I came across this young lady while researching Israel Kamakawiwo'ole on YouTube. She has a voice that can bring a grown man to cry.

Claudette Perry from the Global Afrikan Congress (some black elitist group trying to make political gain and money of racial issues... and they spelt Africa with a "k") on SAFM just before 3pm on the 25th of December informing the people of South Africa that Africans can only be black. That means all the white Africans, colored Africans, eastern Africans and any other African with a different color pigmented skin to her own... cant be African by her definition. She was very clear about this point and even informed some old African (white) lady who phoned in... that she was not African but rather european.

Claudette Perry would make the German Nazi`s with their ethnic profiling so proud. Claudette, generally... around the world.. its accepted that if you are from Africa... you are African, or if you want to be African... you are African. Someone from America is not considered Native American... but they're considered to be someone who is from... America! Australians are Australian, South Americans from South America and so on. Its a freekin regional title you silly dumbat... its not a skin color.

If you want to use that stupid definition of Claudette's that only people with great ancestory from Africa are Africans... well there's kinda a technical fluff up with that. Africa is the cradle of humanity, if were going way way back... why just stop where she wants it to stop... why not go further back and include the rest of humanity? The reason why would not use her mind does not go that far back in her reasoning is because she is a black elitist. No different from her white counterparts in the Klan. They see the data and the facts as they want to see them and try create their own little segregated elitist realities and groups to make themselves feel more special. Basically it sounds like she wants Apartheid.

Then Claudette goes on this whole shcpeel about how "Africans" must be "African", and how all culture in the world are being "europeanised" (she uses the word "europeanised in a very derogatory way"). I don't know if Claudette knows how society works. It changes... therefore it evolves therefore it is subject to one of the mechanics of evolution.. that being natural selection.

Europeans came up with the concept of the car... it was a good idea, so therefore Africans (and the rest of the world) adopted the concept, it sure as heck beats walking. We take what is best from every culture and ethnic group which is why we have things like biltong, sushi, the Internet and ubuntu. From the sound of things she wants some type of anti white society... what.. you want all black people to go back to mud huts and tribalism? Should they not so as they are doing at the moment? choose whats best for them? Rather than have someone like Claudette telling them how they should be?

Then Claudette played the Apartheid and Slavery card. She clearly doesn't know how over played the Apartheid card is now and I kinda think her point on slavery is stupid. Let me explain my reasoning on that point. If she is going to play the slavery card, can I not play it as well? Cant most of Europe use the same line any time they deal with the Italians (Roman slavery)? If you use the Bible as a reference you will see Egyptians (Africans) had slaves way back.

Going back to that social evolution thing I was talking about earlier, it has has being ALL of humanities sin in the past to enslave those weaker than themselves. This is prevalent through ALL histories (except perhaps the Aborigines and the Khoi San.. I am not too sure about them).

Over time humanity has evolved mostly for the better. We decided the wheel was a good idea, we decided that slavery was a bad idea, we think the Internet rocks, we think human rights are a good idea (mostly), and were still working on the whole war part of things... but I am sure we will get there. People are people Claudette, no matter where they come from... they're all capable of the greatest acts of compassion and the most terrible acts of evil.

You gotta love Claudette`s comment on SABC broadcasting, she basically said its all european (white rubbish), she mentioned things like the song, "Silent Nights" and other Christmas carols. What a tosser she is... seriously. Why was she looking at the european TV in the first place? Using Claudette's logic the problem is easy to solve. No european TV, no European carols. Voila! Once again she wants to cherry pic whats considered, "european".

However, the rest of us Africans are going to continue evolving and hopefully for the better while Claudette and her racist buddies can go build their own little racist separatist state next to Oranje. To Claudette and anyone else who reads this... I am African. I was born and bred in Africa and I am going to die an African, and if you are going to tell me I am not African, I am going to call you a liar.

Claudette, if you really want to do something for Africa get your ass into Zimbabwe and help Africans who really need help. Don't stop there there's Sudan that's also in a right mess. Why are you spending so much of your energy trying to segregate society instead of actually getting down to where its at its worst and trying to heal from the ground up? Why? Because you are a hypocrite. Too much work and not enough money for you.

I woke up this morning to the headline, "Gareth accused of blasphemy", and I just shook my head and thought... poor Gareth. Gareth is on the receiving end of South Africa`s rather large dumb club. At first I thought that news report was going to deal with Gareth's reading of "The 9 Most Badass Bible Verses" that he did the other morning on 5FM. What I thought was so ironical about that show is that he was simply quoting from the Bible... and still the freaks in our society got upset about it... but more on that later. Here is one of the Biblical phrases that Gareth read out on air:

That show instantly mobilized all the Christians with no clue and within hours petitions were running around the Internet calling for him to be pulled off the air. Clearly those Christians think that their God is pretty useless and if offended by what Gareth had to say needed these plebeians to run around the Internet for it, because they seem to think that God is too weak to do anything about it himself. Seriously people.. what ARE you thinking?

Here's a perfect example of one of the many simpletons on the Internet. Her name is Gerda and she clearly thinks that praying does not help, so what she did was go and write a HelloPeter complaint about what Gareth had said on air. Does Gerda seem to think that HelloPeter is more powerful than a prayer to her God?

If you look at that first link I posted to the News24 story you will notice the Hitler Youth in our society had this to say about Gareth;

June Jousten,"What really gets to me, is that this seems to happen on a daily basis and that the South African Broadcasting Association does little to zero about it."

June... you are a hypocrite straight out of the starting block. The SABC regularly uses our tax money on Sunday morning SAFM shows to broadcast, "Songs of Praise" to everyone. Whether they want to listen to it or not. There are a lot of people (a real lot of people) out there who really don't wanna listen to that and I am sure more than a few are offended by it. However, we tolerate it. Now Gareth clearly has an opinion that differs to yours and just like you, Gareth is allowed to view his opinion and his beliefs. Tolerance is a two way street, but you only seem to get upset when its not going in your direction.

Tell you what, we can make a deal with you June. Remove all the religious propaganda that is on public radio and we will then promise not make comments on it, but as long as you are shoving religious dogma and your point of view down other peoples necks, expect there to be a balance of opinion.

The next comment was by someone called Gerda-Mari Povey who had this to say about Gareth, "You know what, Gareth, I love your show, but this morning u shocked me!!!! just wanted to say, God is not petty!!!!!

"I pray that something drastic will happen in your life, that will allow you to experience the loving kindness and mercy of God..."

"As a Christian, I really felt offended," she told News24. "He (Gareth) should have more respect for people's religion. He has offended many of his listeners."

"What if my children had heard his comments. It was very irresponsible of him. I'm normally the kind of person who just keeps quiet, but this time it was just too much."

Gerda, you are clearly the person who made the Hellopeter post and clearly confused. You ask what had would have happened if your kids had heard it? What about my kids having to listen to the religious rubbish spewed out on TV and radio waves? You are wanting to brainwash my kids into believing in your fairytale but are not happy if there is an opposing point of view. Since your God clearly didn't give a poo when you prayed to him you then took it a step further and asked called for Gareth to be pulled of the air. Have you ever heard the saying, "Ban a book today burn a person tomorrow"? Just because you don't like hearing something does not give you any permission to have it removed from the air.

South Africans... and I suppose other dumb people around the world have this weird Hitler fetish to want to ban anything they don't like listening to. They seem to think that they can instill their fascism onto you. Free speech doesn't work like that Gerda. The most important type of free speech to allow is that that you hate hearing the most. Take that pious carrot out of your ass Gerda and allow people to have different points of view to your own, because despite what you may think.. you don't know everything and your are NOT always right. The world is made up of many different people with many different points of view and if you had your neo-nazi way, you would like everyone to think and believe what you do.

People like you disgust me. You are the poster child for a lot of whats wrong in the world. If you don't like what Gareth is saying.. DONT LISTEN. Change the station or switch it off. There's no need to go instill your religious fanaticism on other people. Its like if you don't like what I am writing. DONT READ IT. Yeah.. a little self moderation will get you very far.

I totally agree with Gareth's comment;

"If God is great, why would he be so easily offended by what a mortal man says? If God has such an ego, then he must be petty."

Gerda and June.. if God has a problem with what Gareth said do you not think he is big enough to deal with it himself? Do you really think he is so weak that he needs people like you running around doing his chores for him? Do you understand the term "omnipotence"?

Its no wonder South Africa is in the mess it is with people like this running around. I am sure God would rather want Gerda and June to be out amongst the poorest of the poor.. trying to uplift people and ease their suffering.. instead.. they're think they have being given Gods baton to beat anyone into submission who has a different point of view. Gerda.. instead of starting useless petitions to stifle free speech and to take away basic human rights from people, why don't you go down to your local squatter camp and feed a starving poor kid? Oh wait.. its easier to sit on your ass, to pretend you know what God wants, and to start useless petition emails.

The nice thing about this is that people who wanna tell you what to think and say like Gerda... are in a minority. In a recent poll on one of South Africa`s most popular websites, over 88% of people thought that what Gareth had said was acceptable. That at least is a heartening sign that the sickness of censorship is not as wide spread as it used to be.

UPDATE:

This spam dropped into my inbox and for once it was not a Nigerian harvesting email address`s but something rather worse.

Hi everyone,

Can we please draw up a petition that Gareth Cliff publicly apologises for
offending listeners or resigns failing that we will stop supporting 5fm
and stop listening to the show completely.

If we managed to get the "Satanism promoter" to leave Rapport I am sure we
can get the desired effect with Gareth Cliff

Please put your name at the bottom of this e-mail and forward every 100
names to tanyal@firsttech.co.za

I will be sending all the names of all the listeners that feel the same to
Broad Casting Complaints SA

I attach my response to the reply he sent to Gerda-Mari Povey.

Let's show Gareth how "petty" God's people can be.

So feel free either to voice your support, or email your annoyance to that bolded email address.

A member of the MyAdsl forum has mentioned that you can use this as a template.

Dear Tanya,

Today I received an email petition, apparently co-ordinated by yourself, in an attempt to remove Gareth Cliff from the air because he has different beliefs to you.

I'm extremely concerned about people like yourself - you're clearly part of that increasingly vocal and beligerent minority of fundamentalists, predominantly Christians, in South Africa who have recenly co-ordinated a number of attempts to silence voices that do not conform to your world view.

Please understand that we live in an open, democratic society that enshrines in its constitution the right to freedom of religion and freedom of expression. Historically, one of the first steps in a fascist state has always been to destroy voices of dissent. As soon as open discourse in a society is disallowed, the fundamental foundation of all personal freedoms is undermined. Also understand that the very constitution that enables people like Gareth Cliff to openly say what he believes is the same constitution that allows you to gather in fellowship with your Christian bretheren every Sunday.

In a multicultural society, all walks of life should be able to practise their own beliefs and voice thier own opinions. You may disagree with them, but frankly, as long as they're not inflicting harm on others, it's not up to you or anybody else to dictate how they live their lives. Please desist from your public bullying of those whom you deem unsavoury.

Have a lovely evening, I know I will - I'm off to watch The Golden Compass.

Regards

Carl

Please feel free to email this on to all your friends ask them to let Tanya know what they all feel.

This article was pretty disturbing... its one of those things we hear all the time down here. In this article they say that "taking from whites is not a crime in South Africa"... and this type of headline is not uncommon. Just the other day one of our idiot ministers suggested that the sale of land to white people and foreigners should be put on hold for two years. I also remember reading an article a couple of months back where a writer for a Botswanan newspaper suggested it was okay to rape white woman.

With affirmative action, BEE and state sponsored crime racking the country its amazing how people around the world seem to do nothing. When the Afrikaaner white population of South Africa flexed its stupid muscle during Apartheid the whole world jumped up and down in their cages. Now because the crimes are happening against white people ... "its okay"

A perfect example of this would be Zimbabwe. I have lost all faith in the rest of the world and their politics around the Zimbabwe issue. Firstly, when South Africa white people oppressed the local black population the whole world turned away from us. To the point where no one would even play cricket with us.

Now Mugabe comes along, kills 200 000 Matabele (Mugabe is from an African tribe called the Shona, the Matabele are descendants of the Zulu that moved up into Zimbabwe)... Mugabe got away with it because he blamed it on the white people. The world said almost nothing. Now Mugabe is destroying the country around him, and still the world does nothing. Our own limp government included.

Forgive me if I no longer have faith in world politics, because it only seems human rights apply for a few people. I am posting this article here just so the world knows that what people say, and what they do, are two different things.

Something pretty interesting is happening on the Internet at the moment. Once again its ability to spread information is allowing free speech to survive as it should. The current set of events that brought this particular post on is about the infamous Alisher Usmanov becoming to controlling owner of the Arsenal football club. The problem here is the guy himself, Alisher Usmanov, who by all accounts is a pretty nasty piece of work.

Former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray (we will get back to more on Craig later) describes Alisher Usmanov in his blog (original post follows at the end oft his article) as, "Alisher Usmanov, potential Arsenal chairman, is a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker and Accused Rapist". Enough said.

Alisher Usmanov is one of those nasty oligarch's who exploited the communist ideals and the people of the USSR for his own greed, and he certainly has not slacked off with his criminal activities with the fall of communism. Today he is the 187th richest man and runs a major corporation called Metalloinvest, he still traffics in heroin and human misery. Forbes magazine estimates his value to be around US$5.5 Billion.. almost all of it blood money.

Now back to Craig Murray... this bloke spent a lot of time in Uzbekistan and got to know Alisher Usmanov very well. In fact, he wrote a book about Alisher Umanov called, "Murder in Samarkand" in which he writes about Alisher`s criminal activities. The book has so far sold 25,000 copies and while Alisher Umanov's lawyers have claimed the book is, "grossly libellous and defamatory"... and has being out for over a year... no legal action has being brought against Craig Murray yet.

Moving onto present day events, Craig Murray recently wrote a scathing article about what he considered as blood money buying out a famous English football club like Arsenal. However Alisher Usmanov is not without resources and he contact a law firm by the name of Schillings to serve David Murrays host company with a take down notice, threatening the host of David Murrays website if they did not.

David Murray had being hosting his blog website the the host company 'FastHost'. They received the legal threat from Schillings and took his website offline. Another political blogger by the name of Tim Ireland, and author of bloggerheads.com responded to this take down by re-posting David Murrays article on his blog. The host of his website was also Fasthost. They also took down his website. So now the blogosphere is responding and blog writers around the world are re-posting David Murrays original article. In the great words of, 'The Mentor', "you may be able to stop one of us, but you can not stop us all!"

If you have a blog out there, join us and get the word out on how English football is being sold to criminal cartel leaders. Show that trying to take on free speech and the blogosphere is like trying to nail Jelly to a wall. As an Arsenal supporter I would be very worried. If your club represents you, and your club is owned by such a disgusting individual... what does that say about you? Which criminal is going to purchase the next club? How long until Robert Mugabe buys out a club like West Ham United? How can supporters of the great game allow their game to be bought out with money that was earned on the deaths and misery of others? Is there a line?

To end this off I would also like to suggest to anyone hosting with the company Fasthost to cancel their hosting accounts and move to hosts who are more trustworthy.

Find out more:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/25/murray_usmanov_defiant/
http://b-heads.blogspot.com/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/24/usmanov_vs_the_internet/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alisher_Usmanov
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/09/380565.html

IMPORTANT NOTICE.

Due to a take down notice sent by Schillings Lawyers to my hosting provider I have had to remove the information I had here. Legal notice can be found here: http://newz.co.za/blood_money/stupid_legal_notice.pdf

However, the only reason I am doing this is because "The Planet" My host, tends to just switch off servers without any real legal reasons to save their own bacon. So I am REPRODUCING my original article at this location: http://www.newz.co.za/blood_money/blood_money.html

Which is hosted in South Africa and is not under The Planet's control

One of the few places I will syndicate for... http://www.wikileaks.org has just released the follow information that I would like to pass onto you. Please be sure to read the full report linked to at the end of this post.

Kenya's missing billions. A suppressed investigative report into Presidential grand corruption finally sees the light.

The suppressed U.K auditors report reveals that currency worth billions of U.S dollars was looted from Kenya by former Kenyan President Moi and his associates. The money was laundered across the world, from million pound properties and shell companies in London, properties in Newyork and South Africa and a 10,000 hectare ranch in Australia, to US$200-$700 million laundered via Swiss bank UBP.

The countries involved in the laundering operation include Australia, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, Dubai, Finland, Germany, Grand, Cayman, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Leichtenstein, Liberia, Luxembourg, Malawi, Namibia, the Netherlands, Puerto, Rico, Russia, Somalia, South, Africa, Sudan, Switzerland, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States and Zaire.

The intricately detailed report, commissioned by President Kibaki after his 2002 election victory but later suppressed, forensically investigates corrupt transactions and holdings by several powerful members of the Kenyan elite.

The sums are comparable in magnitude to the looting of infamous kleptocrats such as Mobutu (Zaire), Marcos (Philippines), Abacha (Nigeria), Suharto (Indonesia) and Fujimori (Peru). The leaked material is extremely politically sensitive. Ex-President Moi has become a key player in political life in Kenya, and is now an essential pillar in President Kibaki's campaign for re-election in December 2007.

Original KTM report: http://wikileaks.org/wiki/KTM_report.pdf
Full analysis : http://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_looting_of_Kenya_under_President_Moi

It was not too long ago I was speaking to a friend about how awesome it would be to be able to use an application like Google Earth to look around our solar system with.

