THE EARTH AS ANIMAL: THE INTERDPENDENCY OF ALL LIFE

THE EARTH AS ANIMAL: THE INTERDPENDENCY OF ALL LIFE, Carolyn Baker Interviews Sheryl Rapee-Adams

What could be healthier for humans and their local economies than eating locally-produced, plant-based foods, while that also happens prevent the torture and slaughter of factory-farmed animals and the poisoning of our arable land through genetically-engineered monoculture crops (usually soy and corn) to feed factory-farmed animals and to create highly-processed foods that cause obesity, degenerative disease, and cost us all in higher health care bills?

Although I know that all life forms are interdependent, my interview with Sheryl Rapee-Adams took my awareness to another level. This woman thoroughly understands the extent to which our well being is connected with that of the animals on this planet. She is the volunteer New England Regional Team Leader for the Best Friends Network, Best Friends’ free internet community for people who care about animals to share ideas and work together. The Network (http://network.bestfriends.org) has over 24,000 registered members and 236,000 unique hits daily. Best Friends welcomes virtual volunteers and Best Friends Ambassadors who bring the Kindness Revolution to their own communities. Please contact Sheryl for more information and to get involved at: sheryl@sherylhelpsanimals.com This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

CB: Sheryl, you work with Best Friends Animal Society, and although you live and work in Vermont, Best Friends is an international organization dedicated to rescuing abused and neglected animals. Please tell us briefly about the mission and work of best friends in Vermont, in the U.S. and worldwide.



SRA: Best Friends Animal Society believes in humane choices and compassion for all beings, including humans. Best Friends helps organizations in India that preserve wildlife habitat, rescue "dancing bears" to sanctuaries, and spay/neuter and vaccinate companion animals (http://network.bestfriends.org/india/news/16637.html). Best Friends is helping the people of Peru with animal and human needs after the recent devastating earthquake (http://network.bestfriends.org/News/Default.aspx?g=b027fc136e51481496e385538e280ea9) After Beirut, Lebanon's only animal shelter was bombed, Best Friends coordinated an airlift of 300 dogs and cats who found homes in the United States (http://network.bestfriends.org/middleeast/news/). All of this was done at the request of, and with the help of, caring people. Collaboration with and support of humans is a crucial ingredient in helping animals.



In the United States, Best Friends has several large campaigns underway along with its ongoing work of maintaining the largest companion animal sanctuary in the United States, which is in Kanab, Utah, as well as permanent staff who field telephone calls and emails for animal help from people all over the country (http://www.bestfriends.org/). Ongoing campaigns include stopping breed-specific legislation, which creates problems rather than protecting against dangerous dogs (http://network.bestfriends.org/News/Default.aspx?g=555ca35ba5274da88bc0d8853336891e). Best Friends would like to eliminate the animal-mill pet trade, in which dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets, and more are kept in horrid conditions and bred until their bodies give out so their often undersocialized and unhealthy babies can be sold at pet stores (http://network.bestfriends.org/News/Default.aspx?g=569c59200aaa4c35908e35a0ad2fbdc3). Best Friends responded to a call for help in Nye County, Nevada where a cat "sanctuary" was revealed to be a hoarding situation where over 400 cats are now finally getting medical care and being adopted into loving homes, or returned to the homes from which they were missing (http://network.bestfriends.org/News/Default.aspx?g=68d1ed2beabd415dbf0dc137a5ec1224).



I volunteer with the Best Friends Network as the New England Regional Team Leader. Best Friends believes that outreach of this nature helps regional people collaborate to create regionally-appropriate animal programs and solutions. I am lucky enough to live in Vermont, a state and region of the country with relatively strong standards of animal care, good animal agencies, effective animal protection laws, and minimal overpopulation. I help Vermont and New England animal organizations get the word out about their news, events, needs, and ways community members can help meet those needs. Humane education is always needed, from grade school through adulthood. I like to remind generous New Englanders that we do have countless stray and feral cats who need spaying/neutering and vaccinations, homeless animals needing homes, wildlife whose habitat needs protecting, and ecosystems with residents that would appreciate our help with preservation. I enjoy activating the passions of people who care about animals, other people, and the earth by offering opportunities for them to make a difference and save lives.





