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The American Education System

September 4th, 2010 Mark Cella No comments

Our American Education System Has Been Hi-jacked by Those Advocating a Dumbing Down of Children. Their Goal is to Create a Population of Workers, Not Thinkers.

The American education system is being systematically changed from one of teaching children to think into one of preparing children for the New World Order. Our young people are no longer learning critical thinking skills; theyre taught to embrace the collective.

The New World Order, also commonly called the Global Community, is the vision of the worlds elite. The elite envision a world where God-given rights are a thing of the past.

They envision a world where constant surveillance and brainwashing ensures that the public is subservient to the elites military forces. The plan is to keep you in a constant state of fear. The plan is to ruin the family structure, to turn child against parent.

If you look closely, this is being manifested in the American education system.

"We no longer see the teaching of facts and information as the primary function of education."

- Dr. Shirley McCune, at the 1989 Kansas Governors Conference

Thats right; the primary purpose is to identify at a young age what vocation each child is best "suited for," and then churn out "worker bees," rather than vibrant people full of their own individual ideas.

Mark Cella on Outcome Based American Education System

"If every parent in America knew what was really going on in the public schools, there would be a revolution."

- Columnist Thomas Sowell

If youre a parent, you need to be aware of a new idea called "Outcome-Based Education" (OBE).

In his comments in the infamous "Dear Hillary letter," Congressman Henry Hyde charged that the Goals 2000/STW (School-to-Work) education reforms were a planned concept "for dumbing down our schools and changing the character of the nation through behavior modification."

Congressman Sonny Bono, in the letter to a constituent said: "Our schools will be restructured to teach labor skills and to focus on changing attitudes and social behavior."

Lynne Cheney, former head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, showed in her New York Times article that: "School-to-Work programs dont just direct job choices. They also seek to inculcate attitudes."

The chairman of the Education Committee in the Oregon House of Representatives said that through school "reform" Oregon shifted "from effective education (reading, writing and arithmetic) to affective education where the emphasis is on attitudes, behaviors, and socialization. Academic subjects become secondary."

- quoted from None Dare Call It Education, by John A. Stormer

Mark Cella on Outcome Based American Education System

Realize that as some people became aware of "Outcome-Based Education" (OBE) in the mid-90s, it came under attack by those concerned with its intent at dumbing down our youth.

Therefore, those advocating it stopped using the term. However, its still in operation under other names, such as, performance-based education, competency-based education, and high-performance education.

Again, we turn to Stormers book for insight on two problems with OBE and its effect on the American education system.

Family Research Council issued a report on OBE in 1994 saying:

" ... the outcomes that the gurus of OBE have in mind have less to do with whether Johnny can comprehend the Federalist Papers or place the Civil War in the correct half-century than with his acquisition of the desired attitudes on such issues as global resource inequality, multiculturalism, homelessness, alternative lifestyles, and environmentalism. Under OBE, political correctness goes to grade school. The new outcomes are supposed to make education relevant to real life problems."

The second major problem with OBE is that its advocates say, "No student will fail-all will measure up." That sounds appealing. Yet all students do not have the same basic abilities. To insure that all achieve the targeted outcomes there must be a leveling down of the goals.

The problem was spelled out in a September 1992 publication of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), In answering the question, What are some of the major challenges in the process of converting to OBE? DESE said:

"The first and most critical challenge is changing our beliefs and attitudes. We must stop believing that a few students will do well in school, that most will be average and that some will certainly fail. That belief or expectation will be difficult to change because, in all our experience, that is what we have observed. A successful conversion to OBE requires us to believe that virtually all students can learn at a satisfactory level. They can if our schools are organized and conducted to achieve that goal."

Mark Cella on Goals for the Education System

Earlier, we quoted Shirley McCune. Heres what Stormer had to say regarding McCune and her ideas for the American education system in None Dare Call It Education.

"McCune is typical of the new generation of school reformers and planners. She led the way in bringing key educators to see boys and girls as human capital--raw material to be shaped and molded into the bricks and mortar for building a new world order."

Later Stormer quotes Lamar Alexander, President of the University of Tennesseeand a former Governor of that state, as he describes how theyll restructure Americas society through brand new American schools:

I would think the brand new American school would be open year round-open from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m. A second characterization might be that these schools would serve children from age three months to eighteen years of age. A shocking thought to you-but if you were to do an inventory of every baby in your community and think about the needs of those babies for the next four or five years, you might see that those needs might not be served in any other way-they have to be served in some way-and maybe around the school. Or if you study a little more, you might go back to think the school might need to serve the pregnant mother of the baby in terms of prenatal care."

