CHINA HITS BACK AT USA CRITICISM ON HUMAN RIGHTS

China has retaliated to condemnation of its human rights record with its own report on human rights in the United States.


By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Last Updated: 6:30AM GMT 27 Feb 2009

"The US practise of throwing stones at others while living in a glass house is testimony to its double standards and hypocrisy and has undermined its international image," said a spokesman for the State Council, the Chinese equivalent of a ministerial cabinet.

The fierce response came after the United States criticized China in its annual global human rights report, issued by the State Department. The report said China stepped up repression last year in Tibet and Xinjiang, restricting dissent and religious freedom.

"The government's human rights record remained poor and worsened in some areas," the US report said. It added that the situation in Tibet had "deteriorated severely".

The condemnation came days after Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of State, disappointed human rights activists by conceding that the US would put economic ties above human rights in its dealings with China.

"As in previous years, the reports are full of accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions, including China, but mention nothing of the widespread human rights abuses on its own territory," said the Chinese report into the US.

Its preface adds that the report was designed to "help people around the world understand the real situation of human rights in the United States, and as a reminder for the United States to reflect upon its own issues."

The Chinese report highlights the 1.4 million violent crimes, including 17,000 murders, recorded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2007, and said the frequency of gun crimes was a "serious threat" to lives of US citizens. The Chinese also said that the 1.35 million students who were threatened or injured by a weapon on school premises was a shocking violation of human rights.

It cited government surveillance of online activities, new legislation on government wiretapping last July, more cases of police abuse of force and neglect of basic rights of 2.3 million prisoners in the United States, and added that the US has a range of social problems, including a widening wealth gap and increasing numbers of homeless and hungry.

The report quoted the US Census Bureau as saying in August 2008 that 12.5 percent of Americans, or 37.3 million people, were living in poverty in 2007, up from 36.5 million in 2006. It also added that racial discrimination pervades "every aspect of social life" in the US.

"The United States is one of the few countries in the world where minors receive the same criminal punishments as adults," the report said. "It is the only country in the world that sentences children to life in prison without possibility of parole or release."

"The United States has a string of records of trampling on the sovereignty of and violating human rights in other countries," the report said. It listed the Iraq war, prisoner abuse at Guantanamo, and the five-decade embargo against Cuba, which the UN has criticized.

The war in Iraq had claimed more than 1 million civilian lives and caused the same number of homeless people, it said. US arm sales reached USD32 billion (Pounds22 billion) in 2007 and weapons were sold to more than 174 nations and regions.

China said the US government should "face its own human rights problems with courage, and to stop applying double standards to human rights issues".

URBAN WARFARE DRILLS LINKED TO COMING ECONOMIC RAGE

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, February 23, 2009

Urban warfare training drills are taking place across the country as top analysts as well as officials predict a potential “summer of rage” across Europe and America as civil unrest from the economic fallout builds.

Earlier this month, 150 U.S. troops from the U.S. Special Operations Command whizzed around the streets of New Orleans in military helicopters and even dropped bombs in what officials described as a “training event”.

An Iowa National Guard training exercise in Arcadia, Iowa, scheduled for April was originally billed as an “invasion” before public opposition caused the drill to be scaled back. The exercise included Guard troops patrolling streets, searching houses and confiscating firearms.

No less than 2,200 U.S. Marines were also involved in urban operations training in Richmond, VIrginia, throughout January, drills that involved landing troops in populated areas, allowing military pilots to “familiarize themselves with the area.”

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Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage obamadecept_340x169

Military choppers hovered precariously low over parking lots as citizens were acclimated to seeing active duty military assets engaged in law enforcement style activities.

Watch a clip filmed by a startled Richmond resident who wasn’t even aware that Marines were conducting drills due to scant forewarning on behalf of authorities and the media.

Are such drills really for the purpose of preparing troops for foreign combat zones? Undoubtedly - but other factors indicate that the drills may very well also be aimed at preparing troops for dealing with mass civil unrest as the economic crisis worsens.

There’s no question that U.S. authorities have been closely observing riots that have toppled governments in Iceland and Latvia and also threatened to do so in several other European countries. The fact that they have contingency plans in place to deal with such scenarios should they unfold in America cannot be disputed.

Indeed, before a media exposé forced them into a denial, Northcom revealed that one of the duties of at least 20,000 active duty troops that are being placed inside the United States would be dealing with “civil unrest and crowd control”.

