http://ignoregon.com/rss/corvallis Aggregated Blog Posts From Corvallis Thu, 17 May 2012 17:25:01 +0000 en http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/bravest-of-brave-will-try-to-expose-lie.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/bravest-of-brave-will-try-to-expose-lie.html Thu, 17 May 2012 15:49:00 +0000 Iraq Vets Returning Medals at NATO Summit in Chicago"(NEW YORK) -- A protest of Iraq war veterans at the NATO summit being held in Chicago this weekend is intended to send a strong message to Washington and the European alliance.Some members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War plan to return their medals to NATO generals on Sunday, claiming they were given their honors for bravery or suffering for "a war based on lies and failed policies."The group said on its blog the Global War on Terror "has killed hundreds of thousands, stripped the humanity of all involved, and drained our communities of trillions of dollars, diverting funds from schools, clinics, libraries, and other public goods."Following the rally, the vets are expected to march to the convention center to give back their medals. If they are unable to meet with the NATO generals, they said they would throw their medals at the building.About 30 to 50 veterans are expected to participate in the protest."This happened many times during the Vietnam debacle but was ignored by execrable MSM. http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/global-debt-crisis-collapse-is.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/global-debt-crisis-collapse-is.html Thu, 17 May 2012 15:28:00 +0000 There isn't enough money on planet Earth"No matter how you look at it, as The Automatic Earth and others have pointed out ad infinitum, in the end the US economy rests on two pillars: Jobs and Housing. They are where both all the good and bad in economic terms begin and end. Ben Bernanke and his Fed policies are majestically failing on both counts.That is the reality that is shaping America’s reality today. Anything else is just a sideshow. Discard all the hubris on recovery, on falling unemployment; all that is but a mirage the political/industrial/financial/media conglomerate wishes you to see and believe in, so you won’t pay attention to what truly goes on. Which is that Fed and Treasury policies were never designed to support or revive the economy you depend on for your income and your well-being in general. They were and are designed to take your wealth away from you.What is at issue? Easy as pie: banks were bailed out with many trillions of dollars in taxpayer funds (which they won’t pay back, they’ll just come back for more) without any scrutiny to speak of.Bernanke and Geithner at best (yeah, right!) just “hoped” they would lend again, but they never made it a condition of the bailouts. What we find now is what I have repeatedly been saying for years now: The banks are far too deep in debt, even after the bailouts, to revive lending even to “healthy buyers”. The entire bailout circus has been a scam, since the money was handed out to banks without looking at how much debt they really have on their books.It’s all been one big massive wealth transfer, perpetrated under the guise of fixing the financial system and the economy in general. Neither was the real purpose behind the bailouts: they were and are nothing but a clever way to steal from the poor and fork over the loot to the rich. And they ain’t done yet. That, you can put your money on. That is a safe bet.You need to wake up to this. You really do. You need to cut your dependence on the financial/political system to the maximum extent that you can. If you don’t, it will steamroller over you. The system is so deep in debt that it will come looking for every last penny it can find in your pockets. Many of you will be caught by surprise, and stuck with tens of thousands of dollars, and often many times, in debt. That will turn you into a potential slave. Or a prisoner, if you will. Terminology is not an urgent priority on the chain gang." http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/drug-agents-want-piece-of-worldwide.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/drug-agents-want-piece-of-worldwide.html Thu, 17 May 2012 14:46:00 +0000 They probably just flew away after the murders, leaving neighbors and family to fish the ripped up bodies out of the water.Hondurans Demand DEA Leave After Shooting"TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) �" People in Honduras' predominantly Indian Mosquito coast region burned down government offices and demanded that U.S. drug agents leave the area, reacting angrily to an anti-drug operation in which they say police gunfire killed four innocent people, including two pregnant women.The anger is aimed at both Honduran authorities and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which confirmed on Wednesday that some of its agents were on a U.S.-owned helicopter with Honduran police officers when the shooting happened Friday on the Patuca River in northeastern Honduras.Honduran and U.S. officials said only the police officers on the anti-drug mission fired their weapons, and not until the helicopter was shot at first. The officials said the aircraft was chasing a small boat suspected of carrying drugs on the river.Local officials said the two men and two pregnant women killed weren't drug smugglers. They said the victims were diving for lobster and shellfish."These innocent residents were not involved in the drug problem, were in their boat going about their daily fishing activities ... when they gunned them down from the air," Lucio Vaquedano, mayor of the coastal town of Ahuas, said in a telephone interview Wednesday.Recounting the burning of government offices in the northern Gracias a Dios region, Vaquedano said, "Some of the inhabitants reacted with anger at the attack, and sought revenge against the government."The leaders of the Masta, Diunat, Rayaka, Batiasta and Bamiasta ethnic groups said in a press statement that "the people in that canoe were fishermen, not drug traffickers.""For centuries we have been a peaceful people who live in harmony with nature, but today we declared these Americans to be persona non grata in our territory," the statement continued." http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/armed-drone-buzzes-kids-soccer-game.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/armed-drone-buzzes-kids-soccer-game.html Thu, 17 May 2012 14:21:00 +0000 "Don't be afraid of technology, technology is your friend" http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/teaching-kids-to-kneel.