Monday, October 24. 2005
The "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" at the Frankfurt Book Fair
Posted by Matthias Küntzel

The "Arab World" was guest of honor at last year's Frankfurt Book Fair and
the anti-Semitic literature on display - not to mention the participation
of a notorious Holocaust denier at the opening ceremonies - caused a bit
of controversy. But what a difference a year makes. Matthias Küntzel
visited this year's edition of the fair and found that it was the Islamic
Republic of Iran that had the most impressive offering of anti-Semitic
classics on display. - JR

In fact the international publishers in Hall 5 at the Frankfurt Book Fair
were not on my program. Having a few minutes before my train was to leave,
however, I dropped by and was astonished to see the extent to which Iran
was represented in the hall. The Iranian stands seemed to take up as much
space as those of all the countries of the Arab League together.

Now, it is well known that the Iranian leadership is dedicated to wiping
out the existence of a state member of the United Nations, namely Israel.
And it is also well known that to this end, Tehran exports a crude
anti-Semitism throughout the world.

Nonetheless, I was astonished how openly this occurred at the Book Fair.

I am not talking about the some hundreds of meters of shelves of Iranian
literature that were set up in Hall 5. I am talking about the brochures
that Iran presented here in English - not in order to promote the
country's own literature, but rather to disseminate anti-Semitism of
European and American provenance.

Interesting Reading from the Frankfurt Book Fair

There was, for instance, under the heading "Jewish Conspiracy", the text
that influenced Hitler's anti-Semitism like no other work: The "Protocols
of the Elders of Zion", here in an edition published by the "Islamic
Propagation Organization" of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The first pages of the brochure display a map of what is described as
"Greater Israel": an area demarcated in the form of a snake composed of
triangles and including large parts of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and
Iraq, as well as part of Turkey and the northern half of Saudi Arabia.
Each single triangle, it is explained, symbolizes the "Freemasonry Eye", a
supposed "symbol of Judaism". On the next pages, the "International
Relations Department" of Iran explains the purpose of the publication: "to
expose the real visage of this satanic enemy" in order to "awaken the
Moslems to this great danger". Zionism, the authors continue, is a
"deadly, cancerous tumor" that must be completely eliminated. A citation
from the Ayatollah Khomeini is given to support the killing of Israelis.
There then follows a collection of citations, such as "The United Nations
is Zionism. It is the Super Government mentioned many times in the
Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion promulgated between 1897 and
1905." After a call to "Jehad against this menace", the text of the
anti-Semitic tract follows.

A second notorious classic of anti-Semitic literature was also available.
A 200-page abridgment of Henry Ford's The International Jew:The World's
Foremost Problem was presented and sold in Hall 5 of the Frankfurt Book
Fair "in the name of Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful". The publisher of
the edition is the "Department of Translation and Publication, Islamic
Culture and Relations Organization" of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In
the preface, the editor writes:

The grip of the Jewish parasitic influence has been growing stronger
and stronger ever since [Henry Ford's time]. The Jewish danger - now
called Zionism - is not only threatening one nation. As a matter of fact,
it is directed against the entire humanity.

There then follows Henry Ford's 1921 screed in a version that was first
disseminated in 1970 in Pakistan by the World Muslim Congress. The
numerous footnotes added to the text by the Iranian publisher are
particularly interesting. We find, for instance, talk of an "expansion of
power" of the Jews during the Second World War (p. 39) and of German
"resistance" against this "Jewish control" (p. 52). Salman Rushdie is
presented as an example of the insidiousness of Jewish calumny. It will be
recalled that in 1989 the Iranian head of state Khomeini called on Muslims
throughout the world to kill the Indian author, since he was supposed to
have insulted Islam in his book The Satanic Verses. An award of 3 million
dollars was offered. In 1998, Iranian authorities explained that the
Iranian state would not undertake any steps to kill Rushdie. But the Fatwa
remained in effect and thus too Khomeini's appeal to the world's Muslims.

