How to Stop Extremism that Fueled Shooting

Norway’s Johan Galtung, Peace & Conflict Pioneer

So Breivik talks cultures where the Nazis talked race. But otherwise, the similarity is almost point to point.

When again you ask the question, "What does it remind you of?" there is a horrifying answer, which will be very difficult for Norway to process. This is exactly the ideology of the Washington-led attack on Muslim countries. There’s a civil war in Europe. It’s called "the clash of civilizations,".... The road is greased by failed states and by local groups taking command of those failed states, so that in these failed states, the local groups, be they Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, or al-Qaeda, these groups can launch decisive attacks on the Christian Western mainland, and particularly then the U.S. And 9/11 is then interpreted in that context. And point three, it makes no sense to have any dialogue. These people, you cannot talk with them. Terrible as it is, the only language they understand is violence. Well, my country, Norway, is a part of that: sharpshooters in Afghanistan killing Taliban.

Male Circumcision: Facts, Myths, Racism

Presentation abstract

Three major areas related to male circumcision are covered: facts, myths, and racism. The factual material includes activities of health organizations,  the costs and benefits of circumcision as a preventative health intervention, and the legal status of male circumcision. We first review the statements and programs of major international health organizations. Next, we present the scientific findings on the risks and benefits of male circumcision. Findings related to male and female sexual satisfaction after circumcision are also presented. Finally, we review the status of male circumcision under human rights law.

Male circumcision is the subject of widespread myths. First, we consider positions of various organizations and of "European doctors" on male circumcision. Exaggeration of intervention risks and minimization of disease prevention effects by opponents are discussed. Information that confuses the public about the effects of circumcision on disease incidence and sexual satisfaction is analyzed. We show that the "right to bodily integrity" is not a valid objection to male circumcision. 

Finally, we review the material disseminated by "Intactivists" and examine the effect of proposed bans to clarify the racist impact of the opposition campaign. We show how this position has the effect of promoting sexual dysfunction as well as discrimination against groups practicing circumcision. In the Nordic countries, new and proposed legislation regulating male circumcision most directly impacts Muslims.

Censorship in Transhumanism: Technoprogressive List, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET), & Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET)

As I have previously reported, the freedom of speech is not respected in many cryonics publications. Unfortunately, I have to report that this also applies to the wider transhumanist community. In both cases, certain ideas are suppressed, because they contradict the beliefs of persons in power.

To summarize the below:
I asked to be removed from the Technoprogressive List after being censored. I then discovered I was being secretly censored on the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) website. Around the same time, communications about an article that had been submitted to the Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET) went dead. I then started looking for an other publication outlet. A few months later, a lame "rejection notice" came. My interpretation is that this was the absolute longest delay that could appear at all reasonable for "internal review." In other words, the article was stalled for as long as possible in the hopes I wouldn't immediately send it somewhere else. Comparing the quality of my article with what usually appears in JET will confirm this analysis. One of the positive reviews of the article posted to the Cryonics Institute List:

It is clear that you have given much thought to the question of the future of cryonics and cryonics marketing.  I suggest that all the CI current candidates for office, and present Directors, read this document, if they have not already done so. (Jim Yount, 11 August 2013)

PS: I have not included all dates, etc. in the below. Feel free to request the mails I exchanged with the responsible, which fully document my statements:
James J. Hughes <director@ieet.org>
Kris Notaro <krisnotaro@gmail.com>
Marcelo Rinesi <marcelo.rinesi@gmail.com>
Russell Kenneth Blackford <russellblackford@bigpond.com>

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In the cases I report here, the criticism of Buddhism has apparently triggered the censorship. The Technoprogressive List, the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) website, and the Journal of Evolution and Technology (JET) are all edited by James J. Hughes. He "is working on a second book tentatively titled Cyborg Buddha." I recently read that Hughes had been a Buddhist Monk. I am not the first person to express doubts about the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, which publishes the IEET website and JET.

