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11/14/2003



Very Large, Very Grim Update Today

Take it with a grain of salt. Take it any way you can. Hell, don't take it at all. It doesn't matter anyway.





City's Educrats Can't Get it Write :.

Yep, daz rite, and if you keeps ur kidz home from sk00l, day b sendin cops to ur houz to bust ur ass. u gots 2 b sendin ur kids 2 skool to gets dem an edukayshun:

City schools are going from bad to badder.

Highly paid educrats at the Education Department shocked the city's 80,000 teachers this week by handing out barely literate curriculum guides riddled with grammatical gaffes, spelling errors and misused words.


Flashback: Father Investigated for Educational Neglect :.

"I'd rather go to jail than send my daughter to high school," he said.

Research Credit: TR





Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers :.

BAAA HAHAHAHA! You would be able to learn more about the true nature of 9/11 by watching the behavior of your cat:

The commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks said on Thursday that its deal with the White House for access to highly classified Oval Office intelligence reports would let the White House edit the documents before they were released to the commission's representatives.





Dear U.S. State Department Readers

I have noticed that several of you are looking for information related to the death of John Kokal. I don't have anything more to offer besides what you have read in the mainstream news outlets. If you happen to be in a position to reveal any information related to this incident, Cryptogon is read widely and information presented here will spread rapidly. If you choose to contact me, do not use your computer system at the State Department. If you have real information, and would like to share it with the world, here are a couple of tips that could save your life:

1) Obtain a "clean" laptop computer. This is a computer that is not associated with you in any way. Example: You paid cash for it at Goodwill, or some other place that sells used computer equipment.

2) Obtain a "clean" 802.11 (wi-fi) wireless network adapter for the laptop. This is a wireless network adapter that is not associated with you in any way. Example: You paid cash for it at Goodwill, or some other place that sells used computer equipment.

3) Find an open access point using netstumbler or some other sniffer tool. WARNING: THE T-MOBILE NETWORK IN STARBUCKS AND BORDER'S STORES DOES NOT COUNT. NOTE: The Them, if they choose, will knock on the door of the person/company who is running the open network you use to connect to the Internet. Often times, people/companies don't know they are running open wireless networks.

4) Obtain a throw-away email address (hotmail, yahoo, etc.).

5) Encrypt your message to me using PGP. Here is my public key.

6) Never use this laptop and wi-fi card on any network that is associated with you in any way. Never use this laptop and wi-fi card on the same access point twice. The Them might think you will return to that location and They will put it under physical surveillance. Because They will have the MAC address of your wireless card (every network device has a unique number), they will actually be able to pinpoint your physical location to within a few feet. My guess is that a white van would pull up and you would be gone. End of story.

If all of this is too much trouble, type your message and send it to me in plain text. I obviously don't care what They do to me. It's you I'm worried about.





Virus Built From Scratch, Becomes Bioactive, Replicates :.

It's so far gone, I don't even know why I bother doing this anymore. Pray. Pray that this system comes down and that these maniacs are not allowed to continue this work. This stuff makes nuclear weapons look like children's toys. This story will soon get lost in the thousands of other stories I've posted, but, hear me: This is how the world ends, not with a bang, but with....

It is the stuff of science fiction and bioethical debates: The creation of artificial life. Up until now, it's largely been just that.

But an important technical bridge towards the creation of such life was crossed Thursday when genomics pioneer Craig Venter announced that his research group created an artificial virus based on a real one in just two weeks' time.

When researchers created a synthetic genome (genetic map) of the virus and implanted it into a cell, the virus became "biologically active," meaning it went to work reproducing itself.

But the questions ethicists have raised about such work are numerous: Should we be playing God? Does the potential for good that new life forms may have outweigh the harm they could do?

Arthur Caplan, who heads the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics, says yes. This technology "is impressive. It's powerful and it should be treated with humility and caution," Caplan says, "But we should do it."


More: Amazing Coincidence :.

This work, "was conducted at the Institute of Biological Energy Alternatives in Rockville, Maryland, by Dr Craig Venter and colleagues."

