Paleo Diet: Smart eating or latest fad?

Yahoo Shine

In the quest for optimum health and weight, should humans consider looking back at what their ancestors consumed? That's the theory proposed by the "Paleo Diet" (aka, Caveman Diet), which recommends taking cues from the age of hunters and gatherers and leaving some of our modern food groups behind. 

The idea is simple: You eat a diet that's gluten-free, but rich in lean, organic meats, fish, poultry, eggs, vegetables, fruit and nuts. As much as possible should be sourced locally. You exclude grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar and processed oils.  

[works for me...]

All of this measures up to a eating regimen that, according to Loren Cordain, professor of health and exercise at Colorado State University, is a "powerful way to normalize health and well-being."

Cordain is joined by thousands of others who have found similar success on the Paleo — with the site Whole9 providing perhaps the best description of the benefits saying:

"Eating like this is good for maintaining a healthy metabolism, and reducing inflammation within the body. It’s been doing great things for my energy levels, body composition and performance in the gym. It also helps to minimize my risk for a whole host of lifestyle diseases and conditions, like diabetes, heart attack and stroke."

WebMD, which always does a decent job of uncovering the truth behind these diets, quizzed a bunch of health specialists who agreed that better health can be achieved on the Paleo, but still believe moderation is the key to overall well-being.

"People who eat diets high in whole grains, beans, and low-fat dairy tend to be healthier because these foods are nutrient-rich and there are mountains of research about the health benefits of diets that include, not exclude, these foods,” Keith Ayoob, EDd, RD, and assistant professor at New York's Albert Einstien School of Medicine told the site.

That "mountains of research" bit touched upon by Ayoob is one of the problems facing the Paleo from gaining more scientific backing. There just haven't been enough large studies to satisfy experts; which is one of the main reasons why U.S. News & World Reports ranked the diet nearly dead last in every category for its first ever "Best Diets" report.

"For the Paleo Diet, additional evidence is needed to show conclusively whether or not it is as effective as some people hypothesize," Ben Harder, general manager of Health and Science at the magazine told ABC News. "The most relevant studies have been small, as our published review of the Paleo Diet indicates. We hope researchers will publish more — and larger — studies on the Paleo Diet so that health experts, including our expert panel, have more evidence to consider in the future."

Still interested in giving the Paleo a shot? Wikipedia has some great background information on the diet — while the official site can get you started on meal plans and other advice.

See more:

The Addictive Opioids in Wheat and Dairy Food
Gluten: What You Don't Know Might Kill You
Dairy: 6 reasons you should avoid it at all costs
7 Reasons to Eat More Saturated Fat

and Wiki's: Paleolithic diet

 

Do You Have an "ANT" Infestation? How to Deal with Automatic Negative Thoughts

Pick the Brain

How do you deal with negative thoughts and limiting beliefs?

Are you aware of your self-talk and thinking patterns?

Many people suffer from an ANT infestation, which stands for Automatic Negative Thoughts. Our self-talk is often automatic and can be difficult to notice. We go through life making decisions and behaving based on these automatic thoughts, and instead of controlling what we think about, our thoughts control us.

The thoughts than run our life are often self-defeating, irrational, and simply not true. Negative self-talk leads us to believe we must be perfect, that we're helpless, or that we're a victim. If we're not careful negative self-talk will lead to anxiety, worry, and depression.

You can learn to identify your ANTs and begin to separate and rationalize your negative thoughts before reacting to them.

Four types of ANTs

The worrier

Do you ever think, "What if something bad happens?" Worrying promotes anxiety and tends to magnify problems. If you're always focusing on and preparing for all the bad things that "could" happen it makes it very difficult to have any joy in life. Remember that 95% of what we worry about never comes true, so if you're going to use your imagination to tell stories, you might as well make them positive.

The critic

The critic is our ANT that tells us we will never be as good as someone else and that we might as well quite. When we judge and criticize ourselves it leads to a sense of low self-worth and we tend to ignore the positive traits we all have. Be careful not to always compare yourself to others, and be willing to cut yourself some slack and validate how you feel.