Do you see what these New World Order nuts envision for Americans? They see and are implementing how they can transform the American education system into a complete invasion of the family and private life.

Unless these plans are thwarted, the future will be one where individual parental control over their children will be replaced with state control.

In 1934, a man named Aldous Huxley wrote a fictional book called, Brave New World. In it he wrote.

"A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. To make them love it is the task assigned, in present-day totalitarian states, to the ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors and school teachers."

Huxleys "fiction" has turned real.

Mark Cella on the American Education System

Our goal is to expose all aspects of Globalization (New World Order), such as how the American education system is in serious danger. The misuse of our American education system is actually a symptom of allowing international bankers and industrialists to control our monetary system. Our money and banking is the key to the New World Order.

More education on this is available at Federal Reserve banking history and Money Creation. Once you understand that the elite cabal funds its Global Community through illegal taxation and fraudulent debt creation, you can begin to see that one solution is to go after that funding.

By blindly buying into Federal taxes and a mountain of debt, Americans are unwittingly funding the elite and their totalitarian plans. It doesnt have to be this way. If the people are educated on the fraud, the fraud falls apart. We suggest you allow Aaron Russo to educate you on the fraudulent tax issue.

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Civil Rights

September 4th, 2010 Mark Cella No comments

Mark Cella on Civil Rights

Civil Rights and Liberties Are Under Serious Attack. Without Our Basic Freedoms as Afforded by Constitutional Law, We Are Stripped of All Means by Which to Fight NWO.

Our civil rights and liberties have always been under threat and challenged, but never more so than in these times as the war on terrorism is the buzzword on everyone's mind. Our government is taking away our rights under the guise of keeping Americans "safe."

Add new technology to the equation, new technology that allows the government to invade our privacy any time they choose, and our freedoms are backed into the corner.

Americans of all backgrounds are feeling the threat against our rights, but none more so than people of Arab descent. We need to work together as one with the government to repair our civil rights and freedoms, starting with abolishing the Patriot Act.

Other ways in which we can protect our rights are by putting an end to the arrest of civilians without cause or warrant as well as prevent the secret detention of people suspected of terrorist activity.

And don't forget repealing the phrase 'probable cause' which has led to the invasion of privacy in countless incidents anytime the government felt like taking a look. All of these policies point to the weakening of judicial power in the government, power the executive branch has taken over.

Americans, in the name of fighting terrorists, are now subjected to policies and practices that do nothing to apprehend terrorists, but do everything to take away our civil rights and liberties. We once fought for the civil rights of people with disabilities, people of color, for women, and for people of different religions. Now we find ourselves fighting for our basic rights that are clearly outlined in the United States Constitution.

Mark Cella on American Civil Rights and Liberties

Congress passed the Patriot Act in 2001 in an effort to aid in the fight against terrorism. This bill alone has destroyed and eaten away at many of our civil rights and liberties. The Patriot Act allows the United States government to detain and hold any foreigners they feel may be a threat to the security of the country.

The act also allows the government to eavesdrop on conversations between lawyers and their clients who are being held in a federal prison if it's suspected it might deter future acts of violence or terrorism.

Under the Patriot Act, the government and federal agents are now allowed surveillance of e-mail and telephone conversations. They also have the authorization to search anyone's home or personal property.

These operations, called 'sneak and peak,' don't require a warrant or prior notification to the individual being searched. The Patriot Act has overtaken and overwhelmed this country in so many ways that it's hard to fathom it's actually happening.

This type of government authority is something we once expected of communist countries, but now we're experiencing this extreme violation of our freedoms here in our own country.

Mark Cella on Civil Rights and Liberties

Even though the government will tell you the curtailment of these civil rights and liberties are directed toward suspected terrorists, the truth is that all Americans are affected by these conditions. The atmosphere of war is contagious and there isn't one person who isn't affected in some way, no matter how small.

Our right to freedom of speech, to voice our opinions, has been severely threatened all around the country. On December 15, 2001, Janis Besler Heaphy, publisher of the Sacramento Bee, was unable to finish her commencement speech at California State University.

Heaphy made the suggestion that the United States government had gone too far in the curtailing of civil liberties since 9/11.

She was immediately booed by hecklers who resented her implication that too much was being done to retaliate for the attacks on 9/11 when in actuality Heaphy was simply exercising her right to freedom of speech, to make her opinion in a public forum.