That's interesting. Would you believe that Fort Detrick is only 30 miles from The Institute of Biological Energy Alternatives? What's Fort Detrick, you ask... Oh, that's where they made this thing. From U.S. DoD Appropriations for 1970 Hearings, 91st Congress, Part 6, p 129:

Dr. MacArthur (U.S. Bioweapons Researcher): Within the next 5 to 10 years, it would probably be possible to make a new infective organism which could differ in certain important aspects from any known disease-causing organisms. Most important of these is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease. A research program to explore the feasibility of this could be completed in approximately 5 years at a total cost of $10 million.

Some people call it AIDS.





What Do They Know?

Berkshire Hathaway Cuts Level 3 Stake

This could be interesting because Level 3 IS the Internet. Most Internet (and many telephone calls via VoIP) sessions utilize Level 3 infrastructure. Buffett is a made man. He's one of Them. He might even know if the fix was in, if you know what I mean. And, just maybe, the next big terror hit will involve a takedown of the Internet at the physical layer. Any such attack would, by definition, have to focus on Level 3 optical fiber paths and data centers.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the holding company run by billionaire Warren Buffett, slashed its stake in Level 3 Communications Inc. by about 92 percent, according to a regulatory filing made public on Thursday.

Cisco CEO Chambers Dumps to the Tune of $38 Million

Yeah. I wonder if these rat bastards know something. Anyone feel like taking a survey of the rats selling here as the media tries to swindle people into going long? If this bullshit jobless recovery is so great, why are some of the fattest rats onboard jumping ship?

Cisco Systems Inc. Chief Executive John Chambers sold 2 million shares of the network equipment maker's stock, netting more than $38 million, according to regulatory documents filed on Thursday.

In Other Financial News....

SEC Charges Gateway Executives with Fraud

Wouldn't it just be easier to refer to the CEO, the CFO and the controller as, "The Usual Suspects?"

Gateway's former chief executive, finance chief and controller were charged with fraud for manipulating the personal-computer maker's results to meet analysts' expectations. The company settled accusations that it broke federal accounting rules.

ExxonMobil Committed Fraud, Jury Awards $11.8 Billion to Alabama

An Alabama jury Friday awarded the state $11.8 billion in a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp. over royalties for offshore natural gas leases, an Exxon spokesman said.

The jury also awarded the state $63 million in compensatory damages. Exxon expects to appeal the decision, which spokesman Bob Davis called "unjustified and excessive."


Former Dynegy Exec Found Guilty of Fraud

A federal jury in Houston found former Dynegy Inc. tax executive Jamie Olis guilty of six counts of fraud in connection with charges that he illegally disguised a $300-million debt as income to inflate his company's finances.

Olis, 37, faces as many as 35 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 19.





Are There Masters of the Universe? :. (RealPlayer Required)

This is a great video by Daniel Hopsicker about the international banking elite and the Federal Reserve fraud. This is basic information. While there is nothing new in this video, it would be excellent for waking up newbies. If you're having a conversation with someone about some "weird" topic and they start to look at you like you're nuts, play this video for them. I've noticed that most people won't read. It helps if there are moving pictures.

A note on waking people from their comas:

When you unplug someone from their corporate, manufactured reality, and they start to grasp what has happened, they will become frightened. They may cry. They may run from the room. If you have been studying this stuff for any length of time, you have to remember to go easy on newbies. Troglodytes aren't evil. Usually, they're just ignorant. They seem to know that there is something wrong, they want to be unplugged and are looking for a way to go about it. Others, however, like living in the dream, even if it's killing them and the rest of us. So, choose the ones you want to wake up carefully. Try to spend your time on the ones who have doubts about this or that. Never try too hard to wake someone up. And know that most will never wake up.





Gore Vidal Unfurls :.

An American citizen can be fingered as a terrorist, and with what proof? No proof. All you need is the word of the attorney general or maybe the president himself. You can then be locked up without access to a lawyer, and then tried by military tribunal and even executed. Or, in a brand-new wrinkle, you can be exiled, stripped of your citizenship and packed off to another place not even organized as a country � like Tierra del Fuego or some rock in the Pacific. All of this is in the USA PATRIOT Act. The Founding Fathers would have found this to be despotism in spades. And they would have hanged anybody who tried to get this through the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Hanged.





U.S. Open Border Madness :.

