was morally bankrupt, the whole notion of us being there, so the pretext is wrong. If that's the case, then we need to take good, hard, courageous decisions now to get out and get out whilst we can. This war will drag us in further and further. It's a civil war and the power vacuum that was created as a result of this invasion is clearly at the feet of this Government."

He also believes that an Australian contribution of only 500 troops, when there are 140,000 American troops on the ground in Iraq, is "purely token".

"(500 Australian troops) aren't going to make any difference whatsoever," he said.

Tinley said that when SAS troops entered Iraq, there were clear doubts amongst the elite soldiers about the moral case for the war they were about to begin fighting.

"...I did have some quiet conversations in dark corners of tents with young men who were quite unsure about the war they were going into. It was beyond the normal fear that men have when they go into harm's way but we rationalised it. Those men again relied on the moral contract with the Government. They said their moral objection was far outweighed by the fact that they put their hand in the air and they said they would go where they were told to go."

"If you have a look at it, we did actually leave Afghanistan in undue haste, in my personal view. Evidence of that fact was the fact that we had to reinsert the SAS to help, along with the coalition partners, stabilise the security of the country."

Those comments are key as to why there is growing anger and frustration in Australia's defence forces, and in particular within the special forces.

The Australian SAS is regarded amongst allies as simply the best special forces teams in the world. The swift initial victory in Afghanistan in October-November, 2001, was largely due to the actions of Australian SAS members, who saved the lives of American and British troops on numerous occasions, clocking up hundreds of closely fought battles with Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters.

But they weren't allowed to stay and finish the job, Key war planners, like Tinley, along with hundreds of highly experienced SAS and Australian Army troops were hauled out of Afghanistan to go to work in Iraq by mid-2002.

The decision to back the United States in the 'War On Iraq', and thereby seeing Australian SAS pulled out of Afghanistan before security and a new government was established, is seen widely in military circles as having tarnished the impecable reputation of the Australian SAS, and the Army in general.

They didn't finish the job, and Afghanistan is now beset by thousands of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, who have re-armed, re-trained and re-grouped when coalition forces pulled out in preparation for the 'War On Iraq'.

"...when you go into a country like that (Afghanistan) and you take out the regime," Tinley said, "you really need to commit yourself to a longer course to actually sustain and get that back on its feet. You don't take on another job like this and expect to be welcomed as the great liberators as they did in Iraq."

Go To 'The Orstrahyun' For The Full Story

BOWS AND ARROWS AGAINST THE LIGHTNING

SADDAM PREPARED INSURGENCY TO FIGHT INVASION WITH SLINGSHOTS, CROSSBOWS, BLOW PIPES AND MOLOTOV COCKTAILS


Still from a late 2002/early 2003 propaganda video shows Saddam Hussein demonstrating how Iraqis can fight the coming invasion with....homemade crossbows

Just how completely cracked was Saddam Hussein's brain in the months leading up to the US-led invasion of Iraq? Mostly.

And judging from this truly bizarre video, he was also optimistic to the point of absurdity.

A 20 minute video, supposedly recovered after the invasion of Iraq, shows Saddam and his chief aides working through a table of crude, homemade weapons : from cross bows to slings to blow pipes and petrol bombs.

So Bush was right. Saddam did have WMDs. Weapons of Minor Destruction.

Saddam tells his team that the Minister of Industry should get cracking to mass produce these weapons. His translated words are quoted in the New York Times as discussing an insurgency, or resistance, and it appears Saddam wants the video (which shows how to use some of the weapons) to be screened on television for all Iraqis to see.

But while it may be a bit of a laugh to see Saddam swinging fuel bombs around and shooting a cross bow, there's a brief glimpse in the video of something far more insidious and deadly : homemade bombs, and the fuel combinations to make them go big bang boom.

Near the start of the video, a lightbulb is briefly shown filled with shrapnel, with thick wires leading from it. In an unclassfied number of insurgency attacks on American troops, lightbulb bombs have been activated by light switches thrown from other rooms in a house under raid, or detonated by triggered power surges. Such bombs have cut up the faces and eyes of unprotected troops.

There have been few reports in the mainstream or military media of American troops counting casualties resulting from blow pipes or sling shots, but homemade bombs (along with the more professionally machined IEDs) have killed, literally, hundreds of American and British troops. Bombs that were hidden in the carcasses of dead animals, in doorways, piles of excrement, in human corpses, in solid walls, television sets, anywhere, everywhere.

It is interesting to wonder then if the CIA or military intelligence saw this video before the invasion began. Was it translated, written up in top secret reports for the war planners before the war began?

Did a passing satellite scoop up this broadcast and beam it back to the Pentagon, where over-confident Rumsfeldians viewed it and laughed long and hard at how much of a "cakewalk" the invasion would be if this was the extent of the weapons available to most Iraqis?

From the New York Times :

Phebe Marr, a historian of Iraq, says that what is most striking about the video is the archaic and impotent nature of the weapons Mr. Hussein appears to be taking seriously.

