English: The prison cell where Nelson Mandela was once imprisoned. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)I Bet The New York Times Article Made Rocket Tube Crash Yesterday
Sunday's *NY Times* posed an impossible question: How Man American Men Are
Gay? First of all, what does that even mean? I've been straight, bisexual,
gay and celibate. So how do you count me? (Until reading the *Times* story
I had never been on any gay internet sites either. Porno never did much for
me. And I never even *knew* Match.com is for gay people too.)
Using, among other indicators, Facebook, "pornographic searches and dating
sites," Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, who recently received a Ph.D. in
economics at Harvard, estimates that "[a]t least 5 percent of American men
are pre... more »
NSA, what we know so far...NSA/Snowden update
As
courtesy of Edward Snowden, this is the extent of what we now know, as of
this writing, about what the US government's secret war against America
consists of:
1). records every cell phone conversation ever made (e.g., every word you
say) --
2). records all e-mails ever sent (e.g., to one day be used against you) --
3). takes pictures of all letters mailed, in the US (e.g., your mail is
being opened, read by the government, and photocopied to archive, to one
day be used against you) --
4). uses drones for domestic surveillance and eavesd... more »
Harry Targ : My Nelson Mandela
Nelson
Mandela, 1918-2013.
My Nelson Mandela
Real historic figures get lionized, sanitized, and most importantly
redefined as defenders of the ongoing order rather than activists who
committed their lives to revolutionary changes...
By Harry Targ / The Rag Blog / December 10, 2013
One of the ironies of 21st century historical discourse is that despite
significantly increased access to
Pope Francis: Peace for the Middle East, no to hatred
Video Title: Pope Francis: Peace for the Middle East, no to hatred. Source:
Vatican. Date Published: December 9. Description:
"We have to grow closer to the Lord, because God is our hope," Pope Francis
said in his homily at morning Mass. Present at the Liturgy was the Coptic
Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria, Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak. "Christ overcomes
the paralysis of humanity," the Pope said. "The paralysis of consciences is
contagious. With the complicity of the poverties of history and of our sin,
it can expand and enter into social structures and into communities to
block entire peo... more »
A new hat for the pope? (And maybe a new ring to toss it in?)
*by Ken*
December 9, 2013
*Pope Thinking of Losing Hat*
Posted by ANDY BOROWITZ
VATICAN CITY (The Borowitz Report)—In his latest break with Catholic
orthodoxy, Pope Francis said today that he was “seriously considering
losing the hat,” the tall ceremonial mitre that has long been a signature
of papal dress.
“I know I’m going to catch hell for saying this, but it looks kind of
dumb,” he said. “Besides, you expect me to believe God really cares if I
wear a big pointy hat or not? Come on.”
The Pontiff said that he would probably “try out some different looks, like
a baseball cap o... more »
Kill the Landlord, Save the Man
originally published on CounterPunch
Some expressions are so familiar, so deeply entwined in our history that,
although they are thoroughly racist, even homicidal, they fail to elicit
much surprise or shock. Familiar with their presence, we become inured to
their depravity. And, because they fail to surprise us, they oftentimes
fail to offend us as well. While the degree to which they influence us is
subject to dispute, few will doubt that our culture is stitched together by
just such threads. Maintaining an infamous position among these is the
phrase "the only good Indian is a ... more »
As Detroit's Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr mulls taking over Detroit's Pension funds , note the Detroit bankruptcy is reverberating elsewhere ...... Scranton watches Detroit Bankruptcy case as it seeks solutions for its own fiscal woes !
Might this send the Unions over the edge ?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/detroits-emergency-manager-weighs-pension-000200112.html?l=1
Detroit's Emergency Manager Weighs Pension-Fund Takeover
[image: The Wall Street Journal]
By Matthew DolanDecember 6, 2013 7:02 PM
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DETROIT—This city's emergency manager, in the midst of reorganizing the
finances of America's most troubled large city, is threatening to take over
one of Detroit's pension funds after a report found that retirees received
extra payments while the funds lost value.
Kevyn Orr sai... more »
OECD Pimping for Common Core Testing Delivery System
PISA chief, Andrew Schleicher was on the PBS News Hour last week to talk
about what might be learned from high scorers on the world's most watched
international testing derby. He pointed to some interventions that seem to
have proved successful that focused on improving teacher quality and more
equitable educational opportunities as having particular promise. When
Jeffrey Brown asked about the U. S., Schleicher departed from his empirical
riff, however, and focused on the untried and unproven Common Core testing
delivery system as the way to American success in the international
t... more »
Singapore sees riots ? ? If a rich and stable country such as Singapore is at knife's edge ( hidden tensions and divisions between their 1 percent tand the 99 percent brought to the surface by an accident ? ) ....... What country will next see riots such as Singapores has seen next - conditions that caused the riots in Singapore are present throughout the GCC nations and West ?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-09/riots-break-out-singapore-think-your-country-immune
Riots Break Out In Singapore; Think Your Country Is Immune?
[image: Tyler Durden's picture]
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/09/2013 12:36 -0500
- Corruption
- Greece
- India
- Middle East
inShare1
*Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog,*
Mohamed Bouazizi. It’s not a name that means much to most people. But
you’ll recall his story.
Frustrated with the absurd amount of regulation and corruption that
prevented him from being able to put food on the table for his f... more »
Domestic and Global Police State updates December 9 , 2013....Cyber insecurity - Rockefeller attaches cybersecurity bill to National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2014 .... WikiLeaks releases new documents exposing secret Trans-Pacific Partnership talks ...... More cyber insecurity - NSA and GCHQ spies ‘operated in games including World of Warcraft and Second Life’ ....... Underhanded techniques by Law enforcement - Unbelievable: ATF Using Mentally Disabled Teens to Run Drug-and-Gun Stings ....... Who said Spectre was fiction - New US spy satellite features world-devouring octopus
Rockefeller attaches cybersecurity bill to National Defense Authorization
Act (NDAA) 2014
- [image: The Alex Jones Channel][image: Alex Jones Show podcast][image:
Prison Planet TV][image: Infowars.com Twitter][image: Alex Jones'
Facebook][image: Infowars store]
*asheepnomore.net*
December 9, 2013
Call your senator and tell them to vote no to the Cyber Security Amendment
attached to the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Bill. COPY
AND PASTE THIS INFORMATION below into BOTH OF YOUR SENATORS EMAILS! They
must know we KNOW WHAT THEY ARE UP TO AND ARE EXPOSING T... more »
...but I do Believe in this:-
I don't believe in magick
I don't believe in I-Ching
I don't believe in Bible
I don't believe in tarot
I don't believe in Hitler
I don't believe in Jesus
I don't believe in Kennedy
I don't believe in Buddha
I don't believe in mantra
I don't believe in Gita
I don't believe in yoga
I don't believe in kings
I don't believe in Elvis
I don't believe in Zimmerman
I don't believe in Beatles
I just believe in me
Yoko and me
I was the Walrus
But now I'm John.
