A US request to extradite a British computer hacker accused of the "biggest military hack of all time" has been granted by Home Secretary John Reid.
Gary McKinnon, who is accused of breaking into US government computer networks, has been fighting extradition since his arrest in November 2002.
His family says he has 14 days to appeal against the extradition.
Mr McKinnon told the BBC he was "very worried and feeling very let down by my own government".
In May, a district judge sitting at Bow Street Magistrates' Court in London recommended Mr McKinnon be extradited - but the final decision rested with the home secretary.
'Order signed'
A Home Office spokesman said: "On 4 July the secretary of state signed an order for Mr McKinnon's extradition to the United States for charges connected with computer hacking.
"Mr McKinnon had exercised his right to submit representations against return but the secretary of state did not consider the issues raised availed Mr McKinnon.
"Mr McKinnon now has the opportunity, within 14 days, to appeal against the decisions of the district judge/secretary of state."
Mr McKinnon was first arrested in 2002 by the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit for hacking into a series of computer networks used by the US army, navy, air force, and Department of Defense.
The US, in its case for extradition, said Mr McKinnon caused more than $700,000 (£375,235) of damage while exploring the computer networks at various US military institutions.
It said one attack at the Earle Naval Weapons Station took place soon after 11 September 2001 and made it impossible to use critical systems.
The US Department of Justice said it took a month to get systems working in the aftermath of this attack.
Mr McKinnon, who was born in Glasgow, has admitted that he spent almost two years exploring these networks but has said he was motivated by a search for what he called "suppressed technology".
His lawyers had argued he could be sent to Guantanamo Bay as a terrorist suspect.
Source: News.bbc.co.uk
Read more here: http://freegary.org.uk/
Thursday, 31 July 2008
NASA says Mars craft "touched and tasted" water
NASA scientists said on Thursday they had definitive proof that water exists on Mars after further tests on ice found on the planet in June by the Phoenix Mars Lander."We have water," said William Boynton, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer instrument on Phoenix.
"We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted," he said, referring to the craft's instruments.
NASA on Thursday also extended the mission of the Phoenix Mars Lander by five weeks, saying its work was moving beyond the search for water to exploring whether the red planet was ever capable of sustaining life.
"We are extending the mission through September 30," Michael Meyer, chief scientist for NASA's Mars exploration program, told a televised news conference.
The extension will add about $2 million to the $420 million cost of landing Phoenix on May 25 for what was a scheduled three-month mission, Meyer said.
Phoenix is the latest NASA bid to discover whether water -- a crucial ingredient for life -- ever flowed on Mars and whether life, even in the form of mere microbes, exists or ever existed there.
Phoenix touched down in May on an ice sheet and samples of the ice were seen melting away in photographs taken by the lander's instruments in June.
Boynton said that water was positively identified after the lander's robotic arm delivered a soil sample on Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced by heating.
Mission scientists said the extension would give time for more analysis of Martian samples. They plan to dig two additional trenches -- dubbed "cupboard" and "neverland" -- using the robotic arm on the Phoenix craft.
"We hope to be able to answer the question of whether this was a habitable zone on Mars. It will be for future missions to find if anyone is home on this environment," Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith told the news conference.
Mission scientists said in June that Martian soil was more alkaline than expected and had traces of magnesium, sodium, potassium and other elements. They described the findings as a "huge step forward."
Meyer said the scientific proof of the existence of water meant that Phoenix could "move from looking for water to seeing whether there were habitats for life.
"We are moving towards understanding whether there were or could be places on Mars that are habitable," Meyer said.
Source: News.yahoo.com
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
Cancer Docs Warn Staff Of Cell Phone Risks
The head of a prominent cancer research institute issued an unprecedented warning to his faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer.
The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is contrary to numerous studies that don't find a link between cancer and cell phone use, and a public lack of worry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Herberman is basing his alarm on early unpublished data. He says it takes too long to get answers from science and he believes people should take action now - especially when it comes to children.
"Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn't wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later," Herberman said.
No other major academic cancer research institutions have sounded such an alarm about cell phone use. But Herberman's advice is sure to raise concern among many cell phone users and especially parents.
In the memo he sent to about 3,000 faculty and staff Wednesday, he says children should use cell phones only for emergencies because their brains are still developing.
Adults should keep the phone away from the head and use the speakerphone or a wireless headset, he says. He even warns against using cell phones in public places like a bus because it exposes others to the phone's electromagnetic fields.
The issue that concerns some scientists - though nowhere near a consensus - is electromagnetic radiation, especially its possible effects on children. It is not a major topic in conferences of brain specialists.
A 2008 University of Utah analysis looked at nine studies - including some Herberman cites - with thousands of brain tumor patients and concludes "we found no overall increased risk of brain tumors among cellular phone users. The potential elevated risk of brain tumors after long-term cellular phone use awaits confirmation by future studies."
Studies last year in France and Norway concluded the same thing.
"If there is a risk from these products - and at this point we do not know that there is - it is probably very small," the Food and Drug Administration says on an agency Web site.
Still, Herberman cites a "growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer."
"Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use," he wrote in his memo.
A driving force behind the memo was Devra Lee Davis, the director of the university's center for environmental oncology.
"The question is do you want to play Russian roulette with your brain," she said in an interview from her cell phone while using the hands-free speaker phone as recommended. "I don't know that cell phones are dangerous. But I don't know that they are safe."
Of concern are the still unknown effects of more than a decade of cell phone use, with some studies raising alarms, said Davis, a former health adviser in the Clinton Administration.
She said 20 different groups have endorsed the advice the Pittsburgh cancer institute gave, and authorities in England, France and India have cautioned children's use of cell phones.
Herberman and Davis point to a massive ongoing research project known as Interphone, involving scientists in 13 nations, mostly in Europe. Results already published in peer-reviewed journals from this project aren't so alarming, but Herberman is citing work not yet published.
The published research focuses on more than 5,000 cases of brain tumors. The National Research Council in the U.S., which isn't participating in the Interphone project, reported in January that the brain tumor research had "selection bias." That means it relied on people with cancer to remember how often they used cell phones. It is not considered the most accurate research approach.
The largest published study, which appeared in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 2006, tracked 420,000 Danish cell phone users, including thousands that had used the phones for more than 10 years. It found no increased risk of cancer among those using cell phones.
A French study based on Interphone research and published in 2007 concluded that regular cell phone users had "no significant increased risk" for three major types of nervous system tumors. It did note, however, that there was "the possibility of an increased risk among the heaviest users" for one type of brain tumor, but that needs to be verified in future research.
Earlier research also has found no connection.
Joshua E. Muscat of Penn State University, who has studied cancer and cell phones in other research projects partly funded by the cell phone industry, said there are at least a dozen studies that have found no cancer-cell phone link. He said a Swedish study cited by Herberman as support for his warning was biased and flawed.
"We certainly don't know of any mechanism by which radiofrequency exposure would cause a cancerous effect in cells. We just don't know this might possibly occur," Muscat said.
Cell phones emit radiofrequency energy, a type of radiation that is a form of electromagnetic radiation, according to the National Cancer Institute. Though studies are being done to see if there is a link between it and tumors of the brain and central nervous system, there is no definitive link between the two, the institute says on its Web site.
"By all means, if a person feels compelled that they should take precautions in reducing the amount of electromagnetic radio waves through their bodies, by all means they should do so," said Dan Catena, a spokesman for the American Cancer Society. "But at the same time, we have to remember there's no conclusive evidence that links cell phones to cancer, whether it's brain tumors or other forms of cancer."
Joe Farren, a spokesman for the CTIA-The Wireless Association, a trade group for the wireless industry, said the group believes there is a risk of misinforming the public if science isn't used as the ultimate guide on the issue.
"When you look at the overwhelming majority of studies that have been peer reviewed and published in scientific journals around the world, you'll find no relationship between wireless usage and adverse health affects," Farren said.
Frank Barnes, who chaired the January report from the National Research Council, said Wednesday that "the jury is out" on how hazardous long-term cell phone use might be.
Speaking from his cell phone, the professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder said he takes no special precautions in his own phone use. And he offered no specific advice to people worried about the matter.
It's up to each individual to decide what if anything to do. If people use a cell phone instead of having a land line, "that may very well be reasonable for them," he said.
Susan Juffe, a 58-year-old Pittsburgh special education teacher, heard about Herberman's cell phone advice on the radio earlier in the day.
"Now, I'm worried. It's scary," she said.
She says she'll think twice about allowing her 10-year-old daughter Jayne to use the cell phone.
"I don't want to get it (brain cancer) and I certainly don't want you to get it," she explained to her daughter.
Sara Loughran, a 24-year-old doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh, sat in a bus stop Wednesday chatting on her cell phone with her mother. She also had heard the news earlier in the day, but was not as concerned.
"I think if they gave me specific numbers and specific information and it was scary enough, I would be concerned," Loughran said, planning to call her mother again in a matter of minutes. "Without specific numbers, it's too vague to get me worked up."
Source: cbsnews.com
The warning from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is contrary to numerous studies that don't find a link between cancer and cell phone use, and a public lack of worry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Herberman is basing his alarm on early unpublished data. He says it takes too long to get answers from science and he believes people should take action now - especially when it comes to children.
"Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn't wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later," Herberman said.
No other major academic cancer research institutions have sounded such an alarm about cell phone use. But Herberman's advice is sure to raise concern among many cell phone users and especially parents.
In the memo he sent to about 3,000 faculty and staff Wednesday, he says children should use cell phones only for emergencies because their brains are still developing.
Adults should keep the phone away from the head and use the speakerphone or a wireless headset, he says. He even warns against using cell phones in public places like a bus because it exposes others to the phone's electromagnetic fields.
The issue that concerns some scientists - though nowhere near a consensus - is electromagnetic radiation, especially its possible effects on children. It is not a major topic in conferences of brain specialists.
A 2008 University of Utah analysis looked at nine studies - including some Herberman cites - with thousands of brain tumor patients and concludes "we found no overall increased risk of brain tumors among cellular phone users. The potential elevated risk of brain tumors after long-term cellular phone use awaits confirmation by future studies."
Studies last year in France and Norway concluded the same thing.
"If there is a risk from these products - and at this point we do not know that there is - it is probably very small," the Food and Drug Administration says on an agency Web site.
Still, Herberman cites a "growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer."
"Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use," he wrote in his memo.
A driving force behind the memo was Devra Lee Davis, the director of the university's center for environmental oncology.
"The question is do you want to play Russian roulette with your brain," she said in an interview from her cell phone while using the hands-free speaker phone as recommended. "I don't know that cell phones are dangerous. But I don't know that they are safe."
Of concern are the still unknown effects of more than a decade of cell phone use, with some studies raising alarms, said Davis, a former health adviser in the Clinton Administration.
She said 20 different groups have endorsed the advice the Pittsburgh cancer institute gave, and authorities in England, France and India have cautioned children's use of cell phones.
Herberman and Davis point to a massive ongoing research project known as Interphone, involving scientists in 13 nations, mostly in Europe. Results already published in peer-reviewed journals from this project aren't so alarming, but Herberman is citing work not yet published.
The published research focuses on more than 5,000 cases of brain tumors. The National Research Council in the U.S., which isn't participating in the Interphone project, reported in January that the brain tumor research had "selection bias." That means it relied on people with cancer to remember how often they used cell phones. It is not considered the most accurate research approach.
The largest published study, which appeared in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 2006, tracked 420,000 Danish cell phone users, including thousands that had used the phones for more than 10 years. It found no increased risk of cancer among those using cell phones.
A French study based on Interphone research and published in 2007 concluded that regular cell phone users had "no significant increased risk" for three major types of nervous system tumors. It did note, however, that there was "the possibility of an increased risk among the heaviest users" for one type of brain tumor, but that needs to be verified in future research.
Earlier research also has found no connection.
Joshua E. Muscat of Penn State University, who has studied cancer and cell phones in other research projects partly funded by the cell phone industry, said there are at least a dozen studies that have found no cancer-cell phone link. He said a Swedish study cited by Herberman as support for his warning was biased and flawed.
"We certainly don't know of any mechanism by which radiofrequency exposure would cause a cancerous effect in cells. We just don't know this might possibly occur," Muscat said.
Cell phones emit radiofrequency energy, a type of radiation that is a form of electromagnetic radiation, according to the National Cancer Institute. Though studies are being done to see if there is a link between it and tumors of the brain and central nervous system, there is no definitive link between the two, the institute says on its Web site.
