Rachel Corrie 1973-2003

Quote of the Day:

We should be inspired by people... who show that human beings can be kind, brave, generous beautiful, strong-even in the most difficult circumstances.

~ Rachel Corrie ~

Today is the fifth anniversary of Rachel Corrie's murder by a Zionist destruction team on bulldozers. She is one of thousands who have been killed in the terrorist, genocide campaign against the Palestinians.

Many people think that there is very little difference between one person and the next. We have the same red blood, the same need for food, water, shelter, the same feelings for friends, family. Rachel herself is quoted as saying: "We have got to understand that they dream our dreams and we dream theirs. We have got to understand that they are us. We are them." She was ten years old when she wrote this. Just too young to understand that there is real evil in this world. That all is not what it may seem. That we are not all alike.

Again, most people think that what Rachel was saying is true. We are taught by religions that even the meanest and most foul can be redeemed if they ask for forgiveness. God loves us and wants us to be happy. Forget that fact that for recorded history people have been killing each other. Statistically, there is a fifty-fifty chance that an improvement will take place, that people will learn from their mistakes.

Not on this earth. We are not all the same.

It has taken me over fifty years to understand that concept. Only by studying the psychological principles related to narcissism and psychopathy have I come to see that we are not all alike.

There is evil in this world. The kind of evil that kills without a thought. Evil without conscience, without feelings, incapable of empathy or compassion. Evil that only calculates and schemes how it can gain more power over others. And when it sees someone, anyone, blocking it's path, it will run them over the way we step on an ant.

This is what Rachel and her family and most others in the world do not understand. This is what everyone needs to learn. Only then will the deaths of the innocent like Rachel Corrie and the men, women and children of Palestine and the world not be in vain.

Human Rights Palestine Culture Commentary Terrorism Psychopaths Journal Personal Politics Society Rachel Corrie

Online protest against censorship

Quote of the Day:

"As to the evil which results from censorship, it is impossible to measure it, because it is impossible to tell where it ends."
~ Jeremy Bentham ~

What's going on with the net tonight? When the BBC loaded it looked like hieroglyphs. After a few more tries it now says this: "Due to technical problems, we are displaying a simplified version of the BBC homepage."

Yahoo wouldn't load at all and neither would blogger. Maybe this isn't so unusual. When a site is really busy it can hang a bit, I think. I'm a trekkie not a techie. ; )
A bunch of other sites that usually load quickly were also very sloooow. Makes you wonder if the info on the SOTT lawsuit is having an effect on the PTB and the way they allow information to flow. Here is a shot of the Internet Traffic Report for 3-13-08. At the time, an online protest against censorship was in full swing.



This is the global average:

Pretty pathetic. Maybe the net is being scrubbed. It seems that Google is erasing most of the articles or at least placing them on distant pages away from the front of the search results. It certainly appears that the SOTT article is having reprecussions that TPTB are trying to handle.

ITM, check out this article on the BBC. The page finally loaded.

Virtual demos over net censorship

Thousands of people are taking part in "virtual protests" against countries accused of censoring the internet.

For its first Online Free Expression Day, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has created virtual versions of nine public spaces.

These areas where protests are not normally possible include Beijing's Tiananmen Square and Kim Il-Sung Square in the North Korean capital Pyongyang.

RSF says at least 62 cyber-dissidents are in jail around the world.

More than 2,600 websites, blogs, or forums were closed down or blocked last year, the group says.

'Internet enemies'

The RSF demonstrations are running for 24 hours, until 1000 GMT on 13 March. Several hours after they opened, more than 5,000 virtual dissidents were protesting online.

Users are invited to create an avatar, choose a message for a banner and take part in one of the demonstrations in Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, North Korea, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

This year, RSF has added Zimbabwe and Ethiopia to its list of "internet enemies".

The other countries blacklisted by the group are Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

"From now on, we will organise activities every 12 March to condemn cyber-censorship throughout the world," RSF said in a statement.

"A response of this kind is needed to the growing tendency to crack down on bloggers and to close websites."

One of the most targeted internet sites is the popular video-sharing website, YouTube, that has been blocked or banned in a number of countries including China, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Burma and Brazil.

The reasons for banning the site vary from country to country, but include government objections to religious and political material, foreign sites and pornography.

Anyone who still thinks that the net is totally free and never blocked needs to take a look at the facts.

Personal Journal Culture Weblogs Weblog Politics News and politics Internet traffic Censorship BBC TPTB Signs SOTT

Free Speech On Internet Under Threat

Quote of the Day:

"All censorships exist to prevent any one from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions."

~ George Bernard Shaw ~

Challenging current perceptions and conceptions is the purpose of SOTT .
It really is news for people who think and leads to Better communication.

International lawsuit filed in Oregon threatens Internet forums and bloggers

First Amendment rights and free speech on the Internet are under threat as Internet news web site Signs of the Times (SOTT.net) today announced that its founder, Laura Knight-Jadczyk, a resident of France, is being sued in an Oregon court by 'Higher Balance Institute' (HBI), owned by Eric Pepin and based in Oregon.

