Why Using Creative Commons Licensed Materials Is Not As Easy As It Looks

from the still-requires-thought dept

Creative Commons recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, with well-deserved praise for its work flooding in from around the world. There's no doubt it has played an important role in raising people's awareness of the problems with copyright, and in offering some alternative licenses that ameliorate some of its worst aspects. But there is a danger that people think that CC-licensed works are trivially easy to use, not least because they typically give users more rights than traditional copyright. In fact, there are a number of subtle issues that can crop up that make using such liberal licenses harder than it looks.
That's underlined by an interesting blog post from Bobbi Newman about a problem she encountered when using CC-licensed photos in presentations:

Like many librarians I often turn to Creative Commons licensed photos on Flickr for use in my presentations and blog posts. Flickr makes it incredibly easy to search for photos with a Creative Commons license. Unfortunately it also makes it ridiculously easy for users to change the license on all their photos at any time with the click of a button. There is no way to prove the license at the time of use.

She then goes on to detail what happened, and how it was finally resolved, but here I want to focus on a couple of points raised by this episode. First, on the issue of changing licenses. Perhaps because CC licenses give creators a flexibility missing in copyright itself, there is a belief in some quarters that things can be changed after a work has been published under one of them. Although the licence attached to the work on Flickr, say, might indeed be altered "with the click of a button", the Creative Commons FAQ says the old one cannot be taken away:

CC licenses are not revocable. Once a work is published under a CC license, licensees may continue using the work according to the license terms for the duration of copyright protection.

However, proving that something was originally available under a CC license when its owner claims that it is only available under restrictive conditions is more problematic. Interestingly, there are services that try to address this problem by keeping "dated, independently verified copies of license conditions associated with creative commons images," which suggests that this is an issue faced by quite a few people. Another aspect of the situation discussed in the blog post revolved around whether the use of an image was non-commercial or not. You might think this is "obvious", but in fact, it's proved a hugely problematic issue for Creative Commons licenses, with heated arguments about what are the key factors that make something commercial or otherwise. This lack of clarity is one reason why the use of the term "commercial scale" without further definition was so dangerous in ACTA.
Although using works released under a CC-license, with the additional flexibilities that it offers the user, is less onerous than handling those under traditional copyright, which lacks them, it is nowhere near the "use and forget" level of simplicity that many probably assume.

Where was Obama

Benghazi – Where was the Commander-in-Chief?

- Paul E. Vallely (Bio and Archives)  Saturday, February 9, 2013 http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/53008

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After the testimonies of Secretary Panetta, General Dempsey, and Hillary Clinton on the Benghazi tragedy, it appears the Commander-in-Chief, Barack Obama was off duty and not available to make a hard decision to press the military Chain of Command to rescue Americans under attack. The cover up appears to be a White House order to “Stand Down” and not issue a rescue mission operational order. For over seven hours he did nothing; no communications with his National Security team, and then he flew to Las Vegas for a campaign stop. “Weakness and dithering and flying to Las Vegas the next day for celebrity fund-raising parties are somehow better.”
The testimony revealed that Obama stated to Panetta and Dempsey, “Do what you have to do.” Where was the order to execute a rescue mission NOW Mr. President? The investigation regarding the 9/11 al Qaeda raid on Benghazi and the deaths of four brave Americans began, but to date it has no end or acceptable findings, and provides no answers for the families of the four murdered Americans.
I have promised Charles Woods, Father of Ty Woods, and family, that at Stand up America, we will press this investigation to the end. Malfeasance and ineptitude borne from a foreign policy steeped in naiveté in the least and complete indifference to threat conditions provided by the Intelligence Community has degenerated into a massive cover up of the facts on the ground and is minimized by political corruption and ineptness by the National Security team.
What we have had is myriad conflicting and/or changing stories and moving people and parts from all manner of sources, players, and decisions makers. We have internet rumors, official statements, hearings, in camera probes, an ARB report, talking heads ad nauseum, political spin and a very clear ‘circling of the wagons’ where blame encompasses all involved within the Obama circle of influence.
We have witnessed hearings that were more congratulatory than probative, and a steady parade of the changing of the guard. Facts cannot be disputed, yet access to facts has been impossible. The objective has been to obscure actions to prevent the ability to sift through the events, conjecture, political rhetoric, and the steady attempt to move beyond the elections and to the cabinet changes; especially by those of us without high clearance in ‘fly-over’ country.
The cumulative effect of all these facets is that one must suspend all manner of logic and reason to swallow the miasmic trail. This is precisely the point – there has been an obvious attempt to muddy the waters, ‘chill the mark’, and deflect focus. It expected the onlooker to be so confused they have to just look away, feel bad for the losses, and swallow that this is all a learning experience and rest assured that they will all try harder, now under newer administration.
The most cogent report to date on Benghazi was crafted Senators Lieberman and Collins but it does not go deep enough into the weeds with regard to dereliction of duty, omissions, waivers, mission, objective, and names to hold responsible. We need to know without varnish, spin, and purposeful evasion what did and did not take place during the events as they unfolded, and an adult, clear minded understanding of what was at stake that prompted people to make poor and deadly decisions. We must first start with how the lines of communication would have unfolded, where decision making nodes occurred, what those decisions were, and why they were made.
Most important, where was the President? Was he ‘absent’? Absent, really? No, he just did not want to make himself available and have to make a difficult decision or have his actions traced with any paper trail. He seems to hide or not be available when the going gets tough? What, the President is unavailable during a crisis?
All citizens must ask the following questions and more, and demand a complete map to understand how our government is supposed to work at the highest levels in times of crisis by those who took the oath of office:

1. Career professionals in the CIA, the Military, the State Department, and other integral professionals including the National Security Team are trained and expected to ensure all Americans and USA interests are protected at all costs. To many, Benghazi was likely the apex of their respective careers to prove their worth and value. How could so many fail and hide the realities of terror attacks and threats and as one Senator asked who was in charge or supposed to be in charge?
2. The entire National Security apparatus was well aware of the events leading up to and including the attack(s) on Libya and beyond, so why the indifference and lack of any response?
3. Secretary Panetta and General Dempsey admitted during their testimony that there is no firehouse mentality, the question is why as this is outside the scope of Rules of Engagement and historical training?
4. The Benghazi annex was the largest CIA base in North Africa.  The primary mission was to chase the illicit and illegal arms stream as well as the Middle East militia members. The question is how far reaching and effective was this mission for the end result to be terror attacks and death and how politically charged was this to the administration’s overall goals in the Magreb and Middle East and beyond?
5. Secretary Panetta and General Dempsey clearly both revealed that the meeting with Barack Obama on 9-11 was thirty minutes long and only 20 of the thirty minutes centered on Benghazi. Just how deep was the commitment of Obama to re-election versus Foreign Service officers in Libya and beyond as more than 20 locations had demonstrations or attacks against the United States during the week of 9-11?
6. Did Hillary Clinton sign a waiver to deny Marine security at both locations in Libya to include Tripoli and Benghazi despite Congressional laws against her actions (SECCA) perhaps in favor of government contractors like Blue Mountain or DynCorp and did the administration wave off rescue missions?
7. While General Ham was in Washington, DC. on 9-11-12, who gave orders for any and all actions or lack of actions in Benghazi including the dispatch and re-dispatch of surveillance drones and in favor of what?
8. Given that several hundred terror-related incidents occurred in Libya over the previous 24 months in Benghazi, where are the surveillance drone videos, and who assessed the conditions on the ground with regard to weapons and militias?
9. The members of the Accountability Review Board (ARB) were chosen by Hillary Clinton and with the classified and non-classified publication of the ARB, the matter of the terror attack has been insufficiently addressed. Congress gave Hillary Clinton many questions, both within and without the scope of her testimony. Where are her written responses and those members of the ARB that she promised after her testimony?

