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Lots of us want to change our habits — get healthier, procrastinate less, write a book, save some money, get fit, read more, get good at something. And when it comes to changing habits, we know what doesn’t work. What doesn’t work: saying you’re going to make a change, intending to, and then failing to do it. You’ve done this, and so have I: you say, “I’m going to start eating healthier and exercising!” And you truly mean to do it. And you start out trying your best. And then things just kinda fade away, fizzle out, flop. That’s what … Continue reading →

Much attention and condemnation has been directed towards the tragedy of the African slave trade, which took place between the 16th and the 19th centuries. However, another equally despicable trade in humans was taking place around the same time in the Mediterranean.  It is estimated that up to 1.25 million Europeans were enslaved by the so-called Barbary corsairs, and their lives were just as pitiful as their African counterparts. They have come to be known as the white slaves of Barbary. Slavery is one of the oldest trades known to man. We can first find records of the slave trade … Continue reading →

Former US presidential candidate and US House member Ron Paul and libertarian multi-bestselling author Tom Woods offered an enticing preview of Paul’s new book Swords into Plowshares on the Wednesday episode of the Tom Woods Show. Paul’s new book, which may be pre-ordered before its July 17 release, is rapidly moving up the Amazon sales rankings. Woods calls Paul’s Swords into Plowshares both “fantastic” and a “one stop shop” for arguments, including moral and economic arguments, against war. Paul, in the interview, relates two of the major topics in the new book, both referred to in the new book’s full … Continue reading →

Click here to explore the most detailed map of police killings ever published. Photograph: The Guardian US interactive team It’s rather difficult to compare data from different time periods, according to different methodologies, across different parts of the world, and still come to definitive conclusions. But now that we have built The Counted, a definitive record of people killed by police in the US this year, at least there is some accountability in America – even if data from the rest of the world is still catching up. It is undeniable that police in the US often contend with much … Continue reading →

One of my favorite habits that I’ve created since I changed my life 9 years ago is having a decluttered home. I now realize that I always disliked the clutter, but I put off thinking about it because it was unpleasant. The thought of having to deal with all that clutter was overwhelming, and I had too much to do, or I was too tired, so I procrastinated. Clutter, it turns out, is procrastination. But I learned to deal with that procrastination one small chunk at a time, and I cleared it out. That was truly amazing. Amazing because I … Continue reading →

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyers opened the Boston Marathon Bombing trial with a surprising “it was him” soliloquy and ended with what looked like a categorical admission to all of the charges against him. But, in a motion filed on Monday, his lawyers are now requesting a new trial. While the appeal itself is unsurprising—a lengthy and convoluted appeals process is standard in capital cases like this one—the defense’s claim of “evidentiary insufficiency” calls attention to what has been a seemingly strange defense strategy. “Evidentiary insufficiency” is, in fact, an apt description of the evidence presented at the weeks-long trial. Remember all … Continue reading →

Since the Charleston shootings, GOP officials have been scrambling to comply with Leftist demands that Southern Whites be stripped of visible signs of their Confederate heritage. The GOP has actually been downplaying the Confederacy for years—Jeb Bush conspicuously removed Confederate banners and insignias from the Florida statehouse back in 2001. [Jeb Bush Ordered The Confederate Flag Removed From Florida Capitol 14 Years Ago, By Scott Conroy,Huffingtonpost.Com, June 19, 2015] (But the GOP’s efforts to dump the Mississippi state flag including the Southern Cross were frustrated when a majority of the population, including almost a quarter of the black population, voted to retain it). Party … Continue reading →

The United States already has by far the per capita largest prison population of any developed country but I am probably one of the few Americans who on this Independence Day would like to see a lot more people in prison, mostly drawn from politicians and senior bureaucrats who have long believed that their status makes them untouchable, giving them license to steal and even to kill. The sad fact is that while whistleblowers have been imprisoned for revealing government criminality, no one in the federal bureaucracy has ever actually been punished for the crimes of torture, kidnapping and assassination … Continue reading →

The current debate about the Greek debt has given rise to all sorts of threats, first of all against Tsípras’ government, then against the Greek voters. Without becoming involved in a discussion of the repugnant side of this affair, Thierry Meyssan observes the international campaign against Greece leaving the Euro zone. He shines a light on the historic project of the European Union and the Euro, as they were formulated in 1946 by Churchill and Truman, and concludes that in the end, Greece is trapped by the international geopolitical environment and not by its economic situation. The Greek referendum provoked … Continue reading →

The discovery of the Americas has for centuries been credited to the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, but ancient markings carved into rocks around the US could require history to be rewritten. Researchers have discovered ancient scripts that suggest Chinese explorers may have discovered America long before Europeans arrived there. They have found pictograms etched into the rocks around the country that appear to belong of an ancient Chinese script. They say could have been inscribed there alongside the carvings of Native Americans by Chinese explorers thousands of years ago. John Ruskamp, a retired chemist and amateur epigraph researcher from Illinois, … Continue reading →

Former US Mint director Ed Moy has made numerous false and self-contradictory statements regarding the gold at Fort Knox – a facility managed by the US Mint.  The is post is a sequel to A First Glance At US Official Gold Reserves Audits, Second Thoughts On US Official Gold Reserves Audits and US Government Lost 7 Fort Knox Gold Audit Reports. Also related is Where Did The Gold In Fort Knox Come From? Part One. Recap and Introduction Early 2014 my first post was published about the audits performed on 95 % of US official gold reserves – the 7,628 tonnes stored by the US Mint … Continue reading →

– World is “over-indebted”, Mark Faber tells Bloomberg – “Defaults will follow or they will have to create very high inflation rates” – Greece will leave EU or Troika will take 50% “haircut” – Leaving EU may be Greece’s best option – Anti-Austerity groups in other countries will be bolstered by Greek defiance – may have negative impact on bonds – Recent stock market weakness due to weak global economy rather than Greece – Chinese economy weak, markets could fall further – Central banks to use Greece and China as excuse to maintain loose policy – Faber is long-time advocate … Continue reading →

There have been many books written about the assassination of President Kennedy, so many, generating so much bewildering debate, in fact, that many people have given up trying to understand the event and its significance. But despite all that, I want to recommend without reservation this book by a Catholic theologian and peace activist, which is unique in many respects and provides an education that all supporters of peace and progress need  as we struggle to overcome the danger of right-wing extremism. This is the only book on the assassination recommended by the Kennedy family:  “It has distilled all the … Continue reading →

Originally published in The Midwestern Epigraphic Journal BEFORE COLUMBUS, by Dr. Samuel Marble, 1980, A.S. Barnes and Co., Inc., Cranbury, NJ 08512 and Thomas Yoseloff Ltd, Magdalen House, 136-148 Tooley Street, London SE1 2TT, England, ISBN 0-498-02370-2. The subtitle is “The New History of Celtic, Egyptian, Phoenician, Viking, Black African, and Asian Contacts and Impacts in the Americas before 1492″. Be sure to read my short bio of Dr. Marble at the end of this article. A number of “Before Columbus” books have been written since the cultural ice-breaking books by Barry Fell and others in the sixties and seventies. … Continue reading →

One in five of us use online passwords that we haven’t changed in a decade, a study shows. And almost half – 47 per cent – rely on at least one password that has not been changed for five years. Worryingly, a staggering 73 per cent of online accounts are activated by the same password we use for another account. Indeed, on average we have just six unique passwords to protect 24 online accounts. This trend leaves people exposed to the ‘domino effect’ – where a hacker compromises a user’s password for one service to access all of their accounts. … Continue reading →