Meanwhile, millions of dollars that were set aside as part of the so-called bailout have in fact been handed over to local police departments and spent on military tools like armored vehicles, unmanned aerial surveillance drones and high-powered firearms for SWAT teams.

In addition, with many predicting that Mexico is on the verge of collapse as a result of the economic crisis and the out of control drug war, Texas officials have already established contingency plans to deal with an influx of immigrants, a program that would only address “law enforcement concerns” and not humanitarian needs.

HR 645, otherwise known as the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act, would mandate the expansion of FEMA detention camps which would likely to be used to detain illegal immigrants as well as rioting American citizens.

The prospect of widespread rioting at some stage this year is a scenario feared by many.

Police in the UK are preparing for a “summer of rage” and mass protests against the mishandling of the economic crisis by the government.

The U.S. Army War College in November released a white paper called Known Unknowns: Unconventional ‘Strategic Shocks’ in Defense Strategy Development. The report warned that the military must be prepared for a “violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,” which could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse,” “purposeful domestic resistance,” “pervasive public health emergencies” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.” The “widespread civil violence,” the document said, “would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.”

Numerous other public figures, including Senator Christopher Dodd, leading economist Nouriel Roubini, top trend researcher Gerald Celente, the head of the International Monetary Fund, the head of the World Trade Organization, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former national security director Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair have all warned of coming civil unrest and global instability.

Considering the expectancy for riots, it would be naive to dismiss the notion that the increasing amount of urban warfare drills taking place across the U.S. are not at least partially to prepare troops to undertake law enforcement duties should civil unrest as a consequence of the economic fallout threaten a collapse in social order.

THE NEW FLAT EARTH SOCIETY FOR THE NEW DARK AGES

The New Flat-Earth Society
For The New Dark Ages
Jim Kirwan
2-26-9


Welcome to the re-institution of the Dark Ages that are being administered by the All-New Flat Earth Society of Obamanation Incorporated. Their new flag will be the Skull & Bones of international-piracy atop a pyramid of broken bodies; barely visible against the brindled black of that flag's background. This symbol will rekindle the horror inherent in the infamous- Inquisition on which our 'New Flat-Earth Society' has been founded. Here's how the Flat-Earth Society plans to interlock our lives into their new board-game that plans to criminalize our lives while suppressing the entire society, in order to obtain their treacherous goal of total global control.

Note the relationship between the triad of prisons, 'jobs' and the abbreviated shell of the courts; bracketed as they are by the gagged bust of freedom on the extreme right, that faces the chained and helpless prisoner on the extreme left from Gitmo: this image shall stand for the plight of the new citizens, in this spied-on and criminalized horror that is all that will 'be left' when Obamanation Inc. gets finished playing, with what remains of this society.

The cogs of societal balance have been sabotaged so that those 'jobs' that had been the jewel that paid for political and private thought, are only used here as a ceaseless cog that moves the shiftless mass of bodies from the courts to the prisons and back again. This is the 'new version' of the medieval world where torture and terror rule the entire edifice, before the outrage returns, to crush these concepts that hijacked what we were.

This is how the new Flat-Earth Society really functions, complete with black helicopters overhead and deadly spikes where there were once safety nets below: This is the world of Smoke & Mirrors that we must remember whenever Obamanation speaks of "quick strong measures to restore the nation." Because when they are finished this is what America will look like; courtesy of his dictatorial- predecessor and our own reluctance to confront anything at all - ever!

In the last two days it has become very clear that Obamanation knows nothing at all about any of the functions of a real society. These creatures are tinkering with their version of a "Monopoly" board-game, in which they're controlling or protecting all the key components, in the real game, while pretending they are going to rescue the victims of their first two mega-moves.

The first public move were the phony Wars created by their actions on 911, followed by massive financial abuses throughout the entire global system that has blasphemed all the laws and given the war- criminals and the political-mercenaries a FREE-PASS-along with an unspoken immunity from prosecution-while they threaten the remaining population with forced and uncompensated-servitude in a new army of civilians that will be larger than the military, and far more dangerous to civil liberties than the Stasi of East Germany ever were, in their war against their own people.

"Back in July 2008, Obama, then the presidential front runner, called for a "civilian national security force" as powerful as the U.S. military.

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded," Obama told a Colorado Springs audience.

The comments that were ignored by the vast majority of the corporate media but were found to be troubling by some independent journalists who compared the idea to the formation of the Nazi Hitler Youth.

