International Co-operative Alliance
Saturday, December 25, 2004
Sunday, December 12, 2004
We're fighting a war with spit wads
and our government won't provide spit.
More at Florida Today
Bulletproof vests Iraq-bound
Mims mother collects nearly 500 [bulletproof vests] to help protect Marine son's unit
BY TOM BREEN
FLORIDA TODAY
Joanne Homer would do anything for her son, the Marine.
Joanne Homer of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department hands Susan Johnson some bulletproof vests. Central Florida law enforcement agencies donated the vests to Homer’s son, Marine Sgt. Jessie Holton and his fellow Marines, who will be deployed to Iraq in January. Image by Rik Jesse, FLORIDA TODAY
And the Mims mom is doing it now -- trying to keep him from harm by helping gather nearly 500 bulletproof vests for the troops in his unit to use to protect the Humvees they'll ride through the war zone in Iraq.
Similar concerns about a lack of armored protection for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are growing.
On Wednesday, a Tennessee National Guard soldier in Kuwait asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld why "we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor vehicles."
More at Florida Today
Saturday, December 04, 2004
It's just Business
"It's nothing personal." "It's just business." Usually said in response to an action which were it done by an individual would be at the least frowned upon or at the most criminal.
Business has no morals, no ethics, no reponsibility to society or the planet. It's just business. It's role is to make a profit.
If that means another business has to be shut down, so be it. If that means employees are paid slave wages, so be it. If that means employees have to access health care through state welfare agencies supplemented by U.S. taxpayers, so be it. If that means parts of the planet are destroyed, so be it. It's just business.
If banks are closed and people lose their retirement and life-time savings, so be it. If a business files bankruptcy causing its employees to lose their retirement and life-time savings, so be it. If a business wants to sell a product which harms or kills people, so be it. It's just business. It's nothing personal.
If businesses want to destroy culture or economies, so be it. It's just business. And while we're at it, let's give them a tax break for destroying cultures, economies, individual's lives and health, for creating working poor and costing U.S. taxpayers billions in tax money. It's just business. It's nothing personal.
Wal-Mart vs. the Pyramids
Business has no morals, no ethics, no reponsibility to society or the planet. It's just business. It's role is to make a profit.
If that means another business has to be shut down, so be it. If that means employees are paid slave wages, so be it. If that means employees have to access health care through state welfare agencies supplemented by U.S. taxpayers, so be it. If that means parts of the planet are destroyed, so be it. It's just business.
If banks are closed and people lose their retirement and life-time savings, so be it. If a business files bankruptcy causing its employees to lose their retirement and life-time savings, so be it. If a business wants to sell a product which harms or kills people, so be it. It's just business. It's nothing personal.
If businesses want to destroy culture or economies, so be it. It's just business. And while we're at it, let's give them a tax break for destroying cultures, economies, individual's lives and health, for creating working poor and costing U.S. taxpayers billions in tax money. It's just business. It's nothing personal.
Wal-Mart vs. the Pyramids
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Coping with a life full of pain
These types of stories just break my heart. I will never understand a mind set that puts man-made morals before human compassion.
"...Then came the night, a year later, when Raich steered her wheelchair into the bedroom of her sobbing 9-year-old daughter, who asked her, "Why can't you do the things that other mommies do?''
Partially paralyzed, in constant pain from multiple disorders and desperate for help after trying nearly three dozen doctor-prescribed medications, the 30-year-old woman, a product of a conservative upbringing that made her recoil from illegal drugs, decided pot "might be my last shot.''
It worked. Raich regained her appetite, felt less pain, got out of her wheelchair 18 months later and embarked on a career of advocacy for herself and other patients that has led her to the U.S. Supreme Court..."
The rest of the story is here
"...Then came the night, a year later, when Raich steered her wheelchair into the bedroom of her sobbing 9-year-old daughter, who asked her, "Why can't you do the things that other mommies do?''
Partially paralyzed, in constant pain from multiple disorders and desperate for help after trying nearly three dozen doctor-prescribed medications, the 30-year-old woman, a product of a conservative upbringing that made her recoil from illegal drugs, decided pot "might be my last shot.''
It worked. Raich regained her appetite, felt less pain, got out of her wheelchair 18 months later and embarked on a career of advocacy for herself and other patients that has led her to the U.S. Supreme Court..."
The rest of the story is here
Friday, November 26, 2004
Big Brother - Watching You in the U.S.
More and more people in the great old U.S. of A. are coming to the realization that our government may not be the innocuous, bumbling giant we've all grown to love and cherish.
The federal government of the U.S. in partnership, or perhaps, under influence from corporate capitalism, is taking us closer to the day when the individual right to privacy will no longer exist; even in theory.
"Discovery Times Channel Explores Private and Government Surveillance in America in SOMEONE'S WATCHING"
... "In SOMEONE'S WATCHING, viewers go inside this "brave new world" of
surveillance in America: a world in which they can be watched, tracked and
listened to at home, at work, by the government and even by private database
companies. This documentary takes a hard look at the balancing act in America
between competing interests of convenience, security and privacy." ...