The victim

When you encounter an obstacle do you believe you can make progress, or does it seem too difficult to work through? We have all played the role of victim in our life. It comes out during those times when we feel helpless and out of control about something. It's easy to tell ourselves "I can't do this!" Playing the victim role can lead to feelings of depression because we feel hopeless and incapable of making change.

The perfectionist

Are you good enough? Have you achieved enough? This ANT is always pushing you to do more and do it better. The perfectionist is never satisfied and always expects more. This is the voice that tells you you're no good when you get second place instead of first, or you get a 95% instead of 100%. The perfectionist ANT leads to burnout and chronic stress, and will always steal your happiness despite wonderful achievements.

Learn to question your negative thoughts.

It's time to terminate these ANTs and replace them with positive supportive statements. You can learn to take a step back, rationalize, and create effective mental habits.

You are going to be attached to these thoughts, but you must realize that despite how attached you feel, the validity of these thoughts are based on how they hold up under scrutiny.

Develop some counter statements that can offer a more realistic and empowering perspective.

If you notice any of these ANTs infesting your life, ask "What is the evidence for this?" Develop a counterstatement that can help you bring your thinking to a more rational place. One where you know you can handle it and that you're good enough.

The negative statements from the worrier, critic, victim, and perfectionist have little basis in reality. Once you can discredit these ANTs you can begin to incorporate more positive and supportive statements.

Develop mindfulness

Anytime you are feeling vulnerable or stressed it can impact how you respond and what you think about.

So, developing greater self-awareness will help you to recognize what's leading to negative self-talk and help you stay focused and present in order to manage these thoughts.

Mindfulness is being fully aware of what is happing internally with our mind and body, and externally in our environment. In essence, it is as if we are stepping outside of ourselves and becoming an objective observer of our self and surroundings.

Learning to develop mindfulness of thought is a little more advanced stage of mindfulness practice, though when you're able to do so, it offers a chance to gain greater awareness and simply experience our thoughts without having to react emotionally.

As you begin to direct your attention to the thought processes taking place you will see how quickly your thoughts and feelings shift from one moment to the next.

We often live such busy lives we don't pay attention to the signs of our emotional response.

Ask yourself:

What was going on in the environment?

What were you thinking? Did you have worry thoughts?

What were you feeling?

What were your actions?

Paying attention to the feeling or the valence of our emotions can be a great signal into the type of thoughts you are having. Do you feel positive or negative? Is what you're feeling pleasant or unpleasant?

When you feel unpleasant don't get caught up in this. You can relax and step back instead of unconsciously brooding in this state. You can simply acknowledge how you feel and bring your attention back to your body or breath.

You can begin to go below the surface of the tumultuous waves of the mind, where there are calm waters, and develop peace and serenity by learning to be in control of your mind as opposed to the mind controlling you. 

'Xe' guns for hire above law as US hears & sees no evil

RT

The private security firm formerly known as Blackwater is on trial in the U.S. Not over allegations that it killed innocent civilians in Iraq 4 years ago. But because two ex-employees claim the company overcharged Washington for protecting State Department staff in war zones. The firm which is now called Xe provides more mercenaries for the U.S. in Afghanistan than anyone else, and has been implicated in a number of scandals. In 2007, its hired guns were accused of shooting dead 17 unarmed civilians in Baghdad.

Despite a lengthy legal process, no-one was punished over the alleged massacre. The company is now set to take an even bigger role in Afghanistan, as the U.S. withdraws its combat troops.

'Radiation hormesis an incredible lie'

Press TV

(video at link)

The nuclear theory 'radiation hormesis' - the hypothesis that low doses of ionizing radiation are beneficial - is "an incredible lie."

"A lot of nuclear scientists … actually have the nerve to claim that radiation is good for you, and they have this theory called 'radiation hormesis' and they claim that radioactivity exercises the immune system and it's a healthy thing for people. Essentially what they are doing is promoting their technology with this incredible lie," Karl Grossman, a professor at State University of New York College told Press TV's U.S. Desk in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

Grossman believes some people are trying to downplay radioactive pollution in Savannah River Site - a nuclear reservation in South Carolina.

"This week there was supposed to be a speaker before an advisory board, at the Savannah River Site, and he planned to tell this advisory board that: don't worry about the radiation from Fukushima. The Japanese shouldn't worry about the radiation from Fukushima," Grossman said, adding that Savannah River Site was "a high pollution area."

