Justin Bieber Shock!

Pop star Justin Bieber was severely ill on stage last night in Glendale, Arizona USA, vomiting & sickened so badly he had to go offstage for two extended breaks.

The scuttlebutt is hard to believe, but could it be true...?  
Justin may be pregnant !?!
Just maybe an unusual case of immaculate conception?

Cunning Annoyance

Our media age has developed people who position themselves as professional irritants.

To be boot-licker or back-scratcher to the powerful is not a sustainable position. So much slicker to become a chronic annoyance to those who might threaten power. Our masters surely reward such people.

Annoyance as in Ann Coulter.

But annoyance and irritation arise only with ignorance. In the cases of Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, etc., when their method is recognized, it is pathetic. ...or distressing in a wholly different way.

These are flagrant whores to the powerful. They're talking heads who've sold their moral sense & scruples. They desecrate our communities. Their prostituted talents prolong your enslavement.

Storm Troopers USA

Many Americans are confused about why the USA is involved in Afghanistan, Pakistan, & Iraq, and earlier in Central & South America, Vietnam, etc.

The reasons are all bad. The US government became deeply involved in these punishing wars because the American people were too busy or lazy to question & challenge U.S. leadership.

Overseas military occupation is critically described variously as:
- deployment of storm troopers
- imperialism
- the American Raj
- protecting American civilians
- surge
- Coalition of the Willing
- illegal interference
- foreign occupying force
- invited guests
- helpers
- advisers

America can barely govern itself. The USA has no business dictating "How to Run a Country" to an army of foreign bureaucrats half a world away.

The invasion of Iraq was illegal and wrong. Millions of refugees continue to suffer. The war-makers should be held criminally responsible and punished severely.

Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice, Blair, etc., should be in prison, not sipping mint juleps & awkwardy eating crudités in cozy retirement. These are murderous lying scum of the worst type.

Occupy Afghanistan should be shut down, and the US soldiers brought home. Occupy Iraq and our disruptive bases & facilities should also be shuttered. Use the resources in the USA.

Keep America Beautiful.
 

Drones Over America !

How will Americans react if foreign military drones patrol our own skies?  We'd not accept the devils spying on us!

When a foreign drone cruises overhead, surely a patriot with gun at hand will shoot at it...

Unwise...  But can we blame those protecting their homeland?

http://happening-here.blogspot.se/2012/07/drone-war-thoughts.html

  











Ooops !
 
 

Autumnal Equinox

Today is the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of autumn.

In Japan it's a national holiday, 秋分の日, Shūbun no Hi. Too bad it's Saturday -- an alternative Monday holiday is generally offered only when it falls on Sunday.

Here in Stockholm, the air is already crisp, and a few leaves have fallen.

This morning after some strong coffee and stone-oven baked apricot nut bread, we enjoyed a brisk walk through a tunnel of trees along Vallhallavägen. We met friends at an autumn Farmer's Market, where we bought a few bunches of organic vegetables, honey, some smoked eel, and salmon bits (areas around the fins trimmed before cutting filets, then warm smoked).  Then we had a tasty lunch together.

It's been quiet today. I can smell autumn outside on our verandah, high above the city.

But also I already can feel the approach of winter...

Courtesy Title Romney

Mitt Romney is often referred to as "Governor Romney" though he's not a Governor.

Mitt was Massachusetts governor from early 2003 for one four-year term. Terribly unpopular at term end (link), it's now over five-and-a-half years since he's been governor. Hallelujah !

Is Romney permanently entitled to use "Governor" while he lives as a rich man year after year on the income from his offshore investments, without working? I think not.

Call him ex-governor Romney if you must. Get rid of the courtesy title.
Romney's a bum.

Sinking Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal was a venerable newspaper. I seldom like the editorial slant (favoring trust fund "haves") but the paper was nonetheless a discerning read.

Now reading the below drivel: (link)
http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2012/09/14/the-broke-and-the-beautiful-digital-domain-edition

Bankruptcy has become a key part of America, but chortling over investment losses by sport star Dan Marino ("Ouch."), and highlighting a performing artist facing a clawback of pay (who "hasn't been accused of wrongdoing"), is simply vulgar. Reports about hapless “Octomom” and a bimbo in a birthday cake conclude the chronicle of smut.

WSJ, "The Daily Diary of the American Dream" is a scandal-mongering nightmare.

Murder on Mars?

An Open Letter to the Scientific Community:

NASA's recent "Curiosity" probe to Mars was improperly disinfected. The mission carries the potential to destroy the Martian environment, perhaps irrevocably changing & polluting that nearby world. (Any returning samples could also infect our Earth). Will the idiots be more careful in the future?

