Getting up off ourselves

=====
Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping
revbilly.com
blog.groundswellcollective.com/2007/12/04/reverend-billy-and-the-church-of-stop-shopping
======
mail-order horse puckey to grow e.g. mushrooms
weretheshit.com
======
revleft.com
anarchistnews.org
shiftshapers.gnn.tv
redcritique.org
artthreat.net
======
The Motherfuckers, who had a windmill and solar array in the Lower East Side of Manhattan - and were reversing their electric meters to sell back to the electric company Con Ed their surplus juice - way before most of us had a clue what renewable energy was
justseeds.org/celebrate_peoples_history/02uawmf.html
======
U.S. indigenous peoples activism
ouachitalk.com/free.htm
======

Transform the economy: grow your own money.

When Rich Fitzgerald - President of the Allegheny County Council
(county.allegheny.pa.us/council/dist11.asp) -
mentions the possibility that we might see hyper-inflation, it's time to REALLY start thinking outside of the box.
======
From:
Institute of Science in Society
Financing Poverty:
Rescuing the rich instead of the poor

...in complete contrast to the slow, miserly way in which the wealthy nations have treated the poor, they sprang to action with the utmost generosity to rescue the rich.

By the end of October, £1.8 trillion have been wiped off the global economy, according to Bank of England’s latest estimate. The US bailout alone has already cost the taxpayer more than US$1 trillion. That’s a huge amount, but still small compared with the total value of the world’s economy at $65 trillion, and a mere drop in the ocean against the $596 trillion in outstanding global derivatives (financial contracts). The taxpayer’s money is being thrown into a “bottomless pit”, says David Korten, a long-time critic of the financial system and author of international bestseller, When Corporations Rule the World (1995, 2001). The danger is that if governments continue to misdirect massive public funds towards rescuing the financial system, its collapse will bring down the real economy.

It is important to distinguish between the real economy of people trading in goods and services based on real value, and the financial system, which trades in money as such, in sub-prime mortgages, derivatives, hedge-funds, and private equities that have become “reckless speculation that produces nothing of real value”. It is the difference between “Main Street” and “Wall Street”...

...it is the financial system that has impoverished people and planet...

...money is not wealth...

So long as appropriate public regulation was in place after the financial crash of 1929 to hold it accountable to Main Street, Wall Street performed its appropriate tasks reasonably well. As it became less and less accountable, however, it turned from serving Main Street to preying on it, creating “a mind boggling variety of ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ financial games.” People were encouraged to run up credit card and mortgage debts beyond their means, then hit with fees and usurious interest rates as they fell behind in their payments. The banks sold the high-risk mortgages on to brokers who packaged them into tradable securities and sold them on again to other banks, and used the proceeds to finance more lending to unqualified borrowers. Many of these overrated securities ultimately ended up in the portfolios of retirement funds, and so the risk is passed to unsuspecting Main Street workers and pensioners.

Wall Street also found it profitable to merge regulated banks with unregulated investment houses to facilitate insider dealing and finance a proliferation of highly leveraged hedge funds and private equity funds that specialize in gambling with other people’s money using exotic financial instruments no one fully understands.”

In short, Wall Street players created and profited from financial and real estate bubbles and debt pyramids “that used borrowed money to create paper assets that became collateral for more borrowing to create more paper assets to justify compensating packages for themselves in the hundreds of millions of dollars.” In 2007, the 50 highest paid private investment fund managers got an average $588 million in compensation, which is 19 000 times the average worker’s pay. As Korten says, and many would agree, “It may be legal, but it is not wealth creation. It is an act of theft.”

Toxic money

Wall Street and its globally extended financial system create not wealth but paper money based on usury at the expense of unbearable debt, misery and poverty to the most vulnerable people and the most vulnerable nations.

Worse still, the enormous paper assets created out of nothing go to fuel conspicuous consumption and exploitation of the earth well beyond what it can thermodynamically sustain. Indeed, money in an economic system is often compared with energy in the living system. When money ceases to flow, the economic system collapses, just as the living system cannot function without energy flow. This analogy holds so long as Wall Street is held accountable to the real economy, but breaks down completely with the proliferation of the unregulated financial sector. Be warned: all money is not equal; that created in the financial sector is not energy as much as pure entropy, the toxic dissipation that ultimately kills the system. In healthy systems, money, like energy, flows symmetrically in just exchange based on real values of goods and services, so little entropy or waste is generated
(see
The Rainbow and the Worm, The Physics of Organisms
by Mae-Wan Ho
i-sis.org.uk/rnbwwrm.php
for a detailed exposition on a new theory of the organism relevant to this discussion).

Rein in the financial predators and shift to a circular economy of nature...the dominant model replaced by a circular economy that mimics nature, in maximising the efficient use of renewable energies, the sequestering of carbon from the atmosphere, and the recycling of “wastes” into resources. This circular economy will prove itself most effectively in organic, localised food and energy systems that can free us from fossil fuels while feeding and energizing the world...After all, if you grow your own food without having to buy fertilizers, pesticides, or seeds, you are not only safe from financial predators, but also from corporations like Monsanto that aim to monopolize your food supply In that way, we can save ourselves, the economy and the climate all at once.
======

Happy Thanksgiving, turkey. Duck!