A third anti-Semitic screed caught my eye during my quick tour of Hall 5
thanks to its garish cover: a red Star of David superimposed on a gray
death's head and a yellow map of the world. It bore the title "Tale of the
'Chosen People' and the Legend of 'Historical Right'". The volume is
written by one Mohammed Taqi Taqipour. The publisher is again the Iranian
state. In his preface, the author shows himself to be confident of the
victory of his cause: in light of the "global Islamic movement" Israel
will soon disappear from the map.

Could it really be the case that nobody else caught sight of these
brochures, which could hardly be missed on even just a cursory visit to
the Book Fair? What about the employees of the Deutsche Welle or of the
German Foreign Office, for instance, who also had stands in Hall 5? They
were just a few steps from the Iranian exhibitors. At the Book fair, the
Deutsche Welle offered itself as a "bridge to the Islamic World". The
Foreign Office distributed its "Dialogue with the Islamic World" pamphlet,
in which one can read: "Peace-building, too, may require dialogue with
extremists".

Did anybody speak with the Iranian exhibitors about their presentation of
this Nazi-style anti-Semitism? Or did one - yet again - keep both eyes
tightly shut? What does the director of the Book Fair, Jürgen Boos, have
to say about the fact that an exhibitor at his fair was disseminating
English-language propaganda calling for the elimination of Israel? What
consequences will Herr Boos, as well as the German public, draw from this
experience with respect to the participation of Iran at the Book Fair in
2006?

Translated from the German by Transatlantic Intelligencer
POSTED at 12:01 PM

SOURCE:
http://www.trans-int.com/blog/archives/60-The-Protocols-of-the-Elders-of-Zion-at-the-Frankfurt-Book-Fair.html

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http://inyourface.info
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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Bravo, Emet! Penetrating response!
Warren

--- Ha-Emet <emet-VThn6mlTRQH7SoZKBiD3Eg@public.gmane.orgorg> wrote:

> It is so easy and so cowardly for those in power,
> those with ALL the
> power, to tell others what they are and to belittle
> their efforts. Those
> who resist do so with whatever means they can while
> those with the power
> can drop one bomb on a Muslim village and wipe out
> every living person
> there. The judge is a tool of the system. The only
> way to stop the madness
> is for those with the power to stop the aggression.
>
> EMET
>
> On Sat, 11 Aug 2007, Thomas Braun wrote:
>
> > Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:18:53 -0500
> > From: Thomas Braun <thomasbraun321 <at> gmail.com>
> > Reply-To: PNEWS-L <at> yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [PNEWS-L] Remember the guy who got on a
> plane with a bomb built into
> > his shoe and tried to light it?
> >
> > If this is not a hoax, it is a great speech.
> Kindly advise in case this is a
> > hoax. Cheers,
> >
> > Remember the guy who got on a plane with a bomb
> built into his shoe and
> > tried to light it?
> >
> > Did you know his trial is over?
> > Did you know he was sentenced?
> > Did you see/hear any of the judge's comments on
> TV or Radio?
> >
> > Didn't think so.
> >
> > Everyone should hear what the judge had to say.
> >
> > Ruling by Judge William Young, US District Court.
> >
> > Prior to sentencing, the Judge asked the defendant
> if he had anything to
> > say. His response: After admitting his guilt to
> the court for the record,
> > Reid also admi tted his "allegiance to Osama bin
> Laden, to Islam, and to the
> > religion of Allah," defiantly stating, "I think I
> will not apologize for my
> > actions," and told the court "I am at war with
> your country."
> >
> > Judge Young then delivered the statement quoted
> below:
> >
> > January 30, 2003, United States vs. Reid.
> >
> > Judge Young: "Mr. Richard C. Reid, hearken now
> to the sentence the Court
> > imposes upon you.
> >
> > On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to
> life in prison in the
> > custody of the United States Attorney General. On
> counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the
> > Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each
> count, the sentence on
> > each count to run consecutively. (That's 80
> years.)
> >
> > On count 8 the Court sentences you to the
> mandatory 30 years again, to be
> > served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed.
> The Court imposes upon
> > you for each of the eight counts a fine of
> $250,000 that's an aggregate fine
> > of $2 million. The Court ac cepts the
> government's recommendation with
> > respect to restitution and orders restitution in
> the amount of $298.17 to
> > Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines.
> >
> > The Court imposes upon you an $800 special
> assessment. The Court imposes
> > upon you five years supervised release simply
> because the law requires it.
> > But the life sentences are real life sentences so
> I need go no further.
> >
> > This is the sentence that is provided for by our
> statutes. It is a fair and
> > just sentence. It is a righteous sentence.
> >
> > Now, let me explain this to you. We are not
> afraid of you or any of your
> > terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are
> Americans. We have been
> > through the fire before. There is too much war
> talk here and I say that to
> > everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this
> court, we deal with
> > individuals as individuals and care for
> individuals as individuals. As
> > human beings, we reach out for justice.
> >
> > You are not an enemy combatant. You are a
> terrorist. You are not a soldier
> > in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you
> that reference, to call you a
> > soldier, gives you far too much stature. Whether
> the officers of government
> > do it or your attorney does it, or if you think
> you are a soldier. You are
> > not----- you are a terrorist. And we do not
> negotiate with terrorists. We
> > do not meet with terrorists. We do not sign
> documents with terrorists. We
> > hunt them down one by one and bring them to
> justice.
> >
> > So war talk is way out of line in this court. You
> are a big fellow. But you
> > are not that big. You're no warrior. I've known
> warriors. You are a
> > terrorist. A species of criminal that is guilty
> of multiple attempted
> > murders. In a very real sense, State Trooper
> Santiago had it right when you
> > first were taken off that plane and into custody
> and you wondered where the
> > press and the TV crews were, and he said: "You're
> no big d eal."
> >
> > You are no big deal.
> >
> > What your able counsel and what the equally able
> United States attorneys
> > have grappled with and what I have as honestly as
> I know how tried to
> > grapple with, is why you did something so
> horrific. What was it that led
> > you here to this courtroom today?
> >
> > I have listened respectfully to what you have to
> say. And I ask you to
> > search your heart and ask yourself what sort of
> unfathomable hate led you to
> > do what you are guilty and admit you are guilty of
> doing? And, I have an
> > answer for you. It may not satisfy you, but as I
> search this entire record,
> > it comes as close to understanding as I know.
> >
> > It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us
> is most precious. You hate
> > our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our
> individual freedom to live as we
> > choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or
> not believe as we
> > individually choose. Here, in this society, the
> very wind carries freedom.
> > It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea.
> It is because we prize
> > individual freedom so much that you are here in
> this beautiful courtroom.
> > So that everyone can see, truly see, that justice
> is administered fairly,
> > individually, and discretely. It is for freedom's
> sake that your lawyers
> > are striving so vigorously on your behalf, have
> filed appeals, will go on in
> > their representation of you before other judges.
> >
> > We Americans are all about freedom. Because we
> all know that the way we
> > treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own l
> iberties. Make no mistake
> > though. It is yet t rue that we will bare any
> burden; pay any price, to
> > preserve our freedoms. Look around this
> courtroom. Mark it well. The
> > world is not going to long remember what you or I
> say here. The day after
> > tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however,
> will long endure.
> >
> > Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across
> America, the American
> > people will gather to see that justice, individual
> justice, justice, not
> > war, individual justice is in fact being done.
> The very President of the
> > United States through his officers will have to
> come into courtrooms and lay
> > out evidence on which specific matters can be
> judged and juries of citizens
> > will gather to sit and judge that evidence
> democratically, to mold and shape
> > and refine our sense of justice.
> >
>
=== message truncated ===

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ENIAC

ELECTRONIC NUMERICAL INTEGRATOR AND CALCULATOR

The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (Eniac), was
only a dream in the 40s. My interest in computers goes way back
to the late 50s to the ENIAC. I had been a Ham Operator since
1955 (K4EVY), when I was still in high school. There was no such
thing as a personal computer then.

But, my excitement about computers really began when I saw the
first computer, the ENIAC, at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland
in the 50s. I was in military school in Georgia then but on one of
our family visits to Pennsylvania and Maryland my uncle invited me
to see his laboratory and the ENIAC.

As early as the 40s (1943) scientists at the University of Pennsylvania
proposed a machine which would calculate "firing tables" - settings used
for directing artillery under varying conditions vis-a-vis weather,
distance to the target, etc. to be used for aiming artillery, which
up to that time sometimes took hours to calculate. That is when the
computer age was actually launched. The ENIAC, which weighed 30 tons,
was funded by the U.S. Army.