HAHA! This is just great. Yes, friends, Bin Laden could walk across the border, pick up an ID card from any number of Latin American consulates and be sipping lemonade in Denny's by noon. Well, not that Bin Laden would do that, but doesn't it make you feel a little weird that it would be easier for him to do that than it would be for you to get a building permit?

Several Latin American countries plan to follow Mexico's example by issuing consular identification cards to illegal immigrants in the United States, despite FBI warnings that the cards pose a security threat, officials said on Thursday.

Mexico has issued around two million of the cards, known as the "matricula consular" to its nationals, whether they are in the United States legally or illegally, in the past two years. Guatemala began offering a similar card last year.

Ecuador recently started issuing cards to its nationals. Honduras expects to begin a program soon while Nicaragua, El Salvador and Brazil are studying the issue.





Universal National Service Act of 2003 :.

Ladies, get ready for U.S. military issued bras and tampons. Hmm, unfortanately, They haven't invented anti-rape armor for when you become a prisoner of war. You don't have any problem with getting raped and beaten to within an inch of your life so that Dick Cheney's investments can skyrocket, do you? Good girl. Here's your gun and some freedom fries:

The Universal National Service Act of 2003 "amends the Military Selective Service Act to authorize the military registration of females" and declares "that it is the obligation of every U.S. citizen, and every other person residing in the United States, between the ages of 18 and 26 to perform a two-year period of national service, unless exempted, either as a member of an active or reserve component of the armed forces or in a civilian capacity that promotes national defense. Requires induction into national service by the President. Sets forth provisions governing: (1) induction deferments, postponements, and exemptions, including exemption of a conscientious objector from military service that includes combatant training; and (2) discharge following national service."





Things To Do On The Net When You're Dead :.

This is pretty weird:

A new service designed to send emails out to your loved (or loathed) ones after you die went live this week.

Mylastemail.com enables subscribers to set up a series of final messages online which it promises will be forwarded only when they are dead.





Rachel Corrie :.

I heard Rachel's dad, Craig Corrie, on the radio a couple of nights ago. I still can't believe a) this incident happened in the first place, and b) Israel hasn't been compelled to answer for it.

You think, this beautiful, brilliant woman wasn't savagely murdered by one of America's closest allies. It can't be. Then the horror sets in. Indeed, Israel does this kind of thing every day, and much worse, with U.S. taxpayer money. The victims, however, aren't usually blond American women.

Previous Cryptogon coverage of Rachel Corrie. (WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES)





Troglodytes Running Low on Cash: Wal-Mart Warns On Spending Recovery :.

Wal-Mart yesterday sounded a warning over the strength of the recovery in US consumer spending, saying its shoppers remained cautious, favoured cheaper goods and had little spare cash.


11/12/2003



Wal-Mart, P&G Involved in Secret RFID Testing :.

Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble conducted a secret RFID trial involving Oklahoma consumers earlier this year, the Chicago Sun Times revealed on Sunday. Customers who purchased P&G's Lipfinity brand lipstick at the Broken Arrow Wal-Mart store between late March and mid-July unknowingly left the store with live RFID tracking devices embedded in the packaging. Wal-Mart had previously denied any consumer-level RFID testing in the United States.





8 out of 10 Americans Want to Quit Their Jobs :.

Well, there's always the IC. HAHAHA!

Ready to quit? You have plenty of company.

Many employees are overworked, stressed out, fed up -- and eager to quit their jobs once the economy picks up. In fact, worker angst is so pronounced it has surprised even the most tuned-in human resource professionals. They say employee anger is now almost palpable.

More than eight in 10 workers plan to look for a new job when the economy heats up, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Professionals. While there's a difference between looking for a new gig and actually jumping ship, that kind of number is "very, very high," says SHRP spokesman Frank Scanlon.


11/11/2003



Russia Ready to Vaporize Israel :.

This came out a while ago. I forgot to post it:

About one month ago, Russia discreetly invoked MAD again, but this time in the Middle East in direct response to hysterical Israeli threats to nuke Iran with submarine-launched American Harpoon missiles. Quietly and with the minimum of fuss, Russia deployed its most advanced tactical nuclear missiles and crews to both Syria and Iran, thereby sending an unmistakable diplomatic signal that if Israel attacked Tehran or Damascus with nuclear weapons, Russia would in return instantly and anonymously vaporize the Jewish State.





Khodorkovsky: Carlyle Group Adviser :.

