by Stephen Lendman

Despite irrefutable evidence, including the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) concluding last September that Israel committed serious "violations of international law, including international humanitarian law" by massacring nine Gaza Flotilla activists, injuring dozens more, in international waters, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appeased Israel by appointing his own commission.

On July 25, Haaretz writer Barak Ravid headlined, "UN delays flotilla report as Jerusalem and Ankara keep talking," saying:

It was another postponement to give Israel and Turkey more time to resolve differences. The expected July 27 release will be "delayed for three more weeks, to August 20, according to a senior Israeli official."

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By Rady Ananda

Governor Jan Brewer continues to ignore the international attention paid to Quartzsite, Arizona over $5 million in corruption charges, while the Chief of Police suspended nine of the city's 14 police officers with pay, ordering them not to leave their homes between the hours of 8 am and 5 pm.

All of the suspended officers blew the whistle on the chief, calling for an independent investigation into several serious charges, including false arrests and violating federal medical privacy laws.

In response to citizen demands for action, Brewer's office wrote:

"As you may know, the Governor does not have the authority to intervene in local law enforcement matters. Nor does this office have the authority to investigate misconduct by the police, county jails, federal prisons, and/or judges."

Well, she may not have the "authority," but she certainly has the power to pressure Chief of Police Jeff Gilbert into a leave of absence while he is being investigated.

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Gilad Atzmon

Thanks to respected anti-Zionist Jeff Blankfort (who provided me with a crucial link) I have now learned that, just one day before last Friday’s Massacre in Norway, former Trotsky-ite turned neo-con David Horowitz carried an article by Joseph Klein in his Front Page magazine, entitled "The Quislings of Norway," which might as well have provided mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik with all the motivation he needed to commit his crime.

You are advised to read the article in full here

Here are some of the ‘pearls’ produced by the pro-war Jewish rightwing magazine, just a few hours before Behring Breivik picked up his guns and launched into his lethal journey:

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BATR

Few words stir up passion and polarization like sustainability. The EPA offers up this description. “The traditional definition of sustainability calls for policies and strategies that meet society’s present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Gee, who could disagree with such touchy and feely sentiments? The answer is always in the details and when you strip away the platitudes, what remains is a coordinated plot to enslave humanity under a burden of a Carbon Tax scheme. The environment has more risk from globalist central planning than from any fossil fuel emissions. Proponents of the global warming religion demonstrate a disdain for rational thinking that challenges their doctrine of a heterodox belief.

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by Stephen Lendman

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Adalah and Physicians for Human Rights/Israel (called Mezan et al below) June 2011 report headlined, "Solitary Confinement of Prisoners and Detainees in Israeli Prisons" explains harsh and abusive conditions they endure.

For so-called "security prisoners," treatment is especially brutal because of extreme restrictions, including when out of isolation. It affects everyone physically and emotionally, notably after long periods with no human contact.

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by Stephen Lendman

On July 24, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen suggested a Mossad link, saying "ample evidence" of its involvement exists.

Anders Breivik, the alleged bomber/gunman, calls himself a Christian conservative interested in hunting, body building and freemasonry. He's also expressed strong pro-Israeli views, hostile to Palestinians and Muslims.

Government business records name him the Breivik Geofarm director. Norway's media call it a farming sole proprietorship, cultivating vegetables, melons, roots and tubers.

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by Stephen Lendman

What to make of them is at issue. Many questions are unanswered. Are they similar to previous European and US post-9/11 attacks? Was a single individual responsible or were others unnamed or not known involved? Was it homegrown and/or outside inspired, despite what's been reported?

And why Norway, an unlikely target despite its NATO membership, token participation in Afghanistan, and Libya operations it scaled back and will end entirely by August 1. Last May, in fact, Defense Minister Grete Faremo told Norway's Parliament that despite taking part in NATO air attacks (dropping 289 bombs):

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James Petras

Introduction

Empires are built through the promotion and backing of local collaborators who act at the behest of imperial rulers. They are rewarded with the outward symbols of authority and financial handouts, even as it is understood that they hold their position only at the tolerance of their imperial superiors. Imperial collaborators are referred to by the occupied people and the colonial resistance as “puppets” or “traitors”; by western journalists and critics as “clients”; by the imperial scribes and officials as “loyal allies” as long as they remain obedient to their sponsors and paymaster.

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By FRANKLIN LAMB
Al Nasser University, Tripoli

"When I grow up, I want to be just like you guys,” this increasingly flaccid middle-aged American visitor joked to his teenage to early 30’s Libyan interlocutors, as we parted last night and promised to meet again soon to continue our dialogue on our chosen subject of “What the hell is going on in Libya and why?”

Except I wasn’t entirely joking and I felt wistful as I reflected on our latest five-hour conversation that seemed like it began only 30 minutes earlier. Rather like one of those rare college classes during which the professor’s lecture and the classroom discussion were so interesting that you felt disappointed when the class ended.

