“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”
(2 Timothy 2:2)

Faithful Men

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RNS -Religion News Service

Former ‘Jesus freak’ traces the evolution of Christian rock

Don Lattin

Apr 17, 2013

RNS) Bob Gersztyn owned a fine collection of 300 rock ‘n’ roll albums in 1971, the year he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. Among them were some choice 1960s vinyl from Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and the Mothers of Invention.

But all of a sudden, this was the devil’s music.

“I destroyed some of them with a hammer and took the rest to a used record store,” he recalled with a laugh. “I think I kept 10 classical music albums that I decided were not anti-Christian.”

Gersztyn retained his love of rock ‘n’ roll, but limited his listening to Christian rock, a genre that was just getting going in the era of the hippie-inspired “Jesus freaks” and the hit Broadway musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

He joined a Four Square Gospel Church in Los Angeles, enrolled in Bible college, and became a Pentecostal preacher. He also started emceeing and booking concerts for such Christian artists as Keith Green to 2nd Chapter of Acts.

Bob Gersztyn put together his love of pop music and photography to publish an illustrated, two-volume work titled “Jesus Rocks the World — The Definitive History of Contemporary Christian Music.” Pictured here is the book cover for Volume One. Photo courtesy Bob Gersztyn

Today, at age 65, Gersztyn’s religious fervor has mellowed; he rarely attends church and calls himself “an allegorical Christian.” But he has put together his love of pop music and photography to publish an illustrated, two-volume work titled “Jesus Rocks the World — The Definitive History of Contemporary Christian Music.”

The book, totaling some 600 pages, traces the history of Jesus music from Negro spirituals, gospel, and blues to its modern-day roots in Southern California with the Calvary Chapel and Vineyard church movements in the 1970s.

It also tells the story of rock and folk stars who had “born-again” conversions, such as Bob Dylan; Noel Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul, and Mary); and John Michael Talbot (of Mason Proffit).

Gersztyn, who grew up in a Catholic family in suburban Detroit, decided Jesus was the answer when he heard a radio account of how guitarist Jeremy Spencer had suddenly quit Fleetwood Mac during a performance at the Hollywood Bowl. It was soon learned that Spencer ran off with an infamous evangelical Christian sect called the Children of God.

Gersztyn, his mind altered by an estimated 100 LSD trips in the 1960s, convinced his girlfriend to head out to Southern California with him to join the Children of God.

“I was smoking pot one day when Jesus appeared to me in a vision,” he recalled. “He told me he was the source of all love, then said, ‘Come follow me.’”

Gersztyn, who wound up joining the Four Square Church rather than the Children of God, became part of an army of young people who went off seeking spiritual bliss after drug-induced mystical experiences in the 1960s and 1970s. Many of them found a home among the counterculture “Jesus movement,” also known as “the Jesus people.”

Today, the music born out of that movement has grown into a huge industry. Estimates of its annual revenue range from $500 million to $2 billion — depending on who does the calculating and what bands are included as “contemporary Christian.”

Take, for example, the mega-band U2. “They came out of the Jesus movement in Ireland,” Gersztyn said. “People think of them as Catholic, but their first albums were sold through Christian bookstores.”

Members of the Christian music group MercyMe backstage at the American Music Awards ceremony Sunday (Nov. 14) in Los Angeles, where they were honored as Favorite Contemporary Inspirational

Today, Christian music includes popular bands like Third Day and MercyMe, and it’s hard to imagine a pop music genre that does have a “Christian” band.

“There are Christian death metal festivals in Norway,” Gersztyn said. “You have bands that sound like Rage Against the Machine, but they’re singing about Jesus.”

Gersztyn considers Christian country/rock musician Larry Norman, who died in 2008 at age 60, to be the single most important figure in the history of contemporary Christian music. He is remembered for his 1969 Capitol Records album “Upon this Rock,” and his song “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music,” which features the verse, “Jesus is the rock and He rolled my blues away.”

Gersztyn, who now lives in Salem, Ore., said his musical horizons widened in 1987, when he went to see a Bob Dylan concert in Eugene. Dylan, then in his evangelical Christian phase, was opening for the Grateful Dead.

“Most of the people were there to see the Dead, not Dylan,” Gersztyn recalled. “I was still really into the Christian thing, and being a minister, and didn’t want to get too close to the Deadheads because I thought God wouldn’t be happy about it.”

In his book, however, Gersztyn writes that the emotionalism and improvisational spirit that inspires a great Grateful Dead concert is not that much different than the Holy Spirit that drives parishioners to gospel music ecstasy in many African-American churches.

“In both instances,” he writes, “the experience is communal, with the audience or congregation being as much a part of the show as the performers.”

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First Things

The Materialists’ Rapture

June 28, 2013

Wesley J. Smith

There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

Proselytizers for “transhumanism” claim that through the wonders of technology, you or your children will live forever. Not only that, but within decades you will be able to transform your body and consciousness into an infinite variety of designs and purposes—self-directed evolution leading to the development of “post human species” possessing comic book character-like super abilities. Indeed, one day we will be god-like: “In the distant future,” Princeton biologist Lee Silver sighed in his book Remaking Eden, we will become immortal “mental beings” as “different from humans as humans are from the primitive worms with tiny brains that first crawled along the earth’s surface.”

Transhumanism is becoming the world’s newest religion, offering adherents the kind of hope once within the exclusive province of faith—and without the humbling concept of an omnipotent God to whom one owes prayer and thanksgiving. No need for divine forgiveness. No karmic debts to be paid by reincarnation. No need to believe in any reality beyond the strictly material universe.

Inventor extraordinaire Ray Kurzweil is probably the most famous proponent of transhumanism. Now the head of engineering for Google, Kurzweil predicts that “the Singularity”—a forthcoming “tipping point” of exponential technological acceleration—will unleash an unstoppable cascade of scientific advances that lead to an inevitable overcoming of physical death.

Human immortality, Kurzweil predicts, will be here by 2045, achieved through the means of uploading our minds into computers. We will “have non-biological bodies,” he has prophesied, “allowing us to live in a virtual reality in which the virtual reality will be as realistic as the actual reality.”

Other transhumanist projects include genetic engineering of embryos to produce enhanced children, living in a group consciousness, and radical body altering to better express hyper-individuality.

Transhumanism is a very serious part of many people’s lives, with countless books, articles, blogs, and university courses devoted to exploring the technology, ethics, and associations dedicated to pursuing prospects for achieving a transhuman future. Why all the attention paid to concepts once primarily within the domain of science fiction? A big part of the appeal, I think, is a yearning to become extraordinary—without actually having to work for it. Why spend years honing one’s musical talent if it can be technically engineered into the package?

But more fundamentally, transhumanism offers a materialistic replacement for the psychic damage caused when religious belief is lost or evaporates. Indeed, it strikes me that the Singularity is a materialistic echo of the eschatological belief of some Christians in a pending “Rapture.” Consider:

• The Rapture and the Singularity are both supposed to occur at a specific moment in time.