Brzezinski: America Must Avoid Another Prolonged War In The Middle East + Obama: There Is A Dignified Resolution To Nuclear Issue With Iran + Nasrallah: War in the Region Should Worry Our Opponents More than Us
*1. Video Title: The U.S. must avoid another prolonged war: Zbigniew
Brzezinski - Fast Forward. Source: Reuters TV. July 18, 2012. Description: *
Officials can rarely predict the long-term impact of a war says Zbigniew
Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Carter. In an
interview with Editor-at-Large Harry Evans, Brzezinski adds that the U.S.
should guarantee every Persian Gulf country that any threat from Iran will
be viewed a direct threat to the United States. (July 18, 2012).
"*I know from experience, and also from history, you can start a war, and
you can k... more »
Sounds Like the Start of a Bar Joke, Doesn't It?
The Bushes, Clintons and Obama get on AF One on a 19 hour trip to
South Africa...
(No, Hillary didn't really tweet this. I made this.)
ObamaCare updates - December 9 , 2013 - top items of note......"No Way To Tell How Many People Who Have Signed Up For Obamacare Actually Have" ....... NYT: My, many of these ObamaCare premiums aren’t really as low as they seem, are they ? ......... Mutliple State Exchanges Vulnerable to Wi-Fi Attack ....... If you want to keep your Doctor , pay more ( say Zeke Emanuel ) ...... Apart from not keeping your Doctor unless you pay more - seems that you will lose top hospitals also ( unless you will pay more or all of the costs ) ...... Additional collateral damages !
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-09/no-way-tell-how-many-people-who-have-signed-obamacare-actually-have
"No Way To Tell How Many People Who Have Signed Up For Obamacare Actually
Have"
[image: Tyler Durden's picture]
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 12/09/2013 11:46 -0500
- fixed
- Florida
- Insurance Companies
- Medicare
- Obama Administration
- Obamacare
- Ohio
- White House
inShare
The Obamacare enrollment portal is the gift that keeps on giving endless
examples of government incompetence. The latest comes from Bloomberg which
informs u... more »
Follow up on Pope Francis...
*by Judge Andrew Napolitano.*
*Pope Francis should be saving souls, not pocketbooks*
What is the worst problem in the world today? Might it be war, starvation,
genocide, sectarian violence, murder, slaughter of babies in the womb? Any
of these would be a rational answer. When Pope Francis was asked this
question recently, he replied, “Youth unemployment.”
To be sure, youth unemployment is a serious problem. In some parts of the
United States, the richest country in the world, it has reached 25 percent.
These are people who are no longer in school full time and are not yet 30
year... more »
Elsewhere: SCOTUS, ALEC, ACA, more
I did a radio spot on KPCC today on the question of whether Justices should
retire strategically or not, and also on term limits for SCOTUS. I'm still
ambivalent on the latter; I think the last time I wrote about it I bailed
by saying that since staggered 18 year terms aren't going to happen, I
don't need a position on it. On balance, I think I'm perhaps a bit more for
than against, but I'm really undecided. On the main point, however, I think
it's pretty clear that if older justices want to preserve the principles
they believe in during a time of strong partisan polarization, then t... more »
IT Luncheon
The last IT division meeting of the semester is not so much "meeting" as it
is "Christmas Luncheon."
There was plenty of food.
Why, yes, Southern Man is somewhat obsessed with food.
The CS Department Chair and Southern Man's officially appointed mentor.
They're both really very nice.
Our Fearless Leader, the Dean of IT. Southern Man's actually known him for
about twenty years.
Mike in his natural habitat. He brought the most delicious cinnamon rolls
*ever*.
Another one of the CS professors. We're about half boys, half girls - a
little unusual for computer science.
Yet ano... more »
"Money for Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve”
The Federal Reserve, not the free market, caused the Global Monetary Crisis
says Money for Nothing filmmaker Jim Bruce.
“I view one of the big myths of the [2007-08 financial] crisis as that it
was purely the effect of free markets, that this is what happens when you
have free markets," says Jim Bruce, filmmaker behind the new documentary
"Money for Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve."
Bruce predicted the meltdown, invested accordingly, and used the money
he made from the collapse to fund his movie, which features interviews with
economists who predicted the crisis, as well a... more »
PICK YOUR PLATE OF POISON
This video gives a taste of what the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP would
bring. Created by Geoffrey Leighton based on a banner designed by Natasha
Meyers and painted by ARRT! (Artists Rapid Response Team in Maine).
Is that really why the Labour Party raised the upper rate of tax to 50%?
The BBC confidently assert that:
'The last Labour government raised the upper tax band from 40% to 50% in
2010 in response to the recession but the coalition has since cut it to
45%.'
'in response to the recession', really? Not as a naked political gambit
then?
The BBC, as always, are happy to do the Labour Party's work for them, in
this brown-nosed report on a Neil Kinnock interview. That's the same Neil
Kinnock whose enormous EU pension will be taxed at a lower rate than his
fellow British citizens, I wonder why he's so pro-EU.
12 couples that should know better
It’s bad enough for offspring of double-barrelled parents who meet and
marry—do you offend one set of parents, or become quadruple-barrelled?—but
some double-barrelled cognomens would be worse than others…
More hilarity here. [Hat tip Paul L.]
Content is copyright PC.BlogSpot.Com © Please contact author for permission
to republish: (organon at ihug.co.nz)
Can do Should Do
In the end there is no difference. We all go bad when temptation is painted
in a perfect way. So what do we need to keep the bad guys away. Could not
be a law, they write these all the time, and when you look to the shier f
you will see he has their logo on his milk jug full time. So like Robin
Hood its time, to find a new Sherwood forest and a new swinging vine.