The weak link also appears to be the representations made by Hillary Clinton and others about the communications protocols in the event of a most critical incident (referred to as ‘critics’ in the community) in one of the ‘hottest’ spots on Earth. It is a matter of procedure that communications between selected embassies, if not all embassies, have an Imminent Danger Alert System that is directly ‘on-hook’ with at least four destinations which include: the White House Situation Room (WHSR), the State Department Operations Center, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Pentagon. ‘Critics’ are graded with an urgency status, and in the matter of Benghazi, the ladder of escalation included the top urgency status, calling for an immediate and urgent response.
Why haven’t we seen or heard the Situation Reports (SitReps) from the witnesses from Benghazi including all those located or functioning out of either or both the compound and annex? How many non-American people were there or co-located there? Due to the nature of the attack(s), how many people in total have died or been injured and for those that died, were autopsies performed? Why haven’t the estimated 32 survivors been interviewed; where and who are they?
Secretary Clinton correctly admitted that Marine detachments are assigned to diplomatic posts to guard classified material from being compromised. So why aren’t our elected Congressmen NOW publicly discussing the “Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act of 1999” (SECCA) over her decision not to have Marines at Benghazi? In the absence of a Marine assignment how many government contractors were under contract to assume the same duties of Marines and why would we allow the Libyan government to approve our hires?
The functional security budget for Benghazi alone was $ 11 million. Blue Mountain was a ‘no bullet’ contract and the hiring of the February 17th Brigade to provide outside security to the compound was mired in a labor dispute due to the number and time of working hours, working conditions, and pay scale. Many members of the February 17th Brigade were on strike at the time of the attacks and many fled prior.
The administration allowed a well armed, well trained, 16 member security forces to be removed from Libya in August, about a month before the attack. They were to eventually be replaced by a Libya security force who Ambassador Stevens wrote could not be trusted because it was forbidden to vet the personnel under Libyan government rules.
The House Oversight Committee had documentation that the WHSR started receiving emails that the mission was under hostile surveillance as early as 1 PM, on the day of the attack. The WH/DoD/Pentagon ordered the drone to the location to video the actions at the compound. No order or permission was provided to the CIA annex to render assistance to those under attack at the mission as the attack was imminent and later under assault.
Those at the annex, without DC knowledge or approval, later did provide lethal protections and countermeasures as no other military assistance was dispatched. As soon as the attacks began, the mission sounded an audible alarm for the whole compound, alerting Tripoli and the Diplomatic Security in Washington DC. The Diplomatic Security headquarters in DC which resides in the State Department also went to the Department of Defense while DSHQ maintained opened communications with the mission during the whole attack. At this time, the CIA annex was also alerted and told to prepare to aid personnel.

Where was the President? ‘Absent’ yet?

The administration refuses to fully describe the nature of the personnel in Tripoli that were dispatched to Benghazi on a chartered aircraft. They were however, not Marines, but likely a hired substitute group FAST team of government contractors. It has been stated under oath that there were no assets within any favorable distance or within time constraints to respond to the attack in Benghazi, why? As Libya was the highest threat and greatest hotspot for attack, no proactive measures were in place for more than two years and no one took any initiative to either offer, or better still, demand rescue and safety measures for Benghazi or other locations including Cairo, Tunis, or any number of other diplomatic posts.
Where was the ‘Fire Station’ set up for any and all contingencies that were more than likely to occur? There were no contingency plans or a ‘firehouse’ set up in one of the most fire prone areas where Americans were in harm’s way. Leadership?
Given the ‘on-hook’ destinations of communications coming from Benghazi pleading for assistance, there were an estimated 300 to 400 personnel in national security positions that were receiving the emails, the encrypted mobile texts, or simply desperate phone calls via secured systems. After the dismissal of the national security officials, all actions were handed off to the NSC and the military command center – ‘nothing else to see here folks back to business as usual.’
Remember, the President of the United States is NEVER, EVER more than a few minutes from secure communications… ‘Absent’? AWOL?
Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said lawmakers viewed the video of the mission showing the post before the attack, the full set of incidents, and the exodus. These videos were a combination of surveillance cameras at the compound and the drone feed. The video(s) included the Ambassador’s body being dragged out of a building. This speaks to and proves that an ‘anti-Muslim’ YouTube video was clearly not the reason for the attack as fabricated by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Susan Rice. David Petraeus did provide an immediate assessment that the attack was performed by a radical Islamists group known as Ansar al Sharia.
They knew immediately, and there never was any question despite what many surrogates have said, even during Thursday’s hearings.
It is an indisputable fact that much of the objective in Benghazi was to restore order from a pre and post Qaddafi regime. Much of the order included identifying lethal weapons smuggling, in and out of Libya, to destinations that include Turkey, Syria, Mali, Iraq, and Algeria to list a few countries. A buyback program was initiated by the CIA in the area for high grade military weapons that included manpads and stinger missiles.
The U.S. government under the Obama administration did in fact provide lethal weaponry to Libyan rebels for the eventual overthrow of Qaddafi and the same is true in Syria. So a high grade weapons pipeline was established, chased, smuggled, and transferred. This now begs additional questions that include who did the State Department and the Department of Defense hire for all parts of all missions in the Middle East? Could it be that the four dead Americans were actually killed with weapons provided by the United States that eventually went to the wrong hands?
Did the United States solicit historically recognized jihadists/Islamists of known and unknown quantity and quality via militias from the start to the finish in overthrowing Libya strongman Qaddafi and beyond? Should attention be placed on a domestic arms security company known as Turi Defense Group out of Las Vegas who was in communication with Benghazi? Marc Turi is/was an authorized GSA arms vendor that held several government contracts for providing arms that included destinations such as Qatar and other Gulf States, all at the core of providing lethal military grade weapons as directed by the Obama administration. Incidentally, Turi lives in Arizona and his home was raided by Federal law enforcement in 2012.
The State Department applied millions of dollars to Libya under the premise of grants and humanitarian aid and to what accounting have these monies been scrutinized to date and/or will be in the near future? Simple searches on open sources have shown that more than $30 million was assigned for various objectives in Libya in a post Qaddafi landscape. Have those funds or unspent funds been accounted for?
What is the status today of the FBI investigation into Benghazi? Hillary Clinton, in her testimony, said many things, one of which was that al Qaeda is a “brand.” This speaks to the matter that there are several associated militias in Libya and MENA that include Ansar al Sharia or any other factions and may also include members of the February 17th Brigade. At the time of the attack, there were only three members of the February 17th Brigade at the compound who were actually deputized by the Libyan government.
The most shocking point spoken by Hillary Clinton was “what difference at this point does it make?” She went on to say, “to be clear, it is from my perspective, less important today looking backwards as to why these militants decided they did it than to find them and bring them to justice.” These two statements are key as they speak to timing, both of which point to pre-election conditions of Barack Obama and post-election conditions as the administration maintains power to ensure the facts on Benghazi remain opaque and oblique.
All deference was paid to Libyan placeholders as they demanded that any official rescue teams had to dress in civilian clothing to keep tensions at a minimum. 300 threats were provided from the intelligence community yet blame is placed back on the intelligence community saying that none of the intelligence was actionable per Panetta’s testimony. General Ham was in constant communications with the Ambassador in Libya for many months. He delivered specific reports to General Dempsey, of which Dempsey admitted he received, and was well aware of conditions, yet never offered or suggested an increase of security or military assets as a safety measure. He also did not set up any contingency plans such as the ‘Fire Station’ to handle any eventuality. This is completely against all military policy throughout the ranks and now sends a very sad message – ‘will they have my back no matter where I am assigned?’
Both Secretary Panetta and Martin Dempsey testified that after the one single meeting for thirty minutes at the White House, there were no further conversations with the President regarding Benghazi and that includes not only Barack Obama, but Hillary Clinton and David Petraeus. The matter for all involved was closed and an Executive Privilege was attached to 9-11-12 Presidential Daily Briefings (PDHs) associated to Libya for public or investigative purposes. The investigation as we are told is in the hands of the FBI and the Department of Justice to determine if there will ever be enough to build a case for future prosecution of the terrorists involved.
Panetta admitted in his testimony that the terrorists are emboldened, regardless of capture or response possibilities now, which in summary, is the most disturbing revelation of all. The threat to American safety and assets across the globe remain at high risk, yet there is no ordered readiness condition to save our brothers and sisters or sovereign locations worldwide.
Where was the President? Our sources tell us, that though he was ‘absent’, he indeed gave the ‘stand-down’ orders. Prior to that, it was his naïve approach, inept preparation and response to obvious needs that set the scene in place – the most obvious day for retaliatory action on the part of al Qaeda. What are we being asked to believe?
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Research and contributing to this article are SUA Staff members Denise Simon and Monica Morrill; Edited by Scott W. Winchell.
Paul E. Vallely , MG US Army (Ret), is Chairman of Stand Up America USA, and a writer for American Daily Review. Paul’s latest book is “Operation Sucker Punch – Blood for Our Future”. He is the co-author of “Endgame- A blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror”. Paul can be reached at: standupamericaceo@gmail.com

