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TechnoratiIsrael Rains Fire on Gaza With Phosphorus Shells
JERUSALEM - Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.
![[Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops' advance. (Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/phosphorus-0105.jpg "phosphorus-0105.jpg")
As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops' advance. "These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in," said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.
The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world's mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel's offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded.
The Geneva Treaty of 1980 stipulates that white phosphorus should not be used as a weapon of war in civilian areas, but there is no blanket ban under international law on its use as a smokescreen or for illumination. However, Charles Heyman, a military expert and former major in the British Army, said: "If white phosphorus was deliberately fired at a crowd of people someone would end up in The Hague. White phosphorus is also a terror weapon. The descending blobs of phosphorus will burn when in contact with skin."
The Israeli military last night denied using phosphorus, but refused to say what had been deployed. "Israel uses munitions that are allowed for under international law," said Captain Ishai David, spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces. "We are pressing ahead with the second stage of operations, entering troops in the Gaza Strip to seize areas from which rockets are being launched into Israel."
The civilian toll in the first 24 hours of the ground offensive - launched after a week of bombardment from air, land and sea- was at least 64 dead. Among those killed were five members of a family who died when an Israeli tank shell hit their car and a paramedic who died when a tank blasted his ambulance. Doctors at Gaza City's main hospital said many women and children were among the dead and wounded.
The Israeli army also suffered its first fatality of the offensive when one of its soldiers was killed by mortar fire. More than 30 soldiers were wounded by mortars, mines and sniper fire.
Israel has brushed aside calls for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into the besieged territory, where medical supplies are running short.
With increasingly angry anti-Israeli protests spreading around the world, Gordon Brown described the violence in Gaza as "a dangerous moment".
White phosphorus: the smoke-screen chemical that can burn to the bone
- White phosphorus bursts into a deep-yellow flame when it is exposed to oxygen, producing a thick white smoke
- It is used as a smokescreen or for incendiary devices, but can also be deployed as an anti-personnel flame compound capable of causing potentially fatal burns
- Phosphorus burns are almost always second or third-degree because the particles do not stop burning on contact with skin until they have entirely disappeared - it is not unknown for them to reach the bone
- Geneva conventions ban the use of phosphorus as an offensive weapon against civilians, but its use as a smokescreen is not prohibited by international law
- Israel previously used white phosphorus during its war with Lebanon in 2006
- It has been used frequently by British and US forces in recent wars, notably during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Its use was criticised widely
- White phosphorus has the slang name "Willy Pete", which dates from the First World War. It was commonly used in the Vietnam era
Source: Times archives
246 Comments so far
Show AllThey're just doing the work of their God. Read the Old Testament. Their God tells them to gleefully slaughter every man, woman and child who isn't an Israelite. Happy are ye who dash their children against the rocks.
I'm sure that the Americans and Israelis will have no trouble turning all of Gaza into another Dresden - but with a much greater body count - in the final hours of this holocaust. It would all be ashes now but for the seige caused burning of furniture to keep warm. If this is how the Jewish occupier deals with captive populations what will AIPAC do with it's U.S. population? Make fuel and fertilizers???
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2448908,00.html
Mauritania recalls envoy
That's two. Or three. Not sure.
But we need many, many, MANY more countries to do exactly this.
And freeze the assets of Israel and Israeli companies worldwide, cutting off thier supply of ready cash, there by forcing the US to openly admit that they are supplying the weapons taht are mudering the people in Gaza.
Walk in peace.
CHEMICAL WEAPONS = WAR CRIMES
Need it be said what will happen if the world allows izrael to wipe out a population of another land/territory? Those izraeli paranoids already have their big fat noses up their pompus fat asses and will continue to gain as much as they can until they dictate to the world how to live. I would say they are pretty much over half way there. They are NOT any god's chosen people and they have fast become the nazi terrorists from whom they learned their terrorist tricks.
update for Gaza hospital
Dear all
I have received this email from a friend
written by:
The Rev. Charles Cloughen, Jr.
President Emeritus, American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem
Quote:"I was able to speak to Suhalia Tarazi , Director of the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza this morning.
I took notes and I am sharing with you as best I can her situation in Gaza.
" The situation is terrible. The injured are in their homes and unable to get to the hospital and the International Red Cross can't reach them. Gaza is now divided into three areas. 20% of the staff including 2 doctors are now unable to get to the hospital. Unfortunately a bomb went off in Jerusalem Square, right outside the hospital, only 30 meters away and it blew a hole in the hospital wall.
One of the aid's husbands was unable to reach his children. Later he discover that 1 child died and other members are all injured because a bomb destroyed a neighboring building.
The 19 year old son of one of the surgeons volunteered to work in the government ambulance. He was killed when his ambulance was hit by a missile. Three ambulances have been hit by Israeli missiles , five have died.
There is no electricity and no water. Fortunately the International Red Cross has provided Ahli Hospital with some food.
It is terrible and not safe to walk on the street.