Believe it or not:

The arrest of two of Russia's top businessmen in recent months was more than a distant headline for Washington's well-connected private equity firm, Carlyle Group.

Carlyle, known for the glittering roster of former statesmen among its partners and advisers, has ties to both Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, the jailed Russian tycoons.

Khodorkovsky, 40, Russia's richest man and former chief executive of Yukos Oil Co., serves as an adviser to Carlyle's Energy Group. He is among 15 luminaries who help the firm sort through investment opportunities in energy industries, along with former secretary of state James A. Baker III, former British prime minister John Major and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Daniel Yergin.





U.S. Wants Ban on Protests During Bush Visit :.

Anti-war protesters claim that US authorities have demanded a rolling "exclusion zone" around President George Bush during his visit, as well as a ban on marches in parts of central London.

The Stop The War Coalition said yesterday that it had been told by the police that it would not be allowed to demonstrate in Parliament Square and Whitehall next Thursday - a ban it said it was determined to resist. The coalition says that it has also been told by British officials that American officials want a distance kept between Mr Bush and protesters, for security reasons and to prevent their appearance in the same television shots.


More: Al Qaeda Mixed in with Peace Protesters :.

HAHAHAHA!

Al-Qaeda terrorists using the cover of anti-war protests are a real threat to the safety of US President George W. Bush during his state visit to London next week, Britain's most senior policemen have warned.

"We are not so concerned about some anti-war protester throwing rotten fruit at the president. Our worry now is the more dangerous elements who may be here," said a senior Scotland Yard source quoted in The Times newspaper Wednesday.





The U.S. Has Been Training Terrorists at a Camp in Georgia for Years :.

This is a pretty good article about the School of the Americas:

For the past 55 years it has been running a terrorist training camp, whose victims massively outnumber the people killed by the attack on New York, the embassy bombings and the other atrocities laid, rightly or wrongly, at al-Qaida's door. The camp is called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or Whisc. It is based in Fort Benning, Georgia, and it is funded by Mr Bush's government.

Until January this year, Whisc was called the "School of the Americas", or SOA. Since 1946, SOA has trained more than 60,000 Latin American soldiers and policemen. Among its graduates are many of the continent's most notorious torturers, mass murderers, dictators and state terrorists. As hundreds of pages of documentation compiled by the pressure group SOA Watch show, Latin America has been ripped apart by its alumni.





What Is The Meatrix? :.

This is great! Thought provoking, without being too shocking. Useful for waking up newbies.

Research Credit: NF





Was the U.S.S. Liberty Atrocity an Attempted Israeli False Flag Op :.

Blame it on the Arabs, drag the U.S. into the conflict (Six Day War)?

The evidence was clear. Both Adm. Kidd and I believed with certainty that this attack, which killed 34 American sailors and injured 172 others, was a deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew. I am certain that the Israeli pilots that undertook the attack, as well as their superiors who had ordered the attack, were aware that the ship was American.

I saw our flag, which had visibly identified the ship as American, riddled with bullet holes, and heard testimony that made it clear that the Israelis intended that there be no survivors. Not only did the Israelis attack the ship for over two hours with napalm, gunfire and hundreds of rockets and missiles, Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned three life boats that had been launched in an attempt to save the crew � a war crime.





Woman Who Accused George W. Bush of Rape Shot Dead :.

This appears to be a total black-out item:

Paper: Houston Chronicle

Date: Saturday 09/27/03

Section: A

Edition: 3

SCHOEDINGER

MARGIE D. SCHOEDINGER expired Monday, 9/22/03 . Visitation: Friday, 9/26/03 , 7 to 9pm, McCoy & Harrison Chapel. Funeral Service: Saturday, 9/27/03 , 1:30pm, McCoy & Harrison Chapel. Interment, Houston Memorial Gardens.





Nuclear Weapons Lab's Keys Are Lost :.

I'm practically convinced that divine intervention is the reason behind why humanity hasn't been wiped out:

A U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory must replace up to 100,000 locks at a cost of more than $1.6 million, after staff lost several sets of master keys to the complex, then failed to notify superiors, it emerged Friday.

The extraordinary series of security blunders at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is outlined in a scathing report by the U.S. Energy Department's inspector general.