My banning from the Technoprogressive List apparently was triggered by this message, even though it was ascribed to another issue. (I say this because I had several times earlier expressed my opinion on the "global warming" issue, even earlier criticizing the Moderator for attempting to limit discussion on that topic.):

Subject: Re: [tp] Why the Dalai Lama is a Marxist

On 2 Oct 2012, at 4:42 PM, Hughes, James J. wrote:

>Stuart Smithers is chair of the religion department at the University of Puget Sound, director of the Smoke Farm Institute, and a contributing editor to Tricycle.

I read about half of this nonsense. 

The facts that everyone should know about Buddhism are:

:it is a totalitarian theocracy headed by a God-King.

:it systematically abuses women -

I was a Tantric sex slave

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/i-was-a-tantric-sex-slave-1069859.html

:the people on the bottom eat the shit of the people on the top.  Also literally, according to -

http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Contents.htm

dss

The exchange that resulted in my leaving the The Technoprogressive List:

Subject: RE: [tp] CEPR: Reduced Work Hours as a Means of Slowing Climate Change

On 6 Feb 2013, at 5:49 PM, Hughes, James J. wrote:

>The paper notes that while some amount of climate change is inevitable, the amount of warming is very much under our control.

When is the promotion of anti-humanist nonsense by "progressives" going to stop?

https://plus.google.com/communities/109975716543018076591

Even NASA leading cheerleader for "Global Warming" has admitted that there has been no warming for a decade:

http://www.sepp.org/twtwfiles/2013/TWTW%20-%201-19-13.pdf

James Hansen: The most iconic scientist in global warming / climate change establishment is James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies (NASA-GISS). With two colleagues he published a paper this week stating: "The 5-year mean global temperature has been flat for a decade, which we interpret as a combination of natural variability and a slowdown in the growth rate of the net climate forcing."

More:

http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/images/stories/papers/originals/two_decades_no_warming.pdf

dss

Subject: RE: [tp] CEPR: Reduced Work Hours as a Means of Slowing Climate Change

On 6 Feb 2013, at 8:10 PM, Hughes, James J. wrote:

> Even NASA leading cheerleader for "Global Warming"! has admitted that there has been no warming for a decade:

David

I consider climate change denialism on IEET lists to be trolling, so this is a warning.

The existence of anthropogenic climate change is a given on our lists. If you want to fight about it go someplace else.

--------

Subject: RE: [tp] CEPR: Reduced Work Hours as a Means of Slowing Climate Change

If you are not going to allow free speech, then remove me from the List.

dss

Subject: RE: [tp] CEPR: Reduced Work Hours as a Means of Slowing Climate Change

> If you are not going to allow free speech, then remove me from the List.

Since most of your contributions are of the trolling variety I'll be happy to.

--------

====================================

Sometime later, I added a short comment to the IEET website, which either never appeared or disappeared without any notice to me - comments are moderated. However, I did receive a notice when some else added a comment to that same article:

Subject: Someone just responded to your comment

Someone just responded to the entry you subscribed to at:

Multimedia

The title of the entry is:

Dark Matter of Transhumanism

You can see the comment at the following URL:

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/comments/konovalenko20130330

--------

Subject: Comment?

Why hasn't the comment I posted to this page appeared?

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/comments/konovalenko20130330

dss

Subject: Re: Comment?

On 9 Apr 2013, at 12:15 AM, Kris Notaro wrote:

>I am not the only person who moderates the comments.

>What was the comment?

See appended. The response, however, is not to my Comment. My Comment itself was a few lines correcting some methodological errors and linking to some blog pages.

dss

I received no responses whatsoever to these:

Subject: Re: Comment?

Has this been resolved?

dss

On 9 Apr 2013, at 12:15 AM, Kris Notaro wrote:

do you have a username and password with the IEET?

Subject: Fwd: Comment?

James Hughes,

If I have no response by April 22nd, I will be forced to conclude that this is a result of arbitrary censorship.

dss

(I have deleted large amounts of quoted text above to avoid repetition.)

