Catalonia bans bullfighting in landmark Spain vote

The parliament of Catalonia has voted to ban bullfighting - the first region of mainland Spain to do so.

If the headline was accurate, this would be really disturbing..

'Little terrifying faces' discovered on broccoli. Broccoli.. package. By their expressions, these little heads really like broccoli!

Awesome Narritive Twist! Plus: Bonus Reportage Timeline!

Freak wave hits Japanese oil tanker near Oman. Soo.. A 3.4 earthquake triggered a freak wave that damaged an oil tanker in such a way that others might assume "explosion," and "attack,?" Awesome.. Wait; what?

Bonus Timeline:

Blast on oil tanker near Iran(Written 14 hours previous in relation to the original linked article..). Excerpts: There were differing theories about the cause of the blast - which did not cause any serious injuries or an oil spill - ranging from a terrorist attack to an explosion of gases. Port officials in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates even said the ship was hit by a tremor-triggered wave..

Japan's transport ministry suspected an attack on the tanker.

"Since one of the crew saw a flash on the horizon immediately before the blast, the company suspects it was highly likely an attack," the ministry said, adding that the immediate area was not known for piracy."

Mysterious blast hits Japan oil tanker near Iran(11 hours)

Supertanker damage raises alarm in Persian Gulf(Nine hours. Still mentions a scenario of, "an explosion in a possible attack in the Persian Gulf..")

Japanese oil ship hit by freak wave.(Six hours. Aha! A change in theory - explanation - events!)

Supertanker blast scare blamed on "freak wave" . (Six hours. Kind of a combo-platter of explanations and contradictions..)

Excerpts from the last article:

Japan's transport ministry said there was an "explosion" at around 00:30 a.m (10:30 p.m. BST. local time and cited the possibility of an attack on the ship, but port officials said there was no evidence.

"A Japanese supertanker, which stirred fears of an attack in the Strait of Hormuz, diverted to a UAE port on Wednesday where officials said the damage was caused by a freak wave.(Awkward wording for Yahoo UK and Ireland..)
...
Japan's transport ministry said there was an "explosion" at around 00:30 a.m (10:30 p.m. BST. local time and cited the possibility of an attack on the ship, but port officials said there was no evidence.
...
"The cause of the incident was a freak wave and there is damage in the upper accommodation decks of the ship," he said.

Oman's coastguard cited "a tremor" as the cause of the incident, while an official from the Omani transport ministry said it was "business as usual" in the Strait.
...
A seismologist in Iran, which with the United Arab Emirates and Oman borders the Strait, said there had been an earthquake in the region, although the U.S. Geological Survey said it had no record of a tremor.
...
Captains of other ships near the incident also mentioned an earthquake, Attollah Sadr, head of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organisation, was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency. (But none were quoted within this article. Me.)
...
"A crew member saw light on the horizon just before the explosion, so (Mitsui O.S.K.) believes there is a possibility it was caused by an outside attack," Japan's ministry said in a statement.

The U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain issued a statement saying the cause of the incident was unknown. (At the moment, nothing else seems to fit, anyway..)

"Initial damage assessment from the ship's owner, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd, Japan, is that one life boat was blown off the ship and there is some damage to the starboard hatches," it said.
Then:
Any impact on the Asian spot crude market would be negligible and the tanker would have taken three weeks to arrive in Japan, traders said." (So it doesn't really matter what happened: Move along, now.)

Why was there no mention of a tremor before the explosion? This story was 14 hours into its genesis and only after eight hours was the "wave angle" introduced as the "official explanation." Not that a wave couldn't cause this scenario, I find it terribly odd, though that a magnitude 3.4 quake could cause a wave that would, in turn, rock a SUPERTANKER and subsequently, cause an explosion. Any explosion. Any. Explosion.

And another thing: Wouldn't seamen Know what a freak wave feels like? Really; shouldn't that almost have to be mentioned more in the initial reports? I am no expert on anything naval, oceanographic, or seismological, but this just doesn't sound(or feel) right..

I'm Sure This Has Nothing To Do With The Oil Spill..

Millions Of Fish Wash Ashore In Gulfport.

Wikileaks done blew it all up, at least on the Internet..

Tens of thousands of alleged Afghan war documents go online. Since this is, as one conspiracy site points out, a national security issue, I won't link to Wikileaks or reproduce the content. If you want it bad enough, you can look it up.

Make no mistake, if the majority of these documents are accurate, it will undoubtedly alter our foundational perception of anything connected to the entire region. Pakistan and the Taliban working together? Of course. Massively underreported civillain causalties? Yes. From here on out, our collective understanding of the last 10 years should begin to change..

Sadly, This Was Expected..

Study: Fallujah’s health fallout ‘worse’ than Hiroshima, Nagasaki.

Tragic..

I never really thought out any scenario involving mass panic and the Love Parade(especially the original festival in Germany), but tragically, Saturday, they connected. One of the biggest Utopian festivals on the planet fell victim and died to the negative forces its participants strived so hard to rise above. What a terrible (and so unexpected!) way to die, not knowing why the crowd has turned, only that everything got horrible, quickly. While other current events might be bigger or more tragic, this really shakes me up. The Love Parade. The last place on Earth one would expect anyone to die..