 The scientific community must penalize those responsible. Only accountability will promote proper behavior. 

Assorted strict decontamination & quarantine procedures for spacecraft have been agreed & supposedly implemented (link). The NASA Office of Planetary Protection is responsible for adhering to the United Nations Outer Space Treaty (1967), with oversight by the International Council for Science and its Committee on Space Research (COSPAR). Before the recent Mars Science Laboratory / Curiosity launch, NASA engineers admittedly & (reportedly) deliberately broke disinfection & quarantine rules involving a drilling system, and bypassed required consultations with Planetary Protection Officer Catharine Conley.

Past pandemics generated around Earth by crude introduction of pathogens should have been ample warning of danger. European contact with the "New World" at that time resulted in extinction of an unknown number of species, and perhaps a 95% mortality rate amongst indigenous peoples due to newly-introduced disease & illnesses.

Such overreaching efforts by engineers must be stopped. NASA should be fined US$1 billion for their transgression, with penalty monies transferred to provide better funding for planetary protection, cautionary education, and independent oversight. I believe a short prison sentence and individual fines for the involved engineers & supervisors will also help avoid future cross-contamination (NASA supervisor David Lavery has defended this breach of procedure). Any next time easily could cause death to us all.

Links:
NASA Office of Planetary Protection
COSPAR
COSPAR Scientific Assembly website
COSPAR Panel on Planetary Protection
The Guardians project (educating schoolkids)
Leonard David space.com article about the incident

10 Heroes for 2012

Here are 10 Heroes for 2012. (unranked list, many names are links) Not yet complete? It'll be full by year end...

--->  Chris Kluwe
Minnesota Vikings punter (American football) who's publicly agitated against discrimination

--->  Bernie Sanders
Vermont Senator fighting for the little guy in Washington (and too often, fighting alone)

--->  Ray McGovern
Former US Government official, now critically analyzing government

--->  Desmond Tutu
Archbishop & Nobel Peace Prizewinner who shunned Tony Blair for lying about Iraq. Tutu also demanded those responsible for illegally invading Iraq be tried at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

--->  Bradley Manning
Accused whistleblower to Wikileaks (and through them The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, etc.), Manning is in military prison for Embarrassing the Empire. The human interest sideshow now hounding Manning, Adrian Lamo (the FBI informer who fingered him) and Julian Assange (Wikileaks) are as nothing to the widespread death & destruction generated through illegal US overseas covert & military operations.

--->  Donna Smith
Activist for a more reasoned US healthcare system.

--->   Robert Fisk
The Independent newspaper's Middle East correspondent. A true independent, not a mouthpiece for corporate & special interest, who consistently rocks the boat.

--->  James Anaya
Giving enslaved & colonized people new hope as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples

Republican Heartbreak

When we elect Republican presidents, most Americans suffer...

Don't Get Fooled Again!

Showtrials USA?

The US military decided accused murderer Nidal Hasan will be forcibly shaved prior to his trial. Six times already, his growing beard has led the government to declare him in contempt of court.

Forcing people into a pretrial government-mandated makeover is disturbing.

What is next? That accused individuals submit to government makeup artists to look suitable as defendants?

We can envision depravity: dark rings under the eyes, hollow cheeks, perhaps even flecks of fake blood on the lips & chin. Hollywood-styled justice.

The US government already has devalued law & justice with indefinite detention of people at Guantanamo & elsewhere. People held without charge or trial are intubated & forcefed. One day, these horrific government practices will be recognized along with torture as ridiculous & bad, preempting a proper course of justice. That certainty is scant comfort for unfortunates caught-up in the showtrials, unjust imprisonment, and executions.

 

 

Reverend Moon, R.I.P.

Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, died yesterday in Korea. He was 92 years old.

The world has lost a remarkable personality.

I'm not and have never been a member of his Church, which rocked the boat of families & societies around the world. Rev. Moon was often vilified and ridiculed and persecuted. Even today's BBC headline has a negative barb: 'Moonies' founder Sun Myung Moon dies at 92

Many in orthodox Christianity felt threatened by Rev. Moon's religious movement, The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. Reverend Moon's efforts and energies stretched to politics and media, as well as religion, so perhaps it's understandable that repressive, self-serving, and conservative elements often attacked his teachings and his Church. At least some of what he taught can be termed inconvenient truth. We attack the messenger.

The global Church is now headed by his youngest son, Dr. Hyung Jin Moon. Best wishes to all the family in this time of loss.