A New Kind of Ufology & Exopolitics Emerging

February 3, 2013            http://news.exopoliticsinstitute.org/index.php/a-new-kind-of-ufology-exopolitics-emerging-789/

Steve Snodgrass and Integral Ufology

Integral Theory (a highly comprehensive, multi-paradigm-connecting theory created by philosopher Ken Wilber) is slowly transforming how different academic fields are understood and practiced from a narrow, mutually competing sense to a mutually nourishing and transdisciplinary sense. In today’ s complex world in which planetary-wide problems are taking hold, previous partial or reductionist approaches are proving less and less effective every day. Among these planetary-wide problems (like economic collapse, ecological degradation, global security, disappearing cultures and possible pandemics caused by resistant viruses) we have an exopolitical problem. How are we going to deal intelligently with the ever more evident extraterrestrial presence affecting the entire world?  Well, at least in relation to the field of Ufology, a more intelligent way of studying evidence is emerging by making use of concepts such as the “Four Quadrants” of Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory. While researching for an upcoming article on how Exopolitics might benefit from Integral Theory, I found that social scientist Steve Snodgrass, LCSW (director of the Omaha UFO Study Group) is developing an intelligent extension of Ufology using that theory. In fact, this is a trend that will affect many academic and non-academic fields of knowledge. As Dr. Michael E. Salla, Snodgrass finds that it is necessary to utilize the methods of the social sciences along with those of the hard sciences. He wrote these and other ideas in a work published on October, 2010 titled “Integral UFOlogy: A Rubric for Evaluating Extraterrestrial Contact.”
My upcoming article will focus on how Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory could be useful to Exopolitics, but Steve Snodgrass' application of this theory to Ufology and to its ongoing search of evidence is commendable. Both Ufology (usually) emphasizing evidence and Exopolitics (usually) emphasizing political processes are increasing their approaches to understanding by including both qualitative and quantitative methods and the resulting complexity (more suitable for today’s complex demands) could be better undertaken with the simplifying and universally applicable organizing pattern offered by Integral Theory. Snodgrass’ work, presented at the 2011 UNO-UFO Symposium at the University of Nebraska-Omaha is a welcome, creative move toward a necessary and inclusive approach suitable for the XXI century and beyond. A good link to his elucidation can be found here.
In relation to Exopolitics (which deals not just primarily with evidence but with Earth-based and alien-based political, social-scientific and paradigmatic implications of the extraterrestrial presence and with itself as a political movement) Integral Theory can also clarify this complex matter as –in order to study exopolitical situations and phenomena- a pattern with universally recurring elements is offered. Some of these elements are: four distinctive and irreducible perspectives, their eight methodological “zones,” several “lines” or evolutionary capacities, multiple stages of development, typologies, states of consciousness and even (a consideration which I give more credence to) the existence of several interacting realms of existence. Thus, Exopolitics (already developing as an inclusive field of research with real-world political applications) can be further supported and nourished by a content-free, wide-ranging model which is already being applied to different academic fields. The book Integral Theory in Action, edited by Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, PhD as well as the work by many professionals at Integral Institute shows that Integral Theory is not only generating a more complete form knowledge that relates disciplines in a transdisciplinary manner but also expanding the applicability of particular fields such as medicine, psychology, politics, business, education and ecology.
Former Presidenty Bill Clinton also gave a statement of support for Integral Theory in the 2006 meeting at Davos. Furthermore, in 2008 the State of the World Forum established by Jim Garrison and Michail Gorbachev adopted Integral Theory as its organizing framework. More is to come as academicians (already dissapointed with postmodernity and perhaps already thinking or sensing life in holistic terms or beyond), other political leaders and people in general catch up with this historical developmental "wave" which not only deals with concepts and “theory” but -evolutionarily speaking- also reflects a larger emerging sense of being with respect to an intelligently organized Cosmos teeming with Life.
By Giorgio Piacenza