Mark Cella on Civil Rights and Liberties

In the case of Heaphy, the media stepped in and supported her right to freedom of speech:

"Many interpret it as a troubling example of rising intolerance for public discourse that questions the nation's response to the September 11 terror attacks."

- Geoffrey Mohan, December 20, 2001, Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times was not alone in reporting on this incident. The New York Times and other major newspapers also made sure this story was heard, and Nightline on ABC News did a special report on Heaphy.

This is just one example of what's been happening all around America. If you're not completely for the war on terrorism and up to losing a few of your civil liberties, then you must be on the side of terrorists. How many more of our civil rights and liberties do we have to justify before many of them are gone completely?

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What You Need To Know About Entertainment

August 31st, 2010 Mark A Cella No comments

Freedoms Decline Partly From Entertainment

Many Are Learning About Entertainment and the Dangers Posed to Freedom That Come From Spending Too Much Time Observing Fake Life Instead of Living Real Life.

We all live stressful lives and this is one reason we are interested about entertainment. When we return home from a hard-day's work, we often relax in front of the TV, so we can quietly sit and let the entertainment think for us.

Entertainment is great and it helps us to relax and unwind. There are more TV channels than ever because of this, so many people sit on their butts all day that they get very fat and are unable to move.

Entertainment does have a dark side, and this is because there is so much entertainment available it is making the population stupid. Many of these TV shows are addictive and you will find that some peoples' lives revolve completely around the TV.

Entertainment Causes no Thought About Totalitarianism

TV and films are making sure that we don't have time to think about what's really going on; everyone is too interested in watching TV. We no longer have the ability to think for ourselves because everything is given to us on a plate. There is of course one problem for the elite and that's the internet.

The internet can be used for entertainment, and it can also be used to gather knowledge. As knowledge is power, the elite are not keen on us knowing any of this information which is why they plan to destroy the internet by 2012.

The elite are the mega-rich families from all over the world that are pushing for a single world government. It's these rich families that have been behind many of the terrorist attacks to show us exactly why we need to do something to protect this country. It's also the elite that have drummed up the idea of global warming so that we have to all pull together and do things as a team.

The elite have controlled the media for years, consolidation has meant that there are now only a few media companies. This means that the elite are able to control what people know and the TV is their greatest weapon. TV can be used to control us and make us stupid.

Social Engineering Perfected Through Entertainment

TV is a science that the elite have been perfecting how to use for generations. TV programs are now used to condition us ever since birth. Think about the number of TV programs aimed at children these days; these are all created to mould the minds of the young and to stop us asking questions.

As a result of TV, we will be much more open to being told what to do. TV changes brain activity patterns and is actually a form of hypnosis.

Entertainment is not scary; it's actually what's going on behind the scenes that is. If you dig around and start asking questions about entertainment, then you will quickly learn that lots of things are going on that we don't realize.

TV is keeping us from asking questions while genetically modified foods creep onto our shelves. Our constitutional rights are also being violated, but we sit down and take it. Entertainment is stopping us from thinking, and the likes of Rupert Murdoch, aka the Devil, are using it to their advantage.

It's important to start asking what entertainment is doing to our society and to find out what is really going on. We simply don't know enough about entertainment and what's secretly happening behind the scenes.

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categories: entertainment,freedom,civil rights,free press,media

What Is Consumerism?

August 30th, 2010 Mark A Cella No comments

Mark A Cella What is Consumerism? What is Consumerism...Taking a Look at How Americans Are Overspent, in Debt and Broke Because They're Manipulated Through Advertising.

The issue of American consumerism is being brought up more and more these days in light of the current financial crisis that the US is having.

But what is consumerism? Many people aren't even really sure what consumerism really is. Consumerism can be defined in two ways. In economic terms, consumerism is the practice of people buying goods beyond the things that they need to survive.

For example, someone that buys wine to drink but has water or milk at home is engaging in consumerism because he or she doesn't need the wine to drink but is buying just because he or she wants it and has the disposable income to purchase it.

Consumerism can also be defined as the practice of equating self worth and societal status with the purchase of goods and services.

What is consumerism in one country might not be the same as what is considered consumerism in another country based on the scarcity or abundance of resources in that particular country.

Psychological Consumerism in America

US culture is almost 100% consumerist because many Americans engage in consumerism either by purchasing things that they don't need to survive or by finding their own self worth or judging others by what they purchase and how much they consume.

