you need to practise

Personally I have done much reading on yoga in the past year and can say that it seems to have little to do with the stretching positions (asanas). It's entirely about breathing and focussing attention - the asanas are merely a tool to do this so anything will actually work to achieve yoga, properly used (though ideally one would find a particular stretching position that perfectly suits the body). You are right, but you MUST practise. Everyday. Yoga is an understanding through doing, and while you can intellectualize the practise, you aren't going to get it (if there is something to get) unless you do it. The asanas are designed to unleash the body, to awaken and push away the veils that cover us. You can't think yourself there right off the bat. I would even say that when someone says, "it's not about the posture", what they are really trying to do is keep you out of the headtrip of mastering a certain move, of attaching value judgements to the work you are doing, which is a trap in itself. And I would say that reading about yoga, although interesting and necessary, cannot replace having a teacher - yoga is an oral tradition, knowledge passed though sound and movement, physical observation, practise. But good for you, Barrie, to be studying. I want to see your work! Have you checked out Light on Yoga? It's brilliant. Iyengar is brilliant! Did you know he has six children? One does not have to be a monk to be a master. He is an inspiration to me.

One cane to beat them all.

I really hope you're joking... Why? I can say anything that I want. I am not in thrall to the politically correct and their absurd rules of speech control. The profound emotional scars left by senseless violence acted upon youngsters is not a solution to any problem, it is the cause of much social ills as it leaves the youth little recourse than to act out in a similarly violent way, and/or causes the youth to retreat so far internally on his/her self it destroys their very soul. I agree with this. Senseless violence acted upon children is wrong, but this has nothing to do with the cane being used in school as a tool of discipline. For many generations it was used to keep order in schools and is used right up to this very day. It's removal is a part of the reason why state schools in the UK are totally out of control. You ask anyone who lived in the 30s and 40s in the UK the youth didnt 'act out in a similarly violent way' they had a healthy respect for authority were non violent on the whole and compared to today's hooded dispensers of ultraviolence, were model citizens. My father has quite a lot to say of the petty, selfish, and violent schoolmasters who used their authority of violence to play out their own selfish games of domination and self-satisfaction, as do all my grandparents. Simply, it is child abuse. You can't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Just because some masters over used the cane it does not necessarily follow that it is a bad thing in general. Parents need to monitor its use, keep an eye on what is going on in the school and an even closer eye on the behaviour of their child. If the parents do that, then over caning cannot become an issue. Violence is never constructive, it is used purely to destroy, even if whoever uses it originally has the best of intentions. This is just wrong. Add a small sprinking of violence to anything and the same thing will always happen - like a disease it will slowly destroy and deform every part of the body until there is nothing left but a monster that can think in no other terms than negation and destruction. This is wrong also, and the evidence that it is wrong is all around us. Today's yoof are monsters precisely because they have not been caned. The schools they attend have been turned into human zoos because the tools of discipline that should be available to every teacher, from the cane to expulsion, have all been removed. These beleagured teachers are nothing more than prison guards that cannot fight back. This is why so many of them face violence and verbal abuse every day, of a type that is unnaceptable to any decent human being. The latter link there says there has been a call for new legislation. Typical. Did you know that Bliar & C^o have been talking about new legislation to firstly, ban parents from spanking, and then subsequently and more recently, new legislation to penalize parents for the crimes of their wayward children?! They say to the parents, "you may not discipline your children", and then with the same breath say "we will put YOU in gaol because your children are out of control". This includes parents being put in gaol because their children have been bunking off (truancy). If the state wants to tell people how to discpline, then they should take full responsibility for the feral fridge hoovers rolling around the streets on squat BMX bikes in gangs of 12, riding in opposition to the traffic or on the pavement, smashing car windows, stealing and then burning cars for the fun of it, 'steaming' on the underground (def: 'steaming' all female gangs of young girls who rob train passengers by overwhelming them 20 to 1). All of this, before the age of 13. An 11 year old serial burglar, hauled into court, came out smoking a ciggarette, on his bicycle, flicked the v's at the press and rode down the steps of the courthouse back into the streets. That is a true story, and I GUARANTEE you that at no time in 20's 30s' 40s' or 50's and even the 60s' did anthing like that happen in the UK, and I also guarantee that if he had had a taste of the cane, he would never imagine such behaviour, let alone do it. What has changed to so transform the youth and the state school system? The mealy mouthed, lilly livered, milk blodded, pabulum puking, PC wreckers of civilization have ensured that anything from the era of order, no matter what it was, has been dismantled, leaving everything broken, grubby and the future mushed into a filthy noisy greasy goo. Any moron can pass an exam today, because they are dumbed down so that the lowest common denominator won't "feel like an underachiever" because he cant get a "A" level. They are even trying to make Oxbridge reserve places for these peole so that its "more inclusive". This nonsense doesn't work, isn't producing the sort of people that we need or want to live with, and it needs to be turned around 180°. No. Bring back the cane. Bring it back now. Sadly, the superb TV series 'That'll Teach 'Em' is not available as a torrrent for you to enjoy; they re-created a 1950's school, and put a gaggle of modern raggamuffins in it to film how they fared. Not only could they not do any of the maths and english that 1950s children could do, but many of them could not stand the order. Not surprisingly, some of them thrived on the discipline, and actually enjoyed being in a school where they could actually get on with some work. Roll it out across the nation now say I, along with restored value examinations for all!

custard, hold the whip

Better food, beatings....thats the key! I know a few adults that would benefit from such treatment ... though they may enjoy it too much ... resulting in more bad behaviour, oh dear!

Stir fried vermichelli, no prawns.

Well, what to do about it? Well, we may have to give up some of our hard won liberties to stop the chewing gum plague that is affectig the capital. Just like they have fewer liberties in Singapore, but REALLY clean streets. If we are going to educate these hooded monsters, we will have to bring back 50's type schools where absolute discipline was the order of the day. My mother in law used to tell stories about the schools she went to in the 1930s where there was order, but also a rich school life. The schools today are nothing more than holding pens for feral children who are just about everything a child shouldn't be, where the rules are being adapted for their gross and insane behaviour instead of the children adapting to being inside a classroom. And YES that means bringing back the cane, and for people who 'just won't get it', compulsory National Service. You know, alot of the behaviour problems in today's children are the direct result of food additives - when these additives are removed from the diets of schoolchildren their behaviour improves dramatically. Better food, beatings....thats the key!

Littering Pigs

when they take three servings, it means two others don't get any (mindless freedom). No, when you take three servings, you get fat. There are no 'little children somewhere who will starve if you don't eat your peas Johnny'. Once the food is prepared and in reach of your arm, wether you eat it or not, it makes no difference to anyone but the person who is going to snarfle it. Of course you should share your food and good fortune....but thats another story. If they leave their garbage on the ground, someone else has to clean it up (careless freedom). Yesterday, I was walking down the immaculately clean streets of central London, behind a man who had just done some shopping in Waitrose, the supermarket chain. He was carrying two shopping bags of goods and whilst walking, was fiddling around with one of the bags. He pulled out and dropped his recipt on the ground and continued to walk on. I picked it up, took three large steps (that is how close I was behind him) and said, "Hey, you dropped your recipt", giving him the chance to say, "Oh! thanks for that" when really he meant to leave it right there where it fell. He said to me, "That's OK, I was getting rid of it". I said, "If you want to get rid of it you PUT IT IN THE BIN". "Yeah sure" said he. "Then DO IT" said I. He walked away taking the recipt with him. Litter. The most disgusting, pointless and symbolic of all city ills. This man, this BEAST dropped his litter right in front of me, without a second thought. This is a good example of how people fail the imagination test, and there is no excuse for it, since its something that everyone is lectured on from a young age. You know how it goes, "If everyone dropped their litter, the streets would be full of garbage". People who drop litter are the same as the people who do not understand that if they refuse to obey, life will be much... cleaner. And for the record, woe betide the person who dropps litter within my field of view, because I ALWAYS tell them to pick it up in my own carefully crafted and mild mannered way. The streets belong to everyone and no one simultaneously. You must treat them like they are your own proprty, and also treat them like they do not belong exclusivley to you. If you practice this, you cannot drop litter, because you are fouling your own property. Littering is not 'careless freedom' it is thoughlessness, lazyness, bad behaviour, shabby and stupid. Man is not a pig (even though he tastes like one)... you can be free as a wild boar but also have the common sense and decency to not litter, to help an old lady with her shopping, to be there for your neighbor needs a hand - these things, these acts, separate us from the human animals that litter, care nothing for thier fellow man and treat the entire earth like its their own personal shit pot to poop in. The mountains of garbage and litter left by the populations of the west are directly equatable to the mountains of money these same people pump into the war machine. Think about that. One of them is highly visible, the other is invisible. Both of them are causing huge amounts of trouble, one 'killing the planet' slowly, the other killing people on a daily basis. Never drop your litter thoughtlessly and don't litter with your cash.

