At a moment in American history where the government is preparing to take a larger role in the health care of most of Americans it is disturbing to consider the practices that the government already endorses for the children under their care. Instead of trying proven natural methods (which tend to require more time and work) will the government want to medicate away all of our problems? As these questions are considered it needs to remembered that once authority is put into the hands of government it is near impossible for the people to take that authority back for themselves. Do we want to walk down this medicated road?

The federal government has not done enough to oversee the treatment of America's foster children with powerful mind-altering drugs, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to be released Thursday.
ABC News was given exclusive access to the GAO report, which capped off a nationwide yearlong investigation by ABC News on the overuse of the most powerful mind-altering drugs on many of the country's nearly 425,000 foster children.
The GAO's report, based on a two-year-long investigation, looked at five states -- Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Texas. Thousands of foster children were being prescribed psychiatric medications at doses higher than the maximum levels approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in these five states alone. And hundreds of foster children received five or more psychiatric drugs at the same time despite absolutely no evidence supporting the simultaneous use or safety of this number of psychiatric drugs taken together.
GAO Key Findings
Overall, the GAO looked at nearly 100,000 foster children in the five states and found that nearly one-third of foster children were prescribed at least one psychiatric drug.
The GAO found foster children were prescribed psychotropic drugs at rates up to nearly five times higher than non-foster children, with foster children in Texas being the most likely to receive the medications compared to foster children in the other four states.
Watch the year-long investigation tonight on "World News with Diane Sawyer" at 6:30 p.m. ET
Although the actual percentages of children who received five or more psychiatric drugs at the same time were low in the five states included in the GAO report, the chances of a foster child compared to a non-foster child being given five or more psychiatric drugs at the same time were alarming.
In Texas, foster children were 53 times more likely to be prescribed five or more psychiatric medications at the same time than non-foster children. In Massachusetts, they were 19 times more likely. In Michigan, the number was 15 times. It was 13 times in Oregon. And in Florida, foster children were nearly four times as likely to be given five or more psychotropic medications at the same time compared to non-foster children.
Initially part of GAO's investigation, Maryland was later excluded from GAO's analysis "due to the unreliability of their foster care data" according to the report, a problem ABC News learned many states face.
Foster children were also more than nine times more likely than non-foster children to be prescribed drugs for which there was no FDA-recommended dose for their age.
For the most vulnerable foster children, those less than 1 year old, foster children were nearly twice as likely to be prescribed a psychiatric drug compared to non-foster children.
When Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., lead requestor of the GAO report, first learned of the report's findings, he said, "I was almost despondent to believe that the kids under the age of one, babies under the age of one were receiving this kind of medication."
ABC News has reviewed dozens of medical studies published in recent years that echo GAO's findings -- research showing foster children receive psychiatric medications up to 13 times more often than kids in the general population.
In some parts of the country, as many as half of foster kids are on one or more psychiatric medications. This, compared to just 4 percent of kids in the general population.
Read more

There is always a reason why any major advance in technology would be allowed to become easily accessible to the majority of people.

Apple iTunes flaw 'allowed government spying for 3 years'

An unpatched security flaw in Apple’s iTunes software allowed intelligence agencies and police to hack into users’ computers for more than three years, it’s claimed.

     Understanding psychopaths is  one of the most important issues to study in order to see why the world is the way that it is. Even though there are many types of psychopaths due to way that media uses the term the only psychopath that most people know are the Hannibal Lecture type of killer. The main characteristic of a psychopath is an inability to connect to human emotions. While this disconnect is exactly what would allow for a Hannibal Lecture to exist the most dangerous psychopath is the kind that is smart enough not to murder by their own hands. As this article points out, the corporate psychopath is much more dangerous. The nature of a psychopath is to attain power and prestige. This characteristic combined with the average person's ignorance on the topic allows for psychopaths to raise to the most powerful positions in all societies. 
       Some people (including myself) would argue that most of history is the story of how the psychopath has fooled the masses. Through out history most of all people have been ruled over by a select group of relatively interbred ruling class, many of which could be identified as psychopathic through there actions. When psychopaths have an ability to readily identify like minded individuals, have we become pawns in their plotting together and fighting against each other. The psychopaths biggest fear is to be identified as such and be dealt with accordingly, having their power and prestige away from them. While they fight for power the main goal of the corporate psychopaths to work together to protect their power from the "normal people".
    We need to educate and protect ourselves from these type of psychopaths. Until we do the people will continue to be used as pawns for their gain. If we do nothing we will become enslaved into a position where the people will not be able to do anything against this emotionless force ruling over the world.
Further reading:
Political Ponerology