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By John Waters

July 13-15 2011, New Jerusalem performed live at the Skirball Cultural Center

David Ives’ New Jerusalem stars Tony Award winner Richard Easton and Emmy winner Ed Asner.

The play follows young philosopher Baruch de Spinoza as he faces excommunication from the Jewish community for his provocative, subversive new ideas. With his special blend of cerebral language and wry humor, critically-acclaimed playwright David Ives gives Spinoza a chance to defend himself in a mock trial to the Jewish community and Dutch society.

The 'absolute philosopher', Spinoza, was a passionate advocate of rationalism, the idea that a man's intellect is superior to his senses.  Spinoza is at the center of the 17^th century clash between religion and rationalism.

Spinoza's metaphysics of God is neatly summed up in a phrase that occurs in the Latin (but not the Dutch) edition of the Ethics: Deus, sive Natura ("god or nature"): “That eternal and infinite being we call God, or Nature, acts from the same necessity from which he exists” (Part IV, Preface).

Spinoza, like all modern philosophers, was influenced by the changes brought about during the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages, through a twist of religious dogma, changed the orientation of mankind’s “dispositions and beliefs” throughout the western world, from worshipping the Earth/Gaea/Natura (Pantheism) to worshiping Jesus Christ, Allah and Yahweh (monotheism).

Until the Dark Ages, the populations of Pantheists (pagans) saw themselves as belonging to Nature (Natura) and the wider Universe. Until the Dark Ages, the pagan populations believed they were only a part of “creation” and that each piece played a significant role in the contentment and survival of the other. [1]

Then in the name of Jesus Christ, native peoples (pagans) were slaughtered along with the animals because they didn’t believe in Jesus Christ and therefore could not have a soul.

Christianity spread the belief that humans were now the greatest and most important part of Natura. Thanks to Jesus’ free gift of salvation, that whosoever believeth in him need not live in harmony with, or obey, the laws of Natura. The “good news” was that God wanted us clothed, fed and car-ed.

Does Life Have Meaning or Are We Merely Bobbleheads in Bubbleland?

John W. Whitehead, head of the Rutherford Institute, "a kind of evangelical Christian civil liberties union" is an attorney and author who has written, debated and practiced widely in the area of constitutional law, social and human rights.

In his essay, Does Life Have Meaning or Are We Merely Bobbleheads in Bubbleland?  Whitehead believes we have missed our purpose and the meaning to life because we didn’t listen to Martin Luther King Jr.

In April 1967, King said [W]e as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motive and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

John’s commentary: “We didn't listen then, and we still have not learned: Material things don't fill the spiritual void. People need more than possessions to give meaning to life.”

And the “more,” of course is religion, specifically Christianity. John believes we, as a nation, have lost our way because of a corrupt repressive government in the service of godless immoral secular humanism.

John’s mission is to promote Christianity and the ”good news” [2] with his work in social and human rights and he has an interesting insight re: our purpose: 

“Are we all aimless beings, mere products of chance, here merely to consume, grind out a living and die? Or is there some bigger purpose behind the stage play we call life?”

“There are those who view us as mindless beings trapped in a spiritual void, cut off from both reality and the outside world, chasing fulfillment in "things"--consumer zombies imprisoned in a series of shopping malls. According to author and journalist Nicholas von Hoffman, Americans are "bobbleheads in Bubbleland.... They shop in bubbled malls, they live in gated communities, and they move from place to place breathing their own private air in bubble-mobiles known as SUVs."

John, like Spinoza did not see the connection of the “mindless beings trapped in a spiritual void,” to putting humanity at serious risk due to “the dangers of climate change, water scarcity, dwindling fish stocks, the pressures on the land, and the extinction of species”, according to the GEO4, a massive United Nations report.

But he does ask, if “”Are we merely “bobbleheads” in Bubbleland? Or have we been programmed to be so?” 

What if the “bobbleheads,” according to the GEO4, probably passed the “unknown points of no return” [environmentally], because they were programmed to do so when they were converted from Pagans to Monotheists? [3]

Spinoza could not envision mankind undermining the ecological structures of the planet. Although the agrarian economies in the 17^th century had an environmental impact, the damage was negligible because:

1. They practiced sustainable farming.
2. The population had not reached carrying capacity.
3. It was against the law not to grow HEMP.

The eco-friendliest plant in all of history was so important that King Henry VIII in 1535 and Queen Elizabeth in 1563 signed into law that every landowner must grow HEMP. In colonial America, you could be jailed for refusing to grow hemp (Hemp in Colonial Virginia, G. M. Herdon).

Hemp was a major crop until the 1920s, supplying the world with its main supply of food and fiber (80% of clothing was made from Hemp). Natural biomass from hemp could provide the planet energy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. (Major Crop Chronology of Hemp throughout history)

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