Why Are Things As They Are?

Little Red Schoolhouse:

The children walking along the road of truth and reason carry love to all; and they clothe everything in new skies; they illumine everything with an incorruptible fire issuing from the depths of the soul. Thus a new life comes into being, born of the childrens’ love for the entire world; and who will extinguish this love–who? What power is higher than this? Who will subdue it? The earth has brought it forth; and all life desires its victory–all life. Shed rivers of blood, nay seas of blood, you’ll never extinguish it. Maxim Gorky, Mother, p486.

“I, who have no name, no opinions, and no style, have written so many papers at this point, including legal briefs, military-strategy assessments, poems, lab reports, and, yes, even papers on academic integrity, that it’s hard to determine which course of study is most infested with cheating. But I’d say education is the worst. I’ve written papers for students in elementary-education programs, special-education majors, and ESL-training courses. I’ve written lesson plans for aspiring high-school teachers, and I’ve synthesized reports from notes that customers have taken during classroom observations. I’ve written essays for those studying to become school administrators, and I’ve completed theses for those on course to become principals. In the enormous conspiracy that is student cheating, the frontline intelligence community is infiltrated by double agents. (Future educators of America, I know who you are.)”
chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/

Defenders of “Public Education”, explain what is public and educational about capitalist schooling where you have convincingly demonstrated it is segregated by race and class, driven by racist anti-working class regimented curricula and high stakes exams, and militarism in poor areas. Public education is a fetish, a myth, an excuse for a teacher job bank, a prop for the capitalist corporate state.
richgibson.com/EducationFetish.pdf

N.J. Governor Wants Teachers’ Sacrifice for “Common Good”

Judge Rules Against Broad Puppet in Detroit, But Terrible Contract, Lunatic Board, and Bad Conditions Unchanged: Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Wendy Baxter just released a decision that sided with the board in its lawsuit against Robert Bobb, the state-appointed emergency financial manager.

The suit accused Bobb of exceeding his authority as financial manager by also making decisions regarding school closures and curriculum in the school system.

“We obviously are ecstatic that the court has given clear direction about who’s in charge of academics,” School Board President Anthony Adams said. “We intend to move quickly to finalize our academic vision and look forward to working with Robert Bobb now that we have a clear understanding of the division of duties.” www.freep.com/article/20101206/NEWS01/101206034/

Ohanian on the Gates’ Common Core Standards Where the Vacillating Reactionary and Liberal Hero Ravitch Plays a Leading Role:
With corporate politicos overriding teachers to decide what curriculum students will be taught, this is the first in a series of exposes of just what’s in the works. What follows is part of a four-week unit in which 12th graders “will read fiction, drama, poetry, biography, and autobiography from the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, with particular attention to the relationship between man and nature.”

Isn’t it fascinating that with the Global Warming crisis, the imperative from the Common Core Mapping Project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and designed to implement the Common Core State Standards, also funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is for students to memorize Oliver Goldsmith and William Wordsworth (not to mention read Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels, The Vicar of Wakefield, Emma, and The Sufferings of Young Werther.

Knowing this assignment is on the horizon for 12th graders will be an impetus for younger students to drop out of high school. stopnationalstandards.org/curriculum_sos_26.html

Ravitch Accepts NEA Award From NEA’s Quistling Dennis Van Roekel

Will A Legal Win Help Halt the Collapse of Detroit’s Schools? … the decision hardly solves the problems facing public education in Detroit, or those facing the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT). Since his appointment as emergency financial manager for Detroit’s public schools in 2009, Bobb has been widely viewed as the Broad Foundation’s puppet. He was appoiinted the overlord of the Detroit Public schools’ finances by Michigan’s governor at that time, but the December 2010 court decision holds that Bobb had overstepped his bounds and illegally interfered in the academic life of the schools. The suit was filed by the school board. Bob’s spokesman said he would appeal the ruling.

Above, Convicted Public Self Fondler Otis Mathis

Gates Millennium Scholar Busted for Drugs: One was a Gates Millennium Scholar from Georgia, a poet and party promoter. Another was the salutatorian of his high school class and is currently enrolled in Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. A third was a member of the university’s student council, and another competed on the fencing team. (ed reminder: Hegel: “The purpose of education is transformation, toward an ethical person.”)