Weeding out corporate psychopaths

Given the state of the global economy, it might not surprise you to learn that psychopaths may be controlling the world. Not violent criminals, but corporate psychopaths who nonetheless have a genetically inherited biochemical condition that prevents them from feeling normal human empathy.
Scientific research is revealing that 21st century financial institutions with a high rate of turnover and expanding global power have become highly attractive to psychopathic individuals to enrich themselves at the expense of others, and the companies they work for.
A peer-reviewed theoretical paper titled “The Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis” details how highly placed psychopaths in the banking sector may have nearly brought down the world economy through their own inherent inability to care about the consequences of their actions.
The author of this paper, Clive Boddy, previously of Nottingham Trent University, believes this theory would go a long way to explain how senior managers acted in ways that were disastrous for the institutions they worked for, the investors they represented and the global economy at large.
If true, this also means the astronomically expensive public bailouts will not solve the problem since many of the morally impaired individuals who caused this mess likely remain in positions of power. Worse, they may be the same people advising governments on how to resolve this crisis.
To tackle this problem, we must instead examine this rare and curious condition, and why recent corporate history may have elevated precisely the wrong type of people to positions of great power and public trust.
Unfeeling, but not insane
Psychopathy should not be confused with insanity. It is best described by Robert Hare, global expert and psychologist, as “emotional deafness” — a biochemical inability to experience normal feelings of empathy for others.
This shark-like fixation on self-interest means that psychopaths often feel a clear detachment from other people, viewing them more as sheep to be preyed upon than fellow humans to relate to. For instance, psychopaths in prison often use group therapy sessions not as a healing process, but as an opportunity to learn how to simulate normal human emotions.
Studies on twins have revealed that psychopathy shows a strong genetic signature and there remains no effective treatment. Recent research has linked the condition to physical abnormalities in the amygdala region of the brain.
Only a small subset of psychopaths become the violent criminals so often fictionalized in film. Most simply seek to blend in and conceal their difference in order to more effectively manipulate others. This frightening condition has existed throughout human history, though likely in a marginal and socially parasitic way.
While psychopaths are often portrayed by Hollywood as brilliantly clever, a hypothetical race of Hannibal Lecters would likely perish since they lack the ability to trust each other. Put another way, the human race — a relatively weak, slow, hairless tropical primate — has succeeded so spectacularly in every ecosystem on the planet not because we are so bad, but because we are so good.
Most dangerous 1 per cent
The human ability to build social capital means that people can cooperate and trust each other. We can reliably predict the behaviour of others even if we have never met them. Social capital is the glue that holds together our communities, complex societies, large institutions and the economy. The one and only superpower possessed by psychopaths is their ruthless ability to spend the social capital created by others.
Scientists believe about 1 per cent of the general population is psychopathic, meaning there are more than three million moral monsters among normal United States citizens. There is emerging evidence that this frequency increases within the upper management of modern corporations. This is not surprising since personal ruthlessness and fixation on personal power have become seen as strong assets to large publicly traded corporations (which some authors believe have also become psychopathic).
However, appearance and performance are two different things. While psychopaths are often outwardly charming and excellent self-promoters, they are also typically terrible managers, bullying co-workers and creating chaos to conceal their behaviour.
When employed in senior levels, their pathology also means they are biochemically incapable of something they are legally required to do: act in good faith on behalf of other people. The banking and corporate sector is built on the ancient principle of fiduciary duty — a legal obligation to act in the best interest of those whose money or property you are entrusted with. Asking a psychopath to do that is like recruiting a pyromaniac to be a firefighter.
The folly of mixing psychopathy and senior corporate management has been borne out by recent history. At the end of the last decade, numerous banking institutions representing hundreds of years of corporate financial stability ceased to exist within a few short months due to the reckless acts of a few individuals — none of whom has ever been charged with a crime.
And therein lies the rub. As ruthless as psychopaths are, their pathology dictates that they will ultimately act to the detriment of the organizations and investors they are paid so well to represent.
Fertile for psychopaths: New corporate culture
If this theory is correct, how did this become such a crisis in recent decades? Boddy suggests that corporations have changed from relatively stable institutions where psychopaths would have a difficult time concealing themselves, to highly fluid organizations where it is much easier for them to disappear within the chaos in their wake.
“(The) whole corporate and employment environment changed from one that would hold the Corporate Psychopath in check to one where they could flourish and advance relatively unopposed,” Boddy writes. “As evidence of this, senior level remuneration and reward started to increase more and more rapidly and beyond all proportion to shop floor incomes and a culture of greed unfettered by conscience developed. Corporate Psychopaths are ideally situated to prey on such an environment and corporate fraud, financial misrepresentation, greed and misbehaviour went through the roof, bringing down huge companies and culminating in the Global Financial Crisis that we are now in.”
Boddy is not hopeful that the current round of expensive public bailouts will solve the problem. If psychopaths have in fact installed themselves in the upper reaches of the world’s financial institutions, their genetic deficiency dictates that their greed knows no bounds. They will continue to act in anti-social, remorseless ways, amplified by their enormous corporate influence until the institutions they represent and perhaps the entire global economy collapses. Obviously, more academic research in this area is urgently needed.
Boddy concludes his recent paper with this grim prediction:
“Writing in 2005, this author . . . predicted that the rise of Corporate Psychopaths was a recipe for corporate and societal disaster. This disaster has now happened and is still happening. Across the western world, the symptoms of the financial crisis are now being treated. However, this treatment of the symptoms will have little effect because the root cause is not being addressed. The very same Corporate Psychopaths, who probably caused the crisis by their self-seeking greed and avarice, are now advising governments on how to get out of the crisis. That this involves paying themselves vast bonuses in the midst of financial hardship for many millions of others is symptomatic of the problem. Further, if (this theory is correct) then we are now far from the end of the crisis. Indeed, it is only the end of the beginning. Perhaps more than ever before, the world needs corporate leaders with a conscience . . . Measures exist to identify Corporate Psychopaths. Perhaps it is time to use them.”
Time has come for testing
Boddy’s last statement contains a kernel of hope. If our world has become chaotic due to institutionalized psychopathy, imagine how much better it could be if such dangerously impaired individuals were excluded from positions of power and influence.
Precedence exists for dealing with such situations. Randomized workplace drug testing became the norm in the 1980s. At the time, civil libertarians strongly objected on the basis that it violated personal privacy protections. However, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1989 that such testing was constitutional and now about 25 per cent of Fortune 500 companies routinely require their employees to submit to such tests.
Perhaps investors at major financial institutions should require that senior level managers submit to established tests to ensure they are not psychopathic. This is not an issue of civil liberties since the precedent has already been well established regarding drug impairment in the workplace. Likewise, it is not a regulatory issue since private shareholders have every right to demand that executives demonstrate they are not biochemically impaired and therefore unable to carry out their fiduciary duties on behalf of investors. If corporate boards are hiring psychopaths as executive management, they are not carrying out their due diligence and could be held legally liable for their oversight.
Companies should also consider providing employees with specific whistleblower provisions to expose potential psychopaths in the workplace. A 2010 study by Boddy showed that corporate psychopaths caused more than one quarter of all workplace bullying, though they accounted for only one per cent of the workforce.
Besides being traumatic and humiliating to other workers, this bullying is also very expensive. Boddy calculated that bullying by corporate psychopaths cost companies in the U.K. more than £3.5 billion per year in lost productivity and attrition. Extrapolating these results to the United States, these deviant individuals are responsible for more than $35 billion in direct annual losses to U.S. businesses.
Politicians, too?
And what about elected officials? There is no higher standard of trust in our society than standing for public office. Campaigning politicians are expected to submit to almost absurd levels of scrutiny about their private lives, character and personal relationships. Should not candidates begin providing voters proof that they are medically capable of acting in the interests of the public that may elect them?
The Occupy Wall Street protesters demanding an end to the reign of the “1 per cent” may have unwittingly stumbled on the crux of the issue. Science tells us that 99 per cent of humans have normal emotional function. One per cent are psychopaths. We ignore that truth at our peril.

     I often reference how the changes that the U.S. and NATO have brought to the Middle East and North Africa were planned long ago. Here is an article that summarizes the history of these plans. Once you know that these plans exist you have to ask why these plans continue forward even through the massive political changes that have occurred over the last two decades. Is there a plan that is being followed that transcends the facade of political parties?