CB: Recently, you emailed me an article by Michael Mountain, who has been working with Best Friends for a long time and who I believe lives in Utah, and the focus of the article was on the interdependency of all life. From your perspective, could you say more about this notion of the interdependency of all life? How do you connect kindness to animals and rescuing them from abuse and neglect with creating sustainability on earth? Some people would say that global warming, energy depletion, human population overshoot, and perpetual war are such monumental issues for humans that we really must save ourselves first before saving animals. How would you respond to that assertion?



SRA: Compassion and humane behavior benefits all beings, human and nonhuman. Treating animals humanely is not an either-or proposition that uses up care that could have helped people. We treat humans and nonhumans with compassion with awareness that we all share the same planet, and what happens to the planet happens to all of us.



Breaking news: Helping animals and helping humans and helping the earth are the same. There is no such thing as placing the needs of one above the needs of the other. As Frederick Buechner put it, vocation is where your deep gladness meets the world's deep need, so if you're helping protect and restore the environment, advocating for human rights and social justice, working to create real democracy where "We the People" are the governing and the governed, or helping wildlife and domestic animals - in all these cases you are working toward a humane world. These issues are interdependent. Individuals may be inspired to work in one of these areas in particular, but helping in one realm helps them all.



Here are some examples: What could be more environmentally-friendly than adopting homeless pets instead of "producing" (breeding) more, with all the attendant resources that consumes? Five to ten million animals are killed in shelters every single year due to homelessness - and those are just the homeless animals who make it to shelters. If the thought of abandoned animals entering and dying in shelters does not break your heart, then consider the waste and chemical-filled carcasses that must be disposed of. Why, then, is it considered acceptable to use significant resources breeding animals for pets when literally millions of existing animals need homes?



What could be healthier for humans and their local economies than eating locally-produced, plant-based foods, while that also happens prevent the torture and slaughter of factory-farmed animals and the poisoning of our arable land through genetically-engineered monoculture crops (usually soy and corn) to feed factory-farmed animals and to create highly-processed foods that cause obesity, degenerative disease, and cost us all in higher health care bills? Raising and slaughtering animals to feed humans and other animals is extremely taxing to the environment and literally takes food from the mouths of hungry people worldwide. It takes many times more energy to produce a pound of beef than a pound of wheat, and eating animal products is linked to numerous diseases, which raises the costs of healthcare and sometimes takes our loved ones from us. For those who eat flesh and animal products, buying those products from small farms that support local economies, pay livable wages, and maintain safe working conditions also means better lives for the animals who live and die there.



It is in the public interest to achieve scientific advancement through environmentally-cleaner clinical studies, computer models, cellular cultures, and other methods that are more scientifically valid and successful than testing laboratory animals who suffer and die for test results that produce data no more reliable than flipping a coin - test results that cause human sickness and death because drugs that tested safe on animals were toxic to humans. I remember hearing the comedian/magician/commentator Penn Jillette discussing his father's death from diabetes, and saying that he would kill countless mice if it gave his father one more day of life. I heard him say that he would sacrifice every monkey in the world if it would save one homeless crack addict. These emotional pleas to save human lives sound to me like primitive attempts to appease the gods with animal sacrifices. They didn't work in tribal cultures and they don't work today. Helping animals is not a choice that negates helping humans. Making humane choices helps animals and humans.



Here's another example: Injuries and deaths to humans by attacking dogs are huge news. The fact that many of these dogs are (accurately or inaccurately) identified as pit bulls has led to reactionary ordinances banning the dogs, which has resulted in the removal of innocent canine family members from loving human homes. Studying the facts of these cases reveals that no dog breed causes the problem, but mistreatment of dogs does Three factors are present in the vast majority of fatal dog attacks: 1. The dog is unsocialized and not living as a member of his human family, but usually chained or held captive in isolation of a small territory, the only thing that the dog could call his own; 2. The dog's owner(s) does not control or properly care for the dog; and 3. The dog is an unneutered male. So treating dogs as beloved family members and preventing unwanted litters through spay/neuter is kinder to animals and saves human lives.



