World's oldest human remains claimed in Israel

World's oldest human remains claimed in Israel

Israeli archaeologists have discovered human remains dating from 400,000 years ago, challenging conventional wisdom that Homo sapiens originated in Africa, the leader of excavations in Israel said on Tuesday.

What WikiLeaks revealed to the world in 2010

It's unsurprising that political leaders would want to convince people that the true criminals are those who expose acts of high-level political corruption and criminality, rather than those who perpetrate them.  Every political leader would love for that self-serving piety to take hold.  

But what's startling is how many citizens and, especially, "journalists" now vehemently believe that as well.  In light of what WikiLeaks has revealed to the world about numerous governments, just fathom the authoritarian mindset that would lead a citizen -- and especially a "journalist" -- to react with anger that these things have been revealed; to insist that these facts should have been kept concealed and it'd be better if we didn't know; and, most of all, to demand that those who made us aware of it all be punished (the True Criminals) while those who did these things (The Good Authorities) be shielded:

That reaction has not been weakened at all even by the Pentagon's own admission that, in stark contrast to its own actions, there is no evidence -- zero -- that any of WikiLeaks' actions has caused even a single death.

Jan Brewer - Not Afraid To Do What The Federal Government Won't And Shouldn't

Arizona Governor

December 16, 2010 | ISSUE 46•50

This April, when she signed into law Arizona's tough new anti-immigration policy, Gov. Jan Brewer bravely showed the nation that if the federal government wouldn't take the most draconian measures imaginable to deal with illegal aliens, then she would do it on her own.

By demanding that police check any suspicious- looking individual's immigration status, Brewer stood up for the kind of racial profiling that other politicians wouldn't, and under any circumstances shouldn't, have the guts to support. Refusing to bow down to sense or reason, Brewer also made it possible for citizens to sue police officers who fail to carry out the troublingly vague terms of the new law, no matter how much it might tie up the state's court system—a bold stance the federal government simply couldn't be bothered with.

And shouldn't be bothered with, because it's a really, really awful idea.

Like the growing tide of up and coming conservative politicians, Brewer understands that real change—the disturbing, almost surreal kind of change that drives a wedge between Americans, increases fear and xenophobia, and makes Arizona, and by extension the nation as a whole, seem impossibly backward—has to start at home.

The loon.

Posted on http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/12/09/18666107.php

Some of the "Operation Payback Manifesto" 
 
Hello World. We are Anonymous. What you do or do not know about us is irrelevant. We have decided to write to you, the media, and all citizens of the free world to inform you of our intentions, potential targets, and our ongoing, active campaign for the freedom of information exchange, freedom of expression, and free use of the Internet.

Not quite sure what to make of these guys yet. This sounds fine and dandy, but attacking corporate websites for infringing on free speech rights sounds a bit wrong-headed. Will they not become what they most despise?

Here are some more sites to check out and learn more about this:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/12/more_wikileaks


http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/09/technology/amazon_wikileaks_attack/index.htm?hpt=T2

http://forums.whyweprotest.net/splashpage.html


and here's a guy to follow who seems to have a more reasoned viewpoint:

http://twitter.com/#!/JPBARLOW


William Gibson, here we come!

Still Missed....