Consumerism is a by product of unchecked capitalism and the current US economic crisis is a good example of what happens when unrestricted capitalism and unchecked consumerism are allowed to flourish in a society.

It's the job of corporations and businesses to sell their products to consumers by any means necessary, which usually means advertising. Advertising creates the idea that a person's worth or happiness is determined by what they own and how much they own.

The best example to illustrate this mode of thinking is the sale of lipsticks. Studies have shown that the worse off people are financially the higher the sales of lipsticks are.

Why? Because women who are feeling bad about their economic situations and feeling their self worth take a dive when they lack the purchasing power to purchase bigger items will spend anywhere from $10 to $30 on a lipstick as a way to cheer themselves up.

Shopping has been promoted as a cure for women's depression for years because in US culture an individual's self worth, male or female, is tied to the possessions that they own.

Advertising a Cause of Consumerism

When that advertising created myth becomes the reality of a culture, the way it has in the US, economic disaster is sure to follow.

No economic system can survive when people purchase items that they can't afford using credit and not worrying about they are going to pay for those purchases.

In the US consumers aren't taught to spend their money responsibly, they are actually encouraged to live way beyond their means.

Unfortunately, many people do just that because they don't know how to handle their money.

Predatory businesses that prey on unwary customers who are desperate to buy a little self-esteem or a little more social status are partly to blame for the economic downfall of the US but the consumers bears some of the responsibility, too.

It's a consumer's duty to be aware of his or her own financial situation and to not give in to the persuasive attempts of businesses to convince them to buy more stuff.

It can be tough to resist slick ads created by ad companies that are trained in the art of manipulation and psychological warfare but people need to realize that they are more than just consumers if they are going to find a way to survive the current economic crisis without falling into complete financial disaster as a result.

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categories: consumerism,shopping,entertainment,distraction

United States Oil Reserves

August 30th, 2010 Mark Cella No comments

Mark Cella on United States Oil Reserves

United States Oil Reserves have the Potential to be Massive but OPEC-Backed Environmentalists Help to Keep Prices High.

There is a lot of nonsense floating around about the decline in oil reserves around the world, and how reliant we all are on the Middle East.

The U.S Department of Energy is very keen to promote this notion, whilst actually covering up the fact that the United States oil reserves are plentiful.

In 2008 a US Geological Survey (USGS) assessment shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered, compared to the agency's 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil.

An area known as the Bakken Formation lying in North Dakota and Montana has an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil.

The term technically recoverable oil means resources are producible using the technology and practices already employed by the oil industry.

Mark Cella on Truth About US Oil Reserves

No-one but the USGS provides publicly available estimates of undiscovered technically recoverable oil and gas resources.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported the find as "now the highest producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years.

The potential of this find could mean United States oil reserves far out-scoring the numbers found in the Middle East.

Oil exploration on United States landhas for many years now been given up for dead as the major players in oil exploration went in search elsewhere.

In fact in 1985 20 percent of America's oil came from overseas, whereas nearly 25 years later that number has soared to almost 60 percent.

Advances in technology mean this commodity could be extracted and hugely bolster United States oil reserves so their dependency on other resources would be eliminated, whilst also lowering fuel prices.

Mark Cella on United States Oil Reserves

Well so one would think, and in spite of the find and the capability to extract such a huge resource, it hasn't been taken advantage of.

In the last few years of fluctuating oil prices, mainly to the detriment of consumers, a potential huge pool of oil more than adequately meeting demand would surely have dragged the price down.

Tapping in to this unused resource has been prevented by environmental concerns including the usual arguments about air pollution, damaging the land and its wildlife. These are arguments that have most likely been given strong support financially by none other than OPEC.

Seeing a huge increase in United States oil reserves is the last thing OPEC would want as it would significantly lower the price.

Preventing these large quantities of oil from being produced only serves to make oil scarcer and more expensive.

Mark Cella on United States Oil Reserves

Preventing oil production in countries like the United States is of course in the best interests of OPEC, as it only serves to increase their stake hold in world supply, and enrich its members. That said, if the United States Government had the will to do so, they could easily defeat the environmentalists and start producing billions of barrel loads of oil.

The fact that they choose not to do so is that most probably they have a deal with OPEC, and the environmental concerns are just a front. The U.S doesn't want to cut in to its own resources with the potential dangers and damage to the environment when they have a slice of the Middle East action already.

U.S companies are thriving in most OPEC countries. The US Government has huge influence over Middle Eastern Governments and their oil reserves. The other problem is the greedy Oil Companies are only interested in making huge profits, and are therefore reluctant to invest in exploring the untapped potential.