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/teaching-kids-to-kneel.html Thu, 17 May 2012 13:24:00 +0000 Arrested development: The criminalization of America’s schoolchildren "[P]ublic school reform is now justified in the dehumanizing language of national security, which increasingly legitimates the transformation of schools into adjuncts of the surveillance and police state . . . students are increasingly subjected to disciplinary apparatuses which limit their capacity for critical thinking, mold them into consumers, test them into submission, strip them of any sense of social responsibility and convince large numbers of poor minority students that they are better off under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system than by being valued members of the public schools."�"Professor Henry GirouxFor those hoping to better understand how and why we arrived at this dismal point in our nation’s history, where individual freedoms, privacy and human dignity have been sacrificed to the gods of security, expediency and corpocracy, look no farther than America’s public schools.Once looked to as the starting place for imparting principles of freedom and democracy to future generations, America’s classrooms are becoming little more than breeding grounds for compliant citizens of the police state. In fact, as director Cevin Soling documents in his insightful, award-winning documentary The War on Kids, which recently aired on the Documentary Channel, the moment young people walk into school, they increasingly find themselves under constant surveillance: they are photographed, fingerprinted, scanned, X-rayed, sniffed and snooped on. Between metal detectors at the entrances, drug-sniffing dogs in the hallways and surveillance cameras in the classrooms and elsewhere, many of America’s schools look more like prisons than learning facilities.Add to this the epidemic of arresting schoolchildren and treating them as if they are dangerous criminals, and you have the makings of a perfect citizenry for the Orwellian society�"one that can be easily cowed, controlled, and directed. Indeed, what once was looked upon as classically childish behavior such as getting into food fights, playing tag, doodling, hugging, kicking and throwing temper tantrums is now being criminalized.Whereas in the past minor behavioral infractions at school such as shooting spitwads may have warranted a trip to the principal’s office, in-school detention or a phone call to one’s parents, today, they are elevated to the level of criminal behavior with all that implies. Consequently, young people are now being forcibly removed by police officers from the classroom, arrested, handcuffed, transported in the back of police squad cars, and placed in police holding cells until their frantic parents can get them out. For those unlucky enough to be targeted for such punishment, the experience will stay with them long after they are allowed back at school. In fact, it will stay with them for the rest of their lives in the form of a criminal record.For example, in November 2011, a 14-year-old student in Brevard County, Florida, was suspended for hugging a female friend, an act which even the principal acknowledged as innocent. A 9-year-old in Charlotte, North Carolina, was suspended for sexual harassment after a substitute teacher overheard the child tell another student that the teacher was "cute." A 6-year-old in Georgia was arrested, handcuffed and suspended for the remainder of the school year after throwing a temper tantrum in class. A 6-year-old boy in San Francisco was accused of sexual assault following a game of tag on the playground. A 6-year-old in Indiana was arrested, handcuffed and charged with battery after kicking a school principal.Twelve-year-old Alexa Gonzalez was arrested and handcuffed for doodling on a desk. Another student was expelled for speaking on a cell phone with his mother, to whom he hadn’t spoken in a month because she was in Iraq on a military deployment. Four high school students in Detroit were arrested and handcuffed for participating in a food fight and charged with a misdemeanor with the potential for a 90-day jail sentence and a $500 fine. A high school student in Indiana was expelled after sending a profanity-laced tweet through his Twitter account after school hours. The school had been conducting their own surveillance by tracking the tweeting habits of all students.These are not isolated incidents. In 2010, some 300,000 Texas schoolchildren received misdemeanor tickets from police officials. One 12-year-old Texas girl had the police called on her after she sprayed perfume on herself during class. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, over 90,000 kids were entered into the criminal justice system during the 2009�"2010 school year, and over 500 of those were arrested at school.It is hard to believe that such things�"children being handcuffed and carted off to jail for minor incidents�"could take place in a so-called "free" country. However, since the introduction of police, high-tech surveillance systems and zero tolerance policies into the schools, this is the reality with which nearly 50 million students in America’s elementary and secondary public schools must contend." http://www.christonium.com/corvallistidbits/dr-jill-stein-green-party-candidate-for-president http://www.christonium.com/corvallistidbits/dr-jill-stein-green-party-candidate-for-president Thu, 17 May 2012 08:55:00 +0000 Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for President, was in Corvallis yesterday speaking to a small http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/repug-cheating-to-favor-mittbot-could.