After the invasion , Ahli Hospital on Sunday received 17 cases. Twelve were admitted to the hospital and 2 to government hospitals.
Today Monday morning 5 cases were received with 4 admitted for surgery. One doctor has slept in the hospital for the last 4 nights. Our staff is now working 2 -12 hour shifts, two shifts no days off.
Streets are covered with blood. - bloody time.
Staff members have taken people in their homes, with 20-30 people for refuge. The ambulance driver has 80 living in his home.
We all have received leaflets and telephone calls " you have to leave your home, we will attack it" Where to go for the 700,000 people in Gaza City?"
I feel very fortunate and blessed to be able to speak to Suhalia and I have promised her that I will tell her story and the story of the innocents. Thank you for all you are doing to circulate these messages. Please feel free to forward them the family and friends.
I offer her hope and encouragement and our commitment to help, with prayers and financial support."
The Rev. Charles Cloughen,
.
israel's love
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2009/01/06/to-israel-with-love/
http://www.palestinianmothers.com/video/angel-factories-children-in
.
And I suppose the phosphorus only hits the bad guys right? Hey Israel, is the phosphorus akin to being burned alive in the ovens in Germany?
Think about what you said. Equating this to the ovens?
I will definitely equate it to the ovens!
Except that in the Nazi camps Jews were not burned ALIVE.
De-countrify Israel.
International law is a fucking joke.
New Year 2009 in Gaza
http://palestinian.ning.com/video/new-year-2009-in-gaza
I wouldn't worry too much about this. I am sure the phosphorous in question is the same kind used by the US military and it is specially designed to only hurt bad people. When it hits innocent civilians it just bounces of harmlessly.
I have been offline, writing, making copies of my writing and art and stuffing envelopes, a few at a time,as can. Do what you can, as you can. Comments are good,especially sharing information, but more needs to be done. Particularly, more than bickering. There has been some great communication back and forth on CD in comments, for which I am grateful. It's my job to state the obvious: we represent people who read and think, and look at what some are typing as comments? Ah, well, the rest of us,the nonobnoxious, will work for peace. Good luck to us all. I was just reading Neve Gordon on DemocracyNow www.democracynow.org yesterday's show, and see he has an article on CD. I liked his comments about "bottom up" pressure.....that includes us, here in this country (or wherever you are on this planet;nothing is really local anymore).
NYCartist
Surprisingly I heard from Kay Bailey Hutchison (one of my Senators) right away and her staffer said the majority of comments were like mine. Next day I got an e-mail...not the canned kind (and after I picked myself up off the floor) John Cornyn confirmed that that was what they were hearing and they were passing it along to the Whitehouse and to the leadership in the Party and Congress. Jeb Henserling, my congressman confirmed he was getting about 50/50..
Calling your representatives has far more effect than many here credit. Please call!
"Israeli Barbarism in Gaza" by Dekel Avshalom in Israel http://www.marxist.com/israeli-barbarism-in-gaza.htm
To any of you that have not seen the effects of Willie Pete and are arguing that there are legitimaste reasons to use it or that it is the equilevant of Napalm, let nme disabuse you of the thought.
Willie Pete is insidious in its application, if you are hit with it there is nothing you can do but watch it burn right through your body. Hit by a close explosion and nothing is left but a burnt ball.
Napalm is a blessing compared to Willie Pete.
Willie Pete and cluster bombs should have been outlawed long ago. They are in the same class as Mustard Gas and other gas weapons.
There is no defense for its use. If you are defending it then I can assure you you don't have any idea what you are talking about.
Thank you Thomas Moore we may not see eye to eye on everything but you are right on the money there!
Howdy Hoot! See, even a blind squirrel can find an acorn in a snowstorm sometimes!
Seriously, thanks for the kind words.
Perhaps, then, you would like to complain that Venezuela so far has been the one country to expell the Israeli ambassador and part of the embassy staff in protest over the murderous Gaza offensive?
I have no complaint. Venezuela is a soverign nation and can do as she pleases. Frankly I see no relationship in that to this string.
Oh no--you see no relationship between Chavez expelling the Israeli ambassador in protest for the genocide being committed in Gaza--and this thread?
You are missing more than a few circuits, pal.
Thomas, I may not agree with you on everything either, but man, I always enjoy your humor! : )
It's not just 'Willy Pete' the Israelis are using.
They are back to their old tricks of cluster bombing nieghborhoods, directly targeting hospitals, ambulances and schools with artillery, and destroying port facilities to deny any future aid.
But wait, there's more! News is coming out now that there are casualties showing eveidence of Depleted Uranium, as well as feild testing of the new DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) technologies which have a limited blast radius due to carbon fibre casings, but almost 100% lethality due to the tungsten based micro shrapnel which is toxigenic (cancer causing) even if the victim survived the initial blast and wounding.
Walk in peace.
"directly targeting hospitals"? I believe that kind of claim is on a par with "German's put babies on the point of their bayonets in Belgium"
Isreal would no more do that than even terroists like Hamas and Hezbolla would. If a hospital gets hit in fighting and they do, its not by design. Fighting, especially fighting like this is not a structured exercise.
