•TPC•

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

The West and the Islamic world clash not because of religion, but because a Darwinian current has taken hold in the West that reduces life to mere production and consumption, writes Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri

By Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri

10/7/07

In the opening years of this century, the world was presented with a historic confrontation between the West and Islamic and Arab worlds. This confrontation has been used in the pursuit of imperial agendas. American failure in Iraq has left underlying reasons exposed. Can the damage done be repaired?

Our relationship with the West began with Alexander the Great, the founder of the colonialist Ptolemaic Dynasty that ruled Egypt and the Levant for several hundred years. In that distant past there existed a form of parity; a certain give and take, an alternation of victory and defeat between the two sides. Even to today, however, it is possible to point to factors that can as easily form the basis of mutual understanding and cooperation between Islam and the West as they can trigger conflict. For example, we share with some Western nations the border of the Mediterranean, whose importance for trade and maritime wealth should compel neighbours on either side towards closer cooperation, especially in this age of the global village.

Yet that very proximity has also been the source of intense friction because of the lure of land and resources on the other side. In its height, Islamic civilisation expanded geographically at the expense of the West as defined by the ambit of Christian civilisation, and the reverse was also true: the expansion of the West took place at the expense of the Islamic world, and tensions reached a zenith when Western powers moved to partition that world amongst themselves. Conversely, the further removed societies and civilisations are from one another geographically, the lower the potential for conflict between them. At least before the rise of Western colonialism, which staked out the entire world as its field of enterprise, there existed no tension between the West and Thailand, for example, simply because land and resources were so far out of reach.

Continue Reading »

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

Martin Luther King Jr. refused “to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality”.

By Ramzy Baroud

9/22/07

Racism is, among many things, convenient. It provides simplified, definite and ready-to-serve answers to complex and compounded questions. Racists, in turn, come from all walks of life; their motivation and the root causes behind their contemptible views of others may differ, but the outcome of these views is predictably the same - racial discrimination, social and political oppression, religious persecution and war.

The textual definition of racism pertains only to race, but in practice racism is a consequence of groupthink, whereby a group of people decides to designate itself as a collective and starts delineating its relationship with other collectives - or other people in general - with a sense of supremacy. When coupled with economic and/or political dominance, supremacy translates into various forms of subjugation and cruelty.

Continue Reading »

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

by Sylvain Lamoureux

9/19/07

After a while, one begins to realize that things must be narrowed down for those that can only take one or two things at a time–those who are so deeply entrenched into a system that they don’t even understand but will defend to the death.

Fear - a control mechanism used throughout history to mold and steer society in the direction that some think it has to go.

Daily the masses are subjected to images, sounds, and ideas that convey a message that they should be afraid of something or someone. I found evidence of this the other day when I was confronted by some individuals simply because I said that I was not afraid of anything. Apparently, I have to be afraid of something in order to be part of today’s society. I fear something: that the world and its inhabitants will not see clearly until it is too late.

Continue Reading »

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

“And now Bush is reminding us that we must work together to battle extremists who try to imitate our murder of the innocent in order to achieve political objectives. Perhaps the most dangerous problem of all is that the American herd continues to swallow outrageous and incredible bullshit as though it were truth.”

By Rand Clifford

9/10/07

The new “Osama bin Laden tape” is an astonishing example of what the corporate media feeds gullible Americans, as well as what gullible Americans are still swallowing after so many lies. Bin Laden has been front-page news for a week, spurring serious buzz over how much the man has changed. Beard trimmed and neatly dyed, he’s looking older in this videotape, but does not appear to be obviously ill. Dark circles beneath his eyes are more pronounced. Experts agree that his face is “visibly wizened.” The tape has been rushed into technical evaluation by U.S. intelligence analysts. Initial reviews lean toward verifying its authenticity. Bush took time out between gaffes in Australia to mutter “The tape is a reminder about the dangerous world in which we live. And it is a reminder that we must work together to protect…against these extremists who murder the innocent in order to achieve their political objectives.” Sunday, 9/9/07, front pages across the country declared: AL-QAIDA ALIVE, WELL…Osama bin Laden’s video demonstrates the resilience of his organization.