Perpetual War:

Do Not Miss this Excerpt from the Video “Afghan Women–History of Struggle: vimeo.com/8637629

That Stuff About Endless War? Dude! It is True! Totally! The top US commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, has expressed doubt about the possibility of a troop withdrawal from the war-torn country by 2014. www.presstv.ir/detail/154265.html

“I’ve always been a strong supporter of open Internet use. I’m a big supporter of non-censorship,” Obama said. “This is part of the tradition of the United States that I discussed before, and I recognize that different countries have different traditions.”

Wiki Gem 1: Wiki Lists Vital Strategic Locations For USA: NEAR/MIDDLE EAST Djibouti: Bab al-Mendeb: Shipping lane is a critical supply chain node Egypt: ‘Ayn Sukhnah-SuMEd Receiving Import Terminal ‘Sidi Kurayr-SuMed Offloading Export Terminal Suez Canal Iran: Strait of Hormuz Khark (Kharg) Island Sea Island Export Terminal Khark Island T-Jetty Iraq: Al-Basrah Oil Terminal Israel: Rafael Ordnance Systems Division, Haifa, Israel: Critical to Sensor Fused Weapons (SFW), Wind Corrected Munitions Dispensers (WCMD), Tail Kits, and batteries Kuwait: Mina’ al Ahmadi Export Terminal Morocco: Strait of Gibraltar Maghreb-Europe (GME) gas pipeline, Morocco Oman: Strait of Hormuz …(much more) 213.251.145.96/cable/2009/02/09STATE15113.html#par15

Wiki Gem 2: China Hackers love/hate Deal With Internet:That cable from American diplomats was one of many made public by WikiLeaks that portray China’s leadership as nearly obsessed with the threat posed by the Internet to their grip on power — and, the reverse, by the opportunities it offered them, through hacking, to obtain secrets stored in computers of its rivals, especially the United States.

Extensive hacking operations suspected of originating in China, including one leveled at Google, are a central theme in the cables. The operations began earlier and were aimed at a wider array of American government and military data than generally known, including on the computers of United States diplomats involved in climate change talks with China.

One cable, dated early this year, quoted a Chinese person with family connections to the elite as saying that Mr. Li himself directed an attack on Google’s servers in the United States, though that claim has been called into question. In an interview with The New York Times, the person cited in the cable said that Mr. Li personally oversaw a campaign against Google’s operations in China but the person did not know who directed the hacking attack.

The cables catalog the heavy pressure that was placed on Google to comply with local censorship laws, as well as Google’s willingness to comply — up to a point. That coercion began building years before the company finally decided to pull its search engine out of China last spring in the wake of the successful hacking attack on its home servers, which yielded Chinese dissidents’ e-mail accounts as well as Google’s proprietary source code.
“But through the Google incident and other increased controls and surveillance, like real-name registration, they reached a conclusion: the Web is fundamentally controllable,” the person said.

That confidence may also reflect what the cables show are repeated and often successful hacking attacks from China on the United States government, private enterprises and Western allies that began by 2002, several years before such intrusions were widely reported in the United States.

At least one previously unreported attack in 2008, code-named Byzantine Candor by American investigators, yielded more than 50 megabytes of e-mail messages and a complete list of user names and passwords from an American government agency, a Nov. 3, 2008, cable revealed for the first time. www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/world/asia/05wikileaks-china.html?_r=1&hp

Wiki Gem 3: Warm-ups for War with Russia: Washington and its western allies have for the first time since the end of the cold war drawn up classified military plans to defend the most vulnerable parts of eastern Europe against Russian threats, according to confidential US diplomatic cables.

The US state department ordered an information blackout when the decision was taken earlier this year. Since January the blueprint has been refined.

Nine Nato divisions – US, British, German, and Polish – have been identified for combat operations in the event of armed aggression against Poland or the three Baltic states. North Polish and German ports have been listed for the receipt of naval assault forces and British and US warships. The first Nato exercises under the plan are to take place in the Baltic next year, according to informed sources…
“Ambassador Daalder acknowledged in these meetings that Germany had initiated the proposal,” says another secret cable .The east Europeans were delighted. Paul Teesalu, a senior Estonian diplomat, described the policy shift as “an early Christmas present” when told last December in Tallinn, according to a cable.

Another secret report from the US embassy in Riga says the Latvian foreign ministry’s security policy chief “expressed his government’s profound happiness.”