Fatal attacks on medical staff in Gaza
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4418&Itemid=1
and more
http://tinyurl.com/98uq43
I think you are wrong there Thomas Israel has already shot at least one ambulance just like they did in their previous conflict in Lebanon and that cannot be a mistake as ambulances are well marked.
"A paramedic working for an Oxfam-funded organisation was killed today after an ambulance was hit by an Israeli-fired shell, the charity said.
The Palestinian, working for the Union of Health Work Committees, was killed in Gaza.
Another paramedic lost his foot and the ambulance driver was injured in the same incident.
The paramedic was trying to help evacuate an injured person in the Beit Lahiya area, when the shell struck the ambulance, Oxfam said.
The UN estimates over 100 civilians have been killed in Gaza over the past week although some other organisations believe the civilian death toll is significantly higher.
John Prideaux-Brune, Oxfam’s Country Director for Israel and Palestine, speaking from Jerusalem said: “The incident shows yet again that trying to fight a military campaign in the densely populated streets and alleys of the Gaza Strip will inevitably lead to civilian casualties."
http://musliminsuffer.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/paramedic-killed-as-shell-hits-ambulance-in-gaza/
You were saying?
I can just say that this is whaty happens in a combat zone. Especially when the soldiers are mixed in with and sheltering among civilians.
In a combat zone, shells don't always go where they are aimed. Folks, especially medics, etc put themselves in harms way. Its a confusing situation, its noisy, its hard to see sometimes.
Believe me when I tell you its hard to catch markings when you are under fire.
I simply don't believe its on purpose. Though it certainly could happen occasionally, there can be a soldier that loses it or the nutter every soldier fears to serve with.
But I am not there, I have no first hand knowledge so its only my guess from experience. But I would say be wary of first reports and claims, they are usually exaggerated or wrong no matter who is making them
“The incident shows yet again that trying to fight a military campaign in the densely populated streets and alleys of the Gaza Strip will inevitably lead to civilian casualties."
This is a guy with a gift for world class understatement. DUH! No kidding.
Considering the proximity of the militants and their use of civilian cover, I suspect the death toll is higher.
Lets pray (for you, just cross your fingrers) that the Israeli stop soon.
Venezuela just cut the emergency oil shipments that were heating the homes of the poor in the US north-east during the winter months.
It would seem that someone was listening to that Iranian military commander who suggested doing exactly that, no?
Unintended blowback is a bitch, eh?
Too bad Chavez is not in a position to take care of gringolandia's poor any more.
That's the responsibility of the US government--which bails out banks and obsolete car manufacturers but lets its poor wrap themselves in newspapers.
Chavez is also the only world leader who has expelled the Israeli ambassador--and part of the embassy staff--in protest for the zionist genocide in Gaza.
I know that we have people of all religious beliefs, no religious beliefs and beliefs that fall in the grey middle here.
I make a simple request to all of you sitting at home feeling helpless.
Please take a quiet moment and pray, focus or concentrate (pick your term) on PEACE.
Thoughts are things.
I don't have the time right now to explain the latest understandings from quantum physics and consciousness.
Just take my word for it (for the moment) and pray, focus or concentrate on PEACE.
I repeat: Thoughts are things.
They have an impact.
Science will PROVE this in the near-term future.
You don't have to direct your thoughts to a God you may or not believe in.
That's not what I'm requesting.
Just take a quiet moment and focus on PEACE.
Thank you.
As a physicist and atheist, I often have a hard time with prayer and realistic expectations of hope.
However, I do remember Apollo 13, when world-wide prayer/hope brought Lovell/Swigert/Haise home despite horrendous odds against.
On another occasion when I lived in San Diego, a police helicopter was low-level buzzing the beach. This really pissed off the beach-goers, and when the 'copter re-appeared, people started giving the 'copter the finger. As the 'copter headed along the beach, fingers were raised. Almost everyone gave them the finger. The 'copter then veered inland and crashed 1/4 mile from us.
Abbie Hoffman may not have been able to levitate the Pentagon in 1967, but his March on the Pentagon surely started the end of US involvement in Vietnam.
I remain open-minded on the many demonstrations of causality by directed thought by large groups of people.
Giving the finger to the cops in mass is something I 100% approve of, nothing metaphysical there at all! :)
That is a completely passive useless substitute for action and exactly that sort of non suggestion is why I am a 100% atheist. Would you THINK BRAKE instead of applying the brakes at an intersection.? Of course not! Even religious and "spiritual" wing nuts don't really believe their own bs.
You got it all backwards. You're supposed to 'think Green
Light' to not make it ever necessary to break. If You brake
You loose Energy. ;-)
May All Beings Be Blessed.
No Restrictions Or Limitations Shall Apply.
I am NOT suggesting that people stop engaging in all forms of peaceful activism to end the slaughter in Gaza.
My plea to THINK PEACE is something you can do in addition to everything else.