Dr. Goldstine lobbied a committee headed by Oswald Veblen, mathematician,
who influenced the army to go forward with funding at the Aberdeen
Proving Grounds (in 1943) with a request for half a million dollars
to pay for the research and the computer. Up to that time the army
had been shipping their guns without firing tables. Col Leslie E. Simon
was then the director of the Army's Ballistics Laboratory, where my
uncle worked. Simons retired as a general. Dr. Goldstine was in charge
of the operation for the army. A team of scientists and engineers at
Penn's Moore School built the computer. The project was secret.

After three years of military school and one year of regular high
school I enlisted in the army. It was there that I was selected for
a secret assignment and after extensive investigations by the FBI and
the Secret Service I worked at the White House for the President of
the United States. I had a top secret clearance but also a crypto and
nuclear clearance. I was privy to everything the President said and
later on the Chiefs of Staff ("need to know" was extended to everything
I heard). In the 60s I worked in the War Room for the Chiefs of Staff at
the Pentagon (before going to helicopter school and before the Yom Kipper
War in 73).

My uncle was a physicist who died when he was only about 49 years old
from a cardiac condition but while he was employed as a scientist for
the army he invented the fastest camera in the world and he used the
very first computer in the ballistics lab at the base, which was also
his research facility for developing munitions for the military.

In 1957 I enlisted in the army because a war was about to
start and I wanted to get in on it.

One of the most exciting days of my life however was when I saw the
world's first computer, the ENIAC in the 50s, which was built at the
Ballistic Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland,
and was funded by the Ordnance Corps of the United States
Army.

My memory is admittedly a bit vague by now, because it was such a long
time ago, but I do remember, the ENIAC used thousands of vacuum tubes
and generated a lot of heat. Obviously there was very little memory and
it was extremely slow.

Later on a subsequent tour of duty in the War Room at the Pentagon, just
down the hall from where I worked they were using a newer generation
computer, which still used tubes - and I recall how huge it was also
and all those diode multipliers and bullion adders with their flashing
lights. I also remember the heat and an array of tubes which military
personnel were constantly replacing as they burned out. It seemed like
that was their only job. To this day I don't know what this equipment
was used for. But I do know the tubes were a problem and RCA had to
develop a new tube which had a longer life just for the application
there at the Pentagon.

I worked cryptology in the War Room and my equipment used mechanical
coding wheels and also used tubes. The wheels were metal rings which
had to be lined up in exactly the same configuration and started exactly
at the same time as those who we communicated with in the Six Fleet
or where-ever they were. Army Security Agency (ASA) kept trying to break
our codes but they couldn't.

These were not text devices. They generated synthesized speech which
did not sound at all like the person using them - and speech was encrypted.
We were armed with sawed off shotguns. And we not only guarded the equipment,
we swept the room for bugs and we monitored all of the speech.

My job was the same at the White House when I did a three year tour
there but included other things, a lot of other things and my training
was at Ft Monmouth and at NSA. I worked in all kinds of communications
including the first television hookups for the White House, which we
assisted in the engineering process. I taught single sideband and
various types of multiplexing, including packet communications when
it was new.

ENIAC was the first electronic computer which could compute a trajectory
in only one second (pretty damn fast when it took an hour before the
computer was developed). It was completed in 1945 and it was very BIG. It
was enormous. The system was 80 feet long and was 8 feet high. It
contained 18,000 vacuum tubes. The speed was 100,000 pulses per second.

It didn't really begin to calculate firing tables until the war was over
since it took so long to build. From the time it was imagined in 43 to the
time it was completed in 1945.

It became public in 1946. It was built at the Moore school and moved to
Aberdeen in 1947 where it was utilized until 1955.

