7:43 pm CST
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!


The above example of 19th century animation was found at Chronophotographical Projections, a superb site full of more such delights for the eyes, as well as a fascinating history of animation. I’ve been saving this animation for a special occasion, and if the end of this rotten year isn’t a special occasion I don’t know what it is. Of course, any year that we survive can’t be all that rotten, right? So, let’s count our blessings.

7:40 pm CST
We end the year 2004 with a few last headlines …

First, here are two more things to ponder about the Indian Ocean tsunami (these links found via NewsMakingNews.com which has been kind enough to link to this blog a few times over the past month):

Tsunami Relief as a Subterfuge? The Pentagon Scrambles to Reenter its Old Thai Air Base

Why weren't CNN and BBC used more to warn of the Tsunami?

And if you thought earthquake weapons were diabolical, get a load of the following. Presumably, this weapon was never developed, but the very fact that it was considered tells us everything we need to know about our loving government:

Military Lab Proposed Gay-Aphrodisiac Chemical Weapon

In other news, there’s been another Taser death. Are we being intentionally desensitized to these deaths and conditioned to accept that it is we who serve the cops, not the other way around? …

Teen dies after being shot with Taser gun by Collier County deputies

Tasers Can Kill

And here’s something to remember when you’re lighting up at that New Years Eve party tonight:

Insanity: 55 Years in Prison for Selling Marijuana

Shadow of the Swastika: The Real Reason the Government Won't Debate Medical Cannabis and Industrial Hemp Re-legalization

And, finally, take note of the following from The Tactics of Disinformers:

Dividing the defenders of liberty into fighting each other by creating strife among patriots …

Attempting to waste the time of patriots, by forcing them to respond to personal attacks, or endless debate about trivia …

Learn more about disinformers at THIS LINK.

3:11 pm CST
The latest official death toll from the Christmas tsunami now stands at 125,000, and is expected to climb higher. In Indonesia alone the death toll is expected to exceed 400,000. God knows what the final death toll from the tsunami will be. Half-a-million? And will it stop there? What about all the people who may die of disease in the disaster’s aftermath?

Meanwhile, as the body count climbs, we are learning that the US government had foreknowledge of the disaster. In his article ”Foreknowledge of a Natural Disaster,” Michel Chossudovsky asks three key questions:

(1) Why were the Indian Ocean countries' governments not informed? (Chossudovsky notes numerous inconsistencies in the various explanations for the US government’s failure to issue warnings.)

(2) Did US authorities monitoring seismographic data have knowledge of the earthquake prior to its actual occurrence at 00.57 GMT on the 26th of December? (Chossudovsky speculates that, given its size, there should have been advance knowledge of the earthquake. Since his article appeared, scientists at the University of California at Davis have confirmed that they predicted the earthquake.)

(3) Why is the US military calling the shots on humanitarian relief? (Chossudovsky points out that normally this is the role of civilian humanitarian organizations, acting under the auspices of the UN, yet in this case the US Pacific Command is mobilizing an unprecedented array of military equipment into the region; also, the senior commander in the Iraq invasion, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Rusty Blackman, has been assigned to lead the operation.)

So there you have it: Foreknowledge and an inexplicable failure to issue warnings. Reminds me of the intelligence “failures” that led to the US government’s failure to act on its “foreknowledge” of September 11. And, like September 11, this disaster has resulted in a massive military deployment into an oil-rich region. (Note the proximity of Saudi Arabia, Somalia, not to mention Iran, to the Indian Ocean.)

September 11 also made someone a lot of money. In addition to all that interesting trading in airline stocks prior to September 11, there was big money to be made repairing the Pentagon and constructing a new World Trade Center. Now, there will be even bigger money to be made reconstructing the areas devastated by the tsunami. As James Ridgeway points out in the Village Voice article ”A Tsunami of Greed”, “the disaster will turn into an enticing investment opportunity in the days ahead. And in any event, donations for the charity relief effort could spell a big tax break.”

