When you look in the mirror, is this what you see?

Friends, I believe that within all men and most women, there exists a beast like the one shown in the image. It is a beast that, given the right set of circumstances, will reveal itself, will dominate and control its host.

I see suggestions of it in the smiling faces of Netanyahu and Abbas, of Mitchell and Gates, of Mugabe and Murdoch, of Bush, Blair and Howard, of Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, et al. It is clearly evident in the faces of all  those who seek to achieve absolute power and infinite wealth by any means, who involve us in wars to make money and to steal land and resources from others, who constantly manipulate and deceive us for their own ends.

I see it in the faces of those who traffic both drugs and women and children, who commit murders and rape, who carry out assaults on innocent people to get a kick, who are found guilty of sexually molesting their own children, who carry out torture and hack off the limbs of civilians, etc.

And it is there in the faces of those who make and sell cigarettes, those who still continue to sell fossil fuels despite global warming, those who exploit people in developing countries by paying them pitiful wages and compensating them little for their raw materials, and those who fleece people, folk like Madoff and his ilk who set up Ponzi schemes, and those who control the Stock markets and the banks.

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“Is that a book about a Palestinian state? What a fanciful idea!”

Friends, it seems that the U.S. is finally invading Israel! Yes, over the next few weeks waves of American delegations are heading to the Land of God’s Children. Each one of them is claiming that they are there to sort out the Palestinian issue but we all know better.

Obviously this is a clever ruse by America to appear to be more sympathetic to the Palestinian tragedy. To achieve it, they send a trio of envoys and politicians plus all their entourages, a cast of thousands.

The first wave of sympathy will be lead by George ‘Fingers’ Mitchell, U.S. Envoy to the Middle East. He looks harmless enough but don’t be fooled. He is there to set the scene, to make it appear that the U.S. is finally going to be an honest broker.

Mitchell’s visit is to be followed by that of Robert ‘bomb-bomb-bomb’ Gates, the US defence secretary.

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Does this man control your brain?

Friends, this morning while drinking my early morning cup of tea, stupidly I watched Fox News for a few minutes. The programme featured Glen Beck and I’m not sure whether he is supposed to be a news commentator or a comedian. Regardless, he failed at both. Badly.

Like many in the Fox News stable, talking heads and so-called experts,  he carried out a relentless attack on Obama and all things liberal. And, of course, simultaneously, he extolled the virtues of free enterprise, unregulated markets, the wonders of entrepreneurship, small government, survival of the fittest, etc, all the things that brought us the global financial crisis.

Given that Fox News is America’s most popular news channel, I can only wonder at the effect on the perception of viewers of this farcical network that claims ‘it gives the facts, you decide.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. Viewers are continuously brainwashed with conservative propaganda. They are presented with ‘has-beens’ who all sing from the one page: capitalism and war is good and socialism of any kind is evil!

Later on, I thought about Rupert Murdoch. I felt uneasy. After all, he was an Australian, one who moved to America to expand his media empire.

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This beautiful life form doesn’t:

1. Build nuclear weapons.

2. Have sex with its own progeny.

3. Drop phosphorous bombs on civilians.

4. Rape other men’s wives, sons and daughters.

5. Peddle evil, money-making,  superstitious fraud.

6. Consider itself to be superior to all other life forms.

7. Try to get more sunshine and water than others of its kind.

8. Poison and pollute and degrade its immediate or surrounding environment.

9. Plot and plan how it can gain control of the world and enforce its will upon every living thing.

10. Engage in cruelty, murder, genocide, torture, rendition, invasion, occupation, home demolition, enslavement, infidelity, sodomy, drug use, trafficking, slavery, etc.

BUT THE BEASTS DO!

Friends, given my current situation I thought I’d investigate a few facts and figures about the amount of money the world spends on developing ways to kill other humans and contrast it with the amount that it spends on other things including health care. Some interesting results were revealed.

The pie chart at the top of the post shows the amount of money spent on arms by countries in the world. You’ll note of course which country spends the most.

The chart below shows the amount of money spent on other items.

It’s interesting isn’t it that spending on narcotic drugs, alcohol and military spending dwarf the other consumer spending.

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Did they die protecting their country or was it protecting Big Business,

Billionaires and Religious Institutions?

Just a short post so you know that David G is still in there punching and because I’ve got to have some tests done tomorrow (a CT scan, etc.) and I’ll be away all day.