Sheltering unwanted pet animals and killing ("euthanizing") them to make room for more actually costs municipalities more money than prevention through spay/neuter and community education. The cost to humans is greater. Of course, the animals pay with their lives, but caring people pay with tax dollars, and with morale. People who work in animal shelters generally love animals and want to help them. When their job includes caring for animals they know will die to make room for more unwanted animals, it can demoralize them and lead to cynicism toward other humans. In feral cat colonies, stabilizing the population through spay/neuter and vaccination has been demonstrated to reduce feral cat number over time, whereas simply trapping an killing wild cats has been shown to create a vacuum that more fertile cats quickly fill, to the great annoyance of humans. Preventive, humane solutions help people and animals.







CB: You also work with another group, the Institute For Humane Education which offers the only accredited Masters degree in Humane Education in the United States. Please tell us more about Humane Education. What is it? The Institute offers a workshop called "Sowing Seeds" which you say profoundly influenced you. Please share with us our experience of the workshop and its effect on you.



The Institute for Humane Education based in Surry, Maine, offers humane education in the interdependent issues of social justice/human rights, media and consumer awareness, environmental preservation, and animal protection. In two days, IHE's Sowing Seeds workshop awakened me to the impacts of my life choices, the ripple effects of everything I do. When I walked into Sowing Seeds, I was an "animal person," trying to learn more about what I could do to help the abused, neglected, at-risk, and suffering animals of the world. When I left after that weekend, I was fully awakened to the fact that where animals suffer, people and the earth also suffer - and that I could make better choices that contribute to the kind of world I want to live in. Some of the information presented is painful to hear. But living a life of purpose that aligns with my values brings me far more joy than the ongoing dull pain of living unconsciously, when I used to think that life my choices affected only me and my immediate circle, while knowing better at some level. I feel energized now that I am constantly questioning, listening, learning, and making more informed choices. Rather than pushing any particular viewpoint or belief system, IHE teaches critical thinking, promotes heightened awareness, and encourages greater personal and global responsibility.



CB: You worked in New Orleans during Katrina to rescue animals. Describe that experience and its impact on you.



I have a hard time describing this experience because there is nothing in the rest of my life to compare it to. Perhaps people who have been to developing nations and war zones have language and comparative experiences for what I saw. Even just flying into the New Orleans airport in February 2006 was surreal. I saw thousands of blue rooftops and realized that, five months after the hurricanes, people still had plastic tarps covering their roofs. But that was nothing! Businesses were closed, some too destroyed ever to reopen. In residential neighborhoods, houses had been pushed off their foundations and still sat in the middle of the streets. Boats were in the street. And amid this, houses with varying degrees of apparent habitability had life going on inside: families who had lived there before the storms and were trying to reclaim their lives.



As soon as the storms hit, Best Friends began creating two animal relief facilities, one at an animal sanctuary in Tylertown, Mississippi and one at a former indoor fun-park called Celebration Station in Metairie, Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans. I lived and worked at Celebration Station along with dozens of other volunteers and Best Friends staff. I worked in Cats and helped care for a changing population of up to 300 cats at a time. The majority of cats brought in were not spayed or neutered, as was the case with the dogs and other animals. Best Friends found veterinarians to work with and I helped transport animals for their surgeries and other medical care. Best Friends also worked cooperatively with local and regional humane agencies to help reunite pets with their people whenever possible, to place difficult-to-place animals (such as cats who tested FIV-positive or feline leukemia-positive), and to assist local people with their animal needs. So many local residents came in to thank us for helping Gulf Coast animals, to look for their lost animals, to adopt animals ready for new homes, and to volunteer their help.



While there, I made some good friends. I also learned that I can witness pain and destruction, and manage to keep it together and be helpful. Honestly, before I went I didn't know that about myself and wondered how I would hold up. I am relieved to say that adrenaline and good sense kick in when needed. That realization alone changed and strengthened me.



After I returned home, I felt compelled to continue working with Best Friends to help animals and people. I assisted with the reunion search, and helped several people search for pets they'd been separated from after the storms. I also became much more involved with the Best Friends Network. That daily connection with the organization and its work is so satisfying to me.



CB: Please tell us about Bailey, a cat that you say "told you" to help animals. How has your life changed since you listened to Bailey and have dedicated so much of your time and energy to this calling?