           

"In fact he wrote a little newspaper article saying even the workers who had been exposed to this enormous amounts of radioactivity there, won't meet no health consequences because of radiation hormesis," he concluded.

Another famine, another humanitarian band-aid

France24

The food crisis in East Africa has seen a renewed drive for urgent international aid – as it has in the past. But while humanitarian assistance can provide short-term relief, it does not address Somalia’s long-term malaise.

The scenes are haunting, yet familiar: anguished mothers stream into packed refugee camps bearing malnourished children and harrowing tales of human survival, aid officials issue pleas for more international aid, donor countries cough up new promises, the usual bunch of celebrities sing their usual humanitarian tunes, and of course the journalists record it for an audience that has seen it all before.

We’ve been there, done that – and now we’re doing it all over again. [...]

See also: Deadly Compassion Part III 

 

The political establishment and the Oslo massacre

WSW

The establishment political parties and media have been busy covering their tracks following the massacre in Oslo last Friday.

While it is still not clear whether the 32-year-old killer Anders Behring Breivik acted alone, one thing is certain: there is a definite link between the campaign of incitement against Muslims, which has been supported by all of the parties of the US and European bourgeois establishment and by the media, and the political motives of the fascist who murdered 76 people. 

At his first court hearing on Monday, Breivik declared that he wanted to inflict maximum damage on Norway’s social democratic Labour Party because, he claimed, it had polluted Norwegian culture by allowing large numbers of Muslims to enter the country. From his anti-Islamic blogs and 1,500-page manifesto, it is clear that Breivik sought with his bloody act to strike a blow against Muslim immigrants and everything he regarded as Marxist, left, multicultural and “politically correct.” He chose to target the Norwegian Labour Party because he, erroneously, considered it to be Marxist and pro-immigrant.

Despite—or, more accurately, because of—Breivik’s explicitly fascist agenda and his known ultra-right associations, the media is at great pains to obscure the political issues raised by his atrocity and portray him as nothing more than a lone psychopath. His ideas, however, are not simply the creations of the diseased brain of one individual, but rather the products of a diseased social system. [...]

The Left has lost its way over Libya By William Bowles

Well worth reading through this one from Mr. Bowles....

-----------------

William Bowles

In an essentially excellent piece Sarah Flounders ‘Libya: Demonization and Self-determination‘, near the beginning under the sub-hed ‘What should be the response to this terror?’ she writes:

“Unfortunately, a minority of groups or individuals who present themselves as opponents of war spend more time cataloguing Gadhafi’s past real or alleged shortcomings than rallying people to respond to this criminal, all-out U.S. attack. Their influence would be small, except that it coincides with the opinions of the U.S. ruling class. Thus it is important to thoroughly answer their arguments.”

Then she writes:

“The response to this colonial war of aggression should be the same as the response to a racist mobilization, a racist lynch mob or a police attack on an oppressed community: Mobilize all possible forces to stand up to the crime and say “no!” Refuse to take part in the orchestrated campaign of vilification.
“This may not be an easy position to take. But it is essential to reject the racist political onslaught that accompanies the military onslaught.”

I get the impression that Sarah feels caught between a rock and an alleged leftie, else why say ‘This may not be an easy position to take’? Why is it not an easy position to take if it’s so clearly a imperialist and racist attack on a sovereign country? Flounders continues:

“Of course, such misguided groups are a small minority in the progressive movement. But there are those political organizations, which six months ago had not bothered to mention Libya, that now suddenly seek out respectable venues to add their own reasons that the dictator Gadhafi “must go” — an echo of the imperialist demand. Some even insist that in order to be part of the political discourse, every anti-war voice must first join in condemnation of Gadhafi.”

But nowhere do I find Flounders asking the question why? And it’s not merely “misguided groups [who] are a small minority” who fell (again) into the Imperial trap. We saw the same ‘misguided minority’ do it over Yugoslavia and Kosovo. At the the end of the 60s it was Nigeria and the Biafra War (over oil of course with surprise-surprise, Shell, at the centre of it).

But why is the ‘misguided minority’ even regarded as being a part of a (real) left in the West? Or does it reflect a general loss of direction, even motivation for wanting real change within what’s left of the left?