Fears of "youth brigades" or civilian Stasi style units increased following Obama's appointment of Rahm Emanuel to chief-of staff.

In his book, "The Plan: Big Ideas for America," Emanuel writes: "It's time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, all Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service."

The book also notes, "Some Republicans will squeal about individual freedom, ruling out any likelihood that they would let people opt out of universal citizen service."

Emanuel is also an enthusiastic supporter of the United States Public Service Academy Act, a lobbying group founded in 2006 in order to promote the foundation of an American public service academy modeled on the military academies - a youth corps whose students would be trained in "civilian internship in the armed forces". (1)

My guess is that these Oh-so-patriotic eyes and ears of the New Society will be responsible for rounding up those of us that fail to agree with the one-world-view of Obamanation Inc. What makes any real country successful is the multiplicity of views that strengthens societies because it offers real choices, as it challenges those hide-bound theories that cannot stand the light of open debate, in the marketplace of free ideas.

Watching the performance in the 'Joint-Session of Congress' the other night I was reminded of trained seals responding very much as the old Kremlin did under the authority of the old USSR. Americans scoffed at their phony demonstrations and their vast parades denouncing the USA etc., etc. But as I watched the trained-seals in Congress, applauding vociferously on cue, I could not help but wonder what happened to any other point of view? Where was the counter-point from the opposition? Well "the Opposition" is now officially dead and gone, ever since Capitalism has become a proven failure. Because IF there were an opposition they would be screaming for heads to roll: even before allowing any more money to be allocated by the same creatures that crashed the financial world in the first place!

Is anyone in Washington or the country even listening to the sights and sounds of the omnipresent DEPRESSION that is moving into its second year now? Yesterday Pelosi, claimed that America will be losing 5 "BILLION" jobs a month. Of course it was just a slip of her ever-so-sloppy speech; however the media did nothing at all with that remark-not even one question-who knows maybe people no longer distinguish between million and BILLION, anymore than they do between Billion and TRILLION?

People we need to back away from the artificiality of this 'board- game' that Obama is trying to sell us on: Kick it over and demand that these people "get real"! This entire set of balloons are all scheduled to explode, because everything that this false-flag party is predicated on, contains a built-in demand for "permanent- growth" of outrageous proportions. These 'demands' can never be met, and yet we continue to underwrite businesses based precisely on these impossible corporate quotas that can never be achieved in the real world. (2)

Unless some of the above inconsistencies are addressed: along with the immediate closing of Guantanamo, coupled with ending all renditions and torture by the FBI, the CIA, or the US military on any third world black-ops bases anywhere, including the five new ones that are being built here, inside the USA. This is why Barack will not close Gitmo: It's because he hasn't finished building the five new places to send the prisoners to, that's why he needs a year to "close it down." These new secret places will be so secret that they can do whatever they want to do to their black- heart's content. There the New World Order will continue to flaunt international and American Law without any real problems from the media, the lawyers, or anyone outside the web of deceit that they are reconstructing from the debris left-over from the Cheney-Bush debacle.

How docile we have become: We beg the government for help, and they spit in our faces: Then we applaud them on cue like trained animals in a circus, and no one 'minds' that there is only one opinion in the land. Take a look at the Bankers Manifesto of 1892:

"We (the bankers) must proceed with caution and guard every move made, for the lower order of people are already showing signs of restless commotion. Prudence will therefore show a policy of apparently yielding to the popular will until our plans are so far consummated that we can declare our designs without fear of any organized resistance.

Organizations in the United States should be carefully watched by our trusted men, and we must take immediate steps to control these organizations in our interest or disrupt them.

At the coming Omaha convention to be held July 4, 1892, our men must attend and direct its movement or else there will be set on foot such antagonism to our designs as may require force to overcome.

This at the present time would be premature. We are not yet ready for such a crisis. Capital must protect itself in every possible manner through combination (conspiracy) and legislation.

The courts must be called to our aid, debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible.

When, through the process of law, the common people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of the government applied to a central power of imperial wealth under the control of the leading financiers.

People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. History repeats itself in regular cycles. This truth is well known among our principal men who are engaged in forming an imperialism of the world. While they are doing this, the people must be kept in a state of political antagonism.

The question of tariff reform must be urged through the organization known as the Democratic Party, and the question of protection with the reciprocity must be forced to view through the Republican Party.