yoga sweetie

Changing subject...anyone here do Tai Chi? I am at a wobbly point in life and need something different to realign the cogs. Is this going to help? Any alternative suggestions are welcome. My first suggestion is always yoga, it is designed to align every part of you. I have been practising Shadow Yoga, and I am finding myself going deeper than any other practise has taken me. However, Tai Chi is a great thing too, and qi qong is a favorite for many. You may find you are not a yoga person either, and just choosing anything (cycling, tennis, fencing, dance, $yourchoicehere$) and doing it regularly should help you move your energy. I would suggest doing the one thing you've always wanted to, but haven't tried yet!

oh true!

You cannot escape to a place that has the illusion of freedom and then return home to a place that is not, and think that this is perfectly fine and acceptable. Being free (and human) means being free all the time, and not just when you are in a cordoned off place that has a temporary licence issued by the state to let people freak out and blow off steam. How true. I only bought myself a place where I could choose to experience a different configuration of society (which wasn't that different, really). Being in the desert changed me, and I can only hope to remember and implement the shift in myself. I will argue that the illusion of freedom (read: self-sufficency) gave me a comparison. Allowed me to think about the things I pick up again, and look at the unnecessary and excessive laws, rules, regulations our society has developed. By putting myself in a situation where my safety/happiness/cleanliness was entirely on my own two shoulders and also have to interact with a mass of other people was enlightening to say the least. I could have had this experience by wheeling away on my bicycle into the deep forest and camping for 2 weeks, but instead, participating in a society had an altogether different ring. It is amazing how much of the real world people insisted on dragging with them. Or you could say, how much of their own personal freedom they willingly forfeited. How the smallest laws could not be followed - ie. pick up and pack out all of your garbage (which you should do sometime, your perception of use will change dramatically). How excessive and obsessive people were about bringing the "comforts" of home, instead of appreciating the wilderness, and trying to understand how to survive in it. How gifting was an act of giving plastic toys for some, and for others, a warm drink in the night, a cool spray of water in the blazing sun, an open ear to listen, a hug. And to realize which I appreciated more. And as I come home, and listen to Paul Martin suggest Canada should build more oil refineries, I cringe. If gasoline prices are climbing because refineries in the Gulf are compromised, is it not common sense to curb your driving to help ease the situation? Why is he not speaking of the consumption? If you have plenty, why not share (is this freedom)? If you could walk for one day, you might just get some exercise too (freedom!). The government continues to support people in thinking they are an individual on the planet, that they can operate in their own tiny little landscape with their own excessive little habits without consequence (except taxes = not freedom). Perhaps this sounds rough, but there are perfectly healthy, intelligent, aware folks out there that don't have the slightest clue that when they take three servings, it means two others don't get any (mindless freedom). If they leave their garbage on the ground, someone else has to clean it up (careless freedom). If they don't show up for their chores, feelings start to stir (obtuse freedom). If I had to escape to the desert to experience this, it was well worth the trip.

I tell you to enjoy life I wish I could but it’s too late

I think you could have said this in a much less hurtful manner, but the point is taken and understood. Show me how I could have done it. In writing. I have been trying to gently guide you to make better, broader posts, for weeks but you have not been paying attention. Now you know what to do. As for your paranoia, it is total illusion. No one who reads BLOGDIAL knows who you really are, the world only knows you from what you write, and if you write clearly, well then, you are a clear thinking person. If you ramble in the style of a philistine selling twaddle, then you are a philistinical twaddle-peddler. Write out your thoughts and be done with it. If you contradict yourself... so what? life is duality and contradiction. Particle or wave? The location or the engergy but not both at the same time. Observing the experiment changes the results. Contradiction, confusion, being wrong; these are all a part of real life, and when you express these attributes in yourself, you are showing that you are at one with nature. because I don't think myself capable of doing that. There is NOTHING you cannot do. If you believe anyting else, you are simply wrong. Anxiety, fear, paranoia; these are the refuges of the weak. Especially in a place like this, where there are no negative consequences that will follow anything you write, you have no reason to be frightened or paranoid or trepidatious. Just get on with it. Of course this doesn't mean that you won't get your head ripped off for admitting that you are a socialist - come on, we have to have standards. bus seats sat on ... You are right about this. What I should have made clear is that Manningham-Buller really doesn't have the right to intone about 'our hard won rights' when it is her type that have been the ones pushing against the momentum that free men have been building up, claiming by saying that they are 'our' rights, that she and M|5 are somehow a part of that momentum when they are absolutely not, and are in fact, to this day, on the other side. While I'm on this subject, it is totally absurd that 1000 years of progress should be thrown away for the price of 50 odd lives. Think about it. If these so called 'terrorists' killed 3000 people per year, that would be less than the number that die annualy from smoking ciggarettes or from liver damage caused by alcohol. It's way way past time to put this into perspective; the lives of 60 million people (or the billions of the whole planet) can not be turned upside down because 50 people are blown up on a bus, or even if 3000 people year are killed by nutcases. Period. But I digress... You cannot waste electrons, but you CAN waste life. Being silent, is a waste of life. Being frightened and paranoid is a waste of life. Evil relies on self control in individuals; self control is the child of paranoia. It keeps people quiet and motionless, keeps them from not only doing things that will make the world better, but from even saying what they think. You will never be able to think right if you do not write and you will never think right if you do not accept correction. If you say nothing, you can never be wrong, but you loose the chance of accepting correction, you loose the opportunity of interaction - you are not really alive. Time is running out for all of us every day. My advice is to spend your life like you spend money on beer and food and fun. 'You can't take it with you' they say. In this case that phrase applies to both your money and your very life. There is nothing to save your thoughts for; spend your life by pouring out your thought instead of preserving it all for some imaginary future time when you think that it will all be 100% in order and accepted. Hiding away your thoughts is a type of running away; fleeing to a place where you can feel the illusion of freedom. You need to speak to other people to be alive, just as you need to be free in your own street in your own house in your own bed and in your own skin to really be free. You cannot escape to a place that has the illusion of freedom and then return home to a place that is not, and think that this is perfectly fine and acceptable. Being free (and human) means being free all the time, and not just when you are in a cordoned off place that has a temporary licence issued by the state to let people freak out and blow off steam. When you hide what you think, you retreat to that place inside your head where you feel free and unchallenged, but it is in fact, a gaol. As soon as you want to be free all of the time (and you WILL want this) you cannot, because your freedom is a self contained illusion; no one outside of it knows what you are talking about because they do not know you or where you have been with your thinking, and you will have no where to go, save back into your head, that cordoned off space where the only thing there is your unchallenged voice and your illusion of liberty. In order to build the connections between the real people in this world, you have to write and speak, and publish. If you do not, then by default, the Manningham-Bullers, Dames of the BBQ, 33° Bliar's and all the rest of them win. Speaking is the first step to getting something done. Why do you think governments all over the the world are so desperate to stop people merely saying things? Writing and publishing costs nothing today. There is no excuse for being silent. You might not be expected to stand in front of a tank and be crushed, but you should be expected to pick your hands up and type.

Viva odradek!