It seems the guys at Google are way ahead of me. Have a look at how to use the recent version of Google Earth to explore the universe around you.

Click on this link to download the latest version of Google earth for both Linux and Microsoft: http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

The Public Library of Science is a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. A most excellent link for those of you wanting access to some amazing science.

Its not often I am a supporter of assassination as a method to deal with a problem, but the actions of the South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang have put her up there with disgusting people like Robert Mugabe and Dr. Josef Mengele.

Manto is without a doubt the most dumb and openly corrupt health minister South Africa has ever had, (and if you know anything about our history you will realize this is a pretty tall order to achieve). In the past her actions have hampered the efforts of the compassionate and thinking world to get treatment to people suffering from HIV/AIDS, but the world quickly realized she was an agenda pushing alcoholic that had sold herself out to the vitamin companies. Manto completely threw any international credibility she had out the window at a recent HIV/AIDS conference when she suggested the use of the African potato and beetroot on suffering patients instead of anti-retroviral drugs. I will pause a moment for the reader of this article to get over their hysterical laughter. Pause. (1)

Since almost no one believed her information dishonesty and thanks to intervention from the Constitutional Court forcing Manto to hand out anti-retrovirals, this lie from her, hopefully, did not lead to too many more deaths. I wrote about this woman's stupidity in the way she dealt with the HIV/AID’s problem a couple of months back so right now I want to move forward and talk about a recent issue that would make Dr Josef Mengele proud.

The Frere Hospital in East London in the Eastern Cape has come under a lot of fire recently thanks to an exposé by the East London newspaper, the Daily Dispatch, (2) showing the dreadful conditions of the hospital and exposing the high infant death rate. How to our health minister and president respond? The normal thing any tyrannical leadership would do! Mbeki and Manto attack the Dispatch for exposing the story and then whitewash the results to pretend that everything is okay. So basically, Manto is allowing young children to die for her own popularity and our President's denialistic approach to everything. These actions by Manto are so sick and decrepit that this single act escalates her into category of, "People I would like to shoot if it was legal"

I can just imagine Mengele looking up from hell with big doe like eyes saying the words, "You make me so proud" to Manto. It’s at this point in this article that I have to use a lot of restraint from breaking out into endless sentences of profanity and resisting the urge to go out an purchase a firearm. I have major issues with baby killers.

A couple of you might wish to explain that all this information is second hand knowledge and the Daily Dispatch may have got the facts wrongs, so I thought I would recount my last personal experience with the Frere Hospital. A friend of mine, Joeleen, gave birth in that hospital a year or two back and I made sure I was there to assist her in any way I could. I remember arriving and working my way through the packed throng of human misery and on my way up to the ward in which Joeleen resided. I remember arriving in her ward and being shocked by the conditions.

Her hospital gown and bed were soaked in blood, not a single nurse or doctor was around to assist. In a bit of a panic I ran around the hospital trying to find a doctor or nurse to help her, but the time was “lunch time” and the staff were clearly not interested in helping my friend. I tried to get the required items to help clean her up but the nurses would not even give me a roll of toilet paper, so I jumped in my car, drove to the chemist and purchased all the items that she would need for both her and her baby that was to be born shortly.

Joeleen is now the proud mother of a very healthy son, and I can honestly say that it is due to sheer human endurance and not the “sanitary” conditions provided by the Frere hospital. If anything they could have contributed more towards the possible death of the infant than to the survival.

Manto is an alcoholic, as we have stated before, and her recent drinking binge (3) put her in hospital for a liver replacement (must be so great to drink through at many livers as your want because you are the minister of health). When Manto goes to hospital she only uses private hospitals (Why not use a public hospital if you believe in the system Manto?) and she was constantly requesting alcohol be brought to her hospital bed.

A wonderfully intelligent woman who was the then deputy minister of health, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge was given the reigns (while a liver was being wasted on Manto) of the Health Department.

Nozizwe made the fatal mistake of actually trying to do the right thing… something Mbeki appears unable to tolerate. She believed that the Health Department needed to take a scientific approach to dealing with health issues and even used her intuition to make an unannounced trip to the Frere Hospital to see for herself the conditions in the hospital. Her report slammed the Frere Hospital for their gross misconduct as the conditions she found there were unacceptable. (4)

Her reward for this was to be fired by Mbeki for not towing the government line of denial. Her crime according to Mbeki was that she was a politician and she should not have attended a HIV/AIDS conference with only 'technocrats and scientists'. Gosh... Mbeki is an idiot.

I hope this event has woken up many South Africans who thought there was any good coming from Mbeki and Manto as it is pretty clear there is none. Manto, our lying potato pushing alcoholic is allowing babies to die for her own popularity and Mbeki who appears to have his head so far up Mugabe`s ass is allowing this to happen. Mbeki, Manto, Mugabe and Mengele not only share the letter M in their names, but also are cut from the same cloth when it comes to human right’s abuses!

Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, I salute you for your dedication towards the interests of the people of my country. History will judge you kindly and the people of this country will not forget what you tried to do for us. As for Manto and Mbeki... well I am sure you and Mengele will have a lot to chat about after you die. History will remember your crimes against the people of our country for your own greed.

1 - http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A249459
2 - http://www.dispatch.co.za/2007/07/31/Leader/lp1.html
3 - http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=539071
4 - http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3978278

I really wish Christian fundamentalists would try be more honest. The more I find out about these people, the more sick I get in my stomach at their just outright dishonesty and their method of using slimy dirty tactics to try push their point of view onto the unsuspecting.

Their latest form of deception involves buying Google ads on topics that they know nothing about. Let me give you an example. Go to http://www.google.com and start a search for the phrase, "evolution". Have a look at the sponsored links that pop up!

Clearly that tithe that God.. or more correctly... his "followers", tell you to pay (we all know how short on cash a God can be) ...is being terribly spent. Apparently paying out of Church coffers to push your own information dishonesty agenda is allowed in some circles in Christendom. How sick.

What is it with Christian fundamentalists and their lack of honesty? Surely such deception should also upset the intelligent and moderate Christians as much as it has upset me? One of the smartest people I know in the Christian world (also one of the smartest people I know all round) Francis Collins, said that people who push this type of information dishonesty... "make faith look foolish".(1)

It was people like these Christian fundamentalists that where the first to push me away from Christianity. I grew up with a pretty conservative background so I was dropped in the deep end, but being the person I am, I don't take "facts" at face value and usually end up researching things I am told. When I found out I was being lied to constantly by Christian fundamentalists I started loosing a lot of my faith. If they are lying about this simple concept to me.. what else are they lying to me about?

I could not accept that God wanted me to push a lie to make himself look better. It is also these Christian fundamentalists that are either by design or stupidity... upsetting a lot of intelligent people out there and forcing a schism between Christianity and secular society.

Since I am really annoyed at the moment by what these Christian fundamentalists are doing, I thought I would clear up a few things, so I would like to educate you on the most common lies and dirty tactics that Christian fundamentalists practice:

1) You cant believe in the theory of evolution and be a Christian.

Well that's a whopper of note but lets have a look at their reasoning to making a daft statement like that. Since they are absolutely convinced that the Bible is the infallible word of God, they believe that the theory of evolution contradicts the Moses books of Genesis, and step on Gods toes in the matter of Creation.

However to be more clear, Genesis conflicts with most modern science, including and not limited to; biology, geology, anthropology, archaeology, cosmology, astronomy and countless others. However, Genesis only conflicts with those areas of study if you have a literal interpretation of it. Yes, there are actually some people who believe that Genesis should be taken literally and not as the metaphorical explanation of Creation it is.

You can very much be a Christian and believe in evolution. As a matter of fact, more Christians believe in evolution than those who do not.

2) Evolution is a theory, not a fact.

When you hear this lie you should instantly know you are dealing with someone who has absolutely know idea on how science works and therefore should not pretend to debate it with any type of authority. As I have explained in previous posts, a theory does not become a fact. A theory explains a fact. Fact.. things fall, the theory of gravity explains how and why they fall. Fact.. life changes and is different, the theory of evolution tries to explain why life changes and why their is diversity.

Also, a theory in science is not used in the same way that the word theory is thrown around in normal day to day speak. So I have taken this bit of information straight out of wiki for you to digest:

"In common usage, people often use the word theory to signify a conjecture, an opinion, or a speculation. In this usage, a theory is not necessarily based on facts; in other words, it is not required to be consistent with true descriptions of reality. True descriptions of reality are more reflectively understood as statements which would be true independently of what people think about them. In this usage, the word is synonymous with hypothesis.

In science, a theory is a mathematical or logical explanation, or a testable model of the manner of interaction of a set of natural phenomena, capable of predicting future occurrences or observations of the same kind, and capable of being tested through experiment or otherwise falsified through empirical observation. It follows from this that for scientists "theory" and "fact" do not necessarily stand in opposition. For example, it is a fact that an apple dropped on earth has been observed to fall towards the center of the planet, and the theories commonly used to describe and explain this behaviour are Newton's theory of universal gravitation, and general relativity." (2)

Christian fundamentalists love warping the English language to suite their needs so watch out for this.

3) The theory of evolution can not be proved

There are many proofs to the theory of evolution. Since this is a pretty silly lie, I will give you a couple of links to research the proofs behind the theory of evolution yourself:

- http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/essays/courtenay1.htm (The short proof of evolution)
- http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/ (29 evidences for evolution)

I would also like to counter this argument with the following statement. YOU CANT PROOVE THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION WRONG. Yup, and if you know someone who says they can, be sure to drop me an email so I can get them nominated for a Nobel Prize. They would surely rock the academic world and would definitely deserve it.

4) Darwin said we evolved from monkeys and chimps

Darwin said no such thing. If anyone could show me a single peer reviewed scientific article that says such a thing I will personally print out an apology on this side. The truth of the matter is Darwin did not say we evolved from monkeys. He said monkeys and humans evolved from the same ancestral primate. I believe our genetic lines split around seven million years ago.

5) Darwin recanted on his death bed (yes Rudy.. you told me this one.. I wont forget)

I'm going to quote directly from a source for this one as it deals with this lie pretty nicely;

"This is completely fabricated and has no foundation in truth whatsoever. A woman named “Lady Hope” spoke to a church group shortly after the death of Charles Darwin. She claimed that she was at Darwin’s bedside on the day of his death. She also claimed that Darwin recanted on evolution and accepted Jesus on his deathbed. Her claims are not only unsupported, but are directly opposed by Darwin’s daughter, Henrietta. Henrietta stated “I was present at his deathbed, Lady Hope was not present during his last illness, or any illness. I believe he never even saw her, but in any case she had no influence over him in any department of thought or belief. My father never recanted any of his scientific views, either then or earlier. I am upset that the U.S. Christians have fabricated this conversion nonsense. The whole story has no foundation whatever.” February 23, 1922."

6) Evolution is about the origins of life and the universe

This is about the biggest whopper of a misconception in the theory of evolution. Its also one of the favorite lies used by fundamentalists, because the whole "primordial ooze" concept is pretty hard for a lot of people to understand and get their heads around.. but this has nothing to do with the theory of evolution. The theory of evolution has NOTHING to do with either the origin of life.. or the creation of the universe.

The origin of life is covered by a hypothesis called abiogenesis. Evolution simply assumes that there was a life form, and from there it takes over. It does not cover the origin of life on any level.

I will stop at those for now, there are a real lot more, but those are by far the most common Christian fundamentalist lies I have come across while researching and talking about the theory of evolution. Before I leave the topic of Darwin and evolution though I thought I would just share this bit of trivia with you. Darwin did not use the word, "evolution" once in his book on natural selection called, "Origin of the species". The theory had being around long before Darwin got onto the scene and was even being discussed back in the days of ancient Greece. Darwin was able to identify and document the important process of natural selection.

To the Christian fundamentalists who read this I would like to close off with the ninth commandment:

Exodus 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Now I am sure that if you are a Christian fundamentalist, and have a literal interpretation of the Bible (I really hope you truly do follow ALL the laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy), that at the very least.. you can obey God and those all important commandments. Otherwise you are simply just your every day bigot and hypocrite.

1 - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1553986-1,00.html
2- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory

This is a topic that has being brewing for a long time, and for quite awhile I have let it slide, but today I read a “news” article that really was the straw that broke the camel’s back. So I am writing this article to give different perspective to this non-issue.

Lets have a quick look at the news article that got me all annoyed titled 'No sex with meat eaters' (1), which is about a New Zealand group who wont have sex with anyone who eats meat claiming that people who eat meat have, “bodies are made up of animal carcasses”.

Humans continue to stun me at the stupidity they can accomplish. Einstein was very right when he said the only thing he was sure about was the infinity of human stupidity. Firstly this little New Zealand group where able to invent a new form of bigotry. Now not only will you be judged on your skin colour or religion... the fact that you are surviving to live also counts against you! Go New Zealand vegans! that one is under your belt.

Now let’s have a closer look at their claim that our bodies are made up of human carcasses. Well, they do’ have a point there, but completely not in the way they perceive. Yes, your body is covered with dead body cells, and we call this the outer layer of the skin, and since we are animals, I suppose they almost do have a point. However, we can take that point further. On that dead layer of skin (as well as inside us).. are millions of other dead microbial life. So in essence, its a hard world down on that level, and imagine how many more casualties those darn vegans add to it every time they have a shower. We could take this point even further, within each cell are the mitochondria, and the mitochondria.. while a part of us now, used to be a separate life form, and today, still replicates independently of the cell. So in theory, every time a cell dies two life forms die. I am making these silly points because they will have more relevance later.

Since biologically humans are designed to eat, and our prehistoric “leaf and grass” stomach, the appendix, is useless to us now we have to assume that evolution in this case, knows what’s best for us.

When the ancestors of man were still early primates a group of them were living here in Africa. The area underwent some intense climate changes and the lush forests that our ancient ancestors enjoyed disappeared and the primates had to change or die. So our ancestors changed.. they learnt to walk up right to spot danger from far away as they had less places to scramble for safety. They also learnt to to survive on meat. Understand this is early hominid evolution so we are talking approximately two million years ago.

At the same time we started eating meat we invented tools (wow talk about a coincidence hey vegans!), the ability to process meat enabled our ancestors to have a much richer source of nutrition and to therefore evolve into smarter and more complex creatures. When we learnt how to fish the omega 3+6 that was introduced into our diet enabled our brains to develop better. Studies (2) have shown that primates that have meat in their diet (yes most other primates have a percentage of their diet that is meat) that the primates who ate meat, evolved faster and better than those who were restricted to just a herbivores diet.

The evolutionary advantages in eating meat and the importance it as played in our development are very clear and should not be underestimated. Nature has being pushing our phenotype in this direction for five billion years and it’s clearly working. I have often seen a lot of propaganda comparing us to other herbivorous primates as an argument not to eat meat. All primates eat meat.. even in the gorilla.. it makes up 1 % of their diet. In chimpanzee’s it makes up 13% of their diet. Both these primates require the trace element in their systems and branched away from us about seven million years ago. Another branch of primates called Cebuella such as the Pygmy Marmoset, require as much as 50% of their diet to be meat.

There is however a big difference between us and a gorilla and other herbivorous apes;

“Our stomachs have evolved to consume both meat and plant matter. In humans, more than half (56%) of the total gut volume is found in the small intestine whereas all apes have by far the greatest total gut volume (>45%) in the colon. In addition, the overall size of the human gut in relation to body size is small in comparison to that of apes.

Hindgut dominance in apes suggests adaptation to a diet lower in quality than that consumed by humans, a diet containing considerable bulky plant material, such as insoluble fiber and seeds. In contrast, the proportions of the human gut, dominated as it is by the small intestine, the principal site of nutrient digestion and absorption, suggests adaptation to a high quality diet, one that is nutritionally dense and highly digestible relative to that of any wild ape” (2)

Unfortunately I still have a little more of a biology lesson to teach the vegans so I am going to move onto “why meat is good for us nutritionally” before we can move onto the juicy morality issues.

I am sure at some point or another you have come across sites that have (miss) informed you that eating meat is bad for you and you don't need it nutritionally. Well that's bullsh!t. Meat is extremely good for you. The fact is, meat is the most naturally occurring, well balanced and easily obtained and digested package of proteins, essential acids and source of iron and Vitamin B 12 that you can find. Also, a protein rich meat diet is extremely good for you (3).

If fat concerns you, eat lean meat, and don’t forget to watch out for industrial grade vegetable fats such as hydrogenated and hydrogenated vegetable oils (trans-fatty acids (now banned in certain countries). When given the choice, I stick to the natural fat that’s found in meat.

While researching this topic I was speaking to a vegetarian friend in another city over MSN. I told her the topic I was writing and she let me know about her personal experience. She did not like the taste of meat and that was her reasoning for staying away from it for 9 years. However things changed when she fell pregnant. The baby growing up in her stomach required lots of iron (readily available in meat), and because she was a vegetarian, a large portion of her iron content in her body was given to the baby and the result effects was that her teeth turned grey and she started having serious health problems. Eating meat solved that problem and today she has a stunning healthy vibrant daughter.