"By all means, if a person feels compelled that they should take precautions in reducing the amount of electromagnetic radio waves through their bodies, by all means they should do so," said Dan Catena, a spokesman for the American Cancer Society. "But at the same time, we have to remember there's no conclusive evidence that links cell phones to cancer, whether it's brain tumors or other forms of cancer."
Joe Farren, a spokesman for the CTIA-The Wireless Association, a trade group for the wireless industry, said the group believes there is a risk of misinforming the public if science isn't used as the ultimate guide on the issue.
"When you look at the overwhelming majority of studies that have been peer reviewed and published in scientific journals around the world, you'll find no relationship between wireless usage and adverse health affects," Farren said.
Frank Barnes, who chaired the January report from the National Research Council, said Wednesday that "the jury is out" on how hazardous long-term cell phone use might be.
Speaking from his cell phone, the professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder said he takes no special precautions in his own phone use. And he offered no specific advice to people worried about the matter.
It's up to each individual to decide what if anything to do. If people use a cell phone instead of having a land line, "that may very well be reasonable for them," he said.
Susan Juffe, a 58-year-old Pittsburgh special education teacher, heard about Herberman's cell phone advice on the radio earlier in the day.
"Now, I'm worried. It's scary," she said.
She says she'll think twice about allowing her 10-year-old daughter Jayne to use the cell phone.
"I don't want to get it (brain cancer) and I certainly don't want you to get it," she explained to her daughter.
Sara Loughran, a 24-year-old doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh, sat in a bus stop Wednesday chatting on her cell phone with her mother. She also had heard the news earlier in the day, but was not as concerned.
"I think if they gave me specific numbers and specific information and it was scary enough, I would be concerned," Loughran said, planning to call her mother again in a matter of minutes. "Without specific numbers, it's too vague to get me worked up."
Source: cbsnews.com
So Now We Know What Makes The News
As UFO aficionados are aware of, over the past week the most startling of disclosures occurred when Apollo 14 astronaut and sixth man to walk on the surface of the Moon, Dr. Edgar Mitchell revealed that the UFO phenomenon is a reality and that extraterrestrials have indeed been visiting Earth and interacting with our governments.
Dr. Mitchell is a well respected scientist of the highest calibre and one of the bravest men in human history. To have the wherewithal to travel to another planet, or moon, our Moon in this respect took more than just guts. Only few men, all Americans have achieved this feat with equipment that by today’s standards was hazardous to say the least. Therefore if one were to question Dr. Mitchell’s character one would best in my book be ready to step outside to the alleyway. I’d be the first one waiting for you.
Dr. Mitchell’s disclosure travelled around the news circles worldwide. Yet one would think with his celebrity and irrefutable scientific achievements and stature that his story would have been at the top of the headlines for weeks on end. Daily and nightly news coverage, a cascade of talk shows, heads-of-state in shoulder to shoulder briefings, but you know what? Dr. Mitchell’s disclosure took a back seat to such important headlines regarding Miley Cyrus, Angelina Jolie, Barack Obama’s trip overseas, several other celebrities and their reputed matrimonial dilemmas, and of course that ever present newsworthy item regarding actress Kirstie Alley’s weight problems.
As you can see, even if a man of Dr. Edgar Mitchell’s stature can make a statement before the press of such magnitude and it not be addressed by the top news sources of our country with ruffles and flourishes, it shows what the true agenda of our press is. It’s about face time with celebrities and a press room popularity contest. Never mind last week a new amazing treatment for prostate cancer was announced. That made some headlines but not as many as the latest celebrity gossip! You have to have that gossip to make the world go round or you can’t sell newspapers. Nowadays you can’t sell newspapers anyway unless you stoop to a Murdochian level of slap happy journalism.
In this follow up to his radio broadcast disclosure Dr. Mitchell elaborates on his story at this website:
http://dsc.discovery.com/space/qa/alien-ufo-edgar-mitchell.html
Now skeptics and debunkers don’t know what to do with themselves nowadays after this disclosure about UFOs. They’re chomping at the bit to declare Dr. Mitchell mentally unstable but even they know they tread on holy ground here. The debunkers and skeptics would like to next declare that Dr. Mitchell’s memory is affected by old age, but they can’t because the good doctor isn’t stating any UFO encounters of his own, only sources of highest credibility that he himself investigated. The skeptics and debunkers are probably pulling out their hair trying to figure out some way to invalidate a tried and true hero but they know they’re facing an impassable force and more than likely an army of knuckles should they insult a man who is a bona fide hero to millions of people. I dare the first skeptic or debunker to attack Dr. Mitchell’s character on this issue. We’ll probably run them out of town on a rail after the tar and feathering!
Our press, or should I say the Controlled Press, is a vicious and vindictive mechanism. At present one of their own, Dan Rather is in a battle with his former employers at CBS after Rather had accused them of the same things as we so-called “conspiracy theorists” have claimed for close to 100 years. Notice how it’s a “conspiracy theory” when it goes against an oppressive grain. It was a “conspiracy theory” that oil prices would shoot up during President G.W. Bush’s watch. It was a “conspiracy theory” when we predicted the housing market and credit crisis. It was a “conspiracy theory” when people noticed psychiatric medication was behind a massive rise in suicides and mass killings. The press has become a prostitute of communications and the people deserve better. It’s not that the press is worse, it’s always been horrid at this since the early part of the 20th Century when advertising flourished. During the Cold War more intrusions by intelligence agencies whose vision was clouded by industrialists and their hidden social agendas. Now, with the spread of the internet people are getting their news from a different source, a more reliable and tangible source, the people themselves. Sure we’re not all trained journalists and for certain many of the internet writers have their own personal agendas but the difference is with the web we can team up and cross check references and counter the data presented. In short, this is the age of validation. Lies are falling faster than new ones can be formed and it’s only a matter of time before the end of the Age of Lies comes to. Perhaps that’s what the Mayan Calendar year of 2012 is all about. Not an end of the world but the end of the nonsense, the lies about who and what we really are.
Maybe Neil Armstrong took one small step for man and a giant leap for mankind, but Dr. Edgar Mitchell may have taken the biggest step for man and mankind ever.
Source: http://www.ufomafia.com/blog/
Dr. Mitchell is a well respected scientist of the highest calibre and one of the bravest men in human history. To have the wherewithal to travel to another planet, or moon, our Moon in this respect took more than just guts. Only few men, all Americans have achieved this feat with equipment that by today’s standards was hazardous to say the least. Therefore if one were to question Dr. Mitchell’s character one would best in my book be ready to step outside to the alleyway. I’d be the first one waiting for you.
Dr. Mitchell’s disclosure travelled around the news circles worldwide. Yet one would think with his celebrity and irrefutable scientific achievements and stature that his story would have been at the top of the headlines for weeks on end. Daily and nightly news coverage, a cascade of talk shows, heads-of-state in shoulder to shoulder briefings, but you know what? Dr. Mitchell’s disclosure took a back seat to such important headlines regarding Miley Cyrus, Angelina Jolie, Barack Obama’s trip overseas, several other celebrities and their reputed matrimonial dilemmas, and of course that ever present newsworthy item regarding actress Kirstie Alley’s weight problems.
As you can see, even if a man of Dr. Edgar Mitchell’s stature can make a statement before the press of such magnitude and it not be addressed by the top news sources of our country with ruffles and flourishes, it shows what the true agenda of our press is. It’s about face time with celebrities and a press room popularity contest. Never mind last week a new amazing treatment for prostate cancer was announced. That made some headlines but not as many as the latest celebrity gossip! You have to have that gossip to make the world go round or you can’t sell newspapers. Nowadays you can’t sell newspapers anyway unless you stoop to a Murdochian level of slap happy journalism.
In this follow up to his radio broadcast disclosure Dr. Mitchell elaborates on his story at this website:
http://dsc.discovery.com/space/qa/alien-ufo-edgar-mitchell.html
Now skeptics and debunkers don’t know what to do with themselves nowadays after this disclosure about UFOs. They’re chomping at the bit to declare Dr. Mitchell mentally unstable but even they know they tread on holy ground here. The debunkers and skeptics would like to next declare that Dr. Mitchell’s memory is affected by old age, but they can’t because the good doctor isn’t stating any UFO encounters of his own, only sources of highest credibility that he himself investigated. The skeptics and debunkers are probably pulling out their hair trying to figure out some way to invalidate a tried and true hero but they know they’re facing an impassable force and more than likely an army of knuckles should they insult a man who is a bona fide hero to millions of people. I dare the first skeptic or debunker to attack Dr. Mitchell’s character on this issue. We’ll probably run them out of town on a rail after the tar and feathering!
Our press, or should I say the Controlled Press, is a vicious and vindictive mechanism. At present one of their own, Dan Rather is in a battle with his former employers at CBS after Rather had accused them of the same things as we so-called “conspiracy theorists” have claimed for close to 100 years. Notice how it’s a “conspiracy theory” when it goes against an oppressive grain. It was a “conspiracy theory” that oil prices would shoot up during President G.W. Bush’s watch. It was a “conspiracy theory” when we predicted the housing market and credit crisis. It was a “conspiracy theory” when people noticed psychiatric medication was behind a massive rise in suicides and mass killings. The press has become a prostitute of communications and the people deserve better. It’s not that the press is worse, it’s always been horrid at this since the early part of the 20th Century when advertising flourished. During the Cold War more intrusions by intelligence agencies whose vision was clouded by industrialists and their hidden social agendas. Now, with the spread of the internet people are getting their news from a different source, a more reliable and tangible source, the people themselves. Sure we’re not all trained journalists and for certain many of the internet writers have their own personal agendas but the difference is with the web we can team up and cross check references and counter the data presented. In short, this is the age of validation. Lies are falling faster than new ones can be formed and it’s only a matter of time before the end of the Age of Lies comes to. Perhaps that’s what the Mayan Calendar year of 2012 is all about. Not an end of the world but the end of the nonsense, the lies about who and what we really are.
Maybe Neil Armstrong took one small step for man and a giant leap for mankind, but Dr. Edgar Mitchell may have taken the biggest step for man and mankind ever.
Source: http://www.ufomafia.com/blog/
Monday, 28 July 2008
Paper Sold To Pools of Liquidity
Vast unexploited oil reserves? An economic threat from too much oil? Dark pools of liquidity, threats of hyperinflation from unsound economy and Fed practices, remembering the lessons from The Great Depression, reactionary measures to protect the dollar, An examination of a crisis scenario.
Lindsey Williams, who has been an ordained Baptist minister for 28 years, went to Alaska in 1971 as a missionary. The Transalaska oil pipeline began its construction phase in 1974, and because of his concern for the spiritual welfare of the "pipeliners," Mr. Williams volunteered to serve as Chaplain on the pipeline, with the subsequent full support of the Alyeska Pipeline Company. Because of the executive status accorded to him as Chaplain, he was given access to the information that is documented in his book, "The Energy Non-Crisis," which shows that peak oil is a scam because our domestic reserves in the North Slope of Alaska alone are at least as large as those in Saudi Arabia and are potentially large enough to power the US with domestic oil for two centuries. Recently this year, due to the sensitive nature of his book, Mr. Willians' life was threatened and he was forced to shut down his web-site and stop selling his books and CDs. At the urging of Dr. Stanley Monteith of Radio Liberty, he called back the same oil executive who had warned him about the danger he would be in if he continued to disseminate certain information to ask if in fact there was any information that he could in fact convey to the public without upsetting the powers that be. The oil executive, who Mr. Williams had known for years, gave Mr. Williams some startling revelations which he could safely reveal to the general public. As you know, the Illuminati are arrogant enough to reveal some of their plans because they believe there is nothing we can do about it.
Basically, Mr. Williams was told that over the next twelve months, from mid-2008 to mid-2009, (1) news of super giant oil fields, ready to produce, would be announced for two locations, in the Northern Slopes of Russia and in Indonesia, which oil fields would together contain more oil reserves than the entire Middle East;
(2) that this news would drive oil prices down to $50/barrel;
(3) that OPEC countries, especially in the Middle East, would be bankrupted by this price decrease;
(4) that this would cause the financing of our foreign trade and current account deficits through purchases of treasury paper by foreign nations with their surplus oil profits to collapse, leading to the collapse of the dollar;
(5) that the collapse of the dollar would cause unprecedented financial strife and turmoil in the US, and that it would take many years for the US to recover from this financial debacle;
(6) that they (big oil) support John McCain for President; and
(7) that US domestic oil reserves would never be tapped, and that any legislation which might allow domestic reserves to be tapped would not be allowed to pass, leaving the US dependent on foreign oil forever.