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/repug-cheating-to-favor-mittbot-could.html Thu, 17 May 2012 06:21:00 +0000 It's Romney's to Lose: Here's How He Does It "Many of Ron Paul's supporters are currently abuzz with a letter that was written by Jennifer Sheehan, the RNC's legal council in 2008, which appears to state that no state delegate to the GOP convention is bound by his state to vote for a particular candidate. The excitement derives from the fact that if it were true, an outright Romney victory in the first round of voting at the convention in Tampa would be rather unlikely. But if it is not true -- and I am sure the GOP will change rules if necessary to make it untrue -- there may be just as much excitement to be had in the possibility of something that is rather more in the control of Paul's supporters.It's the big "What if?" question that the letter begs but that few have asked.What if Paul's supporters just ignore the binding rules and vote their consciences? What if, in Tampa, all those Paul supporters who are bound by state rules to vote for Romney put the ball firmly back in the GOP's court, and say, "Your move"?One's first reaction might be to point out that if that were possible, it would have happened before.But that would be a mistake. The GOP is now in uncharted territory.Romney's support has proven so shallow and Paul's so deep that, all over the country, at GOP meetings in which delegates are selected to represent a county at the state convention or a state at the national convention, there are too many Paulites in the room to allow pro-Romney party officials to get their favored slates pushed through without underhanded shenanigans. This is having important effects. The most immediately important of these is that, in states where delegates are bound to vote for the candidate who won the state's primary vote (often Romney), the delegates who care enough to actually participate in the process are Paul supporters, and they are selecting Paul-favoring delegates. For example, whereas of the 28 delegates that Nevada will be sending to Tampa, eight are bound to Paul and 20 are bound to Romney, 14 of Romney's eight are really Ron Paul supporters who'd only be voting for Romney because they are "bound" to. And in Colorado, where 14 delegates are bound to Romney, and only two to Paul, what the official numbers don't say is that the 16 uncommitted are probably all Paul supporters.So if the Paul supporters were not bound, they may indeed have the numbers, and therefore the means, to stop Romney in the first round of voting. But would they have the chutzpah to unbind themselves -- and a reasonable expectation that if they caused such creative chaos, the outcome could be favorable? I think they do -- courtesy of the GOP itself.Romney's Achilles' heel is a moral one. It is the sum of all of the cheating that has been done in his favor by the party."more http://jaggy732.blogspot.com/2012/05/non-stop-go-go-go.html http://jaggy732.blogspot.com/2012/05/non-stop-go-go-go.html Wed, 16 May 2012 20:42:00 +0000 My week started off with a dentist appointment.  Not exactly my happiest moment of the week.  But they didn't find any new cavities or problems, so that's good.  Doesn't make up for the fact that I still have to go back next week and get some old fillings replaced and some more not-covered-by-insurance stuff done.  Yay. We went to Portland last weekend to go shopping and out to lunch with my http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/real-life-armageddon.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/real-life-armageddon.html Wed, 16 May 2012 20:30:00 +0000 Nasa trains astronauts for asteroid mission "It is a space mission straight from the Hollywood film Armageddon.A team of astronauts are being trained to land on an asteroid to explore its surface, search for minerals and even learn the skills they may need to destroy it should one pose a threat to the Earth.Nasa, the US space agency, is planning to send humans far further than they have ever been before to by making contact with an asteroid up to three million miles away by the end of the next decade.It would take astronauts far beyond the current limit of human endeavour �" the Moon, which is 239,000 miles from Earth.Travelling at around 50,000 miles per hour around the Sun with almost non-existent gravity due to their small size, landing safely on these space rocks will present a significant challenge." http://www.onfocus.com/2012/05/4838 http://www.onfocus.com/2012/05/4838 Wed, 16 May 2012 19:00:00 +0000 How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet A great though depressing article by Mat Honan about the history and current state of Flickr at Yahoo!. http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/slow-moving-train-wreck.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/slow-moving-train-wreck.html Wed, 16 May 2012 16:48:00 +0000 The Bank Runs In Greece Will Soon Be Followed By Bank Runs In Other European Nations"The bank runs that we are watching right now in Greece are shocking, but they are only just the beginning. Since May 6th, nearly one billion dollars has been withdrawn from Greek banks. For a small nation like Greece, that is an absolutely catastrophic number. At this point, the entire Greek banking system is in danger of collapsing. If you had money in a Greek bank, why wouldn't you pull it out? If Greece leaves the euro, all euros in Greek banks will likely be converted to drachmas, and the value of those drachmas will almost certainly decline dramatically. In fact, it has been estimated that Greek citizens could see the value of their bank accounts decline by up to 50 percent if Greece leaves the euro. So if you had money in a Greek bank, it would only make sense to withdraw it and move it to another country as quickly as possible. And as the eurozone begins to unravel, this is a scenario that we are going to see play out in country after country. As member nations leave the eurozone, you would be a fool to have your euros in Italian banks or Spanish banks when you could have them in German banks instead. So the bank runs that are happening in Greece right now are only a preview of things to come. Before this crisis is over we are going to see bank runs happening all over Europe.If Greece leaves the euro, the consequences are likely to be quite messy. Those that are promoting the idea that a "Grexit" can be done in an orderly fashion are not being particularly honest. The following is from a recent article in the Independent.... "Whoever tells you a Greek exit would be no big deal is an idiot, lying or disingenuous," said Sony Kapoor of the European think-tank Re-Define. Economists fear that a disorderly exit would prompt a huge run by investors on Spanish and Italian debt, forcing those countries to seek support from an EU bailout fund, which, with a capacity of just €500bn, is widely regarded as too small to cope with those pressures.A Greek exit from the euro would not only result in a run on Spanish and Italian bonds, but it would also likely result in a run on Spanish and Italian banks.If Greece is allowed to leave the euro, that will be a signal that other countries will eventually be allowed to leave as well. Nobody in their right mind would want their euros stuck in Spanish or Italian banks if those countries end up converting back to national currencies.Fear is a powerful motivator." http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/solar-eclipse-may-20.