- scroll down for english - zaterdag 24 september 2005 Esther Venrooy : shift · coordinate · points Happy New Ears, fabriekspand H. Hart, Dam 2a, B-8500 Kortrijk, België om 20u:15 Ruis. Zeven korte elektronische pulsen. Daarna - vanuit het niets - een vrouwenstem: “...einz, zwo, fünf...einz, zwo, fünf...drei, vier, fünf...”. De aanhoudende stroom getallenreeksen wordt slechts nu en dan onderbroken door een metaalachtig melodietje, als uit een muziekdoos. Na 45 minuten eindigt de uitzending even abrupt als ze begon en lost weer op in het geruis. Wie sinds de koude oorlog een kortegolf radio heeft kent ze vast en zeker: de zogeheten “number stations” of “spy stations”. Wie zijn deze stemmen, die onophoudelijk schijnbaar willekeurige reeksen getallen, fonemen en woorden door de ether laten klinken? En voor wie zijn deze cryptische boodschappen bedoeld? Men is er nog steeds niet uit, de boodschappen zijn namelijk zodanig gecodeerd dat ontcijferen uitgesloten is voor iedereen behalve de ontvanger. Maar radio-amateurs en fanatici die het fenomeen al jaren volgen menen dat deze stations zijn opgezet door geheime diensten, die hun operatives in het buitenland via deze weg coördinaten en opdrachten bezorgen. In 1997 verzamelde het eigenzinnige Britse platenlabel Irdial-Discs onder de titel The Conet Project een selectie van opnames van number stations. The Conet Project is een soort “Best of” van 30 jaar spionageradio en bevat fragmenten van ondermeer Amerikaanse, Duitse, Zweedse en Russische stations. De Nederlands-Belgische componiste Esther Venrooy mocht van Irdial aan de slag met dit materiaal en creëert naar aanleiding van 75 Jaar Radio een hoogst persoonlijke interpretatie van de verborgen geschiedenis van het medium. Door middel van geluidsmanipulatie en -collage distilleert Esther Venrooy uit het gecodeerde basismateriaal een abstracte klankpoëzie en slaagt er aldus toch in een betekenis te onttrekken aan de onontcijferbare woordenstroom. Gerealiseerd met de steun van Klara en het Ministerie van de Vlaamse gemeenschap. Tickets: +32(0)56 221001 / info@happynewears.be • www.happynewears.be • www.klara.be Saturday September 24th 2005 Esther Venrooy : shift · coordinate · points Happy New Ears, fabriekspand H. Hart, Dam 2a, B-8500 Kortrijk, Belgium at 20:15 Static. Seven short electronic pulses. Then - out of thin air - a woman's voice dictates: “...einz, zwo, fünf...einz, zwo, fünf...drei, vier, fünf...”. The incessant stream of numbers is sporadically interrupted by a metallic melody. After 45 minutes the transmission ends as abruptly as it started and dissolves into the short-wave static. If you've ever owned a short-wave radio receiver, chances are that at some point you’ve come accross one of the numerous so-called "numbers stations" or "spy stations". Who are these voices, tirelessly reciting seemingly random series of numbers, phonems and words? And who are these cryptic messages meant for? The messages are irreversibly encrypted, their contents unintelligible to anyone but the designated receiver. Radio amateurs and fanatics who have been monitoring the phenomenon for years are convinced that the stations are operated by intelligence and secret services worldwide, as a means of dispatching coordinates and assignments to their operatives abroad. In 1997, British maverick label Irdial-Discs collected a selection of numbers stations recordings under the title “The Conet Project”. The Conet Project plays like a “best-of” of more than 30 years’ worth of secret radio and contains fragments of American, German, Swedish and Russian transmissions. Dutch-born Belgian composer Esther Venrooy was given permission to work with the material and for the occasion of the celebration of 75 years of Belgian radio created a highly personal interpretation of the medium’s secret history. Using manipulated sound and collage techniques she manages to distill an abstract poetry of sounds and thereby succeeds in extracting some meaning out of these hermetic transmissions. Realized with the kind support of Klara and the Ministry of Culture of the Flemish Community. Tickets: +32(0)56 221001 / info@happynewears.be • www.happynewears.be • www.klara.be

Grips; they're not just for bicycles anymore!

And you won't be able to prevent any more if you continue to be useless and absolutely clueless. What on earth are you tallking about Barrie? In what precise way are they 'clueless'? These people are not clairvoyants or psychics; they can't divine the future - just how do you expect them to prevent something that is unpredictable? They are not clueless. They are not useless. They know exactly what they are doing. And another thing, in an earlier post, you took the position that a flat rate of tax was not a good idea, because (I took it) that you think its not 'fair'. You can't be against people controlling their own property and in favour of state control of every penny you earn and swinging taxation AND be against the likes of Manningham-Buller and the other control addicts who want to 'erode' all our rights away and own you like a cow. The two positions are mutually exclusive. Limited government and absolute rights means just that; it doesnt and cannot mean a hodgepodge mix of the things you like, no matter what the effects on other people. If you have something constructive or insightful to offer, then offer it please, at length. We want to read what you think in detail, and not just two line proclamations (thats MY job). This is how you do it. Manninigham-Buller is wrong when she asserts that 'peoples hard won civil liberties may have to be "eroded" '. People are born with rights that are non negotiable, irrevocable and not subject to legislation or erosion. Should a government pass into law, acts that take away the rights of man, then those injured by those laws have an absolute right both to disobey and to eject the government that passed that legislation. This has happened again and again in countries all over the world, and it has even happened in the UK, the most recent example being the poll tax, which collapsed because no one was willing to obey something that was so completely wrong and injurious to their condition as free people. The phrase 'hard won civil liberties' mis-states the true nature of human beings and their place on this earth. People have not 'won civil liberties' they have incrementally moved, en masse towards the place where thier natural rights are not infringed. They have tried as a group, to create a system where these rights will not dissapear overnight due to a crisis or a change in dictator (or change in the MOOD of the dictator). It has been working well for the most part, but now there is a move to halt and reverse this momentum so that we all decend into a Soviet style system where everything you do and say and spend is subject to control. As long as there are sufficient people who understand both the nature of their rights and the power of dosobedience, a total reversal is not possible. However, the stupid and confused can, through poor quality thinking, ruin everything. I'm talking about those people who say that the rich must be taxed more than the poor. The people who say that they don't mind being issued a government ID card. The people who say they don't mind being searched withour reason at roadblocks or at the gate to an commercial flight. You people are part of the problem. You are the ones facilitating the move to total control. Governments do not own populatoins, or the property of populations. neither you nor Manningham-Buller or Bliar, Straw-Man Straw, Dumbo, Blindkid, Cheyney, Asscroft, or any of these other bastards can own anyone. They can however, with your help, make everyones lives a living hell. All they need is your cooperation, and you give it when you agree that some people shouldn't have rights. There. That wasn't too hard now was it? Three paragraphs bashed out in reaction, quick and dirty...anything but empty. If you can't be bothered to type, then just dump what you've found and run. That would be very useful. Then we can concentrate fully on what you've found instead of the distracting two lines you write to accompany the post.

My independent state

But there could be problems if they try to remove Austin O'Dwyer, who says he will not leave his home. He's been holed-up for 10 days without help, doesn't want any and isn't scared of lethal germs. "Why do they think that I am more susceptible to disease than the soldiers that are coming to evict us?" he asked. "If they come to my property and they attempt to evict me from my independent state ... there will be gunfire," O'Dwyer said. "There will be gunfire, so let them be warned." [...] http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/09/katrina.evac/index.html

Too much dancing and drinking

Legal answers for New Orleans residents

Law experts weigh in on where authorities, citizens stand

Thursday, September 8, 2005; Posted: 7:03 p.m. EDT (23:03 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A catastrophe such as Hurricane Katrina has shown how lines of authority can become blurred when it comes to handling an emergency. CNN spoke with a number of legal experts to discuss the law governing the removal of residents from New Orleans.

Q. Has martial law been declared in Louisiana?

A. No.

"People are using that term far too loosely," said Duke University School of Law professor Scott Silliman. "Martial law can only be imposed by a governor or the president of the United States when there is a total absence of any governing authority (meaning no courts, etc). Martial law allows the federal military to come in to preserve the country."

This has not happened.

Q. Who declares the authority to forcibly remove residents in New Orleans?

A. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

The governor is given broad authority under the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act. It allows her to "direct and compel" the evacuation of all or part of the population from any stricken or threatened area within the state if life is at stake or if such evacuation is necessary for the mitigation of, response to, and recovery from a disaster.