====================================

I had already submitted my draft, "The Decline of Cryonics: An Overview" to the Journal of Evolution and Technology:

Subject: Re: The Decline of Cryonics: An Overview 

David,

Thanks! - Kris

On Sat, Mar 23, 2013 at 5:30 PM, David Stodolsky <dss@secureid.net> wrote:

I am proofing this now and can submit it within a few days:

Abstract

We predict the failure of the Cryonics Industry and the likely destruction of those in storage. Two failure modes are considered, organizational decline and political attack. The strategic direction of the Industry is analyzed by applying well known principles of marketing and organization theory. Two alternative strategies are suggested that could minimize failure risk by reversing the stagnation of the Industry and integrating it into the mainstream.

dss

Subject: [JET] Submission Acknowledgement

Date: 30 March 2013

David Sanders Stodolsky:

Thank you for submitting the manuscript, "The Decline of Cryonics: An

Overview" to Journal of Evolution and Technology. With the online journal

management system that we are using, you will be able to track its progress

through the editorial process by logging in to the journal web site:

Manuscript URL: http://jet.jetpress.org/index.php/jet/author/submission/117

Username: davidstodolsky

If you have any questions, please contact me. Thank you for considering this

journal as a venue for your work.

James J. Hughes

Journal of Evolution and Technology

From: Marcelo Rinesi <marcelo.rinesi@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: Author ID?

Date: 30 March 2013 8:50:09 PM GMT+01:00

To: David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org>

I have given the appropriate permissions to your DAVIDSTODOLSKY account; once you log again into the system you should be able to upload.

On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 12:29 PM, David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org> wrote:

If I am supposed to submit via the Web, I don't see how to do it.

dss

On 28 Mar 2013, at 2:35 AM, Marcelo Rinesi wrote:

Thanks.

And, yes, that'd be useful.

best,

Marcelo

On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 4:10 PM, David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org> wrote:

This page

http://jetpress.org/authors.html

has inconsistent info for punctuation of "et al"

Do you need a draft without author identity?

dss

From: Marcelo Rinesi <marcelo.rinesi@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: Author ID?

Date: 31 March 2013 12:10:37 AM GMT+01:00

To: David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org>

Great, thanks.

On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 5:23 PM, David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org> wrote:

On 30 Mar 2013, at 8:50 PM, Marcelo Rinesi wrote:

I have given the appropriate permissions to your DAVIDSTODOLSKY account; once you log again into the system you should be able to upload.

I have uploaded the anonymized article and the two bit-mapped images. 

Find attached the unanonymized PDF, which includes my Bio. This replaces the previously sent PDF. 

dss

Subject: Re: Author ID?

Date: 11 April 2013 

What is the status of this paper?

dss

On 30 Mar 2013, at 8:50 PM, Marcelo Rinesi wrote:

I have given the appropriate permissions to your DAVIDSTODOLSKY account; once you log again into the system you should be able to upload.

I have uploaded the anonymized article and the two bit-mapped images. 

Find attached the unanonymized PDF, which includes my Bio. This replaces the previously sent PDF. 

dss

From: Marcelo Rinesi <marcelo.rinesi@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: Author ID?

Date: 12 April 2013 3:40:25 PM GMT+02:00

To: David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org>

It's being internally pre-reviewed, and we're contacting potential external reviewers with domain-specific expertise.

On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 5:28 PM, David Stodolsky <david.stodolsky@socialinformatics.org> wrote:

What is the status of this paper?

dss

On 30 Mar 2013, at 8:50 PM, Marcelo Rinesi wrote:

I have given the appropriate permissions to your DAVIDSTODOLSKY account; once you log again into the system you should be able to upload.

I have uploaded the anonymized article and the two bit-mapped images. 

Find attached the unanonymized PDF, which includes my Bio. This replaces the previously sent PDF. 

dss

Subject: Paper?

Date: 24 April 2013

What is the status of this paper?

dss

On 30 Mar 2013, at 8:50 PM, Marcelo Rinesi wrote:

I have given the appropriate permissions to your DAVIDSTODOLSKY account; once you log again into the system you should be able to upload.

