Whispers from the Wild

The term “Pro-Choice” means that by its definition you’re for the legal right to choose something.  However, that has been spun by the anti-abortionists, to mean “we’re pro choosing FOR you, we aren’t pro you choosing yourself if your choice contradicts our beliefs”.

Anti abortionists don’t like the fact that what they are contains the word “anti”.  It has negative connotations, and they don’t like that.  Those sorts of people don’t like to think there might be ANYTHING negative about themselves.  So they twist it around, they call it “Pro Life” when in fact it isn’t.

With our first child less than 50 days from arriving (assuming he’s on time) I find myself with a new anger towards these people.  Andrea and I have discussed this at length, under what circumstances we would consider or rule out an abortion.  We both agree that it’s nobodies business except the parents, and it annoys me to see these right wingnuts saying that because they personally believe abortion is a sin, everyone else – regardless of circumstances – has to abide by their decision.

One of the things they deride the eastern world for is lack of choice given to women.  It’s barbaric, these wingnuts complain, while at the same time they’re trying to pass laws in the US that would prohibit abortion even in cases of rape.  That, to me, is the ultimate barbarity – to ban a woman that has been raped from having an abortion because some wingnut believes it’s a sin.  To sentence that woman to 18 years of looking daily at a reminder of her rape, just because some wingnut believes it’s a sin to have an abortion.

So for goodness sake, you anti-abortionist crowd – at least TRY to be honest.  You’re not “pro-life” because you’d keep something or someone alive when their quality of life wasn’t worth living.  You’re ANTI-ABORTIONIST.  Deal with it.

You may remember a long while ago I advocated watching The Story of Stuff which was a thought-provoking look at the mentality of how we treat our disposable items.  Now there’s another thought provoking video, much larger in size but absolutely fascinating.  Zeitgeist isn’t a light watch, at just over two hours – but it’s a must-see if you are of a free thinking nature.

It starts with a look at the end of the world.  No, seriously.  Most people when they think of the Book of Revelations from the Bible think that it literally means the end of the world.  Not so, argues Zeitgeist.  In fact, Christianity plagiarises a much older religious system, from 3,000BC Egypt, which believes not in fire and brimstone end of the world scenarios, but different ages.  The different ages are represented by the signs of the Zodiac, and right now we’re in the age of Pisces, the fish.  The ages are around 2,200 years long, which by coincidence is the time it takes the earth to do a full circuit of the sun.  The current age will come to a close around 2150, when the next age – Aquarius – will begin.  This is the ‘end of the world’ scenario Bible Bashers like to talk about, ignoring the original Egyptian belief that it didn’t mean the end of the WORLD, it meant the end of the AGE.  Part one talks about how those in power use religion to keep the masses in line, but shows that religion is purely a tool and nearly all religions have the same base, which is rooted in what we human beings perceive as the universe around us.  It puts in perspective that religion is the soil upon which other things can be planted and made to grow.

Part two deals with the politics that puts the world where it is now.  9/11 prominently, and the fact that a very small number of people make money in huge amounts from wars.  It goes through the various wars of the last century – WW1, WW2, Vietnam – and shows the major banking establishments were playing both sides against the other, and profiting off the wars.  That’s why Vietnam went on so long; the longer it went on, the more money it generated.

The eventual shaping is four huge unions.  The European Union, the African/Middle East union, the American Union (Canada/US/Mexico) and the Asian Union.  All bankrolled by the same people.  All to be joined together into one at the start of the next age (the end of the world as we know it).  And this leads us to section 3:  The men behind the curtain.

I won’t spoil the ultimate conclusions of the film – go watch it for yourself.  But take into account that a lot of people now equate research with what comes off the internet.  Control the places of reference on the internet, such as Wikipedia, and you can manipulate what people believe because the research they do is already modified to say what the powers that be want it to say. So people do simple research on official stories, and get back information that they accept as factual even if that information has been doctored before it reaches the medium that it’s stored on before those people do their research.  Information is power.  Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Watch the film.  Feel free to comment on it here.  It’s absolutely fascinating, and if even 10% of what it says is true it sheds some real light on the whole world we live in.

