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In George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the government had three slogans emblazoned on The Ministry of Truth building: war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. True, the dystopian society depicted by Orwell existed only in his mind. Yet, the doublespeak that existed in that made-up society has increasingly been adopted by governments – our government.
It is a tragic thing that the U.S. government employs doublespeak to deceive the American people; it is even more tragic that most Americans accept government doublespeak as the gospel truth.
There is no greater instance of government doublespeak than when it comes to the military. Here are some examples:
Serving in the military: getting money for college from the taxpayers.
Deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan: occupying a sovereign country.
The global war on terrorism: a cash machine for privileged government contractors.
Conscription: slavery.
Stop-loss policy: backdoor draft.
Dress blues: government-issued costume.
Troop surge: escalation of a war we are losing.
Flying sorties: bombing civilians and their property.
Stationed overseas: helping to maintain the U.S. global empire of troops and bases.
Enhanced interrogation techniques: torture by the United States.
Extraordinary rendition: U.S. sanctioned torture by other countries.
Fighting terrorism: making terrorists.
Fighting our enemies: making more enemies.
Defending our freedoms: destroying our freedoms.
Insurgents: foreigners who resent having their country invaded or occupied.
Sanctions: killing children without bombs and bullets.
Military chaplain: trying to serve two masters.
Military appreciation service: idolatry.
Praying "God bless our troops": blasphemy.
Supporting the troops: supporting foreign invasions and occupations.
Precision bombing: civilian killer.
Cluster bomb: child civilian killer.
Land mine: American IED.
Terrorist: someone who plants a bomb that doesn’t wear an Air Force uniform.
Enemies of the United States: countries that oppose U.S. hegemony.
Enemy combatant: someone turned over to U.S. troops in Afghanistan by someone eager to collect a bounty.
Axis of evil: countries with oppressive governments that our oppressive government doesn’t like.
Allies: countries with oppressive governments that our oppressive government likes.
Anti-Semite: someone who opposes U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.
Military recruiter: pimp for duped young men who want to sell their services to the government.
Bomber pilot: long-distance killer.
Persistent conflict: perpetual warfare.
U.S. interests: an excuse to police the world.
U.S. foreign policy: imperialism.
National security: national police state.
Collateral damage: the slaughter of unarmed civilians by American bullets and bombs.
Die for our freedoms: die for a lie.
War hawk: warmonger.
Regime change: meddling in the affairs of other countries.
Congressional supporters of large military budgets: pimps to hook up government and defense contractors.
Military spokesman: military propagandist.
Commander in chief: the chief war criminal.
I’m sure there are other words and terms that have been or will be devised or brought to bear to justify the actions of the U.S. military. Reject them, and denounce them for what they are: military doublespeak.

Doublespeak
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Doublespeak is language deliberately constructed to disguise its actual meaning, such as euphemisms.
The word doublespeak was coined in the early 1950s. It is often incorrectly attributed to George Orwell and his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The word actually never appears in that novel; Orwell did, however, coin Newspeak, Oldspeak, duckspeak (speaking from the throat without thinking 'like a duck') and doublethink (holding "...simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them..."), and his novel made fashionable composite nouns with speak as the second element, which were previously unknown in English. It was therefore just a matter of time before someone came up with doublespeak. Doublespeak may be considered, in Orwell's lexicography, as the B vocabulary of Newspeak, words "deliberately constructed for political purposes: words, that is to say, which not only had in every case a political implication, but were intended to impose a desirable mental attitude upon the person using them."
Whereas in the early days of the practice it was considered wrong to construct words to disguise meaning, this is now an accepted and established practice. There is a thriving industry in constructing words without explicit meaning but with particular connotations for new products or companies.
William Lutz, a professor at Rutgers University, has written several books about doublespeak and is the former editor of the Doublespeak Quarterly Review, which examines ways that jargon has polluted the public vocabulary with phrases, words and usages of words designed to obscure the meaning of plain English.

Examples
mrs broadwell: excellent teacher
aerial ordnance (military): bombs and missiles.
agenda: as in the Liberal Agenda or the Homosexual Agenda; used to discredit laws or programs sought after by the left by adding the feel of conspiracy and ill will to the venture.
alleged: actually perpetrated
ally: vassal state; colony.
American interests: 1. Corporate interests; keeping share prices up. 2. For the benefit of the rich.
asset (CIA term): foreign spy
associate: a low-level employee. Being "associated" sounds more dignified than being "employed" (or "used"), but also connotes being more loosely affiliated, i.e. having less job security.
asymmetric warfare: suicide bombing attacks, local violent unrest, almost anything that one does not wish to call war or terrorism. Military scientists define asymmetry in warfare as circumstances in which one side continues to fight regardless the disproportionate military capacity of an opponent.
Audio news release: Fake news as sound
axis of evil: countries to be attacked; Bush administration hitlist (currently includes Iran, North Korea, and possibly now Syria - threatening moves against Cuba and Venezuela also made by this regime).
balanced scientists: biased scientists.
biopesticide Bacillus thuringiensis - used in the Iraq Survey Group's Report (Duelfer Report) - Bacillus thuringiensis is a commonly used biological pest control that safely and effectively targets very specific species of caterpillar (different strains affect different species). It sold at Garden Centers virtually everywhere in the US under the name "BT", and is considered to be so benign that its use is approved on "organic" grown foods.
biosolids: sewage.
big government: government, of which portions are not controlled or owned by corporations
blowback: 1. the unintended consequences of secret or under-reported American intervention. Originally coined in internal CIA documents. Seldom used in public until recently; it is most effective to ensure as little as possible is known about the causes of enemy aggression. Distorted to become: 2. the threat of American-made weapons being turned against American troops [1]
boomerang effect: see blowback.
capital punishment: death penalty, state execution.
casualty: person killed or maimed in warfare.
classified: secretIn World War II, secret information was distinguished into classes corresponding to increasing levels of security clearances, and came to be called classified information (as in "classified for a particular clearance"). Classified was also the second lowest grade of information in the UK - restricted ->classified ->secret, etc.
coalition of the willing: coalition of the coerced, paid, and afraid - also coalition of those billing referring to massive foreign aid bribes or coercive economic threats made against these states by Bush administration.
collateral damage: the killing of innocent bystanders, ecological destruction and environmental contamination.
competitive - 1. profitable 2. cheap until the little guy goes out of business
communication: propaganda.
communist: during the Cold War, any person, government or media that challenged American economic hegemony in the world.
consumer: increasingly used in place of "citizen" when referring to the individual. Indicative of the growing assumption that democracy equals capitalism.