HBI markets metaphysical products and claims to sell "the world's most advanced sixth sense meditation" program and a dietary supplement, "Magneurol6-S," that is guaranteed to make the consumer an "instant telepath." Pepin claims that users of his "psychic pill" find that "extended wireless phone use can cause discomfort." Consequently, they suggest "limiting the use of cell phones."

SOTT.net is an international, user driven alternative news site with volunteer editorial staffing around the globe. Quantum Future Group, Inc.(QFG), a California non-profit created by mathematician-physicist, Arkadiusz Jadczyk and Laura Knight-Jadczyk to fund independent researchers engaged in collecting social and historical data for mathematical systems analysis, is also named in the suit as defendant despite the fact that QFG does not own SOTT.net, nor does it have any controlling interest in the site.

HBI alleges in the suit filed by Bullivant Houser Bailey, PC, Portland, that the operators of SOTT.net "published false and defamatory statements" regarding HBI and Eric Pepin on the SOTT Web site forum. Pepin is seeking approximately $4.5 million in damages.

The suit stems from information posted on the SOTT.net forums [1] where globally based forum participants uncovered and reposted public-domain information and newspaper records showing that Pepin had recently faced numerous sexual abuse charges in an Oregon court involving a child and former employee of HBI. A grand jury found enough evidence to indict Pepin who admitted in court to having sexual relations with his employees. According to The Oregonian newspaper[2] Judge Steven L. Price, who presided over the case, stated that it was "probable that the conduct alleged in all counts occurred," but that the absence of a date stamp on a video proving that the events occurred while the complainant was still a minor meant that the allegations could not be proven 'beyond a reasonable doubt'. Judge Price was therefore obligated to acquit.

In response to the HBI suit, Laura Knight-Jadczyk, founder of SOTT.net and named as a defendant, said "This is an attack on freedom of speech, plain and simple. The issues SOTT.net are concerned with - the pathology of power and conspiracies among those in power - are specifically targeted in the suit. A victory for Pepin, considering the international nature of this suit, would therefore set a dangerous precedent in US courts and carry serious implications for Internet freedom of speech and ultimately civil liberties everywhere."

SOTT.net is requesting that all those with an interest in safeguarding Internet freedom of speech make an effort to ensure that this information reaches the widest audience possible.

For more information visit SOTT.net:

[1] http://www.sott.net/signs/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1360&p=1

[2] http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/05/leader_of_washington_county_in.html

About SOTT.net: Founded in 2002, Signs of The Times (SOTT.net) is an alternative news research resource and news analysis site.

Culture Censorship Journal
News and politics Personal Politics Society Laura Knight Jadczyk Pepin Eric Pepin SOTT HBI Higher Balance Institute Freedom of Speech

Hit by a Brick?

Quote of the Day:

All in all it was just a brick in the wall.
All in all it was all just bricks in the wall.

~ Pink Floyd ~ The Wall ~

"Have you heard ..." This is the first stage in a game known to many children as 'telephone.' The information is exchanged and changed as it progresses from person to person. Reaching the end, having been mangled and manipulated along the way, it is no longer recognizable.

In the case of written reports, case files or documented testimony, 'have you heard' no longer applies. This is what makes Eric Pepin's suit against Sign of the Times - SOTT - so ridiculous. He says his pocketbook and reputation has been soured by a conversation on the SOTT forum. I think it is mainly his pocketbook and ego but you should go over and read the offending posts for your self.

At first this suit might look like a ploy for attention or attempt to increase traffic by Pepin. It is nothing of the sort. Indeed, it is a very serious threat to every single blogger, forum or writer on the net who dares to express an opinion. In the case of SOTT, the best objective news source on the net could be silenced.

It is, in fact, a threat to First Amendment rights.

Don't hide your head in the sand over this one. All it takes is one single precedent, just one brick, and the Wall will go up for everyone.

Journal News and politics Personal Politics Society SOTT Signs Pepin Censorship First Amendment Threat to blogging

Poetry of Life

Quote of the Day:
“The key to all strange things is in thy heart."

~ Countee Cullen ~ The Shroud of Color ~

It's been quite a long while since I've written here. During the year long sojourn, work in the compost continued. A huge glop of cold, wet muck was discovered and turned about for examination and integration. If anyone ever asked me for advice I would tell them one thing: "Learning is fun."

On that note, I'll just say that there has been a lot written on real, hard copy, old fashioned paper notebooks. Some of it is bound to turn up here. Take a look at Cullen's poem referenced above for a glimpse of what it might be about. Cullen wrote of the despair, depression and eventual courage connected to being a black man. His words, however, could describe almost anyone here on earth who longs to learn the Truth in a world governed by lies.

It's not about race, religion, gender, nationality, or any of the other tools used by the pathocrats to keep people in cages and divided by belief.

"Oh, I will match you yet," I cried, "to truth."

Personal Poetry Society Spirituality Countee Cullen Poem