Think we're safe? Remember successful survivor Tweety Bird saying "I thought I saw a puddy cat sneakin' up on me." Ask yourself why you didn't learn until now that:
======
From:
Zapped: Irradiation and the Death of Food
written 2008
by Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter
and
researcher Mark Worth

foodandwaterwatch.org
youtube.com/watch?v=YsRhm5q9nt0
technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DYsRhm5q9nt0

page 154

...July 7, 2003: The Codex Alimentarius Commission, a United Nations affiliate that establishes food safety standards on behalf of more than 160 nations, rules that any food can be irradiated at any dose. The ruling is enforceable through the World Trade Organization...

======

From:

The Carbon Age:
How Life's Core Element has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat

by Eric Roston 2008

science-nature.marc8.com/carbon-age-how-lifes-core-element-has-become-civilizations-greatest-threat

page 178

...Signals are pointing in the wrong direction. The Global Carbon Project is a scientific consortium founded in 2001 to fill in gaps in scientific understanding of the carbon cycle. Researchers have documented a trifecta of trends that are accelerating man-made CO2 emissions. From 2000 to 2006 the annual growth in emissions rose from 1.3 percent to 3.3 percent. Increased coal burning has at least temporarily reversed a thirty-year trend and caused the carbon intensity of every dollar of world economic output to inch upward. (Critics of this study say three years of data does not constitute a long-term trend.) That means for every unit of world output, more carbon is released into the atmosphere. In 2002 and 2003 the Mauna Loa Observatory registered the first back-to-back atmospheric CO2 increases greater than 2 ppm.

Finally, carbon sinks in land and sea are filling up. Carbon has fewer places to hide...

..."...far from being self-stabilizing, the Earth's climate system is an ornery beast which overreacts even to small nudges," writes Wallace Broecker, a leader in modern Earth system science at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. If a climate has a weak push, nonlinear change can develop seemingly out of nowhere. Anthropogenic [human-caused] climate change is not a weak push. Scientists call geophysical stressors on the climate forcings, or aberrations in the radiation budget...warming is already built into the system, even if our cars and power plants stopped burning carbon tomorrow...

From a human perspective, many things are predicted to go wrong...Some scientists already recognize humanity's impact on biodiversity as the sixth major extinction since the Cambrian Period. The Southern Ocean (Antarctic Ocean) has already shown a decreased appetite for dissolving carbon The land ecosystems that absorb atmospheric carbon will probably peak before 2050 and possibly reverse, becoming part of the problem rather than part of the solution...

...Human speed has crunched the geologic timescale in half a century. Events that typically unfold over many thousands or millions of years have begun to occur within a human life span...
======
globalcarbonproject.org
======
The apocalyptic horse war precedes (causes) the apocalyptic horse disease by taking down biodiversity's web of life predator/prey relationships:
11/26/8
Scientists discover 21st century black plague that spreads from rats to humans
blacklistednews.com/news-2406-0-6-6--.html
======
Meals on Wheels Association of America
"So no senior goes hungry."
mowaa.org
======
subprimefactor.com

Democracy is a moment-by-moment decision.

======
breakthebailout.com
breakthematrix.com
======
Hieroglyphic Stairway
by Drew Dellinger
Poets for Global Justice
drewdellinger.org/pfgj
shiftinaction.com/discover/luminaries/drew_dellinger
globalonenessproject.org/videos/drewdellingerclip3
youtube.com/watch?v=XW63UUthwSg
...my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?

surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?

as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying?
did you fill the streets with protest
when democracy was stolen?

what did you do
once
you
knew?...
======
HelpHaiti.sampasite.com

Do it for the grandchildren.

======
"The life of the individual has meaning
only insofar as it aids in making the life
of every living thing nobler
and more beautiful"
~Albert Einstein
tribeofheart.org
======
From:
Mothering The World
by Mara Mitchell
4tgc.org/content/page/mothering-world-mara-mitchell
...choose which seeds I want to water and which to let die. Given the current state of the world, do I believe birthing a child is of benefit? In what other ways can I channel my maternal energy that will foster life on planet earth? Motherhood may mean having children. It may mean raising goats and vegetables. It may mean writing a book. I can choose how I am called to create and sustain life...
======
greatergoodmag.org
ithou.org
ecoliteracy.org/resources
novamradio.com
therandirhodesshow.com
wisdombook.org
======
whokilledtheelectriccarmovie.com
youtube.com/watch?v=nsJAlrYjGz8&feature=related
======

It IS broke; let's fix it.

