My favorite conversation
continues. We talk about beliefs versus knowing, and how and why
America is as it is, with an ever present thread of how crop circles are
related to everything. Here's Walter on that subject:
"The
origins and intent of crop circles are simply not known. That they exist is
verifiable. In view of all available evidence, human origination for most of
them appears most unlikely. The designs reflect a high order of intelligence.
Their method of formation is not explicable. Their context in terms of geography
and human activities also seem meaningful. The hypothesis that they are messages
to us from an intelligence other than our own is not unreasonable and even
inescapable if one is to approach the issue with an open mind. If they are
indeed messages from another intelligence, the implications are profound. They
deserve our most careful and detailed consideration. Trying to deny them as
petty hoaxes or confusing the issue with wild speculation or leaps into
unfounded belief are unhelpful.
"We need also be aware that trying to understand
another and probably more advanced consciousness than our own by assuming
motivations or aims similar to ours may be highly misleading. We are ill
tempered primates who can't stand being alone but when together spend much of
our time squabbling with one another. It is impossible to imagine a far more
advanced technology in the hands of beings with a consciousness such as our own
at present. To avoid self destruction, any truly advanced beings must have
arrived at a far more benign state of being and broader awareness of self than
our present one."
________________________________________
CROP CIRCLE
DIARY ENTRY:
With the release of "Signs," crop circles are all over the media, and
I'm
doing radio interviews regularly
across the U.S. and in Canada. Although no
media reports take the phenomenon seriously, I think that's to be
expected.
It takes awhile to break
down societal entrenchments. Just like resistance
to the insanity of the political scene is developing, I believe the
awareness of something inexplicable going on in
the fields also will start
to dawn. I'd
like to help that along with a piece I've written, "WHAT IF
CROP CIRCLES ARE A REAL PHENOMENON?"
[http://www.mightycompanions.org/cropcircles/whatif.html],
about why crop circles can't be human
endeavor and why everyone should be paying attention to them. If
you've
read anything with a skeptical
slant, to which this would be a response,
please tell me where.
________________________________________
COLUMN FROM GEOV PARRISH:
Invasion on Autopilot: The Bush Wars and Public Dissent, Then and Now
-- August 1,
2002
Suzanne's comments: Here's the desperation
report from Geov about the war that Bush is intent on having with Iraq. What to
do? Geov says it's up to the people to oppose the power structure. That's us.
Makes me yearn for some organized way to wield our power...??? "So far, media
coverage, Senate hearings, and Pentagon and White House pronouncements have all
been reinforcing one well-coordinated message: the necessity of an inevitably
one-sided massacre. The bipartisan enthusiasm for it all has shut out the most
basic question possible: whether we should be engaging in such mass murder."
Other quotes drawn from the
column:
There is, in fact, no
compelling reason of any sort to go to war against Iraq. The only recent
development cited by the Bush Administration is the claim that Iraq is
developing new "weapons of mass destruction." That claim that has consistently
been considered patently absurd by the rest of the world, including a succession
of United Nations officials charged with looking into such things...the only
opposition being offered by our pathetic excuse for an "opposition" party has
been logistical—when to invade, whether to rely first on air or ground assaults,
who to replace Saddam with after we kill him...
But the breathtaking and
seemingly universal American arrogance over this whole sad spectacle—all done
while continuing to lecture the world on America's unique virtuousness—provides
an endless variety of new answers as to why terrorists might hate us.
...questions won't be asked this week in Senator Biden's Strangelovefest
hearings. Nobody's been invited who might ask them. That just leaves us. If our
Foreign Relations Committee senators (and representatives, and reporters) are to
hear any intelligent criticisms of this madness, they must come from you and me.
Now. Today. Pick up the phone, pick up your pen—for goodness sakes, type, even.
Deluge our policymakers with concerns, critiques, demands. The first demand is
the simplest of all: have a real discussion of the pros and cons of launching a
war against Iraq.
________________________________________
COLUMN FROM GEOV PARRISH: Dubya's Finger on
the Button: Hiroshima Provides Needed Reminders
-- August 5,
2002
Suzanne's
comments: The mind boggles at the quality of intelligence that's running a
world with a nuclear capacity. Read about it here. What to do? What to do?
"...we're not building missile systems—not to mention more fanciful weapons
systems now under development, like the Airborne Laser—to defend ourselves from
North Korea. We're doing it to pay off Dubya's and Dick Cheney's buddies in the
defense industry (notice how Halliburton, despite the cloud of corporate scandal
hovering above it, is pulling down all these lucrative NMD contracts of
late?)."
Other quotes drawn from the
column:
And today, just as the Bush
Administration pledges war against Iraq for no discernable reason—with but a few
public official or mainstream commentator voices objecting—the warmongers and
so-called chickenhawks surrounding Dubya are also vastly increasing America's
nuclear arsenal for no apparent reason.
...even when September 11 showed
that the United States mainland faced a far more grave and immediate danger from
box cutters than from hypothetical missiles, NMD [National Missile Defense]
proceeded apace, safely cocooned in the blank check being given the
Pentagon...
