Article;
The Dumbing Down Of The
American Mind               
by Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D.

There is a very dangerous phenomenon that
seems to be occurring in the United States of
America; something that I refer to as "the
dumbing-down of the American mind," a nearly
willful tendency for Americans to forgo reality in
favor of believing what they want to believe. But
how could such a thing have occurred in such a
proud nation, one that, according to George
Bush, has become known as a bastion of freedom
and democracy, a bright light for the whole world
to see?

In my opinion, there are five factors that can
explain such a phenomenon. First, there is the
dumbing-down of education in our country. After
having taught psychology at the college level for
the past 39 years, I have seen our standards
(what we essentially expect our students to
accomplish in order to prove that they have
learned something of value) go straight to hell! I
began my career as an Instructor of Psychology
back in 1966 at a very small junior college located
only 60 miles south of the Canadian border, one
with an enrollment of only 180 students, no doubt,
a very cold and humble place in which to begin a
teaching career!

And can you believe it, I actually required my
students to read an entire textbook during the
semester. And nobody got upset. Not the
administrators, not the parents, nor even the
students! However, today, if I were to do such a
thing, I would have an extremely difficult time
getting enough students to enroll in my classes in
order to keep my job. The problem: A very
determined standoff between the remaining few
teachers willing to maintain standards versus a
generation or two of students who are nearly
unwilling to learn, students who have "apparently
gone on strike" with an attitude of "I dare you to
force me to learn!" The result: The fact that
leniency (a lowering of academic standards in our
country) has won out at the expense of quality
education in that of our high schools as well as
that of our colleges.

Consequently, in my opinion, our country is slowly
but surely becoming "a nation of near retards," a
collective group of individuals who have become
so absurdly self-absorbed and disinterested in
acquiring knowledge that we, as a nation, are
slowly but surely losing touch with the reality of
what is actually going on in the world! The best
example is our population's general sense of
ignorance in relation to world history, and
especially that of our inability (or perhaps even
unwillingness) to understand our own country's
complicity in relation to the 9/11 attacks upon our
nation.

Second, there has been a tendency for folks in
our country to compartmentalize their religious
beliefs from that of science and philosophy. Now
it is important to understand that religion is based
upon faith (knowledge that comes from personal
experience). Science is based upon research
(knowledge that accrues from the experimental
process). And, of course, philosophy is based
upon logic (knowledge based upon rational
thought). One is no better than the other, and in
our search for truth each should be allowed to
complement the other. However, within that of
the Christian fundamentalist community (one that
did so very much to enable Bush-Cheney to be
elected), there has been a deliberate attempt to
discount what we have learned from science (as
in global warming), as well as that of rational
thought (that the world was created in a period of
one week's time).

These folks believe that their religious beliefs are
absolutely independent of anything and
everything else in life, that their beliefs about
God are more valid, and should be allowed to
supersede every other source of knowledge. It
doesn't matter to them if what they believe makes
no sense at all or if what they believe is in
absolute conflict with that of scientific evidence.
To them, there is no gray, nothing but black and
white, no critical thinking, nor even a willingness
to listen to "the other side." There is just us (the
good guys) and them (the bad guys), and,
regardless of what you say, I am right and your
are wrong, and if you do not agree with me, then
you are going to go to Hell... and that is that!
Probably the best example of such is an abject
unwillingness on the part of so many folks in our
country to face the mounting evidence that such
a Godly country (The USA) led by such a fine
Christian man (George Walker Bush) could have
led our country into such an atrocious war while,
along the way, having perhaps committed an
amalgam of crimes against humanity. You see.. to
hell with logic and scientific evidence, the truth
(reality) is simply a matter of what I want it to be!
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Article;
Dumbing Down the Audience
by Ralph Nader

The debate between progressives and
corporatist over the state of the mass media goes
like this-the former say fewer and fewer giant
media conglomerates control more of the print
and electronic outlets while the latter respond by
saying there has never been more choices for
listeners (radio), viewers (television) and readers
(magazines, newsletters and newspapers
combined).

Progressives add that half a dozen big
companies, which control so many media, lead to
a sameness of entertainment, news and
advertisement overload. Corporatist counter by
saying that there are more and more specialized
media available for just about every taste in the
audience.

I want to take a different approach here from my
personal experience with the fourth estate and
appearing before national audiences. There has
been a non-stop decline in access for serious
subjects of contemporary importance, especially
those topics that challenge corporate power.

Starting in the mid-Sixties until the nineteen
eighties, the major daytime television
entertainment shows were open to people with
causes and authors with books. The Mike Douglas
Show had me and my associates on during
programs that featured high-profile entertainers
such as John Lennon and the Jacksons. So did
the Merv Griffin Show and others of a lesser note.