• The Rapture and the Singularity ultimately lead to death’s final defeat.

• The Rapture heralds an Edenic age of peace and harmony for believers, lived in the “new Jerusalem.” So too the Singularity, albeit right here on terra firma.

• The Rapture brings an end to all suffering for believers, as does the Singularity. Indeed, the ultimate goal of transhumanism is to banish suffering and want from the experience of materialistic life.

• Raptured Christians expect to receive “glorified” bodies that are both real and immortal. Kurzweil’s promise of “non biological bodies” seems like a similar concept.

Transhumanism even holds out the promise that the dead will be raised, a core principle of Christian faith. For example, if he doesn’t live long enough to become immortal, Oxford Professor Nick Bostrom—perhaps the leading intellectual light in transhumanism—plans to have his head cryogenically frozen. Once the Singularity kicks in and the resulting technology enables his reanimation, Bostrom plans to have his mind uploaded into a computer and thereby “live” forever.

Meanwhile, Kurzweil is pursuing his own version of resurrecting the dead by planning to construct a technological version of his long dead father. From the ABC News report:

The 63-year-old inventor has been gathering boxes of letters, documents and photos in his Newton, Mass. home with the hopes of one day being able to create an avatar, or a virtual computer replica, of his late father. The avatar will be programmed to know everything about Kurzweil’s father’s past, and will think like his father used to, if all goes according to plan.

“You can certainly argue that, philosophically, that is not your father,” Kurzweil said. “That is a replica, but I can actually make a strong case that it would be more like my father than my father would be, were he to live.”

The Letter to the Hebrews states that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” That seems to me to be a pretty good definition for the transhumanist belief that man will live forever by recreating himself in his own image. If that isn’t religion, I don’t know what is.

Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. He also consults for the Patients Rights Council and the Center for Bioethics and Culture.

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Coup in Egypt ***

The Associated Press (Edited from longer article.)

Syria's Assad says opponents 'used up all tools' to oust regime

Syrian president tells state-run newspaper he refuses to believe revolution is underway

Posted: Jul 4, 2013

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview published Thursday that his government had fended off everything his enemies had thrown at him and that the only remaining threat to his rule was a far-off — and improbable — foreign intervention.

In comments to the state-run Al-Thawra newspaper, Assad rejected the idea that what has transpired in Syria for more than two years is a revolution. Instead, he reiterated his past claims that it is a conspiracy by Western and some Arab states to destabilize his country.

He also praised this week's massive protests by Egyptians against their Islamist leader and said the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi meant the end of "political Islam."

In Syria, more than 93,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in March 2011. The crisis began with peaceful protests against Assad's rule, then morphed into civil war after some opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent. Millions of Syrians have been forced to flee their homes.

Throughout the crisis, Assad has insisted that his government is not facing a popular rebellion, but rather a Western-backed conspiracy against Syria, accusing the rebels fighting to topple his regime of being terrorists, Islamic extremists and mercenaries of the oil-rich Arab Gulf states that are allies of the United States.

"The countries that conspire against Syria have used up all their tools — moral, material and psychological — and they have nothing left except direct (military) intervention and this is too big for them to attain," Assad said in the interview.

He did not elaborate, but the Obama administration is reluctant to mire the U.S. military in another unpredictable conflict and its allies are unwilling to engage military in Syria alone.

The Assad regime says Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey, in addition to the U.S. and its European allies, are on the list of countries conspiring against Syria. These states have been chief supporters of the opposition fighting to overthrow Assad.

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WND

DEVIL WORSHIPPERS CRINGE OVER 'HAIL SATAN' ABORTION CHANTS

'Pro-choice' activists go to extremes in Texas

Published: July 3, 2013

JOHN GRIFFING

Abortion activists opposing the 20-week abortion ban bill in Texas have drawn national attention for chanting “Hail Satan” while pro-life advocates sang Amazing Grace.

Now, a Twitter account run by actual Satanists is distancing itself from the pro-abortion activists.

The tweet comes from the so-called “UK Church of Satan,” which describes itself as “A community of free thinking individuals and realists. Connecting followers of the Church of Satan in the UK.”

The white-hot battle over late-term abortion procedures in the state moved into overdrive the past few weeks, with Democrats killing a pro-life plan by Texas Republicans in a special session of the legislature with a late filibuster aided by a raucous mob that would not allow representatives to record their vote by the legal deadline of midnight.

Gov. Rick Perry, vowing his state would not succumb to mob rule, called another special session immediately to address the proposed abortion limits, which is now under way.

The effort comes only weeks after the graphic images of babies who were killed by now-convicted abortionist Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia were seared into the nation’s conscience. Gosnell was convicted of using a scissors to snip the spinal columns of babies born alive to cause their “demise.”

Texas has a similar case. Abortionist Doug Karpen allegedly used his bare hands to twist off the heads of infants born alive.

State authorities called for a full investigation into Karpen after Life Dynamics released a video with accusations from three women who worked for the Houston-based abortionist.

The interview featuring Deborah Edge, Krystal Rodriguez and Gigi Aguilar provided proof, Life Dynamics said, that “the lofty rhetoric of ‘choice’ may insulate those who work in the political and public relations arena, but the day-to-day reality for those who provide those ‘choices’ is to deal with the corpses and parts of corpses they pull out of their customers’ bodies.”

Mark Crutcher, the founder of Life Dynamics, said, “While the pro-life movement claims that abortion takes the life of a living human being, nobody on earth knows that better than the people who work at abortion clinics.”

Said Edge: “I thought, well, it’s an abortion you know, that’s what he does, but I wasn’t aware that it was illegal. … Most of the time we would see him where the fetus would come completely out and of course, the fetus would still be alive.

“He does a lot of huge abortions. A lot of the times, we would bring the big fetus[es] that were over age, we would re-open the bag and just look at it and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s so big!’”

Life Dynamics said: “Simply put, this is abortion!”

The release of the video came just as Gosnell, who was convicted in Philadelphia of first-degree murder, was sentenced to multiple life terms in prison. He avoided the death penalty by agreeing not to appeal.

“During Gosnell’s trial,” Crutcher said, “it became clear that organizations like Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation, and others within the pro-choice community were fully aware of what Gosnell was doing. But they kept quiet because this was a rock they did not want the public looking under. What they knew, and wanted to keep hidden, was that everything being done at this abortion clinic was within the standard operating procedures for every other abortion clinic in the country. So they, and their lapdogs in the media, started whistling past the graveyard.”

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WND

MURDERED PRIEST IGNORED

No reaction from U.S. backers of Syrian rebels

Published: July 3, 2013

GARTH KANT

A resounding silence is the reaction of those supporting the U.S. arming of Syrian rebels after the murder of a priest by rebels.