“This stuff is medieval,” she said. “The interesting question is whether this was preparation for the resistance we’ve seen since.”

....Mr. Hussein and his aides use the Arabic word “muqawama,” which means “resistance,” and discuss enlisting civilians in a future insurgency against an occupying army. But the staged nature of their show-and-tell suggests a political purpose: to show that the ruler is planning for the coming conflict and expecting all citizens to help.

Marc E. Garlasco, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who specialized in the Iraqi leadership and who was in Iraq early in the war, said Mr. Hussein was “quite delusional” at times about the military threat he faced.

Military analysts have debated what he and his aides did before the invasion, to prepare for a guerrilla campaign.

In most of the video, the lead role in demonstrating the low-tech weapons is played by a man experts identified as Abd al-Tawab Mullah Huwaish, chief of the military industrialization commission, which once oversaw attempts to build unconventional weapons.

In the video, however, Mr. Huwaish, who was captured by allied forces not long after the invasion, shows off martial arts weapons, including a sharp-pointed throwing star, a slingshot designed to be stretched between the feet and fired sitting down, and metal spikes designed to destroy the tires of passing vehicles.

“There are more than 100 ideas, but I chose these,” Mr. Huwaish says. Pointing out Molotov cocktail devices using soda bottles, he says, “Pepsi, Coke — things that are in the house.”

Go Here To Read The Full Story

Go Here To See The Video

FEED YOUR HEAD

NEWS IN BRIEF

The United States has done away with hunger. Well, they've officially done away with the word 'hunger'. If you go to bed without a meal tonight, you are not "hungry", you are suffering from "very low food security".

Almost one in ten Americans suffer VLFS every day. Which must be why the US government is phasing out food stamp programs for the elderly. And why the United States voted against a United Nations resolution that would have identified the Right To Food as a basic human right.


The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, is claiming that Muslims are the new Jews when it comes to vilification by the media and some parts of Western society :

"Over recent weeks we have seen a demonisation of Muslims only comparable to the demonisation of Jews from the end of the 19th century. As at that time, the attack on Muslims in reality threatens freedoms for all of us, which took hundreds of years to win - freedom of conscience and freedom of cultural expression. Every person who values their right to follow the religion of their choice or none should stand with the Muslim communities today."

The Iraq War has churned up all sorts of blowback for the US government.

Now here's something for the whole world to enjoy : Iran and Syria are expected to start the formation of a new diplomatic and security relationship and will be holding talks this weekend with the Iraqi president on how to end the hurricanes of violence depopulating Iraq.

US and UK officials were reportedly denied access to the meetings, even as observers.

Bringing Iran, Iraq and Syria closer together is quite an achievement, after 24 years of fighting, venom and acrimony between Sunni and Shia nations.

November, 2006, will be viewed by historians as the month that Iran truly began to cash in on the chaos of the US-led occupation of Iraq, and began its near-total domination (with the backing of Russia and China) of the greater Middle East.



The CIA has delivered a report to the White House that says there is no proof that Iran is building, or plannig to build, nuclear weapons. Naturally, the White House has dismissed the report. This is called 'selective reality'. The International Atomic Energy Association also stated recently there is no proof Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.

If you take the Dick Cheney line of reasoning used back in 2002 when weapons inspectors said Iraq did not have a weapons of mass destruction program, the proof has not been found because the sneaky bastards are hiding their nuclear weapons very effectively.

Exactly, says some ranting war pig neocon in the LA Times, that's why "We Must Bomb Iran".

To these pro-Iran war freaks, it's almost as if the Iraq War never happened. Or wasn't still happening. Or isn't going to still be happening in 2010.



Former Chief Of Staff of the Russian armed forces, General Leonid Ivashov, doesn't believe there is such as a thing as "international terrorism". Or Al Qaeada. He doesn't believe 19 Muslim men armed with stationary tools pulled off the September 11, 2001 attacks,. He doesn't believe Osama Bin Laden was capable of organising such a series of devastating attacks.

Ivashov believes 9/11 had to be the work of a secret security service, and it's all part of a plan to establish a world order. A new one. Or a newer one.

This is some of the advanced conspiracising put forward by Ivashov :

(The threat of international terrorism is being used) to create a geo-strategic organization with a set of values different to that of the Atlantists; to design a strategy of development of states, a system of international security, another financial and economic model....

Wait a minute. Atlantists?

Yes, the Atlantists.

Apparently that's the way some Russians view Westerners and their curious globalisationing ways.

Read Ivashov's theories for yourself here. For fun. Or just before you hide under the bed with your food and water stockpiles. You just better hope Ivashov is a nutball, and not a prophet.



Oasis' guitarist and fast-fading rock legend, Noel Gallagher, is almost as reliable as his brother Liam for spouting to the media the kind of brainfucked guff only usually heard in blokey pubs after ten beers, post midnight.

Here's what he thinks of British soldiers fighting, dying and (according to him) crying in Iraq :

“The troops want to go, all they want to do is fight! They're soldiers. They're loving it, until they get shot - then they're claiming compensation. If you're bothered about getting shot - here's a thing - don't join the army.”

