1. Myths about socialism debunked:
“Socialism or Barbarism: the Choice is Ours”
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17573
2. “
“Refuse
to Pay Government Debt Incurred for Unlawful and Oppressive Purposes
… It Is the Personal Debt of Those Who Ordered It to Be Incurred
There is an established legal principle that people
should not have to repay their government’s debt to the extent that it
is incurred to launch aggressive wars or to oppress the pe…ople.
These “odious debts” are considered to be the personal debts of the tyrants who incurred them, rather than the country’s debt.
Wikipedia gives a good overview of the principle:
In
international law, odious debt is a legal theory which holds that the
national debt incurred by a regime for purposes that do not serve the
best interests of the nation, such as wars of aggression, should not be
enforceable. Such debts are thus considered by this doctrine to be
personal debts of the regime that incurred them and not debts of the
state. In some respects, the concept is analogous to the invalidity of
contracts signed under coercion.
…
Bush, Cheney, Paulson, Geithner, Summers and others who ordered that these debts be incurred must be held personally liable
for them. We the American people are not responsible to creditors -
such as China, Saudi Arabia – who have knowingly financed these illegal
and oppressive activities which have not benefited the American people,
but solely the handful of corrupt politicians who authorized them.”
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/02/refuse-to-pay-government-debt-incurred.html
3. “Obviously:
“Leading Austrian Economist: Some Conspiracy Theories Are True”
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/02/leading-austrian-economist-some.html
4. “
“Characteristics of a pseudoskeptic:
1. The tendency to deny, rather than doubt.
2. Double standards in the application of criticism.
3. The making of judgments without full inquiry.
4. Tendency to discredit, rather than investigate.
5. Use of ridicule or ad hominem attacks in lieu of arguments.
6. Pejorative labeling …of proponents as ‘promoters’, ‘pseudoscientists’ or practitioners of ‘pathological science.
7. Presenting insufficient evidence or proof.
8. Assuming criticism requires no burden of proof.
9. Making unsubstantiated counter-claims.
10. Counter-claims based on plausibility rather than empirical evidence.
11. Suggesting that unconvincing evidence is grounds for dismissing it.
12. Use of vague, exaggerated or untestable claims.
13. Asserting that claims which have not been proven false must be true, and vice versa (Argument from ignorance).
14. They speak down to their audience using ‘arguments from authority’.
15. They put forward their assumptions as if they were universal truths.
16. No references to reputable journal material.
17. If the pseudo-skeptic has a monetary interest (such as maintaining
a funding stream or a salary) his criticisms often become vituperative.
True Skeptics / Open-Minded Skeptics
A. Does not show any of the characteristics of a pseudoskeptic.
B. Inquires and asks questions to try to understand things
C. Applies open inquiry and investigation of both sides
D. Is nonjudgmental, doesn’t jump to rash conclusions
E. Has honest doubt and questions all beliefs, including their own
F. Seeks the truth, considers it the highest aim
G. Fairly and objectively weighs evidence on all sides
H. Acknowledges valid convincing evidence
I. Possesses solid sharp common sense and reason
J. Is able to adapt and update their paradigms to new evidence”
http://www.911blogger.com/node/22573
5. “The Useless Logic of Round Numbers: A Massacre is a Massacre, a War of choice is a Crime”
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17575
6. “Europe’s Five “Undeclared Nuclear Weapons States” Are Turkey, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Italy Nuclear Powers?”
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17550
7. “Former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey has become the leading spokesman for a Cheneyite national security attack, which relies on scaring Americans into believing that Obama is endangering their lives in those rare instances when he deviates from Bush’s Terrorism approach.
…
The ignorance of media stars about these issues allows fear-mongering politicians to make these claims over and over without challenge (although see Savannah Guthrie’s impressively aggressive, well-informed and effective interrogation of Sen. Kit Bond about this case: it’s the exception that proves the rule, and illustrates what effective adversarial journalism can accomplish). And much of this is the fault of the Obama administration: because they themselves have embraced the Bush/Cheney policies of military commissions and indefinite detentions, they’re incapable of articulating any coherent principle why civilian trials are needed, and are instead reduced to the pitiful spectacle of relying on a “Bush-did-it-too” defense to try to show that they’re sufficiently “tough on Terror” (as though the same administration which Obama spent two years depicting as radical, destructive and lawless is the standard-bearer for how Terrorists should be handled).
Still, Mukasey’s dishonesty is worse than the standard political/media freak show, both because he knows better and because (as a judge) he renounced the very myths which (as a hardened right-wing partisan) he is now disseminating. He has become a leading practitioner of the hysterical fear-mongering he once rightly scorned.”
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/02/12/mukasey/index.html
8. “Zionism: A Fairy Tale That’s Become a Terrifying Nightmare
The Jews who “returned” in answer to Zionism’s call had no biological connection to the ancient Hebrews. They were converts to Judaism long after the end of the Hebrew conquest and short-lived domination of much of Canaan, the name as in the Bible by which Palestine was first known to the world. They therefore had no legitimate claim on the land.
The Jews who did have a legitimate claim, probably not more than about 10,000 at the time of Zionism’s first dishonest mission statement in 1897, were the direct descendants of the Israelites who stayed in place on the land through time. They regarded themselves as Palestinians, and they were fiercely opposed to Zionism’s colonial enterprise because they feared it would make them as well as the incoming alien Jews enemies of the Palestinian Arabs.
…
Zionism has two hallmarks.
One is self-righteousness of a most extraordinary kind. In 1986 this self-righteousness was described by Yehoshafat Harkabi, a former Director of Israeli Military Intelligence, as “the biggest real danger” to the Jewish state.
The other hallmark is a shocking and awesome arrogance of military and economic power and the influence the latter buys, most critically in the U.S. Congress where what passes for democracy is for sale to the highest bidders.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24669.htm
9. “Indicting the Supreme Court
Consider this short list of examples:
· It is legal for a vendor to sell a product which does not work but illegal for a buyer to purchase a product with a check that does not work.
· During a corporate bankruptcy, the company’s assets are distributed first to other companies and last, if anything remains, to employees and even people who have obtained judgments from courts for company wrongdoing.
· If a homebuyer who has paid regularly on his mortgage for 20 and even more years, who has paid the property taxes and the property’s insurance, is forced to default for no fault of his own, such as a death, serious illness, or economic collapse, the mortgage holder gets to keep all the money and gets the house too, transferring the risk that investors are supposed to bear entirely to the buyer.
· Entire industries can uniformly require consumers to accept contracts that require them to relinquish their legal and even Constitutional rights.
· And those industries can also uniformly require consumers to accept contracts that the companies can change in any way at any time for any reason without gaining the consent of the consumer. Has a consumer ever had such a right?
· Companies can collect personal information on people without their consent yet are allowed to keep company secrets even those which hide wrongdoing, as when a civil case is settled and the company involved is allowed to not admit to any wrongdoing and the court seals the detailed record.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24663.htm
10. “The Lobbying-Media Complex
A four-month investigation by The Nation has found. Since 2007 at least seventy-five registered lobbyists, public relations representatives and corporate officials–people paid by companies and trade groups to manage their public image and promote their financial and political interests–have appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, CNBC and Fox Business Network with no disclosure of the corporate interests that had paid them.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24667.htm
11. “Top 10 Problems with America Killing Its Own Citizens
Assassinating non-Americans is just as illegal as assassinating Americans. The leap here is not to victims of a different citizenship but to the legalization of murder.
The director of U.S. national intelligence told the House Intelligence Committee the government has the right to kill Americans abroad.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article24668.htm