The U.S. Economy Is Now Dangerously Detached From Reality

by Brandon Smith from Alt-Market Recently I was asked to give a presentation on the current state of the global economy to a local group of concerned citizens here in Northwest Montana.  I was happy to oblige but when composing my bullet points I realized that, in truth, there were no legitimate economic numbers to examine anymore.  You see, financial analysts have traditionally used multiple indicators of employment, profit, savings, credit, supply, and demand in their efforts to divine the often obscured facts of our financial system.  The problem is, nearly every index we used in the past, every measure of capital flow and industry, is absolutely useless today.
We now live in an entirely fabricated fiscal environment.  Every aspect of it is filtered, muddled, molded, and manipulated before our eyes ever get to study the stats.  The metaphor may be overused, but our economic system has become an absolute “matrix”.  All that we see and hear has been homogenized and all truth has been sterilized away.  There is nothing to investigate anymore.  It is like awaking in the middle of a vast and hallucinatory live action theater production, complete with performers, props, and sound effects, all designed to confuse us and do us harm.  In the end, trying to make sense of the illusion is a waste of time.  All we can do is look for the exits…
There is some tangible reality out there, but it is difficult to find, and there are few if any mainstream numbers to verify.  One has to remember always that the fundamental world of money and trade revolves around real people and real circumstances.  No matter how corrupt our economic system is, as long as there are human beings, there will always be supply and demand that cannot be hidden.  We have to look past the “official numbers” and look at the roots of trade.  Where has demand fallen?  Where has supply diminished?  Where are the tangible goods and needs and how have they changed?
Let’s first start with the mainstream version of our system, looking at each aspect of the economy that no longer represents the truth of our situation…
Employment, Savings, And Debt
Much of this information is old news to those of us in the Liberty Movement, who tracked the progress of the global collapse long before the general public even knew of its existence.  However, it is useful to take a step back and look at the basic picture every once in a while.
According to numbers issued by the Department of Labor, weekly unemployment reports have dropped to a five year low, and the overall employment rate is holding at 7.9%.  This would seem to be a vast improvement over the dreadful bloodletting in the system only a few years ago.  Has the private Federal Reserve and the Obama Administration really done it?  Have they turned back the tide on the greatest fiscal crisis the U.S. has seen since the Depression?
No.  They haven’t.
They have only changed how the data is disseminated to the public. In order to understand how the employment statistics con is being engineered, it is important to understand the difference between “Adjusted” and “Unadjusted” numbers.
Labor Department data is “seasonally adjusted”, using a series of statistical assumptions including something called “Trend Cycle Analysis”.  Trend Cycle Analysis is, basically, a sham, but a sham put together in a very complex and confusing manner.  If you ask a mainstream economist what it is, you’ll likely get a three hour long dissertation filled with financial babble and very little concrete explanation.  So let me break it down as simply as I can…
Imagine that you are going to estimate how much profit you plan to make in a particular month, but you don’t just consider your current pay rate and pop it into a calculator; you also throw in the possibility of a few pay raises, an inheritance from a grandma who might kick the bucket, and, your exaggerated expectations of the entire year’s profit on top of that.  You may also take into account future bad weather, a mugging, a nuclear war….whatever.  All hypothetical situations not based in reality.  Basically, you decide that a particular trend in your income is inevitable, then, mold your statistical analysis around that assumption.
When your real profit numbers come in (the unadjusted numbers) and they do not meet your expectations, you simply change them according to what you believe SHOULD have happened.  If you insist that your profits are going to go up for the year, and they go down for a couple months instead, you change the variables you use to calculate the statistical average so that the results match your expectations, assuming that it will all balance out in the end.
Now, this sounds utterly insane for the common person out there trying to make a living.  If you ran your household this way, without accepting the cold hard unadjusted numbers in front of you, you’d find yourself broke and on the street in no time.  Unfortunately this is EXACTLY how our government handles most financial data; by coming to a final conclusion before hand, and then forcing the numbers to fit that conclusion.
This is why in February of 2013, “adjusted” first week unemployment rate was reported at 366,000 – a 5000 person drop from the week before.  A seeming improvement in the trend.  But, unadjusted numbers came in at 386,176 – a 16,000 person spike from the week before.  When one examines real unemployment numbers, he finds that the divergence between the adjusted and unadjusted statistics is growing larger with each passing quarter.  That is to say, the contradiction is becoming so blatant between the hard numbers and the Labor Department’s fantasy numbers that one must question whether or not the government is lying to us outright about the state of the economy (hint – they are lying).
These same methods are used by the government to calculate progress in the housing market, disposable income, etc.
The claim of “recovery” in the jobs market simply doesn’t jive with other indicators, like 2012 Christmas retail, which had the worst showing since the crash in 2008 (and these are still mainstream numbers!):

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/26/us-holiday-retail-sales-growth-weak…
Average household savings continue to scrape the bottom of the barrel, indicating that the public is not spending or withholding cash.  They are simply broke:

And the overall GDP of the U.S. contracted in the fourth quarter of 2012 for the first time in three years (again, according to official numbers, meaning the reality is much worse):

http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/30/news/economy/gdp-report/index.html
The downturn in consumption and industry also seems to be supported by the Baltic Dry Index, a measure of global shipping and rates.  The BDI has fallen to near historic lows THREE TIMES in the past year, which to my knowledge, has never happened before.  In the past, the BDI has been a strong prophetic indicator of future market volatility.  Usually, around a year after a severe decline in the index, a dangerous economic event takes place.  The BDI made its first sharp drop to all time lows at the end of January 2012, exactly a year ago.
U.S. household debt was recently reported to have fallen to a 29 year low, but the ratio used by the Federal Reserve applies a statistic for disposable income that is derived from the Trend Cycle boondoggle method.  While markets cheer, the truth is, the only reason household debt obligations have fallen at all is because bank lending and credit issuance remains frozen.  Consumer debt falls when there is no money to borrow.  In fact, the Federal Reserve actually pays large banks NOT to lend to the public; an activity which was exposed by Dennis Kucinich in 2009 on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  An activity that continued through 2012:

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/the-fed-should-stop-paying-banks-not-to-lend/
Keep in mind, one of the primary arguments the Federal Reserve used when promoting the bailout concept was that it would “free up credit markets” so that lending could pick up again and fuel a recovery, and yet, at the same time, they were paying banks to NOT lend.
Meanwhile, the supposed job recovery has produced an astonishing increase in welfare recipients in the U.S., including a record 46 million Americans on foodstamps (approximately 15% of our population):

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/report-15-americans-food-stamps-980690
If we are to apply any “trend” to our calculations on overall economic health, then we should include the extreme level of government handouts, and poverty levels which are now at all time highs.  The facts are undeniable; the number of people who have much less than they did in 2008 has grown.  How then could the U.S. be considered “in recovery”?
National Debt And The Fiat Lie
With the Dow Index hovering near highs of 14,000 our system truly looks to be on a rocket ship to pre-2008 money market bliss.  In a mere five years we have returned to equity spikes that stagger the mind and the wallet.  At least, that’s how it all appears…
What needs to be taken into account, though, is the amount of fiat money being created by the Federal Reserve, and how much of that printed pixie dust currency is fueling our magical flight to Neverland.  Since 2008, our official national debt has increased from $10 trillion to $16.4 trillion, and some estimate $17 trillion to $18 trillion by the end of 2013 (unless, of course, a collapse occurs).  Which means our national debt, which took decades to reach the $10 trillion mark, will have nearly doubled in only six years!
So, what has a doubling of our national debt in such a short span of time bought us?  Well, credit markets remain frozen, property markets remain stagnant, poverty is at historic levels, welfare recipients are at epic highs, and consumer activity and GDP is back at 2008 lows.  Where did all that printed money go?  Where was it spent?  To answer that question, we only need to find what area of the economy has seen the most positive (or fantastical) activity.  What sector is seeing a massive boost while the rest tumbles?
I suggest that a large portion of QE1 through QE3 has gone to prop up the stock market, and nothing else.  I suggest that American taxpayers are fronting the bill for the equities bonanza we see today.  I suggest that the Dow is being used as a Red Herring to distract the populous for as long as possible while real assets are being snapped up and hoarded by international banks and foreign entities.  I suggest that we are being leached dry and that the parasites are almost ready to move on…
When will it all end?  Perhaps sooner than many people think.  The decision by D.C. to delay talks on the so-called “Fiscal Cliff” until March may not be coincidence.  Extensive cuts in federal spending are absolutely necessary and cannot be dismissed forever, but, because the last vestiges of our system that still operate do so through government money, such cuts will cause immediate damage to the economy, including possible default and dollar devaluation.  Refusal to make cuts will result in credit downgrades, currency inflation, and a loss of the greenback’s world reserve status.  There is no “right” way out of this quandary.
When this collapse is initiated, it would certainly behoove all parties involved, including central banks, international banks, and criminal politicians, to have a scapegoat handy for the citizenry to direct their rage at.
Event Horizon Economics
An “Event Horizon” in physics is a moment or singularity in spacetime at which a gravitational pull becomes so great that there is no way to escape it.  It is a point of no return.  I believe America’s economy has reached its own Event Horizon.  Our system is now entirely fiat driven, with very little or no true economy left.  Without constant injections from the Fed, and perpetually low interest rates, the country would implode tomorrow.  This is not recovery.  Actually, I’m not sure what to call it.
Today, independent economic analysts cannot look to the numbers to determine future trends.  Most are fake, and the rest are ugly, and I’m not sure much else can be said in their regard.  Instead, we must now look to events, rather than statistics, because our country has been maneuvered into a position of utmost frailty.  Like an avalanche shelf waiting for that perfectly timed disturbance to trigger its roaring collapse.  All that is needed is a macro-crisis, and it is no great feat for such a thing to be created in our tension filled global environment.
War in Syria and Iran leading to a tripling of energy prices.  Sanctions and strife with North Korea leading to Chinese economic retribution.  Conflict between China and Japan, again leading to Chinese economic warfare and perhaps real warfare.  An opportune “cyber attack” which could be used as an excuse for a market crash and even an internet shutdown.  A “political impasse” between Reps and Dems which leads to a default of U.S. credit.  Any one of these catastrophes could easily occur (with a little nudge from some well placed people) and feed a wider global tragedy.  The important thing to remember is that while this event will be blamed for the breakdown, it was international banks, the Federal Reserve, and elements of our own government that made the domino effect possible.  They put the pieces in place.  The act that knocks them over is secondary.
I have spent the past seven years writing about “potential” threats to our overall system, but these dangers were always just beyond our sight.  Just around the corner.  Today, it is as if the journey is over, and all those threats have materialized right before my eyes as real, and imminent.  I am watching that which I warned of come to fruition, and this is certainly not a pleasant thing.  What is valuable, though, is what we have all done in the Liberty Movement with the time that we had.  From when I began writing for the movement until now, I have seen an overwhelming increase in public awareness.  It may not be obvious to newer activists, but it is there all the same.  While we still face disparaging odds, and millions upon millions of oblivious bystanders, there is, amidst these darker moments, a steadfast community of free men and women forming.  I have full faith in the future.  Much more so than I ever did before.  Our economy may be detached from reality, but our endeavors as individuals will not be.  Our resolve will be the great game changer.  Not fiscal calamity.