No word from President Obama or the State Department, and no word from lawmakers who back the administration’s policy of arming the rebels.

Two weeks ago, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., issued a statement urging the arming of Syrian rebels after U.S. officials claimed the Assad regime had used chemical weapons.

“U.S. credibility is on the line,” they wrote.

Now, there are no comments from either senator and no responses to requests for a statement from WND on the murder of 49-year-old Franciscan Father Francois Mura by Syrian rebels.

To be sure, the circumstances of the killing are murky but not the fact the priest was murdered by rebels.

Catholic Online originally reported the Vatican had confirmed Father Mura had been beheaded and provided a video. It turns out, the Vatican had confirmed the killing of Father Mura on June 23 but said the circumstances of his death were not fully understood.

Sources tell the London Telegraph the priest “died when he was shot inside his church.” The video may be of an earlier beheading.

The Custody of the Holy Land issued a press release that said: “Islamists attacked the monastery, ransacking it and destroying everything. When Father Francois tried to resist, defending the nuns, rebels shot him.”

The attack happened in the resort town of Ghassaniyeh, which is under the control of the jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra. The Telegraph reports a kidnapped Italian journalist heard Jabhat al-Nusra rebels refer to Father Francois as “a spy.”

While it was still believed that the murdered priest had been beheaded, WND reached out to leading Democrats and Republicans and asked whether they supported the administration’s arming of rebels who would behead a priest.

Not one Democrat responded, including Senate Intelligence Committee members Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., John Rockefeller, D-W.V., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., Mark Udall, D-Colo.; Senate Armed Service Committee members Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., Clair McCaskill, D-Mo., Tim Kaine, D-Va.; Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Robert Menendez, D-N.J., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Tom Udall, D-N.M, as well as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, a former U.S. Army captain, told WND that if the U.S. had acted earlier in Syria, the situation might be different.

“But now there is a tyrant on one side and al-Qaida backed rebels on the other, which is a no-win situation,” he said. “Neither our troops nor funding nor weapons should be wedged into the middle of a no-win situation.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted: “Prayers for Father Francois Murad. A grim reminder of why we should not give arms to these people.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s office reissued a statement originally made last week that read, “Giving weapons to the Syrian opposition means, in all likelihood, that the United States will be arming and aiding extremist groups who seek to defeat us and our way of life.

“To make the American taxpayer pay to send arms to our enemies is madness. Rather than unilateral foreign policy decision-making from the White House, there needs to be careful debate by Congress, as is our constitutional responsibility, and a clear strategy that is in line with America’s national security interests before any involvement is considered.”

The caution expressed in those statements is reflected in an assessment of the situation in Syria by WND sources.

WND foreign policy analyst F. Michael Maloof reports in the latest G2 Bulletin that “the first shipments of U.S. weapons consisting of small arms and ammunition could be in the hands of Syrian rebels within the next week or so.”

He cautions that “it will be a challenge for CIA to insure that the proper groups obtain and keep the weapons.”

Maloof cites a report from the intelligence group Stratfor that “weapons supplied to non-jihadist groups in the past” often end up in “the hands of extremist groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra.”

“Once weapons arrive in Syria,” the report said, “it is extremely difficult for outside actors to maintain control over their subsequent distribution. There are several measures that can be taken to limit their destruction, but whether through outside seizure, donation or trade, some of these weapons are sure to wind up in extremist hands.”

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Mail.com (Edited from longer article(

Vatican bank director, deputy resign amid scandal

July 01, 2013

Photo: APAn undated photo of Monsignor Nunzio Scarano in Salerno, Italy.

ROME (AP) — The director of the embattled Vatican bank and his deputy resigned Monday, the latest heads to roll in a broadening finance scandal that has already landed one Vatican monsignor in prison and added urgency to Pope Francis' reform efforts.

The Vatican said in a statement that Paolo Cipriani and his deputy, Massimo Tulli, stepped down "in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See." The speed with which they resigned, however, indicated that the decision was not entirely theirs.

Cipriani, along with the bank's then-president, was placed under investigation by Rome prosecutors in 2010 for alleged violations of Italy's anti-money-laundering norms after financial police seized 23 million euro ($30 million) from a Vatican account at a Rome bank. Neither has been charged and the money was eventually ordered released.

But the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, has remained under the glare of prosecutors and now Francis amid fresh concerns it has been used as an offshore tax haven. It was the latest turmoil to hit the IOR, which has long been the source of scandal for the Holy See. Last year, the bank's board ousted its then-president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, for incompetence and erratic behavior.

The resignations Monday and nominations of interim administrators represented a final overthrow of the bank's old guard management and coincided with its efforts to comply with international norms to fight money-laundering and terror financing.

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Daily Mail

Mother Brings Baby Back to Life With Two Hours Of Loving Cuddles After Doctors Pronounce Him Dead

SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 2013

It was a final chance to say goodbye for grieving mother Kate Ogg after doctors gave up hope of saving her premature baby. She tearfully told her lifeless son - born at 27 weeks weighing 2lb - how much she loved him and cuddled him tightly, not wanting to let him go. Although little Jamie's twin sister Emily had been delivered successfully, doctors had given Mrs Ogg the news all mothers dread - that after 20 minutes of battling to get her son to breathe, they had declared him dead.

Having given up on a miracle, Mrs Ogg unwrapped the baby from his blanket and held him against her skin. And then an extraordinary thing happened. After two hours of being hugged, touched and spoken to by his mother, the little boy began showing signs of life.

At first, it was just a gasp for air that was dismissed by doctors as a reflex action. But then the startled mother fed him a little breast milk on her finger and he started breathing normally.

'I thought, "Oh my God, what's going on",' said Mrs Ogg. 'A short time later he opened his eyes. It was a miracle. Then he held out his hand and grabbed my finger. 'He opened his eyes and moved his head from side to side. The doctor kept shaking his head saying, "I don't believe it, I don't believe it".'

The Australian mother spoke publicly for the first time yesterday to highlight the importance of skin-on-skin care for sick babies, which is being used at an increasing number of British hospitals.

In most cases, babies are rushed off to intensive care if there is a serious problem during the birth. But the 'kangaroo care' technique, named after the way kangaroos hold their young in a pouch next to their bodies, allows the mother to act as a human incubator to keep babies warm, stimulated and fed. Pre-term and low birth-weight babies treated with the skin-to-skin method have also been shown to have lower infection rates, less severe illness, improved sleep patterns and are at reduced risk of hypothermia.

Mrs Ogg and her husband David told how doctors gave up on saving their son after a three-hour labour in a Sydney hospital in March. The doctor asked me had we chosen a name for our son,' said Mrs Ogg. 'I said, "Jamie", and he turned around with my son already wrapped up and said, "We've lost Jamie, he didn't make it, sorry".