Good heavens, you don’t suppose someone would intentionally allow all that death and destruction in the Indian Ocean, do you?! Surely not. It’s crazy to even think such a thing. Why, it’s just as crazy as saying someone caused the earthquake. No one can cause an earthquake.

On the other hand, I do seem to recall former Secretary of Defense Cohen warning of earthquake weapons. So, it is technologically possible to cause an earthquake, and the idea of using such technology for military purposes has at least occurred to those in power. For instance, someone could have caused this recent earthquake “accidentally” with all that seismic “testing” they’ve been doing off the coast of Australia. Perfect cover. Of course, this is assuming someone would want to do such a thing. Surely, no amount of money or power could entice our leaders into actually using the earthquake weapons they admit exist. No, our leaders always act from the purest of motives.

True, they materially benefited from September 11—and, true, all the evidence does seem to indicate they had a hand in it as well. And it’s true, too, that they’ve slaughtered 100,000 Iraqis (so far) in a war with no other purpose than to make more money and increase their power. But they wouldn’t deliberately set off an earthquake and kill a few hundred thousand more people for the same reasons, would they?

Or wouldn’t they?

7:19 pm CST
Death toll reaches 100,000

The U.S. knew about the tsunami

Swedish paper reports tsunami warning halted out of concern for tourist industry

Human Engineered Earthquakes

The coincidence theorists will have a field day with this one:
Coincidence! Major quake exactly 1 year ago

7:16 pm CST
Charlene Fassa: Was Gary Webb ’Suicided’ To Kill New Book

Virginia McCullough: The Gary Webb Story Interpreted: Researchers, Writers and Readers at Work

2:41 pm CST
John Kaminski wrote me recently and was kind enough to include copies of his books America’s Autopsy Report, The Perfect Enemy, and The Day America Died. Perhaps you’ve read John’s informative essays on the Internet; if not, here’s one that I came across recently that perfectly sums up the situation we find ourselves in today: The Plot to Kill Us All. You can order John’s books at his website; or you can order America’s Autopsy Report from Amazon. I highly recommend them!

4:48 pm CST
From bOING-bOING: More links to bloggers in the nations hit by the tsunami

12:45 pm CST
Tsunami Death Toll Could Reach 100,000

12:43 pm CST
A few weeks ago information predicting an act of nuclear terrorism in Houston between Christmas and New Years began circulating on the Internet. I was inclined to dismiss this information as a hoax at the time, thus did not mention it here. However, since then, my friend SMiles Lewis (proprietor of Parapolitics.info and Elfis.net) has been researching recent acts of vandalism on cell phone and broadcast towers in Houston, and has compiled these news stories with others to present a picture indicative of something strange—exactly what is anybody’s guess—going on in the Houston area. Check out his research HERE.

