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I've known only one person who ever referred to a bathroom as a restroom, even though "restroom" is on all the signs in public establishments in the US.
The funny thing about the British is that they refer to the room as the toilet, which makes it sould as if they have very bad aim. As I understand it, "toilet" is sort of formal, and "loo" is colloquial, though still not impolite.
Thom, Re: Shocked at Ron Paul
Why are democrats not shocked at Obama and the Democratic Party's Pro war and anti civil liberties? Where is the outrage?
As David Sirota has said, these two issues are issues that the president DOES have control over.
The Thirteenth Amendment does not actually say persons can't own persons. the closest thing is the part of the Fourteenth Amendment (Sec. 1) that says the governments of the states can't deprive a person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.
Never mind...it was just the mail man!
Sen. Carl Levin, Democrat...states before Congress that it was the Obama administration "that asked us (Congress) to remove the part of the NDAA bill that said that it would NOT apply to US citizens and lawful residents".
Obama is not our friend..he tells lies...and he works for those who have bought him...Corporations, Wall Street, and the banks. The ruling elite owns him and he is used as their "trojan horse". Wait a minute, I hear banging on my door again....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQgXZxzgRp0&feature=endscreen&NR=1
Respectfully Thom, the notion that Americans should rid themselves of tyrannical government, as prescribed in the Declaration, is not a singularly militia movement opinion - unless you consider Naomi Wolf a militia member. I'd be suprised to learn that you have not read "Give Me Liberty", but if not I'd suggest you do. If you have, and still make such generalized statements, you've not only lost the intellectual high-ground, but also this long time listeners respect.
The Declaration of Independence does in fact say, "... whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, ... " It doesn't say "whenever any monarchy..."
You beat me to it, DR, I was just going to post about this NDAA-National Defense Authorization Act. You can also read about it at aclu.org.
"We are extremely disappointed that President Obama signed this bill even though his administration is already claiming overly-broad detention authority in court. Any hope that the Obama administration would roll back those claims dimmed today. Thankfully we have three branches of government, and the final word on the scope of detention authority belongs to the Supreme Court, which has yet to rule on the scope of detention authority. But Congress and the president also have a role to play in cleaning up the mess they have created because no American citizen or anyone else should live in fear of this or any future president misusing the NDAA’s detention authority.
The ACLU will fight worldwide detention authority wherever we can, be it in court, in Congress, or internationally."
http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/president-obama-signs-indefin...
Anyone who votes for Obama in 2012 has got to be bonkers. What is it going to take to convince people that Obama is not "an alternative" or "we've got no other choice" to the Republicans. He is one!
And it looks like we are very close to getting into it with Iran, doesn't it? The ultimatums have been spoken...Iran to US: don't you dare bring your war ships into the Arabian/Iranian gulf. US to Iran: We'll do anything we please and you will just have to take it. I wonder if Iran has already planted dirty bombs in American cities waiting to be triggered in the event they see fit to retaliate against US aggressions? Get out the duct tape and gas masks...here we go again. Oops, I had better start watching what I say on the internet....wait!! I hear loud pounding on my door! Oh, Persepolis! What are all those armed soldiers doing breaking down my door! If you don't hear from me again....
The Oxford English Dictionary shows that the words 'private' and 'privacy' have had their present meanings back to Shakespeare's day. There was no particular association with toilets (except, of course, in the obvious euphemistic way). But your argument does not turn on this linguistic point: it is simply sophistry to assert that there is no right to privacy because the word 'privacy' does not appear, as foolish as the argument that 'separation of church and state' does not appear in the Bill of RIghts and so does not exist.
Incidentally, I have met a fair number of Brits, and nobody says 'water closet' any more, although it is sometimes seen on old signage. They say 'toilet'. Oddly, Americans seem to feel that 'toilet' is just slightly naughty (Archie Bunker used to get laughs just by saying 'terlet'). Or they say 'loo' or other slangs. They sometimes say 'bathroom' now (even though there may be no bath, as in truck stops), the result of American television, but I get the impression that this is by no means in general use.
What is particularly troubling is that earthquakes are punctuated events of energy being transmitted to some place else. The energy is dissipated in a fashion that builds energy up somewhere else. That somewhere else might too quake or simply add the energy to its existing “quake account” (e.g. it takes 10 units to make LA quake but LA was only at a 5 units when it received the Ohio quakes 0.5 units of energy. So although LA didn’t have an earthquake the energy level of its sub strata did go from 5 to 5.5 in response to, say, Ohio’s quake.