Now that I have got the basic biology and nutritional lessons out the way lets move onto the morality of this one because It’s actually quiet ludicrous. In fact, the paragraph where I spoke about my friend and her experience is a good place to start from, because if you notice on the link I posted about our New Zealand bigoted vegans you will notice there is a related story together with a more grim reality;

The headline reads, 'Vegan couple starved baby'

"Atlanta - A vegan couple was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison in the death of their malnourished six-week-old, who was fed a diet largely consisting of soymilk and apple juice." (3)

Wow, quiet the moral high-ground you hypocrites take. You seem to completely lack perspective. Humans like all other animals on this planet are predators to one form of life or another. The only honest forms of life out there appear to be most plants. They absorb base nutrients, sunlight and water which they convert into the energy that they require to survive... and not even- all plant are honest to this form of existence. There are more than a few carnivorous plants as well. That said, all animals above them are predators. Herbivores are predators to plants. Plants try defending themselves against this onslaught in every way they can come up. From chemical warfare through to creating sharp weapons to protect themselves. Most plants clearly do not like being eaten.

Vegans are life hypocrites. They seem to think that a plants life is not as important as an animal’s life for its right to exists. They are able to draw this weird moral line at where it’s okay to take life and when its not okay to take life. Life is life no matter exist its form. Humans are also a natural part of that life. We have just as much right to live a chicken and if you have larger scope, were way more important than a chicken.

Let’s assume for a moment that the only life in the universe is found on this rock we call earth. Let’s also assume that we want life to continue to exist. It’s not going to do that forever without help. Assuming that asteroids don't hit us, our molten core does not stop and that some other freak accident does not wipe all life off the face of the earth.. life on this planet has a count down clock. In a couple of billion year’s time our sun is going to become useless to us. It’s going to kill all life on earth. So humans may be life's last chance to create a sentient life form with the capability to allow life to exist beyond the confines of this very vulnerable planet. I think evolution would be hard pressed to push out a decent enough life form in the time we have left assuming we all kill ourselves.

Meat is important to our development and evolution and will continue to be so. Our bodies and brains consume massive amounts of energy and all for good reason. Sure we could build more factories, hire more cheap labour in 3rd world countries to produce them and add more toxic chemicals and fumes into the environment to make those in vogue designer vitamins you considering taking as a substitute for meat, or you can use natures own resource and simply eat meat.

Vegans propose they take the moral high-ground, but I propose they don't. Not only are they not using economical natural sources of nutrition, they are also denying the evolutionary advancement the trillions of ancestors that came before them fought for. You want propaganda vegans? How about this!. Stop killing our oxygen supply! Eat more meat!

Oh yes, I am well aware the title is sensationalist. Just thought I would get some vegan attention.

1 - http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2156182,00.html
2 - http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/133/11/3886S
3 - http://www.powerofmeat.com/High_Protein_Diets.htm
4 - http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2110953,00.html

Special thanks to Suz who is helping me work through my grammar block.

I spent a lot of time learning about this topic before I was confident enough to write about it. I spent a lot of time watching documentaries, reading research and studies and speaking to people around me before I put my fingers to the keyboard.

The reason I am writing this is not because I have any type of desire to use the services of a prostitute but because I understand the hypocrisy and unjustness of criminalizing prostitution.

First lets have a look why it is illegal... I asked around and the only reasons I could seem to find was because it is, "immoral" and "degrading". So basically the reason appears to be religious moral conditions more than any actual real crime or harm being done to either the buyer or the seller.

What society has done by criminalising prostitution has allowed some very vulnerable people to become victims to some of the worst types of abuse. Females and males who work in the industry can be subjected to rape without any type of recourse from the law for fear of being arrested themselves.

So basically, because we are offended by the concept and idea of the type of work someone has chosen to do, we just sit back and allow their hurt and abuse to continue. I'm sorry, you cant take the moral high ground on this one. If you seriously think that we should continue to create victims because of some warped morality code than I cant hold any type of respect for you. You are committing a great crime by allowing these woman to be abused, then by legalizing the industry. Morality should not be legislated!

Now I want to move onto the "degrading" argument that was constantly thrown my way. I emailed and got into contact with a couple of people who work in the industry to get a more balanced view point on the topic, and get their thoughts on the criminalization of prostitution. The responses I got back where professional and interesting and to the letter, not one of them thought their job was degrading.

Most of the people I contacted in fact informed me that they loved their jobs and what they did and a couple even mentioned it was more than about the money. Their point of view seemed to center around the fact that they considered themselves sexually "mature" and did not see any type of sin or evilness with sex.

A couple of the people I spoke to appeared already to be the victims of society with no other resources available to them. One of the ladies explained how her husband had left her with three kids and they were basically starving on the side of the road before she entered the industry. Now she is able to look after herself and her kids, and is putting them all through school.

Another important point we have to look at is the crime associated with prostitution. Yes, there is a pretty large criminal element associated with prostitution but as studies have shown... that element is there because the act of prostitution is criminalized. Because prostitutes are considered to be committing a crime they are unable to use the protective services a lot of society has to offer, and so in turn, have to associate themselves with less savoury characters to get some type of protection from the sicker parts of humanity.

If you legalize it, most of the criminal element should leave with it. This has been shown over and over again when countries like the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand and even an American and Australian state who have all started the process of legalizing it.

In the state of Nevada where prostitution has been legalized and is regulated, results have shown that the STD rate amongst the prostitutes in that state are lower than those of the general public. Also, because the woman are more educated in safer sex and are protected there has not being a single case of AIDS in the Nevada legalized prostitution industry.

This topic should be very simple for us. You have no right to tell someone else what they can and can not do with their body, and no one has the right to tell you what to do with yours. If you choose to sell your body services off as a toilet janitor, a politician or a prostitute that should be YOUR choice. Whether you are offended by the idea or not, prostitution has and most likely will always have a roll and to play and a part in our society. Even in countries in the Middle East where prostitution is punishable by death it continues. Sex is legal, money is legal, sex for money is illegal... unless its in front of a camera, and its just porn, and then its legal. You cant be serious?

Now we can choose to be hypocrites and allow this abuse to continue in the name of some imaginary moral conviction or you can do the right thing, and help protect these woman by decriminalizing the industry.

In the closing words of Penn & Teller episode on the subject of prostitution, if you think its disgusting and degrading. Don't do it.

I would like to point out, that I never had the desire or need to use the services of a prostitute.

I was busy watching episode 1 of season 10 of South Park called, "The return of chef" when I noticed (very quickly) that there was something different about this episode. The first thing that was out of place was that it featured the South Park character "Chef" who had recently quit the show because of the South Park episode on the cult Scientology called "Trapped in the closet". The next thing I noticed was the analogy between the "Super Adventure Club" featured in 'The return of Chef' and Scientology. The third thing that grabbed my attention was the strange sounding Chef, and it quickly dawned on my that they had spliced various audio recordings and put them together to make it look like Chef was in the episode... however they also made it pretty clear that it was spliced sound.

I am not going to go into too many details about the episode "The return of Chef", but a quick look on wikipedia should bring up any relevant spoiler information you might want to look up. To get a better idea of where I am going with this article I am going to first write about the episode, "Trapped in the closet". In this episode Matt and Trey show what Scientologists actually believe and have a good go at John Travolta and Tom Cruise's alleged homosexual tendencies. It also shows what Scientologists really believe:

Most of you out there may not have watched this episode as the cult Scientology was very very quick to move on it. After the first episode was aired the Scientologists managed to bribe/blackmail *cough* sorry.. bad choice of words... managed to convince a judge to throw the American constitution and the all important right of free speech out the window. The episode was never aired again publicly but luckily the Internet is the one place that free speech truly exists and bootleg copies are very easily available to download.

Since the 1990`s Isaac Hayes the man who is the voice of the South Park character Chef has been involved with episodes that have insulted Jews, Mormons, Christians and just about every other religious group you can think of. When the episode "Trapped in the closet" aired he suddenly found the need to try take the moral high-ground and quit the show, claiming that South Park was to "intolerant and bigoted".... strangely he never felt that way with the other religious groups that were being ragged.

Now at this point I want to clarify the term bigot. Saying, "all religions are terrible and wrong" is not bigotry. Saying, "Your religion is wrong and mine is right" is bigotry. So Isaac Hayes had no problem at all with the South Park episodes that dealt with other religions, but all of a sudden was offended when it involved his own cult religious group. I am sorry Isaac...Matt and Trey are not bigots, like me they are equal opportunity offenders. You sir on the other hand are the real Mccoy.. a bottom of the barrel hypocritical bigot. If you are going on about intolerance, how about your own intolerance? Such as not been able to tolerate that South Park episode?

Now that I have got my opinion out the way of the silly Mr Hayes I am going to move onto the wife beating junkie known as L. Ron Hubbard who started up this stupidity. Where do I start? This guy has such a terrible record it would take an entire book to scratch the surface of his depravity, however I will go through a couple of the highlights just to give you a better perspective on what I mean and how I came to my reasoning, but first, lets talk about the man L. Ron Hubbard.

L. Ron Hubbard was born on the March 13, 1911 in Nebraska and it became clear from an early age that he had some serious problems. He was quickly reconised as a pathological liar and sociopath and when researching his life I felt like I was wading through a pond of scum where I couldn't quite get my footing. There was just so much information to deal with and as I mentioned before, it would take a book to cover it all. So for the sake of saving you time and my website space I am going to give you a couple of highlights.

Its pretty clear that L. Ron Hubbard himself recognised he was not a functional member of society and when he was in still in school he mailed the Veteran's Administration and begged for psychiatric help. He was unable to afford the help and in his letter to the Veteran's Administration he pleaded for free treatment. It can be safely assumed that the rejection for not been treated for free by the Veteran's Administration lead to his misguided hate towards all psychiatrists.

L. Ron Hubbard was a con-artist and a thief. He was arrested several times by both the local law agencies and the FBI for fraud and petty theft while trying to rip people off for his ever growing consumption of dangerous narcotics. It would be a drug habit that he would never throw off for the rest of his life. L. Ron Hubbard was an admitted racist and he often praised the old South African government for its Apartheid policies. If you have a look through his journal you will be able to clearly see his racist tendencies. Here is a quote taken from his personal journal while on a trip to China:

""As a Chinaman can not live up to a thing, he always drags it down." and "They smell of all the baths they didnt [sic] take. The trouble with China is, there are too many chinks here.""

Being a racist, a pathological liar, a thief and a drug junkie was not enough for L. Ron Hubbard, it appears there were still many laws and basic human rights that he still had to break. Ron seemed to have a sincere fetish for the occult and satanism and regularly practiced satanic rights with a "Black Magician" by the name of Jack Parsons.

A couple of years earlier Ron had married a lady by the name of Margaret Grubb but seemed to forget her and his children when he went galavanting around the world. So much so that while staying with Jack Parson and participating in "sex magick" he married Jack`s girlfriend Sara Northup. This bigamous relationship certainly did not last long and rather than file for a divorce he drove Sara to suicide with the use of regular torture and brutal beatings. Sara's divorce papers also accused Hubbard of kidnapping their baby daughter Alexis, and of conducting "systematic torture, beatings, strangulations and scientific torture experiments." It was suggested by the divorce court that Ron stay at a private sanitarium for psychiatric observation and treatment for paranoid schizophrenia.

Nothing I could find on L. Ron Hubbard could lead me to believe he was a decent human being. He lied about everything and to everyone. If he claimed to have a doctorate, my research would who show that he did not even finish university. If he claimed to be a nuclear physicist my research would show that he attended one semester on nuclear physics which he failed.

Its at this point I have to leave the life of L. Ron Hubbard otherwise this article would never come to an end. I just want you to consider this quote from L. Ron Hubbard Jr, "I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." For those of you who do not believe any of the above claims I have made about Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (With a first name like that I can see why he went around calling himself Ron) and think I am making any of it up, I will be supplying a link at the end of this article which contains ORIGNAL court transcripts, police records, navy records and doctor reports all pertaining to Lafayette Ronald Hubbard. Do the research yourself.

So now I would like to get back to Isaac Hayes formerly from South Park. I have to assume that Isaac Hayes left South Park for his respect and belief in Hubbard so I therefore have to assume that Isaac Hayes approves of all of L. Ron Hubbard's actions. Its very strange for me to think that Isaac Hayes ( a black man ) would have so much reverence for someone who clearly thought that anyone who was not a white male was inferior. To drive the point home lets take another quote out of Hubbard's personal journals,

""Unlike the yellow and brown people, the white does not usually believe he can get attention from matter or objects. The yellow and brown believe for the most part ... that rocks, trees, walls, etc., can give them attention" and "...so we see the African tribesman, with his complete contempt for the truth, and his emphasis on brutality and savagery...""

And how about Ron's comment about the forced relocation of black people in South Africa during Apartheid;

"Having viewed slum clearance projects in most major cities of the world may I state that you have conceived and created in the Johannesburg townships what is probably the most impressive and adequate resettlement activity in existence."

Clearly Isaac, you are more dumber than I thought... You do realize you are black and that Hubbard hated your people? I honestly can not imagine what kind of stupid you have to be, to follow the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard. If you want to find the most idiotic and gullible group of people in the world simply head over to your local Scientology office and have a look around. It should be dead easy to convince them to hand over their money if the Scientologists have not taken it all already.

L. Ron Hubbard makes Muhammad the prophet look like Jesus Christ, and I seriously can not respect anyone idiotic enough to follow his teachings. If Isaac Hayes is going to insist on following his current course of action then I can only say, "good riddance to bad rubbish" . There is still so much about Scientology that I want to share with you, and as soon as I have a moment I will write an article about what really goes on behind the Scientological iron curtain. To finish this article off I would just like to say something to Tom Cruise, "Its okay to come out of the closet Tom!"

Links for your own research:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._Ron_Hubbard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Hayes
http://www.ronthenut.org/ (contains original court transcripts and FBI files)
http://www.lermanet.com (contains original navy records and police records)

And in the immoral words of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu;

""So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!""

On Wednesday night I was browsing a couple of websites and the news hit the wire that the eNaTIS website (http://www.enatis.com) has been hacked. I was pretty surprised at that so I decided to go have a look for myself and see if it had been hacked. When I browsed to the eNaTIS website it was very clearly shown that they had been hacked. I even took the following screenshot to remind me the event:

So wow, the ENATIS website was hacked by someone from Turkey (according to the message). I did a little bit more research and found out that the system had been hacked the day before this hack took place as well. At this point I wondered how wise it was for the traffic department to design their website on public content management system like Joomla. You would think that with the budget they blew that at the very least they could have paid a professional designer to make the eNaTIS website. You would be wrong.

I know websites get hacked all the time online. I have watched servers hosting thousands of websites all get exploited in a single night so I really did not think much more about it. About an hour later I decide to go back to the eNaTIS website to see if they have resolved the hack and fixed the situation. So I logged back onto www.enatis.com and saw right way that their website has been restored... but with an added message. Here is the screenshot I took of that visit:

Okay, I completely understand the difference between the eNaTIS website and the eNaTIS system so most of what was written there made sense. Though I love the propagandic attempt to play down the hack by using the choice of words, "This was apparently due to someone leaving a comment on a page of a section of the eNaTIS public web site (this site). ". The "part" of the site that was hacked was the index page, which means that any browsers would not be able to browse to any other parts of the site. That's a pretty big section if you want ask me.

I honestly thought the story would end there and that would be the last I heard about it (unless the website got hacked again) until I woke up this morning. Myadsl.co.za had published part of a statement released from the Department of Transport. about the hacks that stunk so much I just had to write about it. Before I continue let me show you what got me all worked up:

Once again I have highlighted the bullsh!t for you. You can clearly see from my collection of screenshots I have taken about this incident that Collen Msibi is a lying bastard. Collen Msibi is now claiming that the eNaTIS website has "NOT" been hacked! Even though earlier in the day he informed the press that he was aware of the hack and was investigating it.

This man is either way too dishonest or too stupid to hold his current position in public office. Since I am very familiar with how the current government mindset works I am going to lean in the direction of dishonesty with a dash of stupidity. Why do our government officials have such problems with telling the truth? Do people working in government not have any character beyond that of a petri dish of bacteria?

Collen Msibi, by saying the eNaTIS website was not hacked after it so clearly was is wrong. You have either lied to the public or are not educated enough to be releasing statements on behalf of the Department of Transport. But hey, what do you care?

Howzit Folks,

I am moving from Jozi to Slaapstad today so I do not know how long I will be offline for... I am working on a story to write about at the moment, but I am still waiting for replies from the South African NIA before I can complete the story.

Hopefully I will have it up within the week.

Hope you all have a fantastic time!

Seeya soon,
pickledbushman

Its a sad day on the Internet when the entire blogosphere is abuzz with what Paris Hilton is up to. Seriously... who cares? I cant even begin to understand how boring your life and your interests must be to mission on about everything Hilton is doing.

Paris Hilton is a rich tart. End of story. She does not produce anything long lasting or productive to the world and she certainly is not changing it. We live in a world where political leaders are shafting you left, right and center and all the rabble just keep going on about is, "Paris Hilton". wtf?

I found this clip on YouTube I thought I would share with you:

There are a lot more interesting things to write about than Paris Hilton and a lot more important topics that need to be discussed. Move along now please wont you?

Is the Bible the word of God?

I hear it all the time, "The Bible is the word of God", and "the only way to God is through the Bible", so this got me thinking about Gods word and how fickle it is. To put my thinking into perspective lets got way back in Christianity to the time just after Jesus died. As an early Christian God decided you did not need a Bible. Jesus certainly did not have one, and neither did any of his disciples.

It was a pretty hard following all the Biblical codex`s back in time, but I have tried to be as accurate as possible.