A public health emergency prompted Gov. Blanco to declare a state of emergency on August 29, 2005. The declaration allows her to use the National Guard for purposes including law enforcement. Note that she does not have the power to use federal troops; only the National Guard. This police power is always found in state law and can be used for public health emergencies when lives are in danger. Gov. Blanco also has the authority to direct New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to use the National Guard and police to forcibly remove New Orleans residents because of the public health dangers arising from toxic waters, Silliman said.

Q. Does Mayor Nagin also have authority to remove New Orleans residents by force?

A. Yes.

The Louisiana Homeland Security Act gives essentially the same power to parish presidents -- the mayor of New Orleans is deemed the president of Orleans Parish -- as it does to the governor. According to University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor Bernard Hibbitts, parish presidents may "direct and compel the evacuation of all or part of the population from any stricken or threatened area within the boundaries of the parish if he deems this action necessary for mitigation, response or recovery measures."

The mayor's powers seem a bit more narrow than the governor's (no reference to "preservation of life"), but it's enough for Mayor Nagin to remove residents.

The act also says the parish president can control access to and from the affected area. Nagin relied on this act when enforcing his September 6 evacuation order.

Q. What happens if a resident refuses to leave his/her home?

A. Once either the mayor or the governor has issued a mandatory evacuation order, an individual could be arrested or removed from the scene, said Kenneth Murchison, law professor at Louisiana State University. In addition, Louisiana law appears to make a violation of the order a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum $500 fine or a maximum six month prison term in the parish jail.

Obviously, only the force permissible to make a misdemeanor arrest would be allowed, he said.

The district attorney would then have to decide whether to prosecute or to dismiss the charges.

While either the mayor or the governor could order the arrest and removal of people who violate an evacuation order, practically speaking, only the governor could accomplish this in New Orleans. The only law enforcement officers that the mayor controls are the New Orleans police, nearly a third of which are missing right now.

By contrast, the governor controls and commands the state police and the National Guard (even those from other states).

But, Murchison said, "It is inconceivable to me that a thousand or so police officers could arrest and remove the number of people who are said to be in New Orleans in less than a matter of weeks. Even if the governor wanted to force the people out, she would have to devote a substantial portion of her National Guard resources for an extended period of time. Of course, if most people leave without being arrested, either the police or the National Guard could probably remove a couple of hundred (survivors) in a relatively short period of time."

Q. Is there legal recourse for residents who refuse to leave?

A. In theory, if people refuses to be removed, they can go into a court and demand their right not to be removed, said Silliman. But, generally, "the police power of the state trumps an individual's right when there is a public health emergency." [...]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/08/martial.law.qanda/index.html

I guarantee you that when these bad acts were passed into law, not one of the residents that are now being forcibly removed from their homes paid a single bit of attention. They were too busy drinking, dancing and throwing necklaces over each other while the state removed what remained of thier rights.

And then, after taking away these rights, the state collects the money of the people who they have stripped, and spends it on overseas imperialist adventures instead of shoring up defences. When the biggest of disasters arrives, the state does nothing, and treats the citizens like cattle.

The state does this because it can. While people blow on trumpets in the street, dance jigs and party party party, the state has a free hand to do what it wants with the money of the sheeple who reside in these places. They have no rights left, no property, and the government is giving them all $2000 each as a pat on the head. They should of course, be totally refunded by the state for all the money that they paid for services and infrastructure, which would amount to far more than $2000.

Perhaps they should all pool these funds together and sue everyone in charge for gross negligence...after a few mint juleps.

oh to dance

Eek! I love dancing, but finding a nice environment for it is so hard. I danced here for the last week, it was phenomenal! I wore scarves on my wrists and danced with the wind ...

The swizz of the cards

++ NEW VIRAL AD CAMPAIGN

This week NO2ID have launched a web based viral ad campaign to highlight how
much of a swizz the government's ID card proposals are. The ad, 'the swizz of
the cards', was produced by eclectech who also produced the singing dog
animation 'The very model of a modern Labour minister'.
Please pass on the following link to as many people as you can (without
spamming obviously). Their is an 'email to a friend' link on the ad page.
Link to Ad: http://eclectech.co.uk/swizz.php

All evil, all of the time.

EU states should keep mobile phone and e-mail records for longer to help fight terrorism and crime, Home Secretary Charles Clarke has told MEPs.

Without such measures, European states would be fighting terrorism "with both hands tied behind our backs", he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4221364.stm [...]

How on earth can you have both hands behind your back when you have your hands covering your eyes, your fingers in your ears and also covering your mouth?

Arbeit ist Scheisse

Just as Germans were starting to feel bored by their election campaign, a little-known anarchist party has outraged television viewers with a no-holds-barred political broadcast featuring bare-breasted women, raucous partying and alcohol-fuelled vandalism.

The German Anarchist Pogo Party (APPD), whose defiant proclamation that "Arbeit ist Scheisse" ("Work is shit") contrasts sharply with Angela Merkel's vows to reduce unemployment and Gerhard Schröder's labour market reform programme, launched its campaign video on Monday for the 18 September election.

Wolfgang Thierse, president of Germany's parliament and SPD member, expressed outrage over the video, claiming it "goes against human dignity and harms the protection of our youth".

A poll released yesterday showed Mr Schröder's Social Democrats clawing back support, rising three points from last week to 34 per cent, while Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats were down one at 42 per cent.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article311047.ece

[...]

knitPro

A picayune was a spanish coin

The New Orleans Times-Picayune has made the series "Washing Away" /June 2002, available again on its web site. It is a rich source of material in which was discussed, three years ago, every issue which has arisen in the current disaster. However, if you would like to have your own copy, download an 85 page PDF at; http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/essays/tpnoseries02.pdf ...It is WELL worth reading! EVERYTHING was predicted well in advance. Nothing was a surprise. Yet, though excellent studies showed how the disaster would inevitably unfold, nothing -- virtually nothing -- was done to prepare for it.

back in the ussmp3r

My favorite Russian Mp3 site: http://www.allofmp3.com/ "The price of 1 Mb of the files marked as VIP or Online Encoding is 0.02 USD. The price of 1 Mb of the files marked as Online Encoding Exclusive is 0.02 USD." They have a great selection of classic rock, and you can order what bit rate you please.

Que up the Red Army Choir cassette!

What are Audio1 Services?

Audio1 is a web site that features music by independent and underground artists doing alternative music from all over the world. We write about the music and arrange it so you can find what you're looking for in our ever-growing catalog. So basically we are a link between those who make alternative music and those who want to buy it.

What you'll probably notice right away (we hope) is the quality of the music. What makes us different from other MP3 sites is our editorial focus. It's our goal to feature only the best music out there. We devote a lot of our energy to searching for stuff that's worth your time, so you don't have to.

Audio1 is a place to discover great new music. If you browse through the site, we're sure you will not leave without buying a track that you like.

Is Audio1 a Legal Service?

All the music downloads you purchase from Audio1 are legal, so long as you comply with our Terms of Use. We only sell music that has been legally licensed for sale to the general public for personal use.

The Audio1 Services are licensed in accordance with the Licensing Agreement and the License # LS-3M-04-164, issued by the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society. All respective copyrights owners, including songwriters, authors, composers, artists, music publishers and recording companies are fully compensated through the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (www.roms.ru), which in accordance with the Law of the Russian Federation "On Copyright and Related Rights" is entitled to issue licenses on behalf of different copyright owners and pay them license fees.

Does above-mentioned License cover 100% Audio1 Downloading Services?

Yes. In accordance with the Law of the Russian Federation “On Copyrights and Related Rights” (art.45, clause 3) the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society is entitled to represent and act on behalf of all respective copyright owners in issuing licenses for any copyrighted works. To know more, please click here >>

[...]

Do these people have permission to do this? Looks like they don't need permission doesn't it? Get this part:

Can I share downloded music with my friends?

No. File sharing is not only illegal, it is damaging to the authors who worked hard to create it, as well as to the music industry as a whole. Once you have downloaded music to your computer, it is for your personal use only.

