Atheist Group Prepares for Holidays With Ad Campaign Tackling "Biblical Morality"

In previous years, their campaigns have been upbeat and simple, reminding viewers that being a good person doesn't require belief in God.

This year, responding to a wave of religious fundamentalism, the American Humanist Association is getting a little more feisty with their major holiday ad campaign.  According to the Atlantic, "The AHA campaign, in particular, highlights some of the more violent and sexist passages of the Bible and Quran and contrasts them with quotes from Albert Einstein, Katherine Hepburn and others."

Other related campaigns hitting the airwaves this season include one from rival secular group American Atheists with a nativity scene and the slogan "you know its a myth."

AlterNet - NY Times – Billboards

We Are Energy

Hilarious: The Mainstream Media in all its 'Glory' (David Icke Website) - Sunday Express hit piece

US Students Protest IDF Soldier

On November 2, 2010 Sun Devils for Israel invited Sergeant Nadav Weinberg who is a Israel Defense Soldier (IDF) to speak about the "Ethics of the IDF." This is how ASU students responded.

Students for Justice in Palestine (ASU Chapter)

Adventurer's photos capture a bygone Mecca

He was an adventurer, a scholar, and possibly a spy -- but as Dutchman Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje proved with his rare 1885 photographs and sound recordings of Mecca, he was also a pioneering multimedia journalist.

Snouck's extraordinary collection of sepia-tinted images of Mecca in a bygone age have gone on display in Dubai ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage that originally drew him to the heart of Islam.

Accompanied by crackling, eerie soundscapes captured by Snouck using Thomas Edison's newly-invented wax cylinders, the exhibition paints a very different picture from the ornate and built-up Mecca familiar to modern visitors.

More on CNN.com

Time stands still in Belarus

The Belarusian opposition is the enemy of the people, President Alexander Lukashenko said.

"They are not even an opposition. They are the enemies of the people," he said, adding that the opposition was always trying to undermine the country by siding with Belarus's enemies.

The Belarusian parliament has set presidential elections for December 19. Lukashenko earlier hinted that he would take part in the elections, but has so far made no official statement on the matter.

(RIA Novosti)

Cool It

Cool it Movie Website - The new movie featuring the economist Bjorn Lomborg, who has been a thorn in the side of climate change activists since his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist," is provocative – and not just for the sake of being provocative.

Read more: thedailygreen.com

Nazis Were Given ‘Safe Haven’ in U.S.

A secret history of the United States government’s Nazi-hunting operation concludes that American intelligence officials created a “safe haven” in the United States for Nazis and their collaborators after World War II, and it details decades of clashes, often hidden, with other nations over war criminals here and abroad.

(Left Josef Mengele)

The 600-page report, which the Justice Department has tried to keep secret for four years, provides new evidence about more than two dozen of the most notorious Nazi cases of the last three decades.

It describes the government’s posthumous pursuit of Dr. Josef Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death at Auschwitz, part of whose scalp was kept in a Justice Department official’s drawer; the vigilante killing of a former Waffen SS soldier in New Jersey; and the government’s mistaken identification of the Treblinka concentration camp guard known as Ivan the Terrible.

(John Demjanjuk, Sobibor concentration camp guard)

The report catalogs both the successes and failures of the band of lawyers, historians and investigators at the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, which was created in 1979 to deport Nazis.

Perhaps the report’s most damning disclosures come in assessing the Central Intelligence Agency’s involvement with Nazi émigrés. Scholars and previous government reports had acknowledged the C.I.A.’s use of Nazis for postwar intelligence purposes. But this report goes further in documenting the level of American complicity and deception in such operations.

Read more on NYTimes.com

Also see The CIA and Nazi War Criminals -National Security Archive Posts Secret CIA History 2005 and Justice Department Censors Nazi-Hunting History

Bilderberg Prince II

William-Alexander, grandson of Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (later Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands), heir to the Dutch throne, who accompanies his mother (Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands)  to the annual Bilderberg-meetings. He is certainly no stranger to the long-term ambitions of his family, but- as heir to the throne- keeps his actions much more in the dark than his two brothers. As he is subject to a high degree of scrutiny, this prince passes his time with ‘global water-management’ for the UN. And even in this apparently innocent day job, the prince can hardly refrain from pushing global governance. It’s in his blood, you might say. In a document prepared by the prince for the Johannesburg Summit, he states:
“The most important area of global governance with a substantial potential impact on the water sector is the system of international trade.”
Lamenting that: “The effort to develop a much-needed institutional framework for international water governance has met with resistance and been relatively unsuccessful”, the prince recommends to “Have the World Trade Organization develop and consider virtual water balances, using a resource accounting framework, when assessing and negotiating agriculture subsidies and trade in agricultural products.”
Here they go again, have the WTO strangle nation-states into submission by lending and retracting agricultural funding.
“In the international arena”, says the prince, “water has shown to be a good catalyst for cooperation between nations.”