10:49 am CST
Bloggers in SE Asia cover quake and tsunami disaster

6:53 am CST
DREAM: Researching a story. I’m looking for visual reference, pictures of the building that blew up, killing the scientist and his assistant. Someone was trying to stop their research, I learn. It had to do with the legendary healing powers of a river in the mountains of Youssef Abba. My own research now takes an unexpected turn ... I travel to Yousseff Abba, and making my way by jeep up a dusty, bumpy, narrow, treacherous road through the mountains come to an archaeological dig. I am not allowed to visit the dig itself, but am told I can find everything I want in a small museum for visitors. In the museum I wander from one glass case to the next and flip through various documents; none of it has anything to do with what I am looking for. The curator is standing nearby; I approach him. “What about the healing properties of the river?” I ask. The curator (who resembles James Mason) replies curtly, “There are none.” He starts to walk away, but I ask him another question. He turns, appraising me with an icy stare: “And you are…?” I tell him my name. “And you’re with what university?” “No university,” I say, feeling belligerent, “I’m a cartoonist.” I fully expect this to elicit a contemptuous response, but, to my surprise, hearing I’m a cartoonist causes him to give a start and stare at me speechlessly; it takes him a few moments to recover, then with an entirely different attitude he beckons me to follow him into an area normally off limits to visitors. We enter a dark room. “There,” he says, pointing to a large glass case. Inside, I see a glowing purple stone tablet suspended in the air and rotating. “That’s a hologram,” he says. “The original was destroyed.” I look closely at the tablet; it is covered in strange hieroglyphics. “Has it been translated?” I ask. He shakes his head. “No, we discovered it forty years ago, and are no nearer understanding it now than the day it was found.” Then he leads me into a large room where, behind glass, I see the petrified remains of a strange froglike people; there are dozens of them laid out on examining tables, all colorfully attired in costumes resembling suit-and-tie. “Is this a new species?” I ask. “They’re a type of hominid,” he says. “That’s all we know.” Then he leads me into a large cafeteria where the archaeological workers are having lunch and turns on a projector; everyone stops eating to stare upwards in rapt attention at a 3D movie projected on the concave ceiling. We see a long journey across endless reaches of space; the immensity of the journey makes me dizzy with existential nausea. By this time I am aware that I am dreaming and can feel myself on the verge of wakefulness; I fight to stay asleep so I can finish the dream and learn the secret of the strange people of Youssef Abba. But the dream takes a surprising turn: One of the workers, overwhelmed by the 3D movie, suddenly leaps up from his table and brandishing a machine gun takes a female hostage. He shouts something about Revolution. But no sooner are the words out of his mouth than he falters. All can read his mind: He is overcome with shame at the truth of human existence, suddenly knowing that violent revolution will not defeat the Evil, but will instead perpetuate and feed it; thus, he cannot follow through with his ill-considered plan …

2:24 pm CST
My good friend HipBilly sent me this link to his site where he has posted what may be the only other photo of Billy the Kid in existence besides the one everyone has already seen. It is still in the process of being authenticated by scientific means, but to my eye it looks one hundred percent genuine. In this old tintype we see Billy and his brother Joe in the late 1870s, a few years before Billy became a legend in the Lincoln County War.

12:02 pm CST
A READER WRITES: Hello Mack, and Merry Christmas …

Very interesting stuff on your site recently with regard to the pseudo-military type clothing being sported by "OUR LEADER", as well as by Arnold of California. Add to that the large, iconic photos used just like the other notorious military dictators of the past and I think it does make some sense...I think you just might be on to something there. We need to keep watching these Hitler wannabees.

I have to weigh in here on the Gary Webb issue and the whole feud between Alex Jones and Michael Ruppert. Now I don't have a dog in this fight; I have respect for both parties. I listen to Alex regularly, and I have seen and heard Michael Ruppert speak, and I have always felt that both men were good representatives in the fight against the true enemies of our freedom .I realize that the two have other issues that I won't go into, however, a "bone in the throat", so-to-speak, regarding the death of Mr. Webb seems to be the presence of two gunshot wounds to the head, and whether they both could be self inflicted.

Well, speaking from many years experience as a Senior Deputy Medical Investigator with this State I can tell you that it is absolutely possible for a person to inflict multiple gunshot wounds to the head. As a matter of fact, just in this past month our office investigated two such cases; one in which a .45 caliber handgun was used .This decedent was found with one intraoral wound which was not immediately fatal, although it caused massive maxillary, dental and nasal damage. In other words, it blew off much of his face. The second shot was of the temporal area which likely was immediately fatal.

In the second case a .380 handgun was used; again, the first shot was intraoral with less extensive facial trauma. The second shot was of some other unspecified area of the head. This patient, after twice shooting himself continued to walk around the bedroom leaving extensive blood trail to the bed where he was later found, groaning .He was nearly pulseless but had agonal respiration. He was rushed to the hospital where he was resuscitated. Our agency investigated the case because although as of this writing he is still alive on vent support, he nevertheless is expected to die. Still, there is a chance this person may actually survive. I mention all of this only to perhaps shed a little more truthful and unbiased information into the mix for you to draw your own conclusions.