This still amazes me. I've always adopted homeless cats. They were my companions, my children. Years ago, when my husband and I were ready to take in a couple of cats, someone told me of two cats who needed a home. We took both of them. Jewel, a Persian cat, was 9 years old at the time and is now the 17-year-old dowager of our home. Bailey was a 10-month-old Bengal cat. I don't quite understand how these connections form, but he became what I call my soul kitty, the cat of my heart. I love and cherish all four of our cats, but there's something different about my relationship with Bailey.



When I look at Bailey, I think about more than just the fun we have together or his needs that I am responsible for meeting. Somehow, when we got him more than 7 years ago, the sight of him got me wondering about the condition of the world's cats. I learned about breed rescue, about the fact that there may be more than ten times as many cats as dogs in our country, about humanely reducing stray and feral cat populations with trap-neuter-return, and about the work of regional and national humane organizations. I began volunteering.



As I gazed at Bailey I wondered about all the world's animals: animals we think of as companions and family members, animals domesticated for work and farming, animals bred and slaughtered for food, and the wild animals of the world. I learned about factory farming, laboratory testing, breeding mills, dog fighting, the exotic pet trade, illegal capture and use of wild animals and endangered species, and more.



I realized that helping animals was my life's mission, and that people are animals I want to help, too. I became vegan. I discovered the realm of cause-based nonprofit organizations and became a devoted volunteer and board member. I went back to school and got a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership and Management at Antioch New England University to help me leverage my skills on behalf of the changes I'd like to see in the world. I want to continually gain effectiveness at helping people and organizations that are make these changes.



The funny thing is that Bailey is not exactly the Gandhi of cats. He can be a pretty cranky fellow. He annoys easily, complains loudly, and keeps our other three cats in their place. I leash-walk Bailey in our neighborhood and he loves to meet new people. But if he sees another cat, watch out!



Bailey does have very endearing qualities. My husband and I have a business doing massage therapy and craniosacral therapy and Bailey thinks that our clients are here for him. All our cats like to visit with our clients, but Bailey yowls to be let into the treatment room. When a client is eager for Bailey to join us in session (and only then), I open the door and Bailey jumps right up onto the client's body. Bailey kneads their torso until he feels complete then curls up between their knees to sleep. I think some of my clients come back for Bailey.





CB: If people want to get involved with Best Friends or the Institute For Humane Education, how can they do so? What kinds of qualities in individuals would both groups be looking for? You mentioned Virtual Volunteering. Please say more about that and how readers can get involved.





What I love about all the organizations and programs I'm about to mention is that every one of them acknowledges the interdependence of all core issues, realizing that what affects one species affects every species, that what we do to the planet we do to ourselves. Each of these organizations works in the spirit of collaboration and compassion. I am involved with organizations whose mission and methods have integrity and align with my values.



Best Friends Animal Society http://www.bestfriends.org/

Best Friends Network http://network.bestfriends.org/

Anyone who loves animals and people and wants to volunteer remotely should email brandib@bestfriends.org This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it to start the volunteer application process. (Tell Brandi I sent you!) The Best Friends Network is an ideal volunteer site for people who want to make a difference in the world and who enjoy writing news, blogging, moderating and contributing to forums, and discovering and sharing regional resources. I have gained professional-level networking, web content, and volunteer program skills in this volunteer position as well as having a great time!



I recommend that anyone who is able take a life-changing trip to visit Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in gorgeous Kanab, Utah. Best Friends is on 35,000 acres in Angel Canyon and is an exemplar for all animal sanctuaries, and heavenly to visit. Many people who visit decide to stay and Best Friends has changed the face of Kanab. It's located right in the Golden Circle of National Parks that includes the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park. More about visiting and volunteering at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary here: http://www.bestfriends.org/atthesanctuary/.





Institute for Humane Education (IHE) http://www.humaneeducation.org/

IHE uses this definition of humane: "Having what are considered the best qualities of human beings." If you are passionate about education and promoting value/s of compassion and responsibility in children and adults, this organization will knock your socks off. I highly recommend taking the 2-day Sowing Seeds workshop (http://humaneeducation.org/sections/view/sowing_seeds_workshops) to open the mind and heart and leave with a load of tools for positive change.