When I finally left the military I went to school under the G.I.Bill and I
got an LL.B degree but I also studied programming and systems design. I
learned COBOL, RPG, Lisp, BASIC and various other languages, including
assembly code. I built and owned several computers and all of the first
ones I learned to program them using their individual machine language. In
those days that was not uncommon. COBOL was probably my favorite
programming language because although bulky it was plain English
and easy to use - but still no personal computers then and I had
to program main frames using punch cards. My very first personal
computer was a Commodore 4K and later a Commodore 2001. My first
hard drive cost me $1,700 for that Commodore. My next computer
was better; it was an IBM XT. Since then I have had more computers
than I can remember and the operating system for most of them has
been Linux. I cut my teeth on UNIX. And I still prefer DOS to
Windows (g).

Hank Roth
Go to the Worm Hole at http://up-yours.us/
More Article in The Crypt at http://inyourface.info/
Bio - http://pnews.org/bio/

- PNEWS - http://pnews.org/ (on the InterNUT since 1982)

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We are Just Animals
in an Imperfect World

Even with very good theories, they are sometimes unsuccessful in some
situations. This is an imperfect world and theories are never perfect
even if most of the time they are right.

"For example, kin selection predicts that if males take over a group
in which females are caring for infants, they might benefit from doing
away with the infants and reimpregnating the females. This has been seen
in lions, langur monkeys, and many other species. In other circumstances,
however, males transferring into a group might not be able to take over,
but instead have to sue for acceptance by the powers that be. In such
instances these relatively weak newcomers might have to befriend females
by being gentle and caring toward their infants, even though the infants
have been sired by other males. This has been seen in baboons, among
other species." -- from "What is Darwin's Truth?" (Darwin's Truth,
Jefferson's Vision, The American Prospect - July 1, 1999 by Melvin
Konner)

Some of our scientific theories make predictions which are the same
predictions made by other theorists for different reasons.

"For instance, sociobiologists suggest that incest should have been
selected against in evolution because it brings hidden genetic defects
to the surface. But such other theorists as Westermarck, Freud, and
Skinner give us reasons to expect incest avoidance. Even if sociobiology
makes more sense in such cases, it doesn't exactly produce surprises."
(ibid)

"Over the past 15 years systematic research on child abuse and
pedicide by Martin Daly and Margo Wilson--research specifically
motivated by neo-Darwinian theory--has shown that a child is between
10 and 100 times more likely to be assaulted or killed if he or she
lives in a household that includes an unrelated male...."
(ibid)

"There is something perversely comforting about the Daly and Wilson
finding. Child abuse in the presence of unrelated males is an
equal-opportunity scourge, crossing boundaries of class, race,
and religion. Sadly, biological mothers as well as stepfathers
are guilty of the abuse; it is the presence: of the unrelated
male in the household that seems to count, whether or not he
commits the abuse. Theory notwithstanding, this is a disturbing
and puzzling phenomenon, but it is a human one. Or more precisely,
it is a human extension of an animal phenomenon, and that perhaps
disturbs us most of all."
(ibid)

Humans are in reality not much different than salmon who swim
against the current only to lay their eggs and die.

We (some of us) have more of the animal in us than we would like
to admit. And for those so vainglorious to believe humans are more
evolved than non-human animals and humans have souls, whereas
non-human animals do not. These assumptions represent typical
human fallacies and the myths which conjure up gods to explain
the inexplicable, the enigma of all time - that all we exist for
is to reproduce and die.


There is no end to evolution nor is evolution a progression.
Evolution is merely an adaptation for the benefit of
reproduction.

Hank Roth
http://pnews.org/

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"Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War.
He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth
in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind. He is the only
animal that for sordid wages will march out...and help to slaughter
strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom
he has no quarrel. ..And in the intervals between campaigns he washes
the blood off his hands and works for "the universal brotherhood of
man"--with his mouth.
-- Mark Twain, "What Is Man?"

=======================================================================
PNEWS-L, the oldest radical "progressive" list on the interNUT (82)
=======================================================================

PNEWS-L - Radical "Progressive" News & Views

PNEWS-L has been on the net since 1982 - when the internet
began (before it was anything like what we know it to be now)
- and long before it became a household name and before it
became a commercial toilet.

PNEWS-L (the network) actually had it's start on ham radio
in the 60s as a network of progressive hams concerned about
injustice in the world and renewal of socialism - "From
each according to one's ability to each according to needs."