Read the rest of the article here:
Theinternationalforecaster.com
Thetruthseeker.co.uk
Lindsey Williams, who has been an ordained Baptist minister for 28 years, went to Alaska in 1971 as a missionary. The Transalaska oil pipeline began its construction phase in 1974, and because of his concern for the spiritual welfare of the "pipeliners," Mr. Williams volunteered to serve as Chaplain on the pipeline, with the subsequent full support of the Alyeska Pipeline Company. Because of the executive status accorded to him as Chaplain, he was given access to the information that is documented in his book, "The Energy Non-Crisis," which shows that peak oil is a scam because our domestic reserves in the North Slope of Alaska alone are at least as large as those in Saudi Arabia and are potentially large enough to power the US with domestic oil for two centuries. Recently this year, due to the sensitive nature of his book, Mr. Willians' life was threatened and he was forced to shut down his web-site and stop selling his books and CDs. At the urging of Dr. Stanley Monteith of Radio Liberty, he called back the same oil executive who had warned him about the danger he would be in if he continued to disseminate certain information to ask if in fact there was any information that he could in fact convey to the public without upsetting the powers that be. The oil executive, who Mr. Williams had known for years, gave Mr. Williams some startling revelations which he could safely reveal to the general public. As you know, the Illuminati are arrogant enough to reveal some of their plans because they believe there is nothing we can do about it.
Basically, Mr. Williams was told that over the next twelve months, from mid-2008 to mid-2009, (1) news of super giant oil fields, ready to produce, would be announced for two locations, in the Northern Slopes of Russia and in Indonesia, which oil fields would together contain more oil reserves than the entire Middle East;
(2) that this news would drive oil prices down to $50/barrel;
(3) that OPEC countries, especially in the Middle East, would be bankrupted by this price decrease;
(4) that this would cause the financing of our foreign trade and current account deficits through purchases of treasury paper by foreign nations with their surplus oil profits to collapse, leading to the collapse of the dollar;
(5) that the collapse of the dollar would cause unprecedented financial strife and turmoil in the US, and that it would take many years for the US to recover from this financial debacle;
(6) that they (big oil) support John McCain for President; and
(7) that US domestic oil reserves would never be tapped, and that any legislation which might allow domestic reserves to be tapped would not be allowed to pass, leaving the US dependent on foreign oil forever.
Read the rest of the article here:
Theinternationalforecaster.com
Thetruthseeker.co.uk
Friday, 25 July 2008
Aliens have made contact says Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell
FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens do exist.And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades.
Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.'
He said supposedly real-life ET's were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head.
Chillingly, he claimed our technology is "not nearly as sophisticated" as theirs and "had they been hostile", he warned "we would be been gone by now".
Dr Mitchell, along with with Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, holds the record for the longest ever moon walk, at nine hours and 17 minutes following their 1971 mission.
"I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real," Dr Mitchell said.
"It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it.
"I've been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes - we have been visited. Reading the papers recently, it's been happening quite a bit."
Dr Mitchell, who has a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and a Doctor of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics claimed Roswell was real and similar alien visits continue to be investigated.
He told the astonished Kerrang! radio host Nick Margerrison: "This is really starting to open up. I think we're headed for real disclosure and some serious organisations are moving in that direction."
Mr Margerrison said: "I thought I'd stumbled on some sort of astronaut humour but he was absolutely serious that aliens are definitely out there and there's no debating it."
Officials from NASA, however, were quick to play the comments down.
In a statement, a spokesman said: "NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover up about alien life on this planet or anywhere in the universe.
'Dr Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinions on this issue.'
Source: News.com.au
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
Wiltshire crop circle identified as symbolic code for first ten places of pi
I believe this is proof that the crop images that we are now seeing across the world are not the work of anyone from this planet. What, however is making the crop images remains to be seen and investigated further. The circle below is a coded image representing a complex mathematical number, the first ten digits of pi. I work with very intelligent people who tried to have a go at creating this image on the PC....and FAILED!
Mathematicians are perplexed after a highly complex crop circle appeared in a Wiltshire field - depicting a fundamental mathematical symbol.
The circle is, apparently, a coded image representing a complex mathematical number — the first ten digits of pi — and even astrophysicists admit they find it “mind-boggling”.
The circular pattern was created in a barley field near Barbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort, earlier this month.
Measuring around 46m (150ft) in diameter, it has had crop circle enthusiasts and experts stumped.
The symbol was identified eventually by Mike Reed, a retired astrophysicist who contacted Lucy Pringle, a crop circle photographer and expert, with an explanation.
Maths codes and geometric patterns have long been an important factor in crop circle formations — one of the most famous formations ever created showed the image of a complex set of fractals known as The Julia Set, in a field near Stonehenge, 12 years ago.
Lucy Pringle, who researches the effects of electromagnetic fields on living systems and crop formations and has the largest database of crop circles in the world said of the phenomenon: “This is an astounding development — it is a seminal event.”
Source: Timesonline.co.uk
Another source with more detail: Dailymail.co.uk
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Death of Free Internet is Imminent
In the last 15 years or so, as a society we have had access to more information than ever before in modern history because of the Internet. There are approximately 1 billion Internet users in the world B and any one of these users can theoretically communicate in real time with any other on the planet. The Internet has been the greatest technological achievement of the 20th century by far, and has been recognized as such by the global community.
The free transfer of information, uncensored, unlimited and untainted, still seems to be a dream when you think about it. Whatever field that is mentioned- education, commerce, government, news, entertainment, politics and countless other areas- have been radically affected by the introduction of the Internet. And mostly, it's good news, except when poor judgements are made and people are taken advantage of. Scrutiny and oversight are needed, especially where children are involved.
However, when there are potential profits open to a corporation, the needs of society don't count. Take the recent case in Canada with the behemoths, Telus and Rogers rolling out a charge for text messaging without any warning to the public. It was an arrogant and risky move for the telecommunications giants because it backfired. People actually used Internet technology to deliver a loud and clear message to these companies and that was to scrap the extra charge. The people used the power of the Internet against the big boys and the little guys won.
However, the issue of text messaging is just a tiny blip on the radar screens of Telus and another company, Bell Canada, the two largest Internet Service Providers (ISP'S) in Canada. Our country is being used as a test case to drastically change the delivery of Internet service forever. The change will be so radical that it has the potential to send us back to the horse and buggy days of information sharing and access.
In the upcoming weeks watch for a report in Time Magazine that will attempt to smooth over the rough edges of a diabolical plot by Bell Canada and Telus, to begin charging per site fees on most Internet sites. The plan is to convert the Internet into a cable-like system, where customers sign up for specific web sites, and then pay to visit sites beyond a cutoff point.
From my browsing (on the currently free Internet) I have discovered that the 'demise' of the free Internet is slated for 2010 in Canada, and two years later around the world. Canada is seen a good choice to implement such shameful and sinister changes, since Canadians are viewed as being laissez fair, politically uninformed and an easy target. The corporate marauders will iron out the wrinkles in Canada and then spring the new, castrated version of the Internet on the rest of the world, probably with little fanfare, except for some dire warnings about the 'evil' of the Internet (free) and the CEO's spouting about 'safety and security'. These buzzwords usually work pretty well.
What will the Internet look like in Canada in 2010? I suspect that the ISP's will provide a "package" program as companies like Cogeco currently do. Customers will pay for a series of websites as they do now for their television stations. Television stations will be available on-line as part of these packages, which will make the networks happy since they have lost much of the younger market which are surfing and chatting on their computers in the evening. However, as is the case with cable television now, if you choose something that is not part of the package, you know what happens. You pay extra.
And this is where the Internet (free) as we know it will suffer almost immediate, economic strangulation. Thousands and thousands of Internet sites will not be part of the package so users will have to pay extra to visit those sites! In just an hour or two it is possible to easily visit 20-30 sites or more while looking for information. Just imagine how high these costs will be.
At present, the world condemns China because that country restricts certain websites. "They are undemocratic; they are removing people's freedom; they don't respect individual rights; they are censoring information,” are some of the comments we hear. But what Bell Canada and Telus have planned for Canadians is much worse than that. They are planning the death of the Internet (free) as we know it, and I expect they'll be hardly a whimper from Canadians. It's all part of the corporate plan for a New World Order and virtually a masterstroke that will lead to the creation of billions and billions of dollars of corporate profit at the expense of the working and middle classes.
There are so many other implications as a result of these changes, far too many to elaborate on here. Be aware that we will all lose our privacy because all websites will be tracked as part of the billing procedure, and we will be literally cut off from 90% of the information that we can access today. The little guys on the Net will fall likes flies; Bloggers and small website operators will die a quick death because people will not pay to go to their sites and read their pages.
Ironically, the only medium that can save us is the one we are trying to save- the Internet (free). This article will be posted on my Blog, www.realitycheck.typepad.com and I encourage people and groups to learn more about this issue. Canadians can keep the Internet free just as they kept text messaging free. Don't wait for the federal politicians. They will do nothing to help us.
I would welcome a letter to the editor of the Standard Freeholder from a spokesperson from Bell Canada or Telus telling me that I am absolutely wrong in what I have written, and that no such changes to the Internet are being planned, and that access to Internet sites will remain FREE in the years to come. In the meantime, I encourage all of you to write to the media, ask questions, phone the radio station, phone a friend, or think of something else to prevent what appears to me to be inevitable.
Maintaining Internet (free) access is the only way we have a chance at combatting the global corporate takeover, the North American Union, and a long list of other deadly deeds that the elite in society have planned for us. Yesterday was too late in trying to protect our rights and freedoms. We must now redouble our efforts in order to give our children and grandchildren a fighting chance in the future.
Source: Globalresearch.ca
Author's website: Realitycheck.typepad.com
The free transfer of information, uncensored, unlimited and untainted, still seems to be a dream when you think about it. Whatever field that is mentioned- education, commerce, government, news, entertainment, politics and countless other areas- have been radically affected by the introduction of the Internet. And mostly, it's good news, except when poor judgements are made and people are taken advantage of. Scrutiny and oversight are needed, especially where children are involved.
However, when there are potential profits open to a corporation, the needs of society don't count. Take the recent case in Canada with the behemoths, Telus and Rogers rolling out a charge for text messaging without any warning to the public. It was an arrogant and risky move for the telecommunications giants because it backfired. People actually used Internet technology to deliver a loud and clear message to these companies and that was to scrap the extra charge. The people used the power of the Internet against the big boys and the little guys won.
However, the issue of text messaging is just a tiny blip on the radar screens of Telus and another company, Bell Canada, the two largest Internet Service Providers (ISP'S) in Canada. Our country is being used as a test case to drastically change the delivery of Internet service forever. The change will be so radical that it has the potential to send us back to the horse and buggy days of information sharing and access.
In the upcoming weeks watch for a report in Time Magazine that will attempt to smooth over the rough edges of a diabolical plot by Bell Canada and Telus, to begin charging per site fees on most Internet sites. The plan is to convert the Internet into a cable-like system, where customers sign up for specific web sites, and then pay to visit sites beyond a cutoff point.
From my browsing (on the currently free Internet) I have discovered that the 'demise' of the free Internet is slated for 2010 in Canada, and two years later around the world. Canada is seen a good choice to implement such shameful and sinister changes, since Canadians are viewed as being laissez fair, politically uninformed and an easy target. The corporate marauders will iron out the wrinkles in Canada and then spring the new, castrated version of the Internet on the rest of the world, probably with little fanfare, except for some dire warnings about the 'evil' of the Internet (free) and the CEO's spouting about 'safety and security'. These buzzwords usually work pretty well.
What will the Internet look like in Canada in 2010? I suspect that the ISP's will provide a "package" program as companies like Cogeco currently do. Customers will pay for a series of websites as they do now for their television stations. Television stations will be available on-line as part of these packages, which will make the networks happy since they have lost much of the younger market which are surfing and chatting on their computers in the evening. However, as is the case with cable television now, if you choose something that is not part of the package, you know what happens. You pay extra.
