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"Scum always rises to the top, but instead of scraping it off and discarding it, most people follow it!?!"
--Sherlyn Meinz, 2008
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 | History/Culture: Flying the Flag; Faking the News |
 by: John Pilger, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, is said to have invented modern propaganda. During the First World War, he was one of a group of influential liberals who mounted a secret government campaign to persuade reluctant Americans to send an army to the bloodbath in Europe. In his book, "Propaganda," published in 1928, Bernays wrote that the "intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses was an important element in democratic society" and that the manipulators "constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power in our country." Instead of propaganda, he coined the euphemism "public relations."
The American tobacco industry hired Bernays to convince women they should smoke in public. By associating smoking with women's liberation, he made cigarettes "torches of freedom." In 1954, he conjured a communist menace in Guatemala as an excuse for overthrowing the democratically-elected government, whose social reforms were threatening the United Fruit company's monopoly of the banana trade. He called it a "liberation."
Bernays was no rabid right winger. He was an elitist liberal who believed that "engineering public consent" was for the greater good. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Friday, September 03 @ 21:22:46 EDT (26 reads)
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| History/Culture: Fear of Number 13 - Triskaidekaphobia |
 By Igor Bukker
Europeans, especially Anglo-Saxons, are highly superstitious when it comes to the number 13. They say that if 13 people sit down at one table, one of them will die within a year. Friday the 13th is considered to be an unlucky day. The 13th day of a month, the 13th storey, the number 13, 13 coins in a purse are considered to bring ill luck. In a word, everything containing the baker’s dozen is considered to be unlucky. In Russia this number is known as the devil’s dozen. Where does it come from and why don’t other peoples believe in the magic of this number?
Triskaidekaphobia is a fear of the number 13. The words to denote this phenomenon were borrowed from ancient Greek and Latin, although at that time there was no fear of the number. People used to associate the number 12 with plentitude and completeness. There are 12 Olympic gods, 12 zodiacal signs, 12 months a year and 12 disciples. If any number is added to the “holy” number, there will be uncertainty and unpredictability. Judas was the 13th guest at the Last Supper, which was considered to be unlucky. As long as the Wicca teaching and other non-pagan movements gathered popularity in the second half of the 20th century, a theory appeared that said that there were always 13 witches in a Sabbath. However, the church has never confirmed it, nor has it tried to make the faithful believe it. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Friday, August 13 @ 20:03:07 EDT (57 reads)
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| History/Culture: Which Parts of Jesus Teaching Should We Believe? |
 By Howard Bess
Typical Christians are very selective in their Bible reading. The parts in which believers find affirmation, they are quick to quote. Bible portions that confront them and their chosen lifestyles are conveniently ignored. Americans are especially adept at sidestepping the teachings of Jesus about wealth. Jesus left us with a lot of teachings about wealth. They are not few and are not obscure.
This Sunday many churches, especially those connected with a denomination, will use Bible readings from the Common Lectionary, a weekly listing of suggested Bible passages chosen by the denominational bureaucracy. Very few ministers will dare preach on the Gospel Lesson for the day. If they do, they will dance around the clear message, being careful to offend no one. It is the parable of the bigger barns found in chapter 12 of the Luke Gospel.
The Gospel writer chooses to put the story into the context of a dispute between two brothers. It seems their father had died and left an inheritance. By tradition, the oldest son was in charge of the estate. The disagreement between the two brothers was not different from the ugly arguments that still take place among family members when their parents die. In our modern world lawyers make a lot of money settling such disputes. The triumph of greed over blood is an experience that is both ancient and modern.
The younger of the two brothers came to Jesus and asked him to arbitrate the dispute. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, July 31 @ 21:50:47 EDT (80 reads)
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| History/Culture: Afghanistan Funding: Time to Make a Fuss |
 by: Maya Schenwar, Executive Director, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
In a moving statement before Congress in February 2009, President Obama made a promise. "For seven years, we have been a nation at war," he said. "No longer will we hide its price."
