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ange more slowly than the laws but they do change the study of genomics has been making headlines recently apparently if a parent abused their bodies in some way the dna inherited by descendants might be damaged fascinating concept a sort of cross generational curse passed on parent to child the body s revenge for its abuse i guess this is how dna changes itself possibly to protect the next generation from likely over indulgences or some such thing i ve heard that jews have the lowest rate of alcoholism of any peoples and it s true alcohol has been a prominent feature in jewish society since its earliest traceable origins on the contrary scots and irish weren t exposed to alcohol until much later suggesting that we re more likely to abuse it having not been hardwired like jews maybe if your parent was a heroin addict your dna may make your body is much more likely to reject it perhaps making you convulse upon ingestion or perhaps it s the other way heroin addiction makes you more prone to addiction of course there d be some statistical bias being that former addicts are more likely to expose their children to similar underlying conditions that are know to increase the risk of addiction or perhaps not in one generation but many the tolerance for heroin might go up to the point the drug just doesn t satisfy labels class warfare credit crisis fiscal insolvency inflation socioeconomic inequity posted by jbpeebles 4 51 pm 0 comments friday october 09 2009 emotions ignorance drive 9 11 wars americans knowledge of international politics is dismal ambrose bierce once said the only good purpose served by war was to teach americans geography failing to understand international affairs makes americans vulnerable to the selling of myth especially one wrapped in the flag our leaders not above manipulating 9 11 used that event as a shock device to instill fear offering as its sole antidote militarism mixed with patriotism our ignorance makes us prone to the telling of lies by those in positions we trust like ministers and presidents blind obedience to government is bound to invite an abuse of power our gullibility makes possible the lie for that we the american public must assume responsibility we accept what our leaders tell us because we don t know better our trust becomes a weapon those we trust use against us part of our gullibility rises from being overworked part from the exercise of hyper consumption and capitalism which elevate greed into our reason for existing we work so we have more not so others have more though americans are generous in an age of me the needs of the nation are easily forgotten so self centered we re prone to be that periodic events need to remind us that we have something in common with one another sinking of the maine pearl harbor 9 11 all of which have precipitated wars which is the perennial method by which americans come together and by necessity not choice learn about the world beyond their borders when you have what you want at home i guess it s easy to get comfortable and comfortable we ve become sensing the natural tendency to be indifferent to threats originating outside our borders newt gingrich last year said that we should have reminder attacks it s almost like they should every once in a while have allowed an attack to get through just to remind us the suspicious timing behind changes to the color coded terror threat levels is indicative of how tempted incumbent administrations are to jerk the terror boogeyman making matter worse is the willingness of so many to abandon non partisanship in our foreign policy before obama even touched down abroad his mission has been pilloried many times over by his domestic critics bias and partisanship have marred virtually every policy we now have especially our foreign policy whereas it was considered unpatriotic to question the bush administration s motives after 9 11 every decision obama makes is now plagued by internal bickering where criticism suits their purposes the domestic political opposition is willing to undermine the president s overseas agenda whatever i may think about the policies our president endorses i do understand the need to keep my complaints within the family of course anyone who watches america knows we re a melting pots of different opinions that aspect of our character may in fact make our society stronger and more open to debate rather than weaker though some abroad might perceive tolerance that way perhaps we re not so tolerant of each other any more we ve dumbed down politically and know less and trust our leaders to tell us the truth worse we take differences of political opinion personally and let them divide us unfortunately all too often americans are afraid to make their viewpoints know rather than discuss our different opinions we tend to confuse intensity and passion with violence and shy away or get more aggressive we can t resolve our differences or work through them instead we get into an us vs them mentality a problem made especially bad when we need to decide what is best for us all in an international context in matters like wars and foreign policy we need to agree to disagree then keep the debate in the family while we give full support to the president as he goes abroad even if we don t agree consuming media or being consumed by it in our media centric society celebrities speak for millions who lack the courage and confidence to make their voices heard we consume news without really digesting it news has become a matter of convenience a choice of entertainment options on the media platter real news is so much more knowing the truth a matter of necessity in an age of deceit americans are more likely to believe what they read in the mass media than many other societies even the russians during the communist period were less likely than we are to believe what their government told them i guess people who ve been routinely lied to by their governments grow skeptical in proportion to the gap between what they re told and what they see during vietnam this was the credibility gap where reports from the us military about body counts and progress were easily disproved out in the battlefield not all change in the infowars is negative the internet and the prevalence of video recording devices have made disseminating lies made by governments that much harder in 1999 for instance during the infamous wto riots in seattle while authorities claimed no rubber bullets were being used video was being uploaded in real time to the web showing spent rubber bullets lying in a street just outside here s a little quib i found in a mit report on the seattle protests indymedia provided elaborate coverage of the wto protests they did this by disseminating thousands of activists videos photos recorded interviews and print stories we relied on indymedia reports and videos as one source among many for our data while some critics viewed indymedia as reflecting the point of view of protestors the conventional media sources reflect the perspective of the dominant order indymedia s critique of mainstream media builds on the ideas of chomsky 1989 and habermas 1975 who claim that corporate media s truth corresponds with the interests of corporate sponsors and that a privatized media cannot serve as a free press without a free press there is truly no genuine public sphere some of you may have looked to indymedia org for footage of the recent protests at the g 20 in pittsburgh which involved