And this is where the Internet (free) as we know it will suffer almost immediate, economic strangulation. Thousands and thousands of Internet sites will not be part of the package so users will have to pay extra to visit those sites! In just an hour or two it is possible to easily visit 20-30 sites or more while looking for information. Just imagine how high these costs will be.
At present, the world condemns China because that country restricts certain websites. "They are undemocratic; they are removing people's freedom; they don't respect individual rights; they are censoring information,” are some of the comments we hear. But what Bell Canada and Telus have planned for Canadians is much worse than that. They are planning the death of the Internet (free) as we know it, and I expect they'll be hardly a whimper from Canadians. It's all part of the corporate plan for a New World Order and virtually a masterstroke that will lead to the creation of billions and billions of dollars of corporate profit at the expense of the working and middle classes.
There are so many other implications as a result of these changes, far too many to elaborate on here. Be aware that we will all lose our privacy because all websites will be tracked as part of the billing procedure, and we will be literally cut off from 90% of the information that we can access today. The little guys on the Net will fall likes flies; Bloggers and small website operators will die a quick death because people will not pay to go to their sites and read their pages.
Ironically, the only medium that can save us is the one we are trying to save- the Internet (free). This article will be posted on my Blog, www.realitycheck.typepad.com and I encourage people and groups to learn more about this issue. Canadians can keep the Internet free just as they kept text messaging free. Don't wait for the federal politicians. They will do nothing to help us.
I would welcome a letter to the editor of the Standard Freeholder from a spokesperson from Bell Canada or Telus telling me that I am absolutely wrong in what I have written, and that no such changes to the Internet are being planned, and that access to Internet sites will remain FREE in the years to come. In the meantime, I encourage all of you to write to the media, ask questions, phone the radio station, phone a friend, or think of something else to prevent what appears to me to be inevitable.
Maintaining Internet (free) access is the only way we have a chance at combatting the global corporate takeover, the North American Union, and a long list of other deadly deeds that the elite in society have planned for us. Yesterday was too late in trying to protect our rights and freedoms. We must now redouble our efforts in order to give our children and grandchildren a fighting chance in the future.
Source: Globalresearch.ca
Author's website: Realitycheck.typepad.com
Sunday, 20 July 2008
A quadrant crop glyph
A quadrant of four sets of curved paths emanating from a central ring, with additional circles scattered about throughout the pattern.
Source: Lucypringle.co.uk
Record number of Candian UFOs spotted
Some swirled, swooshed and hummed, while others hovered, zipped and zoomed.
Canadians in four provinces reported seeing a record number of unidentified flying objects in 2007, according to an annual report released by a Winnipeg-based non-profit organization that has recorded UFO sightings since 1989.
The UFOlogy Research Institute, which compiles data from sources including Transport Canada and the Department of National Defence, said researchers examined 836 alleged UFO sightings in 2007, an increase of almost 12 per cent over 2006.
While B.C. typically has the highest number of reported sightings, the 2007 compilation found New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec each received all-time high numbers of UFO reports.
The reports were filed by witnesses with government and military agencies, police and several online UFO websites. Witnesses ranged from farmhands to airline pilots and included teachers and police officers.
Chris Rutkowski, the lead researcher of the study, said of the hundreds of reports only a fraction -- about 16 per cent -- were classified as unexplained after review by his investigators. He also cautioned while some UFO sightings can't be rationally explained, there is still no evidence to suggest extraterrestrial contact.
Some of the more bizarre cases from 2007 -- those to which researchers gave a "strangeness rating" of six or more out of 10 -- include one in Hammonds Plain, N.S., on March 10, when several witnesses saw a structured object with lights moving slowly over a lake. The object was also "humming," according to the witnesses.
In Halifax on Dec. 21, a helicopter pilot reported seeing a bright object flying overhead and curving around.
In another instance, residents in North Tryon, P.E.I., saw a small, shiny object spiralling in the sky last Boxing Day. They reported the strange craft flew in a corkscrew manner, leaving behind it a mysterious dark smoke trail.
"This one really caught our attention," recalled Rutkowski, an astronomer who leads the research and investigation along with several engineers, journalists and pilots.
"It happened during the day, two individuals saw it and they had enough time because it was visible for half an hour and they took video. The trail persisted for quite some time."
Source: Canada.com
Canadians in four provinces reported seeing a record number of unidentified flying objects in 2007, according to an annual report released by a Winnipeg-based non-profit organization that has recorded UFO sightings since 1989.
The UFOlogy Research Institute, which compiles data from sources including Transport Canada and the Department of National Defence, said researchers examined 836 alleged UFO sightings in 2007, an increase of almost 12 per cent over 2006.
While B.C. typically has the highest number of reported sightings, the 2007 compilation found New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec each received all-time high numbers of UFO reports.
The reports were filed by witnesses with government and military agencies, police and several online UFO websites. Witnesses ranged from farmhands to airline pilots and included teachers and police officers.
Chris Rutkowski, the lead researcher of the study, said of the hundreds of reports only a fraction -- about 16 per cent -- were classified as unexplained after review by his investigators. He also cautioned while some UFO sightings can't be rationally explained, there is still no evidence to suggest extraterrestrial contact.
Some of the more bizarre cases from 2007 -- those to which researchers gave a "strangeness rating" of six or more out of 10 -- include one in Hammonds Plain, N.S., on March 10, when several witnesses saw a structured object with lights moving slowly over a lake. The object was also "humming," according to the witnesses.
In Halifax on Dec. 21, a helicopter pilot reported seeing a bright object flying overhead and curving around.
In another instance, residents in North Tryon, P.E.I., saw a small, shiny object spiralling in the sky last Boxing Day. They reported the strange craft flew in a corkscrew manner, leaving behind it a mysterious dark smoke trail.
"This one really caught our attention," recalled Rutkowski, an astronomer who leads the research and investigation along with several engineers, journalists and pilots.
"It happened during the day, two individuals saw it and they had enough time because it was visible for half an hour and they took video. The trail persisted for quite some time."
Source: Canada.com
Saturday, 19 July 2008
How it all started: a brief history of money
A brief history of money and why its value is really worthless. Thank you to Johann from the hello entropy blog for sending me the link.
Why do we need money at all? The barter system had plenty of attractions – it can't be taxed, for one thing. But it's inefficient. Say I sell spades, and you sell dressing gowns. For any deal to happen you must want a spade at just the moment I happen to want a dressing gown. So even the most primitive societies developed some kind of payment system, or money, that was accepted by everyone in exchange for goods and services.
Money has to have two qualities. It must be portable and it must have a purchasing power that lasts, so it can be used at a later stage. Shells, cocoa beans, even feathers have been used over the years as money. At one stage Roman soldiers were paid in salt, from where we derive the word 'salary'. These early forms of money were 'commodity money'.
Gold and silver were widely used. Their rarity gave them value – a great deal of worth could be stored in a single gold coin – as did their immutability. Gold doesn't tarnish. You could dig up a gold coin buried in the ground a thousand years ago and it would be more or less intact. And just as gold preserves over time, so does its purchasing power. An ounce of gold would have bought a Roman Senator a jolly decent toga and perhaps a pair of sandals; today the sterling equivalent (£500 or so) would buy your local MP a respectable suit and shoes.
To facilitate trade, gold was turned into coins of a certified weight and purity by goldsmiths. The goldsmiths, who had built vaults to store their gold safely, also began to store the gold of their fellow townsmen, issuing a certificate as receipt for the gold deposited. Over time these certificates were used in the marketplace as if they were the gold itself. World trade had slowly moved from a 'commodity money' to a 'representative money'.
Seeing that very few depositors ever removed their actual gold, instead using their certificates for trade, goldsmiths realised they could make money by lending out certificates against depositors' gold. Despite the inherent duplicity in the scheme – lending what is not yours to lend - it worked. The depositors did not lose anything. As long as there was no bank run, their gold was all still safe in the goldsmith's vault.
Depositors, however, soon wanted their share. Rather than taking back their gold, the depositors simply demanded that the goldsmith, now in effect their banker, pay them a share of the interest. The goldsmith paid one rate on deposits and then lent at a higher rate.
But in times of panic some borrowers would demand their real gold back, instead of the paper certificates. Before long, you had the dreaded run on the bank, with the banker not having enough gold and silver to redeem all the paper he had put out. It would have been straightforward to outlaw this new lending practice, but the large volumes of credit the bankers had created had become vital to the success of European commercial expansion, so, instead, the practice was legalized and regulated. The monetary system had moved on from representative to debt.
Bankers agreed limits on the amount of loan money that could be lent out, limits still much larger than the amount of gold and silver on deposit. Usually, the ratio was nine loaned units to one actual unit in gold and these regulations were enforced by surprise inspections. It was also arranged that, in the event of a run, central banks would support local banks with emergency gold. Only if there were runs on a lot of banks simultaneously would the bankers' credit bubble burst and the system come crashing down.
The root of our current financial crisis
Over the twentieth century, this fractional reserve system, where you need only hold a fraction of the money you lend out, became the dominant money system of the world. But, at the same time, the fraction of gold backing the paper money steadily shrunk. With the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944, which established monetary order between the major industrial nations after World War Two, the USA was the only nation left with a currency backed by gold, and the dollar became the global reserve currency. But in 1971, under pressure from the French, who were demanding gold instead of dollars, and faced with the rising cost of the Vietnam War, President Nixon removed this backing. Now, for the first time in history, no currency on the planet, nor any small fraction of any currency, was backed by anything tangible. The basic nature of money had changed again.
We were now in an era where money is money by government edict - by the law. In the past, people had the choice to refuse privately created bank credit notes, but now legal tender laws declare that citizens must accept this government edict money – or fiat currency - as payment. Their value is determined by how they trade against other fiat currencies on international currency markets. Belief in the integrity and competence of the central banks and government that issue a currency is essential to its success.
And that's where the problem lies. As Winston Churchill put it: "All previous attempts to base money solely on intangibles such as credit or government edict or fiat have ended in inflationary panic and disaster."
Sound familiar? The greatest credit expansion in history was only made possible under this post-1971 system of currency by government decree. But now it's unravelling. Fears over Fannie and Freddie and the integrity of the US banking system are pushing the dollar – the world's reserve currency - down to record lows against the euro (it's even fallen against the pound, which shows just how bad the market fears things could get).
Investors are losing faith in the most important form of paper money in the world. What will take its place? One thing's for sure – even if we don't return to a commodity-backed currency, for as long as the financial turmoil continues, gold, the oldest and most consistent money in history, is likely to be a benefactor. If you don't own any, I suggest you get down to your local coin shop and buy some.
Source: Moneyweek.com
Why do we need money at all? The barter system had plenty of attractions – it can't be taxed, for one thing. But it's inefficient. Say I sell spades, and you sell dressing gowns. For any deal to happen you must want a spade at just the moment I happen to want a dressing gown. So even the most primitive societies developed some kind of payment system, or money, that was accepted by everyone in exchange for goods and services.
Money has to have two qualities. It must be portable and it must have a purchasing power that lasts, so it can be used at a later stage. Shells, cocoa beans, even feathers have been used over the years as money. At one stage Roman soldiers were paid in salt, from where we derive the word 'salary'. These early forms of money were 'commodity money'.
Gold and silver were widely used. Their rarity gave them value – a great deal of worth could be stored in a single gold coin – as did their immutability. Gold doesn't tarnish. You could dig up a gold coin buried in the ground a thousand years ago and it would be more or less intact. And just as gold preserves over time, so does its purchasing power. An ounce of gold would have bought a Roman Senator a jolly decent toga and perhaps a pair of sandals; today the sterling equivalent (£500 or so) would buy your local MP a respectable suit and shoes.
To facilitate trade, gold was turned into coins of a certified weight and purity by goldsmiths. The goldsmiths, who had built vaults to store their gold safely, also began to store the gold of their fellow townsmen, issuing a certificate as receipt for the gold deposited. Over time these certificates were used in the marketplace as if they were the gold itself. World trade had slowly moved from a 'commodity money' to a 'representative money'.
Seeing that very few depositors ever removed their actual gold, instead using their certificates for trade, goldsmiths realised they could make money by lending out certificates against depositors' gold. Despite the inherent duplicity in the scheme – lending what is not yours to lend - it worked. The depositors did not lose anything. As long as there was no bank run, their gold was all still safe in the goldsmith's vault.
Depositors, however, soon wanted their share. Rather than taking back their gold, the depositors simply demanded that the goldsmith, now in effect their banker, pay them a share of the interest. The goldsmith paid one rate on deposits and then lent at a higher rate.
