Thursday, September 01, 2011

News in Thursday






Transhumanism have been promoted for years now. Transhumanism is a movement where people want man to achieve godhood basically. They believe that technology can possibly be utilized to not only cure or prevent disease (or disability). Transhumanists want to be without illness and age as little as possible. They believe that certain techniques can grow their natural human abilities. They believe that man can be immortal via the usage of nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, artificial limbs, and genetic enhancement. The nature of humanity and our natural limitations are rejected in the philosophy of transhumanism. It rejects the dignity inherit in every human being since transhumanism rejects the nature of man. Ethical guidance is eliminated in transhumanism. The reason is that they take a blind eye of the medical realities of enhancement, genetic, pharmaceutical, and other parts of the medical world. The ideology tries to control people. Transhumanism nowadays have been talked about in journals, societies, and conferences. Surrogates, Limitless, Splice, and other films deal with the subject of transhumanism. The movies deal the subjects of human being enhanced with artificial bodies, brain boosting drugs or genetic engineering, etc. Yet, man becomes beholden to the technology he creates, which causes a nightmare. “Surrogates” deal with a technology that help the handicapped to be used by the able bodied and eventually uses a robotic surrogate to go about their daily business. People no longer interact face to face, but through their synthetic double. Even the husband and wife living in the same house need their surrogates to relate to each other. Limitless is about Eddie talking a drug to enhance his mental capabilities. He is later addicted, but the withdrawal may kill him. He spends the rest of the movie in trying to get more of the drug. “Splice” deals with scientists mixing human with animal DNA. The creation is mostly human, part animal organism. They are capable to mating with humans. It doesn’t end well. Transhumanism doesn’t make a distinction between therapy and enhancement. Therapy deals with curing or preventing a disease or disability and trying to return a patient to a more normal state. Enhancement takes an otherwise healthy individual and makes more than in human (in intelligence, strength, or other desired characteristic). In therapy, an artificial limb can help people missing limbs. In enhancement, a good limb would be chopped off and replaced with an artificial one that works than the natural one. Therapy and enhancement are 2 different processes using similar technology. Transhumanism is a trap since it falsely believes that man can achieve godhood beyond just the legitimate use of technology to help human beings. Using technology for therapeutic purposes is fine. Transhumanism doesn’t deal with healing. It deals with trying to create some Utopian society, which is impossible since humanity by nature isn’t perfect. It doesn’t really deal with healing. It deals with an Utopian vision plainly speaking.

Kurt Nimmo is once again wrong on the Tea Party issue. He falsely says that the Black Caucus wants to incite a war with the views about Tea Party Americans. That’s a lie. You can disagree with the Tea party and disagreement has nothing to do with agitating racial conflict. I don’t agree that every Tea Party person wants to lynch people, but some of their views are archaic and wrong. Al Green, Frederic Wilson, Maxime Waters, Cedric Richmond, and Andre Carson should just criticize the Tea Party on the facts alone. The facts speak for themselves about that party. People like Nimmo talk about the race card, but they ignore Sean Bell, they ignore the necessity of the Civil Rights Act, and they ignore white supremacy. People have across the political spectrum have criticized the Tea party. Just because someone criticized the Tea Party, doesn’t mean that a person is some brainwashed neo-con or a political establishment figure. I don’t believe in war mongering. Nimmo equates the government promoting legitimate resources to help human beings suffering as a magical ATM, which I find false disrespectful. People are starving to death and the people have the right to receive public and private assistance in extreme circumstances. Nimmo is a hustler for Austrian economics. Nimmo intentionally omits the fact that from 1945-1975, there was a radical decrease in poverty, an increase of employment, and a growing of manufacturing due to government intervention (plus private assistance) not Austrian Economics. The liberalization of economic policies and the trickled down economic system has contributed to the recession that we have witness in our present time of 2011. Legitimately protesting the policies of the Tea Party is a part of the First Amendment. There is nothing wrong with having a handle on the federal government (in terms of preventing it from harming our civil liberties, foreign policy, and legitimate issues). It’s wrong to just eliminate the social safety net under the guise of “reducing” the power of the federal government. The Constitution gives the government the right to tax, build infrastructure, build roads, and have a post office. Nimmo lies about wealth redistribution. For decades, wealth redistribution has benefited the super wealthy, corporations have record profits, the super wealthy pay record low taxes, and there is record income inequality worldwide (not just in America). Agent provocateurs may be at some Tea Party rallies, but many Tea Party people are funded by the Koch brothers and corporate leaders. Nimmo is slick since yes we longer live in a society equivalent to the antebellum South, but prison oppression against people, police brutality, discrimination, and white supremacy are still here in 2011. I don’t believe in hating or viewing another ethnic group, but I will defend my people against slander & oppression though. The Tea Party haven’t promoted a radical program at all to help poor Americans (like a minimum annual income, ending the war on terror, have tax breaks to built jobs in America, infrastructure development, investments in apprentices, etc.). Racist white people need to know that just believe black people unite and promote unity organizations doesn’t mean that this is racism. Racism is about the belief of inferior races not groups promoting the legitimate interests of black people. They have no real program to help the poor and they have the nerve to claim to be some savior for us the people. The global elite use liberal and conservative establishment puppets, but justice isn’t about austerity (but a radical change in our values and policies to benefit everybody in the socioeconomic classes like the poor).  Many Tea Party people in Congress have supported the Patriot Act. I have no problem with being against the policies of the FED, being against bank bailouts, the illegal wars, and corporate welfare. Yet, I don’t believe in depriving human beings basic human needs or human services.