======
“Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.”
~Helen Keller
awakeningthedreamer.org/content/view/137/128
======
"If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!"
Severn Suzuki, Environmental Children's Organization
4tgc.org/content/page/severin-suzuki-1992
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Cullis-Suzuki
======
bewellpgh.org
lessig.org/blog/changecongress
change-congress.org
awakeningthedreamer.org/content/view/137/128
wiserearth.org
======
earthcharter.org
eccommons.dabbledb.com/publish/earthcharterorganizationalendorsers
======
acriticaldecision.org
acriticaldecision.org/links/links-to-other-resources.html
======
baloney biotech
http://jimhightower.com/node/6653
======
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1590440,00.html
======
Transition Report: Climate Solutions = Jobs
blogs.edf.org/greenroom/2008/11/20/transition-report-climate-solutions-jobs
======

death and resurrection

======
There needs to be a peaceful, loving purge in this country in order to get to a better world. Many people, including many politicians, will have to step down.

We've got to go through the bad to get to the good.

There have been times and places, such as Spain in the early thirties, in which people find themselves without a financial system. Think about this: In a cooperative environment, such as a healthy family or commune, within that system money is not needed. International financiers installed the dictator Franco in Spain because they could not allow Spain to function without money. There is a book called Beyond Barter which I think says that a loss of one's economy doesn't necessarily mean a return to the enormously inefficient just trading things. By treating each other as family, e.g. through cooperatives, we can weather this approaching storm.

From The Real American History 101 those of us who know know that treason is as old as our government. The origin of the phrase "October Surprise" (if I understand correctly) is that when Carter was running for a second term some Republicans worried that he was succeeding in getting the hostages released (which would have improved his chances of beating Reagan, and so they made a deal with Iran to sell them 40 million dollars worth of arms to be delivered via Israel in return for the Iranians to NOT release the hostages until after the election...

I think that those of us humans who survive the next few years will see a world without the need for money.
======
From:
Leaders duck and hide while Wall Street steals from us
by Jim Hightower
jimhightower.com
creators.com/opinion/jim-hightower/leaders-duck-and-hide-while-wall-street-steals-from-us.html
...the Bushites have secretly created two additional bailouts for America's financial barons. First, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has quietly slipped some $2 trillion in emergency rescue loans to bankers. Yes, trillion! Which banks? That's a secret, says the Fed. How much did each get? A secret. What did the banks put up as collateral to protect taxpayers? A secret.

The second giveaway involves an astonishing power play by Paulson. He recently issued an executive decree to nullify Section 382 of the tax code. Passed by Congress 22 years ago, this provision makes it illegal for banks to play a shell game that uses dummy corporations to dodge taxes that they owe. Bush's treasury secretary, however, wants big banks to be able to use these scams as a backdoor way of subsidizing their takeovers of smaller bank competitors. So — Shazam! — Paulson imperiously declared the law void.

Can he do that? No, say legal experts. But he did. Thus, when Wells Fargo took over Wachovia in October, it got about $25 billion through this tax dodge — more than the total price it paid for Wachovia. Overall, Paulson's "veto" is expected to cost our public treasury another $140 billion.

And what has Congress done about his rank usurpation of power? Nothing. A top congressional staffer says, "We're all nervous about saying that this was illegal because of our fears about the marketplace."

The marketplace? What about the Constitution?

======

flag.blackened.net
ww4report.com/links
mediareform.net
pittsburghinnovates.com
======
Greater Oakland Keystone Innovation Zone
universitypartnership.com/links.php?id=28
======
Sustainable Systems Terrance wind
======
Green Party of Iran
iran-e-sabz.org/eindex.html
======
workingtv.com/main8.html
======
Naomi Klein on the Bailout Profiteers and the Multi-Trillion-Dollar Crime Scene
democracynow.org/2008/11/17/naomi_klein_on_the_bailout_profiteers

======
Celebrating Pittsburgh's Untold History & Unsung Heroes
When
Fri Nov 21 7:30pm – Fri Nov 21 10pm

20081121T193000/20081121T220000

Where
map
Carnegie Lecture Hall, Oakland
Created By
Arts events, screenings, theater, concerts, exhibits
Description

www.pointofpittsburgh.com
http://thespiritoftruth.blogspot.com/
======

Julia Christensen’s forthcoming book “Big Box Reuse” will be shown in an exhibition that examines how communities are changing in the shadow of corporate real estate. Also featured is the architectural construction “UnBox,” a reaction to the megastore big-box concept. Transportable, modular, and easily resusable, the UnBox will be used for creative and social uses, challenging the values and conventions of corporate retail.
======
Ilyusian IL76 Water-Bomber
"Emmaus Community of Pittsburgh" "FISA Foundation"

======

Grow local natural now.

7 of a tough bird


the tough old bird they come from
======

2 tough ones from Hazelwood Harvest
======
"...First the Green Revolution made the Indian farmers addicted to chemical fertilizer. Now globalization is making them dependent on imports..."
~Vandana Shiva
======
Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology
navdanya.org
navdanya.org/earthdcracy/food/food-security.htm
======
"...There is an alternative – ecological agriculture and organic manuring which produces better crops and higher output at very low costs.

