The Plug Nickel Times is proud to bring you website links to select opinion articles that you may not find through your local media. All links are offsite unless otherwise noted - followed links should open in another browser window. Links can become dated or otherwise fail to function, for this reason we quote the actual headline of an article. This may allow you to find an alternate copy of the article through a news index or search engine. Some sites we link to may require a registration process to view an article - this website may be useful to you in those instances. Comments, corrections and submissions are welcome - an email link is at the bottom of the page.
March 1-15, 2005
March 12, 2005
Who Killed Rafik Hariri? by Justin Raimondo
"We're only supposed to see the flag-bedecked 'pro-democracy' demonstrators in Beirut as they scream for Syrian blood and pose for the cameras. Indeed, the whole matter of just who killed Hariri has largely been forgotten by the Western media, which would much rather focus on yet another color-coded democratic 'revolution' engineered by generous dollops of U.S. tax dollars and rhetorical support from the White House."
Storm Warnings From Asia by Eric Margolis
"While most eyes are fixed on the Mideast, two long-simmering crises over Taiwan and Nepal are heating up again."
Was George Bush Right? by Harry Browne
The Atrocities of a Pale Rider- John D. Negroponte by Celerino Castillo III
"As I've stated in the past, this country will get worse before it gets better, if it gets better. I am now capable of feeling deeply in my blood when an injustice has been committed. I've risked my life to demonstrate what I believe to be real- that is that an armed struggle (with pen in hand) is in order for those who are struggling in keeping their freedoms here at home. I've now become a veteran of my third, and perhaps most dangerous war, the war against the criminals in my own government."
It Ain't Easy Being White (down at Burt's Tavern) by Joe Bageant
"One thing for sure. Traditionally, we can count on working white Americans to go off in a homicidal swarm to 'defend our way of life,' whenever our leaders periodically declare it to be threatened. Whenever they nail the cowhide to the barn. Right now we have a fullblown case of the cowhide syndrome. Anyone who grew up on a farm knows what happens if you butcher a cow, then nail the hide up high on the barn. The rest of the cows go absolutely freaking bezerk until it is removed. Now George Bush and the neos have nailed the hide on the barn and they have no damned intention of taking it down. For the moment however, it is not election season so things have calmed down a bit and it is mostly the neo-con leadership and the liberal herd that is agitated and bellowing out there. Everybody else is at Walmart."
Want to know where the US is headed? by Patrick Yancey
My Corrupt Western Biases from Jonathan Wilde
"In all the talk of the protests in Lebanon, one thing has been completely overlooked..."
March 9, 2005
On this date one year ago the Plug Nickel Times went online!
Bush Plunging Into Syrian Swamp by Paul Craig Roberts
It's frightening, what they’re doing to us... by Martin Samuel
"Tony Blair’s biggest fear is that he is not as clever as he is made out to be: that he took his eye off the ball. If he thinks we are so vulnerable that the only way to ensure our freedom is by surrendering it, he also knows he has the bottom-line responsibility for this farrago. He wants us scared of them because he is scared of us. Mostly, he is scared of carrying the can, of the British public waking up to a War on Terror that has been diluted, mismanaged and misdirected almost from day one."
March 6, 2005
Sibel Edmonds’ 2005 Spring Offensive: FBI Shields Pakistan/Turkey Nuclear Weapons Development, Drug Trade, Cheney, Rumsfeld by John Stanton
"As Sibel Edmonds stated in an interview with Chris Deliso at Antiwar.com, the matter is not about 911 or being a savior. It’s all about recovering the shattered remnants of accountability in the USA which are as tough to find as an honest statement from Republicans and Democrats running the US government. Americans should thank the mysterious Sibel Edmonds for having the guts to avoid the post-911 conspiracy trap and say, 'They're [the US government/business] afraid of information, of the truth coming out, and accountability the whole accountability issue that will arise. But it's not as complicated as it might seem. If they were to allow the whole picture to emerge, it would just boil down to a whole lot of money and illegal activities.'"