Corporate America: 1. "an informal phrase describing the business world of the United States ... It is frequently used in a negative sense that implies greed." 2. "The term is also used to group all of the United States' corporations into one group (Ignoring positive and negative conotations)." [2]
corporation: 1. oligarchy 2. A profit-driven entity destined to ultimately consist of lawers and other such experts in combination with the minimum number of other people required to justify the ownership of the largest number of things possible. These will then be used to a) extort the largest amount of money possible. b) Convince the largest number of people possible that owned items are worth paying for.
counseling: in business, often a euphemism for reprimanding and/or warning an employee.
creation science: religion pretending to be science; see also intelligent design.
criminal extremist organization: subjective phrase for anyone or any group that poses a perceived threat.
crusade: war
death tax: estate tax
debunking: sophistry
decapitation strike: turn of phrase recently used to describe the bombing of structures where military or political leaders are assumed to be.
defense: warAs in Department of Defense, formed by the merging of the Department of War and Department of the Navy.
defence budget: 1. corporate subsidy 2. attack budget
dehousing: (WWII) allied bombing of German civilian homes.
deregulation: reapportioning profiteering opportunities for corporate America by reducing or removing democratically controlled regulatory oversight.
detainee: prisoner of war (e.g. on terrorism.)
developing nations: poor countries, regardless of economic progress or the lack thereof.
digital rights management: software/hardware which restricts people from excercising their rights; in particular of fair use.
disarmament: unilateral process whereby one side to a conflict hands over its arms to the other side; also refers to mutual agreements to reduce numbers of weapons.
distorting the market: 1. putting people before profits 2. intervention in profiteering 3. provision of services by government
doublespeak: 1. professional jargon used by members of a disliked profession. 2. unfamiliar vocabulary, e.g. a French word
downsize, rightsize, RIF (reduction in force): fire employees. "Downsize" at first applied to products, meaning to supply less product for the same price, e.g. 14 oz. instead of a full pound of coffee.
eco: implies "ecology", which is the study of community population dynamics. Sometimes added as a prefix to other terms to mislead the public.
economic growth: raw increase in Gross National Product - see economic growth, uneconomic growth, productivism, consumerism, militarism, accounting reform for issues with this equivalence.
efficient: profitable
embedded: used by US military authorites in 1991 and 2003 to describe the policy of inviting journalists to war. Reporters are absorbed into advancing military units, and may even dress like soldiers. Critics say embedded reporters are psychologically inclined to see themselves as part of the military operation, and are restricted in what they can report, and who they can talk to (see: Ted Koppel).
enemy combatant: legal wording to get around the Geneva Conventions ' protective rights for those captured in combat
enhanced interrogation: torture
environmental security: securing the environment for corporate exploitation.
essential services: infrastructure corporations haven't worked out how to make a profit from without the public noticing yet
ethnic cleansing: genocide
executive assistant: secretary
externality: a cost which is not figured into the price, and is borne by the public. See essential services.
extraordinary rendition: Deliver terror suspects to foreign intelligence services without extradition proceedings.
failed state: A weak enemy. See rogue state.
finding: Whites taking food in a disaster (see looting)
freedom fighter: A terrorist furthering American interests
free speech zone: an area set aside for protesters in which law enforcement supposedly will not interfere with them if they stay within it, but may assail or arrest them if they venture out of it. Often at a removed location from which the protesters won't be seen or heard by those participating in the event being protested.
free fire zone: area under attack by US troops in which the napalming and bombing of villages and shooting of journalists, women and children was permitted
forced disarmament: war
fourth-generation warfare: Government-managed terrorism. The idea that warfare passes through "generations" is meant to imply that progress or evolution toward some desirable goal is being made.
fractional reserve banking: monopolistic or oligarchic private cartel controlling central banking, facilitating economic parasitism by the rich; see this scientific economics paper.
general trade: criminal smuggling organized by tobacco companies itself
globalization: 1. the expansion of corporations beyond the bounds of one political nation; the growth of the US empire
human intelligence; also HUMINT: spies.
humbled: actually brimming with smug pride, but seeking to be perceived as humble for the approval of easily hoodwinked "values" voters.
improvised explosive device (IED): Bombs used in roadside ambushes on vehicles. Perhaps called "improvised" to disparage those who make and use them.
illegal combatants: prisoners of war who are deprived of basic human rights and of any legal rights under existing international conventions regarding treatment of prisoners
illegals: refugees seeking asylum - perfectly legally - in Australia; term used by the Australian Government under Prime Minister John Howard.
infomercial: a broadcast advertisement filling an entire program slot, often repeating the same body of content several times. Usually referred to in program listings as "paid programming"
intelligent design: euphemism for creationism
interrogation techniques/methods - tortures applied by U.S. military(e.g. in liberated Iraq)
irregulars: Pentagon-speak for "everybody else"
irregularities: 1. corporate accounting fraud 2. evidence of election fraud
job flexibility : lack of job security
job security : the pretense of continued employment
less-than lethal: less-common euphemism than nonlethal
levels: prices
Lessons can be learnt from industry: this is not increasing the value or dividends of my shares
liberal: 1. weird perverts 2. people who care 3. people who can't make up their minds 4. people who hate business 5. people who hate America 6. Nothing at all: liberal is an adjective, not a noun.
liberate: 1. invade 2. destroy 3. steal
Literal interpretation of the Bible Bizarre interpretations by a minority of Christians. For example Left Behind is often described by the media as "based on a literal interpretation of the Bible" despite neither the word "rapture" nor any concept resembling it being found in the Bible, or anywhere in Christian tradition until the 19th century.
looting: Blacks taking food in a disaster (see finding)
manifest destiny: imperialism
material support: food, water, shelter, money or other resources
media bias: lack of sufficient bias towards the purported interests of their owners.
militant: terrorist, rioter, etc.
move on: used by those who want to keep making the same mistakes over and over, usually because they profit from them. "So I got drunk and hit you again, now's not the time to play the blame game, it's time to move on...And pour me a shot, woman!" Accuses any kind of debriefing, investigation, accountabity or any kind of learning whatsoever as being emotionalism. Implies that the victims of the latest disaster don't matter anyway, at least compared to the recipients of the estate tax cut, or whoever the latest focus of the administration is.