'It was the worse feeling I've ever felt. I unwrapped Jamie from his blanket. He was very limp. 'I took my gown off and arranged him on my chest with his head over my arm and just held him. He wasn't moving at all and we just started talking to him. 'We told him what his name was and that he had a sister. We told him the things we wanted to do with him throughout his life.'

Jamie occasionally gasped for air, which doctors said was a reflex action. But then I felt him move as if he were startled, then he started gasping more and more regularly. 'I gave Jamie some breast milk on my finger, he took it and started regular breathing.'

Mrs Ogg held her son, now five months old and fully recovered, as she spoke on the Australian TV show Today Tonight. Her husband added: 'Luckily I've got a very strong, very smart wife. 'She instinctively did what she did. If she hadn't done that, Jamie probably wouldn't be here.'

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IPE

Washington Is Driving The World To The Final War — Paul Craig Roberts

June 28, 2013

Paul Craig Roberts

“V For Vendetta,” a film that portrays evil in a futuristic England as a proxy for the evil that exists today in America, ends with the defeat of evil. But this is a movie in which the hero has super powers. If you have not seen this film, you should watch it. It might wake you up and give you courage. The excerpts below show that, at least among some filmmakers, the desire for liberty still exists.

Whether the desire for liberty exists in America remains to be seen. If Americans can overcome their gullibility, their lifelong brainwashing, their propensity to believe every lie that “their” government tells them, and if Americans can escape the Matrix in which they live, they can reestablish the morality, justice, peace, freedom, and liberty that “their” government has taken from them. It is not impossible for Americans to again stand with uplifted heads. They only have to recognize that “their” government is the enemy of truth, justice, human rights and life itself.

Can mere ordinary Americans triumph over the evil that is “their” government without the aid of a superhero? If ideas are strong enough and Americans can comprehend them, good can prevail over the evil that is concentrated in Washington. What stands between the American people and their comprehension of evil is their gullibility.

If good fails in its battle with Washington’s evil, our future is a boot stamping on the human face forever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKvvOFIHs4k&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-gHVGOoE48

If you, an American, living in superpower America lack the courage to stand up to the evil that is “your” government, perhaps the courage of Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, and tiny Ecuador will give you heart.

A US senator from New Jersey, Robert Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Ecuadoran government that he would block the import of vegetables and flowers from Ecuador if Ecuador gives asylum to Edward Snowden. The cost to Ecuador would be one billion dollars in lost revenues.

Menendez’s statement–”Our government will not reward countries for bad behavior”–is ironic. It equates bad behavior with protecting a truth-teller and good behavior with betraying a truth-teller. Menendez’s statement is also a lie. The US government only rewards bad behavior. The US government consistently rewards those who conspire against the elected governments of their own countries, setting them up as dictators when Washington overthrows the elected governments.

Menendez’s threat did not work, but the senator did succeed in delivering yet another humiliating blow to Washington’s prestige. The Ecuadoran President, Rafael Correa, beat Menendez to the punch and cancelled the trade pact with the US on the grounds that the pact was a threat to the sovereignty of Ecuador and to moral principles and was being used by Washington to blackmail Ecuador. “Ecuador doesn’t accept pressure or threats from anyone,” added Communications Secretary Fernando Alvarado who then offered Washington foreign aid to provide human rights training to combat torture, illegal executions and attacks on peoples’ privacy.

Washington, exposed with its hand in the cookie jar devouring the privacy of the entire world and prevented by its hubris from acknowledging its illegal behavior and apologizing, has so mishandled the Snowden affair that Washington has done far more damage to itself than occurred from Snowden’s revelations. Washington has proven conclusively that it has no respect for anyone’s human rights, that it has no respect for any country’s sovereignty, that it has no respect for any moral principles, especially those it most often mouths, and that it relies on coercion and violence alone. The rest of the world now knows who its enemy is.

Washington’s presstitutes, by helping Washington demonize Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Manning, Assange, and Ecuador, have demonstrated to the world that the US media is devoid of integrity and that nothing it reports can be believed. The US print and TV media and NPR comprise a ministry of propaganda for Washington’s immoral agendas.

On June 24, the Stasi State’s favorite whore, the Washington Post, denounced three times democratically-elected Rafael Correa as “the autocratic leader of tiny, impoverished Ecuador,” without realizing that the editorial not only demonstrated the Washington Post’s lack of any ethics whatsoever but also showed the entire world that if “tiny, impoverished Ecuador” can stand up to Washington’s threats, so can the rest of the world.

President Correa replied that the Washington Post “managed to focus attention on Snowden and on the ‘wicked’ countries that support him, making us forget the terrible things against the US people and the whole world that he denounced.” Correa added that Washington’s “world order isn’t only unjust, it’s immoral.”

The reason Washington hates Correa has nothing to do with Snowden. That Ecuador is considering asylum for Snowden is just an excuse. Correa is hated, because in the second year of his first term he repudiated the $3 billion dollar foreign debt that corrupt and despotic prior regimes had been paid to contract with international finance. Correa’s default threat forced the international financial gangsters to write down the debt by 60 percent.

Washington also hates Correa because he has been successful in reducing the high rates of poverty in Ecuador, thus building public support that makes if difficult for Washington to overthrow him from within.

Yet another reason Washington hates Correa is because he took steps against the multinational oil companies’ exploitation of Ecuador’s oil resources and limited the amount of offshore deposits in the country’s banks in order to block Washington’s ability to destabilize Ecuador’s financial system.

Washington also hates Correa for refusing to renew Washington’s lease of the air base in Manta.

Essentially, Correa has fought to take control of Ecuador’s government, media and national resources out of Washington’s hands and the hands of the small rich elite allied with Washington. It is a David vs. Goliath story.

In other words, Correa, like Venezuela’s Chevez, is the rare foreign leader who represents the interests of his own country instead of Washington’s interest.

Washington uses the various corrupt NGOs and the puppet government in Colombia as weapons against Correa and the Ecuadoran government. Many believe that it is only a matter of time before Washington succeeds in assassinating Correa.

American patriots, who feel that they should be on “their” government’s side regardless of the facts, would do well to remember what true patriotism is. For Americans, patriotism has always meant allegiance to the Constitution, not to the government. The oath is to defend the Constitution against enemies domestic and foreign. The Bush and Obama regimes have proven themselves to be the Constitution’s worst enemies. It is not possible for a true patriot to support a government that destroys the Constitution. The United States is the Constitution. Our country is not the Obama regime, the Bush regime, or some other administration. Our country is the Constitution. The Constitution is our country.

Beyond obligations to one’s own country, all humans have a responsibility to human life itself. Washington’s puppet states, such as the NATO countries, Japan, and Colombia, by providing cover and support for Washington’s aggression are enabling Washington to drive the world into World War III.