Noel also boasts that unlike Elton John, when he runs out of milk he goes down the shop and queues up to buy it, just like "everybody else". He said that rock stars were afraid of being talked to by the common punter.

Noel should be engaging in some very interesting conversations soon with any number of wounded British soldiers down the local supermarket. Good luck with that.



An antiterrorist database held by the US Department of Defence contained details of pro-peace meetings held in small town America church halls and American war veterans.

More than 180 out of the 13,000 entries in the DoD database were deleted last year, only after lawsuits were threatened, because the reports were only about the activities of anti-Iraq War protestors.

Information about Veterans For Peace activists were also detailed in the database. This group includes veterans from the Vietnam War, the Korean War, The Gulf War and the 'War On Terror'.

Like many of the other anti-war protestors and activitist groups detailed on the military databases, Veterans For Peace were listed because a bureaucrat had determined there might be "potential for violence".

American war veterans, committing no crime, had their details filed away on an anti-terrorism database.

What exactly were they all fighting for again?

Activists who were told they were listed on the database said stuff like, "We haven't done anything illegal".

Well, no. Not yet. All they have to do is keep doing what they're doing now until President Bush decides that protests are a threat to the security of the United States, and then they can all be prosecuted (or just detained without charge) for saying no to violence as a means of resolving problems and crises. What was legal and a founding principal of America (post revolution) has now become illegal enough for anti-terror analysts to crunch the data.

Databases of activists like the one kept by the Department of Defence make it much easier to round up the 'players' if Bush-declared martial law becomes a reality.

Go Here For The Full Story

BUSH BLOWS US AGENDA AT APEC TALKS

FINDS NEXT TO NO SUPPORT ON PUNISHING NORTH KOREA FOR NUKING UP


North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, with wheat, and supplicants.

The United States, and the majority of the United Nations, said more than two years ago that a North Korea with a nuclear weapon would not be tolerated; that everything must be done to stop the Stalinst regime from becoming a nuclear power.

Now North Korea has nuclear weapons, and has tested at least one device. But the 21 leaders of APEC countries gathered in Hanoi last week couldn't even agree on a statement to condemn the nuclear tests. Instead, they heated up some old waffle expressing "strong concern".

Kimg Jong-Il must be trembling. Oh no, APEC has expressed strong concerns. Quick, dismantle the nuclear weapons program before they express "very" strong concern.

This month Pyongyang agreed to take part in a sixth session of disarmament talks with South Korea, Japan, Russia and the US, hosted by China. The US has refused to agree to North Korea’s demand for direct talks, insisting that the problem be resolved multilaterally. Since the six-way talks began in 2003 North Korea’s nuclear programme has accelerated, with reprocessing of nuclear material, missile tests and the underground nuclear explosion on October 9.

Pressure is growing on President Bush to deal directly with Pyongyang, especially among US Democrats, invigorated by their success in midterm elections. South Korea insists that engagement is the only way to bring Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, out of isolation. The inconclusive results of the Apec talks suggest that other Asian nations share their doubts about US policy.

The failure of Bush Co. and allies to get even a simple statement of condemnation out of APEC is s a stunning sign of just how much influence the United States has lost in the diplomatic world since the vicious, insult-laden, lie-soaked, marketing campaign to sell the need for a 'War On Iraq' began in late 2002.

The ongoing, worsening wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have ultra-boosted the radical Islamist cause worldwide, and many of the 21 countries that make up APEC are extremely annoyed, and worried, at how the 'War On Terror' has become a 'War Of Terror'.

If APEC is to be used as a barometer of how a good slice of the world's richest, most industrialised, nations view the strength of the United States today on the world stage, then it's an utterly disturbing reading.

From the Washington Times :

Although intended primarily as economic forums, the APEC meetings have had prominent political dimension as well. The Hanoi summit should have provided leaders from five countries involved in the six-party talks with North Korea -- the United States, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan -- the opportunity to demonstrate solidarity against Kim Jong-il's nuclear ambitions.

The sternly worded statement delivered by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet, which asserted "strong concern" about North Korea's nuclear test, had the support of all APEC members, but it did not convey unified opposition as forcefully as the more formal written statement that Mr. Bush advocated would have.

That Bush-advocated statement is reported here as containing "strong and threatening language against North Korea. Which is fine for the US. Not so good for the countries that count North Korea as a close neighbour.

And yet, in sideline meetings held during the APEC conference, President Bush "signalled" the United States may be willing to offer North Korea a package of new incentives to give up their nuclear energy and weapons programs. On the condition they give up their nuclear energy and weapons programs first. All stick, with a possible carrot afterthought.

It's the "Disarm Saddam" songsheet all over again. Disarm now and we promise we won't invade and occupy your nation. Except this time the US actually knows there is a nuclear weapons program.

South Korea is supposed to the the US bulwark against North Korea, but even this firm ally is stumbling over the shifting sands of American diplomacy.