I have uploaded the anonymized article and the two bit-mapped images. 

dss

(I received no response to the above request, so about a month later I began investigating other publication outlets. After investigating a few other possibilities, the below arrived:)

Subject: [JET] Your submission re the decline of cryonics

Date: 4 August 2013

Dear Dr. Stodolsky,

Thank you for your submission to The Journal of Evolution and Technology

entitled "The Decline of Cryonics: An Overview."

We were very interested in your submission, as the viability of, and the

possible prospects for, the cryonics industry certainly fall into the

journal's remit. We would be interested in publishing a critique of the

cryonics industry or an authoritative study of its long-term viability and

prospects.

In the end, however, we were not sufficiently persuaded to pass this

particular paper on to our next step, which is external peer review (we

reject many papers prior to external review, but seldom accept a paper

without it).

We would be interested in looking at future papers that you might write

within this general area, but we ultimately thought this "overview" paper

was not sufficiently compelling in its structure and logic, and in the rigor

of the research in some of the sections, for that purpose.

For example, your analysis of the marketing methods currently used in the

cryonics industry may or may not be correct, but we don't think enough has

been done to substantiate it. This sort of problem might be fixable if it

had occurred in only one section of the paper, but it happens enough

throughout to require considerably more research. This might lead to either

a new paper or perhaps a series of shorter papers focused more closely on

particular aspects of the industry's problems, climate of operation, and

future prospects.

Once again, thank you for thinking of JET, and we wish you well in your

further research on the issues faced by the cryonics industry.

Yours sincerely,

Russell Blackford

Editor-in-Chief

Cryonics Institute 2013 Election "fixed"

Key sentence:

The increasing secrecy and isolation of the Board from the Membership makes it likely there will be no warning of an economic collapse and/or meltdown.

As you may know, I agreed to answer questions on the CI List about my Candidacy in the run up to the 2013 Board Election (I normally do not post to censored lists at all). I stated I would only participate up to the end of the Election: I  would then post a summary of any censorship that had occurred in a message to the List. If that was not permitted, I stated I would post my Summary on my Blog:

http://cosmism.blogspot.dk/

The current President of CI, Dennis Kowalski, barred me from posting to the CI List when he assumed Office. As the 2013 Election approached, I was deleted from the List completely, so I could not even read messages. At both of these times, I was not participating in cryonics related activities at all. As it became more and more obvious that I was being discriminated against arbitrarily, a decision was made to readmit me to the List. Also, the attempt to prevent me from communicating my Platform to CI List participants had not worked, since another Member took the initiative to post my Candidate Statement to the List. 

Unfortunately, this newly discovered "fairness" was limited by setting the List to moderation of every message sent to the List. First, my messages were delayed for up to five days and finally Dennis Kowalski started blocking all messages I sent to the List. I am, therefore, terminating my attempt to post to the List at this time (actually, my last message was sent 21 August 2013 - see below). 

We have seen increasing secrecy and censorship since Dennis Kowalski took Office - not to mention outright disinformation. This year, for example, Candidate Statements were not posted to the CI website. No minutes of Board Meetings have been posted since October 1, 2012, when Dennis Kowalski took over as President. His "Cryonics Institute Member Conduct Guidelines" are in conflict with the Bylaws and are not being followed.

The Leadership is betraying the legacy left to us by our Founder. Current Board Members have not exercised due diligence in ensuring that the democratic principles enshrined in the Bylaws are followed. Some of them have even participated in the deception of the Membership necessary to continue the Coverup of abusive practices. These Practices undermine the trust necessary for the continued existence of the Institute. I urge you to run for the Board in the next Election. Without your participation, the noble experiment started by our Founder will fail and his hoped for a future life will be shown to be an illusion. The increasing secrecy and isolation of the Board from the Membership makes it likely there will be no warning of an economic collapse and/or meltdown.

dss

PS: I am not planning to send any more emails like this, however, please let me know if they are not wanted.

