Jim Hightower from Texas

Sorry, this is a messy post. I had never heard of the man and I found him at L’Université de tous les savoirs. (in English)

This interesting character gives an
interview on the USA at said Université.

This interview is more than four years old and unfortunately he was wrong about Bush’s defeat for a second term
Here is an update of his recent writings

And here is the Jim Hightower Biography

Ex-Texas Politician, Populist Author and Speaker 1943-
“The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.”

Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says

WASHINGTON (AP) — Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests.

Geneticist Spencer Wells, here meeting an African village elder, says the study tells “truly an epic drama.”

The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.

The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated that the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.

“This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species’ history,” said Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence.

READ ON HERE

Frozen Arctic floor has started to thaw and release long-stored methane gas

By Volker Mrasek, Spiegel, 17 avril 2008

Researchers have found alarming evidence that the frozen Arctic floor has started to thaw and release long-stored methane gas. The results could be a catastrophic warming of the earth, since methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. But can the methane also be used as fuel ?

It’s always been a disturbing what-if scenario for climate researchers : Gas hydrates stored in the Arctic ocean floor — hard clumps of ice and methane, conserved by freezing temperatures and high pressure — could grow unstable and release massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere. Since methane is a potent greenhouse gas, more worrisome than carbon dioxide, the result would be a drastic acceleration of global warming. Until now this idea was mostly academic ; scientists had warned that such a thing could happen. Now it seems more likely that it will.

Russian polar scientists have strong evidence that the first stages of melting are underway. They’ve studied largest shelf sea in the world, off the coast of Siberia, where the Asian continental shelf stretches across an underwater area six times the size of Germany, before falling off gently into the Arctic Ocean. The scientists are presenting their data from this remote, thinly-investigated region at the annual conference of the European Geosciences Union this week in Vienna.

In the permafrost bottom of the 200-meter-deep sea, enormous stores of gas hydrates lie dormant in mighty frozen layers of sediment. The carbon content of the ice-and-methane mixture here is estimated at 540 billion tons. “This submarine hydrate was considered stable until now,” says the Russian biogeochemist Natalia Shakhova, currently a guest scientist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks who is also a member of the Pacific Institute of Geography at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Vladivostok.

The permafrost has grown porous, says Shakhova, and already the shelf sea has become “a source of methane passing into the atmosphere.” The Russian scientists have estimated what might happen when this Siberian permafrost-seal thaws completely and all the stored gas escapes. They believe the methane content of the planet’s atmosphere would increase twelvefold. “The result would be catastrophic global warming,” say the scientists. The greenhouse-gas potential of methane is 20 times that of carbon dioxide, as measured by the effects of a single molecule.

Shakhova and her colleagues gathered evidence for the loss of rigor in the frozen sea floor in a measuring campaign during the Siberian summer. The seawater proved to be “highly oversaturated with solute methane,” reports Shakhova. In the air over the sea, greenhouse-gas content was measured in some places at five times normal values. “In helicopter flights over the delta of the Lena River, higher methane concentrations have been measured at altitudes as high as 1,800 meters,” she says.

The methane climate bomb is also ticking on land : A few years ago researchers noticed higher concentrations of methane in northern Siberia. The Siberian permafrost is known as one of the tipping points for the earth’s climate, since the potent greenhouse gas develops wherever microorganisms decompose the huge masses of organic material from warmer eras that has been frozen here for thousands of years.

“A Wake-Up Call for Science”

Data from offshore drilling in the region, studied by experts at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), also suggest that the situation has grown critical. AWI’s results show that permafrost in the flat shelf is perilously close to thawing. Three to 12 kilometers from the coast, the temperature of sea sediment was -1 to -1.5 degrees Celsius, just below freezing. Permafrost on land, though, was as cold as -12.4 degrees Celsius. “That’s a drastic difference and the best proof of a critical thermal status of the submarine permafrost,” said Shakhova.

Paul Overduin, a geophysicist at AWI, agreed. “She’s right,” he said. “Changes are far more likely to occur on the sea shelf than on land.”

Climate change could give an additional push to these trends. “If the Arctic Sea ice continues to recede and the shelf becomes ice-free for extended periods, then the water in these flat areas will get much warmer,” said Overduin. That could lead to a situation in which the temperature of the sea sediment rises above freezing, which would thaw the permafrost.