I imagine the festival is dead now, too. This celebration of that amazing spirit of the late 80's, the fall of Communism, the technological threshold of The Future, the Potential of the Near Future were all seeded by ecstatic German twentysomethings dancing nonstop to techno music. God love those post WW2 Germans: They're always capable of the most unexpected behavior..

QuakeyQuakey..

Three major earthquakes strike close to Mindanao, Philippines.

Stonehenge archaeologists discover 'wooden henge'

Archaeologists studying the iconic Stonehenge monument in southern England have uncovered a second prehistoric henge-like circle only 900 meters away, which they hope will shed more light on the mysterious stone landmark.

February Gulf of Mexico Quake Bolsters Interesting Theory

From Stan Deyo: From May of 2006.

I'm trying another drawing. The outlines of the model are normal, but now those of my drawing are not. The outline of my hand is going weird too...

Clinical observations of, an interview with, and portraits by an artist participating in a government LSD experiment in during the 1950's. Favorite portrait. Favorite paragraph: 2 hours 35 minutes after first dose. Patient follows quickly with another drawing. 'I'll do a drawing in one flourish... without stopping... one line, no break!' Upon completing the drawing the patient starts laughing, then becomes startled by something on the floor.

Diluted Admission?

BP, scientists try to make sense of well puzzle.

Engineers are keeping watch over the well for a two-day period in a scientific, round-the-clock vigil to see if the well's temporary cap is strong enough to hold back the oil, or if there are leaks either in the well itself or the sea floor. One mysterious development was that the pressure readings were not rising as high as expected, said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man on the crisis.

Allen said two possible reasons were being debated by scientists: The reservoir that is the source of the oil could be running lower three months into the spill. Or there could be an undiscovered leak somewhere down in the well. Allen ordered further study but remained confident.

Rumors of at least one other leak have been all over the net since almost the beginning of the Oil Catastrophe. Is this a way for the government to introduce the idea to the populace?

Thugs Suck

Thugs doused Dublin-bound train luggage in petrol in mass murder bid. Are you kidding me? Excerpts:

THUGS who hijacked a Dublin-bound train doused passengers' bags in petrol in an attempt to commit "mass murder"
...
The full horror of the incident only emerged today as Iarnrod Eireann confirmed to the Herald that some pieces of luggage were soaked in an attempt to burn up to 60 people alive.
...
Footage showing bags being thrown off the train initially led investigators to believe they were being stolen.

However, it has now emerged that a community worker risked his life to remove the petrol-soaked bags, most of which belonged to boy scouts.
...
Today, a hero community worker told how he confronted the vicious mob and tried to alert those on board the train to the danger. The man, identified only as John, told UTV how he confronted a masked man as rioters were intent on killing all 55 passengers.

"I told him that there were women and children on the train, he said 'f them, let them burn'," he recalled. Having confronted the masked man, who had a five gallon drum in his hand, John got into the driver's carriage.

"I move from there through the carriage and started to shout at the people because somebody shouted to me that they were going to set the train on fire. They just couldn't comprehend what was going on."

This also has a False Flag feel to it, of the Problem/Reaction/Solution variety.. I bet s lot of Irish people would really welcome a heavy military presence on their train system.. Now..

Bad News/Good News

Courtesy of Fark:

Bad news: "Foreclosures haven't peaked," according to RealtyTrac .

Good news: "Foreclosures have peaked," according to RealtyTrac.

Ladies and Gentlemen: Cognitive Dissonance--media style!

Wow. This Was Unexpected..

Mike Tyson: My whole life is a waste. Excerpts:

Former boxing champ Mike Tyson has dedicated the rest of his life to caring for others - because he considers himself a "pig" who has "wasted" so many years of his life.

And:

He tells Details magazine, "The first stage of my life was just a whole bunch of selfishness. Just a whole bunch of gifts to myself and people who didn't necessarily deserve it. Now I'm 44, and I realise that my whole life is just a f**king waste. 'Greatest man on the planet'? I wasn't half the man I thought I was."

And:

.."The sporting icon admits the tragic loss of his four-year-old daughter Exodus last year (09) made him realize his mistakes: "All these people reached out (after her death) and I realized: I just want to be of service to people. I need to help. I need to have something, finally, finally, that I can offer people in this world."

I hope he's sincere. His story gives me hope: For humanity, for the future.

“The world isn’t ready for what was down there”

What the hell's going on in Lake Tahoe? Tahoe Tessie? Gangster corpses? A freaked out Jaques Cousteau? Or none of the above..

In the 90's, Anal Leakage as a fad didn't really catch on and catch fire. Will Corexit/Oil-caused Anal Bleeding?

Toxicologist: Oil/Corexit mix caused heart trouble, organ damage, rectal bleeding. Granted, Corexit doesn't have the charisma of Olestra, but really, when one bleeds from the rectum and ultimately dies; How do you top that? Olestra just turned Ruffles into runny poo with no apocalyptic implications whatsoever.