Neocons Planned Regime Change Throughout Middle East, Africa 20 Years Ago

I’ve repeatedly documented that the Neocons planned regime change in Iraq, Libya, Iran, Syria and a host of other countries right after 9/11 … if not before.
And that Obama is implementing these same plans – just with a “kindler, gentler” face.
Glenn Greenwald provides further documentation that the various Middle Eastern and North African wars were planned before 9/11:

General Wesley Clark … said the aim of this plot [to "destroy the governments in ... Iraq, ... Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran”] was this: “They wanted us to destabilize the Middle East, turn it upside down, make it under our control.” He then recounted a conversation he had had ten years earlier with Paul Wolfowitz — back in1991 — in which the then-number-3-Pentagon-official, after criticizing Bush 41 for not toppling Saddam, told Clark: “But one thing we did learn [from the Persian Gulf War] is that we can use our military in the region – in the Middle East – and the Soviets won’t stop us. And we’ve got about 5 or 10 years to clean up those old Soviet regimes – Syria, Iran [sic], Iraq – before the next great superpower comes on to challenge us.” Clark said he was shocked by Wolfowitz’s desires because, as Clark put it: “the purpose of the military is to start wars and change governments? It’s not to deter conflicts?”
[I]n the aftermath of military-caused regime change in Iraq and Libya … with concerted regime change efforts now underway aimed at Syria and Iran, with active andescalating proxy fighting in Somalia, with a modest military deployment to SouthSudan, and the active use of drones in six — count ‘em: six — different Muslim countries, it is worth asking whether the neocon dream as laid out by Clark is dead or is being actively pursued and fulfilled, albeit with means more subtle and multilateral than full-on military invasions (it’s worth remembering that neocons specialized in dressing up their wars in humanitarian packaging: Saddam’s rape rooms! Gassed his own people!). As Jonathan Schwarz … put it about the supposedly contentious national security factions:

As far as I can tell, there’s barely any difference in goals within the foreign policy establishment. They just disagree on the best methods to achieve the goals. My guess is that everyone agrees we have to continue defending the mideast from outside interference (I love that Hillary line), and the [Democrats] just think that best path is four overt wars and three covert actions, while the neocons want to jump straight to seven wars.

***

The neocon end as Clark reported them — regime change in those seven countries — seems as vibrant as ever. It’s just striking to listen to Clark describe those 7 countries in which the neocons plotted to have regime change back in 2001, and then compare that to what the U.S. Government did and continues to do since then with regard to those precise countries.
Note: The so-called “war on terror” has also weakened our national security and created many more terrorists than it has killed, imprisoned or otherwise stopped.  It is also destroying our economy.

Once again, another study to show the effects of BPA and how it is embedded in a large percentage of our food products. Unless you only eat fresh food BPA is in your diet from various packaging sources. The science is there, they have known the effects of BPA since the first half of the 20th century, yet they still give it to us in ever increasing quantities. One can assume that it has more to do with than money because as this issue gains traction in the public realm someone could make a lot of money introducing a  less or non-toxic alternative, which they have. Those at the top of society have wanted to control us through use of hormones for over a hundred years now. Are we merely being engineered?

Soaring BPA Levels Found in People Who Eat Canned Foods

Eating canned food every day may raise the levels of the compound bisphenol A (BPA) in a person's urine more than previously suspected, a new study suggests.

People who ate a serving of canned soup every day for five days had BPA levels of 20.8 micrograms per liter of urine, whereas people who instead ate fresh soup had levels of 1.1 micrograms per liter, according to the study. BPA is found in many canned foods — it is a byproduct of the chemicals used to prevent corrosion.

When the researchers looked at the rise in BPA levels seen in the average participant who ate canned soup compared with those who ate fresh soup, they found a 1,221 percent jump.

"To see an increase in this magnitude was quite surprising," said study leader Karin Michels, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The levels of BPA seen in the study participants "are among the most extreme reported in a nonoccupational setting," the researchers wrote in their study. In the general population, levels have been found to be around 1 to 2 micrograms per liter, Michels said.

The study noted that levels higher than 13 micrograms per liter were found in only the top 5 percent of participants in the National Health and Examination Survey, which is an ongoing study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We are concerned about the influence of [hormone-disrupting] chemicals on health in general, and BPA is one of them," Michels told MyHealthNewsDaily.

The study is published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Soup for Lunch
The study included 75 people, whose average age was 27. One group of participants ate 12 ounces of fresh soup every day at lunchtime, while the other ate the same amount of canned soup each day. Urine samples were collected from the participants on the fourth and fifth days of the study.

BPA was detected in 77 percent of people who ate the fresh soup, and all of the people who ate the canned soup, according to the study.

Only a few studies had previously looked at BPA levels from eating canned foods, and those relied on asking people how much of the food they usually eat comes from cans, Michels said. The new study was the first in which researchers randomized participants to eat a small serving of canned food or fresh food, and measured the resulting difference in their urine BPA levels, she said.

"We've known for a while that drinking beverages that have been stored in certain hard plastics can increase the amount of BPA in your body. This study suggests that canned foods may be an even greater concern, especially given their wide use," said study researcher Jenny Carwile, a doctoral student at Harvard.

BPA and Health
A 2008 study of 1,455 people showed that higher urinary BPA levels were linked with higher risks of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and abnormal concentrations of certain liver enzymes, even after factors such as age, body mass index and smoking were taken into account.

And other studies have linked BPA levels in a woman's urine during her pregnancy to health problems in her child.

It is not known how long the levels of BPA might remain high, according to the study. However, it is also not known whether such a spike, even if it isn't sustained for very long, may affect health, the researchers wrote.

The study was limited in that all of the participants were students or staff at one school, and a single soup brand (Progresso) was tested, but the researchers wrote that they expected the results to apply to canned foods with a similar BPA content.

"Reducing canned food consumption may be a good idea, especially for people consuming foods from cans regularly," Michels said. "Maybe manufacturers can take the step of taking BPA out of the lining of cans — some have already done this, but only a few."

The study was funded by the Allen Foundation, which advocates nutrition research.

Pass it on: Cutting down on the amount of canned food you eat might be a good idea, researchers say.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/11/23/soaring-bpa-levels-found-in-people-who-eat-canned-foods/#ixzz1eviEV7OU

Author James Delingpole on "Climategate" by NewsLook

Could this be the America of the future?

