Dr. Helen Caldicott: 'On Star Wars, Space War & Death Merchants'

11 July 2001

 

"...there is a fifth dimension beyond NMD, and it is truly the most frightening.
The US Space Command, under the control of the US Air Force, is intent on dominating space. For years, under the romantic guise of space exploration, NASA has been mapping the planets, the moon and asteroids for rare minerals. Manned colonies planned for these bodies, powered by nuclear reactors, are to mine these deposits and return the minerals to the US.
If America invests heavily in space it must protect its investments and dominate it. To this end, the US Space Command is developing sophisticated technologies including anti-satellite weapons to disarm foreign military and commercial satellites; cyberspace warfare; and laser and particle beam weapons. In 1998, the US Space Command, in conjunction with 75 military industrial corporations, published a long-range plan with these basic goals:
1. To assure the means to get to space and to operate once there; 2. To surveil the region to achieve and maintain situational understanding; 3. To protect America's critical space systems from hostile action; 4. To prevent unauthorised access to, and exploitation of US/allied space facilities; 5. To negate hostile space systems that place US and allied systems at risk.
In other words, the militarisation of space. Not only does the US plan to wage war in space but it plans to "hold at-risk", "high-value Earth targets" with "near instantaneous force application". In English, that means the ability to target cities, and to kill millions of people, from space.
The Australian people would rise up as one if they understood the implications of these US plans and that our Government, in our name, is complicit in them..."

 

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'Is there Peace without God?'

great post from the mariahussain blog:

And [on account of] their saying: “We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Messenger of God.” They did not kill him and they did not crucify him, but it was made to seem so to them. Those who argue about him are in doubt about it. They have no real knowledge of it, just conjecture. But they certainly did not kill him. God raised him to Himself. God is Almighty, All-Wise. (Quran, Surat An-Nisa’, 4:157-158)

Jesus is a symbol that pre-dates Christianity. He is the man who stood up for the truth and no one could kill him because even in his alleged death, his message prevailed. And that message was clearly reasonable. Those who are killed for speaking the truth are never dead. They are the very soul of mankind.

[ ... ]

It is simply an ethnic trait that has been adopted by the entire peace movement, which I believe is destructive because at least 80% of Americans believe in God. So that is a big part of why I think the peace movement up to now has been a self-defeating political movement. We need to acquire a language that we can use to connect with people who are very different from ourselves.

Most of all, we need to train our minds to get beyond ourselves in order to let go of what we know and let our deeper unconscious give us the solutions to our problems both personal and global. Clearly, what we consciously know right now is not adequate to run this planet smoothly. But I believe that humans have the answers within our DNA.

We have to create wisdom. We have to create it out of ignorance. That leap is a miracle.

[ ... ]

There is a problem within the anti-war movement, which is that the most radical peace activists are so aggressively hostile to the thing in life which gives the majority of humans on the planet a sense of peace. Obviously, if my personal focus in life is to strive upon a path of purification of my worship, and the other person views me for this reason on some level as a stupid idiot or mentally ill, we do not have an equal relationship. If I am politely avoiding saying “Praise the Lord!” in your presence and never mentioning my personal relationship with Jesus so as not to upset you, but you feel like it’s ok to disrespect God, or to devalue someone’s Faith, we don’t have an equal relationship. Our “peace movement” is stuck in a rut.

My main reason for wanting to have an academic sort of theological discussion about religious texts is precisely so that those people who engage in the anti-religion/anti-Gentile polemic won’t come, so that new potential leaders and organizers, letter-writers and shleppers for the movement, fresh blood, can come in. There are so many people who have been marginalized by the peace movement because they can’t open their mouths without having to deal with all this intense, blind, secular fundamentalist dogma. So what I’m looking for is an emotionally safe environment free of anti-God hostility, where the Meek can speak quietly.

There are ways to align your mind with the forces of the universe to maximize your effectiveness and joy in life. My Zen teacher referred to these methods as “spiritual practice.” The disciplining of the mind to polish the mirror of the heart through meditation on eternal questions is just like raking leaves. It can be done with or without religious belief.

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Pool Boy to the First Family

by Chris Colin

 

Pool boys are supposed to conduct torrid affairs with lonely pool owners. James Razsa has passionate feelings about his client, but not the kind likely to turn romantic.

Razsa cleans former President George H.W. Bush's pool, in Kennebunkport, Maine.

An enduring American figure, the pool boy has long stood for one lowly half of the nation's class gulf. When the pool owner happens to have been the most powerful man on the planet, and the pool boy happens to be one of the planet's great despisers of power, the  metaphor explodes into 1,000 points of light.

"If every American had to pool-boy for these people for a day, you'd have a revolution on your hands," is how he sees things.

[ ... ]

Granted, the stakes are high at that level. Razsa recalls one day when former first lady Barbara Bush was on her way over, and it looked like there wouldn't be time to bring the pool's temperature up to her desired 82 degrees in time. The family's caretaker was in a panic, he says.

"He kept shouting, 'Barbara will go crazy! Barbara will go crazy!'" Razsa recalls. "This is the same woman who after Hurricane Katrina said (of the Houston Astrodome refugees), 'You know, they're underprivileged anyway, so this -- this is working very well for them.'" ...

 

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the return of the Karduchoi?

Great post and amazing photos of archaeological interest from the PKK at the Progressive Historians blog:

 

"...When they first encountered the villages of the mountain people, the Greeks left them untouched, in hopes that the natives would let them pass unhindered. Their hopes were disappointed. In the seven days it took them to traverse the mountains of the Karduchoi, generally thought to be the antecedents of the Kurds, the Greeks suffered more than in all the battles they had previously fought. The Karduchoi were everywhere, rolling great rocks down upon them, harassing their rear and flanks, shooting at them with bows six feet long and powerful enough to pierce armor with their arrows. It was, as Xenophon describes it, a hell on earth, complete with thunderstorms, rain, and snow: a famous episode in a justifiably famous book. Up to now I'm not aware that anyone has published evidence of the Karduchoi and their society. With these photographs I believe that the guerrillas of the PKK have done just that..."

 

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Natonal Geographic: China's Instant Cities

How one supercharged province cranks out lightbulbs, buttons, and bra rings, as well as instant cities for the factory workers.

 

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