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/solar-eclipse-may-20.html Wed, 16 May 2012 14:50:00 +0000 Finally an eclipse that favors the western states, although it'll be an annular event, meaning the moon is a little too far away to totally obscure the sun. The last total eclipse that I experienced was up in Oregon over thirty years ago. I'm going to lug the ten inch catadioptric with it's sun filter out to experience it and I hope to take some pictures of it.My astronomical endeavors changed over the years although I never tire being under a clear night's sky. When I first started using optical equipment the most important thing to me was to test the limits of my abilities - catching Pluto, finding all Messier objects, locating 14th magnitude galaxies and so on. The Messier catalog was a piece of cake, actually. But sometimes I'd stay up most of the night trying for just a couple of targets.That dedication waned for a number of reasons, mainly because I took it all to the limits of what types of equipment I had. I went to star parties to shmooze with other backyard astronomers and show noobies some stuff and even met the great John Dobson at one of them. There aren't many heroes in my life. Dobson is right at the top of my list.It all changed again as things do. Rather than be clinical and technical behind the eyepieces I found it to be much more enjoyable to just relax and enjoy the night skies in different ways. Oh sure I loved all the old favorites - Jupiter with it's swirling moons, M31 the Andromeda galaxy (by the way the most distant non stellar object seen by the naked eye under not light polluted skies)The big globulars and the ever changing moon. I started taking pictures a lot more of star trails and comets, also I enjoy sketching constellations and learning the names (mostly Arabic) of all the visible stars in the sky. My wife and I named all our cats after astronomical objects over the years except a stray male who adopted us three years ago who's called Moochie. But even though my passion's waned there's still the thrill of rare events like eclipses and occultations, asteroid fly-bys and especially Venus transiting the sun June 5. The next will be in 2117.I think I'll just leave the telescope outside for a few weeks and go visit my buddies. By the way my big boy is nicknamed "hello darkness my old friend". What got me hooked was finding Saturn and it's ring when I was about ten years old, looking through a little 60 millimeter refractor.I wish you could take a peek through my $500 40 millimeter lens. It would astonish and hook you immediately to backyard astronomy and make you take a baseball bat to unnecessary nighttime outdoor lights.moon eclipsing the sun over Turkey from the ISS http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/romney-draws-record-crowd-of-200-in.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/romney-draws-record-crowd-of-200-in.html Wed, 16 May 2012 13:52:00 +0000 The corporate whore being forced down people's throats has practically zero support wherever he goes.The 200 number is probably rounded upward.Snake Oil from one other time in Iowa."Corporations are people" http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BreakingWaves/~3/AO-o4eHS7uQ/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BreakingWaves/~3/AO-o4eHS7uQ/ Wed, 16 May 2012 12:40:00 +0000 Ever wondered about the crab-flavored fish protein in your seafood sandwich, “crab” salad or California sushi roll? It’s surimi, a fish protein paste made into various shellfish-flavored products. Earlier this month, Oregon State University’s Seafood Lab on Marine Drive hosted the 20th annual Surimi School, a gathering of global industry representatives and researchers that made [...] http://oregonecon.blogspot.com/2012/05/smith.html http://oregonecon.blogspot.com/2012/05/smith.html Wed, 16 May 2012 12:37:00 +0000 By the way, I ended up voting for Jefferson Smith yesterday.  I figure I'd mention this as I asked for advice here.  I also say this ex post facto because I didn't want to be seen endorsing any particular candidate - the last thing I want is for this blog to become overtly political.  I am comfortable taking a stand on something when I think the economics are clear: funding public education for example, or kicker reform that leads to a permanent rainy day fund, or even the repeal of the ban on self-service gas.  But in this case the differences were small and just thinking in economics terms there is not a clear favorite.What swayed me in the end was Smith's more skeptical stance on a number of things about which I am very skeptical: the CRC, the new Portland urban renewal district, the Oregon Sustainability Center.  As far as I can tell, he still hedges a bit but I like the evidence of critical thought that, to me, evidences an understanding of opportunity cost.  I was also impressed by a number of Smith supporters known to me in other capacities, and whom I respect, who reached out to me with thoughtful words in support of Smith.That said, I understood there was a good chance of a Smith - Hales runoff and my vote in that election is not yet sealed.  I will enjoy what I hope will be a deeper discussion of policy in the coming months and the result of these discussions will determine my vote.   I look forward to exploring some of these issues here in the future. http://oregonecon.blogspot.com/2012/05/stagnant-wages.html http://oregonecon.blogspot.com/2012/05/stagnant-wages.html Wed, 16 May 2012 11:39:00 +0000 The Wall Street Journal's economics blog has a little entry on stagnant wages and shows the graph above. In one sense this is good news for the Fed who is trying to keep interest rates low to spur on the economy - the real worry about inflation is when it seeps into wages and starts a feedback loop that is hard to contain. So they don't appear to need to worry very much about core inflation pressure right now and there is no reason to tighten up. But there is a potential flip-side to all the liquidity they are currently pushing: In one sense, the Federal Reserve‘s quantitative easing may have helped investors, but it backfired on workers. Steve Blitz, chief economist at ITG Investment Research, makes the point that in an open global economy the Fed has managed to raise inflation through its QE programs, but not wages. “As a consequence, consumer growth softens rather than accelerates,” he says.It is an interesting thought except for the fact that it is completely wrong. Here is a graph of inflation data from the Cleveland Fed: As you can see, inflation has been and remains quite low.  