The temptation of Washington’s money easily overwhelms weak characters such as Tony Blair and David Cameron. But the governments of NATO countries and other accommodating states are not only selling out their own peoples by supporting Washington’s wars of aggression, they are selling out humanity. Washington’s hubris and arrogance grow as Washington bumps off country after country. Sooner or later Russia and China, will realize that they themselves are targets and will draw firmer lines. Arrogance will prevent Washington from acknowledging the lines, and the final war will be launched.

Washington’s hegemonic impulse is driving the world to destruction. The peoples of the world should realize this and force their governments to stop enabling Washington’s aggression.

About Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.

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RT News

SOFTWARE THAT TRACKS YOUR EVERY MOVE AND PREDICTS FUTURE BEHAVIOR DRAWS HEAT

February 11, 2013 02:32

Reuters / Regis Duvignau

US defense giant Raytheon has developed a controversial software that uses social networking sites to track your movements, able to predict where a person will be and their future behavior. The program has drawn criticism from civil rights groups.

A video obtained exclusively by The Guardian shows how software developed by the US defense contractor Raytheon, can gather vast amounts of personal information from social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.

Raytheon has admitted that the technology was shared with the US government as part of a joint research and development program in 2010, as part of an effort to build a national security system capable of analyzing trillions of entities from cyberspace.

But, the Massachusetts-based company says it has not sold the software, which is called Riot, or Rapid Information Overlay Technology, to any clients.

The controversial software allegedly enables access to entire parts of a person’s life, their friends, any pictures of themselves they have posted online and places they have visited charted on a map.

In the video it is explained by Brian Urch, Raytheon’s ‘principal investigator’, exactly how the program can be used to track someone down.

“We’re going to track down one of our employees,” says Urch. He then proceeds to show, using information gathered from social networking sites, how “Nick” visited Washington National Park and a picture of Nick in the park with a blonde woman.

“We know where Nick is going, we know what Nick looks like, now we want to try to predict where he will be in the future,”Urch continues.

As Nick regularly uses Foursquare, a phone app that alerts friends to your whereabouts, it was possible for Riot to track the top ten places visited by Nick and the times at which they were visited.

It shows that Nick visits a gym every Monday at 6am. “So if you want to get hold of Nick, or maybe get hold of his laptop, you might want to visit the gym at 6am on a Monday,” says Urch.

Using public websites for law enforcement is considered legal in most countries, and Riot will be of interest to intelligence and national security agencies. In February last year the FBI requested that it wanted to develop ways of mining social media sites for monitoring “bad actors or groups”.

This has prompted concern from civil liberties groups about online privacy. Ginger McCall, an attorney at the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, said Riot raised concerns about how an individual’s data could be collected covertly without oversight or regulation.

“Users may be posting information that they believe will be viewed only by their friends, but instead it is being used by government officials or pulled in by data collection services like the Riot search,” McCall told The Guardian.

But Raytheon defended its product and in an email to the Guardian Jared Adams, a spokesman for the company’s intelligence and information systems department, said it would help to meet the US’s rapidly changing security needs.He also highlighted that it does not analyze personally identifiable information, such as bank details or social security numbers.

In December Raytheon indicated that Riot would be part of a patent the company is pursuing for a system designed to gather data from social networking sites and blogs to identify if someone is a national security risk.


***

The Telegraph

Sky Deutschland to broadcast adverts directly into train passengers' heads

Sky Deutschland has developed technology to transfer adverts from train windows directly and silently into commuters' heads.

Passengers leaning their head against the window will "hear" adverts "coming from inside the user's head", urging them to download the Sky Go app.

By Andrew Trotman

03 Jul 2013

Passengers leaning their head against the window will "hear" adverts "coming from inside the user's head", urging them to download the Sky Go app.

The proposal involves using bone conduction technology, which is used in hearing aids, headphones and Google's Glass headset, to pass sound to the inner ear via vibrations through the skull.

A video for the Talking Window campaign released by Sky Deutschland and ad agency BBDO Germany states: "Tired commuters often rest their heads against windows. Suddenly a voice inside their head is talking to them. No one else can hear this message."

The voice comes from a Sky-branded transmitter made by Audiva that is attached to the train window.

BBDO spokesman Ulf Brychcy told the BBC: "If our customer Sky Deutschland agrees, we will start with the new medium as quickly as possible.

"Some people don't like advertising in general. But this is really a new technology. [It might] not only be used for advertising, but also for music, entertainment, mass transport information, weather reports and so on."

Sky Deutschland said it had not made a decision on whether to launch the campaign.

***

Natural News

Worse than meth: Facebook is altering your mind and turning you into a slave

by: J. D. Heyes


July 03, 2013

(NaturalNews) Are online social media sites like Facebook, Google+ and others as addictive as some drugs like meth? Yes, say an increasing number of social observers and experts. Their advice? Step away from the computer and do it now, while you still can.

Don't get us wrong; we here at NaturalNews understand very well and appreciate the fact that we are an Internet-based publication. And while we appreciate the hundreds of thousands of daily readers we get, in no way do we believe we are feeding an addiction; rather, we see ourselves as filling a niche.

But interactive social media sites are a different Internet animal altogether, and many are beginning to see them as intrinsically harmful to society as a whole.

"It's been called FaceCrack," writes philosopher, author and lecturer David Rainoshek in a recent blog post. He continues:

And if you have been getting a sinking feeling when you use Facebook that you did not have as a first-time or new user... if you have a hard time with people who use it or incessantly check it (such as those endlessly posting photos of their latest meal, cat experience, new flame, new car, vacation)...

If you have been wondering if Facebook (FB) is good for you - or is good for society... or have been thinking "this has got to end," then this blog post is for YOU.

Enter the Facebook dragon

Rainoshek argues that through social sites like Google, Yahoo, Facebook and even online legacy media companies like The New York Times, you are incessantly being fed products, services and other goods, in addition to a non-stop litany of mind-altering news, information, and inane blather that, taken in sum, amount to an overload of your brain.

Brian Young of Demand Media cites a recent study by Cornell University's Steven Strogatz, who claims that rather than making you seem more connected to others - co-workers, old friends, new acquaintances - social media sites actually make it harder for us to distinguish between meaningful relationships we actually cultivate in the real world and the plethora of casual relationships formed via social media.

"By focusing so much of our time and psychic energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections, he fears, will weaken," writes Young.

Another study on Facebook found that too much social media time, where you find out about how well your friends and acquaintances are doing compared to you are in life, can cause anger, envy and malcontent.

Per Reuters:

A study conducted jointly by two German universities found rampant envy on Facebook, the world's largest social network that now has over one billion users and has produced an unprecedented platform for social comparison.

"We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry," said researcher Hanna Krasnova from the Institute of Information Systems at Berlin's Humboldt University.

"From our observations some of these people will then leave Facebook or at least reduce their use of the site," she added.

Short-term pleasure, long-term disappointment, mind-altering experiences

Yes, but is Facebook really a mind-altering experience?