Does that mean that LA’s is simply going to keep having the same size earthquakes its had in the past only a smidge sooner? Good question. Consider that LA’s quakes are a result of the pressure differential between two plates – one from the east and one from the west rubbing against each other and when that pressure differential reaches 10 units you have a quake. Does the addition of 0.5 units transmitted from the east northeast make up part of the 10 units on a one for one basis? I don’t think say. Continuing with our oversimplification it would seem that 10 units of quake energy expressing itself in left to right motion would be augmented by the addition of 0.5 units of quake energy being subsequently released in a east northeast to west southwest fashion. So not only is LA going to shake in its typical left to right pattern (10 units) but now its going to also release (0.5 units) of energy that is slightly skewed from the typical left right pattern. Does this mean that LA’s typical 7.4 quake will become a 11.8 quake on the Richter scale? Don’t know. I guess it may depend on how much “spin” has actually been added by fracking taking place in the interior of one of the plates. An interior, I might add that doesn’t necessarily see a whole lot of quake energy. It could be the case that the two plates are so uniquely rubbed together under LA that there may be nearly nothing stopping the slightest off angle of pressure from amplifying exponentially. For instance, there is little next to nothing impeding any small amount of energy from causing movement in a northish/southish fasion once the left\right motion gets things moving.
Experiment: take to plates of glass and lay them on top of each other on a table. Not on the top or bottom, but on the left and right sides border the two plates of glass with a wafer of balsam wood that breaks on being exposed to pressures over 0.4 units. Slide the two plates of glass together in what could be called the "normal" top to bottom fashion - that is your typical LA earthquake. Now. slide the two plates of glass together but introduce pressure at angle to the usual top to bottom motion so that the balsam wood on the left and right borders of the two plates of glass breaks. What do you observe about the motion of the plates now that lateral movement has become frictionless? Yeppers, LA has FUBR.
…and that concludes today’s brain droppings.
The Fourth Amendment unfortunately has a deep flaw. There is no sentence to say that searches shall be conducted only with a warrant. It says searches have to be reasonable. It says judges have to have someone swear that there's a reason to issue a warrant. It just doesn't connect the warrant to the search.
By the way, the monarch of England has, for a long time, had a Privy Council, which has never had a name change, to my knowledge.
THANK YOU!
OMG! OF COURSE FRACKING CAUSED THE EARTHQUAKE IN OHIO!
Just hearing somebody admit that makes me feel like I just gave birth!
Seriously, pressure differentials in the sub-strata are what earthquakes are all about! Of course fracking causes earthquakes! What is particularly
The problem is getting the word out past the gate keepers of State Run Media.
Liar, Liar, pants on fire!
Specifically, it was Obama - not Congress – who originally requested that an exception for American citizens be removed from the bill. As such, his professed reluctance is wholly disingenuous.
Obama Rings in the New Year By Signing Bill Allowing Indefinite Detention of AmericansPosted on January 1, 2012 by WashingtonsBlog
Obama signed the NDAA – including a provision allowing the indefinite detention of Americans - on New Year’s eve.
Obama issued a “signing statement” with the bill, which – at first blush – appears to say he won’t indefinitely detain Americans. Specifically, Obama wrote:
My administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens … Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a nation.
But a closer reading shows that the signing statement is just smoke and mirrors.
Specifically, it was Obama - not Congress – who originally requested that an exception for American citizens be removed from the bill. As such, his professed reluctance is wholly disingenuous.
Moreover, Obama signed a bill which would allow future presidents to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens, and his signing statement in no way limits their power to run roughshod over our rights.
Welcome back to Planet Earth.
TRUTH FOR COPYRIGHT DUMMIES:
If you did not author it (write it), compose it, develop it, produce it, etcetera it, . . . it is NOT yours. So, DO NOT borrow it (an innocuous word for 'steal it') ! ! !
Thom, mind if I take some of your writings without permission or due credit?
At least, the SOPA initiative is trying to right copyright protections long overdue.
Hi P, I read the "Scientific Paper" cited. The scientist testify the material they tested contained thermitic material. The paper also stated the material tested came from an unnamed Manhattan resident. Who is the unnamed resident? If the thermitic material was so prevelant, why wasn't more found by others? With only 1 unnamed person finding the material, it's source is called into question.