The Poles, although keen supporters of concrete Nato defence plans for the Baltic, were neverthless worried that the new policy could dilute alliance commitments to their defence, since a limited Polish contingency plan was being turned into an expanded regional blueprint for the four countries. www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/06/wikileaks-cables-nato-russia-baltics

Wiki Gem 4: The Guardian (UK) Compendium of the World Press Reviews of Wikileaks’ Cables is linked at: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/29/wikileaks-embassy-cables-key-points

Wiki Gem 5 on the Saudi “Religious” Monarchs: Jeddah consulate officials described an underground Halloween party, thrown last year by a member of the royal family, which broke all the country’s Islamic taboos. Liquor and prostitutes were present in abundance, according to leaked dispatches, behind the heavily-guarded villa gates.

The party was thrown by a wealthy prince from the large Al-Thunayan family. The diplomats said his identity should be kept secret. A US energy drinks company also put up some of the finance.

The underground party scene is “thriving and throbbing” in Saudi Arabia thanks to the protection of Saudi royalty, the dispatch said. But it is only available behind closed doors and for the very rich www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-cables-saudi-princes-parties

Wiki Assange Busted–Lieberman Deepens US Fascist Moves: The move against Assange came on a day when increasing pressure was brought to bear in the US on companies and organisations with ties to WikiLeaks.

As Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate homeland security committee, urged businesses to sever their ties with the website, Visa suspended all donations through its credit card.

Asked about the New York Times’s role in publishing the leaked cables, Lieberman told Fox news the newspaper “has committed at least an act of bad citizenship. Whether they have committed a crime I think bears very intensive inquiry”. www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/07/julian-assange-denied-bail

You Can Search WikiLeaks Here: cablesearch.org/

Never Forget this Earlier Wikileaks Document (now under cyberattack) The Video–Collateral Damage:

In the Navy, Good Help is SO Hard to Find: The Navy fired its 17th commanding officer of the year, this time the skipper of a San Diego-based mine countermeasures ship crew.

Lt. Cmdr. James Rushton and his second-in-command, Lt. Cmdr. Anne Laird, were relieved of duty for what the Navy is calling an “unduly familiar relationship” with each other. www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/09/navy-fires-san-diego-skipper-17th-co-ousted-year/

We Say Fight Back!

Wiki-ists Hit Back! Hackers rushed to the defense of WikiLeaks on Wednesday, launching attacks on MasterCard, Visa, Swedish prosecutors, a Swiss bank, Sarah Palin and others who have acted against the site and its jailed founder Julian Assange.

Internet “hacktivists” operating under the label “Operation Payback” claimed responsibility in a Twitter message for causing severe technological problems at the website for MasterCard, which pulled the plug on its relationship with WikiLeaks a day ago. news.yahoo.com/s/ap/wikileaks

Reportedly Staid Brits Attack Parasite Monarchs:

In Britain’s worst political violence in years, furious student protesters rained sticks and rocks on riot police, vandalized government buildings and attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, after lawmakers approved a controversial hike in university tuition fees.

Demonstrators set upon the heir to the throne’s limousine as it drove through London’s West End shopping and entertainment hub. Protesters who had been running amok and smashing shop windows kicked and threw paint at the car, which sped off. www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/12/09/world/europe/AP-EU-Britain-Tuition-Tangle.html?_r=1&hp

Pathbreaking Prison Strike in Georgia: Dec 9–In an action which is unprecedented on several levels, black, brown and white inmates of Georgia’s notorious state prison system are standing together for a historic one day peaceful strike today, during which they are remaining in their cells, refusing work and other assignments and activities. This is a groundbreaking event not only because inmates are standing up for themselves and their own human rughts, but because prisoners are setting an example by reaching across racial boundaries which, in prisons, have historically been used to pit oppressed communities against each other. PRESS RELEASE BELOW THE FOLD

The action is taking place today in at least half a dozen of Georgia’s more than one hundred state prisons, correctional facilities, work camps, county prisons and other correctional facilities. We have unconfirmed reports that authorities at Macon State prison have aggressively responded to the strike by sending tactical squads in to rough up and menace inmates.
www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/ga-prison-inmates-stage-1-day-peaceful-strike-today

Fascism Emerges as a Mass, Multi-Tentacled Movement:

“Bourgeoisie democracy BREEDS fascism…The more workers place their trust in legalism, in constitutionalism, in bourgeois democracy, the more they make sacrifices to save the existing regime, as the “lesser evil’ against the “menace” of fascism, the heavier become the fascist attacks and the more rapid the advance to capitalism. To preach confidence in legalism, in constitutionalism, in the capitalist state, means to invite and guarantee the victory of fascism.” R. Palme Dutt, Fascism and Social Revolution, 1935.p49

Chris Hedges on Inverted Totalitarianism:

ReRun of Patco? Spain Implements Fascist Law to Crush Strike:

Spain placed striking air traffic controllers under military authority Saturday and threatened them with jail terms in an unprecedented emergency order to get planes back in the skies and clear chaotic airports clogged with irate travelers.

