GIVE PEACE A CHANCE
The Dove of Peace flies from site to site through as many
countries as
possible. Please help it make a line around the globe by
taking it
with you
to your site, by giving it to someone for their site, by
passing it on
to another
continent, or to the conflict areas of the world...
My
thanks to Cosmic Rose
The Cosmic Cabdrivers' Guide to the
Universe, in its various sections and blog pages, is dedicated to
providing useful information and stimulating thoughts,
ideas, and humor for intelligent beings
everywhere, seeking peace, justice, and equal prosperity for all. Contributions and feedback are welcome.
Through the Looking Glass Links to over 700 mirror sites for Wikileaks, perhaps the most important web phenomenon of the decade. I strongly support Wikileaks and anyone who is dedicated to revealing the truth to the people of the world, including: Bradley Manning, nominee for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Movement of the Icelandic Parliament submitted a letter to the Nobel Peace Prize committee for the 2012 prize for his 'individual effort to have an impact for peace in our world.
The revelations-including video documentation of an incident in which American soldiers gunned down Reuters journalists in Iraq-have helped to fuel a worldwide discussion about American overseas engagements, civilian casualties of war, imperialistic manipulations, and rules of engagement. Citizens worldwide owe a great debt to the WikiLeaks whistleblower for shedding light on these issues, and so I urge the Committee to award this prestigious prize to accused whistleblower Bradley Manning.'
My blog at
Multiply.Com, featuring more political and social commentary
WORLD TIME Seattle, Washington... Phoenix Arizona Edmonton, Alberta... Kansas City, Missouri. St. Petersburg Florida... Rio de Janeiro, Brazil London, England... Vilnius Lithuania, Tel Aviv, Israel... Baghdad, Iraq Beijing, China
END THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
CLOSE GUANTANAMO
INVESTIGATE AND PROSECUTE WAR CRIMES
SUPPORT THE RIGHT OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
EQUAL RIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
END GOVERNMENT SECRECY
Feel free to message
me if you have a comment, question, opinion, or just want to say hello.
I enjoy intelligent conversations with anyone.
--Captain Rat
KAMINSKI: NO
FRIEND TO
PEACE
John Kaminski's essays may seem at first to promote peace and justice,
but his hatemongering theories about a Zionist conspiracy twist the
truth and negate his contribution.
WHO'S TO
BLAME? We're in a hell of a mess. Whose fault is
it?
THE DANGER IN
RELIGION Many think of religion as a gentle and good
thing, but it is also being used to cause violence, destruction,
and loss of freedom.
RAT NOW. RAT HERE. Links to my Rat Now articles are listed below, beginning with my latest blog entry. The link at the bottom will take you to the page where all past articles can be found.
Foreign Policy
Policies toward other nations, like domestic policies, should be formed and implemented according to the wishes of a majority of the American people by the President and Congress. It has never quite worked out that way.
Why not? We elect the people who are empowered to make policy decisions, but time after time we find, often after the fact, that actions, alliances, threats, and hostilities are being directed toward other countries in our name, and these actions are frequently contrary to the basic values of most thinking Americans. Some of them have been so horrible and outrageous that millions have marched and demonstrated in protest. Even then, despite growing and long-sustained outcries, the will of the people is ignored.
Naturally, most voters do not have firsthand knowledge of the events and policies of other nations. In the past, before the availability of fast global communication and travel, this was a valid reason for trusting the judgment of professional diplomats and experts in international politics. It has never been an excuse, though, for misrepresenting the facts to the public in order to justify unprincipled actions done in behalf of private interests.
Americans often tend to see foreign policy as something that does not directly affect them. As long as a candidate is 'strong on defense', they don't bother much to inspect the details of what that may mean. But just as we no longer have to rely on our officials for information worldwide, we can no longer justifiably believe we are unaffected by the results of foreign policy. The rest of the world is no longer remote, nor can we afford to be isolated from it.
We need to understand who and what makes our foreign policy, and what motivates them. We know the President and Congress are supposed to, but we might wonder if even they are in full control.