Soil fertility is a gift of the soil, of the biomass the soil produces and the millions of soil organisms that breakdown the biomass and organic matter into the vital nutrients that are necessary for the healthy and abundant growth of plants and food.

Humus is the secret of soil fertility. As Sir Albert Howard describes it in his classic “The Agricultural Testament”, humus is “the name given to a complex residue of partly oxidized vegetable and animal matter together with the substances synthesized by the fungi and bacteria which break down these wastes. This humus also helps to provide the cement which enables the minute mineral soil particles to aggregate into larger compound particles and so maintain the pore space. If the soil is deficient in humus, the volume of the pore space is reduced; the aeration of the soil is impeded; there is insufficient organic matter for the soil population; the machinery of the soil runs down; the supply of oxygen, water, and dissolved salts needed by the root hairs is reduced; the synthesis of carbohydrates and proteins in the green leaf proceeds at a lower tempo; growth is affected.” Humus also promotes the growth of mycorrhiza, soil fungi which live on humus, and establish a relationship with the plant roots to make soil nutrients available for plant growth. In Howard's words: “The mycorrhizal association is the living bridge by which a fertile soil (one rich in humus) and the crop are directly connected and by which food materials ready for immediate use can be transferred from soil to plant.”

Millions of soil organisms are the source of soil fertility. The greatest biomass in soil, on the basis of current evidence, is that of the microorganisms, above all the fungi. Soil microorganisms maintain soil structure, contribute to the biodegradation of dead plants and animals, and fix nitrogen, and so are the key to soil fertility. Their destruction by chemicals threatens our survival and our food security..."
======
gas2.org/2008/11/13/butanol-could-be-a-much-better-gas-replacement-than-ethanol
======
windtech-international.com/component/option,com_weblinks/catid,25/Itemid,23
======
consisted.org/Society/Issues/Science_and_Technology/Biotechnology/Genetics/Genetically_Modified_Food/directory.htm
======
International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture
Manifesto on Climate Change and the Future of Food Security
www.arsia.toscana.it/petizione/documents/clima/CLIMA_ING.pdf
www.arsia.toscana.it/petizioneClima
======
greenupgrader.com
naturalnews.com
back40.blogspot.com
======

touch up

The imagination creates the reality.
======
"...Ah we're building the halls with the outer walls

But we haven't got a thing within

But if we keep on trying
Though our purpose isn't clear
We just may move the universe
We'll learn to really care
Eventually the whole facade
Becomes more than a whim
By starting~ to build on the outside
We're gonna fill up the walls within..."

~Melanie, from her Candles in the Rain album
web.inter.nl.net/users/dj/melanie/lyrics/candlesintherain.html
======
"Just do it, man."
~Pamela Badyk [actress, costume designer] at my statement that I'd never made masques before.
theaterforthenewcity.net
======
Turning the Earth:
A Ceremony for Spring Planting in Five Ritual Acts
(a Collective Creation of The Living Theatre)
jstor.org/pss/1145000
======

But that's a GOOD thing

======
biopact.com/2008/10/world-food-prices-collapsing-were.html
steelcitybiofuels.psu.edu
======
Role of Bacteria, Algae in Future Fuels - 10/30/8 interview with John Glass @ Craig Venter Institute
oilgae.com/blog/2008/10/interview-with-john-glass-craig-venter.html
======
urbanfoodworks.org
groups.google.com/group/UrbanFoodworks
======

Get out yer angel wings.

======
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuous_cycle
...Economic growth can be seen as a virtuous circle. It might start with...technological innovation. As people get familiar with the new technology, there could be learning curve effects and economies of scale. This could lead to reduced costs and improved production efficiencies. In a competitive market structure, this will likely result in lower average prices. As prices decrease, consumption could increase and aggregate output also. Increased levels of output leads to more learning and scale effects and a new cycle starts...
======
The consortium of investors that a few years ago were considering a "Pittsburgh BioRefinery" needs to kick in with a similar but MUCH bigger plan to help jumpstart our economy. "Biochar" would sequester carbon in the soil while providing both fuel and soil amendment. I don't know how much energy is required to make biochar, whether or not it is less than the amount of energy produced, but, able to be made from waste biomass, this soil amendment/energy source/carbon sequestration technology would at least improve the soil and get carbon out of the atmosphere:
"biocharcoal"
Nutrient Recovery from Integrated Cellulosic Biorefineries
terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/isubiorefinerynutrients
..."...alternative cropping systems and practices such as applying biochar (also called agrichar) to the soil to protect it from the loss of organic matter and fertility that could accompany the proliferation of biorefineries...looking at the impact of the removal of large amounts of crop residue from agricultural fields....to ensure that farmers will be able to generate the large amounts of biomass feedstocks that cellulosic biorefineries will need to meet the
demands of a developing bioeconomy, while also being able to return carbon
and important nutrients such as phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen back to the soil."
======
"The U.S. consumed more than one third of its total oil reserves during WWII."
~Michael T. Klare
oilbeseeingyou.blogspot.com
======
petrocollapse.org
======
Global Ecovillage Network
ecovillage.org
======
Bioeconomy Institute
www.biorenew.iastate.edu/outreach-and-extension.html
======
From:
Grow Up, America!
by Cal Simone 1/28/7
bluegreenearth.us/archive/article/2007/culture-change/simone-01-2007.html
...our collective accountability for the way 9/11 occurred...is not a matter of blame or fault, but rather ownership and mature responsibility... America does not take responsibility for its impact on the world as a mature adult human being would...
======
amazingcarbon.com
anunreasonableman.com
ifcfirsttake.com
sogoesthenation.com
ecoinnovationlab.com/pages/sustainable-cities.php
======
Italy aims for carbon-neutral farm
sustainablecitiesnet.com
sustainablecitiesnet.com/links
======
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation

God's law versus the law of man

======
“Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience…"
~Nuremberg Tribunal
mickeyz.net
======
Biodegradable plastic composition, method for preparing thereof and product prepared therefrom...
freepatentsonline.com/5861461.html
======
From:
Neigborhood Bully: Ramsey Clark on American Militarism
[an interview of the former U.S. Attorney General]
August 2001
derrickjensen.org/clark.html
thesunmagazine.org/issues/308/neighborhood_bully

Clark:...Central to our foreign policy has been the active attempt to deprive governments and peoples of the independence that comes from self-sufficiency in the production of food. I've believed for many years that a country that can't produce food for its own people can never really be free... While the canal systems that had supported enough agriculture to feed the population for a couple of millennia were going into decay, causing Iran to import most of its food, the country was buying arms. We sold them more than $22 billion in arms between 1972 and 1977 - everything they wanted, except nuclear weapons.
Iran isn't the only Middle Eastern nation dependent upon food imports. Today twenty-two Arab states import more than half of their food. This makes them extremely vulnerable to U.S. economic pressure..."...
The U.S. helped maneuver Iraq into a position where it was one of those twenty-two Arab nations importing more than half its food, and I have always believed that we maneuvered it, as well, into attacking Iran...

Jensen: While we've been talking, I've been thinking about a conversation that took place years ago between Senator George McGovern and Robert Anderson, the president of the military contractor Rockwell International. McGovern asked Anderson if he wouldn't rather build mass-transit systems than b-1 bombers. Anderson said he would, but they both knew that there was no chance Congress would appropriate money for public transportation.

Clark: They were absolutely right. Capital in the United States would never accept that sort of shift in priorities, for many reasons. The first is that the military is a means of international domination, and any change that might threaten that domination will not be allowed to take place. The second reason is that capital requires continuing, ever expanding demand, and mass transit shrinks demand for automobiles and gas...
======
johnpilger.com/page.asp?partID=45
mygreensupply.com
======

fixing the economy

To: hazelwoodeditor@yahoo.com
December GreenWay article for
HazelwoodHomepage.com
======
Restoring our Earth and Economy

Ask yourself, which is bigger - the Earth or the world economy? The answer is obvious. The money system we humans have is only a small part of all the things happening on Earth. In fact, our economy is dependent on our environment. Every good or service we buy or sell is based on the Earth's resources. When we deplete or destroy any of these resources, it hurts the economy. Behind the economic crisis we face is the environmental crisis. No matter what conflict you look at in the world there is an environmental mess in the background. We've been fighting with bigger and bigger weapons, for more than a hundred years, over oil and other of Earth's resources. The United States was many years ago the largest producer of oil in the world, and so we were able to be the strongest. But we pretty much used up the most easily obtainable of our oil and so became dependent for this nonrenewable resource on the foreign market . Now the whole world is running low and the competition is becoming increasingly brutal. Having becoming so thoroughly addicted to this resource, we, like those addicted to other things, are losing our freedom to get off of it. And as the supply becomes ever more constricted due to more demand, we find our local economies in crisis. Where did we go wrong? Nobody deserves to go hungry, yet more and more Americans and others in the world are finding themselves without. Those dying in Darfur and many other parts of the globe are victims of human-caused drought and other weather changes, and also conflict over resources such as the precious materials needed to make our cellphones and other goods.

How do we get out of this nightmare?

The answer is so simple it's mind-blowing - love. Love of all life, not just human beings. Each of the millions of species exists for a reason. As we have taken down the trees and other life forms of the world's forest, we have come to discover we need them, even for our air. Now that the entire ecosystem of the Earth is becoming unstable, we need to be open to reversing many of the ways we look at things. And one is our mistaken opinion that we humans are somehow better than the other species, when in fact we are all part of the same family.

Were we unafraid to enjoy (love) the wildlife around us, we wouldn't be destroying every non-human thing that moves in our neighborhoods. We have been convinced of a whole range of fears that are self-fulfilling prophecies. Our fears help to create the monsters we fear. There really are terrible dangers in the world today, but they were created in part by our having made enemies out of peoples and species that could have just as easily become our friends and allies.