Meanwhile: In Universe A, beach season is in full effect, as 100 percent of the entire Gulf Coast region electrical grid is powered by alternative technologies. There is no oil spill, and no chance for an oil spill, as Offshore drilling never existed. And almost every city and town across the U.S. has a statue of Tesla, and no one knows Edison even existed.

Monkeys use trees to catapault themselves out of Japanese laboratory

Monkeys at a research institute in Japan have used the branches of trees to catapault themselves over an electric fence in order to escape. Excerpts:

A group of 15 monkeys at Kyoto University's primate research institute in Aichi Prefecture, which are the focus of a string of high-profile scientific studies, escaped from their forest home which is encased by a 17ft high electric fence.

The monkeys made their bid for freedom by using tree branches to fling themselves one by one over the high voltage electric fence located nearly three metres away.

However, despite the intelligence shown in their great escape, the primates appeared unsure as to what to do with their newfound freedom: the monkeys remained by the gates of the research centre and were lured back into captivity by scientists armed with peanuts.

Monkeys and Humans: The resemblance is uncanny.

I Can Name That Doom In Eight Sentences..

Look at this map.
The red line are plumes of oil, and the dark blue line is the Gulf's loop current, ultimately crossing the Atlantic, and beyond.
Remember that the map's date is May 23, 2010, and that the red and blue lines are already well established.
The red star is the Deepwater Horizon. Look how close it is to the northern point of the loop current.
It's now July 7th, the oil continues unabated, and a one shot only relief well strategy is still a month out. What if it fails?
Then there's the matter of all that pesky Corexit, Benzine, Propylene Gycol, Methane, and Uranium..

Church Office Failed to Act on Abuse Scandal

After a previous posting about the Pope Ratzinger and the ever expanding sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, a friend wanted to know why, since abuse happens also in Protestant churches, why does the media focus seem to just be on the Catholics? I think the sheer size of the Church as compared to the fragmentation that is the nature of Protestantism plays a role. Usually, the sexual scandals involving Protestants(at least here in the Midwest) involve straight sexual hi jinks, and while lurid, they are not as creepy or media-sensational as pedophilia is.

The two biggest reasons, though, for worldwide focus on the Catholic Church are: The institutionalized, knee-jerk, denial and cover up response for all allegations about sexual abuse, and the current Pope's past involvement with that very Institutional Response. Some snippets:

In its long struggle to grapple with sexual abuse, the Vatican often cites as a major turning point the decision in 2001 to give the office led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger the authority to cut through a morass of bureaucracy and handle abuse cases directly.
..

But church documents and interviews with canon lawyers and bishops cast that 2001 decision and the future pope’s track record in a new and less flattering light.

And:

Yet throughout the ’80s and ’90s, bishops who sought to penalize and dismiss abusive priests were daunted by a bewildering bureaucratic and canonical legal process, with contradicting laws and overlapping jurisdictions in Rome, according to church documents and interviews with bishops and canon lawyers.

Besides Cardinal Ratzinger’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, bishops were sending off their files on abuse cases to the Congregations for the Clergy, for Bishops, for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and for the Evangelization of Peoples — plus the Vatican’s Secretariat of State; its appeals court, the Apostolic Signatura; and the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

“There was confusion everywhere,” said Archbishop Philip Edward Wilson of Adelaide, Australia.

A new Code of Canon Law issued in 1983 only muddied things further, among other things by setting a five-year statute of limitations within which abuse cases could be prosecuted.

And:

As Father Gauthé was being prosecuted in Louisiana, Cardinal Ratzinger was publicly disciplining priests in Brazil and Peru for preaching that the church should work to empower the poor and oppressed, which the cardinal saw as a Marxist-inspired distortion of church doctrine(Translation: He'd vote Republican.). Later, he also reined in a Dutch theologian who thought lay people should be able to perform priestly functions, and an American who taught that Catholics could dissent from church teachings about abortion, birth control, divorce and homosexuality.

Here's a biggie:

Cardinal Ratzinger also focused on reining in national bishops’ conferences, several of which, independent of Rome, had begun confronting the sexual abuse crisis and devising policies to address it in their countries. He declared that such conferences had “no theological basis” and “do not belong to the structure of the church.” Individual bishops, he reaffirmed, reigned supreme in their dioceses and reported only to the authority of the pope in Rome.

This is nice..

Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, then the head of the Congregation for the Clergy, set the tone, playing down sexual abuse as an unavoidable fact of life, and complaining that lawyers and the media were unfairly focused on it, according to a copy of his prepared remarks. What is more, he asked, is it not contradictory for people to be so outraged by sexual abuse when society also promotes sexual liberation?

Soo.. The person most familiar with The Bigger Picture regarding the entire scandal for the last 20 years, the man who actually blocked progress aimed at righting situations and preventing abuse, is now The Pope. The man who oversaw the Church's official response towards pedophilia, had-other-priorities. Why would anyone believe this man and his institution of behaving any differently than in the past?

To answer (alternately)from a marketing standpoint: The Catholic Church will never get out in front of this scandal. Even if they could move that fast, they first would would need the inclination, which clearly they do not have. And clearly, this scandal will continue to grow..