We need to look at some detailed history. Oil and Foreign Policy Chapter I - Establishing the American Presence in the Middle East
Chapter II - The 1947 Aramco Merger
Chapter III - Foreign Policy and Antitrust: The Cartel Case and the Iranian Consortium The Origins of Imperial Israel:A Buffer Against Arab Nationalism by Andrew Gavin Marshall 'The State Department, in particular... worried that support for Israel would threaten American interests in the region by antagonizing the Arab states and ruining America's good reputation following the War. Others, however, won out in the end, largely by arguing that such a state in the Middle East would be a significant support to American interests, acting as a powerful buffer against the spread of Arab nationalism and Pan-Arabism.'
The American Empire in Latin America: 'Democracy' is a Threat to 'National Security' by Andrew Gavin Marshall '...the true threat- far from the strategic sham of Cold War rhetoric (as Zbigniew Brzezinski referred to it)- was the actualized and very realistic challenge to American domination posed by nationalistic regimes which support the masses of the population of various Latin American countries. Worse still, the masses were demanding immediate improvement in [their] low living standards...'
The Council on Foreign Relations and the Grand Area of the American Empire by Andrew Gavin Marshall 'The process of establishing an American Empire during and after World War II was not- as has been postulated (by those who even admit there is such a thing as an American Empire)- an accident of history...'
The excellent research in the above articles gives a clear picture of what foreign policy is and who influenced it. We can see that the opinions and needs of the corporate heads of oil companies, United Fruit, and other interests are considered, and that the will and principles of the American people are only to be manipulated with propaganda, not listened to by those they elect.
But the question remains: why, throughout most of our history, have Presidents and Congresses, whatever their parties, philosophies, and stated intentions, gone along with the idea that the US needs to dominate its neighbors and strategic resources throughout the world? We can see that many of the mistakes made in pursuit of of those ends are the cause of our current problems, some of which were foreseen by wiser but unheeded statesmen at the time of the decision. Why, for example, did Lyndon Johnson, whose domestic policies and achievements show him to be a sincere humanitarian, allow the escalation of Vietnam into a senseless bloody war? Why did Eisenhower, a former General who nevertheless hated war and said so, conduct brutal and murderous repression in Latin America?
There would seem to be something more involved than the ability of corporations and financial interests to reward those who favor their interests. That influences many Congressmen and lesser officials, but I suspect it is not the whole story.
I will continue to investigate.
The Stupidity of Hostility
Hostility, even economic sanctions short of violence, can provoke war, even when it is not the current intention. Roosevelt deliberately used it to motivate Japan to attack in 1941. He believed it necessary for the US to enter WW II to defeat Germany, and he used Japan to facilitate that.
We neither need nor want to go to war with Iran. We have no rational or legal basis for pressing the nuculear issue. Nevertheless both the administration and completely irresponsible statements by Republicans are making the world, and the American people, very nervous.
I emailed Cox Cable regarding their intention to fail to provide webspace: I am very displeased at your intention to stop providing web space on Dec. 6. Nearly every ISP I know of provides that (and usually more), and your service charges a premium price, for which I should expect at least full ISP service. I believe you should now reduce my monthly bill by the $5 I will now have to pay for a host for my website.
They responded as follows: While Cox Personal WebSpace is expiring, customers who currently have personal WebSpace(s) can save their files by adding them to the Cox Secure Online Backup. [Consoling me with irrelevancy.]
You may want to check out all the other interesting features Cox provides online... [Distracting me with useless toys?]
Your Cox.net e-mail or the way that you access your online account will not be changing. [Why would it?]
If you have any additional inquiries or concerns, please reply back directly to this message and we will gladly assist you further.
Regretfully, we are unable to credit your account for the loss of Cox WebSpace, as this was a free feature that we offered to Cox High Speed Internet subscribers. [FREE? If I had stopped paying them every month, ALL their services would cease. How can they define ANY of their services as FREE?]
What we have here is yet another example of Twisted Corporate Logic designed to give the consumer as little as they can get away with. The greed-based economic system and its amoral ethics enables them to do the same to workers as well.
My website will continue, with paid hosting by GoDaddy.com.
COX INTERNET IS TAKING MY SPACE AWAY!
I was shocked to receive an email from Cox, my internet service provider for 8 years, announcing that they would no longer provide web space after December 6. This is another reprehensible corporate greed-driven reduction in customer service. Not only have they happily accepted over $50 a month from me for internet access, raising their prices on a regular basis, including only a meager 10 megabytes of space per email address, but now they are withdrawing that important part of what I pay them for!