Obama was referring to the Bush administration's devious practice of using supplemental spending bills - emergency cash transfusions that are separated from the annual federal budget - to funnel off money for war. This parliamentary trick masks the yearly cost of war, which would otherwise appear as one massive lump sum, by breaking it up into bite-size, deceptively digestible chunks.
Supplementals are intended for emergencies in which large amounts of money are suddenly needed: a huge-scale natural disaster, an unexpected war of defense, a Mars attack. The Bush administration used a supplemental to fund the early stages of the war in Afghanistan, then kept doing it ... and doing it and doing it. Throughout his tenure, Bush sent 17 war supplementals to Congress, and they all passed with flying (bipartisan) colors.
As someone who'd spent the previous four years chronicling Bush's slimy war funding ways, I was particularly relieved by Obama's words in 2009. Maybe, I thought, when Congress and the American people are confronted with that giant, ugly price tag for war hanging from the frail skeleton of our federal budget at the start of the year, reality will hit and plans to bring the troops home - for real - will become more than just a progressive talking point floating in the legislative ether.
However, less than two months after his bold pronouncement, the president slipped in a request for $76 billion in off-the-books war funds. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, July 27 @ 16:39:44 EDT (86 reads)
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| History/Culture: BP's Long, Bloody History of Reckless Greed |
 by: Al Hart, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
British Petroleum (now known as BP), the company responsible for the worst single-source environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, has over its 100-year history caused a number of environmental and workplace disasters. But the harm BP has caused goes further. In the early 1950s, BP and the British government convinced the U.S. to overthrow the democratic government of Iran - an action that has had disastrous consequences for Iran, the U.S., and the Middle East to this day.
Before the Gulf disaster - and the stupidly arrogant statements of its CEO Tony Hayward - many Americans probably didn't even know that BP was a British company. In the 1980s BP began gobbling up U.S. oil companies - Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio) in 1978, Standard Oil of Indiana (Amoco) in 1998, and Atlantic Richfield (Arco) in 2000. It's now the third-largest energy company in the world.
The April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oilrig killed 11 oil workers and started the giant oil leak that has devastated the Gulf of Mexico. For BP, this deadly explosion may be the worst, but certainly not the first. In 1965 the BP oilrig Sea Gem collapsed, killing 13 workers. In September 1999 BP agreed to pay $22 million - including a $500,000 criminal fine - for its hazardous waste dumping on Alaska's Endicott Island. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Wednesday, July 21 @ 17:38:39 EDT (92 reads)
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| History/Culture: Blessed Are the Peacemakers ... but Not in America |
 by: James E. Jennings, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
Last month's 6-3 Supreme Court decision in the case of Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project found that humanitarian groups can be judged guilty of aiding and abetting terrorism merely by holding peaceful dialog and engaging in political discussions with proscribed organizations. Those convicted may be sentenced to up 15 years in prison.
On its face, this is an infringement of the constitutional right of free speech. It means that people engaged in such contacts can be jailed for meeting with, providing humanitarian aid to or discussing political goals and activities with groups that are on the terror list. The decision also affects Americans' rights of freedom of travel, association, conscience and religion when dealing with banned or so-called "terrorist" organizations. This ruling disallows such contacts, even if the intent is peaceful. Blessed are the peacemakers, but not in America!
The law as interpreted specifically limits the freedom of action of humanitarian aid and peacemaking dialog groups such as the ones I head. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, July 17 @ 14:14:47 EDT (105 reads)
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| History/Culture: 'Just Business': Capitalism is an Anti-Social Disease |
by: Dave Lindorff
Looking at the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, where the results of the greed of corporate executives at British Petroleum, TransOcean and Halliburton, not to mention the greed of paid-off regulators in the Minerals Management Service and the members of the House and Senate who took dirty money to water down drilling regulations are on ready display, I was reminded of a prominent business leader in New York, recently deceased.
Told by his sister of a young woman she knew who had posted a sign on her wall saying, “Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have,” this executive, who had held a top position in the multinational media industry, sniffed, “Ugh! That’s terrible. If people thought like that, no one would strive to do anything.”