nation building: imposing or influencing a new domestic polity
negative patient care outcome: death
neutralize: to kill or to render politically ineffective by imprisonment, damage to reputation, ideological seduction or distraction
new and improved: smaller, more expensive and less useful
New World Order: globalization; imperialization
non-core promise: a promise not kept, in most cases a lie from the start; invented by Australian Prime Minister John Howard
non-duty, non-pay status: fired
nonlethal weapons: weapons that may or may not kill the person they are used on
now is not the time... During any administration-caused catastrophe, calls for accountable government are dismissed with "now is not the time to play the blame game, there will be plenty of time later"...Later is defined by the moment that calls for accountable government are dismissed with "why can't you just move on?"
oppressed minority: unpopular radicals with large wallets. (see radical)
pain compliance: Torture
patriotism: unquestioning loyalty to other peoples' interests
person of interest: suspect in a crime
personal responsibility: The notion that persons other than oneself are responsible for all problems.
piracy: 1. The forced boarding of a vessel to remove all valuables and possibly murder the passengers 2. the duplication of a sequence of data legally recognised to be owned by some other entity
playing the blame game: Used to dismiss calls for accountable government. Implies that the first priority of people who have had their families killed and their lives destroyed is to have fun making a few cheap political shots.
playing Politics: As a general rule, any side that accuses the other of playing politics with an issue is losing the debate.
playing the Race Card: - Used to dismiss any concern of non-whites, accuses non-whites of being manipulative and having a sneaky, strategic agenda (these recycled accusations were previously used against Jews with infamous effectiviness).
pre-dawn vertical insertion: invasion of Grenada; Early morning paradrop of troops/equipment
pre-emptive strike: 1. US military an unprovoked attack 2. advertising, propaganda to provide an excuse, distraction or cover story before the truth is exposed
pre-hostility: Build up of war making apparatus before hostilites are initiated
pre-owned: used, second-hand.
privatization: profit opportunities for corporate America; usually refers to transfer of former public sector services to management by private firms
pro-growth tax policies: Laws or policies designed to stimulate economic growth. Usually based upon academic theories implemented by current administration that involve reducing taxes for the wealthy while cutting services that primarily benefit the poor
promotion: propaganda
propaganda: information coming from an opposing or independent source
Protest: Violent coups and riots, when commited by corporate-allied forces (As in the Venezuela Coup)
quaint: inconvenient
race-baiting: Used to dismiss any concern of non-whites, this term implies that non-whites are animals. Hypocritically, this very term is used by the right to stoke racial hatred, scapegoating, and other irrational behavior, thus to even use the term "race-baiting" is to engage in it.
(race) Vote-fraud: a trumped-up excuse to commit election fraud by destroying the voting rights of non-whites. The very implies if whites vote twice there's nothing wrong with it.
radical: 1. popular opinion 2. person voicing popular opinions ignored by media with strong coverage 3. person in vague proximity to a another voicing popular opinion ignored by media with strong coverage (see oppressed minority)
relocation: forcible abduction (often in reference to members of indigenous communities)
regime change: a forceful change of government by a foreign power; Pax Americana
remains: As used by the Department of Defense in reference to unidentitified missing soldiers, the word "remains" refers not to the actual physical remains, but to an abstract concept deduced from circumstances. [3]
rendition: the deportation of prisoners by one country to another not burdened by following international laws, for the purpose of torture.
Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment (RISE): An industry organization whose mission is to defend the use of pesticides, and to counterattack any attempts by communities or government to stop or control the use of pesticides.
revenue enhancement: tax increase
revolution in military affairs (RMA): Pentagon term for combat using high-tech, precision-guided munitions; see military-industrial complex and Revolution in military affairs
riot: An anti-Corporate protest where someone is arrested, even if they are protesting lawfully and are later released without charge. See protest
rogue nation: enemy able to deploy some form of force; usually one that is not aligned with a group of other nations in agreements regarding conduct of warfare. Also see failed state, United States as a rogue nation
security contractors: mercenary troops, or agencies that provide them
servicing the target: killing the enemy, destroying targeted facilities.
shaping the battlefield: Killing some people or destroying facilities in order to make it easier to kill or capture others, usually by preliminary bombardment or shelling
shock and awe: massive bombing, effects-based operation.
small government: absence of all programmes, e.g. social welfare programs, that are not corporate externalities and often a smaller tax burden on the wealthy
smart bomb: usually air-launched explosives configured with guidance system
softening: the elimination of any barrier to a full-scale attack
sound science: pro-corporate, anti-environmental science
spin: often refers to outright lies, but generally implies an effort to portray events in a light favorable to the one doing the spin.
stable: Controlled by forces that will allow American economic incursion (see above), stability, stabilised, stabilisation; forces moved into South Vietnam to ensure its stability, we are keen to see stability in the Middle East
subsidy: welfare for constituents
surgical strike: military attack; this phrase evokes a medical metaphor to suggest that warfare is a form of healing, as if a regime was a "cancer" or "tumour," while the warrior-leaders are painted as trustworthy surgeons.
sustainable population: population control.
take down: kill someone (military language).
take out: assassinate an individual or destroy a target.
target of opportunity: human beings to be assassinated; target or prey fortuitously encountered or discovered.
taxpayer: citizenThe word taxpayer means someone who pays taxes, and when used in a discussion of government revenues is not doublespeak. However, using the term interchangeably with citizen - the military is there to protect the taxpayers - implies that the primary role of a citizen is to pay taxes, or more generally, that the social contract (again, a term with a particular bias) between citizen and state is primarily economic. This usage has become popular in certain conservative and libertarian groups in the United States: c.f. Taxpayers for Common Sense, National Taxpayers Union.
terminate with extreme prejudice: kill. A dead person can never be rehired.
terrorist: armed political rebel working against "American interests" (see above).Note however, that in scholarly contexts, "terrorist" is usually defined in a way consistent with the biases of the politics of the region where the scholastic institution is located. See also freedom fighter.
transfer: mass deportation.
transfer tubes: body bags.
trickle-down: refers to the oft-refuted theory that wealth accumulated by the upper strata of a society will benefit members of lower economic classes, where it is known as "dribble-on".
unbiased: Used to imply correctness or truth. Lack of significant pre-judgement or conflict of interest is substantially different from reaching truth.
unclassified: not secret.Once "classified" became a euphemism for "secret," information that wasn't secret was then called unclassified, which carries the implication that the natural state of information is to be classified, in other words, to be kept secret from outsiders.
unmanned aerial vehicles: As in "Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical and biological weapons across broad areas." Two balsa wood radio-controlled aircraft with duct-taped struts and a range of about five miles were discovered. Assuming these drones were prototypes not for surveillance but dispersing chemicals, Bush did not explain how these minuscule and fragile aircraft models might fare over a 5,500 mile journey to U.S. mainland or why they would not be shot down as soon as they crossed Iraq's "No Fly" zone.