At a 2004 meeting of the International Institute for Sustainable Development held at United Nations headquarters in New York, the prince of Orange sat side by side with Bilderberger and Executive Director of UNEP Klaus Töpfer, discussing the “overall review of implementation of Agenda 21.” This, by the way, is the same Töpfer that admitted to an “international consensus on worldwide population control” back in 2000.
In Conclusion
Slowly but surely a picture is emerging from the plethora of facts. Both prince’s former and current employers are without exception notorious and regular Bilderbergers: No doubt a big Bilderberg future lies ahead for both princes, sons of the current Bilderberg number three and grandsons of its founder.
Although the New World Order’s quest for total control of the world’s natural (and human) resources is one that spans many decades and even centuries, the latest generation is as fervent to accomplish the destruction of nation-states as their forefathers ever were. History points out to us that decisive developments and events are not simply the children of coincidence, they are brought about at the hands of ruling elites throughout the ages.

More Grim Tidings From the Netherlands: Prince Bernhard’s Grandchildren Continue Bilderberg Legacy on Illuminati and United Nations of Film

Atheist

by Zachary Kroger

Christians in Iraq living in fear of 'pogrom' after bomb attacks

A bone-chilling fear seems pervasive throughout many of Baghdad's Christian communities. It started with the church massacre and became much worse this week when terrorists started attacking congregation members where they live.

But in the northern city of Mosul, fear has been endemic for the past five years. "You want to know our situation?" asked Father George Fatuhi, from the Mar Boulos Chaldean Catholic Church in central Mosul. "The attacks started in 2003 and they haven't stopped. Can you imagine this: there were 4,000 Catholic families living here back then and now around 20 percent remain.

"My church has been attacked four times. Sometimes on Sundays we have only 20 people at mass. If these attacks continue, I don't think you will find one Christian left in Iraq."

On Wednesday, a commemoration mass inside Our Lady of Salvation Cathedral, still stained with the blood of two dead priests and the terrorists who killed them, turned into a summit about the future for a growing group of reluctant Iraqis.

"This is our grandfathers' land and we do not want to leave," said Chaldean Patriarch, Cardinal Emmanuel Delli. "We should encourage Iraqis to stay. We want peace and we want security."

Read more on The Guardian

Iraq's Christians form new militias to combat Islamic extremists

North Korea March

LiveLeak.com

Burma releases Aung San Suu Kyi

The Burmese military authorities have released the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest.

Appearing outside her home in Rangoon, Ms Suu Kyi told thousands of jubilant supporters they had to "work in unison" to achieve their goals.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years. It is not yet clear if any conditions have been placed on her release.

US President Barack Obama welcomed her release as "long overdue". UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Ms Suu Kyi was an "inspiration", and called on Burma to free all its remaining political prisoners.

The decision to free 65-year-old Ms Suu Kyi comes six days after the political party supported by the military government won the country's first election in 20 years. The ballot was widely condemned as a sham.

BBC News -Global reaction to Suu Kyi release on Aljazeera

The Hidden Hand that Shaped History

Is there a hidden force behind the world events of the past centuries? Are the fall of European monarchies, the bringing forth of the Age of Enlightenment and our path towards a world democracy part of a great plan lead by a “hidden hand”? Before the advent of mass media, portraits depicting their leaders in majestic poses were the only artifacts people had. Do these portraits have an occult meaning?