The network which met daily on 20 meters (ham radio) comprised
mostly kibbutzim and the rest of the world. It was a global
communications network. PNEWS-L provides support for Israel's
existence as a "secular" state with guarantees of justice,
civil and human rights for everyone.

PNEWS also became a hardcopy newspaper to address racism and
issues of security and war with thousands of subscribers. In the
80s it moved to computer networks, including Fidonet and Prodigy.
It remained gated to Fidonet when it was also picked up by PeaceNet
(apc.igc.org) and I was given a free account in order to gate pnews
(as two forums: [1] Discussion (pnews.d) and [2] News (pnews) to
this activist network.

PNEWS-L came to the internet first as an alias list - and also remained
gated to Fidonet for independent BBSs and the APC networks for activists.
When connected to the APC networks we had about 30,000 recipients of the
lists. In the 90s it migrated from a majordomo list to a mailman list and
then onto LISTSERV(tm), the premier list distribution system for symposiums
and universities at St Johns University in Brooklyn, NY where it was gated
to the internet and in 2004 to Escartis for a year and then renamed LifeSci
on Yahoogroups and on June 16th, the name was changed back to PNEWS-L.

PNEWS-L is a discussion and analysis distribution list for
essays and commentary; some limited quoting and pointers.
The orientation is always progressive, socialist, secular,
scientific, animal rights, human rights and to seek justice
and truth.

Hank Roth
http://up-yours.us/

/////--------reason and unreason--------/////
+ From Cicero and Lucretius +
+ Wrapped in togas +
+ Struggling between reason and unreason +
+ Battles fought in ancient times +
+ And fought again and again. +
+ +
+ History, a register of cruelty +
+ Vertiginous world +
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It is not science fiction to expect in a short period of time we will have
non-human augmentation to increase non-human cognitive abilities.
Genetically there is so little difference and in some instances humans and
chimps are closer with less variability than humans with humans or chimps
and chimps. A chimp with type O blood is closer to those of us with O type
than those of us with A type blood, etc. There are other similarities and
it would not take much to give chimpanzees or bonobos the uplift necessary
to bring their cognitive ability closer to our own.

Neural grafting is a real possibility. Some pharmaceutical augmentation is
possible. Genetic modification is possible. A lot of you will find this
disagreeable but it is coming. Somewhere, someday age enhancement -
prolongation will be technology in regular use as will increasing
cognition not just in humans but in non-humans as well.

Are you ready for it? Will you still think non-humans are worth less and
should be devoid of rights? Why would you consider them lower on the food
chain unless you also consider humans somewhere along that same food chain
with each other? (We gave up cannibalism a long time ago). Might we also
get over thinking of non-humans as lower on evolution's ladder. THERE IS
NO EVOLUTIONARY LADDER.

NON-HUMANS are as perfect at what they are as we are (which is not so
perfect at all) - and evolutionarily we are ALL equally successful because
all species alive today are species which evolved and survived and all
species who today are extinct are dead and the losers.

Sentient Beings - (from) Animal Ethics Encyclopedia
http://www.animalethics.org.uk/aec-s-entries.html#Sentience

Broadly, sentience is the capacity to perceive and feel things. Someone in
a coma is not sentient. More specifically, sentience is the capacity to
have mental states and feelings and be able to suffer, like humans can or
in some degree like humans can. The latter definition excludes plants, as
they do not have brains or nervous systems. Sentience is rather close in
meaning to consciousness. Thus a sentient creature and a conscious
creature are both aware of their body sensations and surroundings. The
term sentience suffers from onerous spelling. It is pronounced sen-shnts;
and sentient is pronounced sen-shnt.

Sentience is a particularly important concept in animal ethics and is a
philosophical bastion of the animal liberation movement, for if animals
are sentient then a case can be made for giving them moral standing, that
is for treating them morally. A sentient animal cut open can feel pain and
suffer but a crushed rock feels no sensation; therefore the animal
deserves our moral consideration whereas the rock does not. Furthermore,
some philosophers argue that if animals and humans are both sentient and
deserve moral standing, then the moral interests of animals and humans
should be considered equally. However, the degree to which animals (as
well as robots and aliens from outerspace) may be sentient is an
unresolved subject of discussion in philosophical and scientific circles.