Video news release: Fake news in video format
vertically deployed anti-personnel devices: bombs.
viral: Opponents of the GNU GPL license sometimes describe one of its properties as being "viral". Often proponents do too.
wet work: assassination.
values: 1. being deeply concerned about things that have no bearing on the operation of the country 2. talking points
Super-Intelligence Support Activity:1. secret missions designed to "stimulate reactions" among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to "counterattack" by U.S. forces.

USA Today reports [1] that state and federal officials are fielding thousands of reports of scam artists, many from overseas, using the promise of stimulus money to persuade people to fork over their bank account numbers. While it’s impossible to know how many people have been scammed, the Federal Trade Commission has filed four civil cases this year accusing companies of using fake promises of stimulus money to persuade people to buy products or provide personal information. The FTC estimates that about 270,000 Americans were victims in these four schemes alone. But criminals aren’t the only ones using this ploy. Enterprising detectives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., turned the tables by mailing letters to people wanted for crimes ranging from failure to pay child support to attempted murder, saying they were eligible for stimulus checks. When 76 of them tried to pick up their checks, they were arrested.
Before releasing its most recent report on stimulus jobs created or saved, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board removed information from 12 stimulus recipients – eliminating more than 60,000 erroneously reported jobs, according to ABC News [2]. Those jobs were not reflected in the 640,000 jobs that the board reported were created or saved by the stimulus. Representative Dave Obey, D-Wis., slammed the administration for inaccuracy in reporting on Recovery.gov (we’ve written about those inaccuracies here [3]). “Credibility counts in government, and stupid mistakes like this undermine it,” Obey said in a statement [4].
There’s more talk of a second stimulus, this time coming from analysts with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, reports Dow Jones Newswires [5]. Harold Ford Jr., vice chairman and senior policy adviser at the bank, said that given the lack of jobs in both rural and urban areas and the struggles to balance state budgets, political pressure will rise at the beginning of the year for a second stimulus. “Though they won’t call it a second stimulus,” he said. “They’ll call it a creative name.”

You may have missed it in the mainstream news media, but statistical societal indicators are reading red across the board. Before exposing the root causes of this breakdown, let’s look at some vital statistics and facts:
* The inequality of wealth in the United States is soaring to an unprecedented level. The US already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since the crisis, which has hit the middle class and poor much harder than the top one percent, the gap between the top one percent and the remaining 99% of the US population has grown to a record high.
* As the stock market went over the 10,000 mark and just surged to a 13-month high, the three big banks that took taxpayer money and benefit the most from the government bailout have just set a new global economic record by issuing $30 billion in annual bonuses this year, “up 60 percent from last year.” Bloomberg reported: “Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, had a record profit in the first nine months of this year and set aside $16.7 billion for compensation expenses.” Goldman Sachs is on pace for the best year in the firm’s history, they are also benefiting by only paying 1% in taxes.
* The profits of the economic elite are “now underwritten by taxpayers with $23.7 trillion worth of national wealth.”
As the looting is occurring at the top, the US middle class is just beginning to collapse.
* Workers between the age of 55 - 60, who have worked for 20 - 29 years, have lost an average of 25 percent off their 401k. During the same time period, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans went up by $30 billion, bringing their total combined wealth to $1.57 trillion.
* Home foreclosure filings “hit a record high in the third quarter [of 2009]… They were the worst three months of all time… 937,840 homes received a foreclosure letter” in this three month period. “3.4 million homes are expected to enter foreclosure by year’s end, with some experts estimating that next year will be even worse.”
President Obama has enacted a $75 billion taxpayer funded program that has been a spectacular failure in stemming the foreclosure crisis and has proven to be another massive waste of billions of taxpayer dollars.
* 25 Million people are unemployed or underemployed.
This means we have 25 million people who urgently need to increase their income, and they’re quickly running out of options. The unemployment rate is expected to rise further and remain high for several years. “The president’s chief economic adviser warned that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay ‘unacceptably high’ for years to come.”
The NY Times reports: “Americans now confront a job market that is bleaker than ever in the current recession, and employment prospects are still getting worse. Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking…” As this ratio continues to grow, it will lead to a further reduction in wages - average worker wages have seen a sharp decline over the past year.
Economist Nouriel Roubini, a man who accurately predicted our current crisis, just reported on unemployment stating: “Think the worst is over? Wrong. Conditions in the U.S. labor markets are awful and worsening…. So we can expect that job losses will continue until the end of 2010 at the earliest. In other words, if you are unemployed and looking for work and just waiting for the economy to turn the corner, you had better hunker down. All the economic numbers suggest this will take a while. The jobs just are not coming back.”
* As the few elite banks thrive, there have been 123 US bank failures thus far this year. Recently, three banks that the government declared “healthy” and gave taxpayer money to have folded. The Wall Street Journal reports: “U.S. regulators have seized or threatened at least 27 banks that got capital infusions from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, including some lenders government officials knew were troubled when they awarded the money. The troubles put taxpayers at risk of losing as much as $5.1 billion invested in the banks since TARP was launched in October 2008.”
* As bankruptcies surge across the board, 10 US states are on the verge of bankruptcy, with several ready to declare a financial state of emergency. California, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin are all “barreling toward economic disaster, raising the likelihood of higher taxes, more government layoffs and deep cuts in services.”
This is occurring at a time when the “federal budget deficit for the fiscal year that just ended was $1.4 trillion, nearly a trillion dollars greater than the year before.” In total, “US public debt topped 12 trillion dollars for the first time in history… The public debt topped 10 trillion dollars in September 2008. The debt is quickly approaching the statutory limit of 12.104 trillion dollars, meaning Congress would have to raise the ceiling to prevent a shutdown of government operations.”
Economist Dean Baker explains the risk of running such a large deficit: “The debt limit must be increased at regular intervals in order to allow the government to function normally because the government is currently operating at a deficit. If the debt limit is not passed, then at some point the government will not be able to pay workers and contractors. It won’t be able to send out Social Security checks or make payments for Medicaid and unemployment insurance to state governments. And, it will not be able to make interest payments on government bonds, effectively defaulting on the national debt.”
Needless to say, all of this will make life drastically more difficult for citizens of the US. As the middle class continues on the path of economic decline, the number of citizens living in poverty has already hit an all time high.
* Although the government’s official figure tries to low-ball the number, 47.4 Million US citizens live in poverty, and the US poverty rate is the highest in the industrialized world.
Predictably, homelessness is rising at an increased rate as well. “The US government does not tally the numbers but interested organisations say that more than 3 million people were homeless at some point over the past year…. The fastest growing segment of the homeless population is families with children.”