David Stodolsky, PhD                   Institute for Social Informatics

Tornskadestien 2, st. th., DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark

dss@socialinformatics.org          Skype/Twitter: davidstodolsky

Blog: http://cosmism.blogspot.com

Begin forwarded message:

From: David Stodolsky <dss@secureid.net>

Date: 21 August 2013 3:45:39 PM GMT+02:00

To: Cryonics_Institute@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Future posts to this List

(The time between a question being sent to the List and its response appearing on the List can be more than five days under the current moderation scheme. For a speedy response, or to be certain you see a response at all, place my address in the Cc field: dss(at)secureid(dot)net. On the Yahoo CI Message Page, you can Reply both to the List and directly by selecting that option from the "To" drop down menu)

In his continuing campaign to promote "free and open communication among all CI Members," Dennis Kowalski is now reviewing personally every message I send to the List. The following have not appeared after 5 days:

: Debbie Fleming owes the Members an apology

: Re: [CI Members List] Candidate Statement for the 2013  Cryonics Institute Election

This makes the List useless for any kind of interactive communication. So, I will now also be posting List Messages to the Google Plus CI Communities:

https://plus.google.com/communities/107743828133975543434

https://plus.google.com/communities/101561524836536574556

This last link is to the private CI Community, which requires registration. Messages which contain text from others will be posted there. 

So, after first banning me from posting for no reason and then deleting me from the Group for no reason, he has discovered yet a new method to prevent me from communicating to Members about the abuses surrounding the 2011 Election. This is the Election that placed him on the Board. This is not surprising, in fact, it can be expected when political appointees are allowed to abuse their administrative powers.

dss

Libertarianism and Stalinism are equivalent as forms of governance

The purpose of this post is to argue that Libertarianism, as that term is used in the USA, and Stalinism are equivalent as forms of governance.

Stalinism is both a type of administrative/governmental system and a type of dictatorial rule used by Stalin to control the Soviet Union (SU). Stalin was a homicidal maniac responsible for mass slaughter of his own citizens. The discussion here is only about Stalinism as an administrative/governmental system, not about a personality and the specifics of Stalin's Rule. 

The term "Stalinist" is only inflammatory language in the USA and a few other places. In Denmark, for example, there is a small Stalinist political party. Stalin is the second most popular historical figure in the territories of the former SU. 

Many of the leading figures in the cryonics movement have been libertarians. This has been reflected in the leadership style that has been exercised and the organizational forms selected. The recent attempts by CI Leadership to exercise dictatorial control over communications among members is an example of that style. The structure of Alcor, which has a self-selecting board of directors, is a manifestation of an organizational form. Since that organization was dominated by libertarians at its founding, it is no surprise that a democratic format was not selected.

I have argued before that cryonics is revolutionary:

http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/dsp.cgi?msg=30455

Marx is one on the leading theorists of revolution - thought he was wrong in many ways. Unfortunately, Leninism and Stalinism appear to be the most accurate descriptors in this case.

The Cato Institute, who's motto is "Individual liberty, free markets, and peace," a preferred think tank of libertarians, advocated a Leninist strategy:

http://zfacts.com/p/486.html

"Lenin recognized that fundamental change is contingent upon ... its success in isolating and weakening its opponents. ... we would do well to draw a few lessons from the Leninist strategy. 

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQsceZ9skQI&feature=related>

Stalinism refers to a type of dictatorship based upon the control of information. It was initially created after Lenin's death, in opposition to the democratic rule proposed by Tolstoy, who is also popular among conservatives:

<http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=neoconinfluence&neoconinfluence_prominent_neoconservatives=neoconinfluence_paul_wolfowitz>

Many neoconservatives like Stephen Schwartz, a writer for the Weekly Standard, still consider themselves to be loyal disciples of Trotsky. 

So, my analysis is that many calling themselves "libertarians" are, in fact, stalinists. Both progressive and conservative commentators argue that Libertarianism is a misnomer:

<http://www.theamericanconservative.com/article/2005/mar/14/00017/>

This is no surprise, as Libertarianism is basically the Marxism of the Right. 