The first Christian "Bible" I could find was a Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint. It was different to the Hebrew canon in that it contained books called, "anagignoskomena" (that's a mouthful!). It was only a couple of hundred years later that the Old Testament and the New Testament were put into the same book. However it was very different to the Bible we know of today. It included books like the Book of Nehemiah, Esdras and the Book of Esther. This early Bible was called the Codex Vaticanus.

I will quote what Tertullian had to say about the early versions of the the this Bible, "This may be understood to be the Divine Word, who is doubly edged with the two testaments of the law and the gospel"

A couple of years later another version of the "Word of God" was written called the Codex Sinaiticus. It too based its Old Testament content on the Greek Orthodox Septuagint. It was to be called the Codex Sinaiticus. Codex Sinaiticus is written in Greek like the Codex Vaticanus and included such books as the Epistle of Barnabas, and The Shepherd of Hermas .

Now things go pretty well for another 200 years and then God decides new revisions to His Word need to be done, so he contacts this bloke called Jerome (who at the time is a womaniser in Pope Damasus's court), and asks Jerome to translate the Bible from Greek into Latin. However God has a change of mind and decides to deviate from tradition and instructs Jerome not to use the Greek Septuagint as his source for the Old Testament but rather to use Hebrew Tanakh. The oldest known copy of the Vulgate Bible is known as the Codex Amiatinus.

Not many changes happened after this as the Church consolidated its power and everyone became religious. We call this time period the Dark Age. A time when human ingenuity was regarded as sacrilege and anyone who defied or questioned "the Word of God" was often tortured to death.

It was not until 1388 when John Wycliffe created the first English version of the Bible (based on Vulgate), that the common English world got to read the Bible, but God was not finished changing His Word yet.

In 1546 God got involved in Catholic / Protestant Church politics and called together the Council of Trent whereby through the "guidance of God", the Catholics came to the conclusion that the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed was still right and that the deuterocanonical books really should be in the Bible. Gods Word got revisions in both 1563 with the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles and the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647 for Calvinism.

Even today the Bible is still being revised. A couple of weeks ago they found an ancient papyrus of the book Relevations. It was discovered in that Book of Revelations that the "Mark of the Beast" is not "666" but rather, "616".

If the Bible really is the "Word of God" then God word appears to be as fickle as that of man and man's politics. I also got to asking myself, If the Bible has changed so often in its history, who is to say that it is not going to change in the future? Do Christians assume the Word of God to be static and therefore will not investigate further or do they understand there are more changes to come?

While researching this topic I came to the conclusion that a subject as vast and complex of the origins of Biblical scripts and how they came to be in the Bible could not be covered in a simple blog post. I have done my best to give you quick run down on the basic development of the Bible but in truth there is a lot more information and many more factors that contributed towards its evolution.

Over the next couple of weeks I am going to be looking into more specific events on the Biblical Highway. There are some very interesting events in the History of Christianity that I would like to introduce to you as the months go on such as Apocrypha, the Council of Nicea and how the Bishop Irenaeus decided to use only 4 of the 12 Gospels.

WARNING. Some spoiler information.

I have just finished watching the latest documentary by Michael Moore titled SicKo and I am sitting here completely stunned. The documentary shows how Nixon was able to take the American health system and turn it into one of the most disgusting capitalistic quagmires I have ever seen.

The documentary shows how people without HMO (American version of our Medical Aid) are treated like scum and sometimes turfed out onto the street without proper care or medication. However, that's not what this documentary is about. The documentary covers how the slime that run the American HMO system have perverted America`s health services so badly that America dropped from being first in health care... to 32nd (Just above Slovenia).

It never ceases to amaze me at the levels of greed and stupidity of some people around the world. Seriously I just sometimes sit back in awe at the stupendous levels of non-thinking it must take for a country's health service to end up like the American health service.

Such a powerful nation, yet it cant even look after the most vulnerable of its citizens correctly.

The bright spark American president who came up with the idea to privatise the American Health Services was a well known conman by the name of Nixon. Yup, your ol "Mr Trustworthy" of Watergate was the "genius" president who started the slide on the American health system, but he is not alone in the blame here. Regan with as much gusto as an actor *cough* president can come up with fully endorsed Nixon`s system which has left America as the only western democracy without free medical services for those who need it.

Luckily it is easy to brainwash the ignorant, especially in America during tough times with the Soviet Union. All you had to do was say the word "socialist", and people jumped into line. Years of propaganda and non-thinking have lead Americans (and some others) to believe that socialism is all out evil. Even though they don't have a clue about what it is really about. As Moore so correctly points out, the American police force, the American firemen and library's are already socialist systems.

The documentary then spends a bit of time with many many Americans who have had their health claims turned down for reasons that would disgust a human with a shred of morality in them. I remember clearly one female having her claim denied because she did not get "pre-approval" to be taken to Hospital. I am sure she will remember next to to schedule her accident to please the HMO thieves.

Michael Moore then goes and visits some 9/11 heroes who had helped rescue survivors from wreckage of the Trade Towers. These heroes were not fireman or police officers, they were normal people who were in the area who put their lives at risk to help complete strangers by joining in the rescue operations with the local emergency services.

Due to the massive amounts of dust and other foreign particles in the air, some of the people involved in the rescue operations developed crippling lung conditions. You would think that they would be looked after right? Wrong. Since they were not official fire fighters they were simply discarded and told they were on their own. Let's stop for a moment. Imagine that... you put your life at risk to save a complete stranger as you know it is the right thing to do, only to learn a little later that your own government is going to shaft you on medical services for ailments you acquired while assisting the government.

They say you can judge a people on how the treat the weak, the old and their animals. By these criteria America has fallen far and fast.

Michael Moore then finds out that the military base in Guantanamo Bay is offering really good (but free) medical services to all its inmates. Moore gets together a group of the Americans heroes from 9/11 and tries to take them to the military base for proper treatment. The one bit that sticks out in my mind here is Michael Moore shouting over a loud speaker system asking the US military to give the same treatment to the 911 heroes as they are giving to Al -Quade suspects. This was obviously not accepted.. there's no profit in it.

But where the American health care system fails, the Cuban health care system shines like a beacon. All the 911 patients where accepted by Cuba and given almost free medical services. I remember one American
woman crying because in America she was barely able to survive on her $1000 payout and her medical inhalers cost her $129 (each) back home.. at the local pharmacy in Cuba the same medication cost her 5c.

Needless to say, the Americans with Michael Moore in Cuba were treated with care that they would not have received in their own country. Medical exams, treatment and medication that the 911 heroes were not able to receive in the USA was gladly given out in a small 3rd world country with an iota of the resources America has.

The last bit just before the Americans left Cuba was one of the most moving points in the documentary. A local fire station close to where the Americans were getting treatment invited them around to visit. When the Americans arrived at the fire station all the Cuban firemen stood to attention and saluted the patients. When asked why they did this, they responded to Michael Moore that they have the utmost respect for the heroes of 911 and wanted to honour their bravery. The Cuban firemen also informed the patients that they were sorry that they were unable to assist America during that dark time.

Michael Moore in the documentary SicKo was able to take me through a kaleidoscope of emotions as he presented his information. There was anger at how Capitalistic greed could be allowed so negatively to effect the precious lives of those around it. There was sadness when learning how some of the people interviewed for this documentary would still be alive today if they had received a half way decent health care. There is hope when you see how a small country like Cuba which has been demonized by the American government... was able to put forward an olive branch and help those who needed help.

Kudos to the Cuban people!

I really hope the Americans can learn a thing or two from countries like France and Cuba and move forward into looking after the most important resource in America. Its people.

As Michael Moore points out. To many people think about "me", and not enough about "we".

This animation of the end of the world is just a space filler. I am currently working on a couple more serious articles that require a lot more research so apologies for the lack of recent content.

In the mean time, I hope you enjoy this animation which has a more humorous look at a end of the world scenario.

I came across this site by Anup Shah that has a detailed look into the causes of poverty. I found some of the statistics he shows to be very embarrassing and a shameful reflection on humanity today.

* Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.

* The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.

* Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.

* Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.

* 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).

More facts and stats

Anup Shah shows us the institutions, policies and people behind many of today's causes of poverty.

http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp

Online Gaming these days has become massive and it is no longer just for the kids. In fact recent statistics show that the average age of a gamer is 31.

I thought I would show you two video's created with graphics created in game. The first one I am going to show you is a song that was created for the online multiplayer game, Battlefield 2.

The APC song

The next one is a video made in World of Warcraft and is called, "The Internet is for porn"

The Internet if for Pr0n

There are a multitude of others out there and some of them are very funny. As I come across them I will post them here for you to enjoy as well. They are not all music based and some of them have even being turned into a type of series for people to download weekly, such as the famous Halo Red Vs Blue series.

If you have come across any really good ones out there please let us know so I can put them up for people to see.

Today I read how some teachers in the United Kingdom are taking their political beliefs of political correctness too far. They have stopped teaching their students about the Holocaust because it might offend the more ignorant Muslim students in their classrooms, who due to indoctrination are in Holocaust Denial.

Firstly to deny the Holocaust you have to be a complete idiot not willing to find the out the real truth, so in that regard I have absolutely no tolerance towards Holocaust Denial. Millions of Jewish people died in the Holocaust and the mountain of evidence (including eyewitness testimony still available today), there is no valid reason to deny the Holocaust.

To deny such a tragic event in our history is laying the road to repeat it again. A wise man once said that those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it.

Those people in the Muslim countries who are being taught that the Holocaust did not happen should be questioning those beliefs. As mentioned the evidence is overwhelming and it is pretty easy to find more truthful information. If you are still in denial after understanding the evidence then you honestly are a waste of humanity. I have not time for you or your religious and politically based lies.

Denying the Holocaust is not limited to some dumb Muslim, I know a fair amount of dumb Christians in the extremist Adventist camp who also deny the holocaust happened. When you discuss theology with these christian extremists you will find the sound of their dogma is very similar to that of the misguided Muslim. Kill the unbeliever and all that toss.

There are certain limits to my tolerance of religious which is actually pretty liberal, but there are certain places I will make a stand. If you tell me God is actually the Flying Spaghetti Monster I would look at you, nod my head and ponder how you came to that conclusion, however if you tell me the holocaust did not happen and I certainly know it did, I am going to tell you, that you are lying and if you do not learn or understand I am going to tell others that you are lying.

When Muslims deny the Holocaust, the first thought that comes through my mind is the word, "liar". Anything you say after that expect me to treat with equal skepticism. I see the Holocaust denialist in the same light I see the African rural man who believes sleeping with a virgin will cure his AIDS.

Holocaust denial comes directly from ignorance and racism. When you deny the Holocaust you do to Islam what the Evolutionary denialists do to Christianity, and make faith look foolish.

I do not have a problem with freedom of religion, but just sometimes there should be freedom from religion.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=445979&in_page_id=1770

*EDIT:I have stated this before but I better do it again. Where I refer to the term African, I use it in the context of "someone from Africa". I am an African. Thanks.

I have been following the Russian story closely for a number of years. One of my best friends at school was a Russian who's father was a professor in Physics. They had defected to Ethiopia in the 80`s when Russia was still the Soviet Union (USSR), and by the 90`s his father ended up as a professor here in South Africa and he attended my school.

I spent many weekends at his house and in the process learnt to read the Russian alphabet and a smattering of the language, but I did spend a lot of time reading up on their history and politics.

I was once told that the Russians were the most over educated under employed people in the world, and in a way I could understand this. Most of the Russians I have met are extremely intelligent people, and their conversation and insights are very informative. However it seems they have a major flaw in their cultural way of thinking. Russians seem to have this S&M fetish for tyranny.

We all hoped that comparing penis *cough* sorry I mean missile size would have ended at the end of the Cold War. I hoped with the fall of the Soviet Union and the introduction of democracy that the Russians as a people would become a great nation again. This time without the need to kill millions of people.

It seems I was wrong. It looks like the Russians are well on their way to repeating the tragedy of their history again. Uncontrolled capitalistic greed and corruption with the fall of communism has lead to a state whereby corporate and criminal cartels were able to take over the country.

Before I continue with the order of events I would quickly like to share some information about one of the main architects and leader of the cartel. President Vladimir Putin. Putin's father was conscripted into the Russian Navy to fight in World War 2 and was a member of the NKVD, and one of Putin's brothers died in the siege of Leningrad. Vladimir Putin's paternal grandfather was also the personal cook to both Stalin and Lenin.

Putin managed to get a qualification called a Candidate of Science (Apparently similar to a Ph.D) from the International Branch of the Law Department of the Leningrad State University with a dissertation (similar to a Ph.D thesis) called "The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations". It was later found out that 16 of the 20 pages that open a key section of Putin's work were copied either word for word or with minute alterations from a management study, Strategic Planning and Policy, written by US professors William King and David Cleland. Deception started early for Putin.

Putin was quickly recruited into the KGB in 1976 where he was able to achieve the rank of Major before the KGB was disbanded in 1991. It was in the KGB where Putin was able to make some very important political contacts and get together with future collaborators such as Sergei Ivanov. Putin resigned from the KGB when it failed to seize control of Russia from Gorbachev in the 1991 Putsch (coup).

Putin had a very interesting political career after that and with about the most noteworthy being his appointment as head of the FSB ( a successor to the KGB) just before he became President of Russia. It was during this time that he alledgidly framed Yury Skuratov who was trying to clamp down on corruption at the time. Putin as we will find out... likes destroying other people's lives to support his own.

I am going to stop writing about Putin now and move onto one of his largest instruments for manipulation. The corporation Gazprom. In 1998 Putin realised what a valuable resource Gazprom was. Suddenly, Russia under Putin's authority started demanding billions of dollars in back taxes from Gazprom, and Putin replaced Chernomyrdin who was head of Gazprom with his own man.

Under Putin's command, tax collectors started seizing Gazprom assets and the company gave into the political pressure and paid Putin. For the first time ever Gazprom started showing a loss. The main reason for this was the unbridled corruption Putin introduced to Gazprom, though the official excuse was "an aging pipeline"

Putin's Gazprom then initiated a series of deals with companies like Purgaz and scandal followed it. Large-scale asset-stripping of Gazprom by its corrupt board members nearly sank the company in the 1990`s.

In 2001 Gazprom took over Russia's only nationwide state-independent television station NTV which meant that Putin now had control of a well oiled tool for future propaganda purposes. I will come back to this because I had something interesting happen while watching Russian television not too long ago.

The main reason the KGB attempted a coup-de-tat in 1991 (as mentioned earlier) was that it did not like the decentralization of power to the republics Gorbachev was trying to achieve with his reforms. I can imagine the failed Putsch upset top level KGB officers... including Putin who did not want to loose their power.

Once Putin had majority control of Gazprom he was able to use it to bully opponents of his whether they be people or countries. In 2006 Putin worried about pro-west sentiment in the Ukraine, used the company to politically manipulate the situation by threatening to stop the flow of gas which is a life blood to the Ukrainian people.

Putin and Gazprom have also used energy blackmail with the countries who have showed pro-west sentiments such as Estonia, Belarus and Georgia. Strangely enough all countries that were part of the previous Soviet Union and all countries that Putin and his KGB cronies did not want to have power. Belarus was at the end was able to strike a deal after threatening to stop the flow of Russian gas in their pipes through the country of Belarus.

I would just like to bring in 3 quick power plays that are also of importance in regards to Putin's Gazprom that may interest you. In July 2006 with the help of Putin, Gazprom was able to become a monopoly by getting Russian Federal Law to grant Gazprom exclusive rights to export natural gas. Also, later that same year Putin was able to fud with an environmental permit to hostilely take control of 50% and one share of Royal Dutch Shell's Sakhalin-II project.

The 3rd and latest power play by Gazprom and Putin seems to allow Gazprom to build up its own private army. In February 2007 a group of State Duma deputies proposed to give the Putin controlled company Gazprom the right to form special armed units. The main task of the new oil military will be to protect production facilities and transport infrastructure. If adopted by the parliament, Gazprom officials will be allowed to use weapons and arms for self-protection and for the execution of “service obligations”. We all know about dodgy Russian “service obligations”.....

Now that I have mostly got Gazprom out of the way I would like to get back to Putin and what he has been up to lately. In October 2006 a journalist and human rights activist by the name of Anna Politkovskaya was investigating the corruption of Putin's government as well as the savagery of Russian troops in Chechnya. She was assassinated in a contract killing. No prizes as to which cowardly Russian president was behind her killing.

Now onto the part of the story I am sure most of you will be familiar with. The assassination of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko with polonium-210 by Putin (yes, I will call a duck a duck). Polonium was discovered in Poland while it was under Russian control. The substance is extremely unstable and dangerous and very hard to manage. 1 gram of polonium is dangerous enough to kill 50 million people. Polonium is also used in nuclear triggers on nuclear weapons. Its not the type of stuff that everyone has access to. In fact, its not the type of stuff most countries have access to. The rarity is compounded by the fact that the planet currently is only able to produce about 100 grams of the stuff a year.

Alexander got on the bad side of Putin when he found out his superiors were planning to kill billionaire businessman Boris Berezovsky (who was a vocal critic of the 2nd Chechen War), whom he was charged to protect. When he found out about the plot he went to the media to warn everyone about it and was subsequently arrested. Alexander was later released and fled to Great Britain to claim political asylum.