You're portrayal of Bin Laden as a "old man sitting in a cave" is not accurate. In 2001 Bin Laden was 44 years old, an engineer, a billionaire who along with his family owned a huge construction company. He had knowledge of building construction. He also claimed responsibily for mastermining the 9/11 attacks.
You talk about neocons, and PNAC documents. What is a neocon? and where can I read the PNAC documents?
You insuitate the reason for the attacks was to destroy financial records. Back up copies both paper and electronic are always kept at more than one location. If the records were destroyed as you state, how do you know about them?
P, you are wasting you're talent. You need to write a novel. You're writing style is compelling. It does make you think. Write a book, I would read it.
MM: Well, I think it would be a waste of time to try to convince you or many others even if I were to show you a video of everything that happened. I agree that there are many "conspiracy theories" in addition to the "official conspiracy theory". Some are even more hard to believe than the official one. There are some that I find hard to believe...like the use of small nuclear weapons planted inside the WTC buildings, or space-based particle beam weapons that melted the buildings. These do seem to me to be very far fetched.
But the technology to electronically hi-jack and guide a plane to a target has been around a long time...it is not hard to believe. The fact that those vested interests who had sufficient access to the buildings prior to 911, and who had access to high-tech explosives, is not hard to believe. That Arab hi-jackers armed with box-cutters, who had problems being able to fly small craft, and an old man hiding out in Afghanistan that masterminded the whole thing....is very unbelievable...when you look at all of the other evidence that tends to support an inside job.
I happen to believe that at a very minimum, the so-called hijackers were used as patsies and set up to take the fall. But I don't believe they would have been successful in guiding the much larger and complicated jet liners into their targets. I don't believe that the original pilots would have been forced to guide the planes into the WTC towers or the Pentagon. The only way those airliners could have been guided to actually hit their targets would be from an electronic computer assisted target acquisition guidance system.
The opportunity, means, motives, and past actions (history) were all there to indict those who were really behind 911. The neocons, as they stated in their PNAC documents, said that they needed a new Pearl Harbor.
Nanothermite, a high tech explosive with qualities far exceeding typical explosives, was developed by Livermore Labs and well known by NIST in the decades prior to 911. And nanothermite is not something that is easy, or even possible to attain in any quantities. It is not something that just anyone can make. While thermite is easy to get, nanothermite is not, and one cannot mistake one for the other especially using all the high tech laboratory analytical equipment that was used by the scientists to determine that it was present in sufficient quantities in the 911 dust samples to be used as proof that it had been used.
The scientific paper on the study of the evidence collected during and shortly after 911 of the dust samples containing nanothermite and evidence of a nanothermite reaction prove that nanothermite was used in the demolition of the buildings on 911. You want numbers and hard facts and evidence check out that scientific paper at Open Chemical Physics Jounal web site.
http://www.benthamscience.com/open/tocpj/articles/V002/7TOCPJ.htm
You want more evidence of a demolition? The evidence is right there in every video of the collapsing towers. Falling at near free fall speed, explosive squibs shooting out preceding in the several floors below the more visual disintegration above. They looked just like demolitions because they were demolitions.
The fact that no other building in the history of tall buildings and aviation or even tall steel building fires ever, ever caused such a spectacle. No building ever collapsed due to fire or airplanes crashing into them. But, on this day, 3 buildings did just that...collapsed at near free fall speed in their own foot prints.
The airplanes crashed into one side, perhaps weakening, somewhat that side of the building yet the buildings did not fall over to one side as one might reason would be more likely. They came straight down at near free fall speed. In order for a building to come down at near free fall speed it would have to have practically no resistance in the supporting structures below it. What the officials are trying (and obviously succeeded at) to do was get people to buy into an idea that defies physics.
No plane, or fire, crashed into every floor under the impact area, no fires weakened the whole structure below the impact area...all the way to the ground. So how can a building fall like that, at near free fall speed, as if there were no resistance to slow it down? That is partly why so many architectural engineers, and other scientific people, don't buy into the official conspiracy theory. It is non-sense!
Building 7 never even had an airliner crash into it yet it came down in it's own footprint...straight down...even with the tell-tale and perceptible beginning of the collapse in the center of the building..just like what happens during normal demolitions in order to get the buildings to fall in their own footprint.
Even several people who spent years in demolishing buildings have testified, on web sites like Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth, that the collapses of the three towers looked just like a demolition....especially building 7.