South Korea has now confirmed that it will not use its Navy to intercept North Korea ships in local or international waters, as per the UN Security Council sanctions.

The United States and Australia have pushed hard for interception and inspection of North Korea freighters and ships, claiming the threat that North Korea would 'sell on' its nuclear technology, or nuclear weapons, to other rogue regimes justified the boardings and inspections.

The Australian prime ministe, John Howard, has already commited the Australian Navy to such interceptions, despite South Koreans public anger at foreign navies patrolling their waters.


North Korea Claims US Military Practising For A 'Surprise Attack'

North Korea Furious At South Korea For Backing UN Resoultion Condeming NK's Human Rights Record

North Korea Boosts Friendly Relations With Iran - The 'Axis Of Evil' Grows More United In Face Of What They Deem United States' Aggression

October Nuclear Test Only Partially Successful - North Korea Not Yet Able To Miniaturise Nuclear Weapons

How North Korea's Diplomacy May Win Out

North Korea Used APEC To Drive Wedge Between Traditional Allies South Korea And United States

Is President Bush Getting Ready To Officially End The Korea War - North-South Ceasefire Still In Place More Than 50 Years Later

'AUSTRALIA'S GUANTANAMO BAY' WILL SOON BE OPEN FOR BUSINESS

ROOM FOR 800 PEOPLE TO BE HELD UNDER SURVEILLANCE, SURROUNDED BY ELECTRIC FENCES

The business, that is, of locking up refugees from war zones. Or terrorism suspects. Or just about anybody, including Australian citizens, now that the attorney general, Philip Ruddock, has a host of new laws that allow him to imprison innocent people on the suspicion of...well, being suspicious.

Maybe they could bring Australian citizen David Hicks home from Guantanamo Bay and detain him indefinitely, without a trial, in this high tech prison camp?

From the Sydney Morning Herald :

The new immigration detention camp being built on Christmas Island, dubbed "Australia's Guantanamo Bay" by opponents, will have bedroom cameras, electric fences and electronically controlled doors allowing centre-wide lock-downs, plans leaked from the island show.

The level of security and surveillance, greater than at any existing detention centre, makes parts of the complex comparable to a maximum security prison.

But with the numbers arriving by boat plummeting since 2003, critics are asking why the 800-bed centre, which is thought to have cost more than $240 million, is being built at all.

The Government says the high-tech enclosure is a deterrent to smugglers and illegal entrants, and useful for contingencies.

Contingencies, of course, is the key word here.

The leaked plans for one section of the centre say "each bedroom shall be provided with a corner mounted camera and intercom". Doors to some of the bedrooms, and other rooms, can be locked electronically from a central point, allowing the centre to be "locked down". Televisions will be wired so they can be turned off from a central point.

The perimeter is guarded by cameras, lights and an electrified outer fence.

Christmas Island lies about 500 kilometres south of Jakarta, and the new camp is in an isolated area of national park near the western tip of the island, surrounded by cliffs.

John Gibson, the president of the Refugee Council of Australia, said the camp "sounds like Alcatraz … It is very disappointing, because people who will be held there have committed no crime under Australian law.

"All the reports show the conditions in detention have a significant detrimental effect on people's physical and psychological health."

AUSTRALIA GETS READY TO GO KYOTO

INTERNATIONAL PARIAH ON CLIMATE CHANGE NOW ATTEMPTS TRANSFORMATION INTO MAJOR LEADER OF FIGHT TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING

The Australian treasurer, Peter Costello, has sheepishly admitted that Australia will finally join the Kyoto Protocol. They won't sign up, of course, but they will take part, they will ensure carbon emissions meet Kyoto targets and they will officially acknowledge that carbon emissions are adding to the effects of the climate change inducing reality of global warming.

Only hours before the announcement by the treasurer, Australian prime minister, John Howard, was still pretending that he was one tough negotiator and it was in fact he that was insisting that rapidly growing, mass-industrialised nations like India and China do something about their emissions for the sake of future generations.

It was all pure Howard theatre. China was one of the first countries in the world to join a then experimental carbon credit trading system, years ago, when Howard was still smirking and snorting about environmentalists and the dreaded Greeeennnsss, mocking them all for having panic fits about something called global warming.

After years of insulting the Europeans over their insistence that the Kyoto Protocol must be taken seriously, and that countries like Australia need to get on board, the harsh reality has well and truly dawned on the money men of the Australian government that they are about to miss out, bigstyle, on becoming part of the new unofficial world currency known as 'carbon trading'.

It doesn't even matter anymore whether John Howard believes global warming is a reality, or if he acknowledges that rapid industrialisation using coal as a key energy source (Australia's leading export industry) is adding to the problems. Most of the rest of the world has well and truly left skeptics like Howard far, far behind.

Which is why Howard, five to eight years late, is rushing to catch up.

Historians will note that John Howard's windmilling change of stance on the reality of rapid climate change, induced by the effects of global warming, occurred within days of world media giant Rupert Murdoch using his flagship English newspaper, The Sun, to admit that he was wrong about global warming.