According to the report, officials at the laboratory have lost nine master keys and three magnetic key cards to the top-secret research facility. In some cases, officials still do not know when or how the keys went missing.


11/10/2003



Rothschilds Conduct 'Red Symphony': The 20th Century Unveiled :.

This is a pretty good article for those interested in grand theory:

War, depression and genocide in the past century were not accidental or inevitable but the result of a malevolent design.

Shocking evidence is a 1938 Stalinist police (NKVD) interrogation of a founder of the Communist International, Christian G. Rakovsky, 65, who was facing the firing squad for plotting to overthrow Stalin.

The 50-page transcript of his interrogation, dubbed "The Red Symphony," was not meant to become public. It confirms that the Rothschild-Illuminati planned to use Communism to establish a world dictatorship of the super rich.





Your Home: Worst-Case Scenario :.

Yawn. This is so long overdue. This thing needs to unwind:

John R. Talbott, a visiting scholar at UCLA's Anderson School of Business and author of "The Coming Crash in the Housing Markets," has a thesis that will leave you quaking from behind your picket fence.

He describes a worst-case scenario in which rising interest rates drive down home prices, leaving an alarming number of homeowners -- particularly those who've cashed out or borrowed against their equity -- holding more debt than their house is worth.

If they sell, they would actually owe money.

Under this scenario, foreclosure rates jump as high as 5 percent, pushing down home prices and wreaking financial havoc all the way to the top of the housing food chain at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. With the collapse of these financial behemoths, investors would lose money, taxpayers would be stuck paying for a bailout, and confidence in the banking industry would be as good as gone.

And your home? A 30 percent drop in home values isn't inconceivable, said Talbott.

"It's 1929 all over again," said Talbott, a former Goldman Sachs vice president. "This is big Depression-type stuff."
*

* This is not hyperbole! Check out this chart.

Research Credit: TR





"Terror" In Saudi Arabia

Back in August, I wrote the following:

Things would get very interesting if a real insurgency picked up steam in Saudi Arabia. The U.S. would have to invade in order to prevent the ascention of an Ayatollah Khomeini style theocracy on top of the world's largest oil reserve. But a not-real insurgency would be much better. Here's what I think They should do.

Get Osama bin Laden to ride into Riyadh with a sword in one hand and an AK47 in the other. How great would that be? Then it could be Dubya vs. bin Laden in a fight to the death over control of Saudi Arabia. HAHAHAHA. Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't joke around like this.


And now...

U.S. Promises Saudis to Help Fight Terrorism :.

Saudi Arabia received assurances of help in fighting terrorists on Monday after a suicide car bombing killed at least 17 people and injured dozens in Riyadh.

The Bush administration offered wider support for the kingdom. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who arrived in the Saudi capital on Sunday, the day after the bombing, made the offer to Crown Prince Abdullah.

Armitage told the Saudi leader that "we will be full participating partners if that is the desire of the kingdom," the State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, said in Washington.


Also, take a look at the handy map of the region I posted here:

Is there anyone out there who thinks that the establishment of U.S. Central Command less than three hundred miles from Riyadh is a coincidence?


11/9/2003



Intentional Community

I was re-reading the October/November 2003 issue of Mother Earth News. The original publisher, John Shuttleworth, said, "Forget the problems. Concentrate on solutions."

A cracked, flickering light bulb formed over my head:

Do you guys have any interest in forming an intentional community? Since we have no chance of reforming our society, perhaps we can create our own. A handful of us could fire up a pretty good ecovillage based on mutual respect for each other and the environment. There would be no "leader," but governing decisions would be made by unanimous agreement. We could build our own yurts, geodomes, earthbag and straw bale structures, etc. Clean power would come from wind, solar, hydro, bio diesel, and aquafuel, etc. We would eat organic food that we grow/raise ourselves. Don't ask me how we would get the money/land to start it up. I'm just wondering if there is any interest in doing it. Let's worry about the impossible parts later.

My efforts to maintain Cryptogon are as useless for accomplishing anything positive as you reading these pages. I already get it. And if you've been reading Cryptogon for any length of time, you get it too. If we want to make tangibly positive changes, we must take bold action. We need to re-invent ourselves. It won't be easy, but then again, what is easy in this life? I'll mention one activity that leads nowhere: showing up to a nine-to-fiver from hell until the day I die. If I go down trying to live in a sane manner, so be it. I have a feeling that a change of venue to a place with trees, clean air, food and water would be a life altering experience for the better.