I do believe what got Alexander into the most trouble was him revealing some of Putin's dirtier but expected tactics. Alexnader informed the world that Putin's FSB was bombing Moscow apartments and blaming it on the Chechen terrorists to legitimise reprisals using military force in Chechnya. Boris, Alexander and Anna were all opposed to a second Chechen war. Alexander and Anna have lost their lives apposing Putin.

Back to control of the media and the little bit of information I wanted to tell you earlier. I had just watched a piece on Sky News regarding the death of Alexander Litvinenko, so I decided to switch over to the Russian channel to see how Putin's propaganda machine was spinning the story. Two things caught my interest. When the announcer on TV started informing the people of Alexander Litvinenko's death she said the following, "Alexander Litvinenko has just been assassi..... has just died". Seems she knew the truth as well.

I also remember about how in the next 20 minutes of the show the Russian presenter kept going on about, "how free Russian media is", and that they, "have no one here in the studio with a gun telling us what to say". Very strange things to say do you not think so?

Putin it seems is almost uncontrollable. What surprises me about all of this is the Russian people are allowing this rubbish to happen all over again. Surely the Russians are tired of presidents with small manhood issues? Surely they are bright enough to shake the yoke of this tyranny?

Things are not getting better. Putin is comparing penis size with the USA and Europe again and is trying to use every dirty tactic it can to control the current world political situation. Poland (rightfully so) wishes to protect itself from Iranian and Russian attacks so they have managed to score a Missile Shield from the states. Putin's response borders on the melodramatic and he really should get an Oscar for his performance. Putin has managed to turn the situation around to make a defensive weapons system appear to be an offensive (which I am sure it could be with a little imagination) attack on Russian statehood or something like that. Again I am sure it has something to do with manhood size.

Putin is also in Iran supplying that wheel-tapper of an Iranian president with nuclear capability as well as offering all the militant locals in the area access to weapons with nicely reduced price tags. It seems Putin wants the Middle East area as unstable as possible.

Just in case you missed the hypocrisy of Putin in the above two paragraphs... in Putin's mind, its is okay to supply Iran with nuclear technology which in turn can be used to create offensive nuclear weapons... but its NOT okay in Putin's eyes for countries around Iran to want to setup a missile defence system? Thats not counting the millions of AK-47 rifles the world has had to suffer from. Please Putin... that's pathetic. Really it is. I am sure your new buddy Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe could come up with a smarter story than you.

They say you can judge a man by the company he keeps and the friends that Putin seems to be getting into bed with all appear to be dictators of dodgy 3rd world countries where human rights are abused the most and freedoms are at a minimal. Zimbabwe, Venezuela, China and Iran... all countries suffering under terrible dictators seem to be the in thing for Putin.

The latest bit of news I have heard (other than Putin's over reaction to the missile shield), is that Estonia has accused Russia of launching large scale cyber attacks against it, Russia of course has denied this. I honestly completely believe Estonia on this one. Nothing in the last couple of years has given me a single reason to trust Putin or the current Russian government. Putin is a man completely without honour or scruples so I am more likely to trust what comes out of the silly Iranian presidents mouth than I am out of Putin's.

As I mentioned earlier on, the Russians I know are rather smart, so I have to ask any Russian readers out there... why are you allowing a tyrannical leader into power again? Do Russians get a kick out of pain and suffering? Do Russians like being exploited? I am trying to reconcile in my mind how such a smart people can make such an obviously repeating stupid mistake.

Well the good thing about having Putin in control of Russia is it is allowing Africa to catch up economically and surpass Russia socially while Putin keeps draining the country dry of everything it has.

Come on Russians. You have a wonderful country, stunning woman and from what I can see.. smart people. You can do so much better if you wanted to.

I came across this youtube clip today of a meeting between two of the Big Five and a very old friend in the Kruger National Park. If you thought that the picture of snake and alligator was strange, wait till you see this video clip as some of the titans of the Bushveld take each other on.

Please note, this clip is 8 minutes long, but well worth the wait.

I love the tag cloud widget Amatomu offers to bloggers. It almost looks like the blogosphere is trying to talk to you and sometimes you can make out the strangest sentances. Is the tag cloud sentinent?

Most probley not, but before I call down the wrath of an army of otter's in the slight chance I am wrong, I have decided to document the occasional tag cloud in an attempt to find out if it is simply random code or Internet oracle trying to communicate with us.

So I took a quick screenshot to see if Amatomu tag cloud was trying to tell us something. Using secret Tibetan cryptogramical algorithms and the color red I will now reveal what the blogosphere is trying to tell us.

Sentient or random? Only time will tell... but are you really willing to risk the wrath of an army of otter's on the off chance that you are wrong?

*Please note the above post is Friday fun and should not be taken seriously.

Well it seems 702 follows carefully as to what happens on the blogosphere. I was listening to their streaming audio and in their news broadcast they said that Neil Watson (the person behind the suspicious website crimeexposure.co.za) was 'Skye' of 'samaleprostitute.wordpress.com'. The reporter on 702 referred to Neil Watson as a famous conman.

The lawyers behind some of those named in Neil Watson`s blog have managed to get hold of him, and got him to remove the offending material. It has been replaced by an apology from Neil Watson.

Neil Watson is also known as Juan Duval Uys or David Baxter.

You see De Lille, no government regulation was required. You were able to achieve a satisfactory result in regards to the slanderous statements made against your ID member without having to resort to draconian measures.

- More information on Neil Watson from the Citizen
- Blog post at constitutionallyspeakingsa.blogspot.com on Neil Watson

When researching information out there in regards to certain scientific theories I came across a lot of pseudoscience websites that try pass themselves off as real science. A lot of the information contained in these sites is false. These sites seem to appear to push their own religious agenda's as real science as to try pull more ignorant people into their clutches.

I found the following websites to have false and misleading information that more than bordered on the fraudulent:

www.creationism.org
www.creationscience.com
www.icr.org
www.answersingenesis.org
www.drdino.com
www.sixdaycreation.com
www.nwcreation.net
www.answersincreation.org
www.natcenscied.org
www.csfpittsburgh.org
www.csm.org.uk
www.creationresearch.org
www.creationdefense.org
www.worldbydesign.org
www.bhcsa.org
www.halos.com
www.trueorigin.org
www.creationscience.net
www.highschoolscience.com
www.evidenceofcreation.com
www.creationdigest.com
www.creationscienceoc.org
www.ecreationscience.com
www.antievolution.org
www.reviewevolution.com

(satire)Protect your kids from this type of dishonesty by adding the above list to Net Nanny or another such child protective monitoring software. Stop the insanity and make sure your children get a real education that will help them succeed in our global village.

If you know of any other such websites that are trying to pass themselves off as real science please email me or leave a comment here, and I will continue to update the list(/satire). Lets teach our kids responsibility to truth over blind obedience to myth.

Edit, included satire tags.

Yup folks, sorry to bring this up again, but the simple folk on the Internet need a bit of a clue. While I am sure a lot of you think your pastor knows more about life than Dawkins, us us in the real world actually need to know the truth. Now I know if your pastor has a child with his sister he may deny the theory of evolution, but luckily the pastors work is to promote a cult that glorifies death and not to figure out how to keep life alive. Otherwise we would all be stuffed.

Evolution is pretty simple.. here it is; evolution is the change in a population's inherited traits from generation to generation.

The theory of evolution explains how this happens through different mechanics such as mutation, gene drift, speciation and others.

So this is a challenge to all those religious folk there to prove science and evolution wrong. If you can prove evolution wrong I will personally with every possible resource available to me, get you nominated for a Nobel Prize in science... because honestly, thats the least you deserve if you can prove evolution wrong.

So preachers, priests, domines, clerics, rabbi`s, pastors and other people of the fraud, sorry I mean cloth, who deny evolution are welcome to "put their money where their mouth is.". Lets see if they have the ability to be honest.

For those of you who do not want to prove it because you see no value in the Nobel Prize, think of the large amount of cash you get with it. Im sure your mega-church could use the money to buy another SUV.

I came across this movie today while browsing some local forums. Mark "The Knife" Faje does some amazingly daring (stupid) and yet awesome juggling trick in an audition for "America's Got Talent"

I really want to see this guys next performance!

I consider this a book that every South African should read to get perspective in their lives. Its honesty is most refreshing and Al Lovejoy`s ability to capture in words the essence of a culture and history of a generation of south Africans is amazing. Al Lovejoy has earned a lot of respect from a generation of youth who appretiate the truth. Thank you Al.

Other reviews:

‘Acid Alex is quite simply one of the most shocking autobiographies I have ever read. It is also well-written, addictive, excellent.’

– Sue Blaine, Business Day

‘Heartbreaking! Entertaining! Intelligent!’

– Erns Grundling, SL magazine

‘Nothing I have read has sketched the scorched social landscape of South Africa’s last half-century with such intensity and honesty. Read it.’

– Charles Thesen, Marie Claire

‘There are elements of Hunter S Thompson, Herman Charles Bosman, William Burroughs and William Wharton. But in the end it is an amazing story told in a unique voice. A voice moulded by pain, a voice honed by a government reformatory..., whetted by the SADF, and sharpened by Pretoria Central.

It is the story of a man who went to hell and came back, a morality tale, a Bildungsroman, the narrative of a f*ckup who found redemption, and the anthem of a lost generation.’

– Caspar Greeff, Sunday Times

‘Truly, as Koos Kombuis says, this is “an astonishingly breathless story” … Besides being a great read, Acid Alex is an invaluable record of a type of mania that gripped a certain type of South African in the last quarter of the 20th century. It’s a book that’s going to appeal to many young South Africans who currently have to turn to the United States for their myths of pointless excess, and it’s going to inspire them. Not necessarily in a particularly savoury way.’

– Chris Roper, Mail & Guardian

This book is more than just a suggested read.

When I wrote up my last piece on the Shofar Christan cult I never perceived that it would receive as much attention as it has. I received numerous emails in my inbox from many different people from many different walks of life with more information on this cult.

Firstly, I wish to address the use of the word 'cult' in this article and in my previous one. Wikipedia defines the definition of the word cult, as the following:

"In religion and sociology, a cult is a term designating a cohesive group of people (generally, but not exclusively a relatively small and recently founded religious movement[1]) devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be outside the mainstream."

By the above accepted definition of the word cult, I believe it is safe to refer to this 'cohesive' Stellenbosch Christian group going by the name of Shofar Christian Church as a cult.

To ratify my above on conclusion, lets look at the second part of that definition, "devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be outside the mainstream.". Off the top of my head I can think of two points that would qualify that point:

1) Their Creationist stance on evolution and naive belief that the Theory of Evolution is false is outside of mainstream beliefs. For instance it is almost completely accepted in the real science world (outside of a few nutters), and is even accepted by the Vatican and the Catholic Church (the largest organization of the Christian faith)

2) Preaching in pubs and clubs. I know this one is pretty trivial, but darn Shofar people..., "Have you NO clue?" I have a suggestion to those of you who get haunted by these strange people when you are looking for a little R&R. Two words. Water balloons.

Now, I suppose Shofar Christian Church could try do to me what they did to jeeva.net, and send a letter from a lawyer complaining about 'defamation of business', but if they do that.. and if they are a business... What happens to all those tax breaks they get for being a "Church"?

Now that I have got the word cult of the way I want to move onto information more relevant to Shofar Christian Church. One of the more interesting emails I got was from Al Lovejoy, the author of the book Acid Alex (I will supply a link to where you can purchase this brilliant piece of work in my linkblog). My girlfriend was the one who heard excellent reviews about this book a couple of months ago and purchased a copy for us to read.

The book Acid Alex is a wonderfully honest look at certain South African cultures during some very difficult times in South Africa. The author of the book is frank and honest, and pretty much lays his story out in such a way that leaves you humbled.

When I read the book I remember reading about a possibly dangerous cult in South Africa and about some of the more darker aspects of the 7th Day Adventists (who are still waiting ;)), and other dubious religious people Al Lovejoy came across.

I received an email from Al Lovejoy pointing me to have a look at his book in reference to my last article on Shofar Christian Church. Then it all clicked. The book that I had read several months before was linked in a way to this cult and a whole lot more became clear.

First, lets look at a little at the history regarding Shofar Christian Church and how it came to be. A businessman by the name of Fred May and his wife Lucille May started the campus cult in 1992 in Stellenbosch (South Africa).

A little bit about Mr Fred May. Fred May has never been ordained through an established church, Fred May has no degree in theology and his highest level of tertiary education is a B.A. Fred May appears to use American Creationist ("praise the lord and pass the loot Bible Belt heroes") Rhema style preaching.

Mr Fred May has a deep contempt of the Roman Catholic Church as well as the NG Kerk and regularly has a go at them from his pulpit.

Fred May is almost like South Africa's own Ted Haggard in the hypocrisy of his belief and teachings... however there is currently no evidence that he has taken Crystal Meths or that he is hiring a male prostitute.

Al Lovejoy had the following to say about Fred May and his organization,

"These are the voices of very, very angry and defensive - so called "Charismatic Christians" who belong to a campus cult called Shofar here in Stellenbosch. The other is "His People" who now call themselves "Every Nation". I called out their founder leader, a self appointed man named Fred May through Die Matie, the University of Stellenbosch's newspaper - on the straight fact that he and his new associates in Rhema finance their businesses by means of committing Biblical fraud and extortion - thus committing heresy and financial theft. Fred May is the worst of them because he isn't just illegally stripping working people of 10% of their monthly earnings - he's stripping the students of 10% of their study loans, inheritances, bursaries, scholarships, parent's salaries, waitressing tips and pocket money…in other words - their tertiary education funds."

A Tithe is not a Christian law or required in Christianity, but rather old Jewish Mosaic Law. Biblical teachings appear to indicate that although tithing was practised extensively in the Old Testament it was never practised nor taught within the first-century Church. Instead the New Testament scriptures seem to teach the concept of "freewill offerings" as a means of supporting the church (I Corinthians 16:2 and II Corinthians 9:7).

In fact the earliest groups sold everything they had and held it in common to be used for the furtherance of the Gospel (Acts 2:44-47). Such practices are testified to in the Acts of the Apostles. Also in Acts one can find a narrative relating to a man and wife who promised to sell a piece of property and donate it to the Church. Instead they only brought part of the selling price before the Lord and were struck dead for lying to a prophet of God, one of the Apostles.

These were clear examples that the first-century Church did not establish nor insist on a 10% (or tithe) rule but instead emphasized freewill giving. Clearly the Church believed in making offerings of money or goods to God dependent upon the conscience of its members.

Denominations and sects view tithing differently. As tithing was only a requirement found in the Old Testament, some consider it to be a practice that has no place in modern Christianity.

However, that does not stop the modern pulpit pushers from fleecing their gullible flock for as much money as they can.

Someone wrote into the Sunday Times with the following letter regarding the off spin sequel cult called, "Every Nation";

"I have been a faithful member of Every Nation Stellenbosch Church where the accused Fred Van Der Vyfer also attends. Coming from a very poor background I still had to commit to paying monthly tithes with my student loan and weekly offerings. I was told to commit my time to disciple students but when I needed someone no-one was there for me. The church expected me to be in meetings even when my studies and family life were not going too well. The pastors only made time for the wealthy students and never had time for the poorer students. They invite the wealthy students to their homes for lunches and supper but the poor students often don’t even have enough money for food. The pastors also make contact with the parents of the wealthy students and visit their homes but the poor students’ parents are never contacted.

I see this church as merely exploiting the poor to make a name for itself. They want to show they have all kinds of people in the church but it’s not real. They don’t show any compassion towards the poor. They don’t have any black or coloured pastor in Stellenbosch, and only white pastors preach who can relate to the white students. Whites go into the full-time ministry and get paid by the church. They don’t work but disciple the wealthy students on Stellenbosch campus.

Paul Daniel was the founder of His People (now Every Nation) and he fell into sexual immorality with many females in the church. The church has a history of oppressing the poor and rejecting them when they need help. The church has expanded to Somerset West where they serve the wealthy people and no poor people. They don’t have any projects in the poor areas like Kayamandi or Cloetesville to give food, clothes with the money as they believe it’s about God and themselves. They are not committed to the poor. The poor students in the church tithe but the money is not used to help any poor community."

Since we are on the topic of money, lets have a look at the testimony of Al Lovejoy and his book Acid Alex. Some of you may be thinking that he is just bad mouthing Shofar Christian Church and Every Nation for his own personal financial gains from the sale of his book. To set the story straight I am quoting directly from Al Lovejoy himself,

"On the 28 February 2007 I donated 100% of the current and future proceeds from the sale of Acid Alex, including international distribution rights and the movie rights (less 15% agent's fees) to an NGO children's foundation that is mostly my brainchild but in reality will eventually become a more lucid entity via the efforts of a number of people both here and internationally."

I can tell you right now Al Lovejoy is doing more good for the people of this world than the Mr Fred May. I wonder if Fred May donates a 100% of his profits to charities? Nope, he does not give 100% of his profits to children charities..his "church" and his "God" need the money. Of course.

There is a real lot of information coming out about these dangerous cults that masquerade as 'Christianity', if you are one of your loved ones have fallen victim to one of these Christian Cults, please leave a comment or email pb@pickledbushman.com with the information so your story can be shared.