Second Link to the film, but with subtitles

I was contacted over the weekend by someone who had fallen prey to one of a new breed of virus email, one that still requires a good deal of naivety to fall prey to. But people still do, so I’m going to go through it.

I’ve received several of these personally, so I can show what they look like. They look like this:

From: (randomly selected email address)
Subject: Tracking Number (random number)
Body:
Unfortunately we were not able to deliver postal package you sent on August the 1st in time because the recipient’s address is not correct.

Please print out the invoice copy attached and collect the package at our office

Your FEDEX.com [or "Your UPS.COM"]

Attached to the email will be a zipfile attachment.  The reason it’s in a zipfile is to try and trick any virus checkers that can’t scan within zipfiles.  Inside the zip file will be an executable file (.exe) named something like Exel_Invoice_NR719200.xls.exe (the number can vary).  As an executable file it can be – and is – given an icon of its own, and this icon is made to look almost identical to the word or excel document icon.  Sometimes it pretends to be a Word file, sometimes an Excel file and sometimes a PDF file, but either way it always ends .exe and if extracted and run, infects the computer with a virus.

Now, there are a number of things that expose this as a fraud.  Let’s go through them

1. If you are not expecting anything, haven’t bought anything recently that hasn’t been delivered, or don’t have a UPS or Fedex account, this is obviously not a legitimate email.  It pertains to come from either My UPS or My Fedex – neither of which operate in this manner.
2. If, as the email claims, they can’t find your address – how have they got your email address?  This is perhaps the biggest indicator of the illegitimate nature of the email.
3. When something can’t be delivered, it is returned to the sender.  NEVER does the shipping company contact the receiver – the only case they ever would, would be in the event of a pre-filled waybill… which would go with account number not address, and which would in any case have a correct address.

So if you get an email like this, don’t open it.  Delete it.  Practice safe email.

So let’s have a brief recap.

Russia invades Georgia.
Russia decides “mission accomplished” and agrees to a ceasefire
Russia refuses to withdraw until “the security situation is better”
Russia refuses to set a “timetable for withdrawal”

Sound familiar?

Well, okay, so the US never agreed to a ceasefire, but aside from that the parallels are astounding. Almost as astounding as the hypocrisy from John Bush and George McCain, both of which insist in a virtually impossible manner to separate, that Russia must immediately withdraw. The fact they both ignored Russia when it suggested the US withdraw from Iraq seems to have passed them by.

There’s been a lot of talk recently – mostly on Faux Noise – about Russia somehow being removed from the UN permanent security council for its disobedience to American interests. That will never happen. Why? Because both Russia and China – who are both permanent security council members – are worried about US aggression, both weaponwise and economical, and for Russia to be kicked off the council will require a yes vote from all the other members. While it’s unlikely that China would specifically veto the measure, their yes vote would also be required, and I can’t see that happening. Their abstention from the vote would cause it to be defeated, they HAVE to agree for it to be approved. They don’t need to veto it in order to stop it.

Living in Canada we get a lot of American TV shows and it never ceases to amaze me how many things start with “world”. There’s things like “World Baseball Series”, “World Wrestling Entertainment” and even “Worlds Wildest Police Chases”. The latter program I was watching a few nights ago. Did it have a single incident from outside the US? No. The inference is clear. The US is the world. Even though it isn’t.

We’ve also got Bush ranting on about how “the free world” is disgusted by Russia’s actions. Erm, excuse me, Mr Guantanamo Bay, Mr “imprison anyone without rights by declaring them an ‘enemy combatant’” president – what the hell do YOU know about “the free world”? You’ve taken the US from a democracy to a police state… kindly don’t lecture other people about what the “free world” would and wouldn’t do. Sure, Tibet is a stain on China, and Georgia a stain on Russia, but you CANNOT ignore the fact that both Guantanamo Bay and the internationally ILLEGAL invasion and occupation of Iraq are and continue to be a stain on the US. What makes you think you can lecture others about the “free world” and what it thinks when you continue to promote such suppression of freedom as this?

So yes, China will continue to occupy Tibet. They’ll probably say it’s “for their national protection”. Russia will continue to occupy Georgia, and will refuse to set a “timetable for withdrawal”. And both of these will continue to sound all too familiar – because they’re EXACTLY what the American Neoconservatives are doing in other parts of the world.