Could Gary Webb have been murdered?? Of course. But is it possible, even probable, that a person could inflict two gunshot wounds to their own head? The answer is unequivocally yes.

I think the real tragedy in all of this now is that Alex Jones and Michael Ruppert go at each other while the NWO folk sit back laughing and wringing their greasy hands. Tragic.

Thanks for writing—and thanks for your insight regarding the two-shot scenario in Gary Webb’s death. It is clear from what you say that we cannot construct a murder scenario in this case based solely on the forensics. This is a key difference between the deaths of Webb and Kennedy; while there is no doubt about what happened when we look at the Zapruder film, we find room for the possibility of suicide in Webb’s death.

However, we do not need forensics evidence to justify our suspicion that Webb was murdered. For one thing, over the past several years, there have been too many “apparent suicides” of persons who have in one way or another proven a threat to the criminal elite--Vince Foster, Admiral Boorda, Danny Casalaro, Fortunate Son author J. H. Hatfield, Enron executive Clifford Baxter, to name a few. This, taken together with the information from Ricky Ross, Cele Castillo, and others who knew Webb, compels us to seriously question the official version of Webb’s death.

And yet Ruppert wants us to ignore all this; even worse, he viciously denounces those who disagree with him. It is disappointing to hear Ruppert speak this way, and troubling.

You are correct that the real tragedy here is the divisiveness this controversy has wrought. Time spent arguing among ourselves over whether or not Webb was murdered is time not spent fighting the New World Order.

Again, thank you for writing. Here’s wishing you and yours a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

7:35 pm CST
Michael Ruppert has attacked Alex Jones and others who question the suicide verdict in the death of Gary Webb, and Alex has fired back with a point-by-point rebuttal pointing out numerous factual errors in Ruppert's article. You may read Alex's rebuttal at the link above, therefore I need not list his points here. I would, however, like to make the following observations:

In his article, Ruppert describes a conversation he had with Cele Castillo in which Castillo expressed uncertainty over whether or not Webb was murdered. However, when I met Castillo a few days ago, he expressed no ambivalence on the matter at all, but rather, confirmed to me that Webb was murdered.

Also, in his zeal to silence all talk of murder, Ruppert uses the old "it-hurts-the-family" argument—an argument I recall once being used to justify keeping the Zapruder film under wraps.

As it happens, the Zapruder film has been referenced by Ruppert on many occasions (see Rupert's article, "The Kennedys, Physical Evidence, and 9/11"), thus he is fully aware of its legacy—namely, that the existence of a film showing President Kennedy being shot from the front (rather than from behind as the government and mainstream media still insist was the case) compels us to question the official explanation of any suspicious high-profile death, particularly if it has to do with the CIA—and most particularly if there is something about the forensics evidence of the death that does not seem right.

Ruppert assures us that the official version of Webb’s death is true. That is, we are asked to believe that Webb shot off part of his face due to last-minute hesitation, then had sufficient mental clarity and physical ability (i.e., did not succumb to shock or unconsciousness) to correct the error by taking more careful aim towards the brain and finishing the job with a second shot. However, this tests our credulity as much as the notion that a shot from behind caused Kennedy to fly backwards.

And Ruppert does more than test our credulity; he offends with his strident tone. He is like the Grand Inquisitor demanding we blindly accept the official version as an article of faith and denouncing all doubters as heretics, only he does not call them heretics—he calls them "pseudo-journalists" and "Internet trailer trash." This tone, taken together with the factual errors in his article, does not promote confidence in the suicide verdict; rather, it arouses our suspicion all the more.

7:30 pm CST
Incidents of police misuse of Tasers continue to increase in frequency and outrageousness:

Miami Police Use Taser to Subdue Wheelchair-Bound Man

Police Use Taser on 14-Year-Old Boy

Police Officer Tasers 12-Year-Old Special-Needs Student