Children have been hit especially hard by the economic crisis:
* 50% of US children, one out of every two children, will need to use food stamps to eat.
One out of every two children in the United States of America will need to use a food stamp… to EAT!
If you didn’t think starvation was a serious threat in the US, just read this new Washington Post report: “The nation’s economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people — including almost one child in four — struggled last year to get enough to eat… Several independent advocates and policy experts on hunger said that they had been bracing for the latest report to show deepening shortages, but that they were nevertheless astonished by how much the problem has worsened. ‘This is unthinkable. It’s like we are living in a Third World country,’ said Vicki Escarra, president of Feeding America.”
The United States Department of Agriculture released these findings in a study that was completed in December 2008, which means these numbers don’t take into account the millions more unemployed throughout 2009. The numbers of people living in poverty and struggling to eat has seen a significant increase since then.
This a national tragedy. But it gets much worse.
* In 2008, according to the Census Bureau, the number of US citizens without healthcare grew to a record 46.3 million. “The new figures, however, understate the severity of the economic downturn because a large portion of nation’s job losses and unemployment rate increases occurred after the Census survey data was collected in March as part of the annual Current Population Survey.”
* Lack of health Insurance has caused 45,000 preventable U.S. citizen deaths in the past year. The American Journal of Medicine recently released a study that stated “Nearly two out of three bankruptcies stem from medical bills, and even people with health insurance face financial disaster if they experience a serious illness.”
A Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study reported that 17,000 children have died due to lack of healthcare. You can also add in a recent report that revealed that 2,266 US Veterans have died in 2008 due to lack of insurance.
The 50 million now uninsured and the 45,000 preventable deaths per year statistics are expected to drastically rise over the next few years. As the Senate continues to strip meaningful amendments from a healthcare bill that wouldn’t even take effect until 2013, it has become clear that, despite the media hype, the healthcare bill is going to fall far short of meaningful reform and continue to rig the game in favor of large insurance company profits at the expense of the US population. With the highest cost healthcare in the world, current trends will continue and much needed change is not on the horizon.
Never before has the United States had so many citizens with so little means, little to no income and heavy debt. Debt and costs of living have now shackled US citizens just as it has shackled people throughout the world. The economic hit men have now hit the US as well and millions of US citizens are now effectively sentenced to a slow death.
Economic Imperial blowback has hit the mainland.
And the clock is ticking louder by the day…
Here’s another fact for you:
* The gun and ammunition manufacturing industry in the United States has over 200 companies producing billions of dollars in annual revenues. This huge manufacturing base cannot fulfill demand quickly enough. The demand for guns and ammunition has hit a record high and the gun industry cannot produce enough bullets to keep up with orders.
American’s are arming themselves to the teeth!
* In the past year, 100 new armed militia groups have been formed, as militia members have doubled in numbers. Federal authorities are gravely concerned about the “uptick in militia activities.” One federal authority recently said, “All it’s lacking is a spark. I think it’s only a matter of time before you see threats and violence.”
So let’s breakdown these numbers.
You have a population of 50 million people who are in desperate need of money, they most likely have no health insurance and can’t afford to get healthcare or help of any kind. Part of this population probably also has loved ones who can’t get life sustaining medical treatments, or loved ones that have already died due to lack of costly medical treatment. The clock is ticking loud for these people and they are running out of options fast, and time delayed is time closer to death.
While the richest one percent have never had it so good, a significant percentage of the US population now has firsthand experience in this. Millions upon millions of Americans are poor, broke, struggling, starving, desperate… and armed.
We are sitting on a powder keg!
We are now witnessing the critical unraveling of US society.
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II: Environmental Crisis
Add to this picture an environmental crisis the likes of which humanity has never faced.
Considering our current economy, what will happen when another extreme weather event like Hurricane Katrina hits a major US city? What will happen when storms, droughts and fires continue to spread with increasing intensity? How many have to die before even modest actions are taken to prevent environmental catastrophe?
Extreme weather events are pounding the globe, it is as if the environment has declared war on us as a species. Humanity has become a polluting cancer in the environmental system, and if we don’t urgently act to stop the bleeding, things are going to get drastically worse in a pace faster than anticipated. And this is not an opinion; it is happening now, there is plenty of empirical evidence that anyone can see before their own eyes, if they care to look.
US public opinion on the climate crisis has been distorted by the mainstream US media in stunning fashion. A recent Pew Research study revealed that only 36 percent of the US population thinks the climate crisis is a result of human activity.
Regardless of your beliefs, due to climate change, we are on the verge of experiencing major water shortages spreading “across the country. Sooner rather than later…” California has already been hit by extreme drought and water is in very short supply. As the Arctic continues to melt, California will continue to experience extreme drought. A new study revealed: “when Arctic sea ice disappears, the jet stream—high-altitude winds with a profound influence on climate—shifts north, moving precipitation away from California.” A recent “sweeping water-reform bill” in California temporarily eased public outcry, but the problem remains. The U.S. is confronted by a serious water crisis.
For a global example, there is currently an extreme drought in East Africa as well, which has 23 million people on the verge of dying from starvation. Due to the drought, crops have been killed in unprecedented fashion. Events of this nature are happening all over the globe.
Of the worldwide record one billion people going hungry, the leading cause is destroyed agriculture due to extreme weather.
As a significant percentage of humanity faces death due to climate change, we are in the midst of our planet’s sixth great extinction. Over 17,000 species are threatened with extinction, “more than one in five of all known mammals, over a quarter of reptiles and 70 percent of plants are under threat.”
For those of you unaware, the earth’s ecosystem is a very delicate balance. Being in the midst of the earth’s sixth great extinction is not a matter to be ignored.
The upcoming climate summit in Copenhagen was considered by leaders throughout the world to be the most critical environmental summit in the history of civilization. International headlines read: “We only have months, not years, to save civilization from climate change.”
However, the United States and the head of the United Nations just announced that no legally binding treaties are expected to come out of the summit. This is devastating news!
The reason why no deal will be reached at the summit: the United States is refusing to take necessary action.
In a PR move to calm criticism in advance of the summit, the US and Japan announced a vague agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions… in 2012. However, the “agreement on this ambitious reduction target could not be reached during the APEC summit, and so was dropped from the draft statement.”
It would be smart of the public relations department to at least get one photo op with Obama actually at the climate summit. Instead of being at the most important summit, perhaps in the history of civilization, it appears Obama will be blowing it off to give his speech on how it feels to win the Nobel Peace Prize… H E L L O.
We are living in an insane asylum.