!!!!! Our licence says specifically that you can share the music that you rip from our CD and our music that you download from the web. Not only are these guys breaking our license, but they are re-licencining our tracks. If it is legal in Russia, there is nothing anyone can do about it. As long as they keep all their assets in Russia, no one can touch them if their legal position is sound. Should they open an office outside Russia, then they can be attacked. Of course, since its Russia, you could always just pay someone to kill them. End of problem! And in case they use Technorati: Audio 1 Наша лицензия говорит специфически что вы можете делить нот вы рвете от нашего CD и нашего нот вы download от стержня. Not only эти ванты ломают нашу лицензию, но они re-licencining-licencining наши следы. Если она законна в России, то ничего, котор любое может сделать о ем. Как длиной по мере того как они держат все их имущества в России, no one могут коснуться им если их законным положением будет звук. Если они раскрывают офис вне России, после этого их можно атаковать. Of course, с своей России, вы смогли всегда как раз оплатить кто-то для того чтобы убить их. Конец проблемы!

The final barrier broken down

You've smelt it, wafting sweetly across the park, floating over the fence from the pumping party next door, rising to greet you off the plane at Schiphol Airport. Is that a hint of pine? With an undertone of blackberry? Ah, yes, it's the unmistakable complexity of gourmet cannabis.

For an emerging generation of herb elitists, the generic skunk sold on street corners - the plonk of the cannabis world - no longer hits the spot. These media executives, creative professionals and party people choose to have their executive brain functions impaired by only the best brands of cannabis: AK47, Charas, Kali Mist - vintage weeds that represent the summit of 25 years of selective breeding and artisan horticulture.

"Why fly economy?" says Samuel, 34, who works as a graphic designer for the music industry. "Connoisseur varieties are for those who want to smoke but don't want to be monged out or fall unconscious under a radiator." He regularly buys Northern Lights and Charas from a specialist London dealer who delivers via moped, his wares lovingly clingfilmed and neatly compartmentalised in a plastic toolbox.

At £150-£200 per ounce it's not cheap, but for Samuel high-grade weed is a marker of taste. Bringing crisp, silver-tufted, hand-rolled Northern Lights to a party gets him attention. Even bringing it to work can be productive. "You can get things done on this kind of weed," he says. "Deals, creative work, sharing ideas. It dissolves egos and makes everyone happy."

Cannabis growing techniques have reached a level of artistry on a par with the wine industry. The two main plant varieties - Cannabis sativa and indica - have been rarefied and crossbred into hundreds of exotic strains. Each has its own look, taste, and quality of high. A recent upsurge in home growing have made these rarer varieties more widely available. Specialist dealers have stepped in. A thriving "cannaseur" marketplace is blossoming.

Yearly crops are considered with the same scrutiny as a wine buff might give a fine Alsatian white. Good vintage? Organically grown? Properly handled? How does it taste? Citrus? Peppery? Fruity?

The buzz, though, is key. A cannaseur knows the difference between getting stoned and getting high - and savours it. The effects of a good ganja transcend the heavy, mindless "stoner" effects of street weed. Cerebral, lively, trippy, the four-hour high set off by a supreme cannabis produces emotional qualities usually reserved for key life moments. [...]

???!!!

I had to do a double take to make sure where I started reading this really was where I was reading it.

Click here to find out where this article is snarfed from.

Language: the Virus from 'outer space'

one black sheep and this is precisely my point. People who offer different explanations to the 'accepted theories' (dogma) are not 'Black Sheep':

3 entries found for black sheep.

black sheep n.

1. A sheep with black fleece.
2. A member of a family or other group who is considered undesirable or disreputable.

[...] That is the definition. They are people who think differently from the group; i.e. they are not trapped by Group Think. What we see again and again is the group that believes the 'accepted theories' launching over the top personal attacks at the people who dare propose something other than the current dogma, the current group think, the 'currently accepted theories'. These people will do anything not only to destroy the arguments and work of anyone that steps out of line but they do their utmost to ruin the reputation of anyone that dares speak out of turn. See for example, Anna Freud's vicious campaign against Wilhelm Reich, or the astonishing and medieval blacklists, silencings and with-hunts which are the hallmark of this inhuman religion. Another example of this is the Homeopathy 'debate'. The group think mob has for decades waged a holy war against anyone who holds that the principles of Homeopathy are true. The motivation for this is pure self protection; this religious group seeks to protect its power and privileged place in society at all costs. Anything or anyone that is a threat to this domination of human thought is to be destroyed; their reputations must be smashed and their ability to work (and most importantly to teach their ideas to others) permanently removed. If this were not the case, we would not see the same double blind tests designed to disproved Homeopathy repeated with such frequency. Doing this experiment three or four times should be sufficient to make the point, but no, they do it again and again, and publish their results ad nauseam because they need to keep reminding people that only they have the cure to the ills of the world, and that they alone are the sole arbiters of truth in the world. Its interesting to note that these experiments add nothing to the body of human knowledge; they are entirely negative and destructive in their nature. Science doesn't 'move incrementally and progressively forward' it moves in a stair like fashion, whose steps are related to the frequency at which the old guardians of the religion die. That is why Homeopathy is now available on the NHS. It is why Wilhelm Reich's ideas spread like wildfire in the minds of a new generation. Speaking once again of book burning, did you know that all all the scientific books and papers of Wilhelm Reich were burned in an incinerator by order of the US Government (and probably at the urging of Anna Freud and her super influential lynch mob of Psychoanalysis practitioners )? They put him in prison for two years (where he died) because he built his machines and talked about his ideas which were in 180° opposition to 'the currently accepted theories'. I am for the heroes of this world. I am for the people who look through a telescope of their own invention and who say, "Its bigger than we think". I am against the people who say, "We know everything. We control the rate of expansion of human knowledge. You cannot speak or teach without our say so. If you do...you die". No matter what one personally believes, its clear from history that the outsiders are the ones that need to be listened to most carefully, we need to cherish them, keep them on the faculty, finance them, buy their books and read their work. Their work doesn't stop anyone else's work. It is their right to do it, to publish it and to teach it. Anyone who thinks, for example, that it was wholly correct that Wilhelm Reich's work was burned and that he was put into prison for executing it is an enemy of humanity. Similarly, the people who engage in the ongoing pointless campaign to discredit and destroy Homeopathy are exactly the same as the book-burners in Germany and the USA. Now, the religion's response to all of these people (to add an example, the late John Mack who had an academic witch-hunt try and remove his tenure at Harvard) by the adherents, priests and novices to these outsiders is, "BUT ABCDEFG1234 (their theories are just WRONG!)". This is not at all the point. The point is that they are free to say what they want, no matter what anyone thinks. It is therefore pointless to knock down straw men (turtles all the way down, the flat earthers etc etc). This is about the fundamental rights of man, not about the details of the dogma of the group. All men have the right to think, to transact with anyone they choose and to write and publish whatever they like. No man should ever have his life or reputation destroyed by a dominant group simply because they do not like what he says. This is the central and the only point.

The Paleo Pope Has Spoken

Dinosaurs may have been a fluffy lot Jonathan Leake, Science Editor THE popular image of Tyrannosaurus rex and other killer dinosaurs may have to be changed as a scientific consensus emerges that many were covered with feathers. Most predatory dinosaurs such as tyrannosaurs and velociraptors have usually been depicted in museums, films and books as covered in a thick hide of dull brown or green skin. The impression was of a killer stripped of adornment in the name of hunting efficiency. This week, however, a leading expert on dinosaur evolution will tell the British Association, the principal conference of British scientists, that this image is wrong. Gareth Dyke, a palaeontologist of University College Dublin, will tell the BA Festival of Science being held in the city that most such creatures were coated with delicate feathery plumage that could even have been multi-coloured. Fossil evidence that such dinosaurs were feathered is now “irrefutable”. “The way these creatures are depicted can no longer be considered scientifically accurate,” he said. “All the evidence is that they looked more like birds than reptiles. Tyrannosaurs might have resembled giant chicks.” The latest visualisation suggests that parts of Walking with Dinosaurs, the acclaimed BBC series, cannot be seen as scientifically valid. Similar criticisms might also be levelled at the Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park. [...] http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1764136,00.html Note how the image of featherless dinosaurs is no longer a scientific depiction, but is now transformed by its being 'disproven' into a 'popular image'. The film Jurassic Park had the worlds best palaeontologists consulting to the production so that the film was 'scientifically accurate', now that one of the high priests of palaeontology has changed the bible, those people were never there, and the image is not scientifically accurate, but is now a 'popular one'. When those films were made, they were scientifically accurate, now, after the new pronunciation, 'criticism' can be 'levelled' at these honoured films, books and TV series. Until they do a REAL 'Jurassic Park', and ressurect a 'dinosaur' from the stomach of a mosquito, no one anywhere should believe anything any 'scientist' says about 'dinosaurs' or any bones they dig up out of the ground. This raises one interesting prospect however; it should be possible to re shoot Jurassic Park with the 3D models re-rendered so that the Raptors look like...Road Runners or Secretary Birds. I'd Buy That For a Dollar.