The same has happened to us as far as getting along with each other. We fear and so fight Muslims, adding to whatever reason they may think they have to fear and so fight us.

We fear and fight disease microbes, in the process causing so much collateral damage that beneficial microbes are killed off and super resistant disease microbes are encouraged.

Now that the economy has slowed, let's use this opportunity to think about what we need to change. We don't need more:

expensive clothes manufactured overseas by people literally describable as slaves;

lawns kept green and weed-free by chemical fertilizers and pesticides which poison us;

junk food made sickeningly sweet by taxpayer subsidized ingredients which cause obesity, heart disease, and diabetes - and which can be purchased with food stamp dollars also subidized by the taxpayer;

food shipped from around the world when we can grow it here;

high-tech weapons when we already have enough to near sterilize Earth's surface now;

another taxpayer supported sports stadium to entertain those of us who can afford it while the Earth's ecosystem collapses;

another investor to build another casino for our citizens to flush money down;

traffic jams of people trying to get to other places because they can't make a living where they live;

armed drug dealers and addicts imprisoning us when we're inside and threatening us when we're outside;

Geez, look at all the money we can save by not doing things!

What we do need is to stop doing the dumb things and start doing more of the sensible things. More fresh fruits and vegetables. More food locally grown. Less lawn mowing and more food gardening. Less throwaway plastic wrapping and soft drinks. Less cans that need to be recycled. Less canned food. More neighborhood whole grain bakeries. Less newspapers for which forests have to be cut down to make, and more communication via the internet. More edible weeds such as Lamb's Quarters, which has 40% protein. Less organic waste going to the landfill. A restoration of the web of life by encouraging Nature's return to the city. Better nutrition for all so that people are more physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy enough to work together on these terrible problems we have. More sharing of usable goods and services such as second-hand clothes and carpooling.

We should, as a country, resolve that no one, absolutely no one, should not have access to good healthy real (not processed, adulterated, refined) food. Then we would be on the way to returning to a sane economy. Now that we have elected an honest peacemaker rather than an honest warrior President, it's time to make our country safer by working to make the whole world safer. Let's cut the military budget drastically. We can't make peace by threat alone; we have to make friends with other peoples. Instead of stimulating the arms race for the profit of a few of our corporations, we need to lead disarmament negotiations. The belief that the world is full of dangers is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. By acting on our fears we actually help make enemies of other people. Those who made money selling arms to any side of any conflict have often fallen to the temptation to exaggerate the differences between people for profit. So we have a world which is - unnecessarily - desperately fighting over resources and in the process destroying the sustainability of those resources.

As melodramatic and even silly as it may sound, it's love (not money) that makes the world go 'round.
======

The truth will out.

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lifeaftertheoilcrash.net
transitionculture.org
oilcrashmovie.com
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From dispatches from the youth climate movement
itsgettinghotinhere.org/2008/11/11/satyagraha-say-what
Satyagraha
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha#cite_note-0
Satya is the Sanskrit word for “truth”; agraha means "great enthusiasm and interest"[1]. The two words combined may be rendered as "the firmness of truth.” The term was popularized during the Indian Independence Movement, and is used in many Indian languages including Hindi. It can also mean "the force of truth."

"Its root meaning is holding onto truth, hence truth-force. I have also called it love-force or soul-force. In the application of satyagraha, I discovered in the earliest stages that pursuit of truth did not admit of violence being inflicted on one’s opponent but that he must be weaned from error by patience and compassion. For what appears to be truth to the one may appear to be error to the other. And patience means self-suffering. So the doctrine came to mean vindication of truth, not by infliction of suffering on the opponent, but on oneself."
~Gandhi
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liebermanmustgo.com
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To investigate a rumor that a Bush ancestor was involved in opium smuggling between India and China at the time of the Opium Wars, and to investigate some nasty conspiratorial allegations (can't remember what they were) I read about Obama, I googled the following words and phrases:
"Bush's great grandfather" opium "James Smith Bush" India Obama "Prescott Bush's grandfather" "James Smith Bush"
and (among other webpages) came up with
iviewit.tv/senatecultbill.htm
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Pittsburgh Students Against the War
facebook.com/group.php?gid=10989896095
============
community.worldofgood.com/econsciousmarket/blog/2008/11/07/peak_oil__it_is_the_economy
...$700 Billion bailout “solution” is no solution. It’s a simple quick fix that only feeds the addiction. It may temporarily stop the shakes, sweats and shudders that accompany detoxification, but, what are we going to do when the last hit of credit wears off?
PEAK OIL - IT IS THE ECONOMY
by Rex Wyler
As the era of cheap liquid fuels draws to an end, everything about modern consumer society will change. Likewise, developing societies pursuing the benefits of globalization will struggle to grow economies in an era of scarce liquid fuels. The most localized, self-reliant communities will experience the least disruption...
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Enjoying being alive

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pittsburghkids.org
grassrootsnetroots.org
powertothepeaceful.org
giveback.net

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From
Microbes: Fuel of the Future?

by Richard Ingham 11/4/8

dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/11/04/microbe-fuel.html
A reddish microbe found on the inside of a tree...