Hours after the order was issued at an emergency Cabinet meeting, officials said strikers were returning to work, but that it could take up to two days before flights return to normal.  http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/04/spanish-air-controllers-start-returning-to-work/

Anti-Fascism Resurrected in “Shoah”: Then again, Mr. Lanzmann also argues that “Shoah” is not really a documentary, and that “Holocaust” is “a completely improper name” to describe the Nazis’ extermination of six million Jews during World War II. He complains that, in contrast to Europe, where “Shoah” has “never stopped being shown in movie theaters and on TV,” his film has “disappeared from the American scene,” elbowed aside by more palatable fare and thus allowing mistaken notions to propagate.

“This was by no means a holocaust,” he said during a recent visit to New York, noting that the literal meaning of the word refers to a burnt offering to a god. “To reach God 1.5 million Jewish children have been offered? The name is important, and one doesn’t say ‘Holocaust’ in Europe. This was a catastrophe, a disaster, and in Hebrew that is shoah.”…“I dislike deeply ‘Schindler’s List,’ for many reasons,” he said. The Spielberg film is “much more easy to see than ‘Shoah,’ it is very sentimental.”

“It’s false,” he added, because it offers an uplifting ending. www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/movies/07shoah.html?scp=1&sq=shoah&st=cse

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W0WcZu9O74

Against Schindler’s List: “Schindler’s List,” opens with no historical background. We are simply in the midst of the construction of the war against the Jews. How did the Nazi’s come to power? Why were they so popular? Who fought back? How was fascism defeated? All of these questions are silenced. Instead, we meet Schindler: Nazi-about to be a hero.

Contrary to the fictional movie, Schindler was no angel of mercy. He was an early volunteer to the fascist movement. He was a Nazi profiteer, never needing to be dragged along. Against the film’s claim, “The list is the ultimate good,” not all of “Schindler’s Jews” were survivors. In one SS sweep, Schindler turned over 700 of them. They were sent to a death camp and killed. This created openings on the famous list. Desperate victims had to bribe their way onto it, paying the accountant Stern…www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~rgibson/SchindlerListCrit2001.htm

Obamagogue Caves To Israeli Expansionists: The U.S. has given up on trying to persuade Israel to declare a moratorium on new building in the West Bank in an effort to win Palestinian participation in face-to-face peace talks, the Obama administration said Tuesday.

“After consultation with the parties, we have determined that a moratorium extension will not at this time provide the best basis for resuming direct negotiations,” according to a statement provided by the White House. A spokesman specified that the statement should be attributed to “U.S. officials.” www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/07/1962377/us-drops-push-for-israeli-freeze.html

San Diego Hires Mercs To Terrorize Residents who Sue–and Win!

Residents of the De Anza Cove mobile-home park have reached a $3.6 million settlement with the city of San Diego for the poor treatment they received from a property management company hired by the city…

The settlement announced Thursday stems from the city’s decision to hire a new park operator, Hawkeye Asset Management, in 2003. Hawkeye installed barbed-wire fences, concrete speed bumps and strict rules. Armed guards roamed the grounds and work crews tore down trees and facilities.

A judge later harshly criticized the city over Hawkeye’s conduct when more than 200 residents filed abuse lawsuits. www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/dec/09/de-anza-mobile-home-residents-get-36-million-settl/

The International War of the Rich on the Poor:

After Bankster Bailouts And War Costs–The US Debt: As of September 30, 2010, the “Total Public Debt Outstanding” of $13.56 trillion was approximately 94% of annual GDP of $14.4 trillion, with the constituent parts of the “Debt held by the Public” being approximately 63% of GDP ($9.0 Trillion) and “Intergovernmental Debt” standing at 31% of GDP ($4.5 Trillion en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

Obamagogue Saves Tax Cuts for the Rich: arack Obama is bowing to Republican demands to extend a deep tax cut for wealthier Americans, to the fury of some of the president’s allies who say he has succumbed to “blackmail”. www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/06/barack-obama-bush-tax-cuts

After Giving $12.9 Trillion to Banksers, Obamagogue Freezes Federal Workers’ Pay: Signaling a distinct shift toward austerity, President Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for federal workers Monday – saving up to $5 billion in two years.
“The hard truth is getting this deficit under control is going to require some broad sacrifice, and that sacrifice must be shared by the employees of the federal government,” Obama said. www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/11/29/2010-11-29_president_obama_announces_twoyear_pay_freeze_for_federal_workers_to_save_billion.html

State and City Debt Sky Falling: Some of the same people who warned of the looming subprime crisis two years ago are ringing alarm bells again. Their message: Not just small towns or dying Rust Belt cities, but also large states like Illinois and California are increasingly at risk.