The political corollary of this is that since no electorate will support Libertarianism, a libertarian government could never be achieved democratically but would have to be imposed by some kind of authoritarian state, 

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkXhF2DJ7fc&feature=related>

<http://www.distantocean.com/2008/04/chomsky-on-libe.html>

http://cosmism.blogspot.com/2011/09/market-stalinism.html

If we accept the interpretation that Libertarianism is, in fact, Marxism of the Right, then we can ask what type of Marxism it is. Lenin advocated that the "vangard of the revolution", an elite group of intellectuals, should seize power and "lead" the masses, whether they liked it or not. Traditional Marxists considered this to be right-wing deviationalism. This type of elitism is common in cryonics. It has resulted in the marketing failure of the Movement.

After Lenin's death, Stalin and Tolstoy were the two main contenders for leadership of the SU. Tolstoy favored democracy. Stalin formed a minority dictatorship. If my observation of the facts of the recent CI Elections are correct, then characterizing the Leadership as Stalinist is appropriate. They will resist any initiative that could create an alternative channel of communication within cryonics, since knowledge of their misconduct, which has been suppressed by censorship, would be revealed.

Gospel of Green—to save the Earth from humans.

The elitist environmental movement has always had a problem with its limited appeal to low-income minorities, few of whom identify with the upscale, Volvo-driving profile of environmental organizations’ typical membership. -

‘Quantifying the consensus on global warming in the literature’

Inspection shows only 41 of the 64 papers, or 0.3% of the sample, actually endorsed their hypothesis. Criteria for peer review of papers quantifying scientific consensus are discussed.

In the scientific method, then, there is no place for mere consensus. A hypothesis that is demonstrated – such as Pythagoras’ theorem – needs no consensus, for it is true whether anyone believes it or not – i.e., objectively true. A hypothesis that is disproven needs no consensus, for it is objectively false.

“There appears to be little basis in the peer-reviewed literature for the degree of alarm on the issue of man-made climate change which is being expressed in the media and by politicians.”

Undermine sustainable forestry development and management in developing economies.

Under the pretext of safeguarding the environment, green protectionism benefits domestic suppliers while inhibiting developing countries from efficiently exploiting their natural resources. These protectionist measures conflict with World Trade Organization rules that forbid discrimination against foreign trade products, and they also undermine sustainable forestry development and management in developing economies.

The Decline of Cryonics: An Overview

This is a prepublication draft. Comments are welcome.

Abstract

We predict the failure of the Cryonics Industry and the likely destruction of those in storage. Two failure modes are considered, organizational decline and political attack. The strategic direction of the Industry is analyzed by applying well known principles of marketing and organization theory. Two alternative strategies are suggested that could minimize failure risk by reversing the stagnation of the Industry and integrating it into the mainstream. 

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4147630/Decline%20of%20cryonics%20v4.pdf

NASA’s upper management was barred from stopping climate activist, James Hansen, from promoting a political agenda.

The full report by Dr. Tony Phillips  is available from the National Academies Press. The news story reveals NASA’s upper management was barred from stopping climate activist, James Hansen, head of NASA’s research on climate, from promoting a political agenda. The NASA climate retreat signals that a paradigm shift is now in full swing and the discredited claims of man-made global warming alarmists are being tossed aside at the highest levels of government.

Endless war for profit

If you were a US leader, or an official of the National Security State, or a beneficiary of the private military and surveillance industries, why would you possibly want the war on terror to end? That would be the worst thing that could happen. It's that war that generates limitless power, impenetrable secrecy, an unquestioning citizenry, and massive profit.

Just this week, a federal judge ruled that the Obama administration need not respond to the New York Times and the ACLU's mere request to disclose the government's legal rationale for why the President believes he can target US citizens for assassination without due process. Even while recognizing how perverse her own ruling was - "The Alice-in-Wonderland nature of this pronouncement is not lost on me" and it imposes "a veritable Catch-22" - the federal judge nonetheless explained that federal courts have constructed such a protective shield around the US government in the name of terrorism that it amounts to an unfettered license to violate even the most basic rights: "I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the executive branch of our government to proclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws while keeping the reasons for their conclusion a secret" (emphasis added).