Howard refused to sign the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, insisting that China, India and the US do so first, and has recently talked up the idea of a new version of Kyoto. He hoped to get other nations to sing along to his song of a new Kyoto at this week's APEC conference.

The signees of Kyoto have already told Howard, basically, to get stuffed, before APEC conference even got underway.

So you can expect this talk of a new Kyoto to fade from Howard's lips within a week, if not sooner.


So it seems, in the end, all those so-called stinky, tree-hugging, dreadhead environmentalists were right about global warming, as some of the most brilliant minds in Australian science were right about rapid climate change.

More so than the threat of international terrorism, global warming has fast become the key election issue for Australia's federal election at the end of 2007. The mass public believes, and that means there are votes and money to be made, two key reasons for the dramatic about face by Howard and his good friend Rupert Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch's media empire was one of the prime entities responsible for the smearing and mocking of global warming theorists and climate change specialists. The fast about face by Murdoch has seen the deniers, like Howard, scrabbling to make up for lost time.

Murdoch's media empire still has a few global warming deniers, like Andrew Bolt, but even they are slowly, carefully shifting their positions, from outright denying that the world is undergoing rapid climate change to spouting that there still isn't enough scientific consensus (at least for him) that humans have had a dramatic, devastating effect on the environment and the world weather systems.

Bolt may well keep up his denial, and Rupert won't mind, just for the sake of variety in his leading Australian newspaper, The Herald Sun, but Bolt will fade into irrelevancy. More than he has already. So desperate for credible global warming denial material, Bolt is now publishing photoshopped images of Al Gore dressed as the Scarecrow from the Wizard Of Oz. Ho, ho, ho. Hilarious stuff indeed.

Like Bolt, Australia's next major global warming denialist Tim Blair is pretending he doesn't quite understand that global warming means the planet will not only heat up, but will undergo vast and sudden weather changes. This includes stunning drops in temperature, unforcasted snowstorms, crop-devastating frosts, and record breaking rainfalls, along with all the droughts and monster hurricanes and cyclones. And more world tours by Al Gore. There's the worst case scenario, and then there is the abyss.

Unlike Bolt, however, Tim Blair at least makes his global warming denialism as funny as hell. But like Bolt, Blair too is shifting his position, subtly, gradually.


Australian environmentalists, and climate scientists, are still shaking their heads in disbelief that John Howard has so quickly taken up the mantra of "Something must be done about global warming".

All this comes, of course, after the Howard government spent years trying to block the truth from emerging out of Australia's leading scientific body, the CSIRO, about climate change and the dire long-term environmental, and economic, effects of global warming.

Howard has an agenda, and that agenda is using the reality of global warming to push for the rapid and massive expansion of nuclear power as an alternative energy source.

Australia is already one of the world's leaders when it comes to mining uranium. Howard wants Australia to become the world leader for uranium exports. a market worth, literally, hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.

In the meantime, it will be very amusing to watch John Howard continue to keep pretending that he is a major player in the 'Stop Global Warming' movement now sweeping the world, and so he must, because he needs Australia to become a major player in the global carbon trading system. To miss out, to be delegated a minor player, will cut deep into Australia's economy.

Howard will also continue to insist that it was he who has encouraged China and India to "get on board before it's too late", where in reality his government is widely viewed by the signees and supporters of the Kyoto Protocol as international pariahs, and China has already expressed its disgust at Howard's new criticism of China's greenhouse gas emissions.

Austraila's reputation as an international pariah, thanks to a decade of near inactivity on the key issues of climate change, will take many years, and probably a change of government, to shake off.

There is little doubt left that the effects of global warming are increased by carbon emissions, or greenhouse gases, and that the climate is undergoing rapid and dramatic changes (as far as our written world history goes), but as I've written here before, there is still some interesting science to come on how solar energy bursts, and massive waves of intergalactic radiation, pummel the earth's atmosphere and mess with the weather on a global scale.

But more on that later.


China Blasts Australia Over For Emissions Criticism, Says By Population Comparison Australia Emits Far More Greenhouse Gases Than China

PM 'Not Credible' On Global Warming And Climate Change At APEC Conference

Climate Change Threat As Serious As Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Debunking The Vast Left Wing United Nations Conspiracy Called Global Warming

John Howard To Embrace Carbon Trading At APEC

Bush Loses Australia As Key Player In Opposition To Kyoto And Reality Of Global Warming

MURDOCH LECTURES AUSTRALIANS ON THE DANGERS OF BECOMING TOO "ANTI-AMERICAN"

CLAIMS EUROPEANS ARE IN THE GRIP OF "FACILE, REFLEXIVE, UNTHINKING ANTI-AMERICANISM"

The world's most powerful media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, claimed in a speech in Sydney tonight that Australians are becoming like those evil Europeans who supposedly hate America with every fibre of their being.

Yes, more of this ridiculous wooble about Australians sinking into the pit of anti-Americanism.

Now if he claimed that Australians were beset by a wave of anti-Bushism, then he might be making a legitimate argument. But there's a vast, gaping gulf between disagreeing with the brutal neocon international agenda of Bush Co. and hating an entire country of people and by definition its culture as well.