Discovery Times Channel Explores Private and Government Surveillance in America in SOMEONE'S WATCHING
The federal government of the U.S. in partnership, or perhaps, under influence from corporate capitalism, is taking us closer to the day when the individual right to privacy will no longer exist; even in theory.
"Discovery Times Channel Explores Private and Government Surveillance in America in SOMEONE'S WATCHING"
... "In SOMEONE'S WATCHING, viewers go inside this "brave new world" of
surveillance in America: a world in which they can be watched, tracked and
listened to at home, at work, by the government and even by private database
companies. This documentary takes a hard look at the balancing act in America
between competing interests of convenience, security and privacy." ...
Discovery Times Channel Explores Private and Government Surveillance in America in SOMEONE'S WATCHING
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
You will know us by our warts
What would feminists look like and what would feminists do if we fit the image the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich presented of us?
Well, for starters, we'd be dragging pregnant women off the streets into "abortion clinics" and forcing them to have abortions. Or, we'd be dragging pregnant women, mid-delivery, out of hospitals and into ritual rooms and immediately sacrificing their newborn babies in the name of Satan. Then we'd eat the pieces parts of the newly murdered babies.
We'd be out on the streets grabbing small children and dragging them into other ritual rooms where we'd indoctrinate them into our perverse life styles of homosexuality and/or sexual orgies.
We'd be dragging men in off the streets and castrating them or cutting off their penises.
We'd be practicing strange rites of witchcraft where all the above mentioned would be incorporated into strange and hellish rites of debauchery and murder, mayhem and maiming.
Oh yeah, and we'd ride broomsticks, have warts all over, and scare the hell out of all and a sundry who looked at us.
Have you seen any of us, yet? You'll know when you do. Just look for the warts.
Well, for starters, we'd be dragging pregnant women off the streets into "abortion clinics" and forcing them to have abortions. Or, we'd be dragging pregnant women, mid-delivery, out of hospitals and into ritual rooms and immediately sacrificing their newborn babies in the name of Satan. Then we'd eat the pieces parts of the newly murdered babies.
We'd be out on the streets grabbing small children and dragging them into other ritual rooms where we'd indoctrinate them into our perverse life styles of homosexuality and/or sexual orgies.
We'd be dragging men in off the streets and castrating them or cutting off their penises.
We'd be practicing strange rites of witchcraft where all the above mentioned would be incorporated into strange and hellish rites of debauchery and murder, mayhem and maiming.
Oh yeah, and we'd ride broomsticks, have warts all over, and scare the hell out of all and a sundry who looked at us.
Have you seen any of us, yet? You'll know when you do. Just look for the warts.
Selling Car Wrecks for Fun and Profit
Normalizing aberrant behavior for fun and profit.
Humans have a morbid fascination with car wrecks, train wrecks, plane wrecks. We pull over to the side of the road to see what is happening. Watching for blood and gore. Grimacing and feeling somehow better because it's them and not us.
Corporate media reports on these wrecks. Presents the occurrences as a normal part of everyday life. Normalizing the abnormal, normalizing the obscene. To the point that most Americans believe the abnormal has become the norm, that the absurd is common. So much so that events of neighbor helping neighbor are seen as aberrant rather than common occurrence. Especially if you know someone whose sister knows someone whose hairdresser knows someone whose brother has met someone who actually did that.
Then there are the urban myths. Shared by one and all whose morbid fascination with things obscene and weird for entertainment and warning. The modern day boogey man for adults. Did you hear the one about the guy who went on a blind date only to awake in the morning in a bathtub full of ice with one kidney missing?
And there is enough aberrant behavior in the world to make it seem as though these types of things happening could possibly be true. Unless of course, the thing that's happened is just "too good to be true."
Have you heard that? So and so is "too good to be true." Have you ever heard anyone ever say someone was "too bad to be true?" "That's just too awful to have actually happened." No matter how outrageous or horrific, the human capacity to believe the worst of anyone or anything far outweighs any normal skepticism that might occur would the event be something altruistic or kind. Did you hear about the kid that found $1M dollars and found and returned it to the owners? Isn't he just too good to be true? Did you hear about the guy that lured homosexual teenagers to his apartment, killed them, then chopped them up into pieces and ate them? Isn't that just the most horrific thing you've ever heard? How awful. Tell me more.
Corporate media uses this part of the human psyche's fascination with the morbid and obscene to market the nightly news. Or the 24 hour news. And even the daily talk shows. Not only reporting on the car wrecks by the side of the rode, but diverting traffic to them for all to see. And when that's not enough, erecting blazing neon signs over the wreck to attract traffic from other parts of the freeway to come and see the car wreck. And during sweeps week, making sure the neon signs are placed in such a way to ensure additional wrecks to add to the gore and blood and gruesome sights. All for fun and profit.
The bottom line; marketing the news as entertainment. Blood, gore, and the destruction of human lives for the benefit of all mankind that we might feel relieved that "there but for the grace of God, go I."
I wonder how long until the deviant behavior marketed by corporate media has become so common place and so ho hum that they'll be forced to start marketing stories about good works by neighbors for neighbors. How long until it's considered more unusual to help thy neighbor and love thy neighbor so that corporate media will begin to market stories about the good works of people for people for fun and profit.
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