Originally published February 9 2013

America, land of the 'quick fix' culture

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) Think you might someday get breast cancer? There's a quick fix for that: Chop 'em off! It's called a "preventive double mastectomy" and surgeons are right now successfully convincing women who don't even have breast cancer to have both their breasts surgically removed.

Is your government drowning in debt? There's a quick fix for that: Print more money! Don't worry about currency debasement and the long-term blowout collapse of the U.S. dollar that will bankrupt the nation. We need another hit of that bailout money!

Is your kid too hyperactive at home and at school? Don't bother changing his diet, removing corn syrup and artificial food colors from his daily intake. No, that would take too much time. Instead, turn your kid into a pill-popping psych drug patient by having him diagnosed by a psychiatrist!

Welcome to the "quick fix" culture of America. For every problem that demands a mature, well-planned solution, there's a much more seductive quick-fix solution that completely ignores the problem but temporarily makes the symptoms go away.

Are you eating way too much food to the point of runaway obesity? Don't worry, we can have most of your stomach surgically removed!

Are you dying from cancer tumors? Don't bother changing your diet, increasing your intake of vitamin D, or reducing your exposure to synthetic chemicals and pesticides. Nope, we can visibly shrink your tumors thanks to chemotherapy! Never mind the fact that chemotherapy will cause yet more tumors to grow all over your body because the No. 1 side effect of chemotherapy is, admittedly, cancer.

Got a problem in your community with whacko kids shooting up schools? Don't address psychiatric drug abuse, bad parenting, violent video games and other behavioral causes. Just blame all the gun owners and make everybody turn in their guns! Problem solved, right? It's yet another quick fix snow job.

Worried about your kid getting the flu or the whooping cough? Don't bother giving them more nutrition: vitamin D, vitamin C, zinc, magnesium and superfoods. Nope, just jab them with a needle, call it "immunization" and be happy with the quick fix!

Why the "quick fix" culture will destroy America

If you look around America today, everything is a quick fix solution; sweeping the problem under the rug; ignoring the causes and treating the symptoms. Whether you're talking about banking and finance, agriculture, public health, foreign policy, government spending or even public education, it's all one grand quick-fix snow job.

This quick-fix approach is, of course, childish and immature. It is the abandonment of mature, adult planning for the future. A successful society (and nation) needs wisdom, foresight and planning. It needs leaders who have the courage to address core solutions rather than settling for short-term symptom reductions.

But America has become the land of the quick fix, and the quick fix inevitably leads to collapse. That's because quick fixes do not solve underlying problems, and so the problems only get worse and worse.

For example, instead of solving the underlying causes of health problems, Obamacare merely handed Big Pharma and the health insurance companies an illegal monopoly that makes everybody in the nation pay for yet more "disease management."

Instead of working on ways to actually pay down the U.S. debt, Obama has blown the national debt sky high by trillions of dollars in just the last four years.

Instead of decriminalizing marijuana and ending the police state prison culture that only breeds more crime, Obama signed the NDAA, authorizing yet more secret arrests and indefinite detainment of American citizens. He made the police state even worse than Bush did!

Obama is a quick-fix President ruling over a quick-fix culture that's dying thanks to quick-fix medicine and going broke under a quick-fix economy. Yep, the fix is in, and we're all royally screwed!

The quick fix is an abandonment of responsibility

It's important to note that a quick-fix approach represents the complete abandonment of responsibility. In spending trillions of dollars of money that we don't have, President Obama has abandoned the responsibility of his office has actually placed America in grave economic danger. His actions, like the actions of nearly every President before him, put us all at risk.

On a personal level, quick-fix health care decisions are also an abandonment of personal responsibility. Instead of addressing their diet and exercise, most patients would rather just surrender their responsibility to their doctor, effectively "offshoring" their health to a person who is usually accepting bribes from the pharmaceutical companies to push high-profit chemicals while calling it "treatment."

For every problem in America, there's a quick fix solution that sounds good on the surface but actually makes the problem worse. And this is how we have found ourselves in the downward spiral of insanity and ruin that now characterizes our nation.

What would a mature, wise society actually look like?

Many of those reading this have never seen anything other than quick fixes, and so they may not even recognize what mature, wise solutions look like. Here's a quick overview of what a mature society might do:

• "Too big to fail" banks would have been allowed to fail. Capital needs to flow AWAY from failures and toward economic successes, not the other way around.

• The health care system would be focused on increasing quality of life instead of increasing corporate "sick care" profits.

• The education system would have been completely overhauled with the intention of producing intelligent, independent-minded entrepreneurs and innovators instead of conformist slave workers.

• Pesticides, herbicides, GMOs and other poisons in the food would have been banned long ago.

• The advertising and promotion of cigarettes, sodas, pharmaceuticals and junk food would be outlawed.

• The government would act with humility and honor, abiding by its oath and doing its best to serve the betterment of society. Instead, government today is arrogant, violent, threatening and oppressive.

• The manufacturing base of America would not have been exported to China. Jobs would remain in the USA and people would be collecting paychecks, not food stamps.

• Foreign policy would be based on the desired outcome of establishing long-lasting peace rather than encouraging wars and conflicts that provide the "terrorism" back story the government needs to expand its power.

• Free speech would be openly encouraged. Public protests tolerated. Criticism of the government invited for the purpose of improving government. Instead, what we see today is the characterization of anyone who doesn't worship government as a "possible homegrown terrorist" according to the Department of Homeland Security which is, itself, another quick-fix cover story.