The Goldman Sachs PR guy is out giving speeches on how cool it is to cast the illusion of peace and hope, while the earth burns.
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III: The Obama Myth
I don’t mean to dismiss the Obama myth, his words, the change we need is real, its just his actions don’t even come close to measuring up. Just read the legal documents he has signed his name to. Read them. His actions are most often the opposite of what he says. I venture to say a 10 year old can recognize that after doing a school day’s worth of research.
Obama is a national tragedy. He is a symbol of the times. He is not a leader, just a symbol. He projects the change we need. He was our shortcut to correcting our diseased political system, a way to rid it of corruption. He symbolized the change millions so desperately need. People came out in the millions for the first time “hoping” if they could work and organize to put him in office, we would have some representation to defend against the economic elite that have put the overwhelming majority of US politicians on the payroll and brought humanity to a breaking point.
People just need to research how the Obama myth was hatched. Goldman Sachs saw Obama early on and said, “He’s our guy!” When Obama became THE MAN in Iowa, he was on the Goldman Sachs pay roll. Goldman financed the psychological operation that is the Obama myth, the Illusion of HOPE - something to keep a suffering nation pacified just a little bit longer. Obama is truly a national tragedy. His failure and inaction has disillusioned millions upon millions of desperate citizens who turned to him as their best chance for justice.
As further evidence of Obama’s duplicity — beyond repeatedly signing his name to documents covering up the Bush Adminstration’s highest crimes and increasing an already bloated military budget — in one of his very first moves as President he put Goldman Sachs’ criminal mastermind Tim Geitner in charge of the treasury.
A new report from the TARP Inspector General further exposes Tim Geithner’s role “in overpayments that put billions of extra tax dollars in the coffers of major Wall Street firms, most notably Goldman Sachs.”
Which brings us to the ultimate theft of wealth in history, and to the root cause of our current crisis.
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IV: Economic Coup - Theft of Trillions
URGENT NATIONAL EMERGENCY: TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN PUBLIC WEALTH HAS BEEN STOLEN
This crime makes Bernie Madoff’s look like an elementary school lunch money stickup. No, I’m not talking about the hundreds of billions in the housing crisis scam cooked up by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs that left millions homeless and investors suckered the world over, or even the $2.75 trillion oil futures market scam that has siphoned 50% of all our spending on gas and fuel.
These huge scams are just diversions from the ultimate crime.
Trillions of dollars, trillions of our money, of our tax money — the money that comes out of your paycheck every week of your working life, all the thousands upon thousands that have been taken away from you and your family and are supposed to fund our government and keep our society functioning — have been handed over to the economic elite, to the Llyod Blankfeins and Jamie Dimons of the world.
Hank Paulson and his confidant Tim Geitner, the Goldman Sachs wonder twins, have looted the US treasury. There has been an economic coup in the United States!
Trillions of our dollars have vanished! You need to understand this!
We have just witnessed the greatest theft of wealth in history, the greatest transfer of wealth from the working class to the economic elite ever. An organized banking cartel has seized the US treasury and they are making up the “laws” and the rules to this rigged game. The covert economy has grown at a staggering rate due to taxpayer-funded injections. As a result of this, economic shackles are just beginning to fall upon the American public like never before. 99% of our nation is now sentenced to a slow death.
Just as economic hit men have done to governments throughout the globe, they have gained complete control of the US government and have now shackled US citizens as well. The economic elite do not want to deal with “spoiled Americans” anymore, that’s how they see it. To them the middle class was always an annoying nuisance to be tolerated so the economy could keep functioning well enough to allow their scams to perpetuate. But once their scam known as the US stock market came crashing down, and they were threatened with losing their ultimate power, they turned to the US middle class and opened fire. “Enough with you, we are taking over your government and stealing your tax money!”
This is exactly what happened!
The economic elite are operating under the belief that the world is theirs, they own it, and to hell with everyone else. They also take the view that as the environment grows more destructive, they don’t want us around to compete for resources.
This is self-evident after some research into policy actions that have been carried out. Research it for yourself!
Recent investigations into the illegal practices of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have revealed the US economy and stock market to be a fraud. As more of the world becomes aware of this, the dollar will continue to plummet and the U.S. public will pay a devastating price - things are just beginning to unravel.
The US economy has been hit by a deathblow, it lay in ruins naked and exposed to “Too Big Too Fail” thieves who have raped and pillaged, who are looting public wealth in unprecedented fashion.
The economic elite are vultures feeding off the carcass that is the US economy. The whole political structure has been gutted by corruption. Democracy was the façade that this house of cards was built on - a pyramid scheme that was built on the illusion of law and freedom.
Historians will look back at this time as a period in which corrupt despots ruled the masses with utter short-sighted greed and casted an illusion over the base population to keep the scam rolling along, until the end of the American empire, until the public driven economy came crashing down in a thunderous economic cloud of greed and corruption.
The smoke is still in our eyes, but the masses are beginning to see, to realize.
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V: National Emergency
Many middle class US citizens don’t realize all of this yet, I understand their lack of action and confusion because I have also been bred as a middle class American in the propaganda system known as the US mainstream media, but I’m writing this to let you know…
Our survival instinct has to quickly override our conditioned naiveté and passivity that has been bred into us. We are threatened as a country and a species at the same time.
We, as a nation, must overcome heavy doses of propaganda administered by the mainstream media for hours a day, every day of our existence. Shake off your conditioned naiveté and passivity. This is a brutal world we live in, and we are now at war…
The American dream state is over. It’s time to get real, time to sound the alarm.
I am of the sincere hope that we will be able to rise up as a counterweight to the economic elite. In the overall scheme of things, history has placed us in a pivotal position. We are a vital countervailing force to the economic elite and must immediately start exercising our rights of redress.
People throughout the world understand that the US middle class has to serve as a counterweight to an economic cartel that has brought humanity to a breaking point.
The economic elite also understand this, this is why they have launched a war on us.
Now that our existence is directly threatened as well, people are awaking from a propagandized existence and realizing the gravity of our crisis.
We must sound the alarm and discard our illusions.
It is time to evolve from a state of “Hope” to a state of “Action.”
We desperately need intelligent leadership, free from the shackles of the banking cartel.
We, as a nation, cannot continue to settle for the politics of corruption. We must begin by addressing the root cause of our troubles and hold accountable those directly responsible for the greatest theft of wealth in history.
We must flood the halls of Congress; we must engage our House of Representatives and begin to rein in the economic elite.
This Is A… NATIONAL EMERGENCY…
Economic justice is possible, it may be hard to believe here in the US, but a nation of law is still possible. It is possible only if YOU begin to act.