Source information:
- http://thechiz.co.za/archive/2006/10/17/The-real-deal-with-al-lovejoy.aspx
- http://www.acidalex.com
- http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Lifestyle/Article.aspx?id=456264
- http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=466838
- Previous Shofar article by pickledbushman

UPDATE EDIT: http://prometheusongebonde.wordpress.com/2007/02/23/when-ignorance-is-called-god/#comment-2237

Security analyst David Kierznowski shocked bloggers yesterday with a survey showing that 49 out of the 50 WordPress blogs he checked seem to be running exploitable versions of the widely used software. He said, 'The main concern here is the lack of security awareness amongst bloggers with a non-technical background, and even those with a technical background.' Mr Kierznowski also uncovered recent vulnerabilities in WordPress plugins that ship by default with the software, adding: 'WordPress users developing plugins must be aware of the security functions that WordPress supports, and ensure that these functions are used in their code.

Information directly from Slashdot, but I believed the information was important enough to share.

Related links:

- http://blogsecurity.net/wordpress/articles/article-230507/
- http://michaeldaw.org/papers/securing_wp_plugins/

In what has to be classed as bizare, a clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida's swamps.

I am busy listening to Redi Direko's show on 702 streaming through my PC, and I have just heard another one of those stories that make me sick in the stomach. It seems not only are our Metro Cops in E Jozi lead by a ex kid bombing terrorist, but the cops under his command are just as debase.

In the story on 702 a young lady who runs a street kid shelter is been interviewed. She is on air for an appeal for more blankets, as the cops in their retarded 'boere*' wisdom have taken the blankets and the kids clothes to burn!!! This is while we are having such serious issues with the cold front that has moved through Jozi killing 17 people.

The Metro cop informed the lady who ran the shelter that the reason they burnt the blanket and clothes is so that the shelter kids will "go back home". They seem to forget that street kids have no homes.

So what we have here is an incident whereby the cops seem to have the authority to steal the clothes off your back and the blanket off your bed with no impunity. These Metro cops should be hauled in front of a Judge as soon as possible for charges on destruction of property and Crimes against Humanity.

As soon as I find more information on how to donate blankets to this shelter, and more information on whats happening, I will update this post so you know how you can get involved.

* Please note, I use the term 'boere' in the context of a retarded cop, and it has no ethnic connotations.

I came across this clip in the local MyADSL forums showing a comparrison between the Linux Ubuntu Beryl desktop look vs that of the new Windows Vista Aero desktop.

As you can see by the video clip, Vista Aero stands no chance against the vastly superior Ubuntu's Beryl desktop. Not only can Beryl degrade itself to look as simple as Aero, Beryl clearly shows that it surpasses Aero in just about everything. With fantastic new concepts for your desktop that are out of this world, there is simply no reason why not to switch to Ubuntu.

I read a news article yesterday about Patricia De Lille of the Independent Democrats reaction to a defamatory post about Simon Grindrod in some blog somewhere on the Internet. What is De Lille’s response? To go all George Bush Patriot Act on us!

De Lille fires off some slimy old lines about terrorists, pedophiles and the boogeyman to try take away your freedom of speech, so she can protect her little political people. I think the concept of Freedom of Speech completely evades Patricia De Lille. Freedom of speech does not mean censoring people. Freedom of speech does not mean centralization of information or power. Sure, there are some disgusting people on the internet, but on the same token we have disgusting people in parliament. Are we going to ban parliament because there are woman abusers in it?

What Politian’s like De Lille do is the same old story time after time. Something will upset them like this defamatory incident, and the next second they are on their soap box trying to incite the ignorant rabble for their “I-am-not-doing-this-for-personal-gain” crusade. One would think that Patricia De Lille would catch a bit of a wake up, especially after noticing how Freedom of Speech was thrown out the window during Apartheid, but one would be wrong.
De Lille seems to be a bit on the slow side when it comes to understanding the power of social networking and instead of dealing with rumors and the blogosphere in the correct method; she goes all totalitarian on us.

Of course she would have us believe that the “real” reason why she is doing this is to protect us from all the evil people out there (insert terrorists, pedophiles and co), instead of the real reason… Sis De Lille… sis! Take your attempts to stifle free speech and stick them somewhere liable. You seem to so easily forget, that the most important type of free speech to allow is that which you hate hearing the most.

I know for a fact this little escapade has cost her at least one vote. Mine. I used to be a strong ID supporter but now I have decided to jump the stupid ship. I need a Politian who has a clue and knows what’s going on in my world, and not just their world. I hear Helen Zille has a YouTube like Zoopy blog going… I think I will go have a look.

Find out more information here: http://www.mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=6490

Edit: The link to the Helen Zille's Zoopy page: http://www.zoopy.com/Helen
Edit: Link to the Mail & Guardian article quoting this blog post: M & G Article

The entire catalogue of information from 1,800 courses at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be available free online by the end of the year. Once uploaded, it will represent one of the internet’s most important resources.

I have heard the uncountable propagandic reasons on why Piracy is bad for South Africa, how its hurts the economy, yada, yada, yada... You have all heard the well thought up storyline. So I thought I would add something to it, and give you a couple of reasons why piracy is both good for South Africa and good for Microsoft.

Firstly, South Africa. This one is very simple.. every time you pirate some international software or media you help reduce the South African trade deficit. Yup, by not buying an imported product you help improve our trade deficit by that much. So if you want to use this line just remember not to pirate local products, otherwise you nullify the effect. However I will be honest, I doesn't seem like there is such a big demand for eGoli or 7de Laan media on the piracy market, but the world is a big place so I could be very wrong.

Now onto Microsoft. Loosing $1.5 Billion to piracy is bad. Assuming that figure released by Business Software Alliance (BSA) are truthful (its hard to trust these people), well Microsoft should be counting their blessings. That loss would be a lot more significant if all those people who couldn't afford Microsoft products (most of the world) moved to Open Source products.

This got me thinking, Microsoft most likely approves of piracy, so I did a little bit of an investigation and came across this information:

http://www.crime-research.org/articles/2383/

Which basically explains that due to Microsoft's insane pricing models most of the world can not afford their product. However rather than close all the holes in their systems they allow and need their product to be pirated. If they made it that no one could pirate their products they would loose ground to free Open Source alternatives.

Lastly, there is the myth that piracy is hurting the music industry. That's another fallacy. In fact it has been shown through RIAA's own research that people who pirate a song are more likely to go purchase the original music, and boosts music sales!

- http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4831
- http://news.com.com/Study+File+sharing+boosts+music+sales/2100-1023_3-898813.html
- http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5181562.html

Old corporate models of control of failing RIAA. Welcome to the power of social networking.

Over the last couple of weeks I have heard more and more disturbing information about this strange Christian sect called Shofar . The straw that broke that proverbial camel's back was when a fellow blogger informed me that he had had his website taken down by this cult.

I decided to do a little more investigation and what I have found out scares the heck outta me. This cult activly goes around to pubs and clubs, harassing and recruiting vulnerable lonely youth for sect.

The more I learnt about this cult sect, the more I was reminded of Scientology. People in this cult are "not allowed" to date people outside of their cult. Reminds you of Scientologist's "disconnects" does it not? However Shofar take it to a new level. Not only are you not allowed to date someone outside of this cult, but you have to date someone on the same "level" as you (apparently you get levels 1-7). Simple things like holding hands is also considered taboo.

This cult actively talks about "harvesting souls" for the "Lord of the Harvest". When reading their site I had to keep reminding myself that I was not reading up on ancient Celtic pagan sect, but rather a 'supposed' "Christian Church" in South Africa.

A bit more research revealed the following comments from people in the area who have had the misfortune on been on the receiving end of their brainwashing techniques.

"I'm one of those unfortunate people who have been prayed for by Shopharites in a pub. I would probably have moered those okes if I wasn't so stunned by their blatant lack of respect!", Jakes Lombard

"There was an incident on campus this week where a guest lecturer (lecturing on evolution) was intimidated by a few members of the Shofar group. After the lecture, they asked him whether he was an atheïst? After replying yes to this question, they spat at his feet and left. I find this degrading and feel that it is extremist!" Student at Stellenbosch University.

That second quote scared me even more! Here was a evangelical group, actively promoting religious myth over real life science! I don't know about you, but I sure think that South Africa has had enough backwards ideologies, and this is not helping the future prospects of our students on any level.

The fact that these people actually go after recognised and accepted scientific theory (that actually has sweet nothing to do with religion) should identify to you the problems this cult faces to us.

Lets make a quick list of the negative impacts the Shofar cult has had so far:

1) Negative impact on the person's social abilities. I have had numerous emails from people telling me how they got 'disconnected' from their friend's, how almost ever aspect of their social lives is controlled by the Church, and other techniques which appear to follow normal sect brainwashing patterns.

2) Shofar are against freedom of speech. Yup they so are. Not only are their recruitment methods very similar to Scientology and other cults, but they also attack our constitutional right to free speech like the Scientologist's. As noted earlier on, a fellow blogger of mine had his site taken offline by this cult, with threats from their lawyers. I asked my blogger associate on what grounds they wish to sue him on, his reply was, "defamation of company".

Shofar cultists... are you a church or a company? Make up your minds please. PS, Please ask your lawyers to email legal@pickledbushman.com. My advocates are standing by.

3) Shofar will 'harass' you in public places where you should be enjoying yourself such as pubs and clubs. Perhaps we should all go to their "Church" and get pissed? Fairs fair right? Since the damaging days of the Dark Age, mankind in enlightened cultures has tried to seperate religion from as many aspects of public life as possible. We learnt in the Dark Ages what happens when religious cults take power. Let us hope we do not allow them back into our public spaces.

4) Shofar seems to have a negative effect on a real education, such as their hostility towards scientific theory such as the theory of evolution. Imagine a world where all your biologists, and all those doctors where creationists... Imagine how much worse of our health and education systems would be due to religious bigotry...

A cult sect as militarized as this one needs to be investigated as quickly and thoroughly as possible to find out what harm it might be doing to local Western Cape community. I am instantly suspicious of people who offer prayer in return for cash or pretend to know what God wants. For those of you who are not worried yet, I advise you go see the documentary "Jesus Camp" http://jesuscampthemovie.com

I would like to find out more about this cultist sect known as "Shofar Christian Church", and if you have been harassed or have any information about this sect please email me at pb@pickledbushman.com . I did try contact Shofar for comment, but a lot of the links on their site are broken (including the contact link). If you think any of the above information is incorrect, please contact me on the email address mentioned earlier.

I will be writing more about this sect and others as I get more information. For more information please see:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381216748
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Article.aspx?id=456264

EDIT

Shofar Christian Campus Cult Part 2: http://www.pickledbushman.com/index.php/2007/05/29/shofar_campus_christian_cult_part_2

I think one of the advantages that I have over David Bullard and his column is the fact that I can call Microsoft scum. Unlike Mr Bullard (whom I find very amusing) I have no desire or need to brown nose the larger corporations like many of the journalists here in this country need and want to do. However, this is off topic and I would like to get back on on track with the topic of my post, "Microsoft scum still hard at work".

A couple of months ago, I noticed Novell and Microsoft getting into bed together and this had me very nervous. Microsoft is not a Google, with Google's wonderful motto of, "Do no evil". Microsoft seems to have the motto, "Only do evil".

When the headlines reached Slashdot about Novel and Microsoft I was instantly very worried. For instance... what is Microsoft's motivation for getting involved with Novell? Well today it seems the truth has come out in today's news edition of ZDNet.

Microsoft claims that free and open-source software violates more than 230 of its patents, according to a magazine report published Sunday.

In an interview with Fortune, Microsoft top lawyer Brad Smith alleges that the Linux kernel violates 42 Microsoft patents, while its user interface and other design elements infringe on a further 65. OpenOffice.org is accused of infringing 45, along with 83 more in other free and open-source programs, according to Fortune.

It is not entirely clear how Microsoft might proceed in enforcing these patents, but the company has been encouraging large tech companies that depend on Linux to ink patent deals, starting with its controversial pact with Novell last November. Microsoft has also cited Linux protection playing a role in recent patent swap deals with Samsung and Fuji Xerox. Microsoft has also had discussions, but not reached a deal with, Red Hat, as noted in the Fortune piece.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6183437.html

Now we know why Microsoft got into bed with Novell, so they can all of a sudden have a large amount of "patent infringements". Yet another example of a large corporation trying to stifle innovation through draconian copyright and patent laws.

MsDewey.com

I never have never used a search engine this cheeky before :) Its great fun for about 10 minutes.

If you are in South Africa I am sure you have heard all the commotion about the De La Rey song sung by Bok van Blerk. Our South African Department for Arts and Culture's issued a statement regarding the song "De la Rey" (which is a tribute to Koos de la Rey) regarding the controversy that arose due to the popularity of the song with right-wing Afrikaners, who interpret the lyrics as a call to armed battle.

For those who want to know what the song is about its basically about an event in the history of our country. In the song the Afrikaners fighting the British Empire in the 2nd Anglo-Boer War call on their general, Koos de la Rey, who was regarded as one of the finest military minds for his time. It was only through using dreadful tactics by Lord Kitchener such as 'Scorched earth' policy and confining all the woman and children of the Afrikaners in concentration camps, that the British Empire was able to bring the Boer warriors under control.

I am an English South African but even I found this song to be stirring and powerful. It reminded me about a very important event in our history and is a part of our cultural identity.

Now on to Impi sung by Johnny Clegg and Juluka. The reason I am writing about this song is because of the similarities it has with Bok van Blerk's 'De la Rey'.

This song is also about a great battle between the British Empire and the Zulu Empire called the Battle of Isandlwana during the Anglo-Zulu War. It was a noticeable event for the British Empire as it was the largest loss the Emipre ever sustained by any native force. The British force lead by Lord Chelmsford were taken by surprise beneath the mountain of Isandlwana by Zulu king Cetshwayo's impi (warriors)and defeated.

After looking at these two songs, one has to wonder why so many people are in a huff about the De La Rey song... Both songs sing about conflict with the English and both add identity to our culture.

If anyone has a right to be upset it should be the English! But were not, because those songs are also a part of our history and our identity as well and the songs simply rock.

My name is "Zukeka"

So I say, "I do not care"

Zukeka Jacob is a classic whiny South African that was previously disadvantage. Zu-ke-ka recently complained to the media how her name is "Zu-ke-ka", and we should all call her "Zu-ke-ka". Apparently she has problems with anyone who is not Xhosa... pronouncing her name, and in people been unable to pronounce her name she is basically calling them racist for not taking the time to kiss her ass.

We I am sorry "Zu-ke-ka", I have lived in this country all my life. My grandparents came here in the 1800`s and were of the french lot that arrived. I can honestly say that in the last 200 years, I would be surprised if ANYONE has EVER got my surname right.

Yes, I have to spell it for everyone, and so do so many of my mates. A lot of us have funny names or surnames.. its one of those, "things" about been human.

Then you take this common human character trait, and make it into a race based comment... well guess what Zu-ke-ka. GET A LIFE. GROW UP, and PRODUCE SOMETHING FOR AFRICA (instead of the whole "oh god! look at me, I need attention so I am going play the race card"... again)

I have a suggestion for you Zu-ke-ka... learn some of the other ethnic group names so you dont have to dance around the country changing them because of your stuttering.

Whiny, bias Zukeka Jacob... that's how I will remember you.

Original article here: http://www.news24.com/News24/Your_say/Your_story/0,,2-2127-2128_2110802,00.html

Freshlyground is a South African Afro-Fusion band that is gaining massive support on both its home turf and abroad. The band is able to infuse their music with the different sounds of traditional South African music such as kwela and mix that all together with some jazz, blues and some indie rock.

Zolani's distinctive voice contributes much to the band's unique sound. There are very few South Africans both in South Africa or at home in another country who don't feel the prickle of hope and pride when they hear their songs.

I have been told that they were told not to play the track 'Doo Bee Doo' (featured above) at the unveiling of a parliament event the other day, As a certain chief whip said it was a marijuana song. The crowd went mad and they played as an encore. The chief whip then apparently walked out in frustration. Go Freshy Ground!

Band information:

Origin: Cape Town, South Africa

Years active: 2002 – present

Genres: Folk
Afropop
Jazz
Indie Rock

Labels: Sony BMG Africa
Freeground Records

Members: Zolani Mahola
Simon Attwell
Peter Cohen
Kyla Rose Smith
Julio Sigauque
Josh Hawks
Aron Turest-Swartz

Please find out more information about this band at http://www.freshlyground.com/

I was browsing through one of the local forums lately and I noticed a thread about David Bullard and his article he had in the Sunday Times ( http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/Columnists/DavidBullard/Article.aspx?id=452352 ).

I will be honest I have no idea who David Bullard was before today and I had to google a little bit to find out more about him. The first result explained why it was painfully obvious he and I were different types of people... This is the result I got:

If you didn’t join the ranks of those flashing their nouveau wealth around in 2006, you’re a loser, writes David Bullard.

That aside I went back to reading what he wrote. He is somewhat right in a certain perspective but very naive in others. I can understand his perspective on wanting to name and shame those those that he perceives to use their anonymity to launch personal attacks.

However, its often that anonymity that gets the news out and saves people. I have a couple of friends in Russia who blog. They re trying to get the news out there about what Putin is doing to their country. I have another blogger friend in China and several in Zimbabwe. All of them hide behind their anonymity.

A gay friend of mine in the USA in one of the more rural states *cough* Utah *cough*, runs a gay information blog but has to do it anonymously because of the persecution he may face by the simple country folk.

While what you say, has merit David, you seem to lack a grasp of the bigger blogosphere picture. There are a real lot of blogs as you have pointed out. You get all type, dumb ones, smart ones, colorful ones, bland ones. Just about everything. That's the point. Everyone is different, and everyone has a different perspective.