6000 Crazy

Two days. 48 hours. 2,880 minutes. This was all the time it took for the fabric of 6000 years of civilization to unravel in New Orleans. Streets which just last week were lined with the fans of Blues clubs and theaters are now patrolled by gangs of what in any other country would be called terrorists looking for their next innocent victim or store front to pillage. Rapes and gang wars in the Superdome, gun fire at rescue helicopters, and the efforts to search and rescue trapped survivors of hurricane Katrina have been abandoned in a near hopeless effort to restore some semblance of public order. Think of it. In just two days time, authorities have been forced to desert innocent people to almost certain death because New Orleans has become unsafe for rescue operations. Two days. How could this have happened so quickly? Early reports of looting where portrayed by the media as desperate, hungry people breaking into grocery stores. In my opinion, this is not looting but survival. However, as the full scope of events has become clearer, it is evident that the mayhem in New Orleans is not a result of trapped residents trying to stay alive, but a carnival atmosphere where the bodies of the dead are pushed aside in order to steal their stereos. I was originally going to write nothing about hurricane Katrina. Times of national tragedy are no time for partisanship. However, what is happening in New Orleans goes beyond the simple red state/ blue state debate. This disaster has exposed something putrid in our society. For this to happen so quickly indicates that there is something fundamentally flawed in our culture that should not be brushed under the rug by political correctness or blamed on any simple politician or political party. What is happening in New Orleans can and will happen again unless we take sober steps to first understand why these events have occurred, and then act to prevent them. [...] http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476205/posts

Deliberate Murder of Children

Red Cross Banned From Bringing Food and Supplies to Nola

I'm not sure what to make of this: The Red Cross reports:

• Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

• The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

• The Red Cross has been meeting the needs of thousands of New Orleans residents in some 90 shelters throughout the state of Louisiana and elsewhere since before landfall. All told, the Red Cross is today operating 149 shelters for almost 93,000 residents.

[...] http://talkleft.com/new_archives/012104.html Normally, a helicopter taxi service or truck shuttle service would be immediately set up to ferry out all women with children and priority cases. This is not happening. These people are being kept in there deliberately.

Expendable people left to rot

Horror Show

Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera were livid about the situation in NOLA as they appeared on H&C. When Hannity tried his usual spin job and said "let's get this in perspective," Smith chopped him off at the knees and started yelling at him saying, "This is perspective!" It was shocking.

Video-WMP-very big

Video QT

Geraldo who I'm no fan of was crying, holding a little child up to demonstrate the extremely inhumane conditions these people are forced to live under. Forced is the right word because they are locked in the dome by our government and can't leave. Troops are guarding the bridge.

This goes beyond political lines and it's as sad a situation as I've seen. Let's see all the happy politicians slap themselves on their backs after viewing this segment.

[...]

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

The expendable 'blacks' are locked into this circus of hell, with the only way out blocked by the US army.

Sheppard Smith, whose brand of evil journalism helped create the climate where these sorts of atrocities can happen, now, because he can personally smell it, becomes upset.

This is a perfect example of a catastrophic failure of imagination. When th e USA, egged on and justified by FOX News blows children to pieces, and when those same troops lock 250,000 subhuman people into the city of Falluja, just as they are locking those subhumans in that superdome, all of a sudden, because you can't personally smell it, or rather, imagine the smell of it, it becomes another thing, a foreign thing, something to spin, to sell to the american public with your awful lie machine and your repulsive mouth.

There is no explanation, no excuse for why the military will not let those people simply walk away from that inundated hell hole. I would love to read the explanation for this; no doubt, someone will provide one...and it will not matter a single bit. America now sees for itself the sort of nation it is, and the kind of government it has. It now sees what the rest of the world has known for decades; the priorities of the united states are upside down.

Former Minister of National Defense to Address UFO Symposium

	Paul Hellyer Former Minister of National Defense to Address UFO Symposium on Disclosure and Planetary Directions
	Download this press release as an Adobe PDF document.
	In an unprecidented move to address this critical issue, Mufon Canada and ZlandCommunications announce Mr. Paul Hellyer, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense under Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, will address the UFO/ET symposium at the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall on Sept. 25. Toronto, Ontario (PRWEB) August 25, 2005 -- Mufon Central Canada and ZlandCommunications are pleased to announce Mr. Paul Hellyer's participation in Exopolitics Toronto Symposium on UFO Disclosure and Planetary Directions at the University of Toronto's Convocation Hall Sunday Sept. 25. The Symposium is open to the public. Paul Hellyer has had a long and distinguished career with particular emphasis on national defense. He held a number of positions culminating in his appointment as Minister of Defense under Lester Pearson. He is a long standing opponent of the weaponization of space and is a supporter of the Space Preservation Treaty. Mr. Hellyer will address the Symposium's theme: Why information concerning Extraterrestrial-related phenomena and government involvement with these issues is still being withheld from the public by specific western nations. Some call this the UFO Cover-up. Others call it a truth embargo. In either case Mr. Hellyer's well documented and comprehensive perspectives on such topics as Free Trade, Globalization, the inequitable distribution of wealth, the failure of banking systems and the weaponization of space will affix a compelling urgency to the far-reaching global implications of UFO/ET disclosure. Mr. Hellyer possesses a unique vantage point from which to share his insights and knowledge with journalists, academics and citizens on matters relating to the UFO/ET disclosure question. By participating in the Toronto Exopolitics Symposium Mr. Hellyer joins a growing list of important government figures around the world willing to speak directly to this most controversial and profound issue. Canada can play a major role in the truth process, and Mr. Hellyer's involvement will increase the impact of the Symposium. Journalists and other media representatives who wish to learn more about Paul Hellyer's participation are invited to contact the symposium's Media Director Victor Viggiani for pre-conference press interviews, press passes or questions. Ticket Orders - Available On Line Ordered on-line by visiting the symposium's web site: http://www.exopoliticstoronto.com/tickets.html

'P' is for Pronoun Problems

Your demand for cheap meat and ignorance of the sources did this. When you refuse to pay for properly-reared beef but demand cheap steak and tuck into your factory-farmed, chemical-laced agro-beef, it is YOU and not the scientist who has created the problem. When you refuse to pay for wild prawns but still demand prawns and tuck into your sea-farmed, chemical-laced cheap Indonesian super-prawn, it is YOU and not the scientist who has created the problem. Pronoun problems? Who is this 'YOU' that you belong to that is separate from 'US'? WE are all in the same boat and all of US are responsible for what takes place here. A man with the ability to destroy the world cannot justify doing it just because someone pays him to. Come on now! If there were 50% of the population we (I speak as an animal) would be a lot more than 100% better off. meau² is in good company!!!!!! 23 Skidoo!

The worm in the bottle

you can always blame a scientist The people who inivented the feed that was made from animals, who put together the machines that milled it the developers of the binding agents that bound it into pellets. They are to blame for BSE. The people who created protien feeds to supercharge the cows that produce 200 litres of milk instead of the normal 14. They are the ones we blame. We cannot shift the blame away from the people who create the problems, and we must not conflate two separate problems for convenience. Animal husbandry in the form of factory farming has nothing to do with creating monster feeds to distort the way a cow produces milk. Farmers don't need scientists to build factory farms. Farmers cannot produce supercharged cows pumped up with specially designed feeds without scientists however. There is the difference. We blame the scientists only for what they are responsible for and nothing else. That is rational.

Decloaked Thatcher!