Absolute twaddle.

Murdoch seems to make this kind of speech about once a year, and no doubt this little doozy will once again stir up this non-debate and give the Andrew Bolts and Piers Ackermans and Tim Blairs of Australian mediadom plenty of scope to try and shred 'Leftists' for hating Americans.

UPDATE : Andrew Bolt obliges here, as does Piers Ackerman here.

Ramping up the "Australia In Danger Of Becoming More Anti-American" is such an obvious and dodgy strawman that it's in danger of spontaneously combusting in a fireball of total irrelevancy.

Few countries in the world have embraced Americans and American culture more completely than Australia has.

American TV shows, movies, books and music almost totally dominate Australia's culture, and our rich and expressive slanguage has been consumed by Americanisms. Like, totally.

Americans tourists are welcomed and made to feel at home by virtually all Australians they come into contact with. It is a rare day indeed that you read any criticism in the American media about Australian attitudes or personalities, outside of a few movie stars, of course, who throw telephones across hotel foyers or take home so many of their cherished Oscars.

On the upside, Murdoch did point out that the United States takes Australia "too much for granted" and warned the US, in turn, that "the best way to keep a friend is to be a friend" and that Americans "should not come calling only in need".

He sure got that straight.

From 'The Orstrahyun' :

(Murdoch) also lectured Australians about what he believes to be a rising tide of anti-Americanism in this country, admitting that a lot of this sentiment is a result of the 'War On Iraq'.

“I am well aware that the Iraq war was and is unpopular among many Australians," Murdoch said.

Incredibly ironic, of course, because it was his media empire that so relentlessly and ruthlessly promoted the need for a 'War On Iraq' through 2002 and the first few months of 2003 and undeniably helped to pave the way for it to become a reality.

And it was his newspapers in Australia that so consistently savaged those who tried to warn that attacking Iraq would lead to exactly the kind of bloodshed and destruction, carnage and monstrous death tolls that he now recognises as helping to spread what he called "anti-Americanism" through Australia, Europe and the UK.

Why do people like Murdoch and Australia's prime minister John Howard continually insist on calling it anti-Americanism when it should be more honestly defined as anti-Bushism?

Australians on the whole do not hate Americans. American tourists are not regularly abused or attacked on the streets of our cities. It is President Bush, and his odious doctrine of pre-emptive war and global domination by military force, that infuriates so many Australians.

"...I am well aware that not every Australian sees the current American administration in a favourable light," Murdoch said. "But wars end. Administrations come and go.”

Administrations do come and go, and Murdoch's incredible media power in the United States and Australia makes sure he gets exactly the kind of admistrations that he wants in power, for his own ideological and business interests.

"The Australian people must not allow their perfectly legitimate doubts about one policy or one American administration to cloud their long-term judgment...Australians must resist and reject the facile, reflexive, unthinking anti-Americanism that has gripped much of Europe...Australian sentiment is thankfully nowhere near Europe's level of hostility, but it could get there. And it mustn't."

Don't worry, Rupert. As long as Americans don't insult us beyond some bad Simpsons episodes, or some righteous pisstakes of our icons on Saturday Night Live and the Daily News Show, we won't "get there". Ever.

Go To 'The Orstrahyun' For More

Rupert Murdochs' Speech To The American Australian Association

Australian Government Spends $25 Million To Build University Institution To Counter Criticism Of American Policices

Murdoch Has No Regrets About Iraq War - Sees 3000 Coalition Troop Deaths As "Quite Minute"

NEGOTIATING WITH 'TERRORISTS'

You'd think that Bush Co. would be hanging their heads in shame now that the 'War On Iraq' has degenerated so totally that British PM Tony Blair, and even President Bush himself, are floating the idea of negotiating with Iran and Syria to end the war.

Don't be fooled by any talk about Blair and Bush playing some hardcore diplomatic game here, it is all illusion. They have few cards to play, and Iran and Syria know this. It remains to be seen how reasonable these supposed enemies of the West will turn out to be.

The Coalition can't even rely on Israel to do the dirty work by attacking Iran and taking out their nuclear energy facilities. China has warned this would be extremely unwise, and Russia has made it clear that if Iran were attacked, they would have no choice but to defend their "interests".

You will never, never hear Bush, Blair or the Australian PM, John Howard, utter the words 'Axis of Evil' again.

Instead, the phrase "partners for peace" will become the new mantra


From the Washington Post :

British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged the international community on Monday to engage Iran and Syria to advance the peace process in the Middle East and defended his government's close relationship with the U.S.

Blair said the outcome of the Iraq war was central to bringing peace to the Middle East, and the world must make clear to Syria and Iran how they can assist in the process as well as the consequences of hindering it.

The United States has said it was willing to hold direct talks with Iran about Iraq, which would be the most public exchange between the countries in years. But the U.S. does not want to discuss broader subjects such as Iran's contentious nuclear program which Washington suspects is aimed at making weapons.

President Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, said Sunday that the White House would consider U.S. talks with Syria and Iran if the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which is trying to develop a new course for the war, recommended that.

So, what happened to "We Will Not Negotiate With Terrorists?" Words uttered by Bush, Blair and John Howard?

Isn't Iran one of the three 'Axis Of Evil' countries cited by Bush?

"If you're not with us, you're with the terrorists."

Are they no longer 'terrorists?' now that we desperately need them to get the hell out of Iraq without losing another few thousand soldiers?

And if the US, Australia and the UK are now going to negotiate with Iran, does that mean we're now with the terrorists?

If so, who is the enemy?

Will we have to bomb ourselves for appeasing terrorism?

The United States, Israel, the UK and Australia all refuse to deal with Hamas because they refuse to recognise Israel. But then if that is a pre-requisite for whether or not Coalition nations will deal with a Middle East government, then how could they possibly consider beginning negotiations with Iran?

On that point, Saudi Arabia also refuses to recognise Israel, the same goes for Syria.

Indonesia likewise refuses to recognise Israel, yet Australia has just signed a "security agreement" with the Indonesians, and President Bush is expected to visit Australia's neighbour to the North next week. Don't expect Bush to demand the Indonesians recognise Israel while he's there.

These are, however, exactly the kind of hypocrisy and double standards that causes so much frustration and fury across the Middle East.

Who then is a terrorist nation if Iran can refuse to recognise Israel and threaten its destruction, celebrate suicide bombing matrydom, feed weapons and fighters into Iraq and promote violence as a potent form of political process, and yet still enter into talks and negotiations with the US and the UK?

This qaundry goes straight to the heart of the monstrous problem BushBlairHoward created for themselves when they promoted Iraq as a terrorist entity, one that had to be dealt with immediately, because they claimed Saddam was allied with Al Qaeda and said Saddam would feed (non-existent) WMDs to terrorists like Usama Bin Laden.

Instead of treating us like adults with functioning brains, BushBlairHoward decided it was far easier to run with the world-in-black-and-white mantras of 'Axis Of Evil' and "You're Either With Us, Or You're With The Terrorists" to get the war they wanted.

The monumental blowback all three leaders are now suffering reveals that indeed the world is riddled with shades of grey, as most intelligent adults already well understood.

Our leaders betrayed our intelligence, and dishonoured our patriotism, when they used the September 11 attacks to beat into our brains that we were about to be destroyed by North Korea, or Iran, or Iraq, or a combination of all three, through 2002.

It was all groundwork, of course, for the forthcoming invasion and occupation of Iraq. They all knew it was coming, at least a year and more before it began.

To sell a war you need an enemy, you need a threat, and you need some catchy phraseology.

'Axis of Evil' and "You're Either With Us Or You're With The Terrorists" were perfect. If the 'War On Iraq' had been a Hollywood movie, it would have proved a megahit. Unfortunately, the sequel quite literally bombed.

The invasion and desecration of Iraq wasn't a movie, of course, it was reality and it was and remains a savage and unrelenting war.

Some 3000 American soldiers are dead, more than a hundred British soldiers have been killed, tens of thousands of coalition soldiers have lost their legs, arms, eyes and genitals, and the death toll in Iraq has proven to be virtually impossible to tally. It is surely well beyond a few hundred thousand people, more than half of who were children. Another half million are estimated to have been wounded. The psychology toll on the children of Iraq is unfathomable. Recently we learned that more than a million and a half people have fled their homes, or their homeland.

And now Bush Co. has decided it has to end. Or at least, he has to give the appearance that it is coming to an end.

"We Do Not Negotiate With Terrorists".

Well, no. Not now. When it comes to the Iran "talks" Bush Co. will be doing a lot of listening, and nodding.


And what of the 'Axis Of Evil' today?

North Korea has nuclear weapons, though we try and pretend that they don't. How fast did those nuclear test headlines drop off the front pages and dry up on the lips of politicians?

We have destroyed, or helped to destroy, vast regions of Iraq and punished millions for merely being Arabs, and for suffering under the regime of Saddam Hussein, a foul and odious dictator armed with missiles and chemical and biological weapons by US corporations right through the 1980s.

We try and pretend that Iraq is not now virtually controlled by an undeclared regime of terrorists, who turn a blind eye to death squads and attacks on American and British soldiers. We try and pretend that they aren't this close to controlling the second largest supply of oil in the world.

And as for Iran, Bush Co. and Israel tell us that they want nuclear weapons, and maybe they do. After what happened to Iraq and Lebanon, they can make a reasonable argument that they need such weapons to discourage attacks by the United States and/or Israel.

But because of the 'War On Iraq' the West is in far less of a position of power to negotiate and force the Iranians to give up whatever nuclear ambitions they may have.

We are now left in a position where if China and/or Russia decide that Iran should have nuclear weapons, then it will be so, and there will be little we can do to stop that from happening, despite all the rhetoric of "We Will Not Tolerate A Nuclear Iran".