These vinittes these hardly formed thoughts are all remisicant of a
classical plot to keep me distracted
while the forces that be
extincted all the life force
that otherwise
would be available\
if not protracted
when the he... more »
GOP Governor Brian Sandoval's Big Gamble Is Paying Off-- For Nevada's Working Families
Out of place among the crackpots, Brian Sandoval, bottom row, #3
I doubt many Republicans are worried that Colin Powell has been talking up
universal, single-payer health care-- something considerably more
progressive than the Obamacare compromise conservatives forced on a naive
Obama.
Powell told the audience that countries in Europe, Canada and South Korea
offer universal, single-payer health care and said he often asks why the
United States has not implemented the same system.
"Whether it's Obamacare, or son of Obamacare, I don't care," Powell said.
"As long as we get it done."
... more »
Niagara Falls as you've never seen it...
*watch this full screen. Really...*
Filmed by a very, very small remote-controlled drone called DJI Phantom.
#SurveillanceState: Big Tech says no!
Good news this morning that big online technology companies, including
Google, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, AOL and LinkedIn, are
joining together in opposition to the worldwide government surveillance
revealed by Edward Snowden.
The political push by the technology companies opens a third front in their
battle against government surveillance, which has escalated with recent
revelations about government spying without the companies’ knowledge. The
companies have also been making technical changes to try to thwart spying
and have been waging a public-relations campai... more »
Monday Evening Linkage: have yourself a gender-neutral Christmas?
Have yourself a gender-neutral Christmas, let your toys be yellow. From now
on our princess costumes and toy guns will be out of sight…. Well, you try
to rhyme with this material. The Daily Mail asked yesterday “how to shop
for gender neutral toys” noting the sea of blue and pink dividing stores
like Toys
Continue reading
Double edged sword
There have been some odd reactions to the announcement that the world
renowned pianist Evgeny Kissin has adopted Israeli citizenship, even though
he resides elsewhere.
I wrote here about a letter he sent to the BBC criticising their “slander
and bias” against Israel, which is “Painfully reminiscent of the old
Soviet propaganda”
On 28th November on Norman Lebrecht’s blog ‘Slipped Disc’ some strange
comments appeared below an announcement about Kissin’s Israeli citizenship.
*“**What’s the point?*”, asked pianist Sanda Schuldmann. Later, in a
subsequent Slipped Disc piece on Decembe... more »
Untitled
The people will not be pawned
Oh yes they have given
so much blood
so much frustration'
and energy
its a nuclear reactor l
like a flood
of human mistakes
overrunning the rivers
of mankind
we got to take no
more prinsioner
of the corporate kind
Just dealing with a syndicate
brings the Sopranos to mind
and if you think Tony
was so cute
you are fucking blind
These people these fuckers
are taking a taste
out of humankind
cause the do not believe
that getting persecute in Sicily
will ever escape their minds
So when did the goverment
start to exist,and when did the goverment
give the path to peop... more »
Pastor Rick Warren to Piers Morgan on Homosexuality...
*“I fear the disapproval of God more than I fear your disapproval or the
disapproval of society.”*
Is a New Day Dawning for Education?
Common Dreams and Valerie Strauss at The Washington Post blog are covering
today's protests.
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make
a sound?
In: Physics, Philosophy and Philosophers, Brain Teasers and Logic Puzzles
Answer:
*Most basic answer:*
No, because the definition of *sound* is "something that you hear." No
one's there to hear the tree fall, so the tree doesn't make a sound. This
answer is valid as long as no details are observed technically.
Published on Monday, December 9, 2013 by Common Dreams
Movement Rises to Kick 'Corporate Reform' Out o... more »
What American tennis failure can teach all of us
Driven out of New Zealand tennis by a “high performance” strategy adopted
by tennis bureaucrats that was anything but, former Wimbledon finalist
Chris Lewis is now appalled that the strategy of encouraging mediocrity is
not only still in place, but being doubled down.
The National body presents its blueprint to associations this week, with a
targeted junior athlete programme focusing on elite players aged between 12
to 18 the focus.
The new strategy is based on similar programmes run by Tennis Canada,
Australia the British LTA and the US college system.
But 1983 Wimbledon... more »
OBAMA KNEW HE HAD NO CASE
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh joins Democracy Now to discuss his
new article casting doubt on the veracity of the Obama administration’s
claims that only the Assad regime could have carried out the chemical
attacks in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta earlier this year. Writing in the
London Review of Books, Hersh argues that the Obama administration
"cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad." The
administration failed to disclose it knew Syrian rebels in the al-Nusra
Front had the ability to produce chemical weapons. Evidence obtained in the
days after th... more »
Four Alarm Fire on the building of Civilization
Singapore I sleep so sound in your arms. Singapore it seems Harry Lee
understands how to make a society with far more love than harms. Now it
does not make no no mind if you cant chew gum, or if you vandalize a car
even if your an American you
will still get more than one
strokes from a bamboo
cane to remind you
that stepping of line
is just not the way
to make a society
with a admirable bottom line,
Say what you will about Lee Quan Yew
to me he is a hero
a man just like me an you
So he did one thing
and it turned out grand
and he did another thing
and it was successful
and he went for t... more »
American Dream: a Danish Reality?
*High social mobility isn't a clear net positive*
The American Dream is a national ethos of the U.S. Perhaps every third
Hollywood movie describes the life story of a person born to poor
conditions who makes it. The Americans themselves believe that this social
mobility is one of the virtues in which the Americans beat other nations.
The only problem is that the data suggest otherwise:
The myth of the American Dream (CNN Money)
Someone evaluated the "probability that you will be stuck in the same class
as your parents", i.e. the social immobility of a sort. Denmark only has
0.15 so... more »
The new Salon and the rise of a new generation!
*MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2013*
*Loom and womb! The tale of the vaginal knitter:* We don’t expect to keep
writing about the new Salon. But three new pieces at the site represent a
type of problem.
This morning, we were puzzled by a piece by Koa Beck. It appears under this
designation:
*Passing for white and straight: How my looks hide my identity*
I'm neither straight nor white, but I'm frequently mistaken for both—and
it's taught me a lot about privilege
KOA BECK
SUNDAY, DEC 8, 2013 07:59 PM EST
Quick summary: Beck—full name Koalani Beck—is a youngish, Hawaiian-born
woman whose father... more »
WHAT ADEBOLAJO MISSED OUT
*Michael Adebolajo, describes as being intelligent, popular and possessing
a sense of humour.*
On 9 December 2013, in the trial of Michael Adebolajo, who is accused of
killing soldier Lee Rigby, *Michael Adebolajo (or his body double) gave
evidence in court*.