"Absolutely," writes Rainoshek. "Significantly. It is changing the physical structure of your brain's neural network, which even changes how you feel about yourself and other people. And in ways that may surprise and enlighten you."

He cites evidence that shows users get a "rush" when they check their email, their social site home page, and other electronic communiques like Twitter - a rush caused by the chemical dopamine (DOPE-uh-meen), a neurotransmitter which feeds the reward-driven part of your mind.

"Basically, Facebook is to your self worth what drinking a Big Gulp of Coca-Cola is to your blood sugar levels, both short- and long-term," writes Rainoshek. "Facebook brings you up temporarily (wow, isn't that, and that, and that, and that, and ooooh that... interesting, shocking, stupid, funny, sad, challenging, whatever), and then drops you like a stone almost every time you log out. And the longer you are on, the more self-absorbed and worthless you often feel."

Sources for this article include:

http://davidrainoshek.com

http://smallbusiness.chron.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

***

Waking Times

Mexico’s Zone of Silence

June 28, 2013

By Dylan Charles

Scott Corrales Strange Mag

There exist a number of “accursed sites” on the surface of our planet. Some of these locations are the sites of gravitational or atmospheric disturbances that still remain unexplained by twentieth century science. Such anomalous areas possess properties which interfere sporadically with humans and their equipment. One area worthy of mention surrounds the Mediterranean island of Elba (famous for being Napoleon’s first place of exile), and is the bane of maritime aviation in the Mediterranean; another spot is Mt. Stredohori in Czechoslovakia, where an unknown force drains car engines of power throughout the length of a 75-foot stretch of road.

However, we need not travel so far to encounter a part of the world that is even more perplexing than these others, although it remains little known to most people: Mexico’s mysterious, magical zona del silencio–the Zone of Silence, just four hundred miles away from El Paso, Texas. Deserts are often considered to be mysterious enough without the added weirdness that this patch of earth some four hundred miles from El Paso has to offer. It is a place which gobbles up radio and TV signals, and which has of late been associated with the UFO phenomenon.

Centuries of Mystery

According to Dr. Santiago Garcia, there has been an awareness of the unusual properties of the area since the mid-nineteenth century, when farmers trying to eke out a living in the forbidding environment became aware of the “hot pebbles” which routinely fell to earth from the clear sky. In the 1930s, Francisco Sarabia, an aviator from the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, reported that his radio had mysteriously ceased to function, earning him the distinction of being the Zone of Silence’s first victim.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t until 1970 that the zone first entered public awareness when an American missile, an Athena, fired from the White Sands Missile Base, went off course inexplicably, heading for the Zone of Silence, where it ultimately crashed. A few years later, an upper stage from one of the Saturn boosters used on the Apollo project broke up over the very same area. The U.S, military sent a team down to the region to investigate its surprising natural properties.

Engineer Harry de la Pena was the first outsider to discover the zone and its perplexing radio interference properties. Humans have been resided in and around the scrub and cactus filled desert area since Prehistoric times, when an unknown tribe of natives clustered around a watering hole which is still in existence. The community of Ceballos, Durango, some 25 miles away, is the settlement nearest to the zone, and it is the starting point of any venture into its unreal atmosphere. The visitor will find vast expanses of flat terrain, pinpointed with thorny desert bushes and infested with poisonous snakes. No different from any other desert in that respect.

Pena and his group became aware of the “silence” when they found that it was impossible to communicate with one another via walkie-talkies: radio waves are not transmitted at the accustomed speed and frequency. Portable radios would emit but the lightest whisper when turned on at full volume. To this day, television signals cannot be received in Ceballos or in the neighboring ranches. Some magnetic force, with the power to dampen radio waves, seems to exist in the region.

Since the engineer’s initial visit, scientists from around the world have visited the zone, flocking to the research facility erected at its very heart by the Mexican government. The zone’s somewhat foreboding name has been changed to Mar de Tetys–The Sea of Thetys, due to the fact that it was once under water millions of years ago–and the research lab has been dubbed the “biosphere”.

Curiously enough, the zone lies just north of the Tropic of Cancer and south of the 30th parallel, which places it in the company of a number of other planetary anomalies such as the Bermuda Triangle. UFOs and the presence of nonhuman life have been recorded in this anomalous region. Until a few years ago, there were people still alive who could remember having had encounters with allegedly extraterrestrial creatures in the early decades of this century.

Close Encounters

On October 13, 1975, Ernesto and Josefina Diaz, an enterprising couple, drove into the zone in a brand new Ford pickup to collect unusual rocks and fossils which can be found in great abundance. As they busied themselves in their activity, they noticed that a desert rainstorm was heading toward them. Hoping to avoid being caught in a flash flood, they wisely packed their vehicle up and sped off, but not fast enough to avoid the relentless rain: the track ahead of them turned into a swamp: the pickup was quickly trapped and began to sink in the soft terrain.

While the couple struggled to keep their vehicle from submerging into the mud, two figures approached them, waving at them amid the torrential rain. Two extremely tall men in yellow raincoats and caps, with unusual but by no means alarming features, offered their assistance to help them get underway again. The men instructed the totally drenched couple to get inside the pickup again while they pushed. Before the couple realized, their vehicle had popped out of the hole and on to firmer ground.

When the husband got out of the pickup once more to thank the two men, he realized they were gone. There were no footprints in evidence or any surface feature that could have concealed their departure.

Travelers crossing the zone regularly report seeing strange lights or fireballs maneuvering at night, changing colors, hanging motionless and then taking off at great speed. Two ranchers heading back from a festivity witnessed how a coruscant light floated down from the dark sky and disgorged humanoid occupants, who glowed with the same eerie light and were walking toward them. The ranchers broke into a frantic run.

Physical traces of these nocturnal visits can be found. One witness returned one morning to the site where he had seen the mysterious lights cavorting the previous night, and found that the scrub vegetation “had been set on fire”. Dozens of similar reports emerge from the zone, told by reliable witnesses.

Dr. Santiago Garcia, who has devoted much of his life to the investigation of this anomalous region, has speculated that some of lights seen by the residents could well be from a roving vehicle left behind by the U.S. military, recharging its solar cells by day and conducting furtive analytical missions under cover of darkness. Garcia points out that when the Air Force came to collect the Athena missile’s wreckage, they took along several truckloads of desert sand for analysis. There is the widespread belief that huge deposits of magnetite exist in the area, and that this iron ore is responsible for the dampening of electromagnetic waves. It has also been proven that considerable deposits of uranium exist in the mountains ranges fencing the Zone of Silence. In 1976, a visitor to the region took the first photograph ever of a UFO landed near a topographic feature known as “Magnet Hill” by the locals. The photos clearly show a shiny silver object resembling a large stewing pot. The lucky shutterbug was able to take more shots of the UFO as it rose upward with a roar, disappearing toward the west.