We are 99% of the population, they are only 1%.
The outcome is not assured; we must start organizing on a mass scale.
Take your plight to your representative. SOUND THE ALARM!
We must understand “the fierce urgency of now!”

As of Thursday afternoon, Google has blocked our new report "The Critical Unraveling of U.S. Society" from their search results.

They're antsy and edgy, tired of waiting for promotion opportunities at work as their elders put off retirement. A good number of them are just waiting for the economy to pick up so they can hop to the next job, find something more fulfilling and get what they think they deserve. Oh, and they want work-life balance, too.
Sounds like Gen Y, the so-called "entitlement generation," right?
Not necessarily, say people who track the generations. In these hard times, they're also hearing strong rumblings of discontent from Generation X. They're the 32- to 44-year-olds who are wedged between baby boomers and their children, often feeling like forgotten middle siblings — and increasingly restless at work as a result.
"All of a sudden, we've gone from being the young upstarts to being the curmudgeons," says Bruce Tulgan, a generational consultant who's written books about various age groups, including his fellow Gen Xers.
This isn't the first time Gen Xers have faced tough times. They came of age during a recession and survived the dot-com bust of 2000. In recent years, though, more members of the generation — stereotyped early on as jaded individualists — had families or began settling down in other ways. It was time, they thought, to enjoy the rewards of paying some dues.
"We were starting to buy into the system, at least to some extent," Tulgan says, "and then we got the rug pulled out from under us."
Now, in this latest recession, nearly two-thirds of baby boomer workers, ages 50 to 61, say they might have to push back their retirement, according to a recent survey from Pew Research.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the age spectrum are Gen Yers, who are often cheaper to hire and heralded for their coveted high-tech knowledge, even though many Gen Xers consider themselves just as technologically savvy.
"It's so annoying," says Lisa Chamberlain, another Gen Xer who wrote the book "Slackonomics: Generation X in the Age of Creative Destruction." "First, it was always the baby boomers overshadowing everything. Then there was this brief period in the mid-'90s where Gen X was cool.
"Now it's, 'What are the new kids doing?' It's like 'Yo, hello, the Google guys are Gen Xers.'"
They can sound a little whiny. But there's also some evidence that Gen Xers really are being taken for granted at work.
One survey done this year for Deloitte Consulting LLP, for instance, found that nearly two-thirds of executives at large companies were most concerned about losing Gen Y employees, while less than half of them had similar concerns about losing Gen Xers.
The assumption is often that Gen Yers are the least loyal and most mobile, says Robin Erickson, a manager with Deloitte's human capital division.
However, she points out that a companion survey of employees found that only about 37 percent of Gen Xers said they planned to stay in their current jobs after the recession ends, compared with 44 percent of Gen Yers, 50 percent of baby boomers and 52 percent of senior citizen workers who said the same.
Everyone surveyed worried about job security. Gen X and Gen Y were most likely to complain about pay. But a "lack of career progress," was by far the biggest gripe from Gen Xers, with 40 percent giving that as a reason for their restlessness, compared with 30 percent of Gen Yers, 20 percent of baby boomers and 14 percent of senior workers.
Gen Yers, meanwhile, were more likely than the other generations to cite "lack of challenges in the job" as a reason they would leave, while baby boomers more often chose "poor employee treatment during the downturn" and a "lack of trust in leadership."
The Deloitte study warns of a "resume' tsunami" once economic recovery begins, especially among Gen Xers, and notes that many executives were largely unaware of employee complaints unrelated to money.
Such findings don't surprise Rich Yudhishthu, a 37-year-old Gen Xer who's a business development consultant from Minneapolis.
"The lack of promotional opportunities has pretty much killed job loyalty within a generation," he says.
Liza Potts, a 35-year-old professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., agrees, but also notes that the disillusionment took hold for many of her peers as far back as childhood.
"Many of my friends had hoped to have jobs like their parents — places they would stay forever that would take care of them like they did their parents. But then we saw that start to crumble for our folks," she says, recalling friends whose fathers and mothers got laid off from companies such as IBM or had to relocate.
Now worried about their own foreclosures, debt and unemployment, her generation is left to do the soul-searching their parents did.
"Is there still time to become something different? Must we just accept where we are? Is there time to innovate elsewhere?" asks Potts who left her own career in the software and Internet industry for a life in academia. It's meant less money, she says, but also more freedom to choose her work hours and projects.
In Chicago, 40-year-old real estate agent Adon Navarette has taken on extra jobs to make it, from consultant for an energy supply company to starting his own health and wellness business. He's heard his peers sniping about other generations, but also thinks their experience with other rough economic patches makes them resilient, too.
It's a pivotal moment, he says.
"What's going to define me as a Gen Xer is how I come out of this. What's going to define me is, 'What have I done to allow myself to take advantage of the market when the market turns around?'" he says.
Sometimes, it means working for less money.
Jon Anne Willow, co-publisher of ThirdCoastDigest.com, an online arts and culture site in Milwaukee, is among employers who've recently been able to hire more experienced candidates for jobs traditionally filled by 20somethings.
They're hungry to work, she says. And as she sees it, that gives her fellow Gen Xers and the baby boomers she's hired a distinct advantage over a lot of the Gen Yers she's come across.
"When the dust settles, they'll be exactly as they were before and we'll just have to sift through them and take the ones that actually get it and hope the rest find employment in fast food," she quips.
Spoken like a truly jaded Gen Xer.

Generation X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X, is a term used to refer to the generation born after the baby boom ended, with earliest birth dates seen used by researchers ranging from 1961 to the latest 1981.

In the U.S. Generation X was originally referred to as the "baby bust" generation because of the drop in the birth rate following the baby boom.[1]
In the UK the term was first used in a 1964 study of British youth by Jane Deverson. Deverson was asked by Woman's Own magazine to interview teenagers of the time. The study revealed a generation of teenagers who "sleep together before they are married, were not taught to believe in God as 'much', dislike the Queen, and don't respect parents," these controversial findings meant that the piece was deemed unsuitable for the magazine. Deverson, in an attempt to save her research, worked with Hollywood correspondent Charles Hamblett to create a book about the study. Hamblett decided to name it Generation X.[12]
The term was popularized by Canadian author Douglas Coupland’s 1991 novel, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, concerning young adults during the late 1980s. While Coupland's book helped to popularize the phrase “Generation X,” in a 1989 magazine article[13] he erroneously attributed the term to Billy Idol. In fact, Idol had been a member of the punk band Generation X from 1976-1981, which was named after Deverson and Hamblett's 1965 sociology book—a copy of which was owned by Idol's mother.