*What is significant is what he did not say*
*1** A.* 'Adebolajo' said that he officially became a Muslim in his first
year at Greenwich University.
He said: "When I came to Islam, I realised that real success is if you make
it to Paradise. Then you can relax and have as much property as you want...
*Michael Adebolajo*
As... more »
The ‘Socialist Hordes”
Fascism and Contemporary Canada. Part VIIII.
*The ‘Socialist Hordes” *
*Written by Robin Mathews *
*Led By The Fiscally Conservative Social Credit W.A.C. Bennett Government.
The ‘Fascist Transformation’ By The ‘Liberal’ Gordon Campbell/Christy Clark
Governments.*
In those ‘Wacky’ Bennett days (1952-1972), a person could step into a
Vancouver Hotel elevator on one day with W.A.C. Bennett and Robert Bonner
(wearing, as I remember it, black homburg hats and long black overcoats).
The next day a person could share the elevator with Glenn Gould,
pale-faced, wearing the gray knit... more »
Sarah Palin at her best... (video)
*unfortunately, you have to also listen to that windbag O'Reilly.*
Gun Control Didn't Ruin Obama's Second Term
Alex Seitz-Wald test-drives what could easily become a new liberal fantasy:
The Connecticut massacre set in motion a cascade of events that led the
White House to burn through its only real window to accomplish its goals.
The month before the shooting, Obama had won a convincing reelection and a
modest popular mandate. One major liberal wish-list entry, immigration
reform, seemed not only within reach but almost inevitable.
Instead, not only in this story did Obama's gun control initiative sink
immigration reform, but it derailed, at least so far, his entire second
term.
C'mon. Let... more »
December 10 is Human Rights Day
Tomorrow is Human Rights Day, probably the most neglected day on the school
calendar. All teachers should use this opportunity to make children aware
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was adopted unanimously
by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948. I hope you will share
this document with all teachers.
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and
inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of
freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbar... more »
JEJU: NOW & BEFORE
The Navy base project in Gangjeong village on Jeju Island, South Korea now
scars the coast. It is important to remember that prior to the US deciding
it would "pivot" 60% of its military forces into the Asia-Pacific, this
village was declared a "special environmental preservation area" by the
federal government, and that was in addition to the designating of Jeju the
"Island of Peace" by the national government.
The US need for more bases, ports-of-call, airfields and barracks due to
Obama's military pivot to surround China clearly trumped South Korean
national preservation decl... more »
Deep tweets
War on Christmas edition.
This would be funny, if not so sad & true! True meaning of GOP Christmas
(hypocrisy): pic.twitter.com/Sw2Mn2RmIa
— Jack Berlin (@jackaberlin) December 9, 2013
Stanley Chang: "I Would Be Honored To Join The Congressional Progressive Caucus"-- A Guest Post
*GUEST POSTby Stanley Chang*
I am a lifelong Democrat and a proud progressive, and in my time in public
service, I’ve built a strongly progressive record. If elected to Congress,
I would be honored to join the Congressional Progressive Caucus to continue
fighting for the values I’ve built my public service record around.
From the beginning of my time in public service, I was one of the first
elected officials in Hawaii who publicly and consistently supported
marriage equality. I will continue to fight for equal rights for the LGBT
community, because while marriage equality is n... more »
A statutory body may be liable for a common law duty of care
Rausch v. The Corporation of the City of Pickering, 2013 ONCA 740:
[45] Although I would reject Mr. Rausch's claim that there is an
explicit statutory duty of care, I do not agree with the City that this is
the end of the matter. In my view, when negligence is alleged against a
government actor, the reach of the duty of care divining rod is not
restricted to the legislative scheme and whether it imposes a statutory
duty of care. In *R. v. Imperial Tobacco*, 2011 SCC 42, [2011] 3 S.C.R.
45, at paras. 43-45, the Supreme Court recognized that in addition to a
statutory duty o... more »
The Shamelessness & Stupidity of Rob Ford
A while back, somewhere, I mentioned a book about stephen harper's grievous
damage to Canada's parliamentary institutions. The political-scientist
authors wrote that our institutions were designed with an implicit trust in
the good faith of those who would be working within them, and that harper
has no good faith and abused that trust and thereby weakened those
institutions.
The same thing applies with Rob Ford. Our political tools weren't designed
to deal with an obnoxious cretin who, after months of lying, has finally
admitted to having smoked crack with gangsters in a drunken stu... more »
The BBC report (through gritted teeth) but still try and protect Islam, or at least denigrate Christianity.
The BBC report:
*'Lee Rigby murder trial: Michael Adebolajo 'a soldier of Allah'*
A man has admitted killing soldier Lee Rigby but said it was not murder
because "I am a soldier of Allah" and "this is a war".
Michael Adebolajo, 28, described the killing as a "military operation".
He also told the Old Bailey he loved extremist network al-Qaeda.
The prosecution says he and Michael Adebowale, 22 - who also denies murder
- rammed Fusilier Rigby with a car in Woolwich, south-east London, on 22
May, before attacking him with knives.
They are also both accused of attempting to murder a po... more »
Venezuela: A Classic CE3K Revisited - The 1954 José Ponce / Gustavo González Incident
*Venezuela: A Classic CE3K Revisited - The 1954 José Ponce / Gustavo
González Incident*
By Carlos Sainz
*www.alternativaovni.blogspot.com.ar*
*Summary: You may have heard about the Antonio Villas Boas abduction case
in 1957 (Brazil) and about the Betty and Barney Hill abduction case in 1961
(USA), but have you ever heard about an attempted abduction that took case
long before these two cases, in 1954? This incident involved two men who
successfully avoided abduction by fighting against extraterrestrials. What
makes it an extraordinary event is that an extraterrestrial was very nea... more »
Gifts for the Photographer in Your Life, under $100 and a Photography Class Giveaway
I was given a chance to review a class from Craftsy. My review and my
decision to include the class in this post are my own.
