Former French president and member of the Académie Française, Valérie Giscard d'Estaing, has just released a novel called Le Président et la Princesse, in which a French president who eerily resembles himself meets a British princess, who is the exact portrait of Diana, except for the name (now Patricia).

Here's my take:

http://www.laurelzuckerman.com/2009/09/former-french-president-writes-love-fantasies-of-princess-diana-on-sale-now.html

What's yours?

I've said before the democratic function in the USA is broken.
I find this report is shocking, and sad.
John

WASHINGTON, DC - May 29 - Thirty-four Americans arrested at the Supreme Court on January 11, 2008 were found guilty after a three-day trial which began on Tuesday, May 27th in D.C. Superior Court. The defendants represented themselves, mounting a spirited defense of their First Amendment rights to protest the gross injustice of abuse and indefinite detention of men at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.

Charged with "unlawful free speech," the defendants were part of a larger group that appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11—the day marking six years of indefinite detention and torture at Guantanamo. "I knelt and prayed on the steps of the Supreme Court wearing an orange jumpsuit and black hood to be present for Fnu Fazaldad," said Tim Nolan, a nurse practitioner from Asheville, NC who provides health care for people with HIV.

Defendants and witnesses argued that they did not expect ...

Kongo Innocent Emmanuel Wrote:

"Through the Third Universal Theory ( Direct Democracy)
The Revolutionary Committees Movement(RCM) promote the emergency of a new type of citizen for a new society entirely democratic throughout direct democracy developed in the Green Book inspired by Muammar Al Qathafi, the leader of Al Fatah Revolution.
everywhere.

The duty of the Revolutionary Committees becomes:

Ø To incite the masses to exercise their authority.
Ø To strengthen the people's authority.
Ø To practice revolutionary control.
Ø To animate the Popular Congresses.
Ø To advise the Popular Committees and its delegates.
Ø To protect, defend the Revolution and to everlasting its propaganda.

For more information, please read a Green book, through this link.
You'll find your answer.
http://www.rcmlibya.org/English/"

Thank you for this contribution.

I went to the web site, printed several pages and had a long read.

I think the principles outlined by Muammar Al Qathafi, do try to go in the right ...

In response to the e-democracy thread Krzystof Ziarko wrote:

Hello,
this is a good idea. I'm sorry that there is not such group in Poland. But... I'd like to have answer to this question: could we have better system than a democracy.

Someone (I think Churchill) said that democracy is the worst system we have but we haven't anything else. One professor from France (I don't remember the name) said that democracy means we always choose the people we don't like because their opponents are worse. He said that he always must vote on people who aren't good in his opinion.

Come to Poland or another country which was under Soviet Union occupation. You will see all the mistakes of democracy. Maybe democracy must have time to grow or maybe we must wait for political Einstein or another Montesquieu...

This is a small part of a much longer speech. Jerry
Mander is a Director of the International Forum on
Globalization.
http://www.ifg.org/index.htm
JSV
*************************
29 June 2001
Santa Fe, New Mexico
By JERRY MANDER:

The act of watching TV is quickly replacing other ways of life and other value systems. I’ve personally visited places and seen how kids are giving up local games, they’re refusing the local language, they’re beginning to hate the old people, and seen the story-telling process disappear, and so on. People everywhere are beginning to carry the same images that we do, and are starting to crave the same commodities that we crave, from cars to hair sprays to Barbie dolls to Palm Pilots. TV is turning everyone into everyone else. It’s cloning cultures to be like us. It’s cloning them to match their landscape. In Brave New World Aldous Huxley envisioned this commercial cloning process via drugs and genetic engineering. We have those too. But TV does it just as well because, increasingly, ...

This text is three pages of nine, written by my online friend John Renesch. His insight is very powerful. There are many groups workin in this same direction. E-Democracy.org - The Global Engagement Trust - Global-Mindshift.org - Conexions.org and I know there are many others. Social networks like Viadeo are part of this same shift in understanding.

******************************

Epilogue for new 2005 edition of Getting to the Better Future, by John Renesch

EPILOGUE
The Great Dream
Author’s Thoughts Since the Last Edition Was Published

Here it is, five years after the first edition of this book was published, and I’m working on a new book, further describing this “better future” and why I think it is more possible now than any time in human history. It will probably be a year or two before this new book is published so I’d like to share a few things with readers of this new edition in the meantime.

While I am a fourth generation American and have lived all my life in the United States, the Great ...

This is a letter I wrote today for a Ryze forum "Truthseekers".

The discussion for several weeks has often been about racism in the USA. That's unusual, because on Ryze racism is the elephant in the room nobody ever mentions. The discussion goes nowhere. Lots of quotes form Martin Luther King and others but nobody discusses the real issue, except Bruce. Bruce is black and he's also a communist, and an activist, now in his 60's and very informed in his views.

Bruce writes:
"My impression of your "opinions" here, is that in the final analysis, you don't have faith in the people to construct a society that would best serve their interests.. you feel that the bourgeoisie, has a lock on intellectual, and creative capacity...

You feel that the average working man/woman has something to lose, so therefore you aren't ready for radical social change... you would prefer to hold on to what you don't have, and pray for the gods above, to make for a better day.