But in times of panic some borrowers would demand their real gold back, instead of the paper certificates. Before long, you had the dreaded run on the bank, with the banker not having enough gold and silver to redeem all the paper he had put out. It would have been straightforward to outlaw this new lending practice, but the large volumes of credit the bankers had created had become vital to the success of European commercial expansion, so, instead, the practice was legalized and regulated. The monetary system had moved on from representative to debt.
Bankers agreed limits on the amount of loan money that could be lent out, limits still much larger than the amount of gold and silver on deposit. Usually, the ratio was nine loaned units to one actual unit in gold and these regulations were enforced by surprise inspections. It was also arranged that, in the event of a run, central banks would support local banks with emergency gold. Only if there were runs on a lot of banks simultaneously would the bankers' credit bubble burst and the system come crashing down.
The root of our current financial crisis
Over the twentieth century, this fractional reserve system, where you need only hold a fraction of the money you lend out, became the dominant money system of the world. But, at the same time, the fraction of gold backing the paper money steadily shrunk. With the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944, which established monetary order between the major industrial nations after World War Two, the USA was the only nation left with a currency backed by gold, and the dollar became the global reserve currency. But in 1971, under pressure from the French, who were demanding gold instead of dollars, and faced with the rising cost of the Vietnam War, President Nixon removed this backing. Now, for the first time in history, no currency on the planet, nor any small fraction of any currency, was backed by anything tangible. The basic nature of money had changed again.
We were now in an era where money is money by government edict - by the law. In the past, people had the choice to refuse privately created bank credit notes, but now legal tender laws declare that citizens must accept this government edict money – or fiat currency - as payment. Their value is determined by how they trade against other fiat currencies on international currency markets. Belief in the integrity and competence of the central banks and government that issue a currency is essential to its success.
And that's where the problem lies. As Winston Churchill put it: "All previous attempts to base money solely on intangibles such as credit or government edict or fiat have ended in inflationary panic and disaster."
Sound familiar? The greatest credit expansion in history was only made possible under this post-1971 system of currency by government decree. But now it's unravelling. Fears over Fannie and Freddie and the integrity of the US banking system are pushing the dollar – the world's reserve currency - down to record lows against the euro (it's even fallen against the pound, which shows just how bad the market fears things could get).
Investors are losing faith in the most important form of paper money in the world. What will take its place? One thing's for sure – even if we don't return to a commodity-backed currency, for as long as the financial turmoil continues, gold, the oldest and most consistent money in history, is likely to be a benefactor. If you don't own any, I suggest you get down to your local coin shop and buy some.
Source: Moneyweek.com
Friday, 18 July 2008
UK ratifies the EU Lisbon Treaty
The UK has officially ratified the European Union's Lisbon Treaty. Without a word from the British people. Do the people of the UK want this treaty....NO!!!
The documents were deposited with the Italian foreign affairs ministry in Rome on Wednesday.
The move came despite doubts over its future after the "no" vote in the Irish referendum. All EU states must ratify the treaty for it to come into force.
The EU treaty has proved controversial with unsuccessful attempts in Parliament and the courts to force a referendum to be held on it.
Conservative MP Bill Cash sought a judicial review of the ratification process after the rejection from Ireland.
And two High Court judges dismissed a claim by millionaire businessman Stuart Wheeler that there was a "legitimate expectation" of a public vote.
Mr Cash branded the ratification a "gross impertinence", while Mr Wheeler described the ratification as "absolutely atrocious behaviour".
On Friday he will seek permission from a Court of Appeal judge to appeal against that decision.
He said he believed although the "instrument of ratification" has been deposited in Rome, the government still had the right to withdraw it and reverse its decision.
Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said the prime minister had "no democratic or moral authority to sign Britain up to the renamed EU constitution".
It was "a total breach of trust with the British people and a flagrant breach of his solemn election promise to the British people", Mr Hague added.
He branded the government "arrogant and out of touch", and accused it of "joining in the ugly bullying of the Irish people, who have clearly rejected this treaty".
But Commons leader Harriet Harman insisted it was "in Britain's interest to be at the heart of Europe and it's in Europe's interest that Britain should play a leading part".
And Europe minister Jim Murphy said it was right to ratify the treaty "since both Houses of Parliament voted by substantial majorities in favour of it" and because it was "a good treaty" for Britain.
"The Tories are playing games and engaging in political stunts as usual. The fact is that the Tories cannot be trusted to safeguard Britain's interests in Europe," he added.
Source: News.bbc.co.uk
Meanwhile......
If the Irish had voted yes, would they still be made to vote again?
Sarkozy: ‘Irish will vote again'
Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, held a strictly off-the-record lunch briefing for international Brussels-based correspondents on Tuesday at the Elysée.
The Daily Telegraph was not invited, in fact deliberately excluded. Officials at the French Foreign Ministry have disapproved of questions put to the President by the Telegraph during a recent Brussels summit.
But despite the best efforts of the Quai d'Orsay's diplomats, I am able to reveal on-the-record, as a blog exclusive, Mr Sarkozy's more relevant comments.
The French strategy during their six month EU Presidency, which began on July 1, is to isolate Ireland after last month's referendum rejection of the Lisbon European Union Treaty.
With the Irish people in quarantine, the other 26 EU countries will press ahead with ratifying the Treaty - 19 have done so. Mr Sarkozy made it very clear that there would be no renegotiation of a Treaty that was Part II of the EU Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters three years ago.
"There will be no Treaty Part III," he said.
The Irish do not count.
France, along with the rest of the EU is looking for "escape hatch". "We need a soft landing in October," said Mr Sarkozy, when there will be EU summit in Brussels to find way forward by the time of European elections on June 4.
The Irish either will be asked to vote again, in a rerun of Ireland's second referendum on the Nice Treaty in 2002 - or Ireland's people will be bypassed.
The rest of the article can be found here....Blogs.telegraph.co.uk
The documents were deposited with the Italian foreign affairs ministry in Rome on Wednesday.
The move came despite doubts over its future after the "no" vote in the Irish referendum. All EU states must ratify the treaty for it to come into force.
The EU treaty has proved controversial with unsuccessful attempts in Parliament and the courts to force a referendum to be held on it.
Conservative MP Bill Cash sought a judicial review of the ratification process after the rejection from Ireland.
And two High Court judges dismissed a claim by millionaire businessman Stuart Wheeler that there was a "legitimate expectation" of a public vote.
Mr Cash branded the ratification a "gross impertinence", while Mr Wheeler described the ratification as "absolutely atrocious behaviour".
On Friday he will seek permission from a Court of Appeal judge to appeal against that decision.
He said he believed although the "instrument of ratification" has been deposited in Rome, the government still had the right to withdraw it and reverse its decision.
Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said the prime minister had "no democratic or moral authority to sign Britain up to the renamed EU constitution".
It was "a total breach of trust with the British people and a flagrant breach of his solemn election promise to the British people", Mr Hague added.
He branded the government "arrogant and out of touch", and accused it of "joining in the ugly bullying of the Irish people, who have clearly rejected this treaty".
But Commons leader Harriet Harman insisted it was "in Britain's interest to be at the heart of Europe and it's in Europe's interest that Britain should play a leading part".
And Europe minister Jim Murphy said it was right to ratify the treaty "since both Houses of Parliament voted by substantial majorities in favour of it" and because it was "a good treaty" for Britain.
"The Tories are playing games and engaging in political stunts as usual. The fact is that the Tories cannot be trusted to safeguard Britain's interests in Europe," he added.
Source: News.bbc.co.uk
Meanwhile......
If the Irish had voted yes, would they still be made to vote again?
Sarkozy: ‘Irish will vote again'
Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, held a strictly off-the-record lunch briefing for international Brussels-based correspondents on Tuesday at the Elysée.
The Daily Telegraph was not invited, in fact deliberately excluded. Officials at the French Foreign Ministry have disapproved of questions put to the President by the Telegraph during a recent Brussels summit.
But despite the best efforts of the Quai d'Orsay's diplomats, I am able to reveal on-the-record, as a blog exclusive, Mr Sarkozy's more relevant comments.
The French strategy during their six month EU Presidency, which began on July 1, is to isolate Ireland after last month's referendum rejection of the Lisbon European Union Treaty.
With the Irish people in quarantine, the other 26 EU countries will press ahead with ratifying the Treaty - 19 have done so. Mr Sarkozy made it very clear that there would be no renegotiation of a Treaty that was Part II of the EU Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters three years ago.
"There will be no Treaty Part III," he said.
The Irish do not count.
France, along with the rest of the EU is looking for "escape hatch". "We need a soft landing in October," said Mr Sarkozy, when there will be EU summit in Brussels to find way forward by the time of European elections on June 4.
The Irish either will be asked to vote again, in a rerun of Ireland's second referendum on the Nice Treaty in 2002 - or Ireland's people will be bypassed.
The rest of the article can be found here....Blogs.telegraph.co.uk
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Crop Glyph indicates Solar Event on Dec 21, 2012
The recent Avebury Manor Crop Glyph in Wiltshire in the United Kingdom, shows the positions of the planets on the date of December 21st, 2012.
Source: Cropcircleconnector.com
Source: http://www.x-cosmos.it/cropcircles/
Notice the Yin-Yang "serpent heads" type formation of the swirl within the central circle representing the Sun. (there are two people standing in the central circle as well) the opposing symmetrical "swirls are shown in slight differences in the shades of the flattened grass.
Source: Cropcircleconnector.com
Source: http://www.x-cosmos.it/cropcircles/
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
The 666 Microchip
This is just plain sick & evil. I would like to point out here that no matter what, if I become homeless, loose my job, have to eat scraps of food, I will NEVER have one of these chips inserted into me.
Motorola is the company producing the microchip for the MONDEX SMARTCARD.
More than 250 corporations and 20 countries are involved in the distribution of MONDEX to the world and many nations are “privileged” to use this system, among them: Great Britain, Canada, U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, India, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, El Salvadore and Brazil.
They have developed several implants for humans using the “Bio-chip”.
The “bio-chip” measures 7mm in length and is .075mm wide, about the same size as a grain of rice. It contains a transponder and a rechargeable Lithium battery. A thermocouple circuit that produces an electrical current with the fluctuation of body temperature recharges the battery.
MONDEX spent more than $1.5 million dollars in research just to find the best place to insert the “Bio-chip” into the human body. They found only two satisfactory and efficient places – THE HEAD, underneath the scalp and the backside of the hand specifically … THE RIGHT HAND!
Keeping in mind the dirty perverted individuals that are pushing this are obsessed with paragraphs just like the one below and believe every word.
(v16) He causes all, both great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, (v.17) and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Revelation 13:16,17
How much of a coincidence is that?
One billion “bio-chips” are being produced by MONDEX a year. Its been in production for at least a year.
They discovered that if the chip were in a card, they would encounter serious problems. The chip could be cut and information changed or falsified. The value could be manipulated, stolen or lost. After you receive the card it will expire in one to two years.
In the end real money will be insecure in the general market.
There is only one solution for this problem, embraced by MOTOROLA … implanting the “biochip” in the right hand or head, where it cannot be removed. If it is removed by surgery, the small capsule will burst and the Lithium and chemicals in the microchip would contaminate the individual.
Moreover, the Global Positioning System (GPS) will detect if it was removed and alert the authorities.
Notice MONDEX means “money in you hand”.
MON = MONetary
DEX = DEXter = Right-hand side.
Source: Thetruthseeker.co.uk
Source: esnips.com
Motorola is the company producing the microchip for the MONDEX SMARTCARD.More than 250 corporations and 20 countries are involved in the distribution of MONDEX to the world and many nations are “privileged” to use this system, among them: Great Britain, Canada, U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, India, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras, El Salvadore and Brazil.
They have developed several implants for humans using the “Bio-chip”.
The “bio-chip” measures 7mm in length and is .075mm wide, about the same size as a grain of rice. It contains a transponder and a rechargeable Lithium battery. A thermocouple circuit that produces an electrical current with the fluctuation of body temperature recharges the battery.
MONDEX spent more than $1.5 million dollars in research just to find the best place to insert the “Bio-chip” into the human body. They found only two satisfactory and efficient places – THE HEAD, underneath the scalp and the backside of the hand specifically … THE RIGHT HAND!