Buying Christmas gifts for the photographer on your list can be
intimidating. Things on my Christmas list usually involve several hundred
dollars in new back drops and several thousands in new lenses and the
camera body I am currently in love with. Now for me, I don't ever expect
anybody to buy the expensive things on my list, it is more a list for me to
see what my next purchase is going to be, but what does that mean for
someone who just wants to buy somethi... more »
Catch of the Day
Kevin Drum is absolutely right in his response to Lori Montgomery's WaPo
story today about budget negotiations:
There's nothing wrong with talking about the federal deficit in a story
about the budget. But this entire story is framed around a sense of dismay
that Congress has "abandoned" its debt-reduction goals. This is done with
no mention of the fact that Congress has already slashed the 10-year
deficit by nearly $4 trillion over the past couple of years. No mention
that we've been engaged in this frenzy of deficit cutting despite the fact
that the economy is still fragile, which... more »
A Fun Quiz
For the holiday party for ec 10 section leaders, head section leader David
Johnson prepared the following "quiz," which he has allowed me to share
with blog readers. The quiz is open book, open internet. The winning team
got 18 out of 20. Try your hand at it. I will post answers in a few days.
Good luck!
*Ec 10 -- End of Semester "Quiz"*
[*Hint*: Each Answer Has a Certain Ec10 "Flavor"]
1. For 35 years, Bob Barker welcomed those who had "come on down"
to this TV game show.
2. New Ec10 soap opera starring Luke, Laura, and Francis Edgeworth.
3. First U.S. ... more »
Judge Jeanine: Mr. President, The Clock Is Ticking
In her opening statement on 'Justice' this week, Judge Jeanine Pirro
continues to verbally assault the Obama administration on the total fiasco
of the Obamacare rollout as deadline after deadline goes by and still
there's new problems discovered daily.
Ending the Achievement Gap With Music Education
*Psychology Today Magazine* advertises on the *Huffington Post. *In a
recent article, PT reports on how important music education can be for
brain development, as well as cognitive and emotional growth for children.
Perhaps child psychologists and educators should be talking more.
So why has the Department of Education and Arne Duncan and friends who care
so much about children implemented policies that cut music and the arts
from schools in favor of high stakes testing.
It is like feeding junk food to a child and then expecting him or her to be
healthy.
Hiring music instructors an... more »
South African whispers
Hmm, an article has just (i.e. about thirty minutes ago) sneaked its way
onto the BBC News website. (I only spotted it because it popped up on the
sidebar here at *Is?*):
BBC News chief defends Mandela coverage
(By 'sneaked', I mean it appeared in the 'Entertainment' section of the BBC
News website rather than on its homepage.)
Breaking news?
Hardly. It's merely a recycling of a *Newswatch* interview with BBC News
boss James Harding from last Friday.
Maybe the BBC wouldn't have even bothered posting an online article about
it but, five hours ago, the *Guardian - *also pretendin... more »
Dine' Chili Yazzie: 'We must get our land back, we belong to the land'
By
Duane 'Chili' Yazzie
Censored News
We must get our land back. For too long we have been told by the United
States Federal Government that it is the Trustee and we are the wards;
that they own the land and that we are just “being allowed to live on
the land”.
We unequivocally reject the idea. We may not own the land, but the
federal government does not own it either. It is a pathetic
The Elites Do Not Create Jobs; They Export Them!
*by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy*
Some years ago, I covered a news conference held in Houston by Milton
Friedman, the darling of the U.S. right wing for his near laissez-faire
economic perspective. Friedman was wrong but would never admit it. In fact,
when someone raised the issue of "job exportation", Friedman was adamant:
"jobs are not exported!" Alas! The working person knows better!
At last, a major media outlet is telling the truth about economics!
"Business Insider" now says: "Sorry, Folks, Rich People Actually Don't
'Create Jobs'! They are a bit late! I was saying tha... more »
'Tis the Season, Continued
Well, this didn't take long:
The White House will not insist that an emerging budget deal include an
extension of the unemployment benefits program set to expire at the end of
the year, press secretary Jay Carney said on Friday.
Carney said that it would be “terrible to tell more than a million families
across the country just a few days after Christmas that they're out of
benefits,” but that the White House was agnostic on how the extension
happened.
So now Barack is an agnostic? And right after he quoted the Pope on the
evils of record wealth inequality? So I guess as it pertain... more »
Judges ought to enforce laws, even foolish ones
The legislation requiring penniless convicts to pay a mandatory fee that
they never can pay is foolish.
But the truth is the legislation, while foolish, was passed by the duly
elected Parliament of Canada acting within their constitutional
jurisdiction.
While it may, in certain bizarre circumstances, potentially lead to a term
of incarceration for non-payment (and inability to pay would likely remove
that possibility) it is hard to see how the fines are a cruel or unusual
punishment.
Judges can massage the law a little (see the 99 years to pay) but broadly
put unless a law in unco... more »
2014 OAIS Blogging Awards: Call for Nominations
We’re a few weeks into the call for nominations for the 2014 OAIS Awards.
It’s time to get serious. We’ve had a number of impressive nominations,
but given the excellent content out there, we’re looking for a much larger
pool of nominees. We want to hear your suggestions. Post your nominations
in the comments section
Continue reading
Chris Hedges: "The inability to grasp the pathology of our oligarchic rulers is one of our gravest faults." "We need to recover the language of class warfare and grasp what is happening to us, and we need to shatter this self-delusion that somehow if we work hard enough and study hard enough, we can be one of them. The fact is, the people who created the economic mess that we're in were the best-educated people in the country..." "The issue is not education. The issue is greed."
------------------------------
Find original here.
*The Pathology of the Rich - Chris Hedges on Reality Asserts Itself pt1*
On RAI with Paul Jay, Chris Hedges discusses the psychology of the super
rich; their sense of entitlement, the dehumanization of workers, and
mistaken belief that their wealth will insulate them from the coming storms
- *December 5, 13*
More at The Real News
*Bio
.*
Chris Hedges, whose column is published Mondays on Truthdig , spent nearly
two decade... more »
Maureen Dowd spots latest stud muffin!
*MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2013*
*Friedman: Can’t we do better: *As we emerges from our long tribal nap, we
liberals have been quick to criticize the press corps for alleged “bias.”
That’s a perfectly sensible framework. We have been much slower to
criticize the press corps for its dumbness—for its stunningly fatuous
values.
For whatever reason, people seem comfortable with the one framework. With
the other one, not so much.