One of those poses is the “hiding of the hand”. I remember my history teacher trying to explain why Napoleon was often shown with a hand inside his shirt. The common explanation went along these lines:

“Many theories have been presented as to why Napoleon is traditionally depicted with his hand in his waistcoat. Some of these theories include: he had a stomach ulcer, he was winding his watch, he had an itchy skin disease, in his era it was impolite to put your hands in your pockets, he had breast cancer, he had a deformed hand, he kept a perfumed sachet in his vest that he’d sniff surreptitiously, and that painters don’t like to paint hands”
-Tom Holmberg

Unless all the individuals discussed in this article had stomach ulcer or deformed hands, the gesture of hiding one’s hand simply has to have a specific meaning. It does. Most of the people using this sign are proven (and often enthusiastic) members of the Freemasons. Considering the great importance of this gesture in Masonic rituals and the fact that all of the elite were either part of Freemasonry or knew of it, it is simply impossible that the recurrence of this sign could be the result of a coincidence. The “hidden hand” can, in fact, be found in the rituals of the Royal Arch Degree of Freemasonry and the world leaders that use this sign are subtly saying to other initiates of the order: “This is what I’m part of, this is what I believe in and this is what I’m working for”.

More Hidden Hands on The Vigilant Citizen

Life In North Korea

Report from a foreign journalist in Pyongyang (2006) 
More information at: http://www.cjnr.info

Texas executed an innocent man

Claude Jones always claimed that he wasn’t the man who walked into an East Texas liquor store in 1989 and shot the owner. He professed his innocence right up until the moment he was strapped to a gurney in the Texas execution chamber and put to death on Dec. 7, 2000. His murder conviction was based on a single piece of forensic evidence recovered from the crime scene—a strand of hair—that prosecutors claimed belonged to Jones.

But DNA tests completed this week at the request of the Observer and the New York-based Innocence Project show the hair didn’t belong to Jones after all. The day before his death in December 2000, Jones asked for a stay of execution so the strand of hair could be submitted for DNA testing. He was denied by then-Gov. George W. Bush.

A decade later, the results of DNA testing not only undermine the evidence that convicted Jones, but raise the possibility that Texas executed an innocent man. The DNA tests—conducted by Mitotyping Technologies, a private lab in State College, Pa., and first reported by the Observer on Thursday—show the hair belonged to the victim of the shooting, Allen Hilzendager, the 44-year-old owner of the liquor store.

The Texas Observer - Claude Howard Jones on Clarkprosecutor.org - Texas Execution Information Center (weird)

Open Letter to the US White Right

Tim Wise has stepped once more into the cross-hairs of the New Right and the tea bagger GOP crowd. Like a ronin, he has decided to run headlong into the horde–all the while effortlessly taking heads like a zatoichi or samurai executioner.

For the uninitiated, Tim Wise (noted anti-racist activist and speaker) penned a sharp rebuttal to the politics of white racial resentment and the red tide that was the 2010 elections. His piece, “An Open Letter to the White Right,” was damning and sharp.

More on Alternet.org - Tim Wise Blog

Leaked China-Japan boat crash video sparks row and protests

A leaked video showing a collision between Japanese coast guard vessels and a Chinese fishing boat has sparked high-level tensions between the two Asian countries. The collision occurred on September 7 in the East China Sea, near a group of islands claimed both by Japan and China. Called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, the islands are controlled by Tokyo but also claimed by Beijing. The long-standing ownership dispute flared up after the collision video appeared on YouTube on Friday and was widely picked up by Japanese TV networks. Large demonstrations have occurred in both countries. China demanded an apology and compensation, but Tokyo countered by demanding that Beijing pay for damage to the patrol boats.

YouTube – China Global Times

Neglected ruins of Pompeii declared a 'disgrace to Italy'

the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, this ignominious heap is a "world scandal". Giorgio Napolitano, the country's president, called it "a disgrace for Italy". To Walter Veltroni, a former leader of Italy's opposition Democratic party, it is the proof that the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi "is not interested in culture". Unesco, which today announced it was sending a team of inspectors, said it had had "a devastating effect internationally".

Six days ago, the Schola Armaturarum Juventus Pompeiani, usually translated into English as Pompeii's House of the Gladiators, collapsed. It had survived the cataclysmic volcanic eruption in AD79 that engulfed and wiped out the town, a partial excavation in the 1920s that exposed its facade but left its rear rooms still buried, and even heavy Allied bombing in 1943 that forced it to be extensively rebuilt in the 1950s.