    America's equivalent to the Enabling act has truly come to be. The military has been practicing for years on American urban operations. Now Congress is taking the steps to open the doors for the President to use his armies against the American people. As the police brutality as of late has shown police will take their jobs to the point of not caring about how or why someone is harmed to accomplish their job. What kind of horrors will an army bring to American streets? One of the principle ideas that defined the birth of America was being afraid of the use of a standing Army against the people of their own nation. This will bring us full circle and see the tyranny from the age of Monarchies  

Congress to Vote Next Week on EXPLICITLY Creating a Police State

If You Thought Police Brutality Was Bad … Wait Until You See What Congress Wants to Do Next Week

The police brutality against peaceful protesters in Berkeley, Davis, Oakland and elsewhere is bad enough.
But next week, Congress will vote on explicitly creating a police state.
The ACLU’s Washington legislative office explains:

The Senate is gearing up for a vote on Monday or Tuesday that goes to the very heart of who we are as Americans. The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself.
***
The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world.
***
The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself. The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday.
***
I know it sounds incredible. New powers to use the military worldwide, even within the United States? Hasn’t anyone told the Senate that Osama bin Laden is dead, that the president is pulling all of the combat troops out of Iraq and trying to figure out how to get combat troops out of Afghanistan too? And American citizens and people picked up on American or Canadian or British streets being sent to military prisons indefinitely without even being charged with a crime. Really? Does anyone think this is a good idea? And why now?
***
In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield.”
***
The senators pushing the indefinite detention proposal have made their goals very clear that they want an okay for a worldwide military battlefield, that even extends to your hometown.

Part of an Ongoing Trend

While this is shocking, it is not occurring in a vacuum. Indeed, it is part of a 30 year-long process of militarization inside our borders and a destruction of the American concepts of limited government and separation of powers.
As I pointed out in May:

The ACLU noted yesterday [that] Congress is proposing handing permanent, world-wide war-making powers to the president – including the ability to make war within the United States:
***
As I noted in 2008:

An article in the Army Times reveals that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team will be redeployed from Iraq to domestic operations within the United States.
The unit will soon be under the day-to-day control of US Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command. The Army Times reports this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to Northern Command. The paper says the Army unit may be called upon to help with “civil unrest” and “crowd control”.
The soldiers are learning to use so-called “nonlethal weapons” designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals and crowds.
This violates posse comitatus and the Constitution. But, hey, we’re in a “national emergency”, so who cares, right?

(We’re still in a declared state of national emergency).
I noted a couple of months later:

Everyone knows that deploying 20,000 troops on U.S. soil violates Posse Comitatus and the Constitution.
And everyone understands that staging troops within the U.S. to “help out with civil unrest and crowd control” increases the danger of overt martial law.
But no one is asking an obvious question: Does the government’s own excuse for deploying the troops make any sense?

Other Encroachments On Civil Rights Under Obama
As bad as Bush was, the truth is that, in many ways, freedom and constitutional rights are under attack even more than during the Bush years.
For example:

Obama has presided over the most draconian crackdown on leaks in our history — even more so than Nixon.

As Marjorie Cohen – professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild – writes at the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy:

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is facing court-martial for leaking military reports and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico brig in Virginia. Each night, he is forced to strip naked and sleep in a gown made of coarse material. He has been made to stand naked in the morning as other inmates walked by and looked. As journalist Lance Tapley documents in his chapter on torture in the supermax prisons in The United States and Torture, solitary confinement can lead to hallucinations and suicide; it is considered to be torture. Manning’s forced nudity amounts to humiliating and degrading treatment, in violation of U.S. and international law.
Nevertheless, President Barack Obama defended Manning’s treatment, saying, “I’ve actually asked the Pentagon whether or not the procedures . . . are appropriate. They assured me they are.” Obama’s deference is reminiscent of President George W. Bush, who asked “the most senior legal officers in the U.S. government” to review the interrogation techniques. “They assured me they did not constitute torture,” Bush said.
***
After State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley criticized Manning’s conditions of confinement, the White House forced him to resign. Crowley had said the restrictions were “ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid.” It appears that Washington is more intent on sending a message to would-be whistleblowers than on upholding the laws that prohibit torture and abuse.
***
Torture is commonplace in countries strongly allied with the United States. Vice President Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s intelligence chief, was the lynchpin for Egyptian torture when the CIA sent prisoners to Egypt in its extraordinary rendition program. A former CIA agent observed, “If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria. If you want someone to disappear – never to see them again – you send them to Egypt.” In her chapter in The United States and Torture, New Yorker journalist Jane Mayer cites Egypt as the most common destination for suspects rendered by the United States.

As I pointed out in March:

Former constitutional law teacher Glenn Greenwald says that – in his defense of state secrecy, illegal spying, preventative detention, harassment of whistleblowers and other issues of civil liberties – Obama is even worse than Bush.
Indeed, Obama has authorized “targeted assassinations” against U.S. citizens. Even Bush didn’t openly do something so abhorrent to the rule of law.
Obama is trying to expand spying well beyond the Bush administration’s programs. Indeed, the Obama administration is arguing that citizens should never be able to sue the government for illegal spying.
Obama’s indefinite detention policy is an Orwellian nightmare, which will create more terrorists.

Furthermore – as hard as it is for Democrats to believe – the disinformation and propaganda campaigns launched by Bush have only increased under Obama. See this and this.
And as I pointed out last year:

According to Department of Defense training manuals, protest is considered “low-level terrorism”. And see this, this and this.
An FBI memo also labels peace protesters as “terrorists”.
***
A 2003 FBI memo describes protesters’ use of videotaping as an “intimidation” technique, even though – as the ACLU points out – “Most mainstream demonstrators often use videotape during protests to document law enforcement activity and, more importantly, deter police from acting outside the law.” The FBI appears to be objecting to the use of cameras to document unlawful behavior by law enforcement itself.
The Internet has been labeled as a breeding ground for terrorists, with anyone who questions the government’s versions of history being especially equated with terrorists.
Government agencies such as FEMA are allegedly teaching that the Founding Fathers should be considered terrorists.
The government is also using anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and this.
Claims of “national security” are also used to keep basic financial information – such as who got bailout money – secret. That might not bode for particularly warm and friendly treatment for someone persistently demanding the release of such information.
The state of Missouri tried to label as terrorists current Congressman Ron Paul and his supporters, former Congressman Bob Barr, libertarians in general, anyone who holds gold, and a host of other people.
And according to a law school professor and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, pursuant to the Military Commissions Act:

Anyone who … speaks out against the government’s policies could be declared an “unlawful enemy combatant” and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.