At the New York Times, Maureen Dowd keeps testing that permissive side to
our nature. Yesterday, her column bore the following headline:
"Woodrow Wilson, Stud Muffi... more »
Iraq Slips One Place On International Corruption Index
Germany’s Transparency International (TI) released its annual Corruption
Perceptions Index 2013 in December. The Index is based upon various reports
on graft in countries around the world. Iraq has done very badly on the
survey since 2003 being ranked one of the ten most corrupt nations globally
for the last eight years. In 2013 it fell one spot from the previous year.
Transparency International uses a ranking system to determine a countries
place on its Index. Each is given a score of 0 meaning highly corrupt to
100 that is very clean based upon various reports on corruption. In... more »
VISIONS OF PISA: All hail our new national Pisa Day!
*MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2013*
*Part 1—From Friedman over to Ravitch:* In this post-journalistic nation,
the PISA is now a cult.
The PISA’s official status became clear just last week. In part, this
occurred with the adoption of “PISA Day,” a national day of mourning and
false remembrance which was widely observed across the land.
“In the U.S., the lackluster [PISA] results will be marked by great
fanfare,” the Huffington Post reported. “On Tuesday, Andreas Schleicher,
the OECD researcher who created the exam, will hand the results to Duncan,
the education secretary, in a long, glitz... more »
Untitled
*Once again, Saints deliver in the Dome ~Mike Triplett, ESPN*
*Saints leave no doubt in rout of Panthers ~Ramon Antonio Vargas, New
Orleans Advocate*
*New Orleans Saints Blow Out Carolina Panthers, 31-13 ~Jason Saul, WWNO*
Read Stuff, You Should
Happy Birthday to Michael Dorn, 61.
Good stuff:
1. Interesting point (and interesting data) about democracy and
constitutions, from Xavier Marquez.
2. As regulars know, I'm quick to think the worst of Newt Gingrich, so I
have to pay attention when Ta-Nehisi Coates approves of something he does.
3. Joshua Tucker reminds us to be cautious of "great man" theories.
4. While Stephen Benedict Tyson reminds us that sometimes, individual
characteristics and choices matter. Both are right!
5. Want ACA stats? Kaiser has them.
6. Is there really going to be a permanent doc fix? Sarah Kliff ... more »
Oh look. Ukraine Protestors Topple Statue. How iconic
*Yawn..... Ukraine “protestors” topple a statue.*
This action is getting tired. Really tired. As in, aren't you tired of
seeing the same perception management played out over and over? We have
seen statues pulled down quite regularly and it is always presented as some
kind of iconic action. Iconic as in meaningful.
*Always time for a definition...........*
i·con·ic (-knk)
adj.
1. Of, relating to, or having the character of an icon.
2. Having a conventional formulaic style. Used of certain memorial statues
and busts.
An icon is an enduring/relevant symbol promoted as significant ... more »
Congress Sells Out American Investors To Their Campaign Contributors On Wall Street… Again
Before the end of the year, there's a bipartisan-- in the worst sense of
the word-- push to renew tax breaks for special interests, generally
special interests that bribe Members of Congress with massive campaign
contributions. Two of the sleaziest characters in the Senate, Chuck
Schumer, a Wall Street Democrat, and Mitch McConnell, Big Business' top
senatorial whore, are shamelessly leading the charge.
“Like any other pieces of pork, they get in there because someone powerful
wanted them there,” Howard Gleckman of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy
Center said of the tax extenders. ... more »
Smaller and Smaller
There has been lots of speculation recently that Stephen Harper might be
ready to walk off into a snowstorm. But his appointment last week of
Dimitri Soudas as the executive director of the Conservative Party has
dampened such speculation. Michael den Tandt writes that no one knows what
Harper is planning to do:
Harper seldom does what he is expected to do, and he never does what the
media tells him he should do. He was urged to move the party to the centre
and undertake a “charm offensive” the summer before last. Never happened.
We half expected the same this past summer, along ... more »
The Failure of Trickle-Down Economics in the USA
I used to be a great believer in "trickle-down". Up until 1980, there was
evidence that it *always* worked. This evidence couldn't be ignored.
However, I did not foresee that there was a tipping-point in the
concentration of wealth where it made far more economic sense to buy the
government than to invest in plant.
This means that regulations which restrain monopolistic and
anti-competitive practices are repealed or not enforced, while ever more
burdensome regulations that strangle upstart competitors at birth are
enacted. The more of the latter there are, the more persuasive the a... more »
10 Privacy-Destroying Technologies That Are Turning America Into A Police State
Off The Grid News, 9 December 2013
Thanks to new technologies, it is easier than ever for big business, big
government and almost anybody else to monitor nearly every aspect of your
life.
The National Security Agency’s use of metadata to monitor telephone
conversations and emails is only one example of technologies that are
destroying privacy. Our lives are now an open book.
Here are 10 technologies that are turning America into one big “Truman
Show.”
1. Electric meters. New smart grid technologies give utilities the ability
to monitor your energy usage, the temperature in your h... more »
War Watch December 9 , 2013 - Syria ( Seymour Hersh expose on Sarin lies by the White house ) , Afghanistan ( why are we still spending billions in Afghanistan in 2013 ? ) , Iraq death dealing updates.......
Syria .....
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2013/12/08/syria-sarin-and-subterfuge-they-made-it-all-up/
Syria, Sarin, and Subterfuge: They Made It All Up
Seymour Hersh exposes the lies behind the case for war in Syria
by Justin Raimondo, December 09, 2013
Print This | Share This
The suspicion that the sarin gas attack supposedly launched by Syrian
despot Bashar al-Assad’s forces against rebel positions in the town of
Ghouta on August 21 was a false flag was always in the air. Now we have
strong evidence pointing in that direction.
For months prior to the events in Ghouta the Syrian... more »
"How did we not know about this, while it was happening? The only problem is, we did."
"How did we (Americans and British) not know about this (the holocaust),
while it was happening? The only problem is, we did."
High School student Anna Blech with a great TED presentation asking why
'we' didn't know about the holocaust occurring in German conquered Europe.
Arthur Hayes Sulzberger of the New York Times gets a bad press (pun
intended).
A great articulate presentation especially as it's from someone so young.
What if the IRA had never fired a shot?
What if the Provisional IRA and all other Republican paramilitaries had
never fired a single shot, or planted a single bomb? Would the situation
for the Catholic community in Ulster be better or worse today? I’m not
posing this rhetorically, but as a point of discussion. Many will jump to
respond that events such as Bloody Sunday render this game meaningless,
worthless. Ulster Catholics would not, could not, and perhaps should not,
have simply turned the other cheek. But whatever your take I only ask you
to suspend it for a moment. We can be sure at least that this was not a
logical... more »
Mental derangement?