“We don’t have any data on that — those are just suspicions,” the Canadian scientist said. Natalia Shakhova also passed on the question of whether to expect a gradual gas emission or an abrupt burst of large quantities of methane. “No one can say right now whether that will take years, decades or hundreds of years,” she said. But one cannot rule out sudden methane emissions. They could happen at “any time.”

One thing is clear, though : The thawing of the Arctic sea floor will create “new potential sources for methane … which no one had reckoned with until now,” said Laurence Smith, a professor for geography at the University of California in Los Angeles. Smith is researching North Pole frost zones and expects that a thawing of the permafrost will “supply fuel for methane engines.”

The first methane rocket thruster was tested by the US’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2007, and methane from manure has been collected as “biogas” to heat and power homes (more…) in experimental German towns.

In any case, the team taking part in the Siberian study installed a number of probes in the Laptev Sea, a central part of the broad Siberian shelf sea. These probes are measuring the temperature on the upper edge of the submarine permafrost. Overduin wants to pull up the probes in August. Then, for the first time, scientists will have access to a full year’s worth of data on the conditions of the sea floor.

For her part, Shakhova thinks researchers should be doing a lot more. She says too little is known about the fragile shelf sediment and the methane it stores, which could be explosive for the environment. “Actually,” she says, “this is a wake-up call for science.”

SEE article here

Germany to Allow Video Surveillance of Private Homes

A CCTV camera pointed at a pedestrian

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift

Changes proposed to the law governing Germany’s federal criminal police operations would allow investigators to use wire taps and surveillance cameras in homes of innocent citizens to keep tabs on terror suspects.

Under the government proposals, federal police would be permitted to install “hidden technical equipment, that is to say bugs or cameras inside or outside apartments … if there is a pressing danger for state security,” interior ministry spokesman Stefan Paris said at a news conference on Friday, April 18.

READ ON HERE

McCain Celebrates Huge Pennsylvania Win

From the Borowitz report
‘Happiest Night of My Life,’ Says Mac’

Presumptive G.O.P. nominee John McCain appeared at a mammoth rally in Philadelphia last night to celebrate the results of the Pennsylvania primary, calling the contest “a huge victory for me and my campaign.”

A jubilant Sen. McCain said that as the results poured in, “It became abundantly clear that the people of Pennsylvania want to send the Republicans back to the White House for another four years.”

Overjoyed McCain supporters packed the ballroom at the Philadelphia Hyatt to help their candidate celebrate what he called “the happiest night of my life.”

“My friends, tonight the people of Pennsylvania have delivered the White House to me on a silver platter,” he said, his eyes glistening. “This is the best thing to happen to me since I married a beer heiress.”

At a campaign rally of her own, Sen. Hillary Clinton also savored the results of the primary, declaring that she was “one step closer to getting my hands on a nuclear bomb.”

Turning towards her husband, former President Bill Clinton, she said, “I hope that my having a nuclear arsenal at my command will make you think twice before you do anything foolish this time.”

Blood visibly draining from the former president’s face, Sen. Clinton glared at him sternly, adding, “I’m not kidding.”

In an effort to clarify Sen. Clinton’s remarks, aides later denied that she had threatened her husband with obliteration.

Elsewhere, Sen. Barack Obama agreed to a televised debate on CBS moderated by Katie Couric, saying, “If I make a gaffe, at least no one will be watching.”

Doris Lessing the prize fighter

At 88, Doris Lessing is still
raging – at communists, war, Mrs Thatcher, the ‘bloody
Swedes’ who awarded her the Nobel Prize… but most of her
venom is reserved for the subject of what she says will be her
final book – her mother. She talks to Nigel Farndale. Portrait by
Reme Campos

It takes Doris Lessing just four minutes to come out with
something, if not actually controversial, then at least unexpected.
It’s about Hitler. She says she understands him. This from a
former member of the Communist Party. (She left in 1956, the year of
Khrushchev’s speech to the 20th Congress, the one in which he
denounced Stalin.) We are talking, I should explain, about Erich
Maria Remarque, the author of All Quiet on the Western Front. She
recently read another of his books, about three German soldiers who,
like Hitler, return from the Great War to the economic chaos of the
Weimar Republic. ‘They see people carting millions of marks
around in wheelbarrows and, being old comrades, they stand by each
other. And as you read that you suddenly understand Hitler.’
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

Ashkenazi soldiers destroy Palestinian fruit trees

SOURCE HERE, develop on right side interesting info

Naeim Giladi wrote that Ben Gurion told him Israel will not create a constitution because that would mean they would have to define their borders.
When asked by Giladi what are the borders of Israel, Ben Gurion said,”Wherever the Sahal will come, this is the border.”
Sahal is the Israeli Army.
satan’s scum confession
http://www.usajewish.com/downloads/vi…

Sorry about the music, it sounds sinister although there are some Israelis who stick with the Palestinians.