I would suggest you broaden your horizon a little, and should you wish I have several really really good blogs for you to read. I think you need a lot more perspective. In the mean time, remember this old saying, "The most important type of free speech to allow, is the speech you hate hearing the most", and not everyone who wants to say something is an attention seeking.... person :)

Just Jinjer is a local band from South Africa that has doing pretty well internationally lately. The song, "What he means" is up there with one of the best songs I have heard. Its music carries the message of our generation.

I hope more people are able to hear the message in this song..

In what has to be a remarkable show of insight into the power of social networking, a British Indie band is offering their album free to download off their website. This is one band, that seems to have googled it. It looks like the older corporate models are failing and hopefully the world will not have to tolerate the insanity that is RIAA much longer.

I love artists with scope.

In the last couple of months I have spent a lot of my time researching philosophy and theology, and having (sometimes) educated debates so I can learn more, from all sides. However, I have noticed a large group of religious people who seem to have some seriously inaccurate information on the sciences.

Listen to the scientists!

What I have found is that in the religious world, such as Christianity... Creationists go out of their way to lie and to distort the facts. I was honestly shocked at how some people who claim to be "for God", could be such a bunch of liars.

This is not just misinformed ignorance, this is active perversion of the truth. A chap on a local forum I hang out in... lets call him, "Prom Queen"... claims to be this big cheese in the name of God. We have had countless debates about the theory of evolution, and many times I have corrected one of his cliches (explaining to him the information is false, and why so), and yet he will carry on using it.

I will give you an example. He will use that common Christian lie that we evolved from Apes. Creationists love this one, because of course... no one wants to come from an ape do they?!? (especially in a country with hectic racial motivation). Well the truth of the matter is that we do not come from apes. Evolution teaches us that apes and humans evolved from that same primate ancestor.

I will correct this slip up, and a couple of days later he is using the same argument with another person. When confronted by me in regards to his.. he just fails to respond. Now don't get me wrong... this is not an individual thing. Almost all the hardcore creationist I debate with will tell a lie to defend their point of view. Apparently lying for God is better than finding out some metaphorical story in the Bible is not literal.

Another common lie I hear is that evolution is only a theory. Another bit of false information I have to constantly correct. Evolution is both a fact.. and a theory. Fact - Things evolve (they change) ; Theory - How they evolve (change). A common misconception amongst the ignorant, is that a fact is better than a theory. Their argument, that "evolution is only a theory", is rather naive. Firstly... theory's do not become facts. They are not different levels on a hierarchy of correctness. A fact is an observation. A theory explains the observation.

Another common mistake made by the simple folk, is that a scientific theory is simply a guess. Wrong again of course. In scientific usage, a theory does not mean an unsubstantiated guess or hunch, as it can in everyday speech. A theory is a logically self-consistent model or framework for describing the behavior of a related set of natural or social phenomena. It originates from and/or is supported by experimental evidence. In this sense, a theory is a systematic and formalized expression of all previous observations that is predictive, logical and testable.

Another common mistake made by Creationist`s, is that evolution is trying to answer the question on the origins of life. The theory of evolution does no such thing. Its simply explains the variety in life, and how it came to be... not from whence it came.

Creationist`s often confuse the theory of evolution with the hypothesis, Abiogenisis. Abiogenisis is the whole primordial soup story... not the theory of evolution. However Creationist`s use the same type of argument as with the ape as they do with the theory of evolution. They say that, "evolution teaches us that we are made from goo that just came to life one day". This of course, as I have mentioned.. is false, and merely one of their deceptive tactics to make the theory of evolution sound uninviting.

Over the next couple of months I am going to be writing a lot about science and religion. There's a lot I need to learn and a lot I need to talk about and share. There is a lot of bull out there, and I hope I will be able to broaden your scope on some of these important issues.

I hate it when our freedoms are influenced. Mostly that of free speech. A wise man once told me the most important type of speech to allow is that of the type you hate hearing the most. So in good pickledbushman flair, I have decided to post a story that was gagged and not allowed to be displayed in the Sunday Times (even though it is a little boring)... Here it is:

Man sues tycoon wife over 30-year lie

BUDDY NAIDU
29 April 2007

Shattered after learning that he did not father his beloved son

A top commercial photographer is suing his property mogul ex-wife for more than R1-million after she allegedly lied about the paternity of their 30-year old son.

Tomorrow the country's first ever paternity fraud case is scheduled to be heard in the Johannesburg High Court when Ian Difford, 56, takes on his ex-wife, Claire, 54, a celebrity former estate agency boss.

Claire, until recently, was the owner of Claire Difford Investment Properties, which traded in upmarket areas of Johannesburg. She recently sold the business, which boasted elite clients, including the murdered mining magnate Brett Kebble.

In a shocking admission in court papers, Claire, said her ex-husband knew there was a possibility� he was not the natural father as she did not hide the fact.

She had been involved in sexual relations with other men� around the time she had given birth.

According to filed court papers, the couple married in March 1975 and had a son� in December 1976. They also had another daughter in 1985 before their divorced in 1995.

The paper disclosed how the Diffords drew up a detailed settlement agreement to ensure that the needs of the two children were looked after.

But in February 2001, a distraught Ian Difford claims he was informed by his son� that he was, in fact, not his biological father.

The basis of Ian's claim is that his ex-wife wrongfully, unlawfully and fraudulently� lied to him for more than 20 years and, more importantly, to the court during their divorce.

Had he known that the child was not his biological son, he would not have entered into ... the written agreement [or divorce settlement].

He said his ex-wife had then allegedly made financial demands on him based on his supposedly being the natural father to induce him to pay for the son's upbringing, education and all other amenities of life�.

Ian said that after finding out that he was not the father he became estranged� from his son� and experienced emotional hurt and trauma�.

He said that as a result of his ex-wife’s “fraudulent or negligent representations and non-disclosures� it was ascertained that he had spent more than R1-million paying towards the costs of a son he thought was his own.

He has now asked the court to rescind the original divorce settlement, declare that he is not the father of the 30-year-old and order his ex-wife to pay R1-million in damages, with interest, as well as his legal costs.

But in her responding affidavit, Claire insists that Ian knew shortly after the birth “that there was a reasonable possibility that he was not the natural father�, adding that he failed to take any steps to establish whether he was.

She said that even though the child might not have been his, they were married at the time of his birth and therefore “there is no actionable duty in law which would give rise to a claim for damages to recover expenditure�.

She claimed that the court order already in existence — the divorce settlement — ensured her ex-husband’s present claim was “compromised�, “incompetent’ and “if granted will result in two conflicting court orders being in existence�.

She said that while they had had suspicions, she had only discovered that Ian was not the father when blood tests were taken in March 2001. She did not say why the tests were done.

Claire, in turn, is suing her ex-husband for R675 000 for her legal expenses. She further alleges that Ian slapped and swore at her, calling her “a bitch� during an argument at a supermarket in 2002 and is claiming R50 000 in damages.

She also asked the court that, should Difford succeed in his application and the divorce settlement becomes null and void, he provide R4 000 a month to support their daughter as well as pay her other educational costs.

Specialist divorce and criminal lawyer Billy Gundelfinger said: “To the best of my knowledge, this is the first such case in South Africa.�

He said it could also open the floodgates to fraud charges being laid against those perpetrating “parental fraud�.

Professor Karthi Govender of the University of KwaZulu-Natal said the case was a “unique� one.

However, he said it would be difficult to “prove deceit or the intent to deceive�.

He said Difford’s argument was difficult to sustain “especially if he engaged in the full issues of parenting�.

“The courts rule that when you bring up a child there are benefits as a parent.�

Difford refused to comment but his lawyer, Zenwill Lacob, said he was looking forward to finally having his day in court.

“This is a first for SA whereby a paternity fraud matter has been heard by a court...

“South Africa, in a sad kind of way, has now joined the modern world as cases like these are now common in the United States and in England.�

Link to news on the gag: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20070429091514260C209815

Seaward.co.za for South Africa`s best coastal real estate.

Criminal tentacles sucking SA
Alec Hogg
Posted: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:00 | © Moneyweb Holdings Limited, 1997-2006

DAVOS – As Friday evening approached, the South African delegation had reason to bask in growing optimism.

True, President Thabo Mbeki hadn’t been his best at two booked-out WEF sessions on Africa that day. A heavy schedule earlier in the week and a last minute torpedo into a near plenary session is hardly ideal preparation.

Mbeki might have lacked sparkle, but this didn’t detract from the overall message of hope voiced by star panelists UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and rock star Bono.

Then came the jolt.

News from home that world renown historian and tourism entrepreneur Dave Rattray had been murdered in his KZN Battlefields Lodge sucked the wind from billowing SA sails.

It was a stark reminder of the scourge which bedevils the country. Especially so for a president who from all reports seems to be publicly under-playing the crisis.

Perhaps there is some logic to Mbeki’s public position. What was revealed to our Friday evening session in Davos would be common knowledge in Pretoria’s portals of power. If so, as during the early stages of the HIV/Aids pandemic, Mbeki may well be purposefully downplaying the issue to avoid national panic. If not, the country’s president needs new advisers on the subject.

South Africa’s rampant crime is far from the random events publicly proclaimed. Spokespeople seem to revel in shifting blame away from the system - ascribing the crime wave to a natural consequence of poverty and an overhang from abuses of apartheid. Critics say an incompetent policy force is the real reason.

The facts don’t supports any of these theses.

India, China and indeed the rest of the African continent have far worse poverty, yet their crime rates are a fraction of relatively well-off SA. Law abiding victims of apartheid outnumber criminals by a multiple, so that’s also a disingenuous excuse.

And although there’s always room for improvement, by any measure the SAPS is far ahead of where it was a decade back. Which makes it impossible to reconcile that progress with the State’s own statistics which show the crime rate has exploded.

Something far more sinister has to be at play. On Friday night, a panel discussion in Davos on the subject of multinational crime threw up some interesting suggestions.

The discussion, for fairly obvious reasons, cannot be individually attributed to the participants. What they sketched, though, provided believable reasons for the scourge that haunts not only SA but has triggered escalating crime rates everywhere in the world.

It’s clear, for starters, that South Africa is a key nexus in the global supply chain of a trillion dollar plus industry. SA's particular attraction to the world crime syndicates is its supplies of illicit precious stones, rare minerals and marijuana from the continental hinterland.

SA is regarded as a specialist supply base in much the same way as the Balkans is the centre for sex workers; China (including Beijing’s multi-storey Silk Road skyscraper) the global hub for counterfeit pharmaceuticals; Colombia’s dominance of cocaine and hard drugs supplies; and Afghanistan is the source of more drugs and weapons.

Moises Naim, whose work in this area could prove as groundbreaking in broadening an understanding of the subject as Al Gore’s movie was for Global Warming, was the only panelist prepared to go “on the record”.

He explained that although the tools they use to enforce compliance are brutally different, this global criminal network is run with the efficiency of a major multinational. The internet has helped it run even more smoothly than before, with national borders no barrier to the movement of financial resources.

Key to the success of these crooked “corporations” is similar to any multinational business. They source goods at the lowest possible cost and achieve the highest profit margin by having a well maintained supply chain.

Once the supply chain is in place, various “products” can and are channeled through this distribution network, multiplying the profit. So although a supply chain might have been set up for illicit cigarettes, it can also be used for human trafficking or hard drugs.

Naim, a former executive director of the World Bank and one-time minister of trade & industry in Venezuela, has made it his life’s work to uncover these workings of the underworld. As editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine, he has a useful platform. But there’s only so much a magazine article can cover.

So Naim put much of his research together in his manuscript "Illicit: How smugglers, traffickers and copycats are hijacking the global economy". It was judged one of the best non-fiction books of 2003 by the Washington Post. The book was recommended by the panelists in Davos as a must-read.

Bill Emmett, editor of prestigious London-based magazine The Economist , agrees. In his review for the prestigious publication he wrote: “Moises Naim has spotted that most crucial of all things, a subject of increasing importance that is very poorly understood.”

The more Naim and the other panellists spoke (they included global CEO of pharmaceuticals giant Merck; head of the 3m member US Chamber of Commerce and the former vice president of Chile), the more the pieces of SA’s crime jigsaw fell into place.

Particularly lucrative products for these criminal networks are illicit cigarettes (as half the cost of legal smokes is tax) and pirated DVD movies, where profit margins are massive. As one of the panellists pointed out, the profit on one kg of illegal DVDs is three times that of cocaine – and the punishment, should the pusher be arrested, incomparably light.

Bribing state officials at all levels is a relatively cheap way for the criminal masterminds to keep their supply chain oiled. Another panellist explained that getting a single truck of cigarettes across a European border generates profit of Euros1,3m (R10m). That gives the miscreant plenty of fat with which to grease the palms of any border patrol.

One only needs to look around any South African city to appreciate how efficiently the local leg of crime’s global supply chain is working.

Motorists are virtually mobbed at traffic lights by illegal DVD hawkers; East European sex workers are in abundance at “lap dancing” clubs; designer label knock-offs are openly sold by street traders; “cheap” cigarettes can be bought in public areas; and it’s easier for a school kid to secure a joint of marijuana than a bottle of beer.

All of this is done openly, with no regard to the presence of otherwise of uniformed police officers.

Given this background, it should surprise no-one that the man arrested as the kingpin in Brett Kebble’s murder has for some time been linked to cigarette smuggling. But it must raise additional concerns over his close ties, public "friendship" even, with the commissioner of police.

The question for Mbeki, and in fact every head of State worldwide - presuming they do know what's really happening - is whether an approach of trying to fight the cancer by stealth is appropriate.

The facts suggest not.

Otherwise law abiding citizens are fuelling the supply chain every time they buy anything form pirated DVDs and tax-free cigarettes to cheap clothing. They don’t seem to think twice about where they come from and are clearly not making the connection between a global network of sin and its side effect of violent crime.

The advice from experts is the best place to begin is zero-tolerance towards corruption. They believe it is senseless putting equal blame on the “corruptors” who are not corporate executives who can be shamed through public disclosure, but are actually shadowy criminals who enjoy the protection of massively resourced multinational networks.

As the Vietnamese prime minister told me earlier in the day, his country only started to win the war against crime after it introduced harsh penalties, including the death sentence, for corrupt officials. Supported by a system of promotions for public servants who identify those accepting bribes.

From what the Davos panellists told me privately, the first step for SA would be to get past the denial stage. That opens the way to beginning to understand the enemy and how its system works. And then ruthlessly investigate those with any smell of corruption.

Unless and until that is done, they believe, the cancer will grow.

http://www.moneyweb.co.za/specials/special_events/world_economic_forum/601448.htm

The following email was sent to me in response to Anthony Brinks absurd claims. The email was sent by Nathan Geffen of the TAC:

"It is not productive to debate with AIDS denialists. Their arguments
are dishonest, they quote medical papers out of context, and ask us to
believe what would amount to the biggest and most unlikely conspiracy
theory in human history.

FOR PEOPLE WHO DO NOT WISH TO DELVE INTO THE DETAILS OF HIV SCIENCE

Not a single reputable medical institution, government (not even the
South African government in any of its current official documents) or
scientific institution contests the following three facts, all of which
have been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt: (1) HIV causes AIDS. (2)
The benefits of ARVs for a person with advanced HIV disease far outweigh
the risks. (3) Millions of people throughout the world have died of AIDS
as a consequence of HIV infection. No articles supporting the AIDS
denialist positions have been published in reputable medical journals
for many years. Tens of thousands of competent scientists, including
several Nobel prize winners, conduct research on HIV and have
collectively published over 200,000 papers in peer-reviewed journals
which confirm the above facts. If you do not have the time, energy or
inclination to delve into HIV science, an entirely reasonable position
given the restraints on most people's time, then it would be prudent to
accept this overwhelming scientific consensus.

The Evidence That HIV Causes AIDS (NIAID)
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/evidhiv.htm

The Relationship Between The Human Immunodeficiency Virus And The
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (NIAID)
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/publications/hivaids/all.htm

The Science of HIV/AIDS (Treatment Action Campaign, 2006 - a very
simple guide)
http://www.aidstruth.org/Science-of-HIV-AIDS-TAC.pdf

How HIV Causes AIDS (NIAID, 2004)
http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/howhiv.htm

Special News Report: Fulfilling Koch's Postulates (Science, 1994)
http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/cohen/266-5191-1647a.pdf

Effective therapy has altered the spectrum of cause-specific mortality
following HIV seroconversion (AIDS, 2006)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16514305&dopt=Abstract

Structural Biology of HIV
http://www.aidstruth.org/structural-biology-of-hiv.pdf

A 3D representation of HIV-1 virions derived from electron microscopy
studies
http://www.aidstruth.org/virions.pdf

Index to 3d Views of HIV Macromolecular Structures
http://www.hiv.lanl.gov/content/hiv-db/STRUCTURE/INDEX.HTML

Facts, Resources & Links (NIAID)
http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/focuson/hiv/resources/default.htm

Regards
Nathan Geffen"

In the Independent online today:

A Pretoria woman is fighting for her life in hospital after being brutally assaulted by Sunnyside police officers.



The assault, part of which was photographed, involved plainclothes policemen attacking a prostitute.

Pretoria News photographer Herbert Matimba started photographing the attack but was forced to flee after police turned their attention to him.

He spent the night in hiding to prevent police confiscating his photographs.