• The money supply would be owned and operated by the People, not by a private banking cartel known as the Federal Reserve. Money would not be endlessly created, driving price inflation ever skyward. Zero-interest loans could be made to entrepreneurs to build new businesses and create new jobs. Instead what we see now is the government destroying private sector jobs and then claiming to have "created jobs" by hiring more government workers. (Economic insanity!)

• In a wise society, we would not poison our children with vaccines. Rather, we would nourish our children with superfood nutrition.

As you can see from this list, America today is nowhere near a wise society. It is a quick-fix culture of people taking shortcuts in their own lives and electing professional shortcut-takers to run the government. This does not produce a healthy, happy society in the long run. It only leads to cultural, economic and intellectual ruin.

If we don't turn this around and start engaging in long-term planning instead of short-term fixes, America is finished.

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All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml

New False Flag Op Underway to Demonize Police, Military Vets & the 2nd Amendment?

truther February 8, 2013 http://www.pakalertpress.com/2013/02/08/new-false-flag-op-underway-to-demonize-police-military-vets-the-2nd-amendment/

sgtreport

New False Flag Op Underway to Demonize Police, Military Vets & the 2nd Amendment? — Manhunt For Fired L.A. Cop Who Endorses Gun Ban While Vowing to Murder LAPD Cops & Officials Who Wronged Him

“If you had a well regulated AWB, this would not happen. The time is now to reinstitute a ban that will save lives. Why does any sportsman need a 30 round magazine for hunting? Why does anyone need a suppressor? Why does anyone need a AR15 rifle? Sen. Feinstein, you are doing the right thing in leading the re-institution of a national AWB.” – from Christopher Dorner’s manifesto

 by SGT,

I didn’t get up today with plans to write this story, but a reader and friend of SGTreport brought this to my attention, and it must be covered. This is uncomfortable and frightening stuff:

Is there another false flag OP underway in the LA area at this very moment, or is this rampage and publicly posted diatribe truly that of a former cop and military man who has gone off the reservation? That’s the question we must ask as the Fresno Bee reports today,
Massive manhunt on for former L.A. cop accused of killing 3.

 My friend wondered if some part of the US government might be behind the extremely long facebook “rant” allegedly posted by Christopher Dorner, a fired LAPD police officer who has military training. Here’s Dorner’s full publicly posted statement. It is ridiculously lengthy and extremely detailed. At first blush one starts to get the feeling that it’s authentic, but then the anti-gun, pro-Obama tirade begins. How convenient. An active shooter who has already confessed his crimes, who despises guns in the hands of the common man and who argues that they should be banned. In one handy manifesto.

Maybe this whole story IS legit. Time will tell. But what makes this truly scary stuff, and the reason for my friend’s concern is the allegedly self-authored anit-gun rant by the alleged shooter. Halfway through Dorner’s post he embarks on an anti-firearms tirade so venomous it makes any informed reader wonder if the DOD, DOJ or DHS had a hand in authoring it.

My friend noted his concerns to me this way, “It is my personal feeling that this is going to be a govt op and a very bloody one… schools and public places may be his targets for revenge. DC Sniper on steroids. Read this guys words and let me know what you think. If this happens, 2nd amendment bye bye.”

So I read it. And here’s the paragraph that begins his anti-firearms monologue. Dorner allegedly writes:

If you had a well regulated AWB, this would not happen. The time is now to reinstitute a ban that will save lives. Why does any sportsman need a 30 round magazine for hunting? Why does anyone need a suppressor? Why does anyone need a AR15 rifle? This is the same small arms weapons system utilized in eradicating Al Qaeda, Taliban, and every enemy combatant since the Vietnam war. Don’t give me that crap that its not a select fire or full auto rifle like the DoD uses. That’s bullshit because troops who carry the M-4/M-16 weapon system for combat ops outside the wire rarely utilize the select fire function when in contact with enemy combatants. The use of select fire probably isn’t even 1% in combat. So in essence, the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle is the same as the M-4/M-16. These do not need to be purchased as easily as walking to your local Walmart or striking the enter key on your keyboard to “add to cart”…

He goes on to quote Mia Farrow and praise Dianne Feinstein:

Who needs a freaking SBR AR15? No one. No more Virginia Tech, Columbine HS, Wisconsin temple, Aurora theatre, Portland malls, Tucson rally, Newtown Sandy Hook. Whether by executive order or thru a bi-partisan congress an assault weapons ban needs to be re-instituted. Period!!! Mia Farrow said it best. “Gun control is no longer debatable, it’s not a conversation, its a moral mandate.
Sen. Feinstein, you are doing the right thing in leading the re-institution of a national AWB. Never again should any public official state that their prayers and thoughts are with the family. That has become cliche’ and meaningless. Its time for action. Let this be your legacy that you bestow to America. Do not be swayed by obstacles, antagaonist, and naysayers. Remember the innocent children at Austin, Kent, Stockton, Fullerton, San Diego, Iowa City, Jonesboro, Columbine, Nickel Mines, Blacksburg, Springfield, Red Lake, Chardon, Aurora, and Newtown. Make sure this never happens again!!!
In my cache you will find several small arms. In the cache, Bushmaster firearms, Remington precision rifles, and AAC Suppressors (silencers). All of these small arms are manufactured by Cerberus/Freedom Group. The same company responsible for the Portland mall shooting, Webster , NY, and Sandy Hook massacre. “

As Infowars has reported, Homeland Security now considers military veterans and patriots to be its enemies, as the Obama administration targets lawful gun owners and the Second Amendment. What better way to take the gun grab hysteria to a whole new level than for one rogue police officer “with military training” to target men, women and children in a murderous rampage of semi-automatic gun violence, all neatly explained away in an anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment manifesto written by a “disgruntled cop”?

I would prefer the official version of this story to be true. But given what we know about the lies of known liars who are currently in control of the United States government (Fast and Furious, the Underwear Bomber and the Sandy Hook massacre as just three recent examples), these uncomfortable questions must be asked.

Investigation reveals cause of battery fire on Boeing 787 Dreamliner

50 Dreamliners were grounded in January after problems with the power systems.

by Megan Geuss - Feb 9 2013, 11:15am EST

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/02/investigation-reveals-cause-of-battery-fire-on-boeing-787-dreamliner/

In early January, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flying for Japan Airlines caught fire at Boston’s Logan International Airport; eight days later another 787 flying for All Nippon Airlines had to make an emergency lading when batteries again showed signs of failure. These battery scares led to the grounding of Boeing’s 50-plane Dreamliner fleet—a fleet that was supposed to represent the future of air travel, using 20 percent less fuel than similarly heavy planes.
Now, investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board have determined the cause of the battery fire in the Japan Airlines 787, saying that the fire was caused by a short circuit in one of the battery’s cells leading to a thermal runaway which led to the other cells catching fire. The NTSB said that temperatures inside the battery exceeded 260 degrees Celsius (500 degrees Fahrenheit).
As Ars reported in January, the Dreamliner’s lithium batteries had the potential to reach that state of thermal runaway—a situation that can turn a battery into a firebomb—at 140 degrees Celsius.
While the safety board was still trying to find the exact cause of the short circuit, the board criticized the process that the FAA and Boeing had used to approve the safety of the battery in the Dreamliner planes. According to the blog Frequent Business Traveler, NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman said that “assumptions used to certify the batteries must be reconsidered” and until then, the Dreamliner planes would not to return to passenger service. Hersman also commented that Boeing’s tests of the battery had failed to find that a short circuit in one cell could become a problem in the other battery cells, which is exactly what had happened in January.
As Ars wrote earlier, beyond the obvious problem with firebomb-like situations on airplanes, the Dreamliner model also depends more heavily on electrical systems than other planes (“the plane's avionics are wired together with a derivative of 100 megabit Ethernet to reduce the amount of wiring and corresponding weight,” reporter Sean Gallagher wrote). Frequent Business Traveler said that the Dreamliner uses electrical systems in "de-icing the wings, pressurizing the cabin, and operating hydraulic pumps," among other tasks.
The NTSB is continuing its investigation into the cause of the shorted circuit.

