Hampton Roads Publishing Company Blog

Before it began

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Well underway

Nearly complete

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America the Violent: The School Shootings
February 15, 2008
By John W. Whitehead

It may well be that Steven Kazmierczak, a former student at Northern Illinois University, was simply a deeply disturbed individual. But we cannot ignore the fact that he was also a product of the American culture of violence.

America is a nation plagued by violence—in our homes, in our schools, on our streets and in our affairs of state, both foreign and domestic. Violence permeates our entertainment culture with its glamorization of death and destruction in movies and video games. Indeed, it is estimated that by the time a child reaches 18, he or she will have witnessed 200,000 acts of violence, including 40,000 murders on television.

Our nation has one of the highest murder rates and levels of incarceration of all industrialized nations in the world. We even export violence, with one of this country’s most profitable exports being weapons. All too often, these same weapons fall into the hands of our enemies. America is now seen as a violent empire with continual wars that stretch back to at least the beginning of the twentieth century.

But why is America so violent?

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From http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/how-the-spooks-took-over-the-news-780672.html via George Ure’s UrbanSurvival.com

How the spooks took over the news

In his controversial new book, Nick Davies argues that shadowy intelligence agencies are pumping out black propaganda to manipulate public opinion – and that the media simply swallow it wholesale

Monday, 11 February 2008

Onthe morning of 9 February 2004, The New York Times carried an exclusive and alarming story. The paper’s Baghdad correspondent, Dexter Filkins, reported that US officials had obtained a 17-page letter, believed to have been written by the notorious terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi to the “inner circle” of al-Qa’ida’s leadership, urging them to accept that the best way to beat US forces in Iraq was effectively to start a civil war.

The letter argued that al-Qa’ida, which is a Sunni network, should attack the Shia population of Iraq: “It is the only way to prolong the duration of the fight between the infidels and us. If we succeed in dragging them into a sectarian war, this will awaken the sleepy Sunnis.”

Later that day, at a regular US press briefing in Baghdad, US General Mark Kimmitt dealt with a string of questions about The New York Times report: “We believe the report and the document is credible, and we take the report seriously… It is clearly a plan on the part of outsiders to come in to this country and spark civil war, create sectarian violence, try to expose fissures in this society.” The story went on to news agency wires and, within 24 hours, it was running around the world.

There is very good reason to believe that that letter was a fake – and a significant one because there is equally good reason to believe that it was one product among many from a new machinery of propaganda which has been created by the United States and its allies since the terrorist attacks of September 2001.

For the first time in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception. And the mass media are operating as its compliant assistants, failing both to resist it and to expose it.

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Richard Doughty (The Mogambo Guru) is sort of like the guys on Car Talk – he thinks he’s funnier than he is, but he knows what he’s talking about. Nothing much you and I can do about this – the geniuses trying to run the world let the children hold the wheel, but they don’t let us drive — except stay out of debt (and it’s pretty late to be doing that) and hold real assets if possible.

Prehistoric problems with fiat currency
By The Mogambo Guru

As I was reading the first paragraph of the Weekly Watch in Doug Noland’s Credit Bubble Bulletin, I was struck by how many year-to-date stock market sector losses there are, which are also (since this is just the early part of February) the losses of one freaking month! One month! Yikes!

As my boss so recently said to me in reviewing my job performance, “Let’s take a look at the damage shall we?” He had this strange, twisted smile on his face as he said it, which was (it turned out) a Very Bad Sign (VBS) of what was to come, which seems so obvious in retrospect.

But I was already attuned to the fact that something was amiss, as we were in his office, the doors were closed, his secretary was taking everything all down in her little pad, and Carl from Rabid Dog Security Service was standing by the door, looking more menacing than usual.

So, similarly, I say, “Let’s take a look, shall we?”, as a way of being ominous. The losses are; down 8.2%, down 9.3%, down 7.1%, down 7.6%, 8.3%, 7.5%, 14.9%, 14.6%, 14.3%, 11.4%, 12.1%, 7.6%, 6.1%, and 0.7%, down, down, down! Whew! These are staggering, staggering losses!

The only two things that were up year-to-date were the Dow Transport index (up 3.1%) and HUI gold index (up 8.4%).

And from news.bbc.co.uk we get January’s results from representatives of the largest stock markets around the world as being down 22.7%, down 21.4%, down 16.1%, down 16%, 12.3%, 8.9%, and 6% down, down, down! 50 out of 52 stock markets in the world were down, so that $5.2 trillion was lost in January alone!

