Peak Ego and the Ego Descent Plan by Bob Banner

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Sent to DS from the author.

by Bob Banner
Dandelion Salad
April 19, 2010

First published at www.hopedance.org 25 October 2009

One day I was discussing peak oil to some folks and the notion of Peak Ego and an Ego Descent Plan suddenly emerged into my consciousness. I thought it funny. And when I mentioned it lightly to people at another gathering it brought forth a hefty amount of laughter. So, I decided to think more seriously about it and explore it.

When I primarily think about peak ego I immediately think of Rene Guenon’s work that I read passionately decades ago. He wrote some very heavy treatises concerning modernity and civilization. Such books as The Reign of Quantity, Crisis of the Modern World & the Signs of the Times and others turned me onto the Traditionalists. He left France and was initiated into Sufism in Egypt (Sheikh Abdul-Wahid Yahya) and also immersed himself in the Hindi Kali Yuga cosmology. His notion of the “reign of quantity” signifies peak “quantity” as compared to the “quality” of life. Of course there are many different paths that deeply criticize modernity using either Traditionalists or various Sacred lineages (or the many prophecies that speak of major planetary changes around 2012).

If Not Us, Then Who? By Timothy V. Gatto

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By Timothy V. Gatto
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
liberalpro.blogspot.com
April 19, 2010

Some psychologists say that abuse, whether physical, emotional or sexual, tends to leave a mark on those that were abused, sometimes causing the abused to become abusers. I tend to think that this tendency can also be carried on to groups of people, even entire nations.

In the last century, one good example of abuse that left the victims to become abusers is the former USSR. The government and the media, especially during the last century glossed over the fact that an estimated 20-25 million Soviets, military and civilian were killed in the Second World War by their enemies and by Stalin’s purges. We almost completely forget that other nations that belonged to the Axis powers by choice, such as Romania, Bulgaria, many Ukrainians and other Eastern European nations  that believed in Hitler and had their own Nazi apparatus. They contributed to Germany’s war effort by providing their own divisions of soldiers and their resources against the USSR, therefore it was not surprising that the Soviets kept a firm boot heel on these nations during the Cold War.

Social Security, the Military Budget and Wall Street By Jerry Mazza

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http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=1088689

By Jerry Mazza
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.jerrymazza.com
April 19, 2010

Lately just about every month I find myself writing a check to the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. As a recipient of both, I feel it’s a cause worth supporting, especially now, and since Barbara Kennelly, its President and CEO, tells me in her newsletter that the “P” word for Privatization has reared its ugly head again. Bad ideas never seem to go away.

As Barbara writes, “Yes, another Social Security privatization plan much like the one we battled—and defeated—under the Bush Administration is making a comeback.” She adds, “And just like 2005, soaring federal debt is fueling this dangerous idea that proponents claim is essential to our nation’s economic security. But this time we’re under siege of a full-blown debt crisis…and the pressure is on like never before.”

Bill Moyers Journal: Simon Johnson and James Kwak + The Costs of War

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Bill Moyers Journal
April 16, 2010

Simon Johnson and James Kwak

How did Big Finance grow so powerful that its hijinks nearly brought down the global economy – and what hope is there for real reform with Washington politicians on Wall Street’s payroll? Bill Moyers talks with authors Simon Johnson and James Kwak, two of the nation’s most respected economic experts and authors of the new book 13 BANKERS: THE WALL STREET TAKEOVER AND THE NEXT FINANCIAL MELTDOWN.

transcript  Bill Moyers Journal . Watch & Listen | PBS

Humanity and Its Absence By David Kennedy + A Letter To Janet About Sabra-Shatilla By Franklin Lamb

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Thanks to Emily Spence for sending this to DS with permission from the authors.

By David Kennedy

Dear Franklin,

I have just read your letter to Janet with its heart-rending account of the Sabra-Shatilla massacre. It is good to know there are still people who care about humanity and display a decency that is all too rare among humans, especially the most powerful – those who control such events as the Sabra-Shatilla massacre as described at A Letter To Janet About Sabra-Shatilla.

We live in a sick, sick world, a world that is full of hypocrisy and duplicity. Science has opened the door to all kinds of wizardry that allows evil people to control the destiny of most of humanity. I was taught Physics by the man who first split the atom (in 1932). He was a mild-mannered man who, on seeing where his discovery was leading, left Cambridge to return to his native Ireland and dedicate himself to teaching. Ironically, he was a pacifist. Who can tell what evil men will do with our discoveries? But science marches on regardless, putting more and more powerful weapons into the hands of powerful and unscrupulous humans: such is the madness of the human brain.