I think it’s time to take a look at the timeline of the latest barbarian attack on the defenceless of the world. I think it reveals far more about how the left in the West operates, what are its motivations, than it does about the aims of the Empire (which should surely by now be apparent even to a reluctant leftie). [...]

Hands Off Libya! Demonstration at the White House (Video)

grtv

Numerous polls show that the people of the United States oppose the Libya war by a 2-1 margin despite the extreme pro-war propaganda churned out by the corporate media—which again has shown itself to be the fourth branch of government.

But this anti-war sentiment has not yet been reflected in mass anti-war activity. This was the significance of the July 9 protest initiated by the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). Despite the 96-degree heat index, for the first time hundreds of people came together to stand up, be counted and register their dissent at the President’s doorstep against the war on Libya. 

History has shown that mass movements can quickly grow from such gatherings, and this could again be the case if the war were to escalate. Over the last few weeks, the resistance of the Libyan people and government has only seemed to grow, exposing the imperialists’ vision of quick regime change as an unattainable dream.

US Sponsored "Democracy" in Colombia: Political Assassinations, Poverty and Neoliberalism

globalresearch.ca/

Not a week goes in Colombia without reports of assassinations and persecution of labor and political activists.

Ana Fabricia Cordoba, gender activist and leader of displaced peasants, was shot dead on June 7th inside a street bus, after she foretold her own death due to constant threats and abuses against her family.(1)

Manuel Antonio Garces, community leader, Afro-descendent activist and candidate for local office in southwestern Colombia received on July 18th a disturbing warning that read “we told you to drop the campaign, next time we’ll blow it in your house” next to an inactive hand grenade.(2)

Keyla Berrios, leader of Displaced Women’s League was murdered last July 22nd, after continuous intimidation of her organization and threats on behalf of death squads linked to Colombian authorities (3), a fact so publicly known after hundreds of former congressman, police and military personnel are either jailed or investigated for colluding with Paramilitaries to steal elections, murder and disappear dissidents, forcefully displace peasants and defraud public treasury, in a criminal network that extends all the way up to former president Alvaro Uribe and his closest aides (4). 

The official explanation for these crimes is also well known; Bacrim, an acronym which stands for “Criminal Gangs”, a term created from the Colombia establishment including its omnipresent corporate media apparatus to depoliticize the constant violence unleashed against union leaders, peasants and community activists. 

Human Rights defenders point to the unequal and unjust structures of power and wealth which rely heavily on repression. However, no matter how much effort is put into misleading public opinion about the nature of this violence, the crimes are so systematic and their effects always turning out for the benefit of the elite that a simple class analysis debunks the façade of these “gangs” supposedly acting on their own, and exposes the insiduous relationship between the armed thugs and seats of political power in Colombia.

What we are dealing with is the expression of present-day fascism in Latin America. [...] 

Israel Attacks Norway

 joequinn.net

As a rule, Israel (“that shitty little country” according to a former French diplomat), only wages conventional war as a last resort, and even then, unlike the US of A, it lacks the manpower to invade and occupy foreign nations and must limit itself to blunt force bombing runs (or attacking Palestinian fishermen with gunboats). But the fact is that Israel doesn’t need to expend vast resources on conventional war, because there is another, equally (or perhaps more) effective way for such a pathologically-driven apartheid state to achieve its twisted objectives.

Deception

Yep, that’s right, ‘by way of deception’, or the ‘horse’s head in your bed’ school of diplomacy. To say that the Israelis are rather adept at this particular ‘art’ form is something of an understatement. Over the last 60 years, the Israeli elite have done more than any other group to successfully portray (to white Westerners) every single Muslim as potential ‘suicide bomber’. Their chosen method to achieve this screwed up state of affairs has been to manufacture ‘suicide bombings’ and then conveniently allow (or help) the blame to fall on some Muslim group. Of course, they’re also experts at covert assassination of innocent people, like Iranian scientists. [...]

IMF chief warns of social unrest in Europe

Or encouraging social unrest in Europe.... The IMF would love to see social unrest so it can offer the global currency as salvation and the continuance of it's disasterous social / economic policies that have driven countries into the bankers' coffers. When the US defaults then it should become interesting...