The Phil Donahue Show opened to national
debate one controversial issue after
another-women's liberation, consumer labor,
environmental, gay-lesbian, anti-war, education,
race and verboten diseases. Still Phil managed
his share of titillating breakthroughs, including
male strippers, along with the staples of fashion
shows and celebrities.

No more. Replacing these shows are the
sado-masochistic bizzaro shows like Jerry
Springer's show or the warm and cuddly Oprah
presentations or the middle ground parade of
entertainment and celebrity performances such
as Montel Williams' Show. There is virtually no
chance of even getting one's calls returned; the
producers have their formulae for shows on a
revolving turnstile and need no further
suggestions.

Montel Williams used to have a consumer advice
show once in a while on matters that shoppers
really care about-whether they relate to health,
child safety or widely experienced rip-offs in the
marketplace. Now, someone as towering and
communicative as Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public
Citizen cannot even get on these shows,
including Oprah's, when he releases his
spectacular new editions of "Worst Pills Best
Pills".

During the Eighties and early Nineties, Dr. Wolfe
would take his life-saving, massive, inexpensive
book onto the Donahue Show. There, in a
gripping interaction with Phil and patients in the
audience, he would communicate to millions how
to use the information. He showed how to avoid
drugs with bad side effects on select drugs with
few side effects, though all were approved by the
Food and Drug Administration for dozens of
ailments such as high blood pressure, chronic
pain, colds, allergies, diabetes, infections,
osteoporosis, vitamin deficiencies, depression,
heart conditions and eye disorders.

This show produced great ratings and the largest
number of audience inquiries and orders in the
history of the Donahue Show. Dr. Wolfe recently
came out with his latest edition of "Worst Pills,
Best Pills". None of the daily afternoon shows
would have him on, even though more people are
taking more drugs than ever before and adverse
side-effects are growing in lethality.

Exclusion is the experience of many other
prominent authors and advocates. Food and
health writer, Jean Carper, who has had
numerous best sellers to her credit, in part from
appearing in major television shows, scarcely
appears today. Authors of great contemporary
research and substance, including William
Grieder, Jim Hightower and Robert Kuttner, used
to introduce their books on the national morning
talk shows. No more. They're lucky to even get on
the Charlie Rose Show-perhaps the only
frequently serious over-the-air daily national
television talk show left in the United
States-population nearly 300 million! These
morning network shows are heavily into
entertainment, celebrities, when not reporting
some important news.

Why, even humorist Art Buchwald, whose many
books used to be staples of the afternoon
entertainment shows, has been unable for years
to sneak by the congealed silliness that swarms
onto their stages. The audiences have become so
hyped with the weird and sexual that the funny
Buchwald is not seen as being able "to hold the
audience."

Last week, Ted Koppel signed off a quarter
century of anchoring ABC's Nightline. In his place,
where for some 22 minutes an important
contemporary situation or conflict was analyzed,
will be a show with a lighter mix of segments. Who
knows how long this experiment in reduced
attention span will last?

"Dumbing down the audience" is the infelicitous
phrase used by some media critics. You expect
less and less of your audience and that is the
audience you'll get. This also holds true for the
evening television news which blots out civic
actions in the home city in favor of ample sports,
lengthy weather times, street crime, light news, a
health story, an animal story and up to a minute of
contrived, spontaneous chitchat between the
anchors.

All this junk television is transmitted, without the
stations paying rent, to us for the public airwaves
that we the people own.

The examples abound. The point is clear.
Overweening commercialism, a docile Federal
Communications Commission, an unenforced
Communications Act of 1934, and an unorganized
viewer-listenership are leaving diverse thinkers
and doers without a national or even a local
audience.

We, the most powerful, technologically-equipped
nation on Earth are left with C-SPAN and the
suggestion that we an always start our own blog.
Folks, they're laughing at us and taking their
hilarity all the way to the bank-at our expense and
that of our children's futures. Story source
Commondreams.org
AMERICAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS
Article;
Transgender Drivers Face
Racism, Discrimination

The transgender community has experienced a
boom in visibility in the last decade. The National
Center for Transgender Equality estimates that
there are about 300 million transgender people.
However, left unexamined has been the issue of
racism and how transgender men and women
experience it, reports Alternet.org. Increasingly,
Black transgender men say they are
experiencing racism and didn't think the "driving
while black" stereotype would apply to them.
Louis Mitchell expected it when he began taking
injections of hormones eight years ago but did
not count on it affecting the way he drove, saying
he has been pulled over "300 percent more" now
than in his "23 years of driving, most
immediately."
A white person who transitions to a male body
just became a man. I became a Black man. I
became the enemy," London Dexter Ward, an
LAPD cop who transitioned in 2004, told
Alternet.org. Read how a federal gay-rights bill
stalled in Congress over controversy about
whether to include protections for transgender
people.
Site Map Click Here!
Archive page winter 2007-2008   To Page 2 - Front Page
Article;
"Death of the Dollar": Doomsday
for the United States?