I saw this story and wondered what was behind it. Behaviour like this is
extraordinarily dangerous - a man who stole a snow plow a few years ago
killed a Toronto police officer - but almost always is a result of mental
derangement. The police have to be involved to capture the person involved
but beyond that it's a medical and not a criminal issue:
*"Mounties say a Surrey man will likely face several charges after a
destructive weekend that included smashing a large stolen truck into six
police cruisers and flooding a section of Burnaby Hospital by ripping the
head from an emergenc... more »
Biotechnology, GMO and Scientific Analysis: The Powers of Corporate Manipulation by Colin Todhunter
Biotechnology, GMO and Scientific Analysis: The Powers of Corporate
ManipulationRetracting Seralini’s Study
by Colin Todhunter
Global research Canada, 6 December 2013
*The biotech sector often yells for “peer review” when the anti-GMO
movement refers to analyses or research-based findings to state its case.
Despite Professor Seralini publishing his research findings (rats fed on
GMOs) that were critical of the health impacts of GMOs in an
internationally renowned peer-reviewed journal in 2012, his methodology and
findings were nevertheless subjected to sustained attacks by th... more »
film poster - Tom Cruise - Edge Of Tomorrow
we've just had Matt Damon in an Elysium powersuit, and now here's Tom
Cruise in an Edge Of Tomorrow powersuit.
was Bill Murray's Groundhog Day about DARPA all along?
Is E.O.T. not just the basic premise of (the already made, and enjoyable) Source
Code, though?
GANGSTER MANDELA'S LEGACY
*Zoleka mandela (left)*
Zoleka *Mandela* wrote: 'From the time I was barely eight years old to the
age of 14, I had been sexually abused by some of the adults who should have
been looking after me."
*Nelson Mandela's granddaughter*
South Africa is famous for its child sex rings.
Gert van Rooyen / Child Sex Industry Booms In South Africa
*Multi-millionaire Mandela*
*Nelson Mandela is as fake as Tony Blair or Jimmy Savile.*
Nelson Mandela's family are rich capitalists.
His children and grandchildren are active in more than 100 companies and
hold their wealth in a number of trusts... more »
Natural Gas Asset Sell-Off Frenzy In British Columbia Underway
At this very moment the reality is setting in, Christy Clark`s blathering
about a $trillion dollar LNG industry in British Columbia is a bust...The
BC Liberal Government is so desperate to change the channel and deflect the
public`s attention from the facts on the ground, only the very stupid and
naive are falling for the bullshit...
Here we are just weeks from Christmas and our British Columbia is
conducting more reviews and asking the public for input on all of them..
BC Liberals are asking the public to weigh in on speeding limits across our
province, I guess road and speed dy... more »
Updates On Syria [12.9] Assad's Troops Make Advances In Strategic Border Town Near Lebanon, Syrian Opposition Remains Divided Ahead of Geneva II, World Powers Behind Geneva II Aim To Sideline Kurds
*1. An excerpt from, "Fierce clashes in key Syria border town" Al Arabiya
News, December 8: *
*Syrian government forces made advances on Sunday in the town of al-Nabk,
one of the last rebel-held areas in Qalamoun region bordering Lebanon, a
watchdog said.*
“There is fierce fighting in al-Nabk between government forces, backed by
Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, and al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said,
according to Agence France-Presse.
*President Bashar al-Assad’s troops have taken “new sectors of the town,”
said t... more »
RUSSIA TODAY; POMERANTSEV
On 5 December 2013,* Peter Pomerantsev*, at the Financial Times, had an
article entitled:
*The Kremlin's attempt at soft power is back-to-front*
*According to Peter Pomerantsev:*
Russian TV is watched throughout the former Soviet Union.
*A. *Russian TV is part of the 'soft power' policy being used to influence
people, such as those in the Ukraine.
*The state sponsored news channel RT is the world's most watched online
news channel with 1.1bn viewers. *
"RT does a great job of making the west look bad."
*Peter Pomerantsev*
*B.* Certain Russian cultural figures do not like the... more »
The Realist Report - Reflecting on 9/11 "debate" and its aftermath
On this edition of *The Realist Report*, I'll be discussing the 9/11
"debate" I participated in last weekend and its aftermath. Tom in
Connecticut will be joining me, and calls will be taken during throughout
the program.
You can download the mp3 for this program *here*, or visit *The Realist
Report* on BlogTalkRadio to subscribe via iTunes and view past programs.
Below are relevant links for this program:
- *John Friend vs. Mike Delaney & Scott Roberts*
- *Thoughts on the 9/11 "debate" and its aftermath*
- *Regarding Carolyn Yeager*
A Big Win in the USA
Stating the bleedin' obvious Department.
NCD 140.3, Transsexual Surgery
Docket No. A-13-47
NCD Ruling No. 2
December 2, 2013
BOARD RULING THAT NCD RECORD IS NOT COMPLETE AND ADEQUATE TO SUPPORT THE
VALIDITY OF THE NCD
The aggrieved party also argues that the NCD when issued was invalid and
unsupported by the NCD record. The aggrieved party argues that the 1981
NCHCT report acknowledged the effectiveness of transsexual surgery in
stating that “eight of the nine studies” that “represent[ed] the major
clinical reports thus far published” between 1969 and 1980 on the outcome
of the su... more »
If Steve Israel Had Had My Job, Depeche Mode Would Have Never Broken In The U.S.
Tomorrow, Monday, is the last day of Blue America's fundraiser for Keith
Ellison and Mike Obermueller, two Minnesota progressive champions. You
still have time to click this link, watch a little "Policy of Truth," see a
photo of the prize-- a rare and collectible RIAA-certified double platinum
award for the Mode's *Violator*-- and help us make sure Keith and Mike win
next year. Let me take a minute to say thanks to the staffers from both
campaigns who helped make the fundraiser a success and to Alan Grayson, Rob
Zerban and Raul Grijalva for their pure-hearted generosity in helping ... more »
Updates On P5+1-Iran Deal: Obama Pours Cold Water On His Own Deal To Placate Israel, Saudi Arabia Wants In On Diplomatic Poker Game, Western Diplomats Are Confident That Tentative Deal Will Stick
*1. An excerpt from, "Obama: Chances for Final Iran Deal 50-50 or Worse" by
Bradley Klapper and Darlene Superville, ABC News, December 7:*
President Barack Obama said Saturday he believed the chances for a
comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran are 50-50 or worse, yet defended
diplomacy as the best way to prevent Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons.