If, in Ronald Reagan,
we were worried that we had a Commander-in-Chief sufficiently stupid, arrogant,
and detached from reality to use these weapons, George W. Bush doesn't exactly
inspire confidence. But few people seem aware that he has the power to destroy
the world instantly.
________________________________________
COLUMN FROM ARIANNA HUFFINGTON: Holding Dick Cheney
"Accountable" -- August 5,
2002
Suzanne's comments: Why hasn't Cheney been talking to us?
Get the lowdown on how indefensible his Halliburton actions have been -- with a
side swipe at the parallel to Bush with Harken. These reports are at least easy
to read, thanks to Arianna's blessedly entertaining style, but they still will
make your blood boil. Woe is us. "Halliburton did end up giving a little
something back to America -- in the form of $2 million worth of fines for
consistently overbilling the Pentagon. In one case they charged $750,000 for
work that actually cost them only $125,000. Despite all this, the company has
continued to be awarded massive government contracts."
Other quotes drawn from the
column:
Harken's offshore entity wasn't designed to evade
taxes, explained [White House spokesman Dan] Bartlett, it was meant to enhance
"tax competitiveness." And to his credit, Bartlett didn't even break out
laughing after this claim...
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer
even tried the ol' No Harm, No Foul defense, arguing that the reason Bush's
company went Caribbean was a "moot question" because Harken never made any money
on the Cayman venture. Memo to Fleischer: Arguing that the crime didn't pay
isn't a defense...
Cheney's reluctance to talk to reporters is
understandable, given what has been coming to light about his heretofore highly
touted tenure at Halliburton, including the questionable accounting, the
offshore subsidiaries, and the revelation that the company did business with
Iran, Libya, and -- despite Cheney's denials -- Iraq. Call this his "Axis of
Profits."
________________________________________
...here we are, poised on the slippery
precipice of a pre-emptive war, without even the benefit of meaningful public
debate. The constitutional crisis is so deep that it is not even noticed. The
unilateralism of the Bush White House is an affront to the rest of the world,
which is unanimously opposed to such an action.
...if America attacks
and if Iraq truly possesses weapons of mass destruction, the feared risks are
likely to materialize as Iraq and Saddam confront defeat and humiliation, and
have little left to lose.
A real public debate is needed not only to
revitalize representative democracy but to head off an unnecessary war likely to
bring widespread death and destruction as well as heighten regional dangers of
economic and political instability, encourage future anti-American terrorism and
give rise to a US isolationism that this time is not of its own choosing!
We must ask why the open American system is so closed in this instance.
How can we explain this unsavory rush to judgment, when so many lives are at
stake? What is now wrong with our system, with the vigilance of our citizenry,
that such a course of action can be embarked upon without even evoking criticism
in high places, much less mass opposition in the streets?
The Rush to
War
Richard Falk
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020819&s=falk
Spirit merges with matter to sanctify the
universe. Matter transcends to return to spirit. The interchangeability of
matter and spirit means the starlit magic of the outermost life of our universe
becomes the soul-light magic of the innermost life of our self. The energy of
the stars becomes us. We become the energy of the stars. Stardust and spirit
unite and we begin: One with the universe. Whole and holy. From one source,
endless creative energy, bursting forth, kinetic, elemental. We, the earth, air,
water and fire-source of nearly fifteen billion years of cosmic spiraling...
As we aspire to universal brotherhood and sisterhood, we harken to the
cry from the heart of the world and respond affirmatively to address through
thought, word and deed conditions which give rise to conflict: Economic
exploitation, empire building, political oppression, religious intolerance,
poverty, disease, famine, homelessness, struggles over control of water, land,
minerals, and oil.
Spirit and Stardust -- Praxis Peace Institute Conference
Dubrovnik, Croatia, 6/9/2002
Dennis Kucinich
http://www.house.gov/kucinich/press/sp-020609-praxispeaceconf.htm
________________________________________
FIVE STAR PIECE: The Logic of Empire, George Minbiot
-- August 6,
2002
Suzanne's comments: This is a scathing piece, urging
non-cooperation with the U.S. in an invasion of Iraq, from an award winning UK
journalist who writes a weekly column in the "Guardian." "...the greatest threat
to world peace is not Saddam Hussein, but George Bush. The nation that in the
past has been our firmest friend is becoming instead our foremost
enemy."
Other quotes drawn from the
piece:
Since Bush came to office, the United States
government has torn up more international treaties and disregarded more UN
conventions than the rest of the world has in 20 years...
We can resist the US neither by
military nor economic means, but we can resist it diplomatically. The only safe
and sensible response to American power is a policy of non-cooperation. Britain
and the rest of Europe should impede, at the diplomatic level, all US attempts
to act unilaterally. We should launch independent efforts to resolve the Iraq
crisis and the conflict between Israel and Palestine. And we should cross our
fingers and hope that a combination of economic mismanagement, gangster
capitalism and excessive military spending will reduce America's power to the
extent that it ceases to use the rest of the world as its doormat.
________________________________________
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