Obama has refused to reverse these practices.

 ____________________________________________________________________________

Senate Moves To Allow Military To Intern Americans Without Trial

NDAA detention provision would turn America into a “battlefield”
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Saturday, November 26, 2011

As was posted earlier today, The bulls-eye is seems to be aiming at Syria now. Syria has been on the list of countries that the U.S. has wanted to democratize since the mid-nineties. Since their mission is pretty much over now in Libya the U.S. and NATO must race the war machine forward in order to keep this war driven economy going forward with its last gasps. As the list of Middle East and African nations are whittled away the day is coming closer to the war machine grinding to halt due to economic reasons or finally meeting our moment where the next country to assume the role of policing the world will rise and end our reign. The rug will be pulled out from underneath America one way or another once this old Neo-Con agenda is completed.

(CBS/AP) 
BEIRUT - The U.S. Embassy in Damascus urged its citizens in Syria to depart "immediately," and Turkey's foreign ministry urged Turkish pilgrims to opt for flights to return home from Saudi Arabia to avoid traveling through Syria.
"The U.S. Embassy continues to urge U.S. citizens in Syria to depart immediately while commercial transportation is available," said a statement issued to the American community in Syria Wednesday and posted on the Embassy's website. "The number of airlines serving Syria has decreased significantly since the summer, while many of those airlines remaining have reduced their number of flights."
The warning followed an announcement in Washington this week that Ambassador Robert Ford would not return to Syria this month as planned, indicating concerns over his safety.
The Obama administration quietly pulled Ford out of Syria last month, citing credible personal threats against him.
The Turkish foreign ministry on Wednesday urged Turkish pilgrims to opt for flights to return home from Saudi Arabia and avoid traveling through Syria for security reasons.
The warning came two days after Syrian soldiers opened fire on at least two buses carrying Turkish citizens, witnesses and officials said, apparent retaliation for Turkey's criticism of Assad. The Turks were returning from Saudi Arabia after performing the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Turkey warns Syria: "The oppressed will win"
Arab League rejects Syria peace plan changes
Clinton: Pressure on Syria is "unmistakable message"
Meanwhile, Syrian security carried out raids in rebellious areas in the center and the south of the country Wednesday, and at least six people died, raising the death toll in the past two days to 34, activists said, as the U.S. and Turkey took unusual steps to protect their citizens.
Syrian President Bashar Assad was under increasing international pressure to stop the brutal crackdown, but no effects were apparent on the ground.
Activists and human rights groups said at least six people died in central and southern Syria on Wednesday, some during raids by Syrian security forces, and others who died of injuries sustained earlier.
Wednesday's casualties raised to 34 the number of Syrians killed in the past 24 hours.
Two main activist groups, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordinating Committees, documented the deaths, which were reported Tuesday in the central cities of Hama and Homs, the eastern city of Deir el-Zour and elsewhere.
The violence came a day ahead of Arab League talks in Cairo to assess the Syria crisis after the 22-member organization rejected proposed Syrian amendments to its plan to send Arab observers to Syria to protect civilians.
The Arab League suspended Syria's membership over the bloodshed and Syria's failure to abide by an Arab peace plan it signed.
A key U.N. committee voted Tuesday to condemn human rights violations by Assad's government and called for an immediate end to all violence. Nearly 4,000 people have been reported killed in the military crackdown on the popular uprising since March.
The nonbinding resolution adopted by the General Assembly's human rights committee calls on Syrian authorities to implement the Arab League peace plan, agreed to earlier this month, "without further delay."
The resolution, sponsored by Britain, France and Germany, was passed by a vote of 122-13 with 41 abstentions. It must now be approved at a plenary session of the 193-member world body, where its adoption is virtually certain.
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said in a statement that the committee's first-ever resolution on Syria's human rights violations "has sent a clear message that it does not accept abuse and death as a legitimate path to retaining power."
Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari again accused Britain, France and Germany of "waging a media, political and diplomatic war against Syria" and encouraging armed groups to engage in violence rather than national dialogue with the government.

Are NATO's global elite preparing to dictate their will to the next American target for democratization?

Arab states, Turkey plan 'No-Fly Zone' over Syria

Senior European sources said that Arab jet fighters, and possibly Turkish warplanes, backed by American logistic support will implement a no fly zone in Syria's skies, after the Arab League will issue a decision, under its Charter, calling for the protection of Syrian civilians.
The sources told Kuwait's al Rai daily that the no fly ban will include a ban on the movement of Syrian military vehicles, including tanks, personnel carriers and artillery, adding that this move would aim at curbing the movement of Assad forces, and cripple their ability to bomb cities. The European sources said the no fly ban might lead to the paralysis of the Syrian regime forces "in less than 24 hours."
Meanwhile, it is reported that the leadership of the Turkish General Staff informed all the concerned parties with the Syrian issue its rejection of the idea that the Turkish army would launch any invasion to the Syrian territory including the area adjacent to the Turkish border to establish a "buffer zone" to protect civilians fleeing the violence.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Report: Russia warships to enter Syria waters in bid to stem foreign intervention

Syrian official says Damascus agrees 'in principle' to allow entrance of Arab League observer mission; 22-member body proposed sending hundreds of observers to the to help end the bloodshed.

Russian warships are due to arrive at Syrian territorial waters, a Syrian news agency said on Thursday, indicating that the move represented a clear message to the West that Moscow would resist any foreign intervention in the country's civil unrest.
Also on Friday, a Syrian official said Damascus has agreed "in principle" to allow an Arab League observer mission into the country.
But the official said Friday that Syria was still studying the details. The official asked not to be named because the issue is so sensitive.
The Arab League suspended Syria earlier this week over its deadly crackdown on an eight-month-old uprising. The 22-member body has proposed sending hundreds of observers to the country to try to help end the bloodshed.
The report came a day after a draft resolution backed by Arab and European countries and the United States was submitted to the United Nations General Assembly, seeking to condemn human rights violations in the on-going violence in Syria.
Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia were among Arab states that joined Germany, Britain, and France to sponsor the draft submitted to the assembly's human rights committee. In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. would sign on as a co-sponsor of the resolution.
The draft demanded an end to violence, respect of human rights and implementation by Damascus of a plan of action of the Arab League.
The move comes as clashes escalated in Syria and after Russia and China used their veto in October to block a Security Council resolution that would have condemned the Syrian government of President Bashir for the violence.
Such a veto is not applicable in the 193-nation assembly, which will consider the issue after the human rights committee reports back to it.
The UN says more than 3,500 people have been killed since unrest erupted in spring against Assad.