- Couldn’t help noticing that the U.S. is bitterly complaining about the Taliban showing pictures of a captured U.S. soldier because it’s against International Law. I seem to remember Gitmo prisoners being paraded around with chains on their legs and hoods on their heads AND I seem to remember piles of naked bodies from Abu Graib undergoing torture as Alsatian dogs looked on. I understood that both these things were against International Law. You have to give it to the Yanks: no hide, no Christmas cake!

- Another Australian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan bringing the score to 11. The powers that be here are solemnly telling us that he died bravely defending his country from terrorism and they will bring him home in a flag-draped coffin and make grand speeches.

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Friends, currently, I am dealing with a major health issue.

Today I just can’t involve myself with serious world problems.

I need to still my burdened mind, empty my brain of worries,

focus only on positive thoughts, find moments of peace and serenity.

Sorry!

Is that grass on the ground at the back of the flag?

Friends, today is the 40th anniversary of the moon landing or so they say.

There are many people around the world who think the whole moon landing thing was part of a giant hoax set up by NASA and the White House to try to show that America was more advanced than Russia in space exploration. Of course, this had important military implications during the cold war.

Some say that the films that showed Armstrong and others wandering about the moon surface was made on a Hollywood movie set. If you have an interest in such things, Wiki has an interesting section concerning the hoax theory (check: Apollo moon landing – hoax conspiracies theories) and it explores at length the various theories which are many and varied.

My current position leans towards considering that the whole thing was a hoax because firstly visits to the moon stopped abruptly after the so-called moon ‘landings’. If the whole exercise had been such a success surely the victorious Americans would have continued with this activity.

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A moral IDF soldier vanquishing a godless Palestinian!

It seems that the high Palestinian casualty figures during the recent attack on Gaza, where 1,400 Palestinians were killed (400 of them children) and only 9 Israelis, was not an act of God after all!

It seems that, according to some IDF soldiers, they were told to shoot first and ask questions later as well as to bomb anything that moved. This revelation seems to contradict Israeli claims that they are meticulous when it comes to avoiding Palestinian civilian casualties.

Of course their female spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Avital ‘Chopper’ Leibovich, nearly had kittens while trying to deny the soldier’s stories, although the fact that she didn’t have their names was obviously a cause of her frustration.

It would be fair to say that the reason she hasn’t got their names is that they are scared of what might happen to them for injecting a bit of truth into the well-oiled Israeli Propaganda Machine, the one that supports the world’s most ‘moral’ army. The bean-spillers will be dealt with, have no doubt about that. Perhaps Israel will lease part of Gitmo!

Chopper protested: “We did many things in order to try to save lives of the population, such as half a million leaflets were dropped from the air, numerous phone calls to terrorists’ homes were made, we used the local media to warn the public and so on and so forth,” she said according to Al Jazeera. It’s funny isn’t it that, in spite of these efforts, so many Palestinians were killed and most of the buildings in Gaza were destroyed.

Perhaps most of the Gaza buildings collapsed under the weight of the leaflets?

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An Israeli blocklayer wearing Arab work clothes.

Friends, in Israel a new phenomenon is about to take place. It is being set up by the U.S. and Israel and it concerns the contentious subject of settlement building in the West Bank.

Now as as all know, building permanent settlements on occupied land is illegal and is against International Law. And as we all know the Israelis have been doing it for sixty years. To be fair, we also know the Israelis did leave Gaza after, in an act of incredible generosity, demolishing all their settlements. Then they surrounded Gaza to keep its inhabitants safe from Iran.

However, that didn’t solve the problem of what to do in the West Bank and how to counter growing criticism about settlements, some of it genuine. While the traditional go-nowhere negotiations over a Palestinian State take place, Israel has to appear to be stopping enlarging existing settlements or creating new ones. But how to do that?

Encouraged by Benny Netanyahu, an Israeli-American think-tank in Alaska, one of many spread around the world, has come up with the perfect solution. Resultantly, after a series of meetings with the U.S., a brilliant new strategy has been hatched.

It involves dressing Israeli settlement builders in Arab clothes!  Then, it involves erecting Arabic signs around each settlement that is expanding or beginning, ones that say: We Love Our Israeli Brothers. Welcome To Our Land. Make Yourself At Home. I Was Sick Of My Orchard Anyway. What We Have Is Yours. It Is Our Honor To Serve You. Concrete Walls Ensure Palestinian Privacy. To Give Up Your House Will Ensure Paradise. Allah Loves The Giver. Why Don’t You Take My Daughter Too? Palestinians Rejoice – Recognize God’s Children. Up The Black Hats. Jews Forever, etc.

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