for the first time use of a long range acoustic device more commonly known as a noise gun see the annotated video here this site called g infinity is a production of indymedia s pittsburgh site like the seattle protests an information war was occurring beyond the reach of cameras photographers and videographers are targetted during these protests as stemming the flow of real time information is a major goal for the authorities perhaps you saw coverage of the republican national convention in st paul in 2008 blogged it here during that event people who dared film the events were pepper sprayed and subjected to police harassment in the more recent pittsburgh event many university of pittsburgh students were caught up in mass arrests these police actions are designed to funnel protestors and bystanders alike into cordons from which they can t escape then when told to disperse they re choked by chemical agents for failing to comply most of middle america probably doesn t care they don t attend protests and are quite content to be docile at least until their jobs or health are threatened i guess i m particularly focused on demonstrations simply because i know the mass media won t cover the stories the conglomerates don t want to reveal anything that might expose the myth that our wars are vital to our security while mainstream media did show miniscule clips of the events in pittsburgh becoming aware of what was really happening is only possible through alternative media unlike all the marketing laced banter that fills our mainstreams and attention the real stories like pittsburgh aren t delivered to the viewer you have to work to find them on the web no corporation has a vested interest pinning their name to such coverage potential advertizers might bolt improving the quality of coverage doesn t do much to boost sales american viewerships are based on celebrity worship not grim realities so real stories are relegated to limited viewership on some obscure websites like mine if americans don t make an effort to get informed chances are they won t understand what s really happening to their society and world as busy as they are many are hard pressed to make a healthy meal much less scour the web for some story that may not affect them personally same with our endless wars of occupation in southwestern asia unless you ve got a love one in harm s way you don t have to care flip the channel and let someone else worry about it some americans are almost militant in their observance of ignorance anti intellectualism is rife they d prefer to live in a bubble insulated from ugly realities i guess we all would discovering the bug lie entails leaving your comfort zone and reconciling patriotism and duty with fact and necessity somehow to make our democracy work we need informed americans that commitment simply isn t there largely because americans are too busy working to see the big picture failing their responsibilities americans put their trust in their leaders whose populist rhetoric comforts them the remedy for americans too busy to care or become informed has been barack obama obama the savior the president just won the nobel peace prize for diplomacy a curious achievement considering the scale of wars he oversees as the nominal commander of our military forces i say nominal because the pentagon seems to have differing views on escalation in afghanistan in london general mcchrystal spoke out on the need for escalation the white house has been backpedaling since then and internal policy discussions have supposedly been going on for weeks the young turned out in droves for obama soaking up his spiel that he would bring change obama s candidacy was often expressed as a sign that american politics had moved beyond race a black candidate could be accepted even bringing up the subject of obama s race was considered racist by many of his supporters now in office many of his supporters are eager to reach for the ubiquitous race card when the president is criticized part of the obama mistake has emerged from the idea that the president is and should be at the center of our politics maybe the president should be less involved in the day to day issues in our society perhaps americans no longer see much benefit in getting disconnected but rather value hyperconnectivity 24 7 365 days a year look no farther than endless cell calls about things that really aren t worth the time about media generated hype meant to sell some product or point of view we re surrounded by it can we escape it now we wouldn t want our president to be out of touch but sometimes that can help the human brain sort things out a sort of mental vacation that allows time for the brain to catch up with the speed and sheer volume of information we receive obama may be too in touch he s intelligent enough for sure but no man can possibly be our guide or substitute for our lack of time and meditative capacity americans are on the whole a shallow people whose collective psyche is more built around the illusion on our tvs than any sense of shared values the real question as our society matures is if we can elevate individuality beyond the needs of the group we know americans embrace all the pleasures that come with being free but can they handle the heavy responsibilities required to preserve a higher standard of living there s this notion of sacrifice obama even brought the word up referencing the sacrifice made by terror victims on 9 11 the quote made on the anniversary of 9 11 did raise eyebrows and references to it on the web have since been stricken it s like he never said it at all jettisoned to the memory hole courtesy broken links and the infamous http 404 not found error the end all for any story in cyberspace if it hasn t been archived making sacrifices is different from being a sacrifice sure we all understand the need for heroes another loaded term to give up their lives and freedom for us americans so we can have a better world but when it comes time to make a sacrifice most americans think about giving up eating out or some other mundane inconvenience the idea that people are routinely sacrificed is actually mayan obviously the 9 11 victims weren t consenting so in this respect they ve been mislabeled as heroes and patriots the idea of their passing for something better than consoles the living who must bear some sense of survivor guilt if the 9 11 victims gave their lives for nothing then i guess the terrorists win i guess the idea of an all seeing supreme leader comforts us in times of trouble as i ve written here over the years bush set the dangerous precedent as the decider and emperor upon whose judgment we were led to believe we could depend the washington establishment went along deluded by the false patriotism and militarism spawned by the reaction to 9 11 rather than thinking about 9 11 objectively we were encouraged to believe that it was bin laden and the arabs we blamed the taliban in afghanistan exclusively despite evidence that the saudi government was involved in helping the hijackers the government had foreknowledge of the pending attacks judging from atta coming up on the army s radar through able danger and the title of bush s august 2001 briefing bin laden determined to strike in the u s yet americans don t see what they don t want to see if studying the attacks means entertaining that notion that the government was lying then a good proportion of americans would simply not believe in ...
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