If someone is wanting to be a teacher, IHE has the country's only accredited Master of Education in humane education (http://humaneeducation.org/sections/view/mastersprogram) and a Humane Education Certificate Program for those who want the education without the academic credential (http://humaneeducation.org/sections/view/hecp).





The New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS) http://www.neavs.org/

NEAVS has a special place in my heart. When I learned about animals suffering in laboratories, I contacted NEAVS, which has been around since 1895, and arranged a Vermont speaking tour for President and Executive Director Theodora Capaldo, Ph.D. Since then I have volunteered at the NEAVS Office and remotely, and maintained a connection I cherish with the NEAVS staff. NEAVS "works to expose and replace animal experiments in laboratories and classrooms with ethically and scientifically responsible modern research methods and to protect human beings who may be subjected to such experiments." The NEAVS office is also home to the Ethical Science & Education Coalition (ESEC), which "works to ensure that students' rights to a quality education are not compromised by academic threat, punishment or failure because of their ethical decision not to dissect or otherwise use animals in a harmful way."



The Daniel Pennock Democracy School http://www.celdf.org/DemocracySchool/tabid/60/Default.aspx

If the words "corporate personhood" and "corporate domination" make you want to start screaming, definitely attend the 2-day Daniel Pennock Democracy School and start making a difference today. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) in Pennsylvania offers this Democracy School that absolutely everyone should attend, whether they live in a country claiming to be a democracy or want to live in a democracy. After attending, many Democracy School graduates are motivated to start hosting Democracy Schools in their area so all local people can reclaim their rights and participate in self-governance. This eye-opening workshop demonstrates the history of our current corporate-dominated governmental system, describes early and more recent populist movements, how today's US corporate-governmental system operates, and what We the People can do to reclaim governance, starting at the local level.



Daniel Pennock was a 17-year-old boy who died after riding his bicycle over a crop field toxic with sewage sludge, which corporations get rich selling to farmers. The corporation that poisoned this boy was not held accountable, but his parents have become corporate accountability educators and Democracy School is named in their son's memory. Here is CELDF Executive DIrector Thomas Linzay's "Model Legal Brief to Eliminate Corporate Rights," coauthored with Richard Grossman, cofounder of Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy (POCLAD) : http://www.celdf.org/ProgramAreas/CorporationsDemocracy/ModelBrieftoEliminateCorporateRights/tabid/167/Default.aspx

Blackwater likely to be phased out of diplomatic duty

Blackwater likely to be phased out of diplomatic duty
Blackwater USA is expected to be phased out of guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq, according to U.S. officials.

BY WARREN P. STROBEL
wstrobel@mcclatchydc

WASHINGTON --
Troubled military contractor Blackwater USA is likely to be eased out of its role of guarding U.S. diplomats in Iraq in the aftermath of a shooting last month that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, U.S. officials said Friday.

While no decisions have been finalized, Blackwater's role in Baghdad is likely to be taken over by one of two other contractors who provide security for the State Department in Iraq, the officials said. They are Triple Canopy and DynCorp International.

''There will be some sort of disengagement process, but it won't be that they're shown the door,'' said a State Department official. ``As one builds down, another builds up.''

He and other U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had not received an oral report from a four-person team led by Patrick Kennedy, the department's director of management policy.

The team reviewed State Department security operations in Iraq.

Blackwater has denied wrongdoing in the Sept. 16 shooting, the latest deadly incident involving its employees in Iraq, saying the guards were defending themselves. But reports by the U.S. military and the Iraqi government say the Blackwater guards fired without provocation.

Iraq's government has demanded that Blackwater leave Iraq within six months.

A company spokeswoman, Anne Tyrrell, didn't return a phone call seeking comment.

Blackwater's current work order under a State Department contract worth $834 million reportedly runs out in May 2008.

But replacing the Moyock, N.C., company with another contractor raises several questions.

It's unclear whether Blackwater employees in Iraq could simply switch employers. And, according to congressional officials, the State Department's Diplomatic Security service argues that it cannot operate without the helicopters that Blackwater provides for escort and rescue efforts.