-----------------

Independent

The new head of the International Monetary Fund warned European leaders of the possibility of social instability as a result of the eurozone's economic problems.

Speaking in New York, where she is now based, Christine Lagarde, the former French finance minister, said that the recent economic turbulence which has seen Greece, Portugal and Ireland suffer debt crises – and the spectre hang over Italy and Spain – could "easily resurface" despite the lift in the markets after last week's €109bn (£96bn) bailout package for Greece.

Referring to the political upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East earlier this year, she said: "Social problems are of major concern to advanced economies, too. The young in particular are having a hard time finding work – with potentially lifelong implications in terms of employability and income. At the same time, the older generations are fighting to protect their health and pension benefits. Combine the two and we may face a 'clash of generations'."

She did praise European political leaders for their recent action and said that arguing Republicans and Democrats in Washington needed to follow their example and reach agreement, or the global economy would suffer.

"I'm hopeful that the political courage shown by European leaders will soon be followed by bold fiscal action in the US," she said. "The clock is really ticking. And people have to really find the appropriate solution." American policymakers have a deadline of 2 August before the US defaults on its debt.

Should we be popping the "Limitless" pill?

salon.com

The movie "Limitless," which came out on DVD last week, presents a potential future fueled by designer drugs. When we meet the film's protagonist Eddie Mora (Bradley Cooper), he's a divorced, disheveled, socially awkward writer who can't even come up with the first words of his novel. After getting dumped by his girlfriend, Mora runs into his drug-dealing ex-brother-in-law who offers Eddie a solution in the form of a little round pill. Within minutes, the drug transforms Eddie into a brilliant, creative, driven alpha male who quickly and effortlessly completes his long-stalled book.

"Enhanced Eddie" then acquires a stash of these pills and, in rapid succession, cleans himself up, learns Italian, wins back his ex-girlfriend and becomes a celebrity investment banker.

The film's "miracle" drug may seem far-fetched, but it's based in a medical reality: Taking certain medications, specifically those developed to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders, can boost cognitive performance in otherwise healthy people.

Many of us instinctively recoil from such an idea for moral reasons. Sculpting our brains, unlike, say, sculpting our noses, seems like cheating. But consider this: 7 percent of surveyed college students (and some 25 percent of those on elite campuses) have taken an unprescribed Ritalin -- or a similar drug used to treat attention deficit disorder -- to boost their performance on an exam.

And the phenomenon is not restricted to college students trying to raise their grade point averages: The military has a history of encouraging -- and sometimes even ordering -- soldiers to take Ritalin or Provigil, a drug that boosts alertness. Canadian researchers are now looking at a drug called metyrapone that may help dull the sting of painful memories. Already common is the number of executives who swallow a little dose of Propranolol -- which is normally used to treat high blood pressure but has also been prescribed for performance anxiety for many years -- to calm their nerves before they speak. And with so many of us already hustling to Starbucks morning, noon and night for shots of caffeine to keep us going, the question arises: Is there a case to be made for cognitive enhancement? [...]

Tuesday, July 26, 2011 Federal Reserve Attorneys Admit that Federal Reserve Banks Are PRIVATE Corporations With Private Boards of Directors

George Washington's Blog

I noted yesterday that the Federal Reserve has admitted that its 12 member banks are private - not governmental - entities.

Reader Siesta00000 sent me the following post with links to C-Span video of two of the Federal Reserve's senior counsel stating in court that this is true [I've edited for readability]:

During the second circuit court of appeals case for FOX News & Bloomberg v. Board of Governors lawyers in defense of the Fed make some revealing statements during the arguments. At about 13:45, the Fed lawyer stated:

"We do not believe the Federal Reserve Board is an agency, the Board of Governors, . . . the Federal Reserve Bank excuse me." (He made the mistake of saying the Federal Reserve Board when he meant the Federal Reserve Bank.)

***

He admitted the Federal Reserve Banks were not Federal Agencies in a court of law. Watch the lawyer's statement: here [video will play automatically once you click, but may take awhile to load. The videos are pre-set to play the relevant section, so you need not keep track of the times noted below.]

Another Federal Reserve lawyer goes further at 44:22 to state:

[The Federal Reserve Banks are] independent corporations [which carry on the day-to-day operations. But emergency lending must be approved by the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors.]