Yet not all of the “extraterrestrial” visitors have been as elusive. The staff of a small local ranch was visited regularly by three tall, blond, long- haired visitors–two males and one female–who were described as being polite to a fault, extremely handsome and dressed “in a funny way”. Their Spanish was flawless and had a musical ring to it.

The reason for these visits was to secure water from the ranch’s well: the “funny” visitors would ask their hosts to please fill their canteens with water, never requesting food or anything else. When asked where they came from, the visitors would limit themselves to smiling and saying “from above.” Could these visitors be the “nordic” types referred to by ufologists? Spanish researcher Antonio Ribera described similar “Blonds” operating in the vicinity of Rosellon, in the Pyrenees, where they would only trouble their human hosts for bread and milk, paying for them with gold nuggets. Almost white-haired “nordics” were reported along the Sierra Nevada, in California, were they would come down to barter with townspeople every so often. There exists a connection of sorts between certain enigmatic deserts and these angel-like creatures.

No experience in the Zone of Silence is easily forgotten, and journalist Luis Ramirez Reyes will almost certainly never forget his own. During the month of November of 1978, Ramirez visited the Zone as part of a news team assigned to cover a story on the bizarre site.

Choosing to go ahead of the main team, Ramirez and his photographer charged into the desert, navigating by intuition rather than by hard knowledge of where their final destination was located: the “biosphere” constructed by the Mexican government, a laboratory dedicated to investigating the unusual biological life forms found in the area and to conducting psychic research.

No closer to their target than when their reckless impulse drove them into the wasteland, Ramirez became painfully aware that he lacked water or the provisions necessary to survive in this hostile environment should they become hopelessly lost. Having reached a “Y” intersection in the unpaved desert road, they had chosen the wrong one.

Suddenly, he noticed that there were three figures walking up ahead, coming toward them. Hoping that these locals might be able to point them toward the biosphere, the journalist told his companion, who was doing the driving, to slow down to talk to them. He was startled when the driver passed them by, as if not having seen them.

Ramirez began wondering if the desert hadn’t gotten to him already. Thetrio were ordinary people, clad in the outfits usually worn by the inhabitants of that part of the country. As they drove along, he experienced the shock of running into them again–in a different part of the desert! Sternly ordering the photographer (who couldn’t see anyone at all) to stop the car , Ram°rez got his chance to speak to the three locals. He asked them if they had seen another vehicle like theirs in the area. They said that they hadn’t, but that if they drove cross country amid the rocky desert terrain of the “Sea of Thetys” they would reach the biosphere. The three locals claimed to be out looking for some stray animals of theirs, but they had no water bottles or other gear that would indicate that they were able to survive in the menacing terrain.

After completing the cross-country trek, both men were relieved to find the structure of the biosphere rising in the distance. Upon arriving, and meeting up with their team, they discussed their unusual encounter in the desert with Harry de la Pena. In a sobering tone, Pena told them that there were no people in the desert who weren’t part of the biosphere team and certainly no flocks for peasants to look for. An aerial survey in later days convinced the investigator of the utter desolation of the region that stretched for hundreds of miles. But if they weren’t people, what were they?

“Nordic” visitors and other humanoids are not the only kind reported in the region. There have been sightings of oddly clad beings only a few feet in height as well. Ruben Lopez, driving through the zone one night in a van on his way to visit to a relative in Ceballos, noticed that his vehicle’s engine began to sputter. This troubled him no end, as he had recently serviced the van. Abruptly, he became aware of five small figures that were standing along the roadside some hundred feet ahead. Lopez believed at first that they were lost children, until he noticed that they wore unusual silver one-piece outfits.

The little beings’ heads were covered by helmets resembling those used by football players. Through the helmets’ open front, Lopez could tell that they had adult faces. They approached the stalled van with curiosity, filling the driver with genuine fear: Lopez raced the van’s engine in neutral, which caused the dwarfs to scatter into the desert darkness. The van continued functioning normally after the creatures had vanished.

The Archeological Enigma

The extremely ancient ruins in the Zone of Silence pose another disquieting enigma of their own. Archaeologists have been unable to determine their age, but they undoubtedly form an astronomical observatory thousands of years old. There is no connection between this Mexican Stonehenge and the primitive tribes that clustered around the watering hole which constitutes an oasis in the arid region. At some point in antiquity, someone was quite active in the Zone.

Perhaps they were interested, as are modern astronomers and geologists, in the large number of small meteorites that are attracted to the Zone’s magnetic properties.

A meteorite that crashed in Chihuahua in the late 1950s contained crystalline structures that far outdated the Solar System itself. Researcher Luis Maeda Villalobos concluded that the meteorite contains “material as old as the Universe”: Our solar system is some 6 billion years old, while the meteorite’s age has been estimated at 13 billion years.

Whether we are dealing with UFOs, dimensional visitors who find the magnetic aberrations facilitate their journeys, or merely a poorly understood part of our world with unsuspected properties, no easy answers apply to the riddle posed by the Zone of Silence. The builders of the mysterious ruined observatory would have probably agreed.

***

The Guardian

Orson Welles' criticisms of fellow actors and directors found on lost tapes

Director's sharp criticism of Hollywood stars emerges following publication of previously unpublished recordings

Dalya Alberge

The Observer, Saturday 29 June 2013

Orson Welles in 1948. His criticisms of Hollywood actors have emerged from tapes in which he chatted to a friend. Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd. / Allstar

He is one of cinema's giants, but Orson Welles looked down on many of his fellow actors and directors, viciously denigrating some of the biggest names of his day, previously unpublished private conversations reveal.

Laurence Olivier was "stupid", Spencer Tracy "hateful" and Charlie Chaplin "arrogant", and he could not even bear to look at Bette Davis. James Stewart was a "bad actor", Joan Fontaine had "two expressions, and that's it", and Norma Shearer was "one of the most minimally talented ladies to appear on the silver screen".

His criticisms have emerged from long-lost tapes in which he chatted unguardedly to a friend, never expecting them to be made public. He died suddenly in 1985 before he could edit them into a planned autobiography, and the tapes have been in the friend's garage until now.

As an actor, director, producer and writer, Welles's masterpieces include Citizen Kane, which remains one of cinema's most influential films. The interviews were recorded over regular lunches from 1983 with his friend, director Henry Jaglom. Welles died of a heart attack just days after their last meeting. Now the interviews are to be published on 16 July in My Lunches with Orson. The tapes were made available to film historian Peter Biskind, who told the Observer that they reveal Welles as never before – talking intimately about the highs and lows of his career and the people he knew. The subjects are wide-ranging – from politics to literature.

They show a cinematic genius "with his hair down", Biskind said: "He's not the great director being interviewed by a starry-eyed journalist. He's speaking to a friend, and is therefore free to gossip."