By thus dividing voters, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us, except as teachers to the common herd. Thus, by discrete actions, we can secure all that has been so generously planned and successfully accomplished." (3)

If that didn't boil your blood then nothing will, because in the 117 years since 1892 the money-changers have at least quintupled their dominance over our lives, along with the careers of most of those they continue to seriously 'touch.' Take a closer look at the illustration above-money is what underlies it all-and that game is rigged! You and I are NOT included in the profits, but the torture and the hell are being tailored 'just for us and those we care about.' If you listen carefully you might just overhear something like the following, coming from a future- guard inside the place above.

'Get down on your knees consumer-and beg admittance to the New World Order, before we have you rounded up as an outsider that might never be heard from again. Pleasant dreams sucker and congratulations; you've been-had again, but not to worry, we'll take care of everything from here on in. Now stick out your arm we need to chip you for security- identification, everyone is suspect here!'

kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.ne

MEXICO PRESIDENT DENIES COUNTRY IS A FAILED STATE

MEXICO CITY — President Felipe Calderon on Thursday rejected U.S. concerns that Mexico is losing control of its territory to drug cartels.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Calderon said his government has not "lost any part _ any single part _ of the Mexican territory" to organized crime. He also called "absolutely false" the idea that Mexico is in danger of becoming a failed state if the violence continues.

That concern has been a major topic of discussion in Mexico and along the U.S. border since the U.S. military first raised it in November. The Pentagon report on potential future threats singled out Mexico and Pakistan as countries where state control is at risk.

Earlier Thursday, Mexico's top prosecutor said that more than 1,000 people have been killed in drug violence so far this year, but that he believes the worst is nearly over.

Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora also told the AP that 6,290 people were killed last year _ the most specific government accounting yet of drug killings that doubled the 2007 toll.

Medina Mora said the world's most powerful drug cartels are "melting down" as they engage in turf wars and fight off a nationwide crackdown.

The government doesn't expect to stop drug trafficking, but hopes to make it so difficult that smugglers no longer use Mexico as their conduit to the United States.

"We want to raise the opportunity cost of our country as a route of choice," Medina Mora said.

16 foot LEGO KING TUT RIDES DOWN RIVER THAMES

National Geographic

River Thames, United Kingdom, February 19, 2009--A Lego pharaoh winds its way along the River Thames on the final leg of its 1,395-mile (2,245-kilometer) journey to Windsor's Legoland, where it will be the centerpiece of the new attraction Kingdom of the Pharaohs.

The 16-foot (4.9-meter) replica of an Egyptian king is the biggest Lego structure ever created, with 200,000 individual pieces and a weight of more than one ton.

Legoland, which opened in 1996, contains more than 53 million bricks.

Fear of Obama drives gun stocks higher

Rising concerns over increased regulation from the Obama White House have gun buffs stocking up. This is boosting the fortunes of gun makes Smith & Wesson and Ruger.Ruger reported Tuesday that gun sales increased 81% in the 4th quarter on new products and "robust firearms demand." Its order backlog now stands at $48 million.

read more | digg story

BRAZIL'S SHANTYTOWN SERVE AS HOLLYWOODS NEXT HOTSPOT

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Just before Christmas, a fit young man in a gold chain and a ski mask barreled through the hillside gulleys of a slum in Rio de Janeiro before lifting an automatic rifle and firing several rounds past unfazed residents used to keeping themselves out of the way.

But this scene -- a horrifically common sight here -- ended happily, with a director calling for the cameraman to cut the tape.

Welcome to Hollywood's new on-location hotspot: the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

The massive, destitute and crime-ridden shantytowns of Brazil -- a country with one of the world's largest wealth disparities -- would seem an unlikely setting for Los Angeles' glitzy film industry. But the favelas have lately served as a conspicuous backdrop for a string of big-budget productions, from Edward Norton's 2008 superhero flick "The Incredible Hulk" to rapper Snoop Dogg's video for his hit single "Beautiful."

Bill Pullman filmed an independent feature in Rio's slums, and in recent months Sylvester Stallone was in town scouting for favela-fabulous locations for his next shoot-'em-up.

There's at least one major challenge when bringing large film crews and movie stars into the more than 700 favelas that line Brazil's second-largest city. Most of the areas are literally war zones, with highly organized and heavily militarized gangs of drug traffickers on one side and Brazil's military police on the other.

The drug mafias are so powerful in some neighborhoods that police, expecting a shootout, will only enter in armored vehicles. The murder rates are among the highest in the world.
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The violence of Rio's slums was vividly depicted in the 2002 feature film "City of God." Made in one of the city's favelas with a cast largely composed of neighborhood amateurs, the movie won tremendous acclaim in Brazil and abroad for its brutal honesty, as well as its innovative, flashy production value. It's now been followed by a sequel and a TV series in Brazil, and by a bona fide trend of other productions looking to ride the wave of favela chic.

But Rio's true Studio City is a special sort of favela.

Located a few hills away from where "City of God" was produced, the neighborhood of Tavares Bastos has the appearance of any other of Rio's favelas, with its winding gulleys flanked by precarious-looking houses. But it has no drug trafficking, no guns and very little crime of any kind. A few years ago, longtime resident Bob Nadkarni, a former BBC filmmaker, saw in the new favela chic an opportunity for his perversely picturesque neighborhood.

So he started taking out advertisements in Variety magazine: "Shoot without getting shot."

The ad worked, and the phone calls soon started coming from production companies in Brazil, as well as North America and Europe. Local newspapers started calling the neighborhood "Bobbywood" after the man who attracted the film crews to the safest favela in town.

"We have one of the very few -- if not the only -- really peaceful and drugs-free communities" in Rio de Janeiro, Nadkarni said.

That's thanks to a unit of the Battalion of Special Police Operations -- the elite branch of the military police, themselves the subject of a hit Brazilian film in 2007.

Nadkarni invited them to set up shop in the neighborhood 10 years ago, after two decades of watching the rise of drug gangs in all of Rio's favelas, including his own. "I said, 'For God's sake, we've got this disused building here, and wouldn't it make a nice SWAT center!'"

The elite squad accepted, and there's been almost no trouble ever since. The place is a rare example of Rio de Janeiro law enforcement harmoniously and effectively securing a community. Rio's police are often accused of subduing criminals only by becoming criminals themselves: using excessive force and extortion to control territory.

The often ambivalent police-citizen relationship may have been taken care of in Tavares Bastos. But there's still the question of how the community will handle the influx of outsiders that the neighborhood's safety allows.

"We're becoming a permanent community stage," said Maria da Conceicao Costa, the leader of the Residents' Association of Tavares Bastos.

"Which is good in a certain way, because it brings resources." She said that many residents have learned how to use cameras and make films, both by osmosis and through filmmaking courses that have been held in the neighborhood.

"There's a real change happening in this community, which is very rapid and very beneficial, and in which practically all the residents are participating in one way or another," Costa said.

Many residents have even found direct employment with film crews. Thirty-two-year-old Raimundo Nascimento was born and raised in Tavares Bastos. He used to sell ice cream on the beach, but has now found steady work as a production assistant on the film crews that pass through his neighborhood. He impressed the crew of "The Incredible Hulk" so much, in fact, that Edward Norton flew him to Canada participate in production there.

"Today I'm very competent at my job," Nascimento said. "And I'm very happy to be working in film. I love it."

The big-budget productions also bring a direct injection of cash to a community that was built by the hands of residents too poor to buy their own property. The latest neighborhood production, a Brazilian mini-series whose title translates as "Law and Crime," cost a major television network 500,000 Brazilian reals to produce each episode -- more than $200,000 per show at current exchange rates.

Even while surrounded by so much money, the community does not charge for use of its streets: Instead, production companies are encouraged to make a donation to the Residents' Association. Costa estimates that the neighborhood has collected a total of about 500,000 Brazilian reals from all the productions there (more than $200,000).

According to Nascimento, "The Incredible Hulk" donated 10,000 reals -- a drop in the bucket of a Hollywood budget, but enough to build the neighborhood a medical clinic.

Savvy individual residents do charge a fee when crews want to use their property. The going rent for a house is about 200 reals per day, but Costa of the Residents' Association hopes that the rate will rise to 500 reals or 1,000 reals before long. And according to Bob Nadkarni, property values in the neighborhood have quadrupled in the decade since the arrival of the special police and the ad in Variety magazine.

But Nadkarni says that the primary benefits to residents of "Bobbywood" are not measurable in financial terms. "What's really happened mostly is in the mind," he said. "People are now proud to be here, which is something that never happened before."

Read more from GlobalPost.com.

THE SECRET SUN:BENJAMIN BUTTON AND THE BABYLON GATE ,PART 1

Oh look, isn't this timely? The Iraqi National Museum has reopened, the day after the Oscars.

The Iraq Museum, which has stood at its present location since 1966, last year completed the renovation of its Islamic and Assyrian halls, thanks to a one-million-euro (1.1 million dollar) donation and technical help from Italy.

It is also displaying artefacts from the Sumerian and Babylonian eras, although only eight of its 26 halls have been opened in the initial phase. "Work in progress" signs stand outside the closed galleries.

The Babylon Gate at the Kodak Theatre - note Ashur, similar poses


More pictures from the grand reopening here. It seems there is a large-scale effort underway to rebuild Babylon (from the Akkadian Babilu, meaning "Gateway of the Gods.") This syncs quite well with the Atlantis Rising memes, as well as the re-emergence of Amun, as well as with last night's Oscar ceremony, which we will get to in a minute.

US soldiers outside the Ishtar Gate reconstruction in Iraq

But there's another the Iraq project with a very interesting name in the works, as reported by News Daily:

"The Future of Babylon" project launched last month seeks to "map the current conditions of Babylon and develop a master plan for its conservation, study and tourism," the WMF says.

Officials say preserving Babylon, a relic of a time and place that gave birth to such milestones of civilization as agriculture, writing, codified law and the wheel, is crucial.

"It's extremely important. When people say this (region) is the cradle of civilization, that's certainly true of Babylon," Lisa Ackerman, WMF vice-president, told Reuters in a telephone interview. "It's a culture that had a profound impact on what we think of as modern civilization."

Oh yes, it surely did. Here is a quick sketch of the significance of the Babylon Gate aka the Ishtar Gate, which itself is a symbol of restoration:

King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon dedicated the great Ishtar Gate to the goddess Ishtar. It was the main entrance into Babylon. King Nebuchadnezzar II performed elaborate building projects in Babylon around 604-562 BC. His goal was to beautify his capital. He restored the temple of Marduk, the chief god, and also built himself a magnificent palace with the famous Hanging Gardens, which was reported by the Greek historian Herodotus to have been one of the wonders of the world.- bible-history.com

So what we are seeing now is a restoration of a restoration of a restoration of a restoration. Just as Nebuchadnezzar restored the Gateway of the Gods, so too is Iraq restoring what was lost to them. (Remember that Iraq is presently the beneficiary of countless billions of US tax dollars as well).

The word "restoration" itself offers some clues. From dictionary.com, we have "restoration" defined as:

*

to bring back into existence, use, or the like; reestablish: to restore order.

*

to bring back to a former, original, or normal condition, as a building, statue, or painting.

*

to put back to a former place, or to a former position, rank, etc.: to restore the king to his throne.

In essence, restoration means the reversal of the effects of time.

We saw the themes of restoration in Dark City, with John Murdoch ("Oannes Marduk"), who in effect restored the oceans (identified with Oannes) and the Sun (identified with Marduk) to the abducted humans of the prison planet who were being experimented upon by an alien race. Note that Marduk and Ishtar are the equivalents of Horus and Hathor in the Babylonian religion.

John Murdoch is both Osiris and Horus as he enters the gateway of the gods (which no human was permitted to go through) and meets Jennifer Connelly rising from the surf like Aphrodite. The aliens called her "Emma," but her new name is Anna.

You know, as in "Inanna."

So what does this have to do with anything, you might ask. Well, although Slumdog Millionaire got the lion's share of the awards Sunday night, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button did quite nicely for itself. The two make an interesting pair. Slumdog is about the use of technology to restore a relationship and find one's destiny. Benjamin Button is about the reversal of time.

The two themes are not unrelated here on The Secret Sun.

TO BE CONTINUED

THE SECRET SUN: SEEN FROM SPACE:THE SIRIUS REPORT

UPDATE 1131 EST: Top Story on CNN: Galaxy may be full of 'Earths,' alien life

As NASA prepares to hunt for Earth-like planets in our corner of the Milky Way galaxy, there's new buzz that "Star Trek's" vision of a universe full of life may not be that far-fetched.

Pointy-eared aliens traveling at light speed are staying firmly in science fiction, but scientists are offering fresh insights into the possible existence of inhabited worlds and intelligent civilizations in space.

There may be 100 billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way, or one for every sun-type star in the galaxy, said Alan Boss, an astronomer with the Carnegie Institution and author of the new book "The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets."

This is not news. Why is that a headline today?