Watch the lawyer's statement: here.

At 46:23, the lawyer ... stated:

[The Federal Reserve Banks are] not agencies [and they have] private board of directors.

The most [interesting] evidence is in this clip: here.

 

New Documents Cast Doubt on Federal Anthrax Case

pbs.org

 

The Justice Department has called into question a key pillar of the FBI's case against Bruce Ivins, the Army scientist accused of mailing the anthrax-laced letters that killed five people and terrorized Congress a decade ago. Shortly after Ivins committed suicide in 2008, federal investigators announced that they had identified him as the mass murderer who sent the letters to members of Congress and the media. The case was circumstantial, with federal officials arguing that the scientist had the means, motive and opportunity to make the deadly powder at a U.S. Army research facility at Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Md. On July 15, however, Justice Department lawyers acknowledged in court papers that the sealed area in Ivins' lab -- the so-called hot suite -- did not contain the equipment needed to turn liquid anthrax into the refined powder that floated through congressional buildings and post offices in the fall of 2001. The government's statements deepen the questions about the case against Ivins. Searches of his car and home in 2007 found no anthrax spores, and the FBI's eight-year, $100 million investigation never proved he mailed the letters or identified another location where he might have secretly dried the anthrax into an easily inhaled powder.[...]

Rothschild Bank AND Goldman Sachs Are Both On The LIST Of Bondholders Getting U.S. Taxpayer Billions In Irish Bailout

Fool's Crow via dailybail.com

The Irish Government has recently passed the harshest budget in the history of the State with further austerity promised for the next three years and perhaps for decades. Prime Minister Brian Cowen and Finance Minister Brian Lenihan have steered Ireland from the booming prosperity of a Celtic Tiger to a ruined shell of a country where unemployment, poverty, emigration, and despair are proceeding to destroy a once proud, industrious people.

Cowen and Lenihan also bear the ignominy of having brought in the International Monetary Fund who, along with EU banksters, are now dictating Irish fiscal policy. The IMF has long had a vulturish reputation for plundering weaker countries by stripping the flesh of its victims down to the bare bones. This repulsive scavenger is well known for promoting austerity and misery, grabbing national assets for its bankster and corporate friends, and leaving the skeleton of a country’s economy in its wake. The first piece of offal to be plucked from the Irish carcass by this opportunistic carrion eater was the nation’s €20 billion pension fund, the life savings of working people.

As a result of Ireland’s dramatic reversal of fortune the names of Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan are now being reviled as the villains who inflicted horrendous financial disaster upon the Irish people and forced the enslavement of future generations to a criminal cadre of International Banksters.

Venus: 96 percent CO2, No Greenhouse Effect

theendofthemystery.blogspot.com

Scientific theory says it's only necessary for one observable example to show a theory wrong. And all you have to do is observe Venus through satellite data and compare it to earth. Venus with it's atmosphere containing 96.5 percent carbon dioxide has the same atmospheric temperature vs. atmospheric pressure as Earth with it's 0.04 percent carbon dioxide. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has no observable effect on temperature. [...]

11 Stunning Facts About America's Prisons

Business Insider

The U.S. has a greater percentage of its population locked up than any other country in the world.Despite budget cuts and tax shortfalls housing inmates costs the country almost $600 billion a year. Despite the rising incarceration rates over the last decade, crime is actually down. High inmate populations are blamed on mandatory sentencing and over-zealous drug laws. [...]

Norway Justice employees missing after massacre

This is a classic false flag operation designed to prey on peoples' fears. The CIA infiltrated the Norway police years ago. Norway is a very pro-arab country and most definitely anti-Zionist. There are multiple reasons why Norway has been targeted not least that it pulled out of bombing Libya and it has nothing to do with a lone terrorist. This guy is a patsy. It's a message to European countries: "Do as we say or face the consequences." 

Please read articles under "false flag" on this blog especially related to Operation Galdio. These cells are still in operation. 

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AP

Norway's justice minister told reporters Tuesday that employees from his department are still missing after a bombing at government headquarters in Oslo and a shooting spree on a nearby island that killed at least 76. Police plan to start publicly naming the dead for the first time Tuesday.