    Here is a look into the future that the scientists and technocrats have been planning. A scientifically run society means all aspects of society needs to be controlled in order to keep to the scientifically drawn up plans for what is best for society, whether that is that our food or people. Freedom means that there is a sense of randomness and chaos, but a scientific plan can not tolerate such a society.

10 outlandish things the 'scientific' controllers have in mind for you in the near future

(NaturalNews) What corporate-driven "science" has in mind for the future of humanity is far different from the dreamy utopian landscape that's been portrayed by the mainstream media. To hear the corporate-run media tell it, science is always "good" for humanity. Scientific achievements are always called "advances" and not "setbacks," even though many of them have proven to be disastrous for humanity (atomic bombs, for example, or GMOs).

While pure science is, indeed, a necessary component of any civilization which seeks to expand its understanding of the universe, what we see dominating the landscape today isn't pure science but corporate-driven "science" that only seeks to accelerate corporate profits, not human understanding. And with that corporate-slanted science comes a whole new era of truly terrifying technologies that we may soon see become reality in our world.

Here, I've compiled a list of ten future technologies that might be used to strip away your freedoms and enslave you to the corporate globalist masters, all under the label of "science."

#1) Organ harvesting from genetically modified, patented pigs

Need a replacement heart or lung? No worries, mate! Monsanto will grow you a new one using a genetically modified, trans-species pig (patent pending) that was raised on GMO animal feed and subjected to organ harvesting while it was still alive in order to keep the organs "fresh."

Your government-approved, Medicare-funded transplant will be handled by one of the top U.S. hospitals, which are, even today, deeply engaged in black market organ trafficking and illegal transplantations.

#2) "Behavioral vaccines" that rewire your brain to eliminate dissent

Disobedience is a disease! And the "cure" for disobedience (or Oppositional Defiance Disorder, as they call it) will be a new "vaccine" that biologically rewires your brain to make you more socially acceptable to the controllers.

It will be called a "behavioral vaccine" even though, in reality, it's just a chemical lobotomy. This technology will be a cornerstone of the global police state, which will have no tolerance for independent thinking or critical thought of any kind, especially against the state.

#3) Centralized, remote monitoring of all your health statistics and vital signs by the police state

Think your medical records are really private? Think again: Even now, the U.S. government maintains a secret centralized bank of blood taken from children at birth. In the near future, citizens will be implanted with biometric monitoring chips that relay information back to the government about your pulse, respiration, and the presence of either illegal drugs or legalized pharmaceuticals (which are often the very same chemicals as illegal drugs, just re-branded as a medication).

These chips will be used by the government to enforce people taking their medications. They will also be used to locate and arrest those who smoke a little pot or take addictive substances without a prescription.

But most importantly, these chips will be used to monitor nutritional levels and make sure no one attains a high level of vitamin D, for example, which promotes clear thinking and strong cognitive function (http://www.naturalnews.com/029190_v...). Under scientific dictatorship, the sheeple must be kept in a state of chronic nutritional deficiency in order to be easily controlled. This will all be sold to the public as a way for the government to monitor their "safety" because, the government will claim, "Too much vitamin D can be dangerous!" So they will set the upper safety limits to the lower threshold of cognitive awakening, making sure that everyone remains in a mental stupor as they live out their state-run lives.

#4) The total secrecy of all food ingredients, sources and places of origin

As the food industry is increasingly invaded by junk science (GMOs, anyone?), efforts will increase to hide all the chemical ingredients in food products and rename dangerous-sounding chemicals into nice-sounding chemicals.

The Corn Refiners Association is already trying to rename "High Fructose Corn Syrup" to "corn sugar." (http://www.naturalnews.com/029748_h...) Aspartame is now going to be called "AminoSweet," and MSG has been renamed things like "yeast extract" or "Torula yeast powder."

But it's going to get far worse as fraudulent science accelerates food industry deceptions. Expect to see preservatives like "sodium benzoate" renamed as things like, "Freshiness crystals." Or "artificial colors" might be described as "Fortified with pretty colors."

Above all, the food industry wants to hide where its foods come from, how they are made, and what's in them, because all three of those categories are bad news for your health.

#5) The complete criminalization of home-produced foods and medicines, forcing total reliance on factory food production

Speaking of food, corrupt "scientists" will soon insist that growing your own food is extremely dangerous because you might grow e.coli in your garden! With such absurd justifications, home gardening will be completely outlawed in many towns, and those who try to secretly grow tomatoes will be arrested and imprisoned as if they were heroin smugglers.

The idea of all this is to make the population completely dependent on centralized factory food production, in the same way the population is currently dependent on centralized electricity and centralized fossil fuels. This will all be justified with the help of "scientists" who claim that factory-produced food is safer for you because it's all pasteurized, irradiated and fumigated.

#6) The unleashing of a global bioweapon pandemic through seasonal flu shots

Whereas vaccines were once intended to prevent disease, they are now being increasingly weaponized and engineered to spread disease, which is why most of the people who get the flu each winter are the very same people who routinely take flu shots.

In the near future, as the globalists decide the world population has reached its upper tolerable limit, a live "population control" virus will be engineered right into the vaccines, followed by an aggressive vaccine push that even offers to pay people to receive flu shots. (Get a flu shot, earn $25!)

The whole scheme, of course, is nothing more than a population control measure designed to eliminate all the lower-IQ people on the planet who are stupid enough to allow themselves to be injected with biological weapons packaged and sold as vaccines. Effectively, it's really a eugenics program that the globalists believe will save the human race from the rise of stupidity (no matter what the cost in human suffering).

#7) Total government control over your reproduction and the genetic code of your "offspring"

Copulating with the person of your choice and producing your own "random" offspring will no longer be allowed under the scientific police state. Reproduction must be carefully controlled through licensing and regulation to make sure that no unexpected results occur.

Before having children, parents will need to apply to the government for permission to reproduce, at which point they will be genetically and cognitively profiled, then granted a reproduction classification status that must be strictly followed to avoid imprisonment.