The dollar's relentless descent has been greeted
by barely concealed glee among the foreign
press as a symbol of the decline of the United
States. Readers' comments on the London-based
Financial Times Web site regularly call the United
States "the next Argentina" -- the poster child of
how one of the world's wealthiest nations has
devolved into poverty and chaos. As one
commentator put it: "yawn, America's so
yesterday, baby." (sic).

The argument is familiar. Fears that U.S.
subprime woes might push the U.S. economy into
a recession are spooking investors holding U.S.
dollar-denominated assets. The U.S. economy
has become dangerously dependent on foreign
capital. Foreign investors have (finally) tired of
financing the profligate ways of the United States
and are driving the dollar -- the proxy of the
economic health of the nation -- even lower.
After running current account and trade deficits
since the early 1980s, the U.S. current account
deficit ballooned to 7% of GNP. Foreign central
banks -- fearing the United States may not be
able to repay its huge debts in outstanding
Treasury bonds -- are rushing to unload their
greenback reserves. This will tip the Titanic that
is the U.S. economy into the cold waters of
economic depression.

The crowds are rooting for the United States'
collapse on both sides of the pond. Harvard
economist Ken Rogoff argues that the subprime
mess has irretrievably tarnished the U.S. image
as a global financial center. A few weeks ago, I
attended a seminar on "Why the World Hates
America" at London's annual "Battle of Ideas."
There, everyone with a North American accent
was quick to point out that they were Canadian
lest they had to endure the shame of being
American. Political scientist Andrei Markovits
argues that anti-Americanism is the new
anti-Semitism. Except anti-Americanism is not a
sign of prejudice: it's now a sign of
sophistication. theglobalguru.com
Article;
George W. Bush
The Psychopathic God
By: Ernest Stewart
"What Bush's fraternity was doing was clearly
outside the rules, and they were sanctioned for
that." - Albert Evans, President of Yale
Inter-Fraternity Council in 1967, commenting on
the branding of pledges with red-hot coat
hangers while George W. Bush was fraternity
president.

'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would
tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in
Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell
me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq ..."
And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words
coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their
state and get the Israelis their security, and get
peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna
do it.'" - George Bush

George comes by his insanity honestly as he
comes from one of the 'ruling elite' families in the
country, i.e. from a long line of psychopathic
robber barons, you know America's royalty.

His mother's family power goes back to President
Franklin Pierce a real swell guy and one of the
most despicable presidents, a racist who plotted
a coup d'etat against Abraham Lincoln. On the
other side of the Crime Family Bush, you've got
his father; Papa Smirk, a former president, head
of the CIA, a UN ambassador, Con-gressman &
JFK assassin. Then there was his grandfather
Prescott, a former US Senator, a Wall Street
lawyer-banker who got busted for trading with
the enemy. As Hitler's American bankers Grand
Paters Bush and Walker continued making Nazi
Germany money until all their assets were seized
in late October 1942, 10 months after the war
started. I'm going to repeat that again for those
of you on drugs.

TEN MONTHS AFTER WE WERE AT WAR BUSH WAS
STILL SENDING HITLER CHECKS!

For example the Bush/Walker bank partially
financed the construction of Auschwitz and made
a $2 million profit off of it. Then there was
Prescott's papa Sam Bush who many say was the
person that the character in 'Little Orphan Annie'
"Daddy Warbucks" was based upon etc etc etc.

The Yale connection isn't just Papa's and Grand
Papa's. Kitty Kelley says in her book, they go back
to 1843 at Yale. When they talk about old money,
this is it. All Skull & Bones members too!

Papa Smirk gets W into Andover, the prep school
that Papa was a star at and W hangs up a
Confederate flag in his bedroom and while
engaging in the illicit trade of alcohol and fake
Ids he discovers cocaine! So by all means add
even more paranoia into this already sick mix!

In Justin Frank's book "Bush On The Couch"
Frank focuses on the relationship with Barbara
Bush, who is this "horrid Gorgon-like creature."
When you hear stories about how she brought up
her children, heavy into corporal punishment,
verbal abuse and neglect it's not surprising that
W has a sadistic side and turns it to sadistic
activities.