Welles lavished praise on actors he admired such as Joseph Cotten, his co-star in The Third Man ("brilliant") and John Wayne ("some of the best manners of almost any actor I've ever met in Hollywood"). But at others he hurled insults. At one point another titan of acting, Richard Burton, approached him in the restaurant, saying: "Elizabeth [Taylor] is with me. She so much wants to meet you. Can I bring her over?" Welles replied: "No. As you can see, I'm in the middle of my lunch." Jaglom scolded Welles for rudeness, observing that Burton "actually backed away, like a whipped puppy". Welles retorted: "Burton had great talent. He's ruined his great gifts. He's become a joke with a celebrity wife. Now he just works for money, does the worst shit."

Welles's stubborn insistence on his own way made it impossible for him to work within the studio system, and he struggled for funding for his films. He said about his last decade: "I have to make pictures … much cheaper – [requiring] more ingenuity and faking … yet they will be judged by the standards of the time when I had more money."

Elsewhere, he mentioned Marilyn Monroe: "She was a girlfriend … I used to take her to parties before she was a star … I wanted to try and promote her career. Nobody even glanced at Marilyn." He pointed her out to Darryl F Zanuck, the movie mogul, who commented: "She's just another stock player. We've got a hundred of them." A few months later, Zanuck had certainly noticed her .

Welles's extreme disdain for several actresses emerges repeatedly. "I never could stand looking at Bette Davis, so I don't want to see her act," he said, also dismissing Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Jones as "hopeless".

He ridiculed Humphrey Bogart for "picking fights in nightclubs" and referred to Olivier's first two scenes of King Lear on the BBC as "the worst things I ever saw in my life". He particularly loathed Spencer Tracy: "I'm having a hard time trying to think of a great Tracy performance ... He was gigantic in Judgment at Nuremberg, although it is not a great picture", but he "couldn't stand" those romantic Katharine Hepburn "things". "He was just a hateful, hateful man."

Among directors, he admired Carol Reed, for whom he played Harry Lime in The Third Man. The screenplay was written by Graham Greene, who subsequently published the book of the same name (which he had originally written as a preparation for the screenplay). Welles played down Greene's contribution: "His authorship is greatly exaggerated … Graham wrote the novel after the movie."

He had mixed views of Alfred Hitchcock: "I've never understood the cult of Hitchcock. Particularly the late American movies … Egotism and laziness. And they're all lit like television shows … I saw one of the worst movies I've ever seen the other night [Rear Window] … Complete insensitivity to what a story about voyeurism could be. I'll tell you what is astonishing. To discover that Jimmy Stewart can be a bad actor … Even Grace Kelly is better than Jimmy, who's overacting."

Biskind said: "Eavesdropping on Welles and Jaglom is [like] sitting at the table … Welles comes off as a fascinating bundle of contradictions, at once belligerent and almost childishly vulnerable … a shy man who hid behind … masks but loved to display himself."

***

REALfarmacy.com

Cancer in a Can: The Shocking True Story of how Pringles are Made

By Dr. Mercola

JUL 2, 2013

To understand the nature of Pringles and other stackable chips, forget the notion that they come from actual potatoes in any recognizable way.

The Pringles Company (in an effort to avoid taxes levied against “luxury foods” like chips in the UK) once even argued that the potato content of their chips was so low that they are technically not even potato chips.

So if they’re not made of potatoes, what are they exactly?

The process begins with a slurry of rice, wheat, corn, and potato flakes that are pressed into shape.

“The chips move forward on a conveyor belt until they’re pressed onto molds, which give them the curve that makes them fit into one another.

Those molds move through boiling oil … Then they’re blown dry, sprayed with powdered flavors, and at last, flipped onto a slower-moving conveyor belt in a way that allows them to stack.

From then on, it’s into the cans … and off towards the innocent mouths of the consumers.”

I suspect nearly everyone reading this likely enjoys the taste of potato chips. However, they are clearly one of the most toxic processed foods you can eat—whether they’re made from actual potato shavings or not.

Potato Chips are Loaded with Cancer-Causing Chemical

One of the most hazardous ingredients in potato chips is not intentionally added, but rather is a byproduct of the processing.

Acrylamide, a cancer-causing and potentially neurotoxic chemical, is created when carbohydrate-rich foods are cooked at high temperatures, whether baked, fried, roasted or toasted. Some of the worst offenders include potato chips and French fries, but many foods cooked or processed at temperatures above 212°F (100°C) may contain acrylamide. As a general rule, the chemical is formed when food is heated enough to produce a fairly dry and brown/yellow surface. Hence, it can be found in:

Potatoes: chips, French fries and other roasted or fried potato foods

Grains: bread crust, toast, crisp bread, roasted breakfast cereals and various processed snacks

Coffee; roasted coffee beans and ground coffee powder. Surprisingly, coffee substitutes based on chicory actually contains 2-3 times MORE acrylamide than real coffee

How Much Acrylamide are You Consuming?

The federal limit for acrylamide in drinking water is 0.5 parts per billion, or about 0.12 micrograms in an eight-ounce glass of water. However, a six-ounce serving of French fries can contain 60 micrograms of acrylamide, or about FIVE HUNDRED times over the allowable limit.

Similarly, potato chips are notoriously high in this dangerous chemical. So high, in fact, that in 2005 the state of California actually sued potato chip makers for failing to warn California consumers about the health risks of acrylamide in their products. A settlement was reached in 2008 when Frito-Lay and several other potato chip makers agreed to reduce the acrylamide levels in their chips to 275 parts per billion (ppb) by 2011, which is low enough to avoid needing a cancer warning label.

The 2005 report “How Potato Chips Stack Up: Levels of Cancer-Causing Acrylamide in Popular Brands of Potato Chips,” issued by the California-basedEnvironmental Law Foundation (ELF), spelled out the dangers of this popular snack. Their analysis found that all potato chip products tested exceeded the legal limit of acrylamide by a minimum of 39 times, and as much as 910 times! Some of the worst offenders at that time included:

Cape Cod Robust Russet: 910 times the legal limit of acrylamide

Kettle Chips (lightly salted): 505 times

Kettle Chips (honey dijon): 495 times

Beware: Baked Chips May Be WORSE than Fried!

If you think you can avoid the health risks of potato chips by choosing baked varieties, which are typically advertised as being “healthier,” think again. Remember that acrylamide is formed not only when foods are fried or broiled, but also when they are baked. And according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data on acrylamide levels in foods, baked chips may contain more than three times the level of acrylamide as regular chips!

Interestingly, the same trend holds true for other foods, too, which suggests that baking processed potatoes at high temperature may be one of the worst ways to cook them. For instance, according to the FDA’s data, Ore Ida Golden Fries contained 107 ppb of acrylamide in the regular fried version and 1,098 when baked. So remember, ALL potato chips contain acrylamide, regardless of whether they are natural or not; baked or fried. Likewise, they will ALL influence your insulin levels in a very negative way.

***

Until next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions

 “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”
(Psalm 91:5)