People who show rebellious tendencies and speak out against the state will be denied reproduction "privileges." Only the most obedient, white-skinned, do-gooder mind slaves will be granted reproduction privileges, and they will gladly copulate and raise yet more babies to be sacrificed to the state as the next generation of mind slaves.

#8) Wireless brain implants that can be remotely activated by law enforcement to make entire crowds of people passive

The future of "science" involves all sorts of electronics implanted into the human body. One of the most convenient ones will be the "pacification chip" that will be forced upon citizens along with "money chips" that they use to pay for everything (cash will be outlawed, and using cash will be seen as a terrorist activity).

The pacification chip can be remotely activated by the government through cell tower bursts -- or through hand-held units issued to police and law enforcement commanders -- to instantly pacify large crowds of protesters or rioters. Are the students protesting about free speech again? Activate the pacification chip, and they'll all lay down on the lawn and daydream for a while.

Are revolutionaries marching on the capitol and trying to overthrow the government? Activate the pacification chip, and your tyrannical dictatorship is safe!

Such chips may also be used to "excite" the brain at times when it is also politically useful. For example, when another terrorist attack is staged on U.S. soil, the "excitation chips" can be activated across the population to get people riled up and calling for war! (And that's the whole point of false flag attacks, of course.)

#9) The genetic engineering and breeding of obedient super soldiers

In the far future, battlefield soldiers will actually be humanoid-shaped robots equipped with firearms and body armor. Think "Terminator" model T-1000. That's still a ways off, of course, given the incredible complexity of mobile power, robotic actuation technologies, vision recognition systems and artificial intelligence.

In the mean time, the most powerful nations of the world will pour R&D money into growing genetically modified super soldiers who are secretly birthed, raised and trained to be as robotic as possible. These super soldiers will be genetically engineered with peak performance attributes (high blood oxygenation, large body frames, etc.) combined with small brains that can only process enough information to follow orders but never question them.

They will also be outfitted with numerous electronic implants, making them more cyborg than human. They will have vision implants attached to their retinas, for example, GPS chips wired to their brains, comm equipment wired into their ears, and built-in pain medication dispensers that flood their bodies with stimulant chemicals so they can keep fighting even after an arm gets blown off, for example.

#10) The electromagnetic activation of metals and nano-crystals injected into you through vaccines

Here's a new one most people haven't thought about: In addition to vaccines being used to spread infectious disease, they can also be used to inject humans with nano-crystals that are sized and tuned to resonate at certain frequencies, much like a radio crystal tunes in to a specific radio band.

Such nano-crystals may lie dormant in the bodies of the general public for years or even decades, but at some point the government can take over the radio towers with an "emergency" national transmission that broadcasts an activation signal at precisely the right wavelength to excite the nano-crystals already in peoples' bodies. The results could be anything from mass insanity to massive outbreaks of violence (rioting, etc.) or just tens of millions of people instantly dropping dead. Any of those outcomes could then be exploited by the government to sell a cover story of a "terrorist attack" that requires even more government control over the population.

It could all be done in the name of "science"

Remember, this collection of 10 points is about possible future technologies that exemplify the abuse of science to empower tyrannical governments and corrupt industries. Thankfully, these ten examples have not come true yet, but several are well on their way to become reality in just the next few years.

Real science has an important role to play in any society, but I believe that science should serve the interests of the People, not the self-serving controllers who run globalist corporations and national governments. When science is used to dominate and enslave people rather than setting them free, it is a violation of one of the most fundamental truths throughout the universe: only through freedom (the freedom of ideas, freedom of questioning, freedom of discussion) can true understanding of our universe be achieved.

NaturalNews salutes the real scientists out there who pursue the betterment of human civilization without punching a clock for all the evil corporations which abuse science for their own nefarious purposes.

Here is a Russian newscaster that seems to be flipping the bird at the mention of Obama's name.

Russian newsreader Tatyana Limanova makes insulting gesture at Obama

 Thomas Jefferson is a brilliant mind with some of the most important writings in American and all of human history. When it comes to accusing the Founding Fathers to be part of a Masonic conspiracy, Jefferson is always cited as not being a Mason, therefore debunking any idea of Masonic control. The problem is that if you take off the blinders and realize that everything is not so simple, Jefferson was obviously an associate of "the craft". If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, and hangs out with other ducks, it is a duck. (For all my new neighbors and friends in Virginia)

Thomas Jefferson - Freemason? 2011 11 22

By James W. Beless, 33° | Scottish Rite Journal
Jefferson may not have been a card-carrying Mason, but his philosophy and actions certainly paralleled Masonic ideals and practices.

Was Thomas Jefferson a Freemason? This question has been asked by Masons and others and not conclusively answered for 200 years. In 1960, Brother William R. Denslow, Masonic scholar and editor of the Transactions of the Missouri Lodge of Research, concluded that Jefferson was not a Mason, saying all claims for his membership are based on association or insinuation, with no proof by records.

Thomas Jefferson was often in Masonic company. His son-in-law Governor of Virginia Thomas M. Randolph, his favorite grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph, and nephews Peter and Samuel Carr were all members of Door to Virtue Lodge No. 44, Albemarle County, Virginia. Freemasons such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire, Lafayette, and Jean Houdon were some of his closest associates in Europe. Masons whom he admired in America included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Benjamin Rush, John Paul Jones, James Madison, James Monroe, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

Brother Denslow showed that Jefferson was reported by Dr. Joseph Guillotin to have attended meetings of the Lodge of Nine Muses in Paris; that he had marched in a Masonic procession with Widow’s Son Lodge No. 60 and Charlottesville Lodge No. 90 on October 6, 1817, at the cornerstone laying of Central College (now the University of Virginia); that the Grand Lodges of South Carolina and Louisiana held funeral orations and processions for him following his death on July 4, 1826; and that a Blue Lodge at Surry Court House, Virginia, was named Jefferson Lodge No. 65 in 1801.

The many details of Jefferson’s public and private life, as well as all facets of his philosophy, have been thoroughly explored. Preserved and now available for examination are over 25,000 letters from his friends and acquaintances as well as 18,000 copies of his own letters and records. The latter were made with letter presses and polygraph machines of Jefferson’s own invention. The Princeton University book The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, now in 24 volumes, covers letters and records for the years 1760 to 1792. The indexes to those volumes, which report details of personal expenditures, daily activities, meetings attended, and friends and associates contacted, show no reference to Freemasonry.