First, I would like to say that I hope the people protesting against animal experimentation (1) are strictly vegan, (2) don't use any animal-derived clothing or animal-derived products and (3) are denied any medicinal intervention, surgical or otherwise, which have been generated through the exploitation of humanity's place at the top of the intellectual pile. People agreeing to these conditions can protest to their heart's content and their moral strength will win them many friends. ??!! There is also an argument that worrying about animals being used under strict laws with the aim of improving human knowledge is pitiful when factory farmed pigs, chickens, cows and the like are slaughtered in their millions every day, wastefully and scornfully treated in both life and death simply to feed an obese population of ingrates with no idea of where the food on their plate comes from. This is a straw man argument. You present something tangentially related to what you are trolling about and then knock it down to discredit the first argument. Honestly, you have to do MUCH better than that! While ID could be taught as an "idea" I think Dawkins is fundamentally right in demanding a separation of religious dogma from scientific theory in teaching. I think "disastrous consequences" is about right if children are taught in such a slipshod manner as to allow religious beliefs to define classroom policy and teaching schedules. One may as well include other 'theories' of the nature of the universe into physics classes such that children have no idea whether it's waves, particles or "turtles all the way down". A mix of straw man, separation of church and state. Oh dear. I'll bite. "Turtles all the way down" is comprable to feathers on dinosaurs. For generations 'science' classes taught that dinosaurs were giant lizards with scaly skin. This was the view handed down by the religiious elite, and all schoolchildren were examined on it, and made to believe it like it was the absolute truth. Now of course, feathers are the vogue, all the books are being re-written the religion has had an update, and if you want to pass the exams, you have to put on the feathers. That is "turtles all the way down"; a set of beliefs that are internally consistent but completely wrong. Why should any student be forced to recite the verses of this religion or face academic failure? It is wrong for scientists to claim that they are the only ones who know what the truth is at any one time, and then to insist that everyone follow them or face ruin. What people teach in a school is the responsibility of the school and the parents that send their children to that school. The policy for all should not be set by scientist atheists, any more than it should be set by Muslims or Catholics. Scientists fail every time because they believe that they are the only ones that have the correct view. They are precisely like the fundamentalist Muslims, only they don't want to kill you, they just want to kill your way of thinking and they use these skeptic tactics, like the straw man argument, to equate religious belief with illogical nonsense like "turtles all the way down". Ideas.... See above. When you invite me round to your hovel for a bowl of gruel cooked in your hand-thrown clay pot and show me your lovely new dog-skin trousers and the fabulous new cesspit out back, then I'll let you get away with suggesting a world without scientists. And we will both be HUMAN when we eat that gruel, which will be real gruel and not GM frankenstien gruel. There is no dogma! Show me the scientific dogma and I'll run it over with my scientific karma. Richard Dawkins may have dogma, but that's his problem. There is no dogma? There is no "Mafia". There are no UFOs, There was only one shooter. This is precisely the poor attitude that people are talking about; scientists believe that they are right in all things, and that their method of divining the world is the only correct and trustworthy one, and that they are not suffering under any sort of delusion or misunderstanding or error. This is false. Scientists have been wrong again and again and again; there is nothing bad in this per se, but what is totally wrong is their stubborn and arrogant belief that they are absoutely correct at any one time. I am not against arrogance or stubbornness. BUT when the arrogant and the stubborn try and force people to believe what they believe, they are no better than the female mutilating, child beheading, stoning to death for adultery 'nutcases' that pollute this world. It is they are truely living inside a "turtles all the way down" delusion, because they fundamentally believe that they are correct, above all others. This belief they adhere to is crafted to near perfection; it allows for self correction ad infinitum through writing experimentation and re-writing. The dogma is flexible, handed down as it is 'improved'. The only thing that it cannot absorb is anything that is outside of the scientific method, otherwise, anything is game. This is modern sciences fatal flaw. "We"? Who we? We the people that guzzle fuel and eat mass-produced shit without a thought? We the populace that demands progress, whether it's a new Playstation or better botox? We are the people who want to be sure that when someone deveolps a new feed for a cow, that they remember their school lessons whilst they are doing it: 'COWS ARE HERBIVORS - THEY DON'T EAT MEAT, ESPECIALLY NOT OTHER COWS' Do not conflate the science that produces the playstation (maths, material science) with the science that produces hybrid humans and gm crops. The latter two are BAD and the former are GOOD. The internal combustion engine falls under the former, and is GOOD. Just because it has been over used doesn't make it bad, it means that we all have to change our behaviour, and the people who invented it are not responsible for its misuse. GM damage cannot be withdrawn from the environment, this is why it is different to the damage caused by burning oil (note how I do not call it fossil fuel :P ). The same goes for hybrid humans. Once hybrid human genes are mixed into the gene pool, they cannot be removed; future generations will be contaminated, and that is that. No amount of "sorry" will fix either of those two pollutants. No one wants to throw away all science. We only want to destroy the bad, the poisoinous, the stuff that kills our childrens rightful inheritance to a clean world. 'Not tested on animals' came about as a result of LAW not science. It was LAW which required products to have been tested for toxicity to animals... And that makes it right? If they pass a law that all products must be tested on unwilling humans, will the people carrying out the tests comply with it simply because it is the law? "I was only following orders". We all know where THAT road leads don't we. Starve or take the devil's shilling? Turtles all the way down....to hell! The "arrogant and cavalier treatment of our shared environment" is carried out not by scientists, but by businesses and politics. The "evil" is a result of business and politics. We cannot shift the blame off of the people who carry out the work. The people who carry out the making of exotic poisons are responsible for the existance of the poisons, which would not be there had they not made them. Scientists must decide not to do work that will have disasterous consequences or which will cause untold suffering. If they don't have the backbone to do it, they will be made to do it. And yet, every time one speaks in an attempt to help people understand science, he is derided as a charlatan. Richard Dawkins is not trying to help anyone "understand science". He is trying to manipulate public policy to exclude ideas that he finds offensive as a humanist atheist. Helping people understand science by speaking, teaching, and demonstrating scientific principles is good - trying to kill other peoples ideas with hysterical language like "disasterous consequences" is BAD, and he is immediately discredited when he puts himself in opposition to ideas he personally loathes just because he loathes them. When you need it, and it is your only hope, think of these invisible men. An emotional paragraph. Emotion is good. No one is agiainst good work. No one is against the men and women who truely want to help their fellow man. Do not confuse peoples disgust with the GM meddlers and human cloners and mix it in with an imaginary hatred of the good biologists who make the world better in a humble and moral way. No one bats an eyelid when Bush talks anti-science nowadays because.... religious fervour and a McCarthyist attitude to dissent makes it unwise to do so. NO, People don't bat an eyelid precisely for the reasons that I gave, which aparently went in one eye and out the other. Exactly why people of integrity and intellectual rigour such as Richard Dawkins should be encouraged to put the true face of science to the people, and to expose business and politics (and religion) as the EVIL manipulating forces behind the problemswith which science has been stigmatised. ALL HAIL HIGH PRIEST DAWKINS HOLY DISSEMINATOR AND REGENERATOR. ALL BOW TO HIS WISDOM, THE WISDOM OF THE GREAT GOD OF SCIENCE! ahem...once again, no matter who says it, you cannot excuse the immoral acts of scientists out for a buck and shift the blame onto the paymasters or legislators. Everyone is responsible for their own actions, and scientists are not part of a super human subset of people for whom the rules governing responsibility do not magically apply. First, (if one agrees in a state-sponsored education system) the argument of what is taught to children should be taken by educated people able to understand a debate. It is these people who should be beating Bush with intellectual sticks and pointing out his lack of objectivity and lack of ability to understand the debate. Second, people like Richard Dawkins are exactly the type of people to tell a school what should be taught. Firstly there is more than one way to organize state schools. There is no reason why the curriculum should be centrally dictated. Secondly if it is to be centrally dictated, then ELECTED OFFICIALS should set the curriculum, not UNELECTED ATHEISTS. The public pays taxes for these schools and elects representatives to get the job done (ideally) and so lone voice third parties with an agenda, from whatever camp, should not be able to exert undue influence on the shape of the curriculum. But their poor standard of education has made them too STUPID to see past their TV set and into the real world. This is the world according to HIGH PRIEST Dawkins. If you do not understand the scientific view of the world, and do not accept its tenets, then you are, by definition, 'uneducated'. After all, no other type of knowledge is valuable, no other belief is correct save that sanctioned by the high priests of science, you are therefore by definition, incapable of making good decisions. If you do not support THEE KNOWLEDGABLE 1 by definition you are outside of the faith, irredeemable, and to be surgically excised. ALL BOW! would you be able to live with yourself if all you did as the books got burnt was stand by and watch your beliefs go up in smoke? Funny you should put it in those terms; Dawkins is the book burner here, as he tries to incenerate the idea of God the creator and replace it with his own ideas to be rammed into the minds of children. Funny that "I was only doing my job" is the excuse used by the vivisectionists who maim, kill and torture "because its the law" borth of these...from the same era of book burning. The fact that the high priest thinks the people setting the curriculum are "fools" is worth noting. He is the same type that thinks, for example, that "Homeopathy is no better than placebo", and of course now that these holy verses have again been published in The Lancet that printer of pages from the ever increasing multi bible of science, he will believe it even more. No matter that everyone (the MILLIONS of people) who use it say that it works, that it brings them relief from hayfever for example. No matter that this medicine has been used sucessfully for over a century; this doesn't matter because it has not been published in a peer reviewed journal. Dawkins is the fool. And he is free to be a fool until the end of time as long as he does not foist his diabolical will and evil plans for intellectual domination on anyone. Should he persist, he will be smacked down and all will benefit. Real science will increase; the science of humans for humans, science that is open and not closed will gain ground. Bad science, the bad 'modern science' of religious dogma, rigidity and closed mindedness will loose ground. And that would be a good thing.