In a related development Friday, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who's been investigating State Department operations in Iraq, said in a letter that Blackwater attempted to transport two Iraqi military aircraft out of Iraq without official permission.

In the letter to Blackwater founder Erik Prince, Waxman said an unnamed military official told his House Oversight Committee that ``the Iraqi ministry of defense attempted to reclaim the aircraft, but that Blackwater would not comply.''

Waxman also alleged that Prince had misled the committee in testimony earlier this month.

Prince had said that the company's early contracts with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and the State Department were competitively bid, when in fact they were sole-source contracts.

U.S. "undoubtedly in recession": Jim Rogers

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States has entered a recession, according to highly-regarded investor Jim Rogers, who told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper on Wednesday he was switching out of the dollar and into yen, the yuan and the Swiss franc.

The veteran investor, who predicted the 1999 commodities rally, also said he was still bullish about surging Chinese stock markets despite worries over a bubble.

Fears are growing over the health of the U.S. economy after the fallout from the subprime mortgage market crisis and the global credit crunch it triggered.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has already slashed borrowing costs by 50 basis points to 4.75 percent to try and shore up the world's biggest economy and is widely expected to lower interest rates again next week.

"The US economy is undoubtedly in recession," Rogers told the Telegraph in Hong Kong in an article published on its Website.

"Many parts of industry are actually in a state worse than recession. If it were not for (Federal Reserve Chairman Ben) Bernanke putting huge amounts of money into the market, the stock market would probably be down much more than it is."

Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with billionaire investor George Soros in the 1970s, said it made sense to desert the dollar.

"All other things being equal during the next six months, that's the way I will go," he said. "But if the Swiss franc goes through the roof, I probably won't put money into the Swiss franc."

And he dismissed worries for now that surging Chinese equities had formed a bubble.

The Shanghai Composite Index (.SSEC: Quote, Profile, Research) settled 1.2 percent higher on Wednesday at 5,843 points. This time last year the index was trading around 1,800 points.

"It's not a bubble yet -- if it goes past 9,000 in January I'll have to sell. Bubbles always end badly," he said. "I do not want to sell Chinese stocks. I want to own them forever and I want my (four year-old: Quote, Profile, Research) daughter to own them."

Italy wants to register bloggers

Italy wants to register bloggers

RIA Novosti
Thursday October 25, 2007

THE country which bought you Benito Mussolini, the Catholic Church, the Roman Empire and other advocates of free speech is trying to bring in some of the toughest Internet gagging laws outside China.

Ricardo Franco Levi, undersecretary to the President of the Council, has written a law that requires anyone with a blog or a website has to register it with Communications Authority, produce certificates, pay a tax, even if they provide information without any intention to make money.

If you must blog you must form a publishing company and have a registered journalist on your board of directors running things.

The draft law has already been given the thumbs up by the Council of Ministers and now faces Parliament before becoming law.



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Italy wants to register bloggers

RIA Novosti
Thursday October 25, 2007

THE country which bought you Benito Mussolini, the Catholic Church, the Roman Empire and other advocates of free speech is trying to bring in some of the toughest Internet gagging laws outside China.

Ricardo Franco Levi, undersecretary to the President of the Council, has written a law that requires anyone with a blog or a website has to register it with Communications Authority, produce certificates, pay a tax, even if they provide information without any intention to make money.

If you must blog you must form a publishing company and have a registered journalist on your board of directors running things.

The draft law has already been given the thumbs up by the Council of Ministers and now faces Parliament before becoming law.

(Article continues below)

With all the hoops that the new law makes people jump through, it is going to take a very dedicated bogger to want to set one up. As far as the government is concerned, that is a good thing because people will stop saying nasty things about them on web sites.

The law will close down most blogs and those which survive have to be so certain about what they are publishing is true or else they go to jail.

Baltimore County plan would put security cameras on public property

Baltimore County plan would put security cameras on public property

Jaime Malarkey
The Examiner
Wednesday October 24, 2007

Baltimore County police officers may soon be able to use hidden security cameras to monitor busy intersections, parks and schools from their cruisers miles away, under a plan officials are “actively exploring.”