“Anti-war” Liberals: No More Excuses

http://theintelhub.com/2013/02/08/anti-war-liberals-no-more-excuses/
By Trevor Hultner
c4ss
February 8, 2013
Thanks to NBC News, a lot of (now-former) drone supporters are confronted with a confidential Justice Department white paper justifying presidential killing of American citizens abroad, seemingly on the basis of thin air.
The document, 16 pages of Bushian doublespeak, declares “Here the Justice Department concludes only that where the following three conditions are met, a U.S. operation using lethal force in a foreign country against a U.S. citizen who is a senior operational leader of al-Qa’ida or an associated force would be lawful.”
Those conditions? “[A]n informed, high-level official of the U.S. government has determined that the targeted individual poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States; capture is infeasible, and the United States continues to monitor whether capture becomes feasible; and the operation would be conducted in a manner consistent with applicable law of war principles.”
In other words, we’ll obliterate you because of reasons, and you’re now a terrorist because we said so.
Anwar al-Awlaki, to whom the Justice Department refers when it writes, “a U.S. citizen who is a senior operational leader of al-Qa’ida,” was killed by a drone strike in Yemen in 2011; his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, died in another drone strike weeks later. Their deaths, not to mention numerous other killings in Yemen, were well-documented by reporters, including Jeremy Scahill. Yet the government has continued to refuse to publicly acknowledge that it assassinated two American citizens.
From page two of the DOJ white paper:
“Were the target of a lethal operation a U.S. citizen who may have rights under the Due Process Clause and the Fourth Amendment, that individual’s citizenship would not immunize him from a lethal operation. Under the traditional due process balancing analysis of Mathews v. Eldridge, we recognize that there is no private interest more weighty than a person’s interest in his life. But that interest must be balanced against the United States’ interest in forestalling the threat of violence and death to other Americans that arises from an individual who is a senior operational leader of al-Qa’ida and/or an associated force of al-Qa’ida and who is engaged in plotting against the United States.”
This paragraph, in particular, seems to rustle the jimmies of more than just your average ACLU lawyer, Glenn Greenwald or libertarians of all stripes. According to the Associated Press, several Democratic senators, including Maryland’s Steny Hoyer and Delaware’s Chris Coons, are leading an increasingly loud congressional outcry against the administration’s drone program. Panels have been scheduled, investigations convened, etc., in the name of bringing the drone program under congressional control.
While it’s definitely a good thing that even Democrats are finally concerned about the utter wrongness of drone assassinations, “congressional control” is exactly the opposite of what we want. The military drone program, among other things, needs to be completely dismantled, not “regulated.”
For the record, it should be pointed out that this white paper isn’t exactly revelatory. It confirms the claims of drone critics offered over the last five years — that this program grants the executive branch massive power, more power than any one person can stand up to. And it proves that the critics weren’t just spinning their wheels.
When al-Awlaki and son (who hadn’t been linked to any sort of terrorist organization to begin with) were killed, when Samir Khan was killed, people tried to call out the Obama administration for engaging in the worst kind of authoritarianism. They were shouted down by supporters who thought the only goal of criticizing the administration on this issue was to cost Obama re-election.
Think about that for a second: People protesting the assassination of American citizens were scorned for raising a “petty, divisive” wedge issue in electoral politics. The absurdity of this scenario threatens to implode the universe.
Now that it isn’t “just a wedge issue,” this statement maybe won’t be so derided: The drone program is murderous and must be stopped. We need a ground-up anti-war movement to ensure that it is stopped, along with every other act of imperialism perpetrated by this government.
You’ve got all the evidence you could possibly need. The ball is in your court.

Related Articles and Interesting Reports

• High School Student Sends Letter to Obama Over Drone Assassinations
• Drone Strike Kills Four Last Week in Yemen
• “Gun Control for the Children?” Sorry, No Sale.
• The Trouble With “Sensible” Gun Regulations

Dems in Colorado Move to Hold Gun Manufacturers Liable for Shootings

Infowars.com Prior to California announcing a plan to introduce gun registration and confiscation on Thursday, Democrats in Colorado said they will introduce legislation that will hold gun manufacturers liable for crimes committed with guns they have sold.

In addition to holding manufacturers liable, the law would hold retail sellers of firearms responsible. Democrats are pushing to have a federal law that conflicts with their proposed legislation overturned.

Democrats did a media promenade with “gun violence survivors” from the Columbine, Aurora and Sandy Hook shootings to push their agenda, according to Fox News.
The legislation ties “gun violence” to mental health issues and calls for background checks for private gun sales. It also outlaws high-capacity magazines.

Republicans were quick to criticize the proposed legislation.

“This is the most aggressive anti-gun legislation ever floated in the country,” Republican Sen. Greg Brophy said. “To hold everybody in the entire chain of possession responsible for a crime committed by one person? The manufacturer, dealer and owners? That’s equivalent to blaming Coors for a drunk driver and the 7-Eleven after someone steals a 12-pack.”

Moreover, Republicans claim Democrats will use the law to effectively ban firearm possession because it will discourage gun manufacturers and retailers from doing business in the state.

Source

Dr.Oz: Sandy Hook 3rd Grader “When We Were Having A Drill”

Dr. Oz Interview of Sandy Hook Elementary student. The host discloses that the kids told him beforehand what they wanted him to ask, in order to avoid traumatic questioning and – I would surmise – would permit the kids to be thoroughly prepared and confident of their answer. Sounds as if he tells him they were having a DRILL. You be the judge.            http://usahitman.com/doshkhd/                      

Hurry- D/L Dr. Oz Interview - Sandy Hook 3rd Grader Louis ''Having a DRILL'' - National TV            http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nGrOP_Hd6GY

Approaching the existential cliff: 17 denial statements made by the sleeping masses

naturalnews.com printable article

Originally published February 8 2013

Approaching the existential cliff: 17 denial statements made by the sleeping masses

by Mike Bundrant

(NaturalNews) People who are awake these days have reason to be gravely concerned. Although there may still hope to be had, there are sobering signs of a looming "existential cliff." The existential cliff is the point at which the human race cannot recover from damage done by the human race - or its elitist power structure.

Patch Adams, MD, once told me that the existential cliff is around 2025. I don't know where he got his info, but he claimed he'd read 1500 books along the way to that conclusion (I hope my memory serves me correctly here.)

Let's get the lay of the land:

The food supply: largely poisoned

The water supply: largely poisoned

The oceans: poisoned

Modern medicine: more poison

Modern mental health: see modern medicine

Psychiatry: brain fryers

Government: the entity promoting the poison

The environment: poisoned

Modern money: deflated

Modern education: turns out sheeple

Modern corporations: prey upon sheeple

Modern news: hypnotizes the sheeple

Human intelligence: This is where it gets interesting. It seems that in spite of being highly intelligent beings (compared to the animal kingdom) capable of analyzing and solving complex problems, we have not evolved (or are not blessed) enough to see the simple truth, even when it coldly slaps us in the face, repeatedly!