Legal battles with the environmentalists, exploration costs and converting certain types of potential reserves in to usable oil drive these companies away. The benefit of more United States oil reserves is of no interest to the likes of Exxon and Shell as they are serving only to provide large dividends to shareholders.

Mark Cella on United States Oil Reserves

The sad irony of all this is that the United States, whilst it purportedly fights terrorism is also funding it through oil consumption. For example, Saudi Arabia is a huge breeding ground for Islamic extremists. Iran is using its oil revenues to fund a nuclear program. The United States has been happy to get back in to bed with old foes such as Libya.

The bottom line is that the U.S Government, OPEC, huge oil companies are all conspiring to make oil prices much higher than they need be. The losers are the consumers, who are paying ridiculous prices in a time when the world is suffering economically.

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Depleted Uranium

August 30th, 2010 Mark A Cella No comments

Mark A Cella What is Depleted Uranium Really? What is Depleted Uranium and What Are the Dangers? As the Imperialist War Ravages Countries, it Leaves Behind Radioactive Death Which Poisons Generations of Innocents.

What is depleted uranium? Depleted uranium is a waste byproduct from producing fuel for nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. The material used in civil and nuclear military industry is uranium U-235.

Since this isotope is found in very low proportions in nature, the uranium ore has to be enriched, i.e., its proportion of the U-235 isotope has to be industrially increased.

This process produces a large amount of radioactive depleted uranium waste, thus named because it is mainly formed by the other non-fissionable uranium isotope, U-238 and a minimum proportion of U-235.

Depleted Uranium Weaponry

American military industry has been using depleted uranium to coat conventional weaponry (artillery, tanks and aircraft) since 1977, to protect its own tanks, as a counterweight in aircraft and Tomahawk missiles and as a component for navigation instruments.

This is because of depleted uranium having characteristics making it highly attractive for military technology: firstly, it is extremely dense and heavy (1 cm3 weighs almost 19 grams), such that projectiles with a depleted uranium head can penetrate the armored steel of military vehicles and buildings.

The weapon has another characteristic as well; it is a spontaneous pyrophoric material, i.e., it inflames when reaching its target generating such heat that it explodes. After more than 50 years producing atomic weapons and nuclear energy, the USA has 500,000 tons of depleted uranium stored, according to official data.

Depleted uranium is radioactive and has an average lifetime of 4.5 billion years. This is why such waste has to be stored safely for an indefinite period of time, an extremely costly procedure.

Depleted Uranium Burns and Oxidizes

In order to save money and empty their tanks, the Department of Defense and Energy assigns depleted uranium free of charge to national and foreign armament companies. When a projectile hits a target, 70% of its depleted uranium burns and oxidizes, bursting into highly toxic, radioactive micro particles.

A 1995 technical report issued by the Army indicates that "if depleted uranium enters the body, it has the potentiality of causing serious medical consequences. The associated risk is both chemical and radiological."

Deposited in the lungs or kidneys, uranium 238 and products from its decay (thorium 234, protactinium and other uranium isotopes) give off alpha and beta radiations which cause cell death and genetic mutations causing cancer in exposed individuals and genetic abnormalities in their descendants over the years.

You see the term "depleted" refers to the removal of uranium-235, but the process for its removal is called "enrichment." It is enrichment because what remains is uranium-238, a highly potent radioactive carcinogen that emits alpha particles.

Depleted or Enriched Uranium?

Uranium-236 and Uranium-238 (otherwise known as plutonium) is laced into the so-called "depleted" uranium weaponry. So let us be real. Stop saying "depleted" uranium, and call it what it is, "enriched" uranium.

This Orwellian double-speak has a purpose - to make it hard for the public to discern that this is a nuclear war, not a "depleted uranium" war. Enriched uranium weaponry is illegal under the terms and conditions of the Geneva Convention. Under the Geneva Convention, it is illegal to leave harmful materials on a battlefield after the conflict has ceased.

This nuclear war is in violation of the Geneva Convention. It causes congenital malformations, babies born with one eye, no arms, or no brain. And it not only affects Iraqi civilians, it affects American veterans who excrete it in their urine and semen a decade later.

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categories: depleted uranium,toxins,environment,government,banking

Common Law

August 27th, 2010 Mark Cella No comments

Mark Cella What About Common Law?

Common Law in the USA is the Ghost of English Feudalism. America is Thought to be Based on a Fair Legal System but the Tyranny of Old England Lives on in Our Laws Today.

