Recent Events

I decided to send out a number of links to videos and articles relevant to recent world events.

Noam Chomsky, a famous long-time anarcho-socialist activist, in late November presented his views on the recent election of Barack Obama in a program on 'Democracy Now!' - http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/24/noam_chomsky_what_next_the_elections .

I addressed the election in a previous newsletter ( http://www.untamedlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=393 ) and decided to revisit what I had said almost a year ago. I stand behind my earlier statements.

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson discussed recent government moves to address the financial meltdown -exploring the theme of spending our way to prosperity - http://e.blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip.tv/rss/flash/1536208&showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf&feedurl=http://fredpac.blip.tv/rss/flash&brandname=blip.tv&brandlink=http://blip.tv/%3Futm_source%3Dbrandlink&enablejs=true .

The Silver Bear Cafe website has had some interesting articles recently discussing the present economic situation. Here are a few that I have selected....

(1) Wall Street Coup D'Etat by Ceri Shepherd - http://silverbearcafe.com/private/12.08/coup.html

(2) The Predator State by James K. Galbraith - http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/12.08/predator.html

(3) Once in a Century Rip-Off (a video) - http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/12.08/ripoff.html

(4) The Long Emergency (an update) by James Howard Kunstler - http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/12.08/emergency.html

(5) We Beat the Street - Our 2009 Predictions by Roger Wiegand - http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/12.08/beatthestreet.html

Here's a 2006 article from 'Energy Bulletin' by Dmitry Orlov entitled "Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was Better Prepared for Collapse than the US" - http://energybulletin.net/node/23259 - that is even more relevant today than when it was first released.

A huge power grab is on and its outcome will be the even greater enslavement of the masses.

To counteract this economic tsunami I encourage each individual to pursue self-reliance. The concept of 'voluntary simplicity' will soon be wistfully looked back upon as an ideology of luxury once the new reality of 'struggling to meet basic needs' is upon us.

The zoo-keepers are not looking out for your best interests and I certainly don't recommend the strategy of waiting for their help.

On a different note, I became aware that Bill Maher's feature film 'Religulous' that came out late last year can be seen in full at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1839369108234002661&hl=en .

The movie itself is reasonably good, but what I admire the most is Maher's courage in attacking religion as publicly as he did.

As he states in the film, it is time that those who are non-religious and rational speak out so as to counteract the tyranny of religiosity and stupidity that pervades the planet.