Anyway, sentience need not be the sole criterion for moral consideration.
Animals could also qualify for moral consideration on the grounds of
Intrinsic Value and on respect for living beings (see Environmental
Ethics).

The European Union in 1997 recognised animals by law as sentient beings -
that they can feel pain and suffer - and requires that EU countries 'pay
full regard' to animal welfare. However, although conceding to
sensibility, the welfare part is not adequately rendered into practice -
and may never do so against economic pressures and a massive humanity (see
Human Overpopulation) of animal users.

Hank Roth
TheWormHole http://pnews.org/
TheCrypt http://up-yours.us/crypt/
- http://pnews.org/ -

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Evolution is Not a Belief and Science is not a Religion

EVOLUTION IS NOT A BELIEF

Evolution is not a belief. It is science.
There is no dispute about evolutionary development;
that is, variation and natural selection. It is tested
and true. A belief is something for which there is no test.
A belief in religion is a belief in a belief; nothing more.
You don't believe in Darwin's theory (that is an erroneous
assumption) and scientific theory is more than a theory as
defined outside of science. A theory is everything in science
which is constantly tested. And as with Darwinism there are
layers upon layers of tested conclusions but that does not
mean it does not also evolve as knowledge evolves.

No one can prove god. God is not science It is not the function
of science or atheists to disprove god because god cannot be
proved; it is NOT a concept which is testable. (All that we can
test is why many humans tend to believe in an unbelievable concept
like gods and angels - and the cookie monster)

Hank Roth
http://pnews.org/

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----------------------------------------------------------
"The American system of ours, call it Americanism, call it Capitalism, call
it what you like, gives each and every one of us a great opportunity if we
only seize it with both hands and make the most of it."
-- Al Capone

Bush lied. It is really that simple. And this wasn't
some little white lie about a blow job in the Oval Office. This whopper
has cost America thousands of lives, billions of dollars, massive loss
of trust from our friends and allies and there is no end in sight.

And while the U.S. government spends billions of dollars to wage war
against Iraq, some 30 million people in the United States go hungry,
12 million of whom are children, says Anuradha Mittal, co-director of
the California-based Institute for Food and Development Policy (IFDP).
An estimated 33 million U.S. residents live below the poverty line,
according to the most recent Census Bureau figures, which identify
children, single mothers, and the elderly as most likely to face hunger.

A permanent state of American panic, fortified by regular doses of terror
attacks, hijackings and building demolitions by crazed Muslim fanatics is
exactly what Bush needs to stay in power, win re-election in 2004, stack
the federal courts, gut the Bill of Rights, and enrich its corporate
sponsors. It also helped to steal two elections.

Chicken Hawks

During the run-up to the Iraq war, it was impossible not to notice that
those most gung-ho for the adventure were, by and large, virgins when it
came to the actual battlefield. George W. ("I was not prepared to shoot my
eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing
to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly
airplanes") Bush; Dick ("I had other priorities") Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz,
Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, Tom DeLay, Elliott Abrams--to a man, all
found better things to do than join the armed forces during Vietnam, a war
most of them supported.

It surely is time now for a regime change in Washington. GWB should be
given safe passage to Central Africa or anywhere else. He should be given
a choice not given to President Aristide, that he pick his destination.
Let him go. Insist on it. No one has done more harm to this republic that
George W Bush (and his family) in the 200 years of its existence. Time for
a change and it is time to throw out the those who corrupt freedom and
have such disregard for human rights and human life.

About the OIL:

Global oil supplies could start to have difficulty in meeting growing
demand after 2007, according to a recent analysis of existing and planned
major oil-recovery projects published in Petroleum Review.

Hank Roth

P.S.
A startling discovery that affiliation with the Republican party
is genetically determined was announced by scientists in the current
issue of the journal "Nurture."

======
See the Crypt - http://up-yours.us/crypt/
----------------------------------------------------------

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LIBERTY TO HOLD PLEAS

There is also what is known as the "liberty to hold pleas", that is, the
liberty of having a court of one's own, the privilege of holding pleas
within one's own manor. Specific echo conferences could be likened to this
liberty. And with regard to providing news, there is the "liberty of the
press", which is a concurrent right to print or publish or in the case of
the electronic media to publish one's own position or perception of the
truth. It doesn't require that I also publish your conception of the
truth. For that you need your own conference or newspaper. An article,
unfavorable to the U.S. Government, which I wrote for the old LINE OF
MARCH newspaper, would not be acceptable for publication in the
conservative National Review.