Common law in the USA is the injustice of the legal system that guards property for the banking mafia. Despite the Founding Fathers having sought a systemic change to get out from under the oppressive reign of the English crown, injustice lives on today.

In the 21st Century, this is still the case. US law in the new millennium is still based on common law from pre-colonial England.

Some of the essence of laws considered to be sacred in the United States actually date back to feudalist England in the 12th Century as is explored by S.F.C. Milsom of Cambridge University in his 2003 book, Historical Foundations of the Common Law and Legal Framework of English Feudalism.

Mark Cella a Bit About Common Law

These laws were 'discovered' in feudal courts onward based on arguments and the practical decisions of judges in a trial and error basis. In other words, in the US today, the legal system is based, in part, on what the feudal lords and later the Englishmen convinced judges based on the individual interests of accused and plaintiffs at the time.

This contradicts the idea that the modern legal system is based on the common good or on improving society; it is based on a literal trial and error process that began in the 12th Century with the signing of the Magna Carta, where the basic but limited notion of freedom first appears.

The defense of property and the rights of property as a fundamental principle, outweighed any implicit rights for human beings.

From then onwards, common law in the USA and other laws continued to be developed in a process of expanding the rights of defending individual property and the rights of property holders. Thus, naturally evolving over time into the laws of the modern US capitalist society.

Mark Cella on Common Law

The common law system of judges ruling based on custom, or legal precedent has evolved in the United States. Common Law in the USA has been mingled and mixed with a system of equity law over the past two centuries.

Equity Law also comes from England where it was created by the Crown in order to address matters not covered under existing common law. It seeks equity or justice through a set of principles and codes. Common Law in the US also lives alongside a set of codes and principles that are theoretically aimed at leveling the playing field and protecting the weakest.

However, even in a mixed system, the court's prerogative to stick with custom rather than set precedent in most cases means that common law, which privileges the propertied, usually wins out over laws having to do with moral imperatives and the concept of justice.

This concept, justice, is an abstract concept; yet it is primordial to any society that truly seeks to promote an equality of freedoms.

Mark Cella What About Common Law?

A series of documents, which on the whole are referred to as the 'Freedom Charter,' laid the basis for the foundation of the United States. These documents, drafted and signed by the founding fathers that led the movement to secede from England, are the Declaration of Independence the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights (the first amendments to the US Constitution).

The first of these documents discussed certain inalienable rights of equality that it considered self-evident. The second document laid out the three branch government and its functions, clearly seeking to place greater power, that of making law in the most representative of those branches, the U.S. Congress.

The third was the judicial system, charged with interpreting the law. The third, and no less important of the documents, provided for a number of basic rights of citizens intended to guarantee against dictatorship and protect citizens from the whims of the State overstepping its power.

Mark Cella What About Common Law?

Common Law in the USA, as in England, has always evolved to meet new circumstances. But a legal system based in custom or in past behavior can also be an obstacle to change and improving society.

The new society that the founding fathers sought to create based on representation, freedom and equality was stillborn on the American Continent. It was held back by a legal system based in the protection of property.

Today, for real change to occur, common law in the USA does not hold the solution. A new legal system based on the future must be created to eliminate the ghost of English feudalism that plagues the American judicial system that only protects the dominant economic order.

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Black Ops

August 27th, 2010 Mark A Cella 1 comment

Mark A Cella What is a Black Op? Was 9/11 a Black Op Which Served a Dual Purpose? Elites Gained Endless War and Destruction of Most of the Constitution When They Felled the Twin Towers Using Controlled Demolition.

A black op is a covert operation involving activities which are highly secretive and can be associated with political, military, intelligence, scientific, medical or business agendas.

They're used to manipulate sensitive or controversial issues. It is sometimes helpful to hide behind a smoke-screen to hide the real intention of the action. Black op missions are commonly denied if or when a leak does occur and public knowledge of the coup is made known, as most times the actions of the group are questionable and draw attention to illegal government or corporate activities.

Typically in black ops, a decoy operation is used to present the appearance that responsibility lies with a certain individual or group when a completely different entity is responsible for the carnage.

Mark A Cella Info About Black Ops

In looking back and seeing that 9/11 was the catalyst for Bush to declare a state of emergency, which allowed him to establish constitutional dictatorship, it is obviously black op that paved the way for America's entry into the war on Iraq.