I am surprised the WSJ wouldn't have thought twice about this. Yes, gas prices are hurting consumers, but this has nothing to do with QE. http://paulingblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/shechtman-and-pauling-debate-quasicrystal-theory/ http://paulingblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/shechtman-and-pauling-debate-quasicrystal-theory/ Wed, 16 May 2012 11:19:00 +0000 [Part 3 of 4] David and Clara Shoemaker were not the only scientists who felt that Linus Pauling’s quasicrystals hypothesis, while admirable, was unsubstantiated by experimental data. In fact, in “Metallic Phase with Long-Range Orientational Order and No Translational Symmetry,” the article that introduced quasicrystals to the scientific community, Dan Shechtman and co-author Ilan Blech [...] http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/big-surprise-here-is-that-greeks-still.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/big-surprise-here-is-that-greeks-still.html Wed, 16 May 2012 05:12:00 +0000 Greek President Told Banks Anxious as Deposits Pulled"Greek President Karolos Papoulias was told by the nation’s central bank chief that financial institutions are worried about their survival as Greeks pull out euros amid a deepening political crisis.Central bank head George Provopoulos told Papoulias that Greeks have withdrawn as much as 700 million euros ($891 million) and the situation could worsen, according to the transcript of the president’s meeting with party leaders on May 14 that was published yesterday.“Provopoulos told me that of course there’s no panic but there’s great fear which can evolve into panic,” the president said." http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/comfortable-myths.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/comfortable-myths.html Wed, 16 May 2012 04:08:00 +0000 6 Ridiculous Lies You Believe About the Founding of America"When it comes to the birth of America, most of us are working from a stew of elementary school history lessons, Westerns and vague Thanksgiving mythology. And while it's not surprising those sources might biff a couple details, what's shocking is how much less interesting the version we learned was. It turns out our teachers, Hollywood and whoever we got our Thanksgiving mythology from (Big Turkey?) all made America's origin story far more boring than it actually was for some very disturbing reasons. For instance ...#6. The Indians Weren't Defeated by White SettlersOur history books don't really go into a ton of detail about how the Indians became an endangered species. Some warring, some smallpox blankets and ... death by broken heart? When American Indians show up in movies made by conscientious white people like Oliver Stone, they usually lament having their land taken from them. The implication is that Native Americans died off like a species of tree-burrowing owl that couldn't hack it once their natural habitat was paved over. But if we had to put the whole Cowboys and Indians battle in a Hollywood log line, we'd say the Indians put up a good fight, but were no match for the white man's superior technology. As surely as scissors cuts paper and rock smashes scissors, gun beats arrow. That's just how it works.The Truth: There's a pretty important detail our movies and textbooks left out of the handoff from Native Americans to white European settlers: It begins in the immediate aftermath of a full-blown apocalypse. In the decades between Columbus' discovery of America and the Mayflower landing at Plymouth Rock, the most devastating plague in human history raced up the East Coast of America. Just two years before the pilgrims started the tape recorder on New England's written history, the plague wiped out about 96 percent of the Indians in Massachusetts. In the years before the plague turned America into The Stand, a sailor named Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed up the East Coast and described it as "densely populated" and so "smoky with Indian bonfires" that you could smell them burning hundreds of miles out at sea. Using your history books to understand what America was like in the 100 years after Columbus landed there is like trying to understand what modern day Manhattan is like based on the post-apocalyptic scenes from I Am Legend. European settlers had a hard enough time defeating the Mad Max-style stragglers of the once huge Native American population, even with superior technology. You have to assume that the Native Americans at full strength would have made shit powerfully real for any pale faces trying to settle the country they had already settled. Of course, we don't really need to assume anything about how real the American Indians kept it, thanks to the many people who came before the pilgrims. For instance, if you liked playing cowboys and Indians as a kid, you should know that you could have been playing Vikings and Indians, because that shit actually happened. But before we get to how they kicked Viking ass, you probably need to know that ... #5. Native Culture Wasn't Primitivemore http://catwomanflix.blogspot.com/2012/05/strange-caller.html http://catwomanflix.blogspot.com/2012/05/strange-caller.html Wed, 16 May 2012 02:31:00 +0000 Tonight, a man drives up and parks in front of my place.  I never get visitors, so I figured it was someone visiting a neighbor.  But the man comes up to my door.  I go out and ask who he might be looking for.  He looks at a paper and says he is looking for...and says my name slowly, as he reads it off. I say, "That's me." He says his mother died and he wants to know if this is my true http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/welcome-to-america.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/welcome-to-america.html Tue, 15 May 2012 21:07:00 +0000 Supposed Officer Friendly might just blow your head off http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/un-al-qaeda-aka-cia.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/un-al-qaeda-aka-cia.html Tue, 15 May 2012 20:54:00 +0000 UN Openly Giving Al-Qaeda Cover In Syria To Identify Targets"The media is now openly reporting Al-Qaeda terrorists are working alongside UN Observers in Syria as videos show the terrorists gathering intel for future strikes. When is a terrorist not a terrorist? When the terrorists are committing acts of terrorism that promote the United States’ imperialistic agenda. We have seen it over and over again, from MKO terrorists who openly commit bombings and assignations in Iran that US politicians have decided to lobby congress to have removed from the terror list while giving them a US base in Iraq to continue their operations to the latest charade involving Al-Qaeda terrorist working alongside of Western military forces covertly in Syria to overthrow the Assad regime. The latest example comes from the UN who has been entirely mute about the war crimes being committed by the terrorists against the Syrian government. Now the media isn’t even trying to hide the fact that these Al-Qaeda terrorists are parading around Syria collecting videos and photographs to plan attacks against the Syrian military under the protection of UN Peacekeepers. Instead the AFP is openly publishing photographs rubbing it in the face of those “conspiracy theorists” who actually care enough about the destruction of this nation by the evil people in power to actually follow the news. http://catwomanflix.blogspot.com/2012/05/five-more-cats-thursday.html http://catwomanflix.blogspot.com/2012/05/five-more-cats-thursday.html Tue, 15 May 2012 18:05:00 +0000 Five more local cats will be fixed Thursday.  