The researcher Rady Ananda found that the weedkiller glyphosate for GM crops pollutes air, rain, and rivers across America. There are 2 new studies made by the U.S. Geological Survey. It proves that the spread of biocide, glyphosate mostly used as a weed killer for crops genetically engineered to resist it. It’s used in formulations by Monsanto, Bayer, Dow, and others. Glyphosate has according to many reports have been linked to evils. These evils are spontaneous abortions in livestock, birth defects in humans, inset resistance, and weed resistance. Regulators have known about these dangers for years according to Earth Open Source. In early August 2011, Dr. Mercola reported on this issue. The first report deal with the ambient levels of glyphosate and how its degradation product called AMPA (or aminomethylphosphonic acid) can damage the air and rain. Glyphosate is the most used herbicide in the U.S. There has been weekly air particle and rain samples were collected during two growing seasons in agricultural areas in Mississippi and Iowa. The amount of glyphosate detected ranged from 60 to 100 percent in both air and rain. Glyphosate is used in almost all agricultural and urban areas in America. The highest level of glyphosate have been used in the Mississippi River basin where most applications are weed control on genetically modified corn, soybeans, and cotton. Overall, agricultural use of glyphosate has increased from less than 11,000 tons in 1992 to more than 88,000 tons in 2007. Glyphosate is most widely used herbicide in the world. People don’t know about its long term effects to the environment according to Paul Capel. He is the USGS chemist and author of the study. The EPA, the USDA, and the FDA continue to permit our land, air, and waters to be polluted by this toxic agrochemical. Growing scientific evidence documents glyphosate lethality to the biosphere. Monsanto has been found guilty of falsely advertising its herbicide as biodegradable, environmentally friendly, and claimed that it left the soil clean. Even Roundup isn’t environmentally friends. Glyphosate should be banned in use in the environmental. Substances should work with nature not against it. The Mississippi Rice Council opposed the aerial drift of glyphosate. That can cause danger to certain plants. So the glyphosate not only weakens plants, it actually changes the makeup of the soil and boosts the number of disease-causing organisms, which is becoming a deadly recipe for crops around the globe. Glyphosate can deprive plants of nutrients necessary for healthy plant function. It can destroy needed soil organisms that can stop disease causing organisms and help plants absorb nutrients. It can weakened plant growth and harm photosynthesis. It reduces water efficiency, shortening root systems and causing plants to release sugars, which changes soil pH. It has been link to sudden death syndrome among plants as well.