There is a particular focus on identifying the dead since authorities dramatically lowered the death toll Monday, apparently because they counted 18 bodies twice in the confusion following the massacre. They initially said 86 people died on the island, but now say the figure is 68.

Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to last week's bombing in the capital and a rampage at a Labor Party retreat for young people. But he has pleaded not guilty to the terrorism charges he faces, claiming he acted to save Europe from what he says is Muslim colonization.

"The Justice Ministry has people who are missing, we have people who are very hard hit by this and we are without offices," minister Knut Storberget told reporters.

Storberget also offered a defense of the police in response to a question about the mounting admissions of missteps.

Police have acknowledged that they took 90 minutes to reach Utoya island, where a gunman was picking off young people attending a retreat for the Labor Party's youth wing. They weren't able to deploy a helicopter because the entire crew had been sent on vacation. Victims who called emergency services from the midst of the massacre reported being told to stay off the line because authorities were dealing with the Oslo bombing.

See also: Norway Terror Attacks a False Flag: More Than One Shooter on Island; Oslo Police Drilled Bomb Blasts; Was It NATO’s Revenge for Norway’s Decision to Stop Bombing Libya? 

 

Compassion and Shadow

Huffington Post

"We need more understanding of human nature, because the only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger. And we are pitifully unaware of it. We know nothing of man ... far too little. His psyche should be studied -- because we are the origin of all coming evil." --C.G. Jung

"Compassion and love are not mere luxuries. As the source both of inner and external peace, they are fundamental to the continued survival of our species." --The Dalai Lama

Humans are wired for empathy, love and cooperation. Because we are psychological animals, however, one recurring factor undermines many of our actions. Our "shadow," as C.G. Jung called the repressed (hidden and often projected) aspect of the personality, tends to assume a life of its own because it is composed of the parts of myself I don't acknowledge and therefore can't integrate into my conscious life. What makes this shadow even more problematic is that it isn't only an individual matter. Our shadows can fuse together, as often happens in wartime, for example, when the enemy comes to symbolize everything evil and despicable about our human nature.

Cognitive neuroscience has discovered that the human brain possesses mirror neurons that automatically enable us to share and enact the experiences of others. Looking at someone else eat a juicy piece of fruit on a hot day, I "virtually" experience those flavours and textures, as well as the refreshment of the person eating it. Looking at television footage of tsunami survivors stirs a deep emotional identification with their devastated choices. Mirror neurons are one of the main drivers of empathy, an automated response over which we have limited control. We may choose or fail to act on empathy, but except for a small percentage of us -- those we call psychopaths -- nobody is immune to another's situation. It has even been suggested that mirror neurons may save the human species because they might inspire an emerging pattern of compassionate response to the on-going global cascade of extreme weather disasters, high-tech accidents and geophysical events such as earthquakes.

On our digitally connected planet, we now easily share information without geographical limitation through the Internet, mobile phones and other social media tools. As climate chaos disasters unfold, we might witness a sustained rise in collective compassion, leading to genuine international cooperation and unity of the human species. The invigoration of democracy and social justice in the Middle East might be an early example of this trend.

But there's also our shadow. Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran points out that humans are sometimes called the "Machiavellian primate" because of our ability to "read minds" in order to predict other peoples' behaviour and then outsmart them. Indeed, apes and humans may be so good at reading others' intentions because we share a specialized brain module that helps us understand others' motivations and anticipate their behaviour. 

Does that give us insight into how our "mental environment" has become a vast network of infotainment empires (such as the aptly named News Corporation) focused on collective manipulation? And how did mass advertising become the greatest unregulated social engineering experiment in human history? 

The Buddha said little about evil per se but he had a lot to say about the three "roots of evil": greed, ill will and delusion. Today they have become institutionalized: our economic system institutionalizes greed, militarism is institutionalized ill will and our powerful media mega-corporations institutionalize delusion. They are the main ways our collective shadow operates today. [...]

Norway Terror Attacks a False Flag: More Than One Shooter on Island; Oslo Police Drilled Bomb Blasts; Was It NATO’s Revenge for Norway’s Decision to Stop Bombing Libya?