"This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances," said Gary Strobel, a professor of biology at Montana State University.

"The fungus can even make these diesel compounds from cellulose, which would make it a better source of biofuel that anything we use at the moment."

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community.worldofgood.com/econsciousmarket/blog/2008/11/07/peak_oil__it_is_the_economy
...$700 Billion bailout “solution” is no solution. It’s a simple quick fix that only feeds the addiction. It may temporarily stop the shakes, sweats and shudders that accompany detoxification, but, what are we going to do when the last hit of credit wears off?
PEAK OIL - IT IS THE ECONOMY
by Rex Wyler
As the era of cheap liquid fuels draws to an end, everything about modern consumer society will change. Likewise, developing societies pursuing the benefits of globalization will struggle to grow economies in an era of scarce liquid fuels. The most localized, self-reliant communities will experience the least disruption...
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worldofgood.org

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solutions and non-solutions

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A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil
mariavazphoto.com/curitiba_pages/curitiba_dvd.html
greenplanetfilms.org/product_info.php?products_id=464
...environment-friendly and cost-effective changes...innovations in transportation, recycling, social benefits including affordable housing, seasonal parks,...Cities should be a solution not a problem for human beings. The city of Curitiba has demonstrated for the past 40 years how to transform problems into cost-effective solutions that can be applied in most cities...
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Carbon trading: a "solution" that's not really a solution
greenplanetfilms.org/product_info.php?cPath=140&products_id=524
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the great game of good versus evil

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"...We struggle not against each other, but against principalities and powers..."
~The Bible
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"In the struggle of Good against Evil, it's always the people who get killed."
~Eduardo Galeano
thirdworldtraveler.com/Sept_11_2001/Theatre_S11USW.html
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The Earth is bigger than the economy.

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From:
This Is What Denial Does
by George Monbiot 10/14/8
monbiot.com/archives/2008/10/14/this-is-what-denial-does
The economic crisis is petty by comparison to the nature crunch. But they have the same cause...
...Ecological collapse...is as likely to be the result of economic success as of economic failure...
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eastendfoodcoop.org/co-oplinks.html
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Enjoying creation

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"...'We hereby free'..."
~Allen Ginsberg
======
From
brasschecktv.com/page/348.html :

Solar Powered Electric Car

newfarmerfilms.com

autobloggreen.com/2007/04/14/infinity-miles-per-gallon-art-haines-builds-a-solar-car-wat

...Apparently, two million jobs are tied in one
way or another to GM. Not only that, but countless
billions of dollars in bonds too

One of the ideas is to give GM money for "innovation."

The truth is there's been a lot of innovation in
car making in the last ten years.

The only problem is none of it has shown up on
the production floor. Why the disconnect?

Here's what one man working with high school
students accomplished...
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solar powered electric car kit
sunnev.com
======
barackobama.com/2006/06/28/call_to_renewal_keynote_address.php
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Socially Responsible Agricultural Project
sraproject.org
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National Family Farm Coalition
nffc.net
======
foodirradiationinfo.org
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canadians.org/action/2008/02-Oct-08.html
...NAFTA should be renegotiated to include enforceable labour and environmental standards...
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consumerreports.org
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Animal Welfare Institute
awionline.org
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Center for a Livable Future
jhsph.edu/clf
======
earthsky.org/radioshows/52852/newspapers-neglect-food-impact-on-climate

The wrath of God

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"I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use."
~Mother Teresa
naturalandsustainable.com/earthlove-it-or-leave-it
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From:
The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook
by David De Rothschild 2007
melcher.com
entertainment.msn.com/le/photos/gwhandbook2/?silentchk=1&photoidx=9
World famous physicist Stephen Hawking believes that if we don't colonize space, humanity could be wiped out within the next 1,000 years.
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Cars can be run on air - right now
mdi.lu
brasschecktv.com/page/456.html
theaircar.com
priuschat.com/forums/freds-house-pancakes/3506-air-car.html
wired.com/cars/energy/news/2003/09/60427
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7/25/1
Alex Jones Warns of 9/11
In July 2001, Alex Jones Warned of Globalist Plan to Use Bin Laden to Attack America
prisonplanet.tv/articles/august2004/082604alexwarned.htm
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philly911truth.org
feedingchildren.org
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The old order is destroying itself.

Pheonix rising from the ashes - the new will come, regardless of what happens today.

