Just Because...

I thought You Should Know...
compiled by The Old Hippie, Because This Shit Scares Me

Some recent articles, reports, opinions, and thoughts, that anyone living a reality-based life would

(Doonesbury)

find just a bit more than beyond frightening within their revealed realizations and implications.  With half of this nation's citizens having taken the "Blue Pill" already, and more and more of our citizens actually wanting to swallow the pill also - With the 95% of our corporately controlled media's opportunistically dispensing of the pills to an ideologically blinded and eager populace, almost in exactly the same way as the Nationalists did to the German citizens of the mid to late 1930's - With the new aspect of the attack on, and the successful destruction of, both the balance of powers, and the reality-based environmental regulations, of this nation - With the "loyal opposition" in complete state of denial, or stunned marginalization, or in the fugue of a non-functioning depression. - I just feel the following items are timely.

Enjoy. . .  I sincerely hope these following items help you in your own search for some truth. . .

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Tailgated by Media Technology
by Norman Solomon, Media Beat, Dec. 31, 2004

"We might fall back on the simple observation that most technology is not "good" or "bad."  We ought to evaluate its merits on the basis of who dominates it and to what ends it is harnessed."

Link To The Full Article Here

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Torture - From J.F.K. to Baby Bush
by Steve Weissman, Truthout Perspective, Dec. 31, 2004

"The hearing, to be held early in the New Year, will provide a good taste of Absurdist Theater.
Everyone knows how the play will end.  Short of a new Abu Ghraib or a sudden flood of photos showing how the Americans used dogs and pigs to sexually assault Iraqi women, the Senators will confirm Gonzales for his new post."

Link To The Full Article Here

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A State of Chaos
by Sidney Blumenthal, The Guardian, Dec. 30, 2004

"George Bush has purged the last of his father's senior advisers, handing over control to his neocon allies.  Republican elders who warned of endless war are purged.  Those who advised Bush that Saddam was building nuclear weapons, that with a light military force the operation would be a "cakewalk", and that capturing Baghdad was "mission accomplished", are rewarded."

Link To The Full Article Here

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One man's retirement math: Social Security wins
by David R. Francis, Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 27, 2004

"He recorded all the payroll taxes he paid into the system (including the matching amount from
his employer), tracked down the return the Social Security Trust Fund earned for each of the 45 years, and then compared the result with what he would have gotten had he been able to invest the same amount of payroll tax money over the same period in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (including dividends).

To his surprise, the Social Security investment won out: $261,372 versus $255,499, a difference
of $5,873.

It's an astonishing finding."

Link To The Full Article Here

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Tucker Carlson to MSNBC?
by Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, Dec. 22, 2004

"The pattern in cable news is to imitate Fox," said FAIR's Peter Hart.  "But MSNBC is going beyond that-- it wants to outfox Fox by surpassing Fox's partisanship.  Viewers deserve diverse opinions from the media, not an uninterrupted stream of right-wing spin."

Link To The Full Article Here

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U.S. Forest Plan Would Lessen Restraints
by Matthew Daly, A.P. via FindLaw, Dec. 22, 2004

"Managers of the nation's 155 national forests will have more leeway to approve logging and other commercial projects with less formal environmental review under a new Bush administration plan."

Link To The Full Article Here