Webster Tarpley

Washington DC, July 24, 2011 - The tragic terror attacks in Norway display a number of the telltale signs of a false flag provocation. It is reported that, although the world media are attempting to focus on Anders Behring Breivik as a lone assassin in the tradition of Lee Harvey Oswald, many eyewitnesses agree that a second shooter was active in the massacre at the Utøya summer youth camp outside of Oslo. It has also come to light that a special police unit had conducted drills or exercises near the opera house in downtown Oslo which involved the detonation of bombs during 2010 - exactly what caused the bloodshed a few hundred meters away this Friday. Further research reveals that United States intelligence agencies had been conducting a large-scale program of recruiting retired Norwegian police officers with the alleged purpose of conducting surveillance inside the country. This program, known as SIMAS Surveillance Detection Units, provided a perfect vehicle for the penetration and subversion of the Norwegian police by NATO.

A motive for the attack is also present: as part of its attempt to mount an independent foreign policy, including the imminent diplomatic recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a general rapprochement with the Arab world, Norway was leading the smaller NATO states in dropping out of the imperialist aggressor coalition currently bombing Libya. Norway was scheduled to stop all bombing and other sorties against the Gaddafi forces as out of August 1 at the latest.

Finally, the CIA limited hangout operation known as Wikileaks has already furnished a prefabricated off-the-shelf case for incompetence and malfeasance against the current Norwegian government that is doing all these things - in the form of a series of real or doctored dispatches which document the alleged negligence of this government in dealing with the terrorist threat, all in the view of US State Department. [...]

Soldier who said no to Afghanistan salutes Royal Navy medic jailed for same 'crime'

Stop the War Coalition

Ex-soldier Joe Glenton, who was court martialled for refusing to fight in Afghanistan, writes in support of Michael Lyons, the Royal Navy medic now in jail for the same reason, after being convinced by the Wikileaks revelations that the war was wrong.

Michael Lyons has been sentenced to seven months in the military prison in Colchester a week ago for refusing to undertake rifle training. Unsurprisingly, it received little attention from the mainstream media. 

One testimony at his trial, by a witness against him, a petty officer, typifies the ethical rot which infects senior ranks through to political commanders. ‘I told him.’ explained this contented lackey. ‘That I was not sending him to war, I was teaching him to use a rifle.’

So, I would add, he could serve... in a war. 

Professional, highly trained and selectively applied stupidity is still stupidity and makes a mockery of the courts. Although, in my experience court martials are like casinos, the house nearly always wins as a matter of design.

This, evidently, was a man blinkered enough to see only his little part in isolation, his own little corner of a crime. He had managed to compartmentalise the issue, he was only teaching rifle training. What a useful idiot to his superiors. It must beg the question -- what kind of military do we want in this country? An unthinking one? Armed men in a moral vacuum? A military which, by these qualifications, would turn on its own people if ordered to do so? Perhaps this would be worth mulling over for a moment.

Yet not everyone is infected and not everyone is a willing idiot. Michael Lyons, for example, is 24-years-old, a sailor since eighteen and has a firmer grasp of the ethical deficit of the Afghan occupation than his superiors, the heads of the services and the simpering politicians who decided he would be sent out to kill or die for their ambitions. It seems this is often the case; it is the lower ranks who shrug off the role of puppet. There are enough Bradley Mannings, Malcom Kendall-Smiths, Ehren Watadas, Ben Griffins to support that assertion and more are appearing.

Michael Lyons is this country’s latest political prisoner and I have no doubt he will emerge from the military’s half-cocked gulag as fired up as I did but he will need your support. Every day that I was in the same prison for the same 'crime', the letters made the difference.

They are a window into other people’s lives for a few short minutes and can be reread again and again. But for me, as I became more radical, the greatest thing was that everyday at evening meal, the 'screws' would have a stack of mail, all marked Glenton, sometimes up to 200 letters a day which they had to open in front of me. They disliked it immensely and this was, of course, pleasing and good for morale. The letters each represented a small victory against the creaking regime, to go with the bigger one which we each win when we say no.

Write to Michael Lyons:
236 Lyons D Company
MCTC Berechurch Hall Road
Colchester CO2 9NU.

See also:
Facebook: Support Michael Lyons...

 

 

Michael Lyons in jail for refusing to fight in Afghanistan

 

 

Joe Glenton on his way to jail for refusing to fight in Afghanistan