In the 1991 book Generations, William Strauss and Neil Howe call this generation the "13th Generation" and define the birth years as 1961 to 1981 (the lowest birth rate year for this generation was 1970).
According to the authors, Generation X is "the 13th generation" to be familiar with the flag of the United States (counting back to the peers of Benjamin Franklin).[3] The label was also chosen because they consider it a "Reactive" or "Nomad" generation, composed of those who were children during a spiritual awakening.
Older generations generally have negative perceptions of Reactive generations—whose members tend to be pragmatic and perceptive, savvy but amoral, more focused on money than on art[14] -- and the use of 13 is also intended to associate this perception with the negative connotations of that number.
The authors highlight this negative perception by noting the popularity of "devil-child" movies, wherein children are portrayed as malevolent protagonists (e.g. Rosemary's Baby[15]), released soon after the generation's first members were born.[16]

Individuals considered to be within Generation X were born, and grew up during the later years of, and in the decade following the Vietnam War. They are most often linked to the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.[17] Coming of age after the Vietnam War had ended, their political experiences and cultural perspective were shaped by the end of the cold war and the fall of the Berlin wall. Growing up in an historical span of relative geopolitical peace for the US, this generation saw the inception of the home computer, the rise of videogames, and the Internet as a tool for social and commercial purposes. Other attributes identified with this demographic are Dot-com businesses, early MTV, Desert Storm, 80's Rock, such as Van Halen and Bon Jovi, Grunge and Hip hop culture and punk rock bands such as The Ramones.
The US Census Bureau cites Generation X as statistically holding the highest education levels when looking at age group (bloc): US Census Bureau, in their 2009 Statistical Abstract. (Also see Education Statistics Canada, 2001 Census.)
In economics, a study (done by Pew Charitable Trusts, the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institute, the Heritage Foundation and the Urban Institute) challenged the notion that each generation will be better off than the one that preceded it.[18] The study, 'Economic Mobility: Is the American Dream Alive and Well?" focuses on the income of males 30-39 in 2004 (those born April, 1964 – March, 1974) and is based on Census/BLS CPS March supplement data.[19]
The study, which was released on May 25, 2007, emphasized that in real dollars, this generation's men made less (by 12%) than their fathers had at that same age in 1974, thus reversing a historical trend. The study also suggests that per year increases in the portion of father/son family household income generated by fathers/sons have slowed (from an average of 0.9% to 0.3%), barely keeping pace with inflation, though increases in overall father/son family household income are progressively higher each year because more women are entering the workplace, contributing to family household income.[20]

E.T. phone Rome. Four hundred years after it locked up Galileo for challenging the view that the Earth was the center of the universe, the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church.
"The questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration," said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, an astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory.
Funes, a Jesuit priest, presented the results Tuesday of a five-day conference that gathered astronomers, physicists, biologists and other experts to discuss the budding field of astrobiology — the study of the origin of life and its existence elsewhere in the cosmos.
Funes said the possibility of alien life raises "many philosophical and theological implications" but added that the gathering was mainly focused on the scientific perspective and how different disciplines can be used to explore the issue.
Chris Impey, an astronomy professor at the University of Arizona, said it was appropriate that the Vatican would host such a meeting.
"Both science and religion posit life as a special outcome of a vast and mostly inhospitable universe," he told a news conference Tuesday. "There is a rich middle ground for dialogue between the practitioners of astrobiology and those who seek to understand the meaning of our existence in a biological universe."
Thirty scientists, including non-Catholics, from the U.S., France, Britain, Switzerland, Italy and Chile attended the conference, called to explore among other issues "whether sentient life forms exist on other worlds."
Funes set the stage for the conference a year ago when he discussed the possibility of alien life in an interview given prominence in the Vatican's daily newspaper.
The Church of Rome's views have shifted radically through the centuries since Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600 for speculating, among other ideas, that other worlds could be inhabited.
Scientists have discovered hundreds of planets outside our solar system — including 32 new ones announced recently by the European Space Agency. Impey said the discovery of alien life may be only a few years away.
"If biology is not unique to the Earth, or life elsewhere differs bio-chemically from our version, or we ever make contact with an intelligent species in the vastness of space, the implications for our self-image will be profound," he said.
This is not the first time the Vatican has explored the issue of extraterrestrials: In 2005, its observatory brought together top researchers in the field for similar discussions.
In the interview last year, Funes told Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that believing the universe may host aliens, even intelligent ones, does not contradict a faith in God.
"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said in that interview.
"Just as there is a multitude of creatures on Earth, there could be other beings, even intelligent ones, created by God. This does not contradict our faith, because we cannot put limits on God's creative freedom."
Funes maintained that if intelligent beings were discovered, they would also be considered "part of creation."
The Roman Catholic Church's relationship with science has come a long way since Galileo was tried as a heretic in 1633 and forced to recant his finding that the Earth revolves around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.
Today top clergy, including Funes, openly endorse scientific ideas like the Big Bang theory as a reasonable explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter.
Earlier this year, the Vatican also sponsored a conference on evolution to mark the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species."
The event snubbed proponents of alternative theories, like creationism and intelligent design, which see a higher being rather than the undirected process of natural selection behind the evolution of species.
Still, there are divisions on the issues within the Catholic Church and within other religions, with some favoring creationism or intelligent design that could make it difficult to accept the concept of alien life.
Working with scientists to explore fundamental questions that are of interest to religion is in line with the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI, who has made strengthening the relationship between faith and reason a key aspect of his papacy.
Recent popes have been working to overcome the accusation that the church was hostile to science — a reputation grounded in the Galileo affair.
In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared the ruling against the astronomer was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."
The Vatican Museums opened an exhibit last month marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first celestial observations.
Tommaso Maccacaro, president of Italy's national institute of astrophysics, said at the exhibit's Oct. 13 opening that astronomy has had a major impact on the way we perceive ourselves.
"It was astronomical observations that let us understand that Earth (and man) don't have a privileged position or role in the universe," he said. "I ask myself what tools will we use in the next 400 years, and I ask what revolutions of understanding they'll bring about, like resolving the mystery of our apparent cosmic solitude."
The Vatican Observatory has also been at the forefront of efforts to bridge the gap between religion and science. Its scientist-clerics have generated top-notch research and its meteorite collection is considered one of the world's best.
The observatory, founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, is based in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside town in the hills outside Rome where the pope has his summer residence. It also conducts research at an observatory at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.
On the Net:
Vatican Observatory,: http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo