And now for another set of links and response to them.

Here is a blog article that talks about the widening gap of rich vs poor:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1501778

What is most striking about this article is that it is a clear example of how our current market system is utterly failing in terms of improving human society. At this point in time our system has reached a tipping point, where instead of economic progress generating an increase in living for more and more people, it is increasing the living standards of fewer and fewer people while simultaneously now needing to consume current economic strength and destroy it in order to keep growing.

Most corporations, firms and businesses have one primary goal, growth. The problem arises when the previously symbiotic relationship between a group and the society, due to helpful products and generation of better living conditions, becomes parasitic by marketing useless products that basically manipulate the hell out of you to buy useless expensive shit to heal your ego that they have damaged with the commercial.  Take those exercise product commercials as a prime example (Google jump snap). What is truly confounding about these products in particular is that they try to sell you on something you already know, exercise makes you healthier, and then make you buy some device that for some reason is totally necessary.

Here are some key things to look for while watching commercials that can help identify parasitic businesses: (being smacked can help) Try to notice when they use social conformity force on you. They will show about 50 + people doing something at the same time or literally say everybody's doing it. Also look for computer graphics demonstrations. These can be intimidating, as you can make cgi of about anything and more people will buy something.

This business plan (ala f*cking everyone over by messing with their heads) is very destructive. At the same time, business and collaboration is not all bad. Many businesses help people live and survive and lead better lives. Think of people that run internet businesses (Google) that have literally interwoven people even more, and broken down parts of the metaphorical wall between humans. We can do better than this; we can balance the inequity, and run a system where everyone will benefit from organization's success. This is much like how our own bodies work, a group of organs collaborating for the greater good. Unfortunately, now many societal groups have become cancerous and have spread to the brain. I am confident this 'cancer' can be healed.

Here is a very interesting article for the more speculative people:

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/researchers-ana.html

linked from:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1497131 

This article is intriguing to say the least. A researcher and computer security consultant, Neal Krawetz, gave a presentation about how images and video can be doctored and how these can be detected. What is most significant is that he originally reported that based on his analysis on terrorist videos released and shown on the news, that the IntelCenter logo and As-Sahab logo were doctored in at the same time ! (IntelCenter is an organization that monitors terrorist activity and As-Sahab is the video production branch of al Qaeda) Afterwards he refuted this, saying it was an incorrect statement.

I wonder if he was threatened to keep his moth shut, and discredit his own research under threat of jail or worse. I would not be surprised as it would constitute a direct threat to the current administration, and based on the laws passed in the previous few years this would make him an unlawful enemy combatant potentially. The regime really has some teeth now it seems.

This of course is interpretation and speculation. There is some consistency so such events though, and often someone will come back and renounce their own work whenever it even hints at government meddling and two-faced, playing of both sides. It makes sense that if this is the case they need to hide their secret. Otherwise we would see the entire war on terror is a fraud and al-queda is as fake as our democracy.

until next time, lets discuss