Keeping in mind the dirty perverted individuals that are pushing this are obsessed with paragraphs just like the one below and believe every word.
(v16) He causes all, both great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, (v.17) and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Revelation 13:16,17
How much of a coincidence is that?
One billion “bio-chips” are being produced by MONDEX a year. Its been in production for at least a year.
They discovered that if the chip were in a card, they would encounter serious problems. The chip could be cut and information changed or falsified. The value could be manipulated, stolen or lost. After you receive the card it will expire in one to two years.
In the end real money will be insecure in the general market.
There is only one solution for this problem, embraced by MOTOROLA … implanting the “biochip” in the right hand or head, where it cannot be removed. If it is removed by surgery, the small capsule will burst and the Lithium and chemicals in the microchip would contaminate the individual.
Moreover, the Global Positioning System (GPS) will detect if it was removed and alert the authorities.
Notice MONDEX means “money in you hand”.
MON = MONetary
DEX = DEXter = Right-hand side.
Source: Thetruthseeker.co.uk
Source: esnips.com
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Media Ignores Ron Paul March For Liberty
Thousands of people marched peacefully in Washington D.C. on Saturday, to honor Texas Congressman Ron Paul's campaign for liberty, yet the mainstream media uniformly failed to issue a single written report on the event in its aftermath.
The goal of the event was to organize a peaceful, non-violent march on the streets of Washington D.C. followed by a rally outside the Capitol building in support of restoring constitutional government as the founding fathers set forth.
In light of this, the event was a resounding success, as it went off without a hitch and also saw thousands of dollars raised towards the Ron Paul Campaign for Liberty.
In addition to Ron Paul's keynote speech, audiences were addressed by Pastor Chuck Baldwin, author Naomi Klein, banking expert Edward G. Griffin, former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden unit Michael Scheuer and Iraq Veterans Against The War spokesman Adam Kokesh, amongst others.
It is estimated that around 2500 people attended the rally. Some have expressed disappointment that there were not 15,000 plus at the event, given that number had pledged to attend on the campaign for liberty website.
However, the day was extremely hot and many were seen camping out on the outskirts of the rally area in the shade. Some bloggers have suggested that as many as 8000 people in total attended the event.
These numbers were seemingly not significant enough for the corporate controlled media to pay any attention to the event. A loan blog entry from the Chicago Tribune is about the sum of the written coverage the freedom rally attracted.
Meanwhile, in what was clearly a gross distortion of the truth, CNN ran a short report which stated that Ron Paul addressed only 500 to 800 people.
Source: Infowars.net
The goal of the event was to organize a peaceful, non-violent march on the streets of Washington D.C. followed by a rally outside the Capitol building in support of restoring constitutional government as the founding fathers set forth.
In light of this, the event was a resounding success, as it went off without a hitch and also saw thousands of dollars raised towards the Ron Paul Campaign for Liberty.
In addition to Ron Paul's keynote speech, audiences were addressed by Pastor Chuck Baldwin, author Naomi Klein, banking expert Edward G. Griffin, former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden unit Michael Scheuer and Iraq Veterans Against The War spokesman Adam Kokesh, amongst others.
It is estimated that around 2500 people attended the rally. Some have expressed disappointment that there were not 15,000 plus at the event, given that number had pledged to attend on the campaign for liberty website.
However, the day was extremely hot and many were seen camping out on the outskirts of the rally area in the shade. Some bloggers have suggested that as many as 8000 people in total attended the event.
These numbers were seemingly not significant enough for the corporate controlled media to pay any attention to the event. A loan blog entry from the Chicago Tribune is about the sum of the written coverage the freedom rally attracted.
Meanwhile, in what was clearly a gross distortion of the truth, CNN ran a short report which stated that Ron Paul addressed only 500 to 800 people.
Source: Infowars.net
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Flintshire readers report more UFO sightings
REPORTS of mysterious objects appearing the region's skies have continued to come in.Keen photographer Peter Jones, of Connah's Quay, believes that he has snapped scores of pictures of UFOs across North Wales while enjoying his hobby.
Peter says that many of his friends have tried to explain the strange shots away by saying that they must have been caused by something on his camera lens, but he remains convinced that they are evidence of something more mysterious.
He said: "I enjoy taking pictures of skylines and I have a few different cameras. When I got out taking pictures, I always take a few different shots with all of them.
"I have lots of photos with objects like this in them and they are all taken at different times and locations, using different cameras, so it can't possibly be something on the lens.
"The strangest thing is that you cannot see these objects with the naked eye, but they show up on the pictures and are even reflected in the water in some shots.
"It is very unnerving, as I have no idea what they are and it makes me wonder if we are being watched. I know that most people think it is a mad theory and that it can be explained away, but I know what I saw."
Another amateur photographer, who did not wish to be named, snapped some unexplained objects in the sky above Holywell.
He said: "I have no idea what they were, but I have seen them and photographed them on a few occasions, all at around the same time of night. They really are weird."
The first of a string of UFO sightings, described as 'orange fireballs', was reported in Mynydd Isa on Christmas Day last year. During the first few weeks of 2008, the Leader received a flood of reports from residents across the county and even as far afield as America reporting similar experiences.
Yet more sightings were reported last month, prompting speculation and debate from scores of cynics and believers.
Source: Flintshirestandard.co.uk
Another sighting: Harboroughmail.co.uk
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
G8 summit: Gordon Brown has eight-course dinner before food crisis talks
Gordon Brown and his fellow world leaders have sparked outrage after it was disclosed they enjoyed a six-course lunch followed by an eight-course dinner at the G8 summit where the global food crisis tops the agenda.
The Prime Minister was served 24 different dishes during his first day at the summit – just hours after urging the world to reduce the "unnecessary demand" for food and calling on British families to cut back on their wasteful use of food.
Mr Brown and his wife Sarah were among 15 guests at the "blessings of the earth and the sea social dinner".
The dinner consisted of 18 dishes in eight courses including caviar, smoked salmon, Kyoto beef and a "G8 fantasy dessert".
The banquet was accompanied by five different wines from around the world including champagne, a French Bourgogne and sake.
African leaders including the heads of Ethiopia, Tanzania and Senegal who had taken part in talks during the day were not invited to the function.
The Prime Minister was served 24 different dishes during his first day at the summit – just hours after urging the world to reduce the "unnecessary demand" for food and calling on British families to cut back on their wasteful use of food.
Mr Brown and his wife Sarah were among 15 guests at the "blessings of the earth and the sea social dinner".
The dinner consisted of 18 dishes in eight courses including caviar, smoked salmon, Kyoto beef and a "G8 fantasy dessert".
The banquet was accompanied by five different wines from around the world including champagne, a French Bourgogne and sake.
African leaders including the heads of Ethiopia, Tanzania and Senegal who had taken part in talks during the day were not invited to the function.
The dinner came just hours after a "working lunch" consisting of six courses including white asparagus and truffle soup, crab and a supreme of chicken.
The lavish dining arrangements – disclosed by the Japanese Government which is hosting the summit in Hokkaido – come amid growing concern over rising food prices triggered by a shortage of many basic necessities.
On the flight to the summit, Mr Brown urged Britons to cut food waste as part of a global drive to help avert the food crisis.
Opposition politicians and charities condemned the extravagant meals.
Dominic Nutt, of Save the Children, said: "It is deeply hypocritical that they should be lavishing course after course on world leaders when there is a food crisis and millions cannot afford a decent meal to eat.
"If the G8 wants to betray the hopes of a generation of children, it is going the right way about it. The food crisis is an emergency and the G8 must treat it as that."
Andrew Mitchell, the shadow International Development Secretary, said: "The G8 have made a bad start to their summit, with excessive cost and lavish consumption.
"Surely it is not unreasonable for each leader to give a guarantee that they will stand by their solemn pledges of three years ago at Gleneagles to help the world's poor. All of us are watching, waiting and listening."
Mr Brown arrived at the G8 summit held on the holiday island of Hokkaido in northern Japan on Monday morning.
He arrived on a plane chartered from Texas, America, which had to fly empty for thousands of miles to pick up the Prime Minister and his entourage.
Unlike other countries, Britain does not have an official plane to transport the Prime Minister.
The lavish dining will embarrass Mr Brown, who has made tackling the global food crisis a key priority.
On the flight to the summit, the Prime Minister urged British people to cut food waste and "reduce unnecessary demand".
He said: "We need a global plan to deal with rising food prices that are affecting millions of families in Britain. That's why I am proposing that we take action to both increase the global supply of food and reduce unnecessary demand.
"If we are to get food prices down, we must also do more to deal with unnecessary demand, such as by all of us doing more to cut our food waste which is costing the average household in Britain around £8 per week."
Talks between world leaders at the summit will focus on dealing with soaring food and oil prices.
There is also hope for a breakthrough on protracted talks to secure a new global trade deal.
However, the leaders are facing criticism amid allegations that pledges for development aid promised for the third world at a previous G8 summit in Scotland have been watered down.
The Prime Minister's spokesman declined to comment on the menus.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
Monday, 7 July 2008
British UFO sightings at 'bizarre' levels
Whether alien activity or natural phenomena, reports of UFOs have flooded in this summer from across the country.
Plotted on a map of Britain, the sightings can be seen to stretch from Liverpool to Dover and from Llanelli to Derby.
Whatever the explanation, experts agree that the number of suspected flying saucers has hit unusual highs this summer.
Malcolm Robinson, who studies the phenomenon, said: "Something very bizarre is happening in the skies over the UK."
The founder member of Strange Phenomena Investigations, added: "There has been an unusual number of sightings recently.
"Some experts believe it could be linked to global warming and craft from outer space are appearing because they are concerned about what man is doing to this planet."
Among mysterious flying objects spotted in recent months was a 'glowing' disc spotted above the M5 motorway.
Royal Navy aircraft engineer Michael Madden said he watched the UFO for three minutes before it 'zoomed off' near Weston-super-Mare in Somerset.
Earlier, in Basingstoke, witnesses claimed to have seen a fleet of 12 orange objects in the night sky for half an hour.
And in St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan a police helicopter crew gave chase to another UFO after it appeared to veer at speed towards their aircraft.
One UFO spotter however was left red-faced after his report of a mysterious flying saucer in South Wales turned out to be nothing more other-worldly than the moon.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
Plotted on a map of Britain, the sightings can be seen to stretch from Liverpool to Dover and from Llanelli to Derby.Whatever the explanation, experts agree that the number of suspected flying saucers has hit unusual highs this summer.
Malcolm Robinson, who studies the phenomenon, said: "Something very bizarre is happening in the skies over the UK."
The founder member of Strange Phenomena Investigations, added: "There has been an unusual number of sightings recently.
"Some experts believe it could be linked to global warming and craft from outer space are appearing because they are concerned about what man is doing to this planet."
Among mysterious flying objects spotted in recent months was a 'glowing' disc spotted above the M5 motorway.
Royal Navy aircraft engineer Michael Madden said he watched the UFO for three minutes before it 'zoomed off' near Weston-super-Mare in Somerset.
Earlier, in Basingstoke, witnesses claimed to have seen a fleet of 12 orange objects in the night sky for half an hour.
And in St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan a police helicopter crew gave chase to another UFO after it appeared to veer at speed towards their aircraft.
One UFO spotter however was left red-faced after his report of a mysterious flying saucer in South Wales turned out to be nothing more other-worldly than the moon.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
Friday, 4 July 2008
Don’t Give Your Consent to Slavery – Fight Fascism!
Since the day of our creation, mankind has been dominated and shaped by inhuman entities, to behave more like cattle. The shapers themselves know this to be true. They also know that if we are not kept ignorant many of us will one day learn to ask the proper questions, until we finally locate the evidence that proves it is all true. Through diligent research, various people have discovered proof of the machinery that controls America’s economy, its political system, its military, its educational system, its medical system, every facet of life. This knowledge is a direct threat to the elite.
The elite power game is designed to wear the people down, as they move the nation slowly toward a predicted outcome, where the majority becomes exhausted from fighting a losing struggle and completely submits to total elite domination of all resources. When the American masses freely surrender their free will to the dark overlords, in the name of security, the fate of the world will be sealed by this lawless tyranny. Destruction and suffering, such as has never been witnessed by the eyes of man, will be unleashed upon the helpless victim populations of the earth.