That's right. We won't tolerate it, at least publicly. But we will quietly accept it, because the 'War On Iraq' disaster, directed by the 'Axis of Morons' - Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld - has left us with no choice but to tolerate an Iran armed with nukes.

If this freewheeling summary of the state of the war and the world seems vaguely familiar, then that is because you probably read any number of opinion pieces and Letters To The Editor in independent and mainstream media back in late 2002 and early 2003 warning that the 'War On Iraq' would deal up exactly this kind of situation we have today.

Or perhaps you heard an ex-CIA analyst on the radio, or saw a former diplomat patiently explaining on late night news shows that launching an illegal, unprovoked war against Iraq would cause this kind of chaos in the Middle East, and would encourage Iran to arm itself with nukes and would embolden North Korea (who knew we would be distracted by an Iraq quagmire) and would turn Iraq into a real world training base for Al Qaeda terrorists who will haunt our world for decades to come.

You may remember all those intelligent, educated, experienced people who told us of the world to come back in late 2002 and early 2003 because they were hammered relentlessly for sharing their knowledge and opinions in public.

You may remember them because they were the ones who were called 'terrorist sympathisers' and 'terrorist appeasers' and 'treasonous' and 'America haters'.

Our leaders betrayed us by lying their way into a 'War On Iraq', but we were also betrayed by those who wanted to crush dissent and stifle opinion in the lead-up to the war.

Those who aided and abetted the launching of the illegal, immoral war on the people of Iraq by stifling debate are as much to blame for the fiasco we now face as BushBlairHoward.

They are the true appeasers and sympathisers of terrorism.

The terrorism that is called 'War'.

An excellent roundup of the latest bare-faced hypocrisy, history rewriting and double-dealing from the Warmongers In Chief can be found at Tim Dunlop's 'Blogocracy'.


Blair - We Must Work With 'Axis Of Evil' States

Bush And Olmert Keep Up The Tough Talk On Iran

New US Secretary Of Defence Expected To Sustain 'War On Terror'

Iraq Reconstruction Needs $100 Billion More

Bush Calls For Isolation Of Iran, As His Father's Old WarDogs Call For "Talks"

Burgers Now Blamed For Flooded Islands And Endless Drought?

Carbon Credits To Become The New Global Currency

Sometimes you come across a story where you have to read it a few times to assess its worth.

And sometimes you simply have to go, "Okay, sure, whatever" and let readers like your good self decide whether the claims of the story are Fact, Opinion or Fantasy.

Or a mishmash of all three.

Or none of the above.

From the Melbourne Age :

Up until now the obesity crisis and the global warming crisis have been regarded as two separate crises. However, irrefutable scientific evidence has recently emerged showing that the two crises are, in fact, inextricably linked.

The devastating fallout from this shattering revelation is clear and unavoidable - we shall all have to get our tongues around the correct pronunciation of the word "crises".

The cycle begins with the excessive ingestion of fast foods such as pies, hamburgers, kebabs, chips, potato cakes, maybe a piece of flake, some dim sims and, sure, a couple of schnitzels and throw in a spring roll, why not? And salt on that please.

The person consumes the food and gets bigger. Their bloated bodies accelerate the emission of gases during digestion. This, in turn, contributes to the greenhouse effect.

And because it is too much effort to walk, their increased use of cars and buses and taxies to get from one fast food franchise to the next adds to the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The chief repercussion of the greenhouse effect is bad weather, which means more hurricanes, which means more rain, which means more grass, which is what cows like to eat.

This results in the well-documented growth of both the size and population of cows, which leads to lower beef prices, which allows the manufacturers of fast food to buy more cattle to make more hamburgers, which naturally brings the price down, which allows people to buy more hamburgers and thus eat more hamburgers, and thus produce more greenhouses gases...

Ronald McDonald wants to drown South Pacific islanders?

The story is, of course, not quite as serious as the excerpt might lead you to believe, though it does prove when it comes to global warming you sure can have some fun making circular arguments.

The piece finishes up with the radical suggestion, probably stolen....sorry inspired by the rantings...sorry, writings, of Global Warming Celebrationist, Tim Blair :

...rather than trying to combat the effects of global warming, why not put the pedal to the metal, push this baby as far as it can go and just see where it takes us?

Go Here For The Full Story


SHOCK : John Howard has watched Al Gore's global warming manifesto 'An Inconvenient Truth'.

His short review?

"My life is till taking the same course, and I don't think the Earth moved...It was spiced with ritualistic attacks on the Bush administration that detracted from its objectivity."

The only world leader who has been slower than John Howard to realise the massive amounts of money to be made from joining a worldwide carbon trading system is US President George W. Bush.

Carbon trading will soon become the first undeclared, but official, world currency. And the paranoidians thought the Euro, or the Amero, would replace the American dollar.

Wrong. Welcome to the age of the 'Warmo'.


Am I reading that mini-review wrong or does John Howard view "ritualistic attacks" on President Bush as spicey?

So Howard didn't like Al Gore's slide show.

Not enough focus on the polar bears who aren't drowning, apparently.