Continue Reading »

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

“The total of dead and displaced comes to 20 percent of the Iraqi population. If this is not fanaticism on the part of the Bush administration, what is it? Certainly it is not reason, tolerance, and deliberation.”

BY PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Dateline: September 5, 2007

President Jimmy Carter was demonized for pointing out in his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, that there are actually two sides to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Distinguished American scholars, such as John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have suffered the same fate for documenting the excessive influence the Israel Lobby has on US foreign policy.

Americans would be astonished at the criticisms in the Israeli press of the Israeli government’s policies toward the Palestinians and Arabs generally. In Israel facts are still part of the discussion. If the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, could replace Fox “News,” CNN, New York Times and Washington Post, Americans would know the truth about US and Israeli policies in the MIddle East and their likely consequences.

On September 1, Haaretz reported that Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, which represents 900 Congregations and 1.5 million Jews, “accused American media, politicians and religious groups of demonizing Islam” and turning Muslims into “satanic figures.”

Rabbi Yoffie is certainly correct. In America there is only one side to the issue. An entire industry has been created that is devoted to demonizing Islam. Books abound that misrepresent Islam as the greatest possible threat to Western Civilization and seek to instill fear and hatred of Muslims in Americans. For example, Norman Podhoretz proclaims “World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism.” Daniel Pipes shrieks that “Militant Islam Reaches America.” Lee Harris warns of “The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam’s Threat to the West.”

Think tanks have well-funded Middle East programs, the purpose of which is to spread Islamophobia. Fear and loathing pour out of the Middle East Forum and the American Enterprise Institute.

Continue Reading »

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

“Think of the role Judith Miller played in the New York Times in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Yes, her work became a scandal, but only after it played a powerful role in promoting an invasion based on lies.”

The following is a transcript of a talk given by John Pilger at Socialism 2007 Conference in Chicago this past June:

The title of this talk is Freedom Next Time, which is the title of my book, and the book is meant as an antidote to the propaganda that is so often disguised as journalism. So I thought I would talk today about journalism, about war by journalism, propaganda, and silence, and how that silence might be broken. Edward Bernays, the so-called father of public relations, wrote about an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. He was referring to journalism, the media. That was almost 80 years ago, not long after corporate journalism was invented. It is a history few journalist talk about or know about, and it began with the arrival of corporate advertising. As the new corporations began taking over the press, something called “professional journalism” was invented. To attract big advertisers, the new corporate press had to appear respectable, pillars of the establishment-objective, impartial, balanced. The first schools of journalism were set up, and a mythology of liberal neutrality was spun around the professional journalist. The right to freedom of expression was associated with the new media and with the great corporations, and the whole thing was, as Robert McChesney put it so well, “entirely bogus”.

For what the public did not know was that in order to be professional, journalists had to ensure that news and opinion were dominated by official sources, and that has not changed. Go through the New York Times on any day, and check the sources of the main political stories-domestic and foreign-you’ll find they’re dominated by government and other established interests. That is the essence of professional journalism. I am not suggesting that independent journalism was or is excluded, but it is more likely to be an honorable exception. Think of the role Judith Miller played in the New York Times in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Yes, her work became a scandal, but only after it played a powerful role in promoting an invasion based on lies. Yet, Miller’s parroting of official sources and vested interests was not all that different from the work of many famous Times reporters, such as the celebrated W.H. Lawrence, who helped cover up the true effects of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in August, 1945. “No Radioactivity in Hiroshima Ruin,” was the headline on his report, and it was false.

Consider how the power of this invisible government has grown. In 1983 the principle global media was owned by 50 corporations, most of them American. In 2002 this had fallen to just 9 corporations. Today it is probably about 5. Rupert Murdoch has predicted that there will be just three global media giants, and his company will be one of them. This concentration of power is not exclusive of course to the United States. The BBC has announced it is expanding its broadcasts to the United States, because it believes Americans want principled, objective, neutral journalism for which the BBC is famous. They have launched BBC America. You may have seen the advertising.

Continue Reading

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

By Vi Ransel

8/5/07

Ancient genetic signals can be resurrected after lying
dormant for millions of years, awaiting only the right
trigger to release them.