If you don't wish to particpate that's your choice.
However, the more people who particpate the more effective the results.
I wish you would consider that your opinion of religious people is no different that their opinion of atheists and agnostics.
Its simply a difference of opinion. And yours in no more proven valid than ours. So its a moot point. When someone asks you to pray, just ignore them because you don't believe that.
I don't notice any folks that believe in God here making fun of your beliefs much at all if any.
This is a general statement Hoot, not to you specifically.
It isn't a "belief" anymore than not collecting stamps is a hobby. There is simply no empirical evidence that any belief system about invisible energies, gods, goddesses, or god has any evidence to support its existing in reality. Since the vast preponderance of evidence shows religion to be a fantasy state I feel compelled to get people back on track to pay attention to reality the same way I would if I saw a mass outbreak of schizophrenia. IMO opinion religion=organized insanity and it needs to end if the human race is to advance. I suggest reading Richard Dawkin's "The God Delusion" and then getting back to me Thomas.
"There is simply no empirical evidence that any belief system about invisible energies, gods, goddesses, or god has any evidence to support its existing in reality."
Absolutely correct. But you are wrong because in my heart I know there is the belief in that higher power...God. Doesn't make you wrong for you...just makes you wrong for me.
By your logic...
I guess that nothing existed before the high priests of scientific inquiry began proving existence with the scientific method...
As far as "invisible energies" are concerned... Would that include electro-magnetic frequencies and gravity...?
Or are those only unproven theories, like the existence of Universal Spirit...?
Bear in mind that one cannot "prove" something doesn't exist with the scientific method... Only if it does...
It is like saying Love doesn't exist... Because it cannot be quantified and measured and proven to exist...
Kick a rock with your foot and you know it exists that doesn't take a science doctorate you know. And these invisible "energies" dreamed up by delusional head cases? Not so much... You should read the Feynman article I linked to as well.
There is simply no empirical evidence that any belief system about invisible energies...
--------------------------
I'd argue the exact opposite.
The evidence is simply overwhelming that invisble energies DOMINATE universe.
"...regular matter only accounts for 4% of the Universe. The other 96% - dark matter and dark energy - is a total mystery.
...And since their discoveries plenty of additional evidence for both dark energy and dark matter have been seen across the Universe.
...dark energy and dark matter the same thing that he calls a "dark fluid". On the scale of galaxies, this fluid behaves like matter, providing a gravitational force. And in the large scales, the fluid helps drive the expansion of the Universe.
Full piece unedited:
http://www.universetoday.com/2008/02/06/dark-matter-and-dark-energy-the-same-thing/
You are conflating two different things if you lump physicists dark energy with the mysterious "energies" New Agers and "spiritual" people talk of. All the real energy physicists deal are measurable real things unlike the mysterious mumbo jumbo of "energies" New Agers speak of. IMO this mumbo jumbo is every bit as damaging to the left as fundamentalism of all stripes is to the right. End ignorance and superstition now!
Your Friday dose of Woo:
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/skepticismcritical_thinking/friday_woo/
Hootowl, I like your posts, but I must respond too your statement "All the real energy physicists deal are measurable real things....".
Scientists of ALL flavors are constrained by what they can measure (which isn't much, to be honest). It is every physicists dream to construct a sensor that will detect and measure *something* that has never been seen before. For millenia the only sensor scientists had were the fundamental 5 human senses, which are notoriously unscientific (i.e., mostly unable to produce repeatable results). In the last 100 years, the number of independent sensors that enable experimental repeatability has grown exponentially. And what we have learned from this avalanche of data is that we STILL do not have enough sensors, or accurate sensors, or sensitive sensors. The more we peer, the more we realize we don't know.
I'm a skeptic, but I open and read peer-reviewed journals every day that demand that I keep an open mind.
You're so eager to defend your narrowly defined, fear-based belief system that you ignore the volumes of scientific evidence of all sorts of energies, barely understood, which power the universe from the micro (inside the atom) to the macro (the universe at large).
And then you have the gall to suggest you know how these energies affect and interact with us!
Your denial of this science is almost as frightening as the trolls who visit this board and deny global climate change.
It hurts our cause greatly when progressives selectively deny science as they see fit.
I'll repeat: Directed human consciousness affects, shapes and changes our reality.
The universe is connected at every point.
All these statements are supported without equivocation by cutting edge physics.
Please explain to me how an observer collapses the wave function of a photon of light simply by observing it?
How do you explain that measuring the spin of an electron changes its state by forcing it to be aligned along the direction we measured in?
Put down the Dawkins books please and join the world of wider, fearless thought!
There are no "volumes of evidence" I challenge you to link to even ONE article that shows evidence for these superstitious fantasies in a peer reviewed reputable science journal. Did you read the Feynman article I liked too? If not why not? Who lives in a "fear" based system again, I keep forgetting.