Dumas Malone in his six-volume biography of Jefferson has only one Masonic reference. He reported the Central College cornerstone laying, saying that President Monroe officiated, five visitors (including Presidents Madison and Jefferson) were present, the local Fraternity of Freemasons participated, and a large crowd attended. Still, all of Jefferson’s biographers have considered him an elusive paradox whose private and real nature may not yet have been penetrated.

Malone said that Jefferson was a half-dozen men rolled into one. He was known to his contemporaries as an apostle of Freedom, disciple of Enlightenment, searcher for Knowledge, pursuer of Wisdom through Reason, patron of Education and the Arts, Master Builder and Architect. He believed in God the Creator, and he was the opponent of any union of Church and State. Jefferson may not have been a card-carrying Mason, but his philosophy and actions certainly paralleled Masonic ideals and practices.

Jefferson directed that his own epitaph should be limited to the recitation of what he considered his three most important achievements. The stone obelisk marking his grave at Monticello is inscribed: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom and Father of the University of Virginia.”



Hi-res photo available onFlicker

Freedom was the keystone of Jefferson’s philosophy and the goal of his life. His three most satisfying accomplishments were organically related. To him the independence of a nation could not be separated from the independence of its citizens. Religious freedom was a vital part of the structure of a free society, and Church and State had separate functions. They should always be separate and free from the authority and possible tyranny of each other. Education was necessary for the growth of free minds in a free society. Knowledge should be acquired through public free education. In other words, Jefferson personified the same freedom as is integrated in Freemasonry.

The Enlightenment was the philosophic movement born and nurtured in Europe in the 18th century, principally in France under the guidance of Voltaire. It was characterized by a questioning by reason of authority in politics and religion. It spread an empirical search for truth and light into science, the arts, literature, and education. It called for changes and reforms precursive to the American and French Revolutions.

Freemasons in England and France were acknowledged leaders of the Enlightenment. The famous historians Will and Ariel Durant (in Rousseau and Revolution page 938 of volume ten in their epic series The Story of Civilization) reported that in 1789 there were 629 Masonic Lodges in Paris, each with 50 to 100 members. Voltaire was made a Mason without preliminary preparation in the Lodge of Nine Muses on April 7, 1778. The philosopher and writer was welcomed among the Brothers with the assurance that he had long fulfilled the obligations of a Freemason before his promises to keep them. Among followers of Voltaire and the searchers for more Light in America were Brothers Washington, Franklin, and their associate, Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson was committed to reason, natural law, and the inherent equal rights of man. He had faith in human beings and in the human mind. He believed only an enlightened society could govern itself and ignorant people could not maintain their God-given freedom. He believed knowledge was a prerequisite to wisdom and to a proper exercise of those rights. To him knowl- edge was power, safety and happiness, and the search for knowledge must be continually pursued. He was an avid reader and collector, and his accumulation of knowledge was in his vocations as lawyer, legislator, diplomat, and executive, and also in his avocations as farmer, architect, builder, philosopher, and scientist.

The superb library of the “Sage of Monticello” had 6,487 books by 1814 when those volumes were sold for $23,950 to constitute the Library of Congress in replacing the small library which had been destroyed by the British in 1812. Another 1,000 volumes, acquired by Jefferson in 1826, were bequeathed by him to the University of Virginia. Specimens of minerals, flora, fauna, and Indian cultures of the West, which had been returned by Masonic Brothers Lewis and Clark in 1806, were displayed at Monticello.

Public education was vital to Jefferson’s ideas of truly republican government. In 1788 he first proposed a plan for free public grammar school education to the Virginia legislature. This was not enacted into law until 1796, but it still was the pioneer effort in America. He wanted a statewide general system of education to include a new university to teach sciences, languages, law and philosophy, with emphasis on scholastic freedom and academic excellence.

The university at Charlottesville resulted from his personal leadership in lobbying the legislature, raising funds, recruiting faculty, selecting curriculum, locating the proper site, and drawing the plans for the school’s rotunda and library, 7 classroom pavilions, and 37 dormitories. He was a visitor of the school from 1819 until his death, and he was without question the “Father of the University of Virginia.”

Jefferson has been referred to as America’s first great native-born architect. He made working drawings as well as architectural designs. Over the years from 1767 on, he produced 200 drawings, sketches, and surveys for building, rebuilding, and renovating Monticello. He also designed the entire academic village at the University of Virginia which was, in 1976, voted by the American Institute of Architects as “the proudest achievement of American architecture in the past 200 years.” Designing and building were creative and satisfying works of beauty and art to Jefferson in a way only a Freemason can understand.

Jefferson expressed his firm belief in God in his writings. God is Creator and Nature’s God in the Declaration of Independence. In 1786, the Virginia Act Establishing Religious Freedom underlined the fact that Almighty God created the mind free. The letters to John Adams and the English scientist and theologian Joseph Priestley clearly showed Jefferson’s conviction that church and state must be separate, his opposition to creeds and dogma, and his insistence on tolerance and mutual respect among religions. In 1816, he authored The Life and Morals of Jesus. He would have heartily accepted the Masonic requirement of faith in the Great Architect of the Universe.

Thomas Jefferson may not have been a Brother in a Lodge of Freemasons, but he had all of the prerequisites for membership in the Craft. His life could serve as a role model for all Masons; and, like Voltaire, he fulfilled the obligations of our Fraternity. First and foremost, he was a Freeman.

References
1. Cousins, Norman, In God We Trust, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1958.
2. Cunningham Jr., Noble E., In Pursuit of Reason, Ballantine Books, New York, 1987.
3. Denslow, William R., 10,000 Famous Freemasons, Volume II, Transactions of the Missouri Lodge of Research, Ovid Bell Press, Inc., Fulton, Missouri, 1960.
4. Durant, Will and Ariel, The Age of Voltaire, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1965. Also, Rousseau and Revolution, 1967.
5. Jefferson, Thomas, Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1983.
6. Malone, Dumas, The Sage of Monticello, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1981.
7. Mapp Jr., Alf J., Thomas Jefferson, Madison Books, New York, 1987.

MF Global's Shortfall May Exceed $1.2 Billion, Trustee Says

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The shortfall in MF Global Inc.'s U.S. segregated customer accounts may exceed $1.2 billion, more than double what was previously expected, said the trustee overseeing a liquidation of the failed brokerage.