Later as president of the Dekes; his fraternity at
Yale, Georgie invents a new hazing ritual, which
is branding the initiates on the tailbone. They
heat up a wire clothes hanger until it's red hot
and use it to brand them. Rather homo-erotic,
no? So maybe Jeff Gannon was there at the
White House for more than just phony news
stories?

Bush is the ne'er-do-well son, even more so than
Jebthro and Neil and that's saying something
folks! Here's the most powerful man on the
planet who as a kid got his kicks by blowing up
frogs with firecrackers. You know what
psychiatrists say about children who like to
torture pets and animals to death, right? They say
such people often become mass murderers.
Most limit their insanity to slaying a few dozen or
if really ambitious a few hundred, of course they
aren't for the most part wealthy scum who've
inherited not only money but power as well. Such
creatures if given such power would giddily kill
millions of innocents. Sounds vaguely familiar,
does it not?

Abu Ghraib and Gitmo sprang right out of the
Bush's warped mind. Maybe the torture
instructions weren't coming from Rummy and
Cheney after all? Maybe they were George's
e-mails sent directly to Lynndie England, "Get the
leashes out bee-otcch and start branding people!
Oh and don't forget to film it and send
Kindasleezy, Rummy and me a copy!"

Now if that wasn't bad enough add in a large
dose of megalomania. As George is fond of
telling other world leaders that "God" talks to
him and that he is an "instrument" of the Lord or
perhaps that's a "tool" of the Lord? Ergo to defy
George is to defy God! Well isn't that special?
Where oh where have I heard such things before
I wonder? Oh yeah, from every mad-dog ruler
from the Pharaohs to Alexander to ___ (pick your
favorite Roman emperor) through various
Chinese, French, British, German, Spanish,
American etc. Kings, Emperors, Fuhrers, Popes,
Ayatollahs, Prime Ministers, Presidents and
Princes for the last 5,000 years. There's that
"history repeating itself" thingy rearing up it's
ugly head again!

Just one more thing; unlike the aforementioned
madmen, Bush has all the launch codes. Oh and
my American Taliban friends tell me he's
launching in August 2007.
Article;
North American Union - It's
Coming
By William H. Calhoun

If you have not read the news in a few months,
you may be unaware: there are plans to create a
North American Union, whereby Mexico, the
United States and Canada will eventually become
a single country, with a single currency and a
single superhighway system.

Construction on the NAFTA Superhighway,
encompassing I-69 and directed by NASCO, has
already begun in two states. It will run from
central Mexico, through the middle of the United
States, through Kansas City, and up into Canada.
It will be four football fields wide, off limits to
most Americans, and run by foreign companies.

The mechanism to implement the NAU is the SPP
(Strategic and Prosperity Partnership of North
America), which was settled between President
Bush, President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime
Minister Paul Martin during their March 2005
summit meeting in Waco, Texas. Sec. of State
Condoleezza Rice has been instrumental in
setting the SPP plans in motion. The North
American Union will modeled after ultra-liberal
European Union, and put in place by
administrative regulations under the SPP
umbrella.

Outraged by this plan, four patriotic
Congressmen (Reps. Virgil H. Good, Walter B.
Jones, Ron Paul, and Tom Tancredo) have
introduced H. Con. Res. 487, which states that
"the United States should not engage in the
construction of a North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System or
enter into a North American Union with Mexico
and Canada." In the last few weeks, patriot
Americans from all over the United States have
been telephoning their Congressmen demanding
that H. Con. Res. 487 be put to a vote and passed
in 2007.

Nevertheless, cheerleaders for the Bush
Administration deny that any plans for a North
American Union exist. Neocon Michael Medved
says that "there's no reason at all to believe in
the ludicrous, childish, ill-informed, manipulative,
brain dead fantasies about a North American
Union. The entire chimera has been conjured up
to scare people over nothing...."

If there are no plans for a North American Union,
then why did four of the most patriotic
Congressmen see it necessary to introduce H.
Con. Res. 487? And if it is not real, then what
would H. Con. Res. 487 harm? Legislation
preventing a "chimera" certainly cannot present
any danger. Why are neocon Trotskyites like
Medved becoming so emotionally unstable over
a bill to prevent a "chimera"?

To any discerning mind, plans for a North
American Union do exist. One only need to look
at the wording of SPP documents, or look at the
NASCO website. It has been set in motion. As
Cicero famously said, "patere tua consilia non
sentis, constrictam iam horum omnium scientia
teneri coniurationem tuam non vides?"