SIGH, why do I even bother, sometimes I think the bald monkeys deserve EVERYTHING they get for refusing to mentally evolve. :(
Superstition including belief in unverifiable energies is a mind crippler and we should have abandoned it hundreds of years ago, being credulous does no one any good, especially political activists who need extra sharp b.s. detectors:
"But it's worth noting this essay by an environmental ethicist / poli sci PhD, whose political orientation tends Left -- as does Sokol's:
Is Science a Dogma?
A student asks: why should we believe in global warming, and you respond with a meticulously logical argument, along with a citation of scientific research. As you continue, the student's eyes begin to glaze and the student-bodies begin to squirm in the seats. And as you conclude, you hear that dreaded question: "but who's to say?"
At length it finally dawns on you: to these kids, logic, science, rationality, are just "cultural artifacts" -- no more or less credible than witchcraft, astrology, divination, tarot cards, or plain off the wall hunches. (See "Yes, Virginia, there is a real world.")
Nor are these views unique to our students....
Sadly, the virus of irrationalism has spread even to the colleges and universities of the realm, in the guise of "post-modernism" whose most extreme adherents regard competing theories of reality, such as astronomy and astrology as "social constructs" and "stories," each with an "equal right to be heard and appreciated." Post-modernism was (or should have been) discredited by Alan Sokal's notorious hoax: A parody article, "Transgressing the Boundaries..." which the post-modernist publication, Social Text swallowed hook, line and sinker, in its Spring 1996 issue. Sokol thus describes his article as "a melange of truths, half-truths, quarter-truths, falsehood, non-sequitors, and syntactically correct sentences that have no meaning whatsoever."
What was Sokal's motive? First of all, he writes, "I'm a stodgy old scientist who believes, naively, that there exists an external world, that there exist objective truths about that world, and that my job is to discover some of them." And furthermore, "my concern is explicitly political: to combat a currently fashionable postmodernist / poststructuralist / social-constructivist discourse and more generally a penchant for subjectivism which is, I believe inimical to the values and future of the Left." (Sokol and Bricmont, Fashionable Nonsense, Picador, 269-270)."
http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/the_sokal_hoax.php
See also:
http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/lingua_franca_v4/lingua_franca_v4.html
http://gadfly.igc.org/liberal/Science.htm
ooh...!
I know...
Photons are not a wave or a particle....
It is a Waveicle...
Perhaps energy travels through time-space in a twisting spiral movement...
So in the particle accelerator experiments they would "appear" to act as both...
When testing for a particle... The photon would appear to behave as a particle...
When testing for a wavelength... It would appear as a wave...
Maybe for the same reason that different observers would see the axis of spin of subatomic particles on different angles simultaneously...
Any ideas on this?
It's still observable and measurable quantities that are being dealt with. This is NOTHING like New Agers bizarre ideas about the power of thought, astrological "energies" or other such unmeasurable unprovable nonsense. I am starting to think all those books that hazily conflated Eastern mysticism and physics have done more brain damage than whiskey, crack and meth combined. If we are going to win arguments with cruel war mongering imperialists we need to be fact based, analytical, and on point all the time. A bunch of woo, woo, woo does not help to develop those crucial qualities of thought at all.
Are you open to challenging your BELIEFS?
"...The unique effectiveness of the Invincible Defense Technology in preventing social violence, terrorism, and war has been confirmed by more than 50 demonstrations and 23 scientific studies. This research has been carefully scrutinized by independent scholars and accepted for publication in top academic journals (see references). In every case, this approach produced marked reductions of crime, social violence, terrorism, and war, and increased peace and positivity in society..."
http://www.gusp.org/scientific-research
New Age journals does NOT equal peer reviewed science research. I'd love to see something like this proven to be true, unfortuanatly all the rigerously conducted peer reviewed double blind reaserch shows results of mental projection to be indistinguishable from chance.
http://wwwcdf.pd.infn.it/~loreti/science.html (Please read this and THINK Cygnus)
As for the study you posted do a google search on correlation is not causality.
And yes hope without substance CAN be a negative thing, look what voting for Mr. Hope Obama got us, a fat load load of silence on Israel's atrocities while Biden and Hilary type up his AIPAC pre-approved talking points.
And no my lack of belief is no more a "belief" than not collecting stamps is a hobby. You do understand not collecting stamps isn't a hobby, right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger%27s_cat
Quantum Mechanics is largely the science of probability.
Direct observation (consciousness) collapses all the possible superpositions (probabilities) and leaves one remaining.
Is Schrodinger's cat alive or dead?
You don't know until you peek.
In essence we're all "wave collapsers" bringing reality into being by direct observation.
How precisely we can develop this ability to create/alter/change reality is an exciting field of study.
all the rigerously conducted peer reviewed double blind reaserch shows results of mental projection to be indistinguishable from chance.
----------------------------------
The basic double-slit experiment will prove that fear-based belief of yours wrong.
An observer affects and changes reality simply by observing.