It is also the black op that is used to disguise the restriction of civil rights, and it is the justification for the development of the Department of Homeland Security, which has endangered more of the people's rights than any single act of legislation in the history of American government.

A covert operation is traditionally associated with such activities as assassinations, sabotage, spying, military coups, extortion, fraud, supporting resistance movements, weapons testing, torture, trafficking in contraband and other such illegal and questionable government and corporate activities.

Technically, any government operation that is considered classified and to which access to the information is denied is considered a black op, and we all know that our American government has plenty of operations they do not disclose to the voting public.

Mark A Cella Info About Black Ops

Covert operations go on all the time in government as demonstrated by the assassination of President Kennedy, the Iran-Contra Affair and Watergate, as well as all the spying that has gone on in the two world wars, Korea, Vietnam and the two gulf wars.

Many times government intelligence agencies are involved in a black op and if that information were made public, it would endanger lives and possibly national security which can be either a good thing or a bad thing.

Because the covertness of the operations can be justified by a need for safety or national security, it leaves a margin of error for those who would seek to defraud the system by using secrecy as a tool for deception rather than a device for protection.

Mark A Cella - Black Op?

Many times one covert operation is linked closely with another covert operation and involves many persons or agencies; so it is very difficult to get to discover the whole truth, even if the operation itself is exposed.

To determine who is involved, establish a motive for the crime and prosecute and punish the guilty parties is extremely difficult, as the smoke screen of secrecy is rarely penetrated, and the entire truth is rarely told.

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Homeland Security

August 27th, 2010 Mark A Cella No comments

Mark A Cella on Homeland Security

Does the US Department of Homeland Security Really Secure Anything or Does it Work Against the American People? Big Brother is Watching Us More Than We Think.

Many things came from that dreadful September day in 2001, the US Department of Homeland Security was just one amongst many. Terrorist's attacks--or so we were told they were terrorists--were successful on U.S. soil and thousands of Americans died.

Parents were lost; brothers died; children became orphans; families were ripped apart. The sense of security that came with being a citizen of this country was taken, perhaps forever; the US Department of Homeland Security was created.

Never before had such an attack been carried out within the continental United States. Yes, there was Pearl Harbor, another American tragedy that resulted in the loss of thousands of lives, but it was a military installation separated from the bulk of the nation by an ocean.

Many questions arose about how something like this could have happened and why it was not stopped.

Mark A Cella on Homeland Security

After all, it would make sense that coordinating plane crashes into various targets at the same time of day would take years of planning, numerous people, and lots of discussion. Yet somehow the terrorists involved were able to train and do what was necessary to carry out their cowardly act.

In the days and months following the deadly attacks of September 11, there was much discussion as to why these terrorists were not discovered prior to these attacks and why weren't they stopped.

Perhaps one of the problems was not a single agency was responsible for keeping the homeland safe.

In fact, there were over 100 government agencies that had some type of responsibility related to homeland security, but none with homeland security as its primary task.

It is no wonder than there was no single entity with enough information to see these attacks coming.

Mark A Cella on the US Dept of Homeland Security

In an attempt to learn from the mistakes of the past and to prevent another attack on American soil, the US Department of Homeland Security was created to be that one agency intended to ensure the homeland would be secure.

One has to wonder whether or not the terrorists considered the September 11 attacks a success. After all, they killed many of those darn infidels and disrupted the harmony in which the nation existed.

Many pundits would probably quickly answer no and refer to the response which the American government and public gave. The government went through the most intensive restructuring in years to improve and reinforce the sense of homeland security. Citizens were more than giving of their time, money, blood, etc.

Shortly after 9/11 this was all true. A look at the state of the nation now tells a different story.What began as the war against terrorism has bogged down into a never ending conflict without a reasonable and definitive end in sight.

Instead of being grateful for increased security at airports, more and more people complain about how long it takes to get through the lines.

Mark A Cella What is the Dept of Homeland Security Doing?

The US Department of Homeland Security is even coming up with an automated system for foreign nationals travelling into or out of the U.S. The Patriot Act has been a mess of controversy since it was implemented. More government wiretaps with little or no cause? Whatever happened to the right to privacy?

The government can even read emails that may appear suspicious. How do they differentiate the suspicious from the non-suspicious? More than likely they just read whatever they feel like in hopes of finding suspicious activity.

The US Department of Homeland Security may be keeping us more secure now, but we will not know how secure until the next serious attack is attempted. Maybe it has already happened and the general public does not know. Maybe the government is not telling the public in order not to incite mass hysteria or encourage hate crimes against Muslims.