When you put together who had control of the security of the WTC buildings, the reported unusual construction in the weeks prior to the attacks done by a company that had direct relation with the Bush family, all of the reported extraneous explosions that eyewitnesses experienced, the pools of molten steel despite the fact that the fires from the airliners and the office material burning could not have melted steel...the fact that $420 billion worth of illegal bonds connected to the sacking of the Soviet Union in
1991 coming due on 9-12-2001 (one day after 911) and the subsequent emergency actions to clear those bonds and other highly questionable financial transactions....and a lot more...then it would be foolish to accept the official government conspiracy theory.
Then there are all of the offices and records of criminal financial dealings...like Enron and many others...that were targeted and destroyed. Even that side of the Pentagon that was hit had been "worked on" ...lots of "construction" prior to 911...and that was the side that contained the ONI Office of Naval Investigations that had records and an on-going investigation into illegal financial dealings.
Was it just a co-incidence that just before that happened...Rumsfeld publicly admitted that billions of dollars had "gone missing"? And what about the video evidence of the size of the hole in the Pentagon that did not show any markings or impact of the jet engines or wings? Or the testimony of eyewitnesses who did not see many airplane parts...surely the engines would have been
I tell you, with so many gullible people who make it easy for massively criminal and traitorous elite powers to get away with the things they do, we may as well just shoot ourselves in the head and get it over with (just a figure of speech..there are others that deserve that fate...like the people who orchestrated 911).
911 wasn't just about an excuse to invade Iraq...it had a lot to do with the decades long financial scams in the housing mortgage and other corporate, Wall Street and banking schemes that was about to be realized. The $420 billion bonds was only part of it...Rumsfeld's missing billions of dollars in the Pentagon was only part of it...the failed laissez faire capitalist game that the capitalist jackals, wolves, and pigs played out to beat "Communism" came back to be the laughing stock of the world....now to be feared because they have taken away our freedoms and security as a democracy. We have only just begun to see and experience the terror that these criminals have committed against us. It will get worse much worse. And I don't want to go down being their useful idiot believing in their lies while they continue to demand we worship them. They are the enemy that they created in themselves when they waged war on the rest of us some 30 years ago resulting in a treasonous false flag operation during 911. There treason didn't stop with 911. I wonder what they will come up with to get people to support invading Iran! It might be safer to just stay at home...stay out of tall buildings and public places.
Free and open internet only exist in a democracy. The corporations are and will take it from us if we the people let them. Stop SOPA.
I also refused to go thru the scanners. They just looked at me and did make sure everyone knew. I didn't care. And while I was standing there waiting, I asked them why I couldn't go thru the regular metal detector. They had no answer. I got groped and the 2 women asked why I wouldn't go thru the scanner. I told them they were banned in Europe and that it was not the Nude part that bothered me, it was the X-ray and that it was a money scam operation. I almost laughed when their mouths dropped open. They had never heard anything about the dangers of X-ray. Of course, while I was awaiting the results of the groping, they allowed people to go thru the metal detectors. I laughed aloud and said. " Oh look, why are people allowed to go thru the detectors now?" I got the blank look again. I certainly made it a point to educate all the TSA workers around me (and there were many) as to why I refused the X-ray and how this country's policy was stupid and punitive.
Sandy
Protect the internet! I fear that the www.ZeitgeistMovement.com and the Occupy Movement will be erraced. The Zeitgeist Movement is our last hope for ending the global capitalist/fashist tyrany.
Hi P,
Let's assume everything you say is true. Why? what is the motive? Who? I need specifics, not generalities. Conspirancy theories are like horoscopes, well written, but nothing there. I have an open mind, convince me with motives, names and dates.
Thank you very much, MM. Yes, it does sound crazy doesn't it? That's why they'll get away with it. I believe that the "official conspiracy theory" sounds even crazier once one is privy to the facts. The bigger the lie, told by our Neocon owned news media, the more people will find comfort in believing the "official" conspiracy theory. That, and the fact that it is so much easier to believe that Arab Muslims were behind it.
Of course, if it is "official" anything you'd rather believe in then go ahead and watch Fox news and avoid watching or listening to the independent voices like Thom Hartmann or any other "liberal" "conspiratorially slanted?" voices.