You are in that essentially anti-worker, or anti ...

Canada is very different to the USA in the way it's tried to deal with it's indigenous peoples and it's minority cultures. That can also be said of New Zealand.

While most of the readers of this column might see New Zealand as the little brother of Australia and the two countries as being very similar they have become poles apart, particularly on this issue.

New Zealand and Canada have by the means of legal recognition and by treaty arrangements tried to negotiate with their indigenous peoples. I can't speak for Canada, but here in New Zealand at least treaties were signed and then immediately broken by the new European settlers whenever it suited them. Maori were held to the law, but by misusing that same law Europeans were exempted from it by parliamentary and judicial malpractice.

When Maori tried to protect their lands, the law was turned against them and the lands were confiscated by order of parliament. However, I'm able to talk openly about what happened because for the last 50 years we've ...

Today we are a hub of 24 people. And we've been adding one member a day or almost that lately.

The style of the hub has been indicated. This intended to be a place for serious discussion. BUT although we've got lots of topics there is NO DISCUSSION going on. Seriously folks that's up to you.

As for 1000 Citizens, we'll very soon have that many people here, trust me on that one, but the secret to success is to find 20 or 30 people who look for suitable topics and who make a point of publishing something about once a month. Right now we need everyone to help.

That way whenever people come to this hub there is always something fresh and interesting to think about. And because many people are involved the range of topics is diverse.

I'm cheating a bit because more than half of the topics I've posted have had a previous life over on Ryze. You can help by keeping an eye out for interesting topics yourself.

You could also help by inviting your English speaking friends to join Viadeo and to take a ...

These notes are form the BBC programme shown a few days ago. They are not an accurate transcript, but they do contain the essence of the programme.

Carne Ross has written a book. He was a First Secretary on the British Embassy, working at the UN as a specialist on Iraq for 1998 to 2002. He was interviewed by Stephen Sackur.

My Notes read:

CR: I always wanted to be in the British Diplomatic Service. I was very committed to what it meant to be a diplomat. Through various experiences, particularly concerning Iraq I became disillusioned.

SS: You were a high flier who has turned against the system that nurtured you.

CR: That's right. I've struggled with my conscience about what to do. I often felt torn-up about it. Recognizing my own disloyalty – but believing that explaining the problems in the system of diplomacy today was even more important.

I took care to submit my book to the government for clearance. They asked me to remove some parts – which I have done. They would prefer that the book ...

Hello from far off New Zealand.

You may not know about Steven Clift and the E-Democracy movement if you are not active online. Steven began work on e-democracy over 10 years ago. There are active groups in the USA, in the UK and soon in New Zealand. Why not in your local area?

The list software used by E-Democracy was written in Christchurch, New Zealand, by a team led by my friend Dan Randow. They had to deal with issues of security and accountability and group management that required specialist software.

Here in Christchurch we are planning to open the first NZ Chapter called "Canterbury Issues" in April this year. The steering committee (I'm a member) had a meeting last night.

One way to make a positive move for democracy in you own area would be to open an E-Democracy group.

This is from the E-Democracy site.
[quote]
By Steven Clift, Board Chair, E-Democracy
Revised and Updated, May 2003

Many-to-Many E-mail Discussions Start Here

Despite thousands of political online discussions across ...

I think some people in the USA are entirely overboard on conspiracy theories. But I also know that in my life time I've seen a very large number of incredible stories, unbelievable, that turn out 20 or 30 years later to have been entirely accurate.

These stories were entirely discounted by the news media and by leading politicians and scientists, the people who are supposed to tell us the truth,at the time. I've learned to trust the Internet more than my local newspaper.

John
********************************
Want to Know, is a new web site based on such stories.
http://www.wanttoknow.info/

Spread the Word

Ten Verifiable Facts Can Change Our World and Lead to a Brighter Future

The ten easily verifiable facts below are taken from the home page of http://www.WantToKnow.info This empowering website specializes in providing fact-filled news articles http://www.WantToKnow.info/medianewsarticles
concise summaries of major cover-ups which impact our lives and our world. http://www.WantToKnow.info/summaries ...

http://www.droppingknowledge.org/bin/user/profile/6206.page

Alvaro Restrepo, a Colombian dancer and choreographer, could have pursued his career anywhere in the world–in New York, where he was trained, or in Europe, where he first made his mark. But in 1993, he decided to sacrifice all this to introduce modern dance to Colombia–where the discipline was barely known–and to teach it to disadvantaged children. Restrepo teamed up with Marie-France Delieuvin, programme director at the National Centre for Modern Dance in Angers, France, and their joint endeavour has produced astonishing results.
[clip]

On the topic of Human Dignity he says:

Alvaro Restrepo:
"My work in Colombia has to do fundamentally with dignity. In my opinion dignity is one of the most important words or concepts that we have to fight for. When we talk about dignity we talk about this other concept of quality that we human beings have to find. When we work in educational processes with children and adolescents, poor people and marginalized ...

I thought this was interesting.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ug9-dQgaEv8&mode=user&search

John

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-Winston Churchill

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
-.George Bernard Shaw

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
-James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
-Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
-Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
-Will Rogers

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you!
-Pericles (430 B.C.)

The only difference between a tax ...