You do understand how to use You Tube, right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc
Again the way physicists use "observer"* is VERY different then the way New Agers use it, and again we are talking about effects at the sub atomic level only. To conflate this small observable effect with a large macroscopic ability of the human mind to change a vaguely defined "reality" is superstitious fuzzy thinking at it's worst and the fact such beliefs are all too common a sign the U.S. education system is going down the tubes.
Since Obama is likely going to screw us on stopping wars, or doing anything to help poor people in this bad economy I hope at the very least he increases the education budget for science or else the U.S. is going to complete it's devolution to a third world country and not a sunny warm happy Latin American third world country either but a sad frightened ignorant Eastern European third world country like something out of Borat.
*In physics an observer can be as simple as another sub atomic particle interacting with the original particle, it has NOTHING to do with the human mind or intention changing "reality" as New Agers disingenuously claim. If your claim was true for example humans could steer the photons through the slit of their by force of intention which is NOT true. Just because physicists use the same word "observer" we use in ordinary English doesn't mean it has the same definition in the context of physics it doesn't. :(
Obviously you are the one operating in a "fear" based realm bucko as you have made the same category type error regarding how physicists use the word observer twice now. It's you who quakes in fear that your comfortable plastic mind moldable universe is a delusional fiction. For once the universe doesn't really care what we think about it then you have to do real work to make social change happen and that would involve you getting out of your chair and DOING something, tragic I know. :(
Did you read the Feynman article I linked to above? Or is your own FAEAR based lack of reasoning preventing you from challenging the assumptions behind the pseudo science you have bought into hook line and sinker? Here is the link again I suggest you read it and rearrange your mental furniture. BTW Feynamn is one of the brightest physcists ever who really understood the experiments you are applying vague metaphors to, he was also a warm well rounded human being who loved practical jokes, music of all kinds and Tuvan culture.
Sometimes I think the secret reason so many lefties diss hard science is they fear science has to turn a person into a cold cruel manipulative alienated person which was most definitely NOT true in Feynman's case. Here is article again I suggest you read it and learn something about the lack of integrity of New Agers who butcher real science to serve irrational superstition.
http://wwwcdf.pd.infn.it/~loreti/science.html
The whole Gaza invasion is but a form of slow ethnic cleansing by Israel. A longstanding and evil policy by both parties in Israel, to drive out the Palestinians by making life so miserable in the Gaza that the Gazans will die off and/or flee. It's a disgusting massacre, and the corporate media's wholehearted pro-Israel agenda is equally disgusting.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=11606
israel the ethnic cleanser state. the main export of israel is ethnic cleansing.
The main export of Israel is technology. You ever make color copies? Print from a color laser printer? Get an MRI? Use chat on the internet? Don't kid yourselves, Israel is a VERY important part of the world economy which is why no other country is doing ANYTHING about this. It is going to be Israel's show to do with as they want regardless of a few hundred protesters here and there.
Well the auto expressway and the Volkswagen were developed by Hitler's Germany. Hitler's Germany was a very important part of the world's economy back then. It was Hitler's show to do as he wanted despite a few pesky dissidents. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. No pun intended.
Goose,
Color Copiers? Now you are really pulling at the old heart strings.
"It is going to be Israel's show to do with as they want regardless of a few hundred protesters here and there."
I think the world is tired of this conflict and might just sit back and watch Israel destroy itself and do nothing as long as the color copiers keep coming.
Color copying is NOT worth supporting the massacre of a population of almost 50% children who do not have an army to resist with. How sick are some people that they'd prioritize color copies over innocent children painfully burned to death by bombs?
THAT sort of cold hearted thinking is the reason we call you a Nazi Goose Step.
"It is going to be Israel's show to do with as they want regardless of a few hundred protesters here and there."
Thats what Hitler thought too until the world got sick of his might=right bs. If you are actually representative of a typical Israel supporters thought processes then Israel's path of folly will end in its ruin. It is my sincere hope that you are not typical and on the 99th percentile end of Israel supporter far right wing nut cases. The fact that popular Jewish comedian Jon Stewart questioned the biased pro Israel media coverage last night fortunately lends some credence to that hypothesis.
All you are doing ironically enough with statements like the above is biasing people AGAINST Israel and increasing actual anti Semitism, I suggest you crawl back in your troll hole and let some more reasonable people make Israel's case.
Jon Stewart also said of Dick Cheney that his family got him a "puppy chipper for Christmas." Did your family get you a puppy chipper for Hanukah Goose Step? No one likes a smug cruel bully, get lost!
I am really sorry Goose old Buddy, Germany under Hitler was also very imporetant in the world economy responsible for all kinds of technological advances... should the world have remained silent to the outrages perpetrated by he Nazis? Your argument is extremely flawed... we cannot be selective in our morality! A criminal outrage is a criminal outrage and Israle is currently conducting such a criminal outrage and should therefore be condemned, and stopped!
Indeed. The US is a very important driver of the world economy. The world is not silent about our excesses, but no-one, including Americans, lifts a finger to do anything about it.