So, I ask myself, if I must go elsewhere to pay for webspace, why shouldn't I go elsewhere for high-speed internet access? Why should I remain loyal to a company that will not uphold the agreement I made when I signed up?
Here is what they said: Dear Valued Customer,
Effective December 6, 2011, Cox will no longer offer Personal WebSpace service. We are taking this step because there has been minimal use of the service. We'd like to make sure we help you transition your Personal WebSpace files and content as smoothly as possible.
Our records indicate that you may have files or content on the Personal WebSpace Service. If you would like to save this content, please follow the below steps before December 6, 2011.....
NOTE: Any files you uploaded to the Cox Personal WebSpace service will be deleted on December 6, 2011.
Sincerely,
Cox Communications
Notice the Dear Valued Customer Valued? Hardly. They obviously don't give a damn about anything but my monthly fee, as they calmly inform me that they will delete both of my websites, nearly 200 pages of material.
I will certainly find other webspace, but I am one angry consumer. I will be looking for another dependable access provider as well.
I attended Occupy Phoenix. I took pictures. It's great to see so many people get involved, right here in supposedly conservative Phoenix. Mainstream Americans have taken our majority for granted, but we've realized we can't. The corporations and banks have a MAJORITY OF THE MONEY, and it seems that has meant more than people. Many millions of Americans, including myself, have spoken out, organized, marched, and demonstrated for peace, opposing needless and destructive wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and covert actions overthrowing democracies, subverting foreign governments, and supporting right-wing dictators in Latin America and other places throughout the world. Since the American Revolution, America has fought only two unavoidable wars: the Civil War and World War II. The history of US foreign policy has, for the most part, been nothing to be proud of. We should, however, take pride in our right to speak freely and oppose the wrongdoings, and protect and defend those rights when they are challenged.
We should be alarmed and protest when anyone who is working for peace and justice is threatened, harrassed, or arrested by officials in our own government. These documents show that US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and the FBI have blatantly violated the very rights they have sworn to uphold, targeting at least two peace activists in Minneapolis. Write your Congressman.
More articles:
The people should be the deciders! We should have a National Referendum for any war.
For more of my
thoughts and opinions, see my Yahoo 360 Blog Archive
--Captain Rat
Link to the Cosmic Cabdrivers' Guide!
Here's my icon.
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Mutual links are welcome; just email
me with yours.
Health Boundaries Bite Health boundaries can permanently impair and range from misdiagnoses to stress.
Previously I included 2 web-ring widgets here, but recently I experienced them redirecting my main page to theirs. If anyone else encountered that, I apologize. It was not my intention, and they have been removed.
My
web design philosophy is to emphasize compatibility with all
browsers,
keeping it simple and quick to load, yet pleasing to the
eye. I am
availible to design or improve your site at a reasonable
fee. The
main purpose of this site is to inform and verbally
entertain.
I oppose any web programming used to trap browsers in
commercial
sites, or crash a viewer's browser or computer for any
reason, or to
make viewing unnecessarily difficult by those with slower
computers
and
modems and/or limited hard-drive space.
for
expert advice
and commentary on browser compatibility, contact:
WWW. anybrowser.org
NOTICE
Cosmic Cabdrivers' Guide
(www.cosmicrat.com) Is a non-profit,
non-commercial domain, created to inform and entertain. Any use of an email address with this
domain name on any commercial mass mailing is done
fraudently and without permission of this
webmaster
edition C1.7, ratdate
20111120
This version begins with a transition to my new hosting server, GoDaddy.com, made necessary by failure of Cox.net to continue to fulfill its expected function as a provider of webspace.
If
you encounter any errors, please let me know. I am always in
the
process of improving
and updating everything, and I welcome your feedback.
Note: Due to the fact that email spammers are giving canned
meat
products a bad name, I have eliminated automatic email
links.
Look for the graphic representation of my email address.
Then just type it in on your emailer
History: The Inficad.com address was discontinued
quite some
time ago, due to
inficad's high cost and dubious billing practices.
NBCI/xoom was
free, but they suddenly quit
hosting. Acer-access.com was an excellent isp/webserver, but
my Qwest
phone was so poor in
signal quality that I could no longer use dialup.
Progress marches on ~~~captain rat.