Of course, hundreds of thousands of people--teachers, nurses, park rangers, musicians, writers, artists, small farmers and social workers--spend their lives working at low wages trying to make others happy and better educated, or to produce things that people need or that bring joy to others, content that their lives have meaning. Yet this same individual, who was worth perhaps a hundred million of dollars, spent his life simply amassing ever more wealth, which is what the rich and powerful do. He worked hard raking it in, riding roughshod over employees, competitors, and workers, all with the goal of obtaining more wealth, though he had no hope of ever spending what he had. When he died, he left behind a family squabbling over the spoils.
And how different, really, was he from most wealthy, powerful people? To be sure, some give extravagantly to charity, especially when they die, but their bequests can never compensate for the harm they do in their lifetimes. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Friday, July 09 @ 20:15:35 EDT (107 reads)
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| History/Culture: Arkaim, Russia's Strongest Anomaly Zone |
 By Margarita Troitsina
The ancient Ural fortress Arkaim located in the Chelyabinsk region is called “Russian Stonehenge.” In addition to streets and buildings ruins scientists found remnants of the water system, metallurgic furnaces, and mines. It is also believed to be one of the strongest anomaly zones in Russia.
It is worth mentioning that Arkaim, a fortified settlement of the Bronze Age was built with four entrances to the city strictly oriented at cardinal points. It was built according to a previously designed plan, with a high level of precision. All circumferences have one center where all radial feeders meet together. This circular structure is star-oriented, and the design itself looks like a model of the Universe.
According to the research conducted by archeologist Konstantin Bystrushkin, Arkaim tracks 18 astronomical events. They include sunsets and sunrises on the days of equinox and solstice, as well as sunsets and sunrises during low and high Moon. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, June 07 @ 19:46:14 EDT (118 reads)
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| History/Culture: Jesus gave greatness a different meaning |
By Howard Bess
Are Christians destined to be rulers? Over the past 2,000 years the vast majority of the followers of Jesus have answered that question with a resounding “yes.” With that answer we have deserted the very one whom we claim to follow.
Among the aphorisms of Jesus is a simple message that his followers found troubling. “If any among you would be great, let him be a servant of all.” This saying is found in both the Matthew gospel and the Mark gospel. The saying is given story settings that are a bit different. However, in both settings a dispute has arisen among his disciples. They were vying for first place when Jesus became a powerful ruler. They were looking forward to the day when they would be top dogs in a powerful ruling kingdom.
Jesus had a different vision. The people of God were to be a servant people. Jesus pointed out to his disciples that other people aspired to greatness by exercising authority. His words were direct and plain. “It shall not be so among you!” ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Friday, June 04 @ 21:48:26 EDT (99 reads)
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| History/Culture: Makers: DIY Agents of Social Change |
 by: Alyce Santoro, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
Everyone Is an Artist
As our society collectively awakens to the realization that it must devise ways to stem the hemorrhaging caused by years of denial and excess and as the DIY (do-it-yourself) movement grows in popularity, Joseph Beuys' words, "everyone is an artist" ring all the more true. Beuys, who referred to himself as a "social sculptor," believed strongly not that everyone should make (so-called) fine art, but that everyone can live a richer and more meaningful life by infusing any vocation or action with his or her own personal creativity.
From the 1950s through the mid-1980s, Beuys expressed the notion that personal creativity could be cultivated and honed by connecting with nature and by developing a more intimate relationship with it. He believed that individuals as well as our entire society could be healed by returning to a simpler way of life and by becoming more attuned to the subtle, ineffable forces of the ecosystems we inhabit.
Everyone Is a Shaman
Some call one who consciously connects to, communicates with and elaborates on the intangible a shaman. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, May 29 @ 19:30:21 EDT (123 reads)
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| History/Culture: The Beginning of Mother's Day |
 From Peter Diamondstone
As all the adds for "Mothers' Day" consumption pile up in "news"papers and on TV and radio, it seems appropriate to print Julia Ward Howe's 1870 proclamation that began "Mothers' Day."