Very few people can see this future (no one wants to see it) outside of the elite, who gladly accept it as the price of saving whatever is left of the world for themselves. The masters of humanity count on our blindness and willful ignorance, in order to carry-out their conspiratorial plans. They join in secret organizations, where they are free to openly discuss their schemes amongst their own kind.
The documentation of their plotting is kept locked away from the public in corporate vaults and private libraries. Occasionally, someone on the inside discovers their conscience and leaks word of the devilish plans to the outside world, or maybe they simply slip-up and lose track or control of sequestered documents. In order to deceive us and to stall the day of our realization of the multitude of their crimes against humanity, intensive disinformation is introduced into the webstream, discrediting the truth by impersonating it. We have to be diligent in our research to ascertain the veracity of any documents that we might come across. If their revelations cannot be confirmed by multiple sources, then they must be suspect. The “Pentagon Papers” and “Operation Northwoods” come quickly to mind. Both of these major leaks were later partially corroborated by reports of past deceptive military PSYOPS and CIA covert wars.
Read the full article here: Thetruthseeker.co.uk
The elite power game is designed to wear the people down, as they move the nation slowly toward a predicted outcome, where the majority becomes exhausted from fighting a losing struggle and completely submits to total elite domination of all resources. When the American masses freely surrender their free will to the dark overlords, in the name of security, the fate of the world will be sealed by this lawless tyranny. Destruction and suffering, such as has never been witnessed by the eyes of man, will be unleashed upon the helpless victim populations of the earth.
Very few people can see this future (no one wants to see it) outside of the elite, who gladly accept it as the price of saving whatever is left of the world for themselves. The masters of humanity count on our blindness and willful ignorance, in order to carry-out their conspiratorial plans. They join in secret organizations, where they are free to openly discuss their schemes amongst their own kind.
The documentation of their plotting is kept locked away from the public in corporate vaults and private libraries. Occasionally, someone on the inside discovers their conscience and leaks word of the devilish plans to the outside world, or maybe they simply slip-up and lose track or control of sequestered documents. In order to deceive us and to stall the day of our realization of the multitude of their crimes against humanity, intensive disinformation is introduced into the webstream, discrediting the truth by impersonating it. We have to be diligent in our research to ascertain the veracity of any documents that we might come across. If their revelations cannot be confirmed by multiple sources, then they must be suspect. The “Pentagon Papers” and “Operation Northwoods” come quickly to mind. Both of these major leaks were later partially corroborated by reports of past deceptive military PSYOPS and CIA covert wars.
Read the full article here: Thetruthseeker.co.uk
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Something Big is Going On
The following statement is written by Congressman Paul about the pending financial disaster. He will introduce this statement as a special order and insert it into the Congressional Record next week. Fortunately, we have the opportunity to debut it first on the Campaign for Liberty blog. It reads as follows:
I have, for the past 35 years, expressed my grave concern for the future of America. The course we have taken over the past century has threatened our liberties, security and prosperity. In spite of these long-held concerns, I have days—growing more frequent all the time—when I’m convinced the time is now upon us that some Big Events are about to occur. These fast-approaching events will not go unnoticed. They will affect all of us. They will not be limited to just some areas of our country. The world economy and political system will share in the chaos about to be unleashed.
Though the world has long suffered from the senselessness of wars that should have been avoided, my greatest fear is that the course on which we find ourselves will bring even greater conflict and economic suffering to the innocent people of the world—unless we quickly change our ways.
America, with her traditions of free markets and property rights, led the way toward great wealth and progress throughout the world as well as at home. Since we have lost our confidence in the principles of liberty, self reliance, hard work and frugality, and instead took on empire building, financed through inflation and debt, all this has changed. This is indeed frightening and an historic event.
The problem we face is not new in history. Authoritarianism has been around a long time. For centuries, inflation and debt have been used by tyrants to hold power, promote aggression, and provide “bread and circuses” for the people. The notion that a country can afford “guns and butter” with no significant penalty existed even before the 1960s when it became a popular slogan. It was then, though, we were told the Vietnam War and a massive expansion of the welfare state were not problems. The seventies proved that assumption wrong.
Today things are different from even ancient times or the 1970s. There is something to the argument that we are now a global economy. The world has more people and is more integrated due to modern technology, communications, and travel. If modern technology had been used to promote the ideas of liberty, free markets, sound money and trade, it would have ushered in a new golden age—a globalism we could accept.
Instead, the wealth and freedom we now enjoy are shrinking and rest upon a fragile philosophic infrastructure. It is not unlike the levies and bridges in our own country that our system of war and welfare has caused us to ignore.
I’m fearful that my concerns have been legitimate and may even be worse than I first thought. They are now at our doorstep. Time is short for making a course correction before this grand experiment in liberty goes into deep hibernation.
There are reasons to believe this coming crisis is different and bigger than the world has ever experienced. Instead of using globalism in a positive fashion, it’s been used to globalize all of the mistakes of the politicians, bureaucrats and central bankers.
Being an unchallenged sole superpower was never accepted by us with a sense of humility and respect. Our arrogance and aggressiveness have been used to promote a world empire backed by the most powerful army of history. This type of globalist intervention creates problems for all citizens of the world and fails to contribute to the well-being of the world’s populations. Just think how our personal liberties have been trashed here at home in the last decade.
The financial crisis, still in its early stages, is apparent to everyone: gasoline prices over $4 a gallon; skyrocketing education and medical-care costs; the collapse of the housing bubble; the bursting of the NASDAQ bubble; stockmarkets plunging; unemployment rising;, massive underemployment; excessive government debt; and unmanageable personal debt. Little doubt exists as to whether we’ll get stagflation. The question that will soon be asked is: When will the stagflation become an inflationary depression?
There are various reasons that the world economy has been globalized and the problems we face are worldwide. We cannot understand what we’re facing without understanding fiat money and the long-developing dollar bubble.
There were several stages. From the inception of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 to 1933, the Central Bank established itself as the official dollar manager. By 1933, Americans could no longer own gold, thus removing restraint on the Federal Reserve to inflate for war and welfare.
By 1945, further restraints were removed by creating the Bretton-Woods Monetary System making the dollar the reserve currency of the world. This system lasted up until 1971. During the period between 1945 and 1971, some restraints on the Fed remained in place. Foreigners, but not Americans, could convert dollars to gold at $35 an ounce. Due to the excessive dollars being created, that system came to an end in 1971.
It’s the post Bretton-Woods system that was responsible for globalizing inflation and markets and for generating a gigantic worldwide dollar bubble. That bubble is now bursting, and we’re seeing what it’s like to suffer the consequences of the many previous economic errors.
Ironically in these past 35 years, we have benefited from this very flawed system. Because the world accepted dollars as if they were gold, we only had to counterfeit more dollars, spend them overseas (indirectly encouraging our jobs to go overseas as well) and enjoy unearned prosperity. Those who took our dollars and gave us goods and services were only too anxious to loan those dollars back to us. This allowed us to export our inflation and delay the consequences we now are starting to see.
But it was never destined to last, and now we have to pay the piper. Our huge foreign debt must be paid or liquidated. Our entitlements are coming due just as the world has become more reluctant to hold dollars. The consequence of that decision is price inflation in this country—and that’s what we are witnessing today. Already price inflation overseas is even higher than here at home as a consequence of foreign central bank’s willingness to monetize our debt.
Printing dollars over long periods of time may not immediately push prices up–yet in time it always does. Now we’re seeing catch-up for past inflating of the monetary supply. As bad as it is today with $4 a gallon gasoline, this is just the beginning. It’s a gross distraction to hound away at “drill, drill, drill” as a solution to the dollar crisis and high gasoline prices. Its okay to let the market increase supplies and drill, but that issue is a gross distraction from the sins of deficits and Federal Reserve monetary shenanigans.
This bubble is different and bigger for another reason. The central banks of the world secretly collude to centrally plan the world economy. I’m convinced that agreements among central banks to “monetize” U.S. debt these past 15 years have existed, although secretly and out of the reach of any oversight of anyone—especially the U.S. Congress that doesn’t care, or just flat doesn’t understand. As this “gift” to us comes to an end, our problems worsen. The central banks and the various governments are very powerful, but eventually the markets overwhelm when the people who get stuck holding the bag (of bad dollars) catch on and spend the dollars into the economy with emotional zeal, thus igniting inflationary fever.
This time—since there are so many dollars and so many countries involved—the Fed has been able to “paper” over every approaching crisis for the past 15 years, especially with Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, which has allowed the bubble to become history’s greatest.
The mistakes made with excessive credit at artificially low rates are huge, and the market is demanding a correction. This involves excessive debt, misdirected investments, over-investments, and all the other problems caused by the government when spending the money they should never have had. Foreign militarism, welfare handouts and $80 trillion entitlement promises are all coming to an end. We don’t have the money or the wealth-creating capacity to catch up and care for all the needs that now exist because we rejected the market economy, sound money, self reliance and the principles of liberty.
Since the correction of all this misallocation of resources is necessary and must come, one can look for some good that may come as this “Big Even” unfolds.
There are two choices that people can make. The one choice that is unavailable to us is to limp along with the status quo and prop up the system with more debt, inflation and lies. That won’t happen.
One of the two choices, and the one chosen so often by government in the past is that of rejecting the principles of liberty and resorting to even bigger and more authoritarian government. Some argue that giving dictatorial powers to the President, just as we have allowed him to run the American empire, is what we should do. That’s the great danger, and in this post-911 atmosphere, too many Americans are seeking safety over freedom. We have already lost too many of our personal liberties already. Real fear of economic collapse could prompt central planners to act to such a degree that the New Deal of the 30’s might look like Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.
The more the government is allowed to do in taking over and running the economy, the deeper the depression gets and the longer it lasts. That was the story of the 30ss and the early 40s, and the same mistakes are likely to be made again if we do not wake up.
But the good news is that it need not be so bad if we do the right thing. I saw “Something Big” happening in the past 18 months on the campaign trail. I was encouraged that we are capable of waking up and doing the right thing. I have literally met thousands of high school and college kids who are quite willing to accept the challenge and responsibility of a free society and reject the cradle-to-grave welfare that is promised them by so many do-good politicians.
If more hear the message of liberty, more will join in this effort. The failure of our foreign policy, welfare system, and monetary policies and virtually all government solutions are so readily apparent, it doesn’t take that much convincing. But the positive message of how freedom works and why it’s possible is what is urgently needed.
One of the best parts of accepting self reliance in a free society is that true personal satisfaction with one’s own life can be achieved. This doesn’t happen when the government assumes the role of guardian, parent or provider, because it eliminates a sense of pride. But the real problem is the government can’t provide the safety and economic security that it claims. The so-called good that government claims it can deliver is always achieved at the expense of someone else’s freedom. It’s a failed system and the young people know it.
Restoring a free society doesn’t eliminate the need to get our house in order and to pay for the extravagant spending. But the pain would not be long-lasting if we did the right things, and best of all the empire would have to end for financial reasons. Our wars would stop, the attack on civil liberties would cease, and prosperity would return. The choices are clear: it shouldn’t be difficult, but the big event now unfolding gives us a great opportunity to reverse the tide and resume the truly great American Revolution started in 1776. Opportunity knocks in spite of the urgency and the dangers we face.
Let’s make “Something Big is Happening” be the discovery that freedom works and is popular and the big economic and political event we’re witnessing is a blessing in disguise.
Source: Campaignforliberty.com
I have, for the past 35 years, expressed my grave concern for the future of America. The course we have taken over the past century has threatened our liberties, security and prosperity. In spite of these long-held concerns, I have days—growing more frequent all the time—when I’m convinced the time is now upon us that some Big Events are about to occur. These fast-approaching events will not go unnoticed. They will affect all of us. They will not be limited to just some areas of our country. The world economy and political system will share in the chaos about to be unleashed.
Though the world has long suffered from the senselessness of wars that should have been avoided, my greatest fear is that the course on which we find ourselves will bring even greater conflict and economic suffering to the innocent people of the world—unless we quickly change our ways.
America, with her traditions of free markets and property rights, led the way toward great wealth and progress throughout the world as well as at home. Since we have lost our confidence in the principles of liberty, self reliance, hard work and frugality, and instead took on empire building, financed through inflation and debt, all this has changed. This is indeed frightening and an historic event.
The problem we face is not new in history. Authoritarianism has been around a long time. For centuries, inflation and debt have been used by tyrants to hold power, promote aggression, and provide “bread and circuses” for the people. The notion that a country can afford “guns and butter” with no significant penalty existed even before the 1960s when it became a popular slogan. It was then, though, we were told the Vietnam War and a massive expansion of the welfare state were not problems. The seventies proved that assumption wrong.