Three of them are tame males from Lebanon and the other two are Corvallis females, both tame and owned.  They'll be done at Heartland. Friday, two Lacomb dumped strays will be fixed, if she gets them into carriers. She feeds them in the evening.  They're tame but skitzy because they were dumped off by someone and have had it rough. She doesn't know http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/your-vegetable-garden-is-crime.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/your-vegetable-garden-is-crime.html Tue, 15 May 2012 17:50:00 +0000 The last place I lived the neighbors all loved watching the flowers and veggies grow in the front garden. Putting gigantic zucchinis on their front porches in the wee hours was another matter. http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/gosh-i-need-to-test-out-this-shotgun.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/gosh-i-need-to-test-out-this-shotgun.html Tue, 15 May 2012 17:29:00 +0000 Talking Surveillance Cameras Coming to U.S. Streets"Talking surveillance cameras that bark orders at passers-by and can also record conversations are heading for U.S. streets, with manufacturer Illuminating Concepts announcing the progress of its ‘Intellistreets’ system. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BreakingWaves/~3/L4Ths1P7Re8/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BreakingWaves/~3/L4Ths1P7Re8/ Tue, 15 May 2012 14:37:00 +0000 Oregon Sea Grant has won four awards in the 2012 Hermes Creative Awards competition: a Platinum Award in the Publications/Book category for Pathways to Resilience: Sustaining Salmon Ecosystems in a Changing World; a Gold Award in the Publications/Magazine category for Confluence magazine; a Gold Award in the Video/Educational category for Gems of the Oregon Coast: [...] http://oregonecon.blogspot.com/2012/05/oregon-april-unemployment-unchanged-at.html http://oregonecon.blogspot.com/2012/05/oregon-april-unemployment-unchanged-at.html Tue, 15 May 2012 14:18:00 +0000 Oregon's April Unemployment figure remains essentially unchanged at 8.5% while the state added 2,300 new jobs.  March was also revised to show an addition of 1,200 jobs rather than a loss of 300. Better, but still slow as molasses.   http://oregonecon.blogspot.com/2012/05/soccernomics-financial-fair-play.html http://oregonecon.blogspot.com/2012/05/soccernomics-financial-fair-play.html Tue, 15 May 2012 14:02:00 +0000 The final day of the English (and Welsh) Premiership had lots of drama.  FIrst and foremost was the stunning comeback by Manchester City to win the title in the dying moments of their game against Queens Park Rangers.  Closer to home (mine, that is) the Arsenal made us Gooners sweat it out but managed to secure 3rd place and thus guarantee a Champions League spot for next season and, even better, pip Tottenham at the line and beat them to the spot.  Also close to home but on the other end of the table, despite QPRs loss at Man City the woeful Bolton Wanderers could only manage a draw at Stoke and thus QPR get to stay in the Premiership another season.  Let's hope that this allows them to ad some more quality to the squad.  There is actually lots of economics in all of this. First, the ascendancy of Man City was due to the garish spending spree that the new owner, Sheikh Mansour, commenced after purchasing the team in 2008. Never was a title more clearly bought since way back in 2010 when Chelsea won the title thanks to the deep pockets of Roman Abramovich.  But all this may change under the new Financial Fair Play rules of UEFA.  The idea is that a club cannot spend more than it makes, it has to stay in the black.  So a wealthy owner cannot just spend his/her own money willy nilly to buy top players.  It is an interesting idea but seems unlikely to change much.  If an owner wants to funnel money to the club, they can just book it as revenue under some sponsorship deal, for example.  If it does have some teeth, however, Arsenal stand to gain as they are one of the only top clubs currently in line with the new rules. And speaking of Arsenal, the one last goal of the season, scored by Laurent Koscielny, was probably worth more than £40 million to the club in the added revenues from Champions League participation.  And for QPR, stokes last goal against Bolton was probably worth £37 million.And thus blow the winds of soccernomics... http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BreakingWaves/~3/2NenL1BJAug/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BreakingWaves/~3/2NenL1BJAug/ Tue, 15 May 2012 12:31:00 +0000 A newly published collection of more than 20 studies by leading university scientists and government fishery researchers in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Russia and Japan provides mounting evidence that salmon raised in man-made hatcheries can harm wild salmon through competition for food and habitat. “The genetic effects of mixing hatchery fish with wild [...] http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-many-times-will-media-be.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-many-times-will-media-be.html Tue, 15 May 2012 09:52:00 +0000 ">hip hop music from 2001The problem for the cultist, fascist scum is that they must advertise their perfidy in advance. It needs to be in the public domain and unopposed and understood by the victims in order for the impact of what they're going to do to have the maximum impact. Even if it's not explicitly spelled out their actions, for some occult reason, have to be announced in advanced. I'd say this music album was sure evidence of that. http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/real-terrorists-ciamossadmi6-are.