Two more examples of the 'Dawkins Disease'

"Australian scientists have created mice which can regenerate absolutely any tissue except for the tissues of the brain. Heart, lungs, entire limbs, you name it. This is the first time this has been seen in mammals. The potential implications are positively mammoth." ???!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!? and:

BSE Also on the programme, our Science Editor Susan Watts has gained early access to an astonishing report being published tonight in the Lancet. It advances an extraordinary and horrific theory about the origins of mad cow disease BSE.

The latest programme available in broadband http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/4204180.stm ...the BSE part of this programme is the most sickening thing ever; a new report to be published in a 'Scientific Journal' claims that the true origin of BSE is human corpses harvested by peasants on the banks of the Ganges river, sold to western farmers as feed for cattle. Now. who was the genius that came up with the idea giving cows cows to eat? Who prepared the formulae, who thought it all up (and most incredibly what the feed was made of was a trade secret so the farmers didnt' know what they were feeding to their livestock). I guarantee you that no farmer came up with the idea of feeding cows 'protien' made from cows to increase milk yield. YOU SEE?!

the dead are in nature

Situated near the intersection of Liberty and Perrilliat Streets, the Girod Street Cemetery stood near the site of the present-day Louisiana Superdome. Shrouded in strangling vines for much of its history and hidden in a disreputable neighborhood, the cemetery that once existed in the heart of the city is now largely forgotten. Actress Jane Placide, financer Glendy Burke, and Episcopal cleric Rev. William T. Leacock were only a few of the cemetery’s illustrious dead. One of the most notable monuments honored Lieutenant Colonel William Wallace Smith Bliss, General Zachary Taylor’s Chief of Staff who had perished in the 1853 yellow fever epidemic. Hundreds of that disaster’s less fortunate victims were buried beneath a large earthen mound. Such mass burials occurred several times during the cemetery’s history. The worldwide Asiatic cholera pandemic of 1832-1833 hit New Orleans especially hard; many of its victims were buried in shallow trenches in the Girod Street Cemetery. The Girod Street Cemetery was located in a flood-prone area, near what would become “the Swamp.” By the 1950s, the cemetery was badly overrun by vegetation and criminal activity. Grave robbers routinely looted the burial ground. Derelicts set up house in vacant crypts while prostitutes conducted business among the crumbling memorials. The site where the city’s first exclusively Protestant graveyard stood has no commemorative marker. Although a legend asserts the New Orleans Saints’s end zone rests atop old graves, the burial ground’s exact location was closer to the New Orleans Centre shopping mall and a corner of the Superdome’s parking garage. [...] A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers. Inside, a man coughed up blood and his shoulders quaked as he was wheeled through the halls. Thousands clutched their meager belongings, sitting in seats normally used for football games or lying on the artificial turf, its end zones painted with the word "Saints." "There is feces on the walls," said Bryan Hebert, 43, who arrived at the Superdome on Monday. "There is feces all over the place." At least two people, including a child, have been raped. At least three people have died, including one man who jumped 50 feet to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for. [...] An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her wrapped in a sheet At least seven bodies were scattered outside, and hungry, desperate people who were tired of waiting broke through the steel doors to a food service entrance and began pushing out pallets of water and juice and whatever else they could find. The crowd got angry when journalists tried to photograph one of the bodies, and covered it over with a blanket. A woman, screaming, went on the front steps of the convention center and led the crowd in reciting the 23rd Psalm. John Murray, 52, said: "It's like they're punishing us." [...]

Disastrous Consequences

Trolling Alun? I'll bite! I love the way talking head scientists rubbish on about "disastrous consequences" when it comes to ideas being taught, but when it comes to discussing GM crops being spread throughout the land, this inflammatory phrase is off the table. Lets apply some logic to both of these troll articles. Life without scientists, means life without the atom bomb, GM crops, hybrid humans. Life with or without teaching evolution in classrooms? No effect on anything at all. Life without scientists also means no pointless and horrifyingly cruel experiments on animals. Result - lots of people may or may not die from all sorts of diseases BUT everyone gets to live in a clean world without GM crops, hybrid humans, atom bombs and cruelty on an unimaginable scale. Anyone that wants humans to live on this planet for another ten thousand years doesn't want anything to do with scientists and their insane world destroying dogma. We want a world without these egomaniacs who look at every living thing as just another tool or object to experiment on. The rise of products that are guaranteed 'not tested on animals' is a testament to this sentiment. Are the scientists listening? Of course not, after all, the public are at best, children to be guided, and in all other cases, chattel to be experimented on. Scientists are falling out of favour now more than ever due not only to their arrogant and cavalier treatment of our shared environment, but also because they are trying to control what people think, instead of just getting on with their work quietly and dilligently. They are not content with improving the quality of life for everyone, they insist also on controlling the minds of the population, poisoning the environment with their diabolical experiments and making sure that no one anywhere will be able to even live without their permission. By that I am talking about the scientist created crops that don't produce seeds (for example). That, by any measure, is pure evil, a perversion of nature, and totally inexcusable and unjustifiable. If I were a scientist, (which I am by the way, a TRUE scientist in the way that men were in the past) I would cease trying to force my religion down the throats of the masses, because the masses are going to turn around and shut down every interesting lab and experiment once and for all, since clearly the people behind them have no sense of responsibility, no common sense, no connection with their fellow man, no morality, no empathy with living creatures or the planet...in other words, they are not human. No one bats an eyelid when Bush talks anti-science nowadays because everyone and thier dog can see that it is scientists that are pushing us into a nightmare future where the world (and the very nature of human beings) is being transformed into something that we do not want it to be. These inhuman tinkerers are already being harmed and killed (vivisectionists) because they won't listen; next they will all be shut down, and this means the good as well as the bad. Remember when the Cassini probe was being launched? People protested that a nuclear reactor was being used to power it. Those people would rather not have Cassini in orbit around Saturn, simply because they dont like the power source of the mission. These are the types, that if they win, will shut down the beneficial, non destructive science because they cannot distingush between something that doesn't change the environment or humanity and something that is pure exploration / research. Blathering on about how religion is simply wrong because it has not appeared in a peer reviewd journal is just the kind of insulting, unfeeling, stupid and threatening behaviour that is going to cause this nightmare to come true. And it is threating precisely the wrong groups in society; people with children in schools. Richard Dawkins has no business telling a school what they should or should not be teaching to a mans children, and when you threaten peoples children, as we all know, people go absolutely WILD with rage. My advice to all the imbecile talking heads like Richard Dawkins; S.T.F.U. and accept that people will believe whatever they want to believe, they have the absolute right to believe whatver they want to believe, and that this is none of your business. If you do not shut up and get back to decent honest work, your worst nightmare may come to pass and you may find that you get the answer to wether or not there is a God demonstrated to you first hand. Then your nightmare will REALLY begin!