No past, no future by Layla Anwar

Monday, September 17, 2007
No Past, No Future…

Is there anything in Iraq that the Americans have not destroyed ?
Anything at all ?
And you dare wonder why I detest you so much…And you have the audacity to come to my blog to question me about my origins, my location, my ideas, my roots, my sense of belonging…
What kind of a race are you ? What kind of a people are you ?
Yes, I said people not government. I am not politically correct. Your government is part of you and you are part of it. Like it or not.
And don’t come and tell me in your sheepish ways that I know all too well : ” Oh, but I did not vote for this one. ”
I don’t give a fuck whom you voted for or did not vote for. It is not my problem.
My problem is you. Your culture, your behavior, your mentality, your character, your haughtiness, your arrogance, your false pride, your denial, your collective stupidity and ignorance, your way of life which I find boring, empty and distasteful, your accent which is an affront to my ears…and to my senses.
I do not like you. Full stop.

I know, I know, some of you are good people…
I know, I know, America is not a homogenous group… I know all that shit.
It does not make one iota of difference in my life and that of other Iraqis.
I no longer give a damn about your nuances, your political leanings, how good or how bad you are…It is meaningless to me and to countless others.
Our lives have been ruined, totally ruined…We do not give a fuck about your nuances.
And all I know is that you have destroyed my country. Beyond repair.

The past – you have looted and destroyed. Trying to erase our collective historical memory…Our roots, where we came from, what our ancestors did, their achievements, their trials, their statues, their writings…

You do not know history, you are rejects of history. You have no history. You have no past, you have nothing…you are nothing.
You are nothing but ogres of consumerism. Not just material stuff, but anything you can swallow whole you will. You even swallow other people’s history whole.

You are a greedy, covetous, gluttonous, voracious, jealous, envious people…
Since you are nothing, your nihilism contaminates everything else…

You destroy and self destruct…

No Future – You have no future, because inside of yourselves, your future is limited to your own little egos. Little egos have no future. Little egos are amoebas, parasites, feeding off others…You think you have a vision but your vision is only about your stomach, your pockets and what you have in between your legs…That is it.

This is where it stops. Surely this does not make you seers…
What have you contributed to the world ? Anything of real substance? Nothing. Apart from brutal might and power… and your sickening culture that is as hollow and as empty as you are.

And just as you have no real future, you robbed us of our own. You are collectively a bunch of criminals, thieves, thugs and perverts of the worst kind.

Since your fucking 9/11, you have totally destroyed two countries. Afghanistan and Iraq.
And you have not stopped. Not one day, not one hour…

You wanted regime change in Iraq – you got it.
You also changed us, me, beyond anything I can recognize…I never hated you before. Today I do. I really hate you.

You collectively disgust me. Even our ancient Mesopotamian deities and spirits are disgusted with you. Every single letter of the Alphabet is disgusted with you.
The earth, the rivers, the sky, the mountains, the trees, the birds of Iraq are disgusted with you…The cosmos is disgusted with you …

Everytime I spot one of you anywhere in close proximity and hear that ugly accent of yours I run away…I avoid you like the plague. I can’t bear to hear you or see you.
You represent nothing but Death and Destruction to me.
Your ugliness is all pervading…
Everytime I switch on the TV or the Radio and see or hear one of you, I zap. I wish I can zap you out of my life once and for all…

I know, I keep repeating myself, but then you keep repeating the same acts.

Iraq is going down, with its past and its future…

I can only promise you one thing, however long it may take, we are going to take you down with us.

Picture :A Sumerian Cuneiform that you have looted and destroyed.

Posted by Layla Anwar

LINK to this article

300,000 vets have mental problem, 320,000 had brain injuries

By PAULINE JELINEK

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some 300,000 U.S. troops are suffering from major depression or post traumatic stress from serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and 320,000 received brain injuries, a new study estimates.

Only about half have sought treatment, said the study released Thursday by the RAND Corporation.

“There is a major health crisis facing those men and women who have served our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Terri Tanielian, the project’s co-leader and a researcher at the nonprofit RAND.

READ ON