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/real-terrorists-ciamossadmi6-are.html Tue, 15 May 2012 09:32:00 +0000 Watch out, you whoring Saudi monarch idiots.Fighting Erupts in Lebanon"According to a 2007 New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh, “The Redirection,” the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia had been assembling a region-wide army of extremist-mercenaries to battle Hezbollah in Lebanon, destabilize and overthrow Syria, and create a united front against Iran. The forces recruited for this effort would come from the ranks of the CIA-created “Arab foreign legion,” Al Qaeda itself �" extremist groups fresh back from fighting US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, including listed terror organizations like the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) from Libya.Hersh’s 2007 report exposed the groundwork for the very violence unfolding in Syria today, and now Lebanon. Forces to destabilize Syria were primarily to be staged in northern Lebanon, as explained in the article, and indeed the heaviest fighting over the last year has been seen in the Syrian city of Homs, just across the border from northern Lebanon. Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and his government have been, since the beginning of the violence, attempting to illustrate just this �" explained in detail in 2007, and demonstratively being carried out today, withresponsibility for deadly bombings being claimed by terrorists, the Pentagon itself admitting Al Qaeda is present in Syria, and reports indicating foreign fighters, weapons, and cash are flowing over Syria’s borders. Lebanon’s Turn? Now, the very staging ground in northern Lebanon being used to destabilize neighboring Syria has erupted into violence. Not by Syrian troops crossing the border, but by indigenous Lebanese factions facing off against each other. News is trickling out slowly and the Western media appears intent on keeping the violence as nebulous and confused as possible, but initial information indicates that extremist groups backed by the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are fighting factions connected to Hezbollah. Extremist leaders across the region are attempting to frame the violence as “Sunni verses Shi’ia,” a ploy Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned against back in 2007: “Nasrallah accused the Bush Administration of working with Israel to deliberately instigate fitna, an Arabic word that is used to mean “insurrection and fragmentation within Islam.” “In my opinion, there is a huge campaign through the media throughout the world to put each side up against the other,” he said. “I believe that all this is being run by American and Israeli intelligence.” (He did not provide any specific evidence for this.) He said that the U.S. war in Iraq had increased sectarian tensions, but argued that Hezbollah had tried to prevent them from spreading into Lebanon. (Sunni-Shiite confrontations increased, along with violence, in the weeks after we talked.)” -The Redirection, Seymour Hersh http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/it-shames-us-that-third-world-country.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/it-shames-us-that-third-world-country.html Tue, 15 May 2012 09:22:00 +0000 War Tribunal Finds Bush, Cheney Guilty of War Crimes"Former US President George W Bush, his Vice-President Dick Cheney and six other members of his administration have been found guilty of war crimes by a tribunal in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal president judge Tan Sri Lamin Mohd Yunus (center) delivering the verdict yesterday. He says reparations should be given to the complainant war crime victims. With him are Prof Salleh Buang (left) and Datuk Mohd Sa’ari Yusof. (Photo/Hasriyasyah Sabudin) Bush, Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and five of their legal advisers were tried in their absence and convicted on Saturday. Victims of torture told a panel of five judges in Kuala Lumpur of their suffering at the hands of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the evidence, Briton Moazzam Begg, an ex-Guantanamo detainee, said he was beaten, put in a hood and left in solitary confinement. Iraqi woman Jameelah Abbas Hameedi said she was stripped and humiliated in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. Transcripts of the five-day trial will be sent to the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, the United Nations and the Security Council. A member of the prosecution team, Professor Francis Boyle of Illinois University’s College of Law, said he was hopeful that Bush and his colleagues could soon find themselves facing similar trials elsewhere in the world. The eight accused are Bush; former US Vice President Richard Cheney; former US Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld; former Counsel to Bush, Alberto Gonzales; former General Counsel to the Vice President, David Addington; former General Counsel to the Defense Secretary, William Haynes II; former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo. Tribunal president judge Tan Sri Lamin Mohd Yunus said the eight accused were also individually and jointly liable for crimes of torture in accordance with Article 6 of the Nuremberg Charter. "The US is subject to customary international law and to the principles of the Nuremberg Charter and exceptional circumstances such as war, instability and public emergency cannot excuse torture." http://www.truthalyzer.com/?p=3436 http://www.truthalyzer.com/?p=3436 Mon, 14 May 2012 21:17:00 +0000 Six researchers have left the Heartland Institute, a conservative think-tank that is so aggressively skeptical of global warming it hosts an annual conference of deniers, to form a new firm called R Street Institute that will accept climate science. Their specialty has been insurance and related finance issues, which they will continue to research, but [...] http://www.truthalyzer.com/?p=3436 http://www.truthalyzer.com/?p=3436 Mon, 14 May 2012 21:17:00 +0000 Six researchers have left the Heartland Institute, a conservative think-tank that is so aggressively skeptical of global warming it hosts an annual conference of deniers, to form a new firm called R Street Institute that will accept climate science. Their specialty has been insurance and related finance issues, which they will continue to research, but [...] http://catwomanflix.blogspot.com/2012/05/strong-need-to-leave.html http://catwomanflix.blogspot.com/2012/05/strong-need-to-leave.html Mon, 14 May 2012 20:01:00 +0000 I have wanted to leave this area for a long time.  I need to figure out some plan of action soon, or it will become impossible, as I grow older. My primary reason I want to leave is incredible daily aching loneliness. I can't take it any longer. I have been unable to make any meaningful local connections.  