Paramedics, who rushed to attend to the woman who lost consciousness after an apparent "epileptic fit", were spotted carrying the woman's diminutive body on a stretcher to an ambulance - her blue sandals and pink handbag wedged beneath her feet.

Uche Kalu said he witnessed the attack on the woman outside Malet Flats where he lives.

"It was extremely brutal. I had just bought cigarettes from a vendor on the corner of Johann and Arcadia streets outside our block of flats, when I heard women screaming.

"As I turned around, I saw two policemen grabbing two women and throwing them to the ground before grabbing one of the women and pushing her into the back of the police van. As one of the policemen pushed the woman into the van the other tried to grab hold of the other woman, who began fighting back," said Kalu.

"That was when one of the policemen grabbed her by the head and began smashing her head against the van's back doors. The woman fell to the ground where she was kicked in the head and stomach.

"I could hear the policemen swearing before one of them picked her up and began strangling her.

"She was just hanging in his arms as he dragged her across the pavement and threw her against the van several times before she started convulsing and shaking," he said.

Kalu said that as people began screaming, a photographer began taking pictures.

"When the policemen saw him they told him to stop before trying to grab him. I yelled at him to run and he did. I do not know where he went but I could see the policemen searching all the flat floors, waking people up as they looked for him.

"It is ridiculous. A policeman is meant to arrest criminals. If someone is shooting at a policeman then they should shoot back but they have no right to beat up someone who is not threatening them."

Matimba's girlfriend, Mpule Mashiane, said she had been terrified.

"I heard Herbert park his car, but when he did not come inside, I went to look for him.

"As I opened the front door, there were two policemen and a policewoman standing outside.

"They pushed me aside and began opening cupboards and looking under the bed, screaming at me to tell them where Herbert was.

"When I said I did not know, they took my cellphone and tried to phone him and told me I must tell him to surrender and come with them to the police station.

"When I asked them what had happened they said he had taken an illegal photo of a 'patient' they were trying to help and that he must surrender or else they would arrest him," she said.

Nomsa Zulu, who hid Matimba, said she had been terrified and had not known what was happening.

"I was talking to friends when a photographer ran to us and pleaded for help.

"When he told us what happened I rushed him to my room.

"We could hear policemen walking up and down our passage banging on doors screaming for him to surrender.

"I was scared that they would find him and hurt him," said Zulu.

Tshwane Emergency Services spokesperson Johan Pieterse confirmed that medics had taken the seriously injured woman to Pretoria Academic Hospital after they received an anonymous telephone call for help saying that a woman was having an "epileptic fit".

A paramedic said the woman had suffered severe head, neck and internal injuries as well as severe bruising.

A Pretoria Academic Hospital nurse said the woman had sustained severe trauma as a result of a serious assault.

She said the injuries could not have been caused by an epileptic fit.

"It is as though someone has bashed her on the head with a heavy object," said the nurse.

Pretoria police spokesperson Inspector Anton Breedt said that the allegations of intimidation against Matimba would be investigated as well as any other wrongdoing which had led to the assault.

So there we have it folks. The Robert McBride mentality seems to be spreading through our police force. Our cops appear to love beating up the defenceless at every opportunity they get. If they are not smashing in some defenceless woman's head, they are blowing up kids.

To the international readers of this blog. These are the SAME PEOPLE WHO WILL BE PROTECTING YOU IN 2010 at the FIFA Soccer World Cup. Our "president" Mr Mbeki is a wonderful toothless wonder of a president when it comes to dealing with these matters. First he says there is no crime problem, then he says there is a crime problem, and then he says there is a not a crime problem. How silly is this chap we call "President". He can not even control his own police force.

If you think this is an isolated incident you are indoctrinated. My girlfriend and I were discussing the amount of time we have seen police brutality against innocent citizen. We counted 3 times that we had seen it ourselves, and about another 4 reports from close friends we trust.

I remember once incident outside a small pub in a town called East London, where the police were called in to find who had broken into one of the cars parked outside. They rounded up all the poor people and started beating them in a manner that made me very sick. When I tried to confront the officers in regards to this, they threatened to beat me up if I did not walk away.

The police in this country are becoming daily more and more dangerous to have to deal with. The Metro cops being about the most corrupt of the bunch... I would say even worse than the Transkei police. I have spoken to many illegal immigrants taking refuge in our country, and all of them have told me they get stopped by Metro Police in Johannesburg and have to pay R1000 "spot fines". If they do not pay, they are threatened with assault and then loaded up and sent to our already overburdened jail.

Lets face reality here people. It looks like our cops are in cahoots with the criminals on all levels. Jackie Selebi is a perfect example of this. He is under investigation for the infamous Brett Kebble murder, and he is under investigation for his alleged involvements with one of South Africa's biggest criminal syndicate leaders. If you are wondering who Jackie Selebi is... well he is our national police commissioner. Apparently the head of the police force, and the head of the criminal world were just, "friends" who met often, even though Selebi new Algotti was under investigation.

Oh yeah, and Selebi... hows that stolen car you are driving around doing? At least you know it did not cost you an arm and a leg. Just a life.

Wow wow wow. I did not know humans could fall deeper into depravity than this fellow from TIG (Treatment Information Group)called Anthony Brink. Here is a man, more than willing to sell out his own morals for money in a most obvious way for the most disgusting of reasons.

There are thousands of South Africans who survive every day thanks to the Treatment Action Campaign lead by Zackie Achmat and his policy of forcing government to treat HIV/AIDS victims with anti-retrovirals.

Anthony Brink, you are a SHAME to South Africa. How low are you willing to go to chase that cash? According to your recent act... lower than Robert Mugabe. You take someone who is a champion for HIV/AIDS in South Africa and lay Genocide charges against him in the Hauge. You yellow bellied sicko.

I cant believe the lives of all those people receiving treatment mean so little to you. How can you sell those peoples lives out for money? Words now fail me when I think how patheticly evil your actions are.

I sat around a table last night with a group of advocates from South Africa, and guess what Anthony... they all know where your money is coming from. They all know you are selling out the people of South Africa for financial and political gain. You and your agency are a bunch of (alleged ;))murdering cowards.

I am going to keep this post here for as many years as I can, so when your children google your name, they will know how shallow their father really is. They will know that their father put his own personal financial gain ahead of the lives of normal South Africans. I am pretty sure they will be as ashamed of you as the rest of South Africa is.

For those of you who have not been following the story, here is the information as per a Mail & Guardian article:

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) reacted harshly on Friday to a charge of genocide laid against its head, Zackie Achmat, at the International Criminal Court earlier this week.

In the 59-page criminal complaint in the court in The Hague in The Netherlands, Achmat is accused of promoting the provision and use of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to treat HIV. The charge was laid by Cape Town advocate Anthony Brink of the Treatment Information Group (TIG).

The TAC said in a short statement on Friday that it refuses to "waste public resources in dignifying Anthony Brink's lunatic call" for the International Criminal Court to prosecute Achmat.

"Anthony Brink's actions serve only to insult the rationality of all sane people and the difficult experiences of millions of people who live with HIV/Aids in the world," the TAC said. "We therefore ask that the media not to call our organisation for comment on this as this is our official comment."

The TIC is an organization dedicated to killing people by denying them access to treatment for HIV/AIDS with the use of anti-retrovirals.

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=295433&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/

Crime and Slime in the SAPS (South African Police Service) Part I

Last night I was sitting at a local soccer club, chatting to some friends and watching a game of local footy. After the game I went to the bar, ordered a cold drink and started reading a copy of The Citizen (a South African newspaper). In the newspaper I came across a really disturbing article about Ekurhuleni metro chief Robert McBride. For those of you who do not know where Ekurhuleni is, its the name someone gave to a large part of the Eastern side of Johannesburg (South Africa`s largest city).*1

The story in The Citizen explain how Robert McBride who was intoxicated out of his tree with alcohol rolled his car and had an accident. This by itself would not have caused me much distress, until I read on and found out the following:

1) No breathalyzer test was done of Robert McBride. This should have been standard police procedure (emphasis on the word "should"), however in the case of Robert McBride it was not done. Apparently the police chief in the area has different rules to everyone else. If you have a look at the following quote from the Mail & Guardian:

"Days after the accident in December, investigating officer Inspector Quentin Smith could not confirm whether McBride's blood-alcohol levels had been measured at the scene, and did not know if this was done at the hospital. Smith was unavailable for comment on Thursday as he was on leave." *1

How convenient for Inspector Quentin Smith to all of a sudden need to take "leave" after not being able to comment about Robert McBribe (*cough* Sorry.) Robert Mcbride's blood alcohol level.

According to witnesses Robert McBride was blind drunk:

"According to reports, witnesses who went to help him said he was “blind drunk” and “smelt of booze”. They also said police “whisked him away from the scene” before paramedics could examine him" *2

2) Robert McBride told the investigating officer that he was "rushing to an emergency in Eden Park". This has come has come out to be false and a lie. I will quote from The Citizen to fill you in on the relevant information:

"There was no need for Robert McBride to have rushed to a so-called “emergency” in Eden Park on the day of his car accident, it is claimed.
More questions have been asked about the incident in which the controversial Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department chief rolled his car on the R511 near Centurion on December 21.
While it remains to be seen whether a charge of drunken driving, as alleged by several witnesses, will be brought against McBride, new questions have been raised about the reason why McBride was “racing like the devil” to an emergency it now appears never was." *3

In a nutshell, Robert McBride lied to investigating officers. Guess that's legal if you are high up in the Metro police force. A whole lot of different rules seem to openly come into play.

3) This is the part that disturbed me the most. The metro police officers who arrived on the scene not only bundled Robert McBride into a vechile and raced him away (before the paramedics arrived on the scene!) without a blood test. They also threatened to shoot the witnesses, and a female witness on the scene. I will quote from the Mail & Guardian so you can get a better idea of what happened:

"Metro police officers travelling the same route on the R511 as McBride were the first to arrive at the scene. It was reported in daily newspaper Beeld that witnesses accused the officers of assaulting people on the scene and threatening to shoot them.

The officers had apparently hit a woman when she tried to take photographs of the scene with her cellphone and threatened to shoot another witness when he took the keys to their vehicle and told them not to remove McBride from the scene until the police arrived." *4

Wow. I live in South Africa in 2007, and this type of caveman Nazi rubbish goes on!? Must have been a very very small cop to beat a woman like that and threaten to shoot another witness. To the cop who did that. F*ck you coward.

So whats the conclusion to this story?

A) Robert McBride was racing to an emergency in Eden Park (after a New Years party), and accidentally rolled his car, and all the witnesses are lying.

or

B) Robert McBride is lying, and he was drunk and citizens were assaulted by police to try cover up the fact.

Before I ask you to make up your mind about what you are reading here, I would like to draw your attention to a couple of other pieces of information in regards to our dear Robert McBride.

1) He was a "freedom fighter" who in 1984, joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). During his stint in Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), he was responsible for a bomb blast that killed three people and wounded 69 others in a terrorist attack on the 14th of June 1984 at Magoo's Bar in Durban. For this he was arrested and sentenced to death. He was later given a pardon for this crime. *5

So lets have a quick look at this. Robert McBride shows a COMPLETE and utter lack of respect for human life by specifically targeting young innocent youths at a nightclub. The same youths who had no idea about what was going on in the then Apartheid government. Robert McBride, I have this to say to you about this attack. You sick f*ck.

Sure, I can understand the need for fighting for freedom. Normally a very noble cause, and I applaud the people who did it right, however, this little man decided military targets and adults where to much for him to handle so he specifically targeted innocents. Reminds you a little of Al-Qaeda doesn't it? That club was not a valid target. It was a place where ignorant youth hung out, and their only crime was the color of their skin.

Because of this attack, Robert McBride was denied a chance to be ambassador to the UK or to France. Both countries refused to deal with someone as low as him. In the end because neither country would accept Robert McBride he was made Metro Chief of a large part of the Johannesburg Metro police.

If you think this story ends here you are sadly mistaken. On 9 March 1998, McBride, then a high-ranking official in the Department of Foreign Affairs, was arrested by the Mozambican police in Ressano Garcia, Mozambique for alleged gun smuggling weapons from Mozambique to South Africa. He later claimed he was doing undercover work for the NIA ( South African National Intelligence Agency) *6

There's still more. Paulina Sekgobela, of the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, alleges that McBride assaulted her and hurled verbal abuse at her. As per The Citizen article on it:

"Ekurhuleni Metro Police Chief Robert McBride is facing charges of assaulting of an SAPS officer in Kempton Park on Wednesday.Paulina Sekgobela, of the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, alleges that McBride assaulted her and hurled verbal abuse at her.

They then accused her of obstructing the officers from carrying out their duties. “He slapped me on the face and called me a bastard before ordering his officers to shoot all of us who were resisting arrest. He told me to voertsek,” she said.

“I have witnesses, who include my sister, who tried to take pictures of the incident but were prevented from doing so. “One metro officer pushed and kicked me inside their vehicle in full view of McBride and other people who saw the incident.” She said she was taken to Kempton Park Police Station where charges were laid against her.

She also laid charges of assault against McBride and his officers." *7

Words escape me. Here is an obviously violent and sadistic murderer put in charge of the lives of the very people he has tried to kill. An untrained gimp can easily see that Robert McBride is a serial offender. Instead of being in charge of the Metro Police, he should be behind bars. It is very obvious that right from the beginning he had very little regard for human life and went out of his way to target innocents.

There are reports that he is currently next in line to become National Police Commissioner when Selebi leaves (Please be sure to tune into my next article on Crime and Slime in the SAPS Part II, whereby we have a closer look at Mr Selebi). Making Robert McBride Police Commissioner of South Africa would be a very very dangerous thing for the people of South Africa. For those of you who are going to be touring South Africa for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup... just remember, that the chances are pretty good, Robert McBride will be in charge of your safety. Good luck!

1) http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=294909
2) http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=30235,1,22
3) http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=30213,1,22
4) http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=294909
5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McBride#Anti-apartheid_activities
6) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McBride#Political_career
7) http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=29370,1,22

For those of you who have been following this blog, I started it in July last year in a way to vent a lot of my frustrations at what is happening in and around me in the world I live in. For some reason a lot of people read the stuff I wrote, and what originally started as a short term project has now escuclated into one of my busiest websites!

I though I would pass on the stats for 2006, and show you how the reader base of pickledbushman.com is growing.

Month Unique Visits Pages Hits Bandwidth
Jun 2006 172 311 1822 4311 156.32 MB
Jul 2006 1415 2874 10106 13102 568.22 MB
Aug 2006 3791 8622 21425 25174 1.31 GB
Sep 2006 5003 13216 26321 29187 2.56 GB
Oct 2006 6379 19656 42919 48892 3.66 GB
Nov 2006 9557 29086 57424 63641 4.56 GB
Dec 2006 7225 16885 54345 57275 4.63 GB
Total 33542 90650 214362 241582 17.42 GB

I can now say that the site is growing, and so is its reader base. Due to popular demand we will be around for many more moons still. Pickledbushman.com would like to thank all those who have made this a wonderful and interesting year, and we are sure to do better in 2007!

I see a lot of search results in the web stats are people looking for the contact information for pickledbushman.com. For those of you wanting to contact pickledbushman.com please use the following email address:

- contact@pickledbushman.com

Due to the high volume of spam on this site I have had to remove and disable the comments section, please feel free to write into the above email address with any comments or queries regarding the site or its articles.

In my inbox today:

"It was first reported by the Washington Post last week that the RIAA was suing the Russian online music distribution company Mediaservices, which owns AllofMP3.com and allTunes.com, for illegally selling copyrighted music.

The companies behind the claim, which include the major record labels Arista Records LLC, Warner Bros. Records Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and UMG Recordings Inc., filed the suit in a New York federal court claiming that "...Mediaservices' sites sell millions of songs by their artists without paying them 'a dime' for the right to do so."

"Defendant's entire business ... amounts to nothing more than a massive infringement of plaintiffs' exclusive rights under the Copyright Act and New York law," according to the lawsuit.

As part of their claim, the labels are seeking $150,000 USD for each of the 11 million songs that were downloaded from June to October 2006 from the AllofMP3.com website.

Now how much money the site has made is unknown but, certainly its profits are not in the trillions of dollars.

"AllofMP3 understands that several U.S. record label companies filed a lawsuit against Media Services in New York," an unnamed "senior company official" stated. "This suit is unjustified as AllofMP3 does not operate in New York. Certainly the labels are free to file any suit they wish, despite knowing full well that AllofMP3 operates legally in Russia. In the mean time, AllofMP3 plans to continue to operate legally and comply with all Russian laws."

We all know by now RIAA is group of power hungry lawyers that you hope never have the upper hand. I have never come across a more despised group of people in all my life. To give you an analogy you can understand... people like the lawyers of Suddam Hussein more than they like the lawyers of RIAA.

RIAA has one purpose in life. To [picture of screw] you for every cent of money you have to feed RIAA`s greedy artists and lawyers. They need to be able to afford that extra line of cocaine if you know what I mean...

RIAA does not care who they sue. They will sue you, your baby, your dog, your mother and your grandmother, and if you think I am exaggerating... think again. They have tried to sue both the elderly and young kids. To them there is only one thing... money money money money money money.

They are quit happy to destroy peoples lives so that their record labels and musicians can get that extra $1 out of you. I can not emphasize how dangerous and evil RIAA are. You may think I am exaggerating the point. I sadly.... am not.