Today things are different from even ancient times or the 1970s. There is something to the argument that we are now a global economy. The world has more people and is more integrated due to modern technology, communications, and travel. If modern technology had been used to promote the ideas of liberty, free markets, sound money and trade, it would have ushered in a new golden age—a globalism we could accept.
Instead, the wealth and freedom we now enjoy are shrinking and rest upon a fragile philosophic infrastructure. It is not unlike the levies and bridges in our own country that our system of war and welfare has caused us to ignore.
I’m fearful that my concerns have been legitimate and may even be worse than I first thought. They are now at our doorstep. Time is short for making a course correction before this grand experiment in liberty goes into deep hibernation.
There are reasons to believe this coming crisis is different and bigger than the world has ever experienced. Instead of using globalism in a positive fashion, it’s been used to globalize all of the mistakes of the politicians, bureaucrats and central bankers.
Being an unchallenged sole superpower was never accepted by us with a sense of humility and respect. Our arrogance and aggressiveness have been used to promote a world empire backed by the most powerful army of history. This type of globalist intervention creates problems for all citizens of the world and fails to contribute to the well-being of the world’s populations. Just think how our personal liberties have been trashed here at home in the last decade.
The financial crisis, still in its early stages, is apparent to everyone: gasoline prices over $4 a gallon; skyrocketing education and medical-care costs; the collapse of the housing bubble; the bursting of the NASDAQ bubble; stockmarkets plunging; unemployment rising;, massive underemployment; excessive government debt; and unmanageable personal debt. Little doubt exists as to whether we’ll get stagflation. The question that will soon be asked is: When will the stagflation become an inflationary depression?
There are various reasons that the world economy has been globalized and the problems we face are worldwide. We cannot understand what we’re facing without understanding fiat money and the long-developing dollar bubble.
There were several stages. From the inception of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 to 1933, the Central Bank established itself as the official dollar manager. By 1933, Americans could no longer own gold, thus removing restraint on the Federal Reserve to inflate for war and welfare.
By 1945, further restraints were removed by creating the Bretton-Woods Monetary System making the dollar the reserve currency of the world. This system lasted up until 1971. During the period between 1945 and 1971, some restraints on the Fed remained in place. Foreigners, but not Americans, could convert dollars to gold at $35 an ounce. Due to the excessive dollars being created, that system came to an end in 1971.
It’s the post Bretton-Woods system that was responsible for globalizing inflation and markets and for generating a gigantic worldwide dollar bubble. That bubble is now bursting, and we’re seeing what it’s like to suffer the consequences of the many previous economic errors.
Ironically in these past 35 years, we have benefited from this very flawed system. Because the world accepted dollars as if they were gold, we only had to counterfeit more dollars, spend them overseas (indirectly encouraging our jobs to go overseas as well) and enjoy unearned prosperity. Those who took our dollars and gave us goods and services were only too anxious to loan those dollars back to us. This allowed us to export our inflation and delay the consequences we now are starting to see.
But it was never destined to last, and now we have to pay the piper. Our huge foreign debt must be paid or liquidated. Our entitlements are coming due just as the world has become more reluctant to hold dollars. The consequence of that decision is price inflation in this country—and that’s what we are witnessing today. Already price inflation overseas is even higher than here at home as a consequence of foreign central bank’s willingness to monetize our debt.
Printing dollars over long periods of time may not immediately push prices up–yet in time it always does. Now we’re seeing catch-up for past inflating of the monetary supply. As bad as it is today with $4 a gallon gasoline, this is just the beginning. It’s a gross distraction to hound away at “drill, drill, drill” as a solution to the dollar crisis and high gasoline prices. Its okay to let the market increase supplies and drill, but that issue is a gross distraction from the sins of deficits and Federal Reserve monetary shenanigans.
This bubble is different and bigger for another reason. The central banks of the world secretly collude to centrally plan the world economy. I’m convinced that agreements among central banks to “monetize” U.S. debt these past 15 years have existed, although secretly and out of the reach of any oversight of anyone—especially the U.S. Congress that doesn’t care, or just flat doesn’t understand. As this “gift” to us comes to an end, our problems worsen. The central banks and the various governments are very powerful, but eventually the markets overwhelm when the people who get stuck holding the bag (of bad dollars) catch on and spend the dollars into the economy with emotional zeal, thus igniting inflationary fever.
This time—since there are so many dollars and so many countries involved—the Fed has been able to “paper” over every approaching crisis for the past 15 years, especially with Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, which has allowed the bubble to become history’s greatest.
The mistakes made with excessive credit at artificially low rates are huge, and the market is demanding a correction. This involves excessive debt, misdirected investments, over-investments, and all the other problems caused by the government when spending the money they should never have had. Foreign militarism, welfare handouts and $80 trillion entitlement promises are all coming to an end. We don’t have the money or the wealth-creating capacity to catch up and care for all the needs that now exist because we rejected the market economy, sound money, self reliance and the principles of liberty.
Since the correction of all this misallocation of resources is necessary and must come, one can look for some good that may come as this “Big Even” unfolds.
There are two choices that people can make. The one choice that is unavailable to us is to limp along with the status quo and prop up the system with more debt, inflation and lies. That won’t happen.
One of the two choices, and the one chosen so often by government in the past is that of rejecting the principles of liberty and resorting to even bigger and more authoritarian government. Some argue that giving dictatorial powers to the President, just as we have allowed him to run the American empire, is what we should do. That’s the great danger, and in this post-911 atmosphere, too many Americans are seeking safety over freedom. We have already lost too many of our personal liberties already. Real fear of economic collapse could prompt central planners to act to such a degree that the New Deal of the 30’s might look like Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.
The more the government is allowed to do in taking over and running the economy, the deeper the depression gets and the longer it lasts. That was the story of the 30ss and the early 40s, and the same mistakes are likely to be made again if we do not wake up.
But the good news is that it need not be so bad if we do the right thing. I saw “Something Big” happening in the past 18 months on the campaign trail. I was encouraged that we are capable of waking up and doing the right thing. I have literally met thousands of high school and college kids who are quite willing to accept the challenge and responsibility of a free society and reject the cradle-to-grave welfare that is promised them by so many do-good politicians.
If more hear the message of liberty, more will join in this effort. The failure of our foreign policy, welfare system, and monetary policies and virtually all government solutions are so readily apparent, it doesn’t take that much convincing. But the positive message of how freedom works and why it’s possible is what is urgently needed.
One of the best parts of accepting self reliance in a free society is that true personal satisfaction with one’s own life can be achieved. This doesn’t happen when the government assumes the role of guardian, parent or provider, because it eliminates a sense of pride. But the real problem is the government can’t provide the safety and economic security that it claims. The so-called good that government claims it can deliver is always achieved at the expense of someone else’s freedom. It’s a failed system and the young people know it.
Restoring a free society doesn’t eliminate the need to get our house in order and to pay for the extravagant spending. But the pain would not be long-lasting if we did the right things, and best of all the empire would have to end for financial reasons. Our wars would stop, the attack on civil liberties would cease, and prosperity would return. The choices are clear: it shouldn’t be difficult, but the big event now unfolding gives us a great opportunity to reverse the tide and resume the truly great American Revolution started in 1776. Opportunity knocks in spite of the urgency and the dangers we face.
Let’s make “Something Big is Happening” be the discovery that freedom works and is popular and the big economic and political event we’re witnessing is a blessing in disguise.
Source: Campaignforliberty.com
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
EU Constitution author says referendums can be ignored
The former President of France drafted the old Constitution that was rejected by French and Dutch voters three years ago before being resurrected as the Lisbon EU Treaty, itself shunned by the Irish two weeks ago.
Mr Giscard d'Estaing told the Irish Times that Ireland's referendum rejection would not kill the Treaty, despite a legal requirement of unanimity from all the EU's 27 member states.
"We are evolving towards majority voting because if we stay with unanimity, we will do nothing," he said.
"It is impossible to function by unanimity with 27 members. This time it's Ireland; the next time it will be somebody else."
"Ireland is one per cent of the EU".
Mr Giscard d'Estaing also admitted that, unlike his original Constitutional Treaty, the Lisbon EU Treaty had been carefully crafted to confuse the public.
"What was done in the [Lisbon] Treaty, and deliberately, was to mix everything up. If you look for the passages on institutions, they're in different places, on different pages," he said.
"Someone who wanted to understand how the thing worked could with the Constitutional Treaty, but not with this one."
France and Germany are putting pressure on Ireland to hold a second referendum which would allow the Lisbon Treaty to come into force before European elections on June 4 2009.
Mr Giscard d'Estaing believes "there is no alternative" to a second Irish vote, a view shared by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President.
Mr Sarkozy, who takes over the EU's rotating presidency next week, will use a Brussels summit on October 15 to force Ireland to find a way out of Europe's Treaty difficulties.
"Everyone agrees it has to be sorted out by the time of European elections," he said at the weekend.
Václav Klaus, the Czech President has continued to insist that the Lisbon Treaty "cannot come into force" after the Irish vote.
"The EU cannot ignore its own rules. The Lisbon Treaty has been roundly and democratically rejected by Ireland, and it therefore cannot come into force," he told El Pais newspaper.
"Any attempt to ignore this fact and make recourse to pressure and political manipulation to move the treaty forward would have disastrous consequences."
Mark François, Conservative spokesman on Europe, also insisted that it was time that European politicians started to respect the Irish No vote.
"The Irish people gave an emphatic No to the Treaty of Lisbon on a record turnout and it would be good for politicians of all countries to respect this democratic decision," he said.
"The point is particularly clear to us here in Britain as the Irish were fortunate to be given a referendum which we were denied by our Government."
An opinion poll for the newspaper Libération has shown 44 per cent of the French want Ireland to vote again and 26 per cent want the ratification process to continue without Ireland.
But a quarter of those polled want to abandon the Treaty and 52 per cent think the Irish No vote is going to dominate Mr Sarkozy's EU presidency.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
Mr Giscard d'Estaing told the Irish Times that Ireland's referendum rejection would not kill the Treaty, despite a legal requirement of unanimity from all the EU's 27 member states.
"We are evolving towards majority voting because if we stay with unanimity, we will do nothing," he said.
"It is impossible to function by unanimity with 27 members. This time it's Ireland; the next time it will be somebody else."
"Ireland is one per cent of the EU".
Mr Giscard d'Estaing also admitted that, unlike his original Constitutional Treaty, the Lisbon EU Treaty had been carefully crafted to confuse the public.
"What was done in the [Lisbon] Treaty, and deliberately, was to mix everything up. If you look for the passages on institutions, they're in different places, on different pages," he said.
"Someone who wanted to understand how the thing worked could with the Constitutional Treaty, but not with this one."
France and Germany are putting pressure on Ireland to hold a second referendum which would allow the Lisbon Treaty to come into force before European elections on June 4 2009.
Mr Giscard d'Estaing believes "there is no alternative" to a second Irish vote, a view shared by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President.
Mr Sarkozy, who takes over the EU's rotating presidency next week, will use a Brussels summit on October 15 to force Ireland to find a way out of Europe's Treaty difficulties.
"Everyone agrees it has to be sorted out by the time of European elections," he said at the weekend.
Václav Klaus, the Czech President has continued to insist that the Lisbon Treaty "cannot come into force" after the Irish vote.
"The EU cannot ignore its own rules. The Lisbon Treaty has been roundly and democratically rejected by Ireland, and it therefore cannot come into force," he told El Pais newspaper.
"Any attempt to ignore this fact and make recourse to pressure and political manipulation to move the treaty forward would have disastrous consequences."
Mark François, Conservative spokesman on Europe, also insisted that it was time that European politicians started to respect the Irish No vote.
"The Irish people gave an emphatic No to the Treaty of Lisbon on a record turnout and it would be good for politicians of all countries to respect this democratic decision," he said.
"The point is particularly clear to us here in Britain as the Irish were fortunate to be given a referendum which we were denied by our Government."
An opinion poll for the newspaper Libération has shown 44 per cent of the French want Ireland to vote again and 26 per cent want the ratification process to continue without Ireland.
But a quarter of those polled want to abandon the Treaty and 52 per cent think the Irish No vote is going to dominate Mr Sarkozy's EU presidency.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
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