It sure was quite a stunt the Muslim "terrorists" pulled off, wasn't it? Men who had a hard time mastering flying even small craft were able to guide their very fast flying behemoth airliners into their targets. A radical bearded Muslim hiding in a cave (at the time anyway) knew all about the multiple war games being played that day that would help them achieve their goals of bringing America to it's knees by striking fear into it's populations resulting in the calculated removal of long cherished constitutional rights, and making it easier for those financial scamsters to pull off their shell games. What a genius this OBL was to planned it all. Of course, OBL was eventually assassinated so that he would never be able to talk. They did the same thing to Yamashita (because they knew they had his driver to torture for the information they needed).
Many people are more than willing to swallow the "official conspiracy theory" because it safer to do so than to challenge the dangerous people who would do such things as murder thousands of their own people in order to achieve their goals. As it said in the documents (PNAC-Project for a New American Century) written by neocons preceding 911..."What they needed was a new Pearl Harbor". And so, as with Pearl Harbor, they created it. Yes, I believe that Pearl Harbor was also created by ruthless criminal shell shufflers...they engineered and created the conditions that suckered the Japanese into bombing Pearl Harbor*.....now those were expert pilots...the Japanese. But the 911 so-called Arab terrorists were not. It took a lot of precision control of those aircraft and there is just no way that those planes were guided by hastily trained pilots on small aircraft....especially the pentagon hit. The maneuvering it took was way beyond the abilities of these guys. Even expert pilots used to flying those large aircraft have said that even they would not be able to do it.
That, and other things like the lack of impact holes by the wings or engines, and lack of airliner wreckage in the initial impact photos is pretty conclusive that something other than an airliner hit the Pentagon...like a missile or military electronically guided drone. I could go on and on about all of the non-sequiturs and outright lies from the official conspiracy theorists but that would amount to writing a book. And there are so many books, photos, and videos that already show all these things. But, of course, if people are so willing to accept the official conspiracy theory then they will keep their heads buring in the sands of "I don't really want to know" obscurations.
*
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/McCollum/index.html
note: I used to work in the Pentagon for many years and know how thick those concrete walls were. I worked there during the Vietnam years and the only real excitement back then was when someone would put small explosives into the commodes and blow them up. I actually had to go into many of the departments on various floor levels and often wondered how long it would be before a missile would strike it. There was a snack stand in the center of the central courtyard. That was all before they put the subway system in...but the construction was going on at the time to build the subway.
Do you know that a typical airliner's fusilage is made mostly of a soft lightweight material? The engines are much harder and more indestructable. So there was this small hole, initially, before the weakened outer wall gave way creating a larger opening. Where were the holes from the engines?
Whether the seal problems are a result of the nuclear accidents or not may be an open question. However, that the world is clearly different now, post-Fukushima, is clear. In California we are taking steps to ensure that what happened in Japan doesn't happen on this side of the Pacific. We have a statewide initiative measure underway that would close all of our state's nuclear power plants. With enough signatures the issue will be before state voters in November 2012. Petitions are available for downloading and printing at californianuclearinitiative.com.
Happy New Year P,
You are hands down the best writer on this blog. You also have the craziest ideas--the neocons flew the planes into the twin towers. Maybe the Mother Ship will arrive in 2012 and take you home.
Awesome post, keep up the good work! lubin
Happy New Year! Although for some, it is a year of dread because they believe that it will be the year of the end of the world..as per the Mayan Calendar. Others are convinced that it will the the year of Jesus.
I watched a YouTube video of some Arab Muslim guy thumpin' the viewers with his interpretations of the Koran (Quran) that is supposed to mean that 2012 is the end of the world. It goes without saying, of course, that there are many thumpin' the Bible with the same scare tactics.
I'll be glad when 2012 is over and I can have a good laugh. But do you think that will end the idiocy? No, it'll go on forever, as it has countless times before, with believers trying to scare people into believing as they do...trying to get others to "follow" them. They don't even have to resort to electronically guiding jetliners into tall buildings, like the Neocons did, all they have to do is keep harping about the boogy man and if they do it enough times...they are sure to hook a few more fish into their insanity.
With so many people believing in Biblical, or Quranic, not to mention new-agian gobbledegook, no wonder people are acting very careless with their futures...they don't believe there will be a future, or one they cannot change anyway.
Of course, for many of us older people, the end of our world will occur soon enough...too soon enough.
I am just happy and thankful (not to any mythical make-believe character) that there are lots of people..many young people..and old people...who believe it is worth spending time and effort in rebelling against the injustices of a criminal and corrupt system that has declared war on us for more than 30 years.