Protecting A Regime With Blood On Its Hands by John Pilger
March 5, 2005
The Syrian Hoax by Harry Browne
Jim Lehrer interviews Condoleezza Rice on PBS Newshour (transcript)
"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discusses Syria's presence in Lebanon, diplomatic efforts to end Iran's nuclear aspirations, the U.S. relationship with Europe, and her first months as America's top diplomat."
(audio link also available at the linked location)
Failure Is the Health of the State by Butler Shaffer
"The unpredictable influences that complexity has upon human behavior are compounded by another symbiotic factor: the interrelated nature of institutional power and individual identity. Political systems expand their size and authority not through the conquest of other lands and populations, but through the conquest of their own people. The ultimate power of any state system is to be found in the mindset of men and women who, largely through conditioning, identify their sense of purpose and being with "their" nation-state - or, for that matter, any other institutional abstraction.
...
We continue to experience American society as a well-organized system of plunder, violence, warfare, and other dehumanizing attributes, because of the content of our thinking. As long as we insist upon loving these systems more than we do ourselves, our children and grandchildren will continue to be ground down and destroyed in the process. We need to stop revering and energizing these vicious agencies that have never been able to deliver on their promises of a free, peaceful, orderly, and secure world."
California Dreaming: Another Nightmare for Liberty by Michael Gaddy
"'As California goes, so goes the nation' is an often-heard comment. Sadly, for those who cherish freedom and expect the State to adhere to the limits of the Constitution, this happens all too frequently. California, with a majority of its residents exhibiting both cowardice and ignorance, believes the State to be the only entity that should possess .50 caliber rifles. As predicted, that trend is now flowing eastward to at least one other state: there is now legislation in Illinois to ban .50 caliber rifles."
Big Media's Rent-a-Pundits by Garry Reed
"When does a pundit become a fundit? When he or she becomes a paid puppet for the politicalcrats. When they're funded fraudsters of the Federalcrats. When they pocket political plunder to pitch partisan policies. First it was Armstrong Williams, 'a prominent black pundit,' who scooped up $240,000 of Bush Administration taxbucks to promote No Child Left Behind on his nationally syndicated TV show. All of which raises a very simple question in my mind: Where's my money?"
Discriminating In and Out of the Box by Harry Goslin
"Trying another approach, I asked a different question: 'How often do we discriminate?' Silence followed again. I clued them to think in daily and economic terms. 'All the time, all day,' chimed one young man. Okay, then based on those parameters, what other definitions can be offered for discrimination? 'To make distinctions,' said a young lady. Good. 'What else?' More silence. I could almost see smoke coming out of their ears at this point. How about 'to distinguish' and 'to differentiate' (definitions right out of the dictionary)? Some students nodded sheepishly. After about ten minutes of probing and prying, we had reached an agreement on the definition of discriminate.
But wait a minute: what happened to the original notion of discrimination as implying racial or ethnic prejudice? Well, through the mildly painful process of thinking, we had climbed out of the institutional box that had been placed around the word 'discriminate.' Now that we were free of those constraints, I posed the question, 'Is it okay to discriminate?' No, was the quick response. Back into the box we went."
March 2, 2005
Bush in Brussels: US Steps Up Threats Of Wider Mideast War by Patrick Martin
Dirty job, clean hands by Jeff Wells
"You'd think, after Syria did such a bang-up job torturing Mahar Arar when US authorities deported the Canadian to Damascus to do its dirty work, Washington would cut it some slack. From the start of the 'War on Terror,' Syria has demonstrated a readiness, verging on over-eagerness, to join it with gusto. But that's the thing about bogus wars: when the pretext is a lie, the text becomes irrelevent."
The meaning of Calm Relativity, LA Times Style by Alison Weir
"The headline proclaims: 'Palestinian Suicide bomber Shatters Calm of late.' The lead sentence then goes on to state that this bomber 'shattered a months-long period of relative calm...'
The fact is, however, that the truce and this 'calm' were shattered long before this. The last suicide bombing against Israeli civilians was Nov. 1, 2004. It took three Israeli lives. Since that time, while Israelis have basked in 'relative calm,' 170 Palestinian men, women, and children have been killed."