In other words, we are busy solving problems that have little to do with our real problems!

The mechanism that keeps us from recognizing the cold slap is denial. When you point out the truth to a sleepy one, you often get this kind of response:

1. I am sure "they" know what they are doing.

2. It's out of my control. All I can do is live my life.

3. We're all screwed anyway, so let's have a beer.

4. I have problems of my own to worry about.

5. It wouldn't be possible to fool everyone.

6. People who believe in conspiracies are kooks.

7. It's the news! People don't make up news.

8. Doctors go to medical school, so they know more about health than I do.

9. Alternative medicine? My doctor said to avoid that.

10. Our society is too advanced to collapse.

11. The people in charge will always find a way to avoid a real catastrophe.

12. Who has time to worry about what's going on in the world?

13. Things always work out for the best.

14. Who am I to do anything?

15. I'm too busy.

16. Oh, yeah, we've got some real problems, don't we? (Then turn back to the episode of "reality TV.")

17. This is what God intended (Did God also intend you to sit back and watch it while doing nothing?)

(18. Add one you've heard in the comments).

Getting past the oh-so-frustrating (to the awake ones) denial requires more than intellectual awareness. It also requires emotional strength and this is where most people fall down.

Acknowledging the truth about the existential cliff means considering the stark reality that we are going to die. You, your children and loved ones, your friends and family - everyone - will lose their very lives.

To add unimaginable insult to injury, this is all happening because of the people who are supposed to be leading us toward peace and prosperity (government and business leaders).

A gut-level understanding of this is very, very painful. So, most people stick with beer and pizza to bloat the pain away.

Regardless, the gig seems to be up. The existential cliff is happening in a time when there are no new lands to conquer, no new civilizations to exploit, no new people to enslave, with the Earth itself hanging in the balance.

What can you do?

1. Stop the denial. Stop making excuses for people who are comprising your life and the life of your children.

2. Build emotional strength. Learn to stand on your own if need be. In other words, work toward NOT needing the approval of other people (especially the sleeping ones. Seriously. Think about it!)

3. Share the truth. That's it! One of the best places to do that is the Internet. Share articles from Natural News and other great, truthful sites. Build your own site. Tell the truth and promote it online as best you can.

I weep for our ignorant passivity.
Patch Adams, MD

About the author:
Watch the free video The AHA! Process: An End to Self-Sabotage and discover the lost keys to personal transformation and emotional well-being that have been suppressed by mainstream mental health for decades.

The information in this video has been called the missing link in mental health and personal development. In a world full of shallow, quick-fix techniques, second rate psychology and pharmaceutical takeovers, real solutions have become nearly impossible to find. This presentation will turn your world upside down.

Mike Bundrant is co-founder of the iNLP Center and host of Mental Health Exposed, a Natural News Radio program.

Follow Mike on Facebook for daily personal development tips.
Watch the free video The AHA! Process: An End to Self-Sabotage and discover the lost keys to personal transformation and emotional well-being that have been suppressed by mainstream mental health for decades. The information in this video has been called the missing link in mental health and personal development. In a world full of shallow, quick-fix techniques, second rate psychology and pharmaceutical takeovers, real solutions have become nearly impossible to find. This presentation will turn your world upside down. Mike Bundrant is co-founder of the iNLP Center and host of Mental Health Exposed, a Natural News Radio program. Follow Mike on Facebook for daily personal development tips.

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All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml

Sandy Hook Tragedy: Corporate Media’s “Lone Gunman” Storyline Losing Ground

By James F. Tracy

Global Research, February 09, 2013

http://www.globalresearch.ca/sandy-hook-tragedy-corporate-medias-lone-gunman-storyline-losing-ground/5322426

A cross section of kill-to-injury ratios of major mass shootings suggests that if Adam Lanza acted alone in carrying out the Sandy Hook Elementary School carnage he was among the most accurate killers in modern history, exceeding even the lethal damage meted out by Al Capone’s machine gun-wielding henchmen in the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

Incident, # of shooters, weapon(s) used	Shot	Killed	Wounded	Kill-to-wounded ratio
SANDY HOOK (2012) 1 shooter, AR-15, .223	27	26 (96.2%)	1 (3.8%)	26:1
Aurora, CO (2012) 1 shooter, AR-15, .223	71	12 (16.9%)	59 (83%)	1:5
Tucson, AZ (2011) 1 shooter, Glock 9mm	14	6 (42.8%)	8 (57.1%)	1:1.2
N. Ill. U (2008) 1 shooter, 9mm	26	5 (20%)	21 ((80%)	1:4
Virginia Tech (2007) 1 shooter, 9mm pistol	49	32 (68%)	17 (32%)	2:1
Columbine, CO (1999) 2 shooters, 12 ga., 9mm	33	12 (36%)	21 (64%)	1:2
U. Iowa (1991) 1 shooter/.38 spec.	6	5 (83%)	1 (16%)	5:1
Stockton, CA (1989) 1 shooter AK-47	35	5 (14%)	30 (86%)	1:6
École Polytechnique/Montreal  Massacre (1989) 1 shooter, Ruger Mini 14 .223	27	14 (52%)	13 (48%)	1.1:1
Cal. St. Fullerton (1976) 1 shooter .22 LR semi-auto	9	7 (78%)	2 (22%)	3.5:1
U. Texas Tower (1966) 1 shooter	48	16 (33%)	32 (67%)	1:2
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1929) 2 shooters, .45 submachine guns	7	6 (85.8%)	1 (14.2%)	6:1

Never mind the facts, however. The public has been repeatedly told by corporate news media that the December 14, 2012 incident was exclusively carried out by the awkward 20-year-old man with virtually no firearms or military training.
“The debate over gun violence gained urgency after a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six adults on December 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut,” Reuters observed as recently as February 7. “The killer, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, used a Bushmaster AR-15 type assault rifle to shoot his victims before killing himself.”[1]
Over the past seven weeks mainstream media have spoken in one earsplitting voice to drive home the now familiar “lone gunman” storyline ostensibly proffered by law enforcement while dismissing a multitude of important evidence indicating a far more complex scenario.
Indeed, as information recently pointed to by Digital Journal indicates,[2] in a widescale rush to judgment major news media have neglected vital information and statements from Connecticut state authorities suggesting that Lanza may have had accomplices.
In a December 26 court plea to postpone release of contents yielded through five search warrant, Connecticut State Attorney General Stephen Sedensky argued that unsealing such findings might “seriously jeopardize” the investigation by divulging evidence heretofore known only to other “potential suspects.”
Pointing to “information in the search warrant affidavits that is not known to the general public,”  Sedensky also argued that opening the warrants would “identify persons cooperating with the investigation, thus possibly jeopardizing their personal safety and well-being.”
The prosecutor’s statement came less than two weeks after Connecticut State Police Lieutenant J. Paul Vance told reporters how there were “some cards that we’re holding close to our vest.”
In light of the above and alongside a wealth of additional evidence calling the “official story” into question, the corporate news media’s long-running and continued emphasis of the “lone gunman” narrative appears increasingly fraudulent. The question remains whether this is merely a case of slipshod reporting or part of a more intentional mass deception against the American public.
Notes
[1] Thomas Ferraro and Richard Cohen, “House Democrats to Unveil Gun Control Package; Mirrors Obama’s,” NBC/Reuters, February 7, 2013.
[2] Ralph Lopez, “Sandy Hook DA Cites ‘Potential Suspects,’ Fears Witness Safety,” Digital Journal, February 5, 2013.