LOVE AT FIRST SPRITE

Well, there has been so much strange activity above our heads lately that the guardians of enlightenment feel the need to pull the old "natural explanation" non-explanations out of mothballs and feed them to credulous clock-punchers in the media.

The latest non-explanation are "sprites", balls of light formed in the upper atmosphere following electrical storms:

Mysterious UFO sightings may go hand in hand with a puzzling natural phenomenon known as sprites — flashes high in the atmosphere triggered by thunderstorms.

Researchers have detected the flashes between 35 and 80 miles (56-129 km) from the ground, far above the 7 to 10 miles (11-16 km) where usual lightning occurs. Sprites can take the form of fast-paced balls of electricity, although previous footage has suggested streaks or tendrils. - Yahoo

All well and good, but wait- here come the psychological control techniques. This time this extremely rare occurrence (the article cites a 20 year-old photograph of this phenomenon) can miraculously explain the tens of thousands of UFO reports every year:

The cause or function of the flashes remains murky, but Price suggested that they could explain some of the UFO reports which have cropped up over the years. That might provide some solace for UFO enthusiasts disappointed by human-caused hoaxes in the past.

Translation: "There there, disillusioned UFO nuts. Curl up with a photo of high-altitude electrical phenomena. You'll feel better, I promise."

If sprites "go hand in hand" with UFO sightings, where is the data showing a correspondence? Where are the photos of sprites taken in areas where UFOs have been reported? Which UFO reports have been proven conclusively to be sprites? Pilots and astronauts don't seem to confuse these things with aircraft, so how is this news?

The burden of proof is never on these people. These questions are never asked by these reporters, who simply put a veneer of objectivity on press releases from extremely unobjective parties. And then they whine that no one trusts the media anymore. The arrogance is stultifying.

There's a link to another article called "Top 10 Alien Encounters Debunked." I'm not sure who the audience is for this puffery, but it reads like a litany of the psychological control techniques that the Amazing One and his pedantic ilk have perfected over the years.

The piece throws in every trick in the book; from ridicule to dismissal to baseless assumption to guilt by association. I can't see the point of it, other than trying to keep wavering young acolytes on their knees at the altar of reductionism.

THE ORBITAL TAUROCTONY

THE ALIEN PROJECT:A SERIES of SYNCHRONIZED EVENTS

ALIEN PROJECT



As we try to connect the dots, and piece together this vast yet intricate puzzle, there were several key events that occurred over the last couple of weeks that seems to give more weight to the theory that we are heading towards disclosure of extraterrestrial contact or being programmed to accepted something even more profound. Let's look at these events:

February 20th - Using Reverse Speech Technology, expert Jon Kelly claims that Barack Obama’s inaugural speech predicts “extraterrestrial event.” Canadian speech recognition expert and former CBS radio producer Jon Kelly has subjected a recording of Barack Obama’s inaugural address on the steps on the U.S. capitol on January 20, 2009 to reverse speech analysis. Kelly’s reverse speech analysis, shows that Barack Obama’s inaugural address contains secret messages predicting an extraterrestrial event of global impact on the scale “of the Iraq war” to occur in Obama’s term of office. AUDIO LINK: Click HERE listen to Obama's inaugural address reverse speech message.

February 19th - Huge Gamma Ray blast. The US space agency's Fermi telescope has detected a massive explosion in space which scientists say is the biggest gamma-ray burst ever detected, a report published Thursday in Science Express said. The spectacular blast, which occurred in September in the Carina constellation, produced energies ranging from 3,000 to more than five billion times that of visible light, astrophysicists said.

February 18th - Giant Solar Explosion Recorded. SOHO observed a nice-sized solar storm blast off to the left of the Sun. The source of the explosion appears to have been from the far side of the Sun. With the Sun near the bottom of its 11-year activity cycle, we have not seen many such storms over the past two years. In this coronagraph, the Sun and some of its atmosphere is covered by an occulting disk so that we can see faint features in the surrounding corona. The white circle in image on the left represents the size of the Sun.

February 16th - Canada releases UFO X-Files to the World. Following on the heels of France, Britain and Demark, Canada is now releasing it’s UFO files to the public. The Canadian Government has authorized open public access to thousands of federal government documents concerning UFOs. A total of 9500 digitized documents spanning the years 1947 to the early 1980s have been made available through the Library and Archives Canada website.
February 15th - Fireball or UFO seen over Texas skies. The brilliant fireball that lit up the Texas sky in daytime, no less—was caught on video as it burned its way through the atmosphere.
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