I think I know why, and the evidence is contained in many places. The first place is in my clinical record, which chronicles my incessant fixation and fear about inflation in prices that always follows inflation in the money supply, usually thanks to a fiat currency, or banking excesses, or (as we disastrously have now) both at once.

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Pilot Steve Fossett walks across a windy runway to the GlobalFlyer at the Salina Municipal Airport in Salina, Kan. in this Feb. 28, 2005 file photo. Fossett, who risked his life seeking to set records in high-tech balloons, gliders and jets, was declared dead on Friday, Feb. 15, 2008, five months after he vanished while flying in an ordinary small plane. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Adventurer Steve Fossett Declared Dead

By TAMMY WEBBER – 1 hour ago

CHICAGO (AP) — Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who risked his life seeking to set records in high-tech balloons, gliders and jets, was declared dead Friday, 5 months after he vanished while flying in an ordinary small plane.

The self-made business tycoon, who in 2002 became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon, was last seen Sept. 3 after taking off in a single-engine plane from an airstrip near Yerington, Nev., heading toward Bishop, Calif. He was 63.

At the request of his wife, Peggy V. Fossett, a judge declared Fossett legally dead in Cook County Circuit Court as a step toward resolving the legal status of his estate, said her attorney, Michael LoVallo.

Judge Jeffrey Malak heard testimony Friday from Peggy Fossett, a family friend and a search-and-rescue expert before deciding there was sufficient evidence to declare him dead.

“It was very sad,” LoVallo said, “and at first she hoped and sort of envisioned him walking down the road the next day with another story to tell. But as the days went on, she realized it wasn’t going to happen as it had on other occasions when he’d had close calls.”

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Jack Worthington

The comparison images are from the Boston Herald.

I figured it would only be a matter of time — and not much time — before we got a photo of Jack Worthington. Here it is. The first story is from http://winnipegsun.com/News/Canada/2008/02/13/4844071.html

TORONTO — The identity of a British Columbia resident who claims to be the late U.S. president John Kennedy’s son has been revealed.

Jack Worthington told the Globe and Mail he was born Nov. 22, 1961, exacly two years before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

Worthington says his mother’s family were lifelong political allies of Kennedy’s vice-president, Lyndon Johnson.

The Globe notes there is no proof of a connection between Worthington and Kennedy.

The New York Post reported last week that Vanity Fair magazine has been working on a story about the case for months but has held off publishing at the request of the late president’s brother, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy.

Worthington said his motive for coming forward is a “profound duty I feel to do the right thing.”

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This is the most sensible thing written on the economy in as long as I can remember. Everything in it is as obvious as hell – for those who are willing to look. Here’s one more legacy of Ronald Reagan.

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From the Guardian http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/craig_aaron/2008/02/a_tough_pill_to_swallow.html

via schwartzreport.com. As usual, no reporting in the supposedly free supposedly news-oriented American media.

A tough pill to swallow

For too long, US telecom and cable companies have controlled Americans’ access to the internet - and they want to restrict it even more

Craig Aaron

February 11, 2008 9:00 PM

There’s a classic scene in The Matrix, where Morpheus (the Laurence Fishburne character) offers Neo (played by Keanu Reeves), a fateful choice.

He holds out two pills. Take the blue pill, he says, and you go back to a life of clock-punching drudgery where your every move is monitored. Take the red one, and you get spaceships, kung-fu and a leather-clad Carrie-Anne Moss.

Take away the martial arts, and Morpheus could just as well be describing the monumental choice Americans are facing today over the future of the internet. Only it’s not science fiction.

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America’s New God: When Politics Trumps Faith

February 11, 2008
By John W. Whitehead

“Nearly 30 years after religious conservatives decided to re-enter the political arena—after abandoning it as ‘dirty’ and leading to compromise—what do they have to show for it? The country remains sharply divided and the reconciling message they used to preach has been obscured by the crass pursuit of the golden ring of political power. In the end, they got neither the power, nor the Kingdom; only the glory and even that is now fading.”
—Cal Thomas, former vice president of the Moral Majority

It’s one thing for Christians—or any other religion, for that matter—to get involved in politics. But it’s a different matter altogether when religious individuals allow politics to take precedence over their religious beliefs.

This is most evident as the race for the White House heats up and vocal Christians such as James Dobson attempt to steer the outcome by endorsing a particular candidate. Yet I can’t help but wonder exactly what these Christians are really putting their faith in. Are they after greater power and influence? Do they think a Christian in the White House will solve the problems that plague our nation?

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