Julia Ward Howe's
Mother's Day Proclamation
(1870, Boston)
"Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
'We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Saturday, May 08 @ 18:05:40 EDT (158 reads)
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| History/Culture: The History and Traditions of Beltane/May Day |
by Sherlyn Meinz
AlienLove Editor
Beltane is considered one of the most important of the ancient holidays. It’s history goes back further than records exist. It is a time for renewal, regrowth and fertility - for the land, livestock, wild animals, and humankind. It welcomes summer, the awakening of the earth and personal growth. The holiday begins at sundown on April 30th and continues through sundown on May first. However, due to calendar changes over the centuries, in years past, it was actually celebrated several days later allowing for more plants to be in bloom. Celebrations of this holiday are held as late as May 5th.
The holiday has many names: Beltaine, Beltane, May Eve, May Day, Walpurgis Night, Roodmass, to name a few. Many try to stay up all night on Beltane Eve to welcome the dawn with singing and dancing. It is also said that if you sit under a tree, you may be lucky enough to hear or see the Queen of the Faeries as she rides her white horse. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Friday, April 30 @ 21:55:55 EDT (119 reads)
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| History/Culture: Transgender Community in New Orleans Claims Police Harassment |
by: Jordan Flaherty, t r u t h o u t | Report
New Orleans' black and transgender community members and advocates complain of rampant and systemic harassment and discrimination from the city's police force, including sexual violence and arrest without cause. Activists hope that public outrage at recent revelations of widespread police violence and corruption offer an opportunity to make changes in police behavior and practice.
On a recent weekday evening, a group of transgender women met in the Midcity offices of Brotherhood Incorporated, an organization that provides health care and fights the spread of HIV and AIDS in low-income black communities. When the conversation turned to the police, the mood in the room turned to outrage as each woman had a story of harassment and abuse. Tyra Fields, a health worker who facilitated the meeting, told a story of being arrested without cause one night as she walked into a gay bar. "They never give us a reason they are arresting us," she said, explaining that being black and transgendered is often enough reason for arrest, generally on prostitution-related charges.
A young and soft-spoken transgendered woman named Keyasia told a story of being persecuted by police who followed her as she walked down the street, rushed into her apartment and arrested her in her own home. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Monday, April 26 @ 12:42:25 EDT (121 reads)
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| History/Culture: Doris "Granny D" Haddock, American Patriot |
by: William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
Doris "Granny D" Haddock left us on Wednesday after a century of life lived to the utmost. Hailing from an era that told women to sit down and shut up, she cut a wide swath through politics and culture, and became a symbol of strength, integrity and perseverance that will not soon be forgotten.
Doris "Granny D" Haddock. (Photo: gavindjharper / Flickr)
Granny D had the map of the world on her face, and for good reason. She was born 100 years ago, carved out of the granite of her home state of New Hampshire. She lived through the Great Depression, World War I and II, Korea, Vietnam, both Gulf Wars and 18 American presidents. She got kicked out of Emerson college when she married her husband, because students were forbidden from marrying at the time. She sold shoes for 20 years, and then retired and got into politics.
I mean, she really got into politics. ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Thursday, March 11 @ 23:56:14 EST (149 reads)
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| History/Culture: Imagination Crisis |
by Sarah Browning
Our country faces a crippling crisis of imagination. The problems we face are enormous: a rapidly deteriorating planet, a broken health-care system, millions out of work, so many who’ve lost their homes, children who go to bed hungry, and two wars that grind on with no end in sight.
After a brutal year of rancor and name-calling, we seem to have lost faith that we have the power to solve these problems. In our despair, we don’t even know what an alternative to the status quo might look like.
Who can help? Our most creative citizens: our poets. “Any progressive social change must be imagined first,” the poet, essayist, and translator Martín Espada has written, “and that vision must find its most eloquent possible expression to move from vision to reality.”
If, when you think of poetry, you have itchy, uncomfortable memories of being forced to memorize “Crossing the Bar,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, let me introduce you to Lenelle Moïse, a young Haitian-American poet who lost family members in the earthquake. Despite the anguish, she was able to write, in the wake of the devastation, “freedom thaws in your ribcage…/ every tick, my friend, divine/ confirmation: you are alive. beat. yes!/ you are alive.” ...
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Posted by Blue1moon on Tuesday, March 09 @ 10:08:59 EST (132 reads)
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