Councilman Kevin Kamenetz on Monday called for the expansion of mandated video surveillance in shopping center parking lots to include other public property. He announced the proposal from Hunt Valley Towne Center, where helmet-wearing security guards on Segways are visible warnings for would-be shoplifters and other criminals.

But it’s the images captured on security cameras disguised as lampposts that are the most effective crime-fighting tool, the Pikesville Democrat said.


“I’m not advocating a city-like system,” Kamenetz said. “We’re not interested in the blue plate special lights. We’re not interested in showing off the existence of the cameras.”

Digital, Internet-based systems like Hunt Valley’s provide clearer images that can be monitored on cell phones, laptops and personal digital assistants in real time, miles away. Anyone with access to the password-protected images can remotely control the movement of cameras to, for example, follow a suspect through the parking lot, or zoom in on a license plate, said Henry Tyrangiel, president of Pikesville-based Computer Management Systems, which installed the system.

The system has its technological quirks, however. Tyrangiel had difficulty accessing images on his digital planner Tuesday, citing poor cell reception. And police officials said funding could be an obstacle.

“It could be a very good idea for Baltimore County,” said police spokesman Bill Toohey. “It looks promising, but we don’t yet have the official stamp of approval.”

Kamenetz, who in February 2005 authored first-of-its-kind legislation requiring all major county shopping centers to have video surveillance in public parking areas, said he’s preparing applications for $300,000 in federal grants that could help launch the program. Tyrangiel said the cameras cost between $4,000 and $6,000 each.

County Executive Jim Smith has scheduled a meeting with Kamenetz to discuss the proposal, according to spokesman Don Mohler, who called the plan “interesting.”

Endgame Rips The Lid Off Elite's Final Masterplan

New documentary delves into the darkest recesses of the global elite


Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007



Alex Jones' brand new documentary Endgame charts the history of the elite blueprint for social domination and control, outlining the ultimate plans that those who consider themselves the anointed have for our planet.

The first section of the film documents the rise of the banking cartels, who since 1800 have funded both sides of almost every war. Endgame charts the usurpation of the British economy by the Rothchild family who went on to bankroll all factions during the first world war providing armaments companies through banks in France, Austria, Germany and England.

Endgame then documents the fallout of the great war and the attempts to form a controlling League of Nations, which was ultimately blocked by Congress. Such frustration on the part of the elite led to the rise of two factions, fascists and Fabian socialists. Endgame documents how bankers again funded both sides during WW2 which ultimately led to the creation of the UN and the beginning of the movement to implement three power blocs via incremental globalism.

The second section of the film covers the Bilderberg group and Alex's documentation of the elite group at the 2006 meeting in Ottawa. It covers Alex's detention on the Canadian border at the behest of Bilderberg insiders themselves. Alex and his crew describe how they were interrogated for nearly twelve hours before finally being allowed entry into the country.

Featuring extensive interviews with Jim Tucker and Daniel Estulin, veteran reporters who have been covering the meetings for 27 and 15 years respectively, Alex reveals how it is an offence for any member of the federal or state government to meet with foreign power brokers without the express authority of the president or Congress.

Endgame then shifts focus to the impending movement towards a North American Union, presenting reports and documentation relating to the efforts toward regional harmonization between the US Mexico and Canada at the secretive Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summits, which refer to an "evolution by stealth" agenda.

The later parts of the film deal firstly with the hijacking of the environmental movement. Experts and former insiders describe how there has been a long term goal spanning back decades to use an exaggerated threat from mother nature in order to control energy markets, regulate the progression of lesser economies and increase the rich poor divide by pricing out the middle classes.

This then dovetails with the ultimate endgame, the depopulation agenda. The film's gripping climax delves into the history of eugenics mindset. Endgame lays out the evidence that humans are being portrayed as a virus upon the earth, as we are increasingly being told to believe by cultural and academic kingpins.

From the teachings of "Dr Death" Eric Pianka, to German film fest cartoons, to New York Times best selling books, we are being saturated with the idea that humanity itself must be culled in order to save mother earth.

Endgame reveals how The eugenics movement never went away, it simply re-packaged itself to be more palatable to an increasingly skeptical public.