Real American Values and the Reality of Robotic Warfare by Cindy Sheehan

by Cindy Sheehan
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Blog
Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
April 19, 2010

First published in Islam Times

(Islam Times) – Cindy Sheehan’s remarks to the “Challenging Robotic Warfare And Social Control” Conference in Hood River, Oregon

When I was asked to give this talk, I was also asked what my topic would be. My answer was: “You choose the topic, I can speak at length about almost any subject.” I have the gift of gab.

Anyway, this general subject of robotic warfare is very interesting to me. Recently, in a very ironic move, I was ejected from a Congressional hearing about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles when I was actually there to listen to the testimony. Just because I had a small sign reading, “Drones kill kids,” poised on my chest was no reason to kick me out. I was being quiet and had no intention of disrupting, as I informed the Congressman’s aide—but I got removed, anyway.

Noam Chomsky Has ‘Never Seen Anything Like This’ by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
April 19, 2010

Noam Chomsky is America’s greatest intellectual. His massive body of work, which includes nearly 100 books, has for decades deflated and exposed the lies of the power elite and the myths they perpetrate. Chomsky has done this despite being blacklisted by the commercial media, turned into a pariah by the academy and, by his own admission, being a pedantic and at times slightly boring speaker. He combines moral autonomy with rigorous scholarship, a remarkable grasp of detail and a searing intellect. He curtly dismisses our two-party system as a mirage orchestrated by the corporate state, excoriates the liberal intelligentsia for being fops and courtiers and describes the drivel of the commercial media as a form of “brainwashing.” And as our nation’s most prescient critic of unregulated capitalism, globalization and the poison of empire, he enters his 81st year warning us that we have little time left to save our anemic democracy.

Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Phoniness By Robert S. Becker

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By Robert S. Becker
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
rbecker@cal.net
April 19, 2010

Holden Caulfield, the self-described if suspect expert on phoniness in The Catcher in the Rye, would have a field day.  Phoniness abounds, shredding a sense of fair play, from predatory lending, Ponzi schemes, gouging credit card companies, greedy medical insurers, insider trading, egregious campaign betrayals, sports steroid usage, mock journalism, doctored government agency reports or disgrace for the west’s most durable institution, the Catholic Church, inadvertently teaching by negative example – how not to deal with its own pedophilia.

Every week breaks new thresholds for backsliding, subterfuge, and hypocrisy.  Phoniness undermines hope, especially remaining correlated with wealth and fame.  Karl Rove, the master of guile, is revered, with his own soapbox; W., who mouthed his every deception, is a well-heeled stage monkey; and my favorite, one Alberto Gonzales, the amnesiac attorney general who infected our Justice Dept. with criminal schemes, well, okay, he’s a shyster lawyer having trouble finding work.

Russ Baker on President Obama… & His Pack of Wolves? by Sibel Edmonds

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by Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
19 April, 2010

“A Swiss Bank, A President, And The Permanent Government”

Here is a recent damning piece by Russ Baker on President Obama, his cozy relationship with Robert Wolf, Chairman and CEO, UBS Group Americas, and a stench and implications that go way beyond this relationship:

Last August, the presidential press corps followed Barack Obama and his family to Martha’s Vineyard for their brief vacation. The coverage focused on summery fare—a visit to an ice cream parlor, the books the president had brought along. Nearly everyone mentioned his few rounds of golf, including his swing, and the enthusiasm of onlookers. What caught my eye, though, was the makeup of his foursome. The president was joined by an old friend from Chicago; a young aide; and Robert Wolf, Chairman and CEO, UBS Group Americas. In a decidedly incurious piece, a New York Times reporter made light of Wolf’s presence:

US military base under Taliban control

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AlJazeeraEnglish

April 18, 2010 — Known to US soldiers as the Valley of Death, it’s been the scene of the some of the most intense fighting in the war in Afghanistan.

After years of intense fighting, the US has left its remote outpost in the Korengal Valley, in the country’s east.

Al Jazeera’s James Bays has more on the move, which the US calls a re-positioning of forces, but which the Taliban has declared a US defeat.