The time is now. That is — umm, how did NASA’s Jim Hansen put it? — “if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted”. So, if we want to do that, here is Hansen’s prescription: “CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.”
Just to get that number into the popular consciousness, Bill McKibben has started a website called 350.org. Spread the word.
This is NOT a free country.
Stunning Report On NSA Domestic Spying Confirms ACLU Warnings
The American Civil Liberties Union responded today to a stunning new report that the NSA has effectively revived the Orwellian “Total Information Awareness” domestic-spying program that was banned by Congress in 2003. In response, the ACLU said that it was filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for more information about the spying. And, the group announced that it was moving its “Surveillance Clock” one minute closer to midnight.
In case you were wondering what all the money and resources are going towards in BushCo’s war on our freedoms… now you have your answer. It’s not quite the somehow forgotten Washington prostitution scandal or yet another Republican who likes his log cabins still in the closet, but Eliot Spitzer gets taken down by, you guessed it, a tapped phone.
Here’s how easy it is for the powers-that-be to simply take whatever they want off the internet:
Whistle-Blower Site Taken Offline
A controversial website that allows whistle-blowers to anonymously post government and corporate documents has been taken offline in the US.
[…]
Wikileaks says it was not represented at the hearing because it was “given only hours notice” via e-mail.
Whistle-blowing has become somewhat of an anachronism in GW Bush’s Amerikkka anyway, but this is simply a precursor to what will happen the day the government (or the corporations that control it) wants to shut down the internet — or at least the parts of it that aren’t meant simply to placate the masses with entertainment and a deluge of useless information.
Also, more depressing news today on Common Dreams: “Just In Time For RNC Convention, St. Paul Police Orders Tasers For Every Officer”. Anyone that calls tasers non-lethal, is either a fool or a liar. Or a fucking fascist. Take your pick.
This is for my friends over at the Ozark Trout Daredevils:
AMERICAN HUNTING, FISHING & CAMPING DOWN SHARPLY
“A new study suggests Americans increasingly prefer to cozy up to video games, the Internet or movies than to romp with nature.
[…]
The results are troubling since they suggest support for preserving natural areas will decline, said the researchers, whose study, published in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences, was partly funded by the Nature Conservancy.”
It’s pretty disturbing that I did a Google news search for articles about this and only found a total of eight or so newspapers that covered the story.
In a short 200 years, the human race has created a new geologic epoch. That’s like a blink of the eye in geologic time. Here’s to the Anthropocene!
I’ve always thought scientology was pretty fucked up (even though I once owned a copy of Dianetics) but, man, you have got to see this to believe it.
Watch Tom Cruise and tell me he’s not a brainwashed MF. And to think he’s got cute little Katie all brainwashed too. That just pisses me off. Anyway, it’s really odd that this all happens just days after I re-read this interesting story about scientologists attacking someone and destroying his life.
Really makes me hope that this is the week scientology dies a quick — and painful — death.
Oh, and if you were wondering what the fuck “KSW” is, here you go.
I often hear that wonderful phrase by reactionary nincompoops who can’t get along with people they disagree with, “America — love it or leave it.” I’ve often thought about taking them up on their offer. Now, it seems, you won’t even have to leave the North American continent to do so… just move to South Dakota.
Lakota Sioux Secede From US, Declare Independence
Political activist Russell Means, a founder of the American Indian Movement, says he and other members of Lakota tribes have renounced treaties and are withdrawing from the United States.
“We are now a free country and independent of the United States of America,” Means said in a telephone interview. “This is all completely legal.”
Means said a Lakota delegation on Monday delivered a statement of “unilateral withdrawal” from the United States to the U.S. State Department in Washington.
More depressing news about the state of the environment:
Study reveals severe decline of Europe’s common birds
Almost half of common European birds are heading towards “continental extinction”, a new report warns today.
The alarming rate of decline revealed in the report has fuelled fears for the future of many of the continent’s birds, including the grey partridge, lesser spotted woodpecker and crested lark.
Almost half (45%) of Europe’s common birds have declined over a 26-year period according to the report, the State of Europe’s Common Birds 2007.
The report’s analysis of 124 of Europe’s common birds, published by the European Bird Census Council, RSPB and BirdLife International, has revealed that 56 species of Europe’s birds declined across 20 European countries between 1980 and 2005.
Of the 10 common birds showing the greatest declines, five are farmland birds such as the crested lark, which declined by 95%, and the lapwing, whose numbers more than halved. Seven are regular nesting birds in the UK, including the lesser spotted woodpecker, which has suffered an 81% decline, the grey partridge, a 79% decline, and turtle dove, whose numbers are down by 62%.
I read about this today thanks to Free Will Astrology’s Rob Brezsny. Check out the pics with the article. This is really flipping amazing — a network of hidden temples built in a hillside with no prior knowledge by the authorities (we all know they wouldn’t have been down)…
Few have been granted permission to see these marvels.
Indeed, the Italian government was not even aware of their existence until a few years ago.
But the ‘Temples of Damanhur’ are not the great legacy of some long-lost civilisation, they are the work of a 57-year-old former insurance broker from northern Italy who, inspired by a childhood vision, began digging into the rock.
It all began in the early Sixties when Oberto Airaudi was aged ten. From an early age, he claims to have experienced visions of what he believed to be a past life, in which there were amazing temples. […]