There is a man facing life in jail for recording the police. There are cases where people arrested for filming the police have been thrown out of court. The media acts like recording the police is illegal. Michael Allison is the 41 year old Illinois mechanic that faces life in prison. He recorded the police after authorities hit him with eavesdropping charges based on the hoax that it is illegal to film cops, a misnomer that has been disproved by every other case against people filming people officers being thrown out of court. The state of Illinois is trying to charge Allison with five counts of wiretapping, each punishable by 4 to 15 years in prison. Allison refused a plea deal which would have seen him serve no jail time, but would reinforce the hoax that it is illegal to film police officers, as well, as acting as a chilling effect to prevent other Americans from filming cases of police brutality. Allison chosen to reject the plea bargain and he is fighting to clear his name via a jury trial. He said that: “…If we don’t fight for our freedoms here at home we’re all going to lose them.” The judge is expected to rule on when the case will go to trial over the next 2 weeks. There is another report in dealing with the Allison case documents. It shows that in every other example where people have been arrested for recording police officers, the charges have been dropped. Cases have been thrown out of court. In Allison’s case, the state is desperate to make an example out of Allison. That is why an assistant from the Attorney General’s Office was recently sent to speak against him during a hearing. The notion that it is illegal to film police officers is a mass hoax. Some people promulgating this hoax are the authorities, the media, and police officers themselves. Charges were even dismissed against a woman who filmed cops in her own back yard in Rochester, New York. In Illinois ironically, Tiawanda Moore’s eavesdropping charges for recording patrol officers were dropped. The criminal court jury soon repudiated the prosecution’s case. It took less than an hour to acquit Moore on both eavesdropping counts. The fact that recording police officers or public servants is legal, but some Americans are still being arrested for doing it. This is a violation of press freedom. Privacy rights of citizens are violated all of the time. Cases like Allison should be thrown out nationwide. The police can’t arrest police for filming. Repression of liberties is still a problem in America. First Amendment ought to be preserved in spite of recorded acts of police brutality. Allison is an innocent man and he doesn’t deserve life in prison at all.



Songhai is one of the most famous black African Empires in history. Leo Africanus of Spain visited Songhai back in the 1500’s. He wrote that the people of Songhai have a lot of wit, civility, and industry. Songhai developed into a powerful Kingdom by the 11th century. The King in the Empire is called Askia. Many in this Empire converted to the religion of Islam. Mansa Musa of Mali temporarily conquered the Songhai kingdom in 1325, but they 1375, Songhai established its own fundamental issues. Askia Sonni Ali reigned from 1464 to 1494. He conquered the great Mali cities of Jenne and Timbuktu. This caused the Tuareg to move north of Mali. Askia Muhammad reigned from 1493 to 1528 increased the government’s central authority and expanded the kingdom westward to the Atlantic, eastward into central Sudan and northwest into the Saharan Desert. The Songhai Empire had a royal court created by Sonni Ali. Askia Muhammad developed governors, mayors, etc. over districts on the Niger Valley. Local rulers remained in power on the Niger River’s tributaries. The Askia or Kings in Songhai dealt with commander of the nations navy or hi koi, a minister of agriculture, a commissioner of waters plus lakes, a finance ministers, and other ministers. The central government once ruled over a small number of provinces. Sonni Ali was gifted to be an able ruler with a talent for organization and government. Greater centralization occurred under the devout Muslim Askia Muhammad (1493-1528). By 1591 the army totaled 40,000 (30,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry). Songhay warriors wore iron breastplates beneath their battle tunics, had lances, sabers and arrows with poisoned tips, and the infantry used leather and copper shields. Songhai was a home of great educational systems as well. Timbuktu had 180 schools alone. The universities in Songhai taught theology, traditions, grammar, rhetoric, logic, astrology, astronomy, history, geography, medicine, science, and math. Askia Mohammed also created elementary schools for learning how to read and recite the Koran. S.M Cissoko wrote: "The Songahy state encouraged the flowering of a brilliant intellectual civilization and considerable economic and social development." (28Chu, Daniel and Skinner, Elliot. A Glorious Age in Africa, 1st ed. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1965, 91). The Songhai Empire was a crowning achievement of black intellectual achievement, black governmental power, and great black culture in general.



By Timothy

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