Axis of Logic Ezine, August 5, 2003 | Newsletter and AXIS E-ZINE |Axisoflogic.com

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With amazing arrogance we presume omniscience and an understanding
of the complexities of Nature, and with amazing impertinence, we firmly believe that we can better it ... We have forgotten that we, ourselves,
are just a part of nature, an animal which seems to have taken the wrong turning, bent on total destruction.

- Daphne Sheldrick
The Tsavo Story

SCIENCE/NATURE

Scientists Optimistic About Ozone Recovery, Environmental News Service, July 30, 2003

"We are not gaining ozone ... we are just losing it less quickly."

New observations show that the rate of ozone loss in the upper stratosphere is slowing and scientists credit the worldwide reduction in chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs) pollution. [more]

GM crops do harm surrounding flora and fauna, farm trials likely to reveal, Marie Woolf, The Independent (UK), August 2, 2003

GM crops can be more damaging to neighbouring flora and fauna than ordinary strains of sugar beet, maize and oilseed rape, the Government's farm trials have shown. [more]

And what is it but fragments of your own self
you would discard that you may become free?

-Kahlil Gibran

THE WAR TO END ALL PEACE

The U.S. Killing of 12-year-old Mohammed. His father wants the lives of 10 U.S. soldiers, Axis of Logic Editorial, August 4, 2003

Today, on Page 8 of the Boston Globe, a story appears about a 12 year old Iraqi boy shot dead by U.S. soldiers in Iraq. It didn't make the front-page. [more]

Read Jennifer Van Bergen's Amazing Truthout Interview with Stan Goff, former Sergeant with Special Forces and Military Instructor at West Point, Truthout, July 31, 2003 [more]

"Don't you find it strange that the corporate media did not mention the fact that a major oil line was blown up in Northern Iraq last week -- which prompted the massive "raids" on farms and homes to round up evildoers..."

- Sheila Samples, Axis of Logic Contributing Editor

Are American soldiers in Iraq dying due to depleted uranium?, James Conachy, WSWS, August 4, 2003

The office of the US Army Surgeon General informed the media July 31 that teams of medical specialists have been dispatched to both Iraq and the Landstuhl military hospital in Germany to investigate why a pneumonia-like condition is striking down American military personnel who took part in the invasion of Iraq. [more]

Your inquisitor awaits, Mr Blair: Hutton will quiz ministers, advisers and media, Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, August 2, 2003

Lord Hutton served notice on the government yesterday, from Tony Blair down, that he was determined to discover the circumstances surrounding the death of the scientist, David Kelly and that ministers and officials would be subjected to close examination about their roles in the affair. [more]

Greg Palast: Bush And The Saudis Sittin' In A Tree. President George was in one hell of bind this week when it turned that that Saudi Arabia funded Al Qaeda, not Iraq. Realizing we'd invaded the wrong country, Bush did the honorable thing: he's come out against gay marriages., gregpalast.com, August 1, 2003 [more]

The War on Truth: Studies now put the death toll at as many as 10,000 civilians and 20,000 Iraqi troops. If this does not constitute a "bloodbath", what was the massacre of 3,000 people at the twin towers? ICH, July 31, 2003, 2003 [more]

The rebel, unlike the revolutionary, does not attempt to undermine the social
order as a whole. The rebel attacks the tyrant; the revolutionary attacks tyranny.

�Octavio Paz

ACTION!

Bush: "Nuclear claim my fault", Bob Kemper, Chicago Tribune, July 31, 2003
"So Let's Hold Him Responsible!" - Axis of Logic editorial note, August 2, 2003

AFGHANISTAN

Afghans on Edge of Chaos: As opium production and banditry soar,
the country is at risk of anarchy, some warn, and could allow a Taliban
resurgence, Robyn Dixon, LA Times, August 4, 2003 [more]

AFRICA

Confused about what's happening in Liberia? This might help!: Capitalist plunder lurks behind Liberia's chaos: U.S. intervention is the problem, not the solution, Deirdre Griswold, Workers World, August 7 Edition, 2003 [more]

Liberia - A Brief History, The Guardian (UK), August 5, 2003

A brutal civil war which has been going on for most of the past 13 years has left Liberians exhausted and afraid. 200,000 have died, more than a million made homeless. Infrastructure is shattered and malnutrition rife. [more]

We are not concerned with the very poor. They are unthinkable,
and only to be approached by the statistician or the poet.

- E. M. Forster

ECONOMY

Like a Cloud, Economic Woes Follow Bus Tour, Elisabeth Bumiller
New York Times, August 4, 2003

President Bush slipped speedily into vacation mode this past weekend at his furnace of a ranch in Central Texas, where he spent Sunday fishing, clearing cedar and going for a walk with the first lady and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice. [more]

Do you believe the media reports on unemployment?,ESBR,
Released July 3, 2003 - All you have to do is look at the bar graphs!
[more]

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

IRAN

Operation Iranian Freedom, Tariq Ali, The Nation, July 31, 2003

In Washington, the hawks and vultures are beginning to gaze at Iran with greed-filled eyes. The British attack dog is barking and straining at the leash.

Iran Closes In on Ability to Build a Nuclear Bomb: Tehran's reactor program masks strides toward weapons capability, a Times investigation finds. France warns against exports to Islamic Republic., Douglas Frantz, LA Times, August 4, 2003 [more]

The oppressed are allowed once every few years
to decide which particular representatives of the
oppressing class are to represent and repress them.

- Karl Marx

NEW ELECTRONIC VOTING SYSTEM IN U.S.

Electronic voting system vulnerable: Study Used as replacement for punch-card ballots; Experts warn of `significant security flaws', Toronto Star, July 28, 2003

An electronic voting system used in some American states as an alternative to the troublesome punch-card ballots is highly vulnerable to fraud, computer security experts warn. [more]

More Calls to Vet Voting Machines, by Louise Witt, Wired News, August 5, 2003

A recent report that showed touch-screen voting machines could be vulnerable to hackers spurred the National Association of Secretaries of State, a majority of whose members are in charge of their states' elections, to consider whether the standards for the machines should be beefed up to prevent tampering. [more]

Therefore, it is said that grief and happiness pervert virtue, joy and anger obstruct the Tao, and delight and repulsion work against virtue. When the mind is without worry or joy, virtue is complete. When it is at one and unchanging, stillness is complete. When it does not oppose anything, emptiness is complete. When it does not interact with things, simplicity is complete. When it does not resent things, purity is complete.

Chuang-tzu

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