Monthly Archives: September 2005

The Bilderberg Group

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  • Post category:Art

Back in 1997, when I was visiting my friend Cate in Germany, we took a trip down the Rhine River. We started in Cologne , and traveled on a tourist boat to Drachenfels Castle at Konigswinter, where we took a trip up the mountain on the Drachenfelsbahn to see the castle, then walked back down.
While we were on the boat floating down the Rhine, passing all the vineyards and wineries that make the Rhine’s famous Rieslings, Cate pointed out a resort hotel high on a mountain above the river and mentioned that it was one of the meeting places for the Bilderberg Group, which was a secret society of world leaders that met to discuss world affairs.
At the time, I had no clue what the heck Cate was talking about. Since then, I’ve heard the term mentioned a handful of times, and gathered that there were conspiracy theories surrounding it.
Then, I checked out Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson, which deals heavily with the organization because the group is central to the conspiracy theories of almost all major terrorist and extremist organizations; including radical Islamists, white supremacists, and radical right-wing ideologists like Timothy McVeigh.
Over the past five or six years, more information has become available about the Bilderberg Group, especially because of Jon’s book, in which he was able to witness the participants enter a meeting, and later interviewed members of the group. He was also able to witness a ceremony at the Bohemian Grove, whose attendees had a very similar guest list.
But I wonder how Cate knew as much as she did back in 1997.

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Your invitation: Dance Dance Revolution

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  • Post category:Journal

Stephanie and I are planning to have a Dance Dance Revolution get together sometime soon; a small gathering, not a big one, where people can play in the comfort of my living room. We’ll probably wait until Dan and Doug get back from Europe, because they want to play too.
If you want to come, let me know. The key is that you have to actually dance in front of other people.

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There were not 2,000 school buses

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  • Post category:Politics

Conservative pundits have been hammering the idea that there were “2000 school buses” that New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin could have commandeered to get the poor people of the city evacuated. According to Media Matters, this falsehood has been repeated over and over again.
In fact, the city of New Orleans has 364 school buses, of which 70 were in the shop for repairs and were not driveable. There were not drivers available for the remaining school buses to take people out of town, or personnel to gas them up, etc. Or a way to round up residents and get them to a single meeting point. The logistics of it would have been impossible.

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Indiana Rep. Mike Pence plans looting of New Orleans by Big Business

According to the Wall Street Journal:

Congressional Republicans, backed by the White House, say they are using relief measures for the hurricane-ravaged Gulf coast to achieve a broad range of conservative economic and social policies, both in the storm zone and beyond.
Some new measures are already taking shape. In the past week, the Bush administration has suspended some union-friendly rules that require federal contractors pay prevailing wages, moved to ease tariffs on Canadian lumber, and allowed more foreign sugar imports to calm rising sugar prices. Just yesterday, it waived some affirmative-action rules for employers with federal contracts in the Gulf region.
Now, Republicans are working on legislation that would limit victims’ right to sue, offer vouchers for displaced school children, lift some environment restrictions on new refineries and create tax-advantaged enterprise zones to maximize private-sector participation in recovery and reconstruction. Yesterday, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill that would offer sweeping protection against lawsuits to any person or organization that helps Katrina victims without compensation.

In other words; “thank god we got all those pesky black people out of the way so we can build our big businesses where their houses used to be.”
Nevermind that his big businesses caused the tragedy in the first place by developing oil refineries on the wetlands. They’re going to roll out more refineries there.

Continue ReadingIndiana Rep. Mike Pence plans looting of New Orleans by Big Business

On eBay: Soviet Space Monkey’s Flight Pants

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  • Post category:Monkeys

Listed on eBay:

It’s offered to your attention the “space pants” for macaque small monkey to wear it during the experimental space flight. This pants has been used for animals (monkeys) experiments in 1950-s – 1960-s in the USSR Institute of Biomedical Problems (IMBP, Moscow). The monkey’s “space pants” are designed with many clasps to fit bigger or smaller monkey.

No, I’m not bidding.

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Condi, I need a potty break

Yep, it’s a real photo from Reuters, of President Bush writing a note to Condoleezza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the UN on September 14th. World leaders are exploring ways to revitalize the United Nations at a summit on Wednesday.

In case you can’t see it, the note says “I think I may need a bathroom break.” I didn’t know that was part of the Secretary of State’s job.

Condi, I need a potty break
Condi, I need a potty break
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