In the early Carboniferous there arose an organism
with, for the very first time,
more information in its brain than in its genes,
and the brain grew more dominant over time.

The modern brain’s blueprint is a story
of successive accretion and specialization,
which freed us from the hardwired tyranny
of DNA’s monopoly on total information.

The three interconnected parts of the modern brain
correspond to the evolutionary emergence
of reptiles, mammals, primates
- especially humans -
and represent a major burst forward

in overall brain development,
each step adding a new function and a new layer.
And since these were laid down over existing systems,
the preexisting systems had to be accommodated

because making basic change deep within the fabric of life
very frequently turns out to be fatal.
Adding new layers while retaining the old ones
allows major change consistent with survival.

Today’s triune, or three-part brain
consists of the R-complex at its core,
surrounded and surmounted by the limbic system,
which is enveloped by the massive neo-cortex.

The R-complex is the most ancient part,
the dinosaur component of human nature,
seat of reptilian ritual and aggression,
territorial and hierarchical behavior.

Continue Reading »

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

By Peter Chamberlin

7/31/07

For many years, American society has lived under a state of siege. We have constantly been bombarded, every minute of every day, with psychological conditioning that is meant to lead us into a state of hopelessness. We are addicted to the source of this Pavlovian conditioning - television. This medium serves as an extension of the government propaganda apparatus, pumping-up the fear and anxiety levels, until the people become numb, convinced that we are helpless in a roiling sea of great dangers. We are literally being scared to death, so that we will give-up, roll over, and play dead. They want our surrender to be assured before they take the final steps to murder our democratic-Republic.

The people don’t understand that they are the source of all power within this Republic. Our task, as we fight those who seek to force nuclear war against Iran upon us, is to remind the people of their power and their freedom to reject another illegal, immoral war, to be fought on behalf of Israel. We must find ways to overcome the inertia of hopelessness, by replacing it with reasonable hope. It is up to the American people to enforce the common will to avoid this war, by restraining the monsters who push to unleash it. All of the war plans that are being carried out, and those that are yet to be carried out, since the decisive November elections, stand in direct contradiction of that common will. Our Constitutional rights have been violated by the leaders of our government, who have taken oaths to defend that same Constitution. Our only salvation lies in protecting the Constitution from those who seek to destroy it. The path to preserving freedom is spelled-out clearly within its living words. When free people stand together and speak with one voice, then government has no choice, but to listen.

It is illogical, that the majority of American people don’t want to be warned about the coming American economic collapse, or the imminent Muslim genocide that will most assuredly usher the whole calamity in. But logic has nothing to do with it. It is all about fear and denial, with denial being understood as a psychological defense mechanism that that people use to isolate themselves from disturbing conditions. People, who are “in denial,” disavow knowledge of painful realities, in order to reduce anxiety/fear levels, sometimes to the detriment of their own health.

Continue Reading »

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

By Rand Clifford

7/20/07

The tired old color-coded terror warnings that blare whenever justice sniffs at the heels of our leadership are primarily meant to divert attention. Of course ambient American fear must not be allowed to cool below a certain control threshold, and Americans have a very low attention span. But when the garish colors, bar graphs and pie charts are marched out to remind us that evil people want to hurt the righteous, and we need to be especially diligent, it’s time to look closer at the latest political scandal rather than watch for shadows of maniacal brown people fighting to deprive us of our oil. In this age of continuous and absolute lies, one thing Americans can rely on: If the government cries wolf, the sheep are relatively safe.

It’s when they try to be subtle that we should be most wary. Pseudo subtlety means trouble as sure as that knife at your back. America’s leaders are about as subtle as a rattlesnake bite, nothing subtle about flaming yellow and orange and red flourishes of Terror Danger! But on Thursday, July 12, headlines around the country announced: Al-Qaida regains strength, and you can be sure it has nothing to do with hyper over-hyped Jihadists, that we created, gaining strength, and everything to do with government knives and dead sheep. Other headlines: Group returns to 2001 levels. Whoa, now…real evil in the 2001 zone, especially riveting for those condemned to believe what they see instead of what professional liars say. So with this subtle new stratagem—subtle for them at least—we are being softened up for more terror, 9-11 false-flag style, our sentiments plumbed.

Continue Reading »