I just happened to catch a segment of CNN where NY congressman Weiner was commenting on the invasion. He said something to the effect that if the Palestinians democratically elected Hamas and Hamas is lobbing rockets at israel then it's okay if Palestinian civilians are killed. Like they deserve it. Seems like Weiner should be impeached, kicked out, whatever the legalities are, for saying such a thing. At least everyone should go to his gov't website and comment on his comments.
By Weiner's logic, it would be OK to rain down white phosphorous on those civilians who "democratically" elected Bush two times and thus tacitly supported the illegal and disastrous invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
It is never OK to harm civilians. Never. Never. Never. Get it? Never.
I will be taking my shoes to NY City Hall tomorrow.
Joe
I would argue that it is never OK to harm ANYTHING, ever.
The Wiccans have it right: "Do no harm".
The Wiccan rede is actually 'An it harm none, do as ye will.'
And you will be astounded by who wrote that:
Alistair Crowley.
That's right, the so-called 'wickedest man in the world' and the self proclaimed 'Great Beast' wrote one of the most profound pieces of Western thought.
Walk in peace.
I cannot completely agree. Even vegans have to harm a carrot.
Joe
Well, by your definition, vegans will "harm" a carrot in much the same manner as does a rabbit or insentient worm.
But I do not believe that the analogy of barbecuing a carrot for nutrition can hold the same position in a discussion on the morality of remotely burning a human for revenge and out of hate.
deleted.
Do you think this will add to global warming? I mean climate change, no I mean climate cooling, ah forget it I give up.
You know, if the right conditions are met, the Saudi population will figure out all they have to do to stop this is to shut off and permanently wreck the valves in the oil ports.
And before those who say the government of Saudi Arabia wouldn't allow this get going, I would like to agree. Yes, the GOVERNMENT of Saudi Arabia wouldn't do this because they are addicted to the oil money.
But the people, the common man who has far more in common with the residents of Gaza re: poverty and oppression, they are already living under conditions that the average Gazan would think is relative paradise. But they are still simmering on the edge of overthrowing their oil company bought and paid for oligarchs, and have been for decades. It is only the constant surveilance and secret police actions that have BARELY kept that rage in check.
If the oil ceased to flow to the US/UK and Israel, their capacity for such mischief would be permanently curtailed, if not ended, in two weeks with no hope of ever recovering.
Walk in peace.
shutting off the oil spigots is the answer. lets see how much support israel gets then. opec has to turn off the oil, we in the u.s.a. should also suffer, as we are complicit by allowing the zionists to control our government. israel is an ethnic cleanser state, and should be punished for their crimes against humanity.
as long as the zionists and israel firsters are in our government these crimes will continue. this is ethnic cleansing. the zioinists are using nazi tactics. they have become what they have hated. we are just as responsible for these crimes by arming and financing them. the shrub gave them the green light, and will still not call off the dogs. the geopolitical blowback of backing these crimes will be huge.
I see so many people drawing parallels between Gaza and the Nazi-imposed ghettos and holocaust, but I do not agree. The Jews and Poles never fought back, the Palestinians do. This simple fact gives Israeli spin-meisters an edge the Nazis never enjoyed.
Hold the phone. Did you hear of the Warsaw ghetto uprising?
The Jews didn't fight back because they didn't have weapons because the Nazis imposed severe gun control after taking over. When the Jews had weapons smuggled to them in the Warsaw ghetto the DID resist so it's not like there was some philosophical principle of non resistance involved:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising
I am one hard leftist who never understood why so many on the U.S. left are pro gun control, all it does is allow tyrants easier control over their populations. Latin American leftists know better, right now as we speak Chavez is training a citizen militia with gasp eek scary guns
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4635187.stm
to resist any CIA coups or overt U.S. imperialist invasions. Better to die on your feet than live on your knees IMO.
Thanks to hootowl and winning ticket for reminding me of the Warsaw Uprising (not one of my strong points). Call me insensitive, but was this the exception rather than the rule? The Palestinians have been engaged in a bitter war with Israel for over 40 years. The Warsaw Uprising lasted four months only. My history in that part of the world and time is not good, but I get the sense that the Jews capitulated easily.
We have seen our closing of eyes toward what we promote in other countries has come home to roost in the form of our own oligarcy, erosion of rights, unrecorded arrests and detentions, torture, illegal invasions, private armies exempt from public control, disappearance of serious money, crumbling infrastructure, meltdown of the middle class and work force toward poverty, lawlessness and lack of regulation, fabulous wealth for a few, desperate poverty for more and more, crippling national debt with nothing to show for it. We have more sincere attention paid to building prisons and professional stadiums than to schools and hospitals.
We already have many features of a scary third world country.
Now we are talking about white phosphorous (which is reportedly worse than napalm) and mini-shrapnel bombs. These are weapons being dropped on civilian populations. The weapons have no way to differentiate between soldiers and children. And that is the point. The point is to destroy the will of a people and get them to disband and go away or suffer and die. There is no pretense of justice or diplomacy.