Plus there isn't anything to do in this town to help make connections.  For months I go http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BreakingWaves/~3/b0iudgAEgUc/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BreakingWaves/~3/b0iudgAEgUc/ Mon, 14 May 2012 19:09:00 +0000 Oregon Sea Grant has won two Silver Awards of Distinction in the 18th Annual Communicator Awards competition, one each for its “Aquatic Animal Health” brochure and its Cascade Head Scenic Research Area video. The Communicator Awards are judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), a 550+ member organization of professionals [...] http://www.christonium.com/corvallistidbits/gasoline-prices-in-corvallis-05-14-2012 http://www.christonium.com/corvallistidbits/gasoline-prices-in-corvallis-05-14-2012 Mon, 14 May 2012 11:57:00 +0000 Updated May 14th- Perhaps you have noticed that gas prices in Corvallis have tak http://www.christonium.com/corvallistidbits/gasoline-prices-in-corvallis-05-14-2012 http://www.christonium.com/corvallistidbits/gasoline-prices-in-corvallis-05-14-2012 Mon, 14 May 2012 11:57:00 +0000 Updated May 14th- Perhaps you have noticed that gas prices in Corvallis have tak http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/no-shit-sherlock.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/no-shit-sherlock.html Mon, 14 May 2012 10:32:00 +0000 Panetta: Al Qaeda has a presence in Syria - caution, FAUXHere's the thing about a lot of the violence and disruption in Syria. Far from being an internal revolution it's an outright attack by foreign mercenary forces to destroy the Syrian government on behalf of Israel.We've always got to remember that Al Qaeda is and has always been a CIA asset that's been used in regime change since it was formed in the 80s to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Just recently this CIA front organization was used to topple the progressive government in Libya. MSM reported this as if it was the most normal thing in the known universe. 9/11 eleven years ago was our AQ regime change to a fascist police state.Every time you see "Al Qaeda" mentioned it's an absolute lie. http://www.christonium.com/corvallistidbits/saturday-events-in-corvallis-05-12-2012 http://www.christonium.com/corvallistidbits/saturday-events-in-corvallis-05-12-2012 Mon, 14 May 2012 08:06:00 +0000 Saturday May 12th was a sunny and warm day just perfect for a Saturday Farmer's Market and severa http://www.christonium.com/corvallistidbits/saturday-events-in-corvallis-05-12-2012 http://www.christonium.com/corvallistidbits/saturday-events-in-corvallis-05-12-2012 Mon, 14 May 2012 08:06:00 +0000 Saturday May 12th was a sunny and warm day just perfect for a Saturday Farmer's Market and severa http://catwomanflix.blogspot.com/2012/05/doomed-cats-in-millersburg.html http://catwomanflix.blogspot.com/2012/05/doomed-cats-in-millersburg.html Mon, 14 May 2012 03:06:00 +0000 Six or seven Millersburg cats are apparently doomed.  Was told by the couple who walks by where the colony is fed daily, that the new property owner, a developer, has moved out an old car.  The old shed will likely be taken out next, which is where the cats sleep.   Then the bulldozers will come in.  The cats are doomed. I'm not happy with the feeder woman http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/sao-paulos-suicide-statues.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/sao-paulos-suicide-statues.html Sun, 13 May 2012 22:36:00 +0000 'Suicide' statues atop roofs give fright"SAO PAULO -- They stand like nude sentinels, hundreds of feet above the stone pedestrian streets of central Sao Paulo. The life-size human silhouettes appear tense, perched on the edges of high-rises, prepared to dive to their deaths below.Passers-by point toward the sky, with perplexed expressions and mouths agape."What is that ... a man? No. What ... ?" Jessica Santana, a 20-year-old municipal worker, uttered to a friend Friday as they walked through Patriarca plaza, eyes fixed high above.The 31 iron and fiberglass statues bolted atop several buildings are part of the first South American exhibit for British artist Antony Gormley, who has won many awards, among them the prestigious Turner Prize.The sculptures, based on Gormley's own body, are burnt auburn in color, some with arms slightly bent, others ramrod straight. They appear to stare into the horizon, gazing at the endless sprawl of tall buildings in this city of 20 million people.The exhibit, "Still Being," officially opens Saturday, runs through July 15 and will also appear in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia. It includes other works shown in Sao Paulo's Banco do Brasil Cultural Center.Gormley has spent four decades exploring the theme of the human body and how it relates to larger physical spaces around it, challenging spectators with showings that go well beyond a closed gallery."The police were here a few days ago because they received calls that a man was going to jump from a building," said Carol Menezes, a receptionist at a Banco do Brasil building where one of the statues sits on a roof 25 stories above the sidewalk. "It's interesting, creative. I was surprised when I first saw it. I guess it's art, so many strange things are so why not this?"Gormley's 31 sculptures are part of his "Event Horizon" project, which was shown in London in 2007 and last year in New York, where police responded to at least 10 callers reporting potential suicide jumpers in the first few weeks it was shown." http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/mothers-day-began-as-antiwar-protest.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/mothers-day-began-as-antiwar-protest.html Sun, 13 May 2012 21:38:00 +0000 Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation - 1870"Arise then...women of this day!Arise, all women who have hearts!Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!Say firmly:"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,For caresses and applause.Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearnAll that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.We, the women of one country,Will be too tender of those of another countryTo allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs..." http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/pictures-of-iran-and-iranians-murderous.html http://piglipstick.blogspot.com/2012/05/pictures-of-iran-and-iranians-murderous.html Sun, 13 May 2012 16:38:00 +0000 The last big threat to zio gangster middle east hegemony