Full article on The Guardian

US must begin criminal investigation of torture following Bush admission

Amnesty International urges a criminal investigation into the role of former US President George W. Bush and other officials in the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" against detainees held in secret US custody after the former president admitted authorizing their use.

In his memoirs and in an interview on NBC News broadcast on 8 November 2010, the former President confirmed his personal involvement in authorising "water-boarding" and other techniques against "high value detainees".
"Under international law, the former President's admission to having authorized acts that amount to torture are enough to trigger the USA's obligations to investigate his admissions and if substantiated, to prosecute him," said Claudio Cordone, Senior Director at Amnesty International.
"His admissions also highlight once again the absence of accountability for the crimes under international law of torture and enforced disappearance committed by the USA."

In his memoirs, former President Bush focused on the cases of two detainees held in the secret program.

Abu Zubaydah was held at various undisclosed locations from April 2002 to September 2006, In August 2002, he was subjected to "water-boarding," in which water is used to begin the process of drowning, more than 80 times.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested on 1 March 2003 in Pakistan and transferred to secret CIA custody. That same month he was "water-boarded" 183 times, according to a report by the CIA Inspector General.

After three and a half years being held incommunicado in solitary confinement in secret locations, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was transferred to military custody in Guantánamo, where he and Abu Zubayhdah remain held without trial, along with more than 150 others.

Water-boarding was far from the only technique alleged to have been used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubayhdah and others held in the secret program that violated the international prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Other techniques included prolonged nudity, threats, exposure to cold temperatures, stress positions, physical assaults, prolonged use of shackles, and sleep.

"Under international law, anyone involved in torture must be brought to justice, and that does not exclude former President George W. Bush. If his admission is substantiated, the USA has the obligation to prosecute him," said Claudio Cordone.

Amnesty International USA

Heart Of Gold

Neil Young, Live from 1971. Neil digs around in his pockets trying to find the right harp and then plays a new song...Heart of Gold.

Edge Media TV Online

EMTV Online is a platform for bringing alternative, supressed controversion and down right different information to a rapidly awakening population. They aim to air programming that is educational, thought provoking and enlightening and very different to the propaganda served up by the mainstream media. Edge Media realises that the best way for humanity to break the spell cast over it is for people to reconnect and come back together. As such they offer everyone the chance to broadcast their information for all to see. Read More

Edge Media TV Online

Bush lying about Iraq in new book

Former President George W. Bush just isn't telling the truth, says one ex-world leader in a position to know. In his new book Decision Points, Bush claims that former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder offered him full-fledged support should he decide to invade Iraq.

Bush wrote that Schroeder told him, "What is true of Afghanistan is true of Iraq. Nations that sponsor terror must face consequences. If you make it fast and make it decisive, I will be with you."

"The former American president is not telling the truth," Schroeder told the German newspaper Der Spiegel Tuesday.

"I took that as a statement of support," Bush wrote. "But when German elections arrived later that year, Schroeder had a different take. He denounced the possibility of using force against Iraq."

Schroeder said that the meeting with Bush actually was more about whether Saddam Hussein had a hand in the 9/11 attacks. "Just as I did during my subsequent meetings with the American president, I made it clear that, should Iraq ... prove to have provided protection and hospitality to al Qaeda fighters, Germany would reliably stand beside the US," Schroeder said. "This connection, however, as it became clear during 2002, was false and constructed."

Schroeder is the second former official of a foreign government to accuse the president of fibbing in his new book.

More on Raw Story

Young Jews Disrupting Netanyahu at US Jewish General Assembly

A group of young Jews with the Young Leadership Institute of Jewish Voice for Peace has travelled to the largest gathering of Jewish leaders in the US and disrupted a speech by Israeli PM Netanyahu with banners that said:
The Settlements Delegitimize Israel
The Occupation Delegitimizes Israel
The Siege of Gaza Delegitimizes Israel
The Loyalty Oath Delegitimizes Israel
Silencing Dissent Delegitimizes Israel

Jewish Voice for Peace - Press release from Young, Jewish, and Proud

Free The West Memphis Three

Three Arkansas men convicted of murder could be going back to trial. The Arkansas Supreme Court ordered new hearings for Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley. Damien Echols lead attorney Donald Horgan joined FOX13 to explain the new evidence he says proves his clients innocence

Free The West Memphis Three Website

The Decline: The Geography of a Recession