What we condone in other places becomes our way. It should be enough to say our money and policies are helping rain white phosphorous on the Gazans. But for those who lack empathy for other nations, please think about how this sets the stage for our own country.
Notice Obama's impassive face and lack of comment. I do not expect he will do anything brave, there or here, to stand up against using those weapons. It is up to us. We should act now and do something every day to stop this. There have been many links on this site for petitions, actions and to contact legislators. Also, talk talk talk about this until the person you are talking to agrees to do something just to shut you up.
Joe
"Every Physical Being On Your Planet Is Your
Partner In Co-Creation."
Abraham As Channeled By Esther & Jerry Hicks
That makes one thing clear, doesn't it? The suffering
of the Palestinian People in Gaza will not be in vane.
Unlike the death of one Million Iraqi Civilians, that only
caused mild reactions in the US population,
because many had bought into the lies that led to it,
Gaza will, or better has already entered History as the
event that will change this Planet. And I am not talking
about some doomsday scenario exit here. No, human
mankind has already understood, that the only way out,
is the one in acknowledgment of Interdependency.
It is time to leave all forms of militarism behind. Why would
the Planet make a difference for Israel, USA, Europe
or Asia? The Crime Against Humanity In Gaza shows
above all the actions of an animal with rabies. Something
has taken hold of those laughing Israeli soldiers. Like
the laughing SS-Obersturmbannführer in Buchenwald,
or Bush, when he witnessed the execution of mentally
disabled Humans.
None of us is in their shoes. This is not our Karma and
the complicity might be a general one, as being a member
of species Hu/Wo-Man, without ever making the mistake
of pushing the responsibility for those atrocities into
everybody's shoes. No, it is the soldier that pulls the trigger,
the guy that pushes the button, the person that dishes
out harm, hurt and death. It is their Karma only. Not ours.
I urge everyone of You, for Your own and humanity's
sake, in these challenging times, to focus entirely and
exclusively on 'The Blue Planet' and all its inhabiting Life
in Peace, Respect and Spiritual as well as Physical
Prosperity. Civil disobedience is a very important tool
to instill the change away from inhumane capitalism
to a sense of Communality and Interdependence.
To repeal Egotism and Greed, Policies of Supremacy
and Exceptionalism should be the focus of all Human
Beings right now.
That's All Folks. My Sympathy goes to all Co-Inhabitants
that suffer needlessly and my cheerful Greetings and
Gratitude goes to all those Humans that are dedicating
their lives to help Others.
May All Beings Be Blessed.
No Restrictions Or Limitations Shall Apply.
wonderful sentiments.......................
Pan
Bow down to Israel ,they take my taxes and not one representative works for me.
Went to the web site of Amy Goodman. Liked it. You should join the group JStreet, of which I am a member. They are pro_Israel with reservations like stop the war and two-state solution. Also read some of the comment from past Israeli leaders on extermination of all Arabs. Thanks for the site. Going to play poker on pokerstars.
Hootowl if it is a government problem, then why do THE PEOPLE keep re-electing their same leaders after recycling them. If the people are not aiders and abettors who do you blame? Please! Unlike you, I am tired of just blabbing, I want action and demonstrations and anything it takes. Like the good Jewish American Barry Goldwater said, "moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue." Maybe you can understand that. There is only so much yakking and when people don't understand that and cease their abominable behavior, then stronger measures must ensue. I guess it is ok for them to control our government, our media and then ask us to embrace them. I will gladly not be a countryman of yours, nor would I have liked to have had you in my regiment in the US Army!
The first part of that quote of course is, "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice!"
I think that is exactly what Israel is doing. Pursuing liberty for its people and working for justice for its people. The Palestinians are NOT Israel's people, they are separate, they lost their land and it is over.
No one wants the Palestinians any more. Even Egypt won't let them in. They have brought this disaster on themselves over and over and over. This is simply payback time for the bad-guys (Hamas).
Have a nice day Palestine! :-)
Goose,
There are a growing number of Israelis and other Jews who are pursuing liberty and they are working with the Palestinians and Hamas.
You say "The Palestinians are NOT Israel's people, they are separate, they lost their land and it is over."
They have not lost their land because they are fighting for it to the end. They want to live in peace without Israel starving them and keeping them as prisoners.
You say:
"This is simply payback time for the bad-guys (Hamas)."
I say We'll see, Israel may get its ass kicked again!
You are a deeply sick human being with a total lack of empathy that indicates a severe sociopathy problem Goose. Go see a psychiatrist immediately before you hurt a loved one or pet, severe sociopathy is a very dangerous condition for everyone around you.
Hootowl I agree with your last comment. I gave up Christianity weeks ago and my wife gave up Judaism. Both are pagan if they back this suffering. My kids are semitic from both ancestries.
So, the ENTIRE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, around a third of the world's population, backs this? Every single member of every single Christian denomination backs this? That, right there, is bullshit. Do you really think the Christians in Gaza (and yes, there are Christians in Gaza) are celebrating the fact that bombs are falling around them?