The fallacy to thinking that through debate ideas will be exchanged and
reason will ultimately emerge victorious is in thinking that everyone is
as good a spokesman as everyone else. Unfortunately as Hannah Arendt
points out in ORIGIN OF TOTALITARIANISM, emotionalism wins the day. I
agree with Hannah Arendt, who stated that propaganda does contain an
emotional mass appeal and therefore a superiority for converting men to
its cause, because it is simplistic and people love to blame someone else.
Logic may appeal to an intelligencia and free thinkers, but not to those
already predisposed to certain ideas and strongly entrenched prejudices.
This is why demagogues can win elections, and by popular appeal can be
swept into positions of authority where they present a real threat to the
rest of us.

Debate often isn't really debate. If you read the other echos you know
that. Some of you have expressed your frustration to me privately. What
happens on these other echos is too often a bunch of wise guys try to out
insult each other, just like trained monkeys in a zoo making faces and
trying to out perform each other with clever clinches and popular fad
positions. The truth becomes the victim.

What some "liberals" and "apologists for class order" are attempting to do
is to redefine what is or is not considered the proper vehicle for
"debate". They just don't like this kind of forum. There are all kinds of
forums and a facilitator decides what are acceptable guidelines for a
particular forum and the guidelines for this particular forum works just
fine. In fact better than fine because this kind of forum doesn't have to
provide a platform for those who would vilify, dehumanize, and promote
hate. The Left rejects the horrific attempt at mind control by the rulers
of Capitalism to manipulate the masses. We know that we cannot reason with
unreasonable men (& women). And their stubborn reluctance to accept truth
will impinge on our ability to say those things, so we don't need to
provide that kind of imbalance in our forums. In furtherance of a higher
ideal this forum provides EQUITABLE unrestrained "freedom of speech" for a
*LEFT* and Darwinism OPPOSITION to the established class order.

Hank Roth, Facilitator

TheWormHole - http://inyourface.info/
The Crypt - http://up-yours.us/
Bio - http://pnews.org/
Everything - http://pnews.org/

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Are the laws of nature the same everywhere in the Universe?
Or, is our little piece of the Universe what it is because of the
environment where we live?

OR, is the Universe the way it is, our piece of it at least, just so
physicists can be here to observe it? (g) We live on a unique planet with
liquid water and our laws of nature have adapted to this unique
environment.

I think the Universe is a big random place, very inhospitable to our
kind of life, but for other forms of life the possiblities are unlimited.

I think each pocket of space has different laws of nature and vastly
different landscapes and much more than we can imagine is possible.

Ponder this: Dark Matter is 25%. Dark Energy is 70% of the Universe.
And Atoms only make up about 5% of the Universe.

Ponder This:

What if to the whole of everything we are small like subatomic human particles?

Or what if we are food for aliens who seeded this rock millions of
years ago with DNA and let it evolve and they will one day return to eat us.

Peter Wesson, a scientist in Canada recently wrote that our universe is
actually in a black hole and may be in another universe, which also might be in
a black hole, and so forth and so on. We know what we know but there is much we
do not know.

What if our human existence doesn't mean any more than the fact we are
here - and we have a brain? (because that is all I believe it means) And
if we have a brain we should be enlightened enough by the accumulated
wisdom of 500 years of books to want to be the species that saves the
world for us and for them (all the rest) and only by doing that can we
insure a quality of life that will make it all worth while and then we
won't be so insignificant after-all.

* Life on Earth is a product of evolution by natural selection
operating in the medium of carbon chemistry. However, in theory,
evolution is not limited to Earth, nor to carbon chemistry.

* Just as it may occur on other planets, it may also operate
in other media, such as the medium of digital computation

AND, "what-if" we are somebody else's computer simulation?

Also See: http://pnews.org/ArT/ZioN/EvO.shtml

Hank

TheCrypt - http://pnews.org/archives/
The WormHole - http://pnews.org/

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