Further information at: Not-so-Random Information: Introduction and Table of Contents
I. Economy
Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever - “Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything.”
II. Yemen
Yemeni Activist Farea al-Muslimi Urges U.S. to Stop the Drone War on His Country - “Yemeni activist and journalist Farea al-Muslimi delivered a moving plea before a Senate hearing this week for an end to U.S. drone strikes inside his country. Speaking at the first-ever public congressional hearing on Obama’s secret drone and targeted killing program, al-Muslimi offered a rare first-hand account of the suffering that drone warfare wreaks on ordinary people’s lives. His family’s village of Wessab was hit by a U.S. drone strike last week, leaving five people dead. Educated in the United States as a teenager, al-Muslimi says the drone attacks are turning Yemenis against the country that embraced him.”
III. Environment
Last rhinos in Mozambique killed by poachers - “The 15 threatened animals were shot dead for their horns last month in the Mozambican part of Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which also covers South Africa and Zimbabwe. They were thought to be the last of an estimated 300 that roamed through the special conservation area when it was established as ‘the world's greatest animal kingdom’ in a treaty signed by the three countries' then presidents in 2002. The latest deaths, and Mozambique's failure to tackle poaching, has prompted threats by South Africa to re-erect fences between their reserves. Wildlife authorities believe the poachers were able to track the rhinoceroses with the help of game rangers working in the Limpopo National Park, as the Mozambican side of the reserve is known. A total of 30 rangers are due in court in the coming weeks, charged with collusion in the creatures' deaths, according to the park's administrators.”
IV. Government
Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) Speaks Out Against "Right-to-Work" Legislation - “In this clip, State Rep. Brandon Dillon (D-Grand Rapids) explains his opposition to House Bill 4054, a proposal to make Michigan a "right-to-work" state. The proposal was pushed through the House in one day without a single committee hearing and without taking a single word of testimony.”
V. Syria
They may be fighting for Syria, not Assad. They may also be winning: Robert Fisk reports from inside Syria - “Colonel Mohamed, who mixes military strategy with politics, says he regards the foreign ‘plot’ against Syria as a repeat version of the Sykes-Picot Agreement of the First World War, when Britain and France secretly decided to divide up the Middle East – including Syria – between them. ‘Now they want to do the same,’ he says. ‘Britain and France want to give weapons to the terrorists to divide us, but we want to have a united Syria in which all our people live together, democratically, caring not about their religion but living peacefully…’ And then came the crunch. ‘…under the leadership of our champion Dr Bashar al-Assad.’ But it is not that simple. The word ‘democracy’ and the name of Assad do not blend very well in much of Syria. And I rather think that the soldiers of what is officially called the Syrian Arab Army are fighting for Syria rather than Assad. But fighting they are and maybe, for now, they are winning an unwinnable war. At Beit Fares, I peak over the parapet once more and the mist is rising off the mountains. This could be Bosnia. The country is breathtaking, the grey-green hills rolling into blue velvet mountains. A little heaven. But the fruits along this front line are bitter indeed.”
VI. Education
Alfie Kohn - The (Alternative) Schools Our Kids Deserve - 2011 MAAP Conference (Part 2) - “Alfie Kohn keynote address at the 2011 MAAP Conference in Duluth, MN on Feb. 24, 2011”
VII. Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property and the Great “Debate” - “Barring restitution in a tort, the only way I can lose property rights in something is to voluntarily give them away, either in an exchange, as a gift or as a simple renunciation of my claim to the property. IP requires easements on all of the potential property in the universe simply because someone wrote a poem. Under an IP regime, I may have ink and parchment, but as soon as you draw a picture you may prevent me from doing certain things with my ink and parchment. You can also prevent me from chiseling your picture on a rock, or tracing it in the sand and snapping a photo. You would have easements on the property of beings in other galaxies you don’t even know exist. It is obvious, or should be for the libertarian, that Intellectual Property rights and real property rights are subject to a sort of Pauli Exclusion Principle, in that both of them cannot exist at the same time and in the same place.”
VIII. CIA and Drug Running
Mike Ruppert - CIA and Drug Running (1997) - “Former narcotics investigator Mike Ruppert, and author of ‘The Truth and Lies of 911’, was forced out of the LAPD in 1977 when he exposed evidence of drug trafficking by the CIA. This is one of his first appearances caught on Video in 1997 at the Granada Forum in Tarzana, CA. Topic is ‘CIA Drug Running’”
IX. American ‘Think Tank’ Presents Some ‘Stats’ on the World’s Muslims
The World's Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society (Infograph) - “A new Pew Research Center survey of Muslims around the globe finds that most adherents of the world’s second-largest religion are deeply committed to their faith and want its teachings to shape not only their personal lives but also their societies and politics. In all but a handful of the 39 countries surveyed, a majority of Muslims say that Islam is the one true faith leading to eternal life in heaven and that belief in God is necessary to be a moral person. Many also think that their religious leaders should have at least some influence over political matters. And many express a desire for sharia – traditional Islamic law – to be recognized as the official law of their country.”
NOTE: "The Pew Global Attitudes Project is a series of worldwide public-opinion surveys and reports aimed at understanding worldwide attitudes on various issues. The Project is chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth."
X. NATO vs. SCO
The New Great Game - “The New Great Game is a conceptualization of modern geopolitics in Central Eurasia as a competition between the United States, the United Kingdom and other NATO countries against Russia, the People's Republic of China and other Shanghai Cooperation Organisation countries for ‘influence, power, hegemony and profits in Central Asia and the Transcaucasus’. It is a reference to ‘The Great Game’, the political rivalry between the British and Russian Empires in Central Asia during the 19th century.”
click to enlarge - Source
XI. Zionism
“MY LAST POST: Final thoughts on Zionism’s success and Arab failure” by Alan Hart - “More than three decades ago when I made my commitment to this war effort, in the full knowledge that it would make me persona non grata in the eyes of the mainstream media I had served with some distinction, I believed that the single most amazing thing about the conflict was Zionism’s success in selling its propaganda lies – lies which were told not only to justify anything and everything the Zionist (not Jewish) State of Israel did and does, but also to establish and fix the boundaries of what could and could not be discussed in public discourse about Israel’s policies and actions. (I mean what could and could not be discussed by non-Jews, Europeans and Americans especially, if they didn’t want to be terrorized by smears and false charges of anti-Semitism which could result in them losing their positions and jobs).”
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