When Paul Wellstone died, I asked "Was he a Democrat? I hear they kill Democrats."
Karen Silkwood and Paul Wellstone no more died by accident than John Kennedy was killed by only one person.
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12 Breakthroughs of the Next Decade
by Jim Channon
youtube.com/watch?v=9yklq029T9M&feature=related
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"We may be privileged to witness the collapse of an entire civilization."
~Malcolm Muggeridge, Catholic philosopher
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How to Steal [Another] Election: The Death of Athan Gibbs

Death of a Patriot: No More 'Blind Faith Voting'
by Bob Fitrakis 3/17/4
commondreams.org/views04/0318-02.htm
blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20040315/000215.html
The subject line on yesterday's email read: "Another mysterious accident
solves a Bush problem. Athan Gibbs dead, Diebold lives." The attached
news story briefly described the untimely Friday, March 12th death of
perhaps America's most influential advocate of a verified voting paper
trail in the era of touch screen computer voting. Gibbs, an accountant
for more than 30 years and the inventor of the TruVote system, died when
his vehicle collided...

"I've been an accountant, an auditor, for more
than thirty years. Electronic voting machines that don't supply a paper
trail go against every principle of accounting and auditing that's being
taught in American business schools," he insisted.

"These machines are set up to provide paper trails. No business in
America would buy a machine that didn't provide a paper trail to audit
and verify its transaction. Now, they want the people to purchase
machines that you can't audit? It's absurd."...

My encounter with Gibbs led to a cover story in the Columbus Free Press
March-April issue, entitled, "Diebold, electronic voting and the vast
right-wing conspiracy." The thesis I advanced in the Free Press article
is that some of the same right-wing individuals who backed the CIA's
covert actions and overthrowing of democratic elections in the Third
World in the 1980s are now involved in privatized touch screen voting.
Additionally I co-wrote an article with Harvey Wasserman that was posted
at MotherJones.com on March 5, 2004. Both articles outlined ties between
far right elements of the Republican Party and Diebold and ES&S, which
count the majority of the nation's electronic votes...

...the Reagan and Bush administration supported computer manipulation

in both Noriega’s rise to power in Panama and in Marcos’ attempt to
retain power in the Philippines...

...to paraphrase Henry Kissinger, that democracy is too important to leave up to the
votes of the people.

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Nature loss 'dwarfs bank crisis'
By Richard Black
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7662565.stm
Losses are great, and continuous, says the report

The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study.

It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.

The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide.

The study, headed by a Deutsche Bank economist, parallels the Stern Review into the economics of climate change...
======
Conspiracy Theory Research List
ctrl.org
======
earthfiles.com/headlines.php?category=Environment
======
911truth.eu/en/index.php?id=4,0,0,1,0,0
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Real democracy means getting a receipt.

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Would you go to a store that didn't give receipts so that you could go back and say "See, you got it wrong"? Not one voter in this country will get to use a TruVote machine.
brasschecktv.com/page/466.html
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groovygreen.com
baloghblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/teaching-children-to-compost-saves_12.html
======
Receiving stolen goods: gold diamonds coltan cassiterite
How We Fuel Africa's Bloodiest War
What is rarely mentioned is the great global heist of Congo's resources
by Johann Hari 10/30/8
informationclearinghouse.info/article21124.htm
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regeneration.org
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groups.yahoo.com/group/WarOnFreedom
tarpley.net
======
fake terror history
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GbNDxoVTiwg
======
miguelruiz.com
peacehealthandfashion.com
======
blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2008/04/wheat-rust-and-food-security.html
fromthesoilup.com.au/news/the-politics-of-water
squanderingofamerica.com
======
greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/climate-change/solutions
greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/nuclear
...Despite what the nuclear industry tells us, building enough nuclear power stations to make a meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would cost trillions of dollars, create tens of thousands of tons of lethal high-level radioactive waste, contribute to further proliferation of nuclear weapons materials, and result in a Chernobyl-scale accident once every decade. Perhaps most significantly, it will squander the resources necessary to implement meaningful climate change solutions...
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From:
Al Gore on Global Warming; Is Global Warming a Hoax?
yellowairplane.com/Global_Warming/9-Al_Gore_Global_Warming_Hoax.html
Whether we are having global warming because of carbon emissions or not is not the problem. The problem is overpopulation, overproduction, overconsumption, and over polluting our planet in every way. We only have six percent of our native virgin forest left. Our aquifers are drying up, our fish are dying, our coral is dying, we have dead zones off of almost every major port, the oysters are becoming infected with herpes, and on top of all of that, we are having crop failures, threats of wars, economic problems, our kids are drugged, our families are broken and we are at the crossroads of a series of events, anyone of them can destroy our entire civilization. We have major problems to fix everywhere we look.

Take a look at the figures. We are pumping 7 Million tons of CO2 into the air every day. That's not counting the sulfur, insecticides, herbicides and who knows what else. This cannot be a good thing for our health or the health of the planet. Watch one of the NASA programs and take a look at how thin our atmosphere really is above the planet. We are pumping Seven Million tons of Carbons into this atmosphere every single day. There has to be a reaction to this atmospheric change. Look at all of the other chemicals we are pumping into the atmosphere. There has to be an effect. When we cause something to happen, we will feel the effects...
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