Is the mass restructuring of the government doing a better job? Citizens of New Orleans would say a resounding NO!

Fast forward from September 2001 till 2009 and we see a United States that is much different. Distrust in the government is rather high with the massive failure to act in New Orleans after Katrina and the suspected unnecessary abuses of civil liberties prominent in the minds of the people. Citizens live in a state of perpetual fear, being told by the government that another attack is coming but they do not know where. Faith in government is down. Fear in the unknown is up.

The creation of the US Department of Homeland Security might just be the symbol of success terrorists worldwide were looking for and not the symbol of security a nation needs.

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What Are the Correct Levels of Staffing For Senior Living Communities?

March 31st, 2010 Senior Housing News No comments

By Doug Fullaway, President and COO of Vigilan

doug Fullaway Unemployment seems to be stuck around 10% and foreclosures are reaching record levels, casting a dark cloud over the business of senior living. Prospective new residents are more uncertain than ever about moving. Centers work hard just to hold census levels. And while there are signs things are improving, it is likely to be several years before there is a significant improvement. Every operator is driven to cut costs and with labor making up 60% or more of total operating expenses, it is the one thing that cannot be ignored. So chances are you have cut or will cut your labor costs. But how much can you cut and when have you cut enough?

The first step for most communities is to reduce the staff hours to some level or ratio that has worked in the past. It’s a logical place to start. This approach assumes that the level or ratio is the right level. But where did this ratio come from? In most cases, it comes from experience. And maybe that’s OK. But a closer look reveals some possible problems and opportunities. In a 2009 survey[1] we conducted of more than 90 nurses in assisted living, we found that the most common method used to arrive at staffing was a fixed ratio of number of staff per number of residents. But only 25% of those nurses felt this was the best method for staffing. The vast majority of the nurses felt that “acuity based staffing” was the best method. Why the discrepancy? The nurses told us that they just don’t have the tools to staff based on acuity and the ratio was a reasonable approximation. We decided to take a closer look to understand the consequences of staffing based on ratio instead of acuity.

A fixed ratio of caregivers to residents assumes that the services being delivered are the same over time. So we looked at the data for one community over a year, based on the acuity. This analysis could be done because this community had a standard time for every service task. For example, a task such as partial bathing assistance was given a time of 22 minutes. And each resident had an assessment that had only the service tasks that were needed by that resident. Assessments were done every 90 days and when conditions changed. We could see the acuity by resident and for the community for the entire year. When we took the actual acuity-based staffing hours and computed the actual ratio needed to provide exactly the hours needed, we arrived at a ratio of 3.25 residents/caregiver (or 0.308 if you prefer the more traditional caregivers/resident ratio). As a comparison, The State of Seniors Housing 2009[2] shows a ratio of 0.39 for comparable departments. When we applied the 3.25 ratio to the actual acuity here is what we found:

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The number of hours based on ratios does rise and fall with the changes in census, but it is always higher and sometimes by quite a bit. This happens because the 3.25 residents per caregiver was selected as it matched the acuity and census average for the entire year. And when the ratio is applied to the actual census it is rounded up using the rule that if calculation showed point 5 (0.5) or more than another person was put on the shift.

If the ratio was reduced to 3.15 residents/caregiver then some of the “error” can be reduced, but the problem of overstaffing still exists because the ratio causes changes in staffing with changes in census but it ignores changes in actual acuity of the residents. Here is an example of how the acuity changed for one of the residents over time:

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A fixed ratio per resident for staffing would simply ignore the changes that this resident experienced. Many communities that are using staffing ratios are most likely paying more for labor than they would if the measured the actual acuity and changed the staffing weekly.

Next month we’ll take a look at methods of staffing based on acuity that can be tracked and changed weekly.

About the Author:

Doug Fullaway is president and COO of Vigilan. Vigilan is the leading operational management systems company for independent living and assisted living providers who need an easier way to improve the quality of care and to profitably manage their business.

Doug has more than 30 years of management experience. In 2002, Doug entered the senior market by joining the executive staff of Vigilan and is the proud owner of several senior communities.  Prior to Vigilan, Doug held positions in distribution, manufacturing, customer support, sales, and general management in the U.S., Europe and Asia.  Doug earned his undergraduate degree in industrial engineering from Oregon State University, served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps and graduated from the Harvard Business School.


[1] Study: Practices in Assisted Living, Vigilan, February 2009

[2] The State of Seniors Housing 2009, American Seniors Housing Association, 2009