Let's start out with a simple head count. Send me an email if this sounds interesting. I estimate that Cryptogon has about 400 regular readers, spread all over the planet. I'd say that if 1% of you were serious, that might be enough to get started! You four folks, plus me, makes five like-minded people. That sounds like plenty to me.

Maybe you have no desire to be a part of this type of lifestyle in person, but have a piece of arable land somewhere that you're not using... Well, if you would like to support an experiment in sane living, open up your dirt to the presence of a yurt or two and a few of your fellow Cryptogon readers. I promise, we will respect your dirt and leave it in better condition than when we first arrive.

Now, I have a feeling that the people responding to this call to action will be men. Hopefully, you guys have wives/girlfriends who are receptive to this idea. Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to help set this thing up, women or no women. But it has been my experience that without women around, things get very crusty, very fast. That being said, I eagerly await your responses!





State Department Intelligence and Research Bureau Employee Found Dead :.

How long will it take before this one is called a suicide?

A State Department employee was found dead outside the agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., Friday around 5 p.m., Fox News has confirmed.

State Department sources told The Washington Post that John Kokal worked in a unit that dealt with intelligence and research. Sources said he handled classified documents regularly but was not involved in intelligence analysis.

Fire Department Spokesman Alan Etter said the man, a white male, was wearing a dress shirt, tie and slacks, but was not wearing shoes nor a suit jacket. He was found lying in the bottom of a concrete window well near 23rd and D streets, about eight stories below the top of the building. The well drops about 20 feet from ground level.


UPDATE: No Evidence of Foul Play :.

Imagine my shock:

D.C. Police are investigating the death of a State Department worker.

Police say it appears 58-year-old John Kokal of Arlington jumped from the top of the Foggy Bottom building to his death. Authorities found Kokal after 5 p.m. eight stories below the top of the building in a sunken terrace.

Police say there's no evidence of foul play. A medical examiner will determine the official cause of death.





Freeway Blogger :.

How long before people doing this are charged with homeland security violations under the Patriot Act?

When you put a sign on the freeway people will read it until someone takes it down.

Depending on its size, content and placement it can be seen by hundreds of thousands of people.


Keep the recent words of Donald Rumsfeld in mind:

"We are in a war of ideas, as well as a global war on terror," Mr. Rumsfeld said during an interview at the Pentagon with editors and reporters of The Washington Times.

"And the ideas are important, and they need to be marshaled, and they need to be communicated in ways that are persuasive to the listeners," he said.





County Sells Woman's Farm Over $572 Tax Bill :.

An 89-year-old woman could be evicted from her home of more than 50 years for missing one tax payment of $572 on her South Hanover Twp. property.

Helene Shue's red farmhouse and 41 acres of land along Route 39 -- about two miles from Hersheypark -- were appraised at $800,000, said her nephew, Jeff Arndt. The property was sold in September at a sheriff's sale for $15,000.




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:. Reading

Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture by Andrew Kimbrell Readers will come to see that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest" - fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate farms.

Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross This is a relatively short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward; the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of 'friendly persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans through what Gross refers to as friendly fascism.

The Good Life
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Helen and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating, timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.

Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth by David Bollierd In Silent Theft, David Bollier argues that a great untold story of our time is the staggering privatization and abuse of our common wealth. Corporations are engaged in a relentless plunder of dozens of resources that we collectively own—publicly funded medical breakthroughs, software innovation, the airwaves, the public domain of creative works, and even the DNA of plants, animals and humans. Too often, however, our government turns a blind eye—or sometimes helps give away our assets. Amazingly, the silent theft of our shared wealth has gone largely unnoticed because we have lost our ability to see the commons.

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide by John Seymour The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more.

When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten When Corporations Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It documents the devastating human and environmental consequences of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their own narrow ends.

The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener This expansion of a now-classic guide originally published in 1989 is intended for the serious gardener or small-scale market farmer. It describes practical and sustainable ways of growing superb organic vegetables, with detailed coverage of scale and capital, marketing, livestock, the winter garden, soil fertility, weeds, and many other topics.