How have we come to this place? The NAFTA
agreement can be seen as the beginning, which
the wisest recognized as a disaster from day one.
Historically, conservatives have opposed free
trade, and they should. It is destroying our
economy, it is undermining our sovereignty, and
it is national suicide. Many in the GOP, however,
have been "neoconned" on this issue.

To see the connection between free trade the
dissolution of the USA under the North American
Union, only need to read Karl Marx. On Jan. 9,
1848, in "On the Question of Free Trade," Marx
said, "...in general, the protective system of our
day is conservative, while the free trade system
is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and
pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the
bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the
free trade system hastens the social revolution.
It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen,
that I vote in favor of free trade."

Notice, Marx's celebration of the breaking up of
"old nationalities." Such a statement is similar to
GW Bush's claim that the USA is not an "actual
place," but an "idea." Neocons celebrate this
Marxist notion of a "propositional nation,"
because it removes the historic prerequisites of
nationhood: borders; a common language,
history and genealogy; blood and soil; kith and
kin; and genophilia (instinctive attachment to
family and tribe).

It is thus that GW Bush and others have so
adamantly supported the third-world invasion of
American, and why many predict that the 700-mile
fence will not be built. The U.S.-Mexico border
must be abolished for the implementation of the
North American Union.

It is all about profit and cheap labor, and big
business adamantly supports the prerequisite of
the North American Union: the third-world
invasion of America. During the Cold War, big
business sided with many conservatives to
oppose Marxism. Now, however, most large
corporations side with the internationalist Left.

In the 1950s, when our country was invaded,
President Eisenhower responded with
"Operation Wetback" and deported around a
million invaders in a single year. Today, however,
politicians say they are unable. Rather, they are
unwilling.

Some of the greatest traitors in American history
are right before our eyes: GW Bush, Dick Cheney,
Condoleezza Rice, John McCain, Arlen Specter,
Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Sam
Brownback, Linda Chavez, Alberto Gonzales,
Carlos Gutierrez, Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama,
John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, John
Edwards, Harry Reid, Linda Sanchez, Robert
Menendez, Luis Gutierrez, Solomon Ortiz, and
the list goes on and on. These miscreants have
chosen Mexico, multicultural political
correctness, and big business over hard-working
Americans. They have betrayed Middle America.

And what can be done to stop this North
American Union (aka, treason)?

Call and write your Congressmen, and demand a
real patriotic President in 2008, like Duncan
Hunter or Tom Tancredo.

We are under attack - both from within and
without. Prepare for the oncoming madness! Stop
the North American Union! Stop the third-world
invasion!

William H. Calhoun is a writer, paleoconservative,
poet-warrior in the classical sense, farmer on his
ancestral estate, and graduate of the University
of Chicago. He can be reached at
williamhcalhoun@yahoo.com

alan@newsblaze.com
Copyright © 2008, NewsBlaze, Daily News
Tags: Opinions, Politics, Republicans and
Democrats, Republicans
Top of Page
Martial Law
by Michael Nolan

Many folks accept, some with a sense of high
probability, that the US will suffer a terrorist
attack, perhaps of horrific proportions. If that
happens, as General Tommy Franks and others
have suggested, democracy could well fail and
the US Constitution could be brought down and
replaced by martial law. An attack would leave a
terrified US populace, many of them so desperate
for a sense of order, so lustful for revenge
against the terrorists (to be identified by the War
Machine, of course) that they will follow the US
Government in lockstep. Nuke Iran and Syria
immediately (as neocons have wanted to do for
quite some time)? No problem. Arrest and
intimidate anyone who dares speak out against
the government? Hey, national security is at
stake. Vigilantism waged against dissident
“traitors”? We’re fighting for the survival of
Western civilization, for God’s sake.

But that can’t happen here! Continue....
Article;
Chocolate And Child Labor
By Joan Obra
Fresno Bee

OAKHURST, Calif. - For many folks, chocolate is a
guilty pleasure. But for eighth-graders at
Mountain Home Charter School, a chocolate
fund-raiser inspired only guilt.

That's because about 70 percent of the world's
cocoa - taken from the cacao tree to make
chocolate - comes from West Africa, where
reports of abusive child labor have circulated for
years.

Alarmed by the evidence, eighth-grader Masha
Bluestein hoped to change Mountain Home's
fund-raiser for a class trip to Catalina Island. So
she and her mother, Cordia Bluestein, pitched an
idea to the other parents: Instead of selling any
old chocolate, let's choose chocolate that's
certified fair trade.
Read complete story here!