Municipal bankruptcies or defaults have been extremely rare — no state has defaulted since the Great Depression, and only a handful of cities have declared bankruptcy or are considering doing so.

But the finances of some state and local governments are so distressed that some analysts say they are reminded of the run-up to the subprime mortgage meltdown or of the debt crisis hitting nations in Europe.
www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/us/politics/05states.html?hp

Does the Fed Buy American? Hell NO!  Last week, the Fed released pages and pages of records on its activities during late 2008 and 2009 as the crisis in financial markets gathered steam and credit was frozen. Those records show that the Fed spent nearly $5 billion buying commercial paper – unsecured, short-term loans usually used by companies to cover accounts receivable, inventories and payroll – from Mitsubishi International and Toyota Motor Corp. The loans matured and were due typically in three months.

In a letter sent Monday to Ben Bernanke, chairman fo the Fed’s Board of Governors, Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, voiced his opinion that anyone who has gon through all the records must be “truly shocked by the sheer amount of lending the Fed provided.” He also said it was “especially disturbing” that Wall Street institutiuons that received the help have returned to profitability while the unemployment rate remains stuck near 10%.

Sanders questioned whether it constituted a conflict of interest that financial institutions with officials who sit on the Fed’s regional boards received the loans; he also asked what the Fed was doing loaning money to Mitsubishi and Toyota, as well as investors large sum to invest in foreign automobile securities, “At a time when the American automobile sector was on the verge of collapse.” www.freep.com/article/20101206/BUSINESS0104/101206069/1320/Why-did-Fed-spend-billions-on-foreign-automakers?-Senator-asks

Who Is Prosecuted for the Biggest Theft in the History of the World? is anyone in the corner offices of Wall Street’s biggest firms or corporate America’s biggest companies paying any attention to Mr. Holder’s “strong message”? Of course not. (I actually called some chief executives after Mr. Holder’s news conference, and not one had heard of Operation Broken Trust.)
That’s because in the two years since the peak of the financial crisis, the government has not brought one criminal case against a big-time corporate official of any sort. topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/andrew_ross_sorkin/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=andrew%20ross%20sorkin&st=cse

Madoff Co-Conspirator is Suspected Human: Yikes–Sonja Kohn, above

The trustee seeking money for victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s fraud has sued Sonja Kohn, an Austrian banker, seeking $19.6 billion in damages and accusing her of masterminding a 23-year conspiracy that played a central role in financing the gigantic Ponzi scheme.

Amid an avalanche of lawsuits filed in recent weeks as the trustee nears a Saturday deadline to file claims, the complaint against Ms. Kohn stands out for its stark allegations of criminal behavior and the size of the financial recovery sought. dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/madoff-trustee-seeks-19-6-billion-from-austrian-banker/?hp

Solidarity Forever:

What Does AFGE, the Big Fed Worker Union Do re: Obama Freeze?

Tells members to write a form letter to Obama! salsa.afge.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1004

Spy versus Spy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO1iHpf1R3o&feature=related

Who is the Accuser Of WikiAssange? Two left-of-center websites also alleged that she was close to Cuban exile author Carlos Alberto Montaner and the Ladies in White, female relatives of political prisoners. One site noted that Montaner has “CIA links” and that the Ladies in White ‘‘receive U.S. government funds.”  http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/08/104911/one-of-wikileaks-founder-assanges.html

The websites portrayed Ardin’s links to Cuba as evidence of a U.S.-backed plot to smear and jail Assange.

CIA Threatens Germans To Back Illegal Kidnappings: American officials exerted sustained pressure on Germany not to enforce arrest warrants against Central Intelligence Agency officers involved in the 2003 kidnapping of a German citizen mistakenly believed to be a terrorist, diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks show.

John M. Koenig, the American deputy chief of mission in Berlin, issued a pointed warning in February 2007 urging that Germany “weigh carefully at every step of the way the implications for relations with the U.S.” in the case of Khaled el-Masri, a German of Lebanese descent. Mr. Masri said he was held in a secret United States prison in Afghanistan and tortured before his captors acknowledged their mistake and let him go….