Looking more slick and professionally produced than ever with an intense soundtrack and filmed in super quality high definition, Endgame is a must watch for anyone seriously concerned with the world we live in today.

A Ban on Ron Paul Supporters

A Ban on Ron Paul Supporters

By Kate Phillips

The right-leaning side of the blogosphere, and especially some of the leading Repub-blogs, have been ablaze over the decision by RedState.com to bar comments and diaries from those enthusiastically Web-savvy and driven backers of Representative Ron Paul.

To recap first of all, Leon Wolfe over at RedState, under a headline that included “Life Is Really Not Fair,” wrote on Monday:

Effective immediately, new users may *not* shill for Ron Paul in any way shape, form or fashion. Not in comments, not in diaries, nada. If your account is less than 6 months old, you can talk about something else, you can participate in the other threads and be your zany libertarian self all you want, but you cannot pimp Ron Paul. Those with accounts more than six months old may proceed as normal.

Now, I could offer a long-winded explanation for *why* this new policy is being instituted, but I’m guessing that most of you can probably guess. Unless you lack the self-awareness to understand just how annoying, time-consuming, and bandwidth-wasting responding to the same idiotic arguments from a bunch of liberals pretending to be Republicans can be. Which, judging by your comment history, you really don’t understand, so allow me to offer an alternate explanation: we are a bunch of fascists and we’re upset that you’ve discovered where we keep the black helicopters, so we’re silencing you in an attempt to keep you from warning the rest of your brethren so we can round you all up and send you to re-education camps all at once.

(Early this year, RedState, which features several bloggers, was bought by Eagle Publishing, a company that also owns Regnery Publishing and Human Events, among other ventures that cater to conservative Republicans.)

Now, avid Caucus readers know the Paulites are heavy-duty keyboarding fans of the Republican-libertarian candidate. They try to win every text-messaging contest out there. They complain on our site that Mr. Paul doesn’t get enough, er, the equivalent of ink on The Times’s Web site. We know many of them well.

They’re not prohibited from commenting here, unless they use abusive language or slurs, etc., that don’t meet our guidelines.

But this little dustup has spurred an interesting debate, one that takes place on the left and the right (and on all blogs) over cheerleading for various candidates (Go, Candidate Go!) when it does not further the discussion. More important, some would contend this ban rides up against the so-called democracy of the Internet.

Over at Captain’s Quarters, Ed Morrissey disagreed with RedState’s decision, saying it would more likely hurt the site than Mr. Paul and his supporters. Here’s part of what he had to say yesterday:

… I disagree with Leon’s assumption that these Paul supporters are all or mostly cryptoliberals. Plenty of libertarian-leaning Republicans exist in the party, along with the former Buchananites and isolationists of the GOP. Instead of cutting these people off, it might be better for Redstate to keep engaging them. After all, Paul will not be in the race all that much longer, and we need those voters to stay in the GOP when Paul disappears. There are worse impulses than libertarianism.

Heck, I’d even interview Ron Paul, just to get a chance to challenge him (respectfully) on some of his positions and see how he responds. I put in a request yesterday to do just that, and if we can make it work, we’ll have Rep. Paul on the Heading Right Radio show, where listeners can ask their own questions and continue engaging the Paulites. Engagement can be understandably frustrating, but in the end, it forces us to sharpen our own arguments and challenge our own assumptions — and both are good processes.

For those who live and breathe in the world of the Internet, there’s another piece to this debate, provided today by David All, at TechRepublican.com. He agreed with Mr. Morrissey, adding that Republicans would need the Paul supporters to help defeat — in Mr. All’s choice of a candidate — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

And, with more and more Republican sites sprouting up to try to match the left’s Internet strength in fund-raising and online voter engagement during this election cycle, the Paulites provide Mr. All with another point of entry in this debate:

Personally, I recognize that Paul’s support is very, very real, especially in the politics + tech sphere. He is the people-powered Howard Dean candidate of 2008 which I’ve been saying we need to “prove” the importance of an effective Internet strategy. He is that Revolution.

Of course, there was bound to be reaction among the Paulites. And not all of it printable here. At PeachPundit, there’s a sampling of the more offensive write-ins — we’d advise adult-only eyes take a gander to understand why some may be weary of being blasted.