Mr. Masri was seized on Dec. 31, 2003, as he entered Macedonia while on vacation; border security guards confused him with an operative of Al Qaeda with a similar name. He says he was turned over to the C.I.A., which flew him to Afghanistan, where he says he was tortured, sodomized and injected with drugs. After five months, he was dropped on a roadside in Albania. No charges were brought against him. www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/world/europe/09wikileaks-elmasri.html?_r=1&hp

Russia Errects Plaque to Kim Philby, Cambridge Spy:  A plaque commemorate Kim Philby, the British double agent, has been unveiled by Russia’s spy agency, with a sculptural relief inspired by the two-faced Roman god, Janus. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8191989/Russian-spy-agency-unveils-Kim-Philby-memorial-plaque.html

Russian “Spy” Found in Brit Commons: Katia Zatuliveter faces deportation after being detained in London on Thursday in what is thought to be the first time since the end of the Cold War someone working in Britain’s parliament has been accused of spying for Russia.

The 25-year-old was arrested after domestic intelligence agency MI5 decided she was working for the Russian intelligence service as a “sleeper” agent, The Sunday Times newspaper reported. news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101205/wl_uk_afp/britainrussiapoliticsespionage

Liberal Democrat lawmaker Mike Hancock, who employed Zatuliveter as his research assistant in the House of Commons, dismissed the spying alleg

Israel Wants Their Spy Back: Jonathan Pollard’s ex-wife Anne and her father were settled in Israel by the government there this week, the latest chapter in a renewed campaign to free the confessed spy.

Israel has angled periodically for Pollard’s release since 1998, when it admitted, after 13 years of denials, that the former naval intelligence analyst was not a rogue agent but an officially sanctioned spy.

Last September Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu relit the fires under the case when, according to Israeli Army Radio, he asked the Obama administration to release Pollard in exchange for a temporary halt in Israel’s construction of Jewish settlements. voices.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/

Magical Mystery Tour:

Dutch Find Rapists in Cathedrals!  Does the Most Encrusted Institution in the World Exist to Collect Money and Do Kids?

The Roman Catholic Church, battered by sexual abuse scandals from the United States to Belgium, is facing a new set of damaging allegations in the Netherlands. Figures released Thursday by an investigative commission showed that almost 2,000 people had made complaints of sexual or physical abuse against the church, in a country with only four million Catholics.

“The Roman Catholic Church has not faced a crisis like this since the French Revolution,” Peter Nissen, a professor of the history of religion at Radboud University in the Netherlands, said of the growing abuse scandal.

Wikileak  Shows US/Vatican Spy Ties (going back decades): The cables were obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to The New York Times and other news organizations. They do not appear to contain any bombshells about the Vatican, but they provide a telling glimpse of how American diplomats often rely on the Roman Catholic Church’s worldwide network of prelates for intelligence.Some cables read in part like thrillers, like when Opus Dei, the powerful religious order, took pains to distance itself from one of its members: Robert P. Hanssen, an F.B.I. agent who in a dramatic case in 2001 pleaded guilty to being a longtime Russian spy. (ed, don’t forget that Hanssen’s boss, Freeh, was in the same self mutilating Opus Dei cell with Hanssen) …
It added that Cardinal Sodano “complained about the ‘aggressive attorneys’ who had started in on the Vatican with the sexual abuse scandal and had also filed suits about Nazi-era gold allegedly acquired by the Holy See.”

“It’s one thing for them to sue bishops,” the cable quoted him as saying, “but another thing entirely to sue the Holy See.”

www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/world/europe/11vatican.html?hpw

Worst Thing in the History of the World:

Another Arrest for Stealing From Detroit’s Children: The indictment said that Allen Swayze, 34, who worked as a bookkeeper at the Breithaupt Career and Technical Center, issued bogus checks to himself and to his company, Swayze Management Industries, between August 2006 and May 2009. Swayze deposited the checks in his bank accounts or cashed them at banks, authorities said.

Best Thing in the History of the World

Biggest Bang of the Week:

Biggest Bang Explained:

Nicest Rocker in the History of the World

So Lone James Moody:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsYojk4WgQM

Thanks to Ken and Barb, Sherry, Amber, Bob, Sandy and Van, Elvira, Tania, Marisol, Arturo, Ray, Josh, Mandy, Shelley, Pete, Dirty Edd,  Eric. Mr Z and J, Steve C, George and Sharon, Wayne, Adam and Gina, Doug S, Pat S, Susan (both as always), Billy, Tom H, Berry, Kathy, and Ruchelle.
Good luck to us, every one.

r