*During a question-and-answer session with a pro-Israel audience, Obama
said he wasn't naive about the odds for a successful final agreement
between world powers and Iran next year, building on the recent six-month
interim deal.*
*"... more »
Nelson Mandela: Communist, Terrorist, Rabble-Rouser!
I have truly been surprised over the last few days about how much all the
reports on the Electric Jew and in the Jewish controlled newspapers have
concentrated on the death of the former South African communist and
terrorist leader, Nelson Mandela. It has been sickening to see all of the
reports calling this person one of the "greatest men" in all history,
without telling the truth about how this man sought a violent revolution to
take over South Africa and cared little about how many people, either black
or white, that died in the process... Few know that he was imprisoned for
so... more »
Last Days
Over the last few week five important events have transpired:
*1. Japan passed a state secrets law *that is so repressive that Japan's
ordinarily complacent media have launched a major offensive, as illustrated
by this Japan Times editorial:
Government without oversight Dec 6, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2013/12/06/editorials/government-without-oversight/#.UqN_vuLlfzM
[Excerpted] People have the right to know what their government is doing.
Ensuring this right is the foundation of democracy. The state secrets bill,
which the Abe administration Thursday rammed through ... more »
Michael James : Back to Uptown, 1965-1966
Two
men, Uptown Chicago, 1966. Photos by Michael James from his forthcoming
book, Michael Gaylord James' Pictures from the Long Haul.
Pictures from the Long Haul:
Back to Uptown: Bye-bye California,
Chicago here I come, 1965-1966
I was glad to be back in Uptown, progressing along my path with another
left turn and a big step into America.
By Michael James / The Rag Blog / December 9, 2013
Rand Paul-- This Year's Avatar Of Compassionate Conservatism And Tough Love
While congressional Republicans-- with their 9% job approval rating-- boasted
about obstructing President Obama at every turn, the Administration was imploring
Congress to extend unemployment benefits to the longterm unemployed.
Rand Paul on *Fox News Sunday* today said he opposes extending benefits--
but it's because, he says, he loves unemployed workers and just wants to do
what's right for them. Extending benefits, he insists, would be doing them
a "disservice… When you allow people to be on unemployment insurance for 99
weeks, you're causing them to become part of this perpet... more »
Mandela was no saint [update 2]
Nelson Mandela was no saint.
Not even Bishop Desmond Tutu thought of him that way, “guffawing at the
idea that Mandela was anything so dry, hollow and uninteresting.”
He took up “armed struggle” against the South African state that denied him
rights based on his race—becoming the leader of the armed faction of the
ANC that emerged after the Sharpville massacre to carry out indiscriminate
bombings against innocent South Africans. The Church Street bombing alone,
carried out under his successor in the role Oliver Tambo, killed 19 people,
and injured many more.
Mandela himself was... more »
Deficiencies in translation
Li v. Jean, 2013 NSCA 135:
[8] A failure of, or gross deficiency in translation has
the potential to deprive a litigant of the right to a trial of issues on
the merits but as pointed out in *Fu v Canada (Minister of Citizenship and
Immigration) *2011 FC 155 (CanLII), 2011 FC 155 at para. 10*,*if the errors
are not material to the ultimate findings the court should not intervene.
In *R v Tran *[1994]2 SCR 951, the Supreme Court referenced the fact that
interpretations may not be perfect. At para. 60 of the decision the court
noted that interpretation is an inherentl... more »
TRICKLE DOWN HUMAN CARING
*The Daily Show*
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook
Pope Francis denounces trickle-down economics as unfair to the poor, but
Fox's Stuart Varney respectfully disagrees with the infallible Holy See.
Ijiraat
The Ijiraat are the shape-shifters. These land spirits are elusive and can
transform into any arctic animal to disguise themselves. Most often they
take the shape of a raven, bear, wolf or even a human. The only part of the
Ijiraat that it cannot disguise is its red eyes. In all of it forms, both
human and animal, its eyes always remain red.
These hidden creatures are portrayed as evil and malicious in many stories.
These stories warn that the Ijiraat lie in wait for lone travelers,
changing shape to fool and get close to the travelers.
Some elders argue that these land spirits and ... more »
Why is NYS Railroading Students with Disabilities?
A guest post from Bianca Tanis, Parent, Special Educator and Co-Founder NYS
Allies for Public Education The current education reforms being implemented
in NYS are an assault on the dignity and the rights of students with
disabilities, plain and simple. While educational leaders seem to be
suffering from an extreme case of magical thinking, parents […]
Pearl Harbour Day reboot
If you are not familiar with either Zero Hedge or William Banzi this is a
great introduction. Its hard to see where either Japan or the USA escape
without mass casualties from printing their way to prosperity. Japan will
most certainly flame out first and the economic tsunami will wash over
America.
No disrespect intended to the original Pearl Harbour and the profound
horror inflicted upon those people in paradise.
ANOTHER BIG STORY BY HERSH
Whose sarin?London Review of Books By Seymour M. Hersh
Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make
the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons
attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important
intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most
significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US
intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the
country’s civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study
concluded – without assessing re... more »
Add Corruption to Arne Duncan's Shortcomings
Elizabeth Warren calls him a lapdog--I think that is very generous of her. From
HuffPo:
The U.S. Department of Education risks becoming a “lapdog” as a result of
recent actions toward financial companies such as Sallie Mae, Sen.
Elizabeth Warren charged Thursday.
The Massachusetts Democrat said she was “deeply concerned” by a Huffington
Post report that the Education Department had recently told Sallie Mae, the
nation’s largest handler of student loans, that it intended to renew its
federal contract to collect payments on federal student loans, despite
pending investigations by at ... more »
Depoliticise MPs' Pay
MP's shouldn't get a huge pay rise. And you don't need a hotline to each
and every registered voter to know the overwhelming majority would agree.
It's quite simple. A £66k salary is a great deal more than the majority of
people will ever see in their pay packet. A tidy sum like this may well
have started out with the best intentions; of ensuring working people could
afford to become an MP and that the Commons wasn't the exclusive playground
of the rich. However, if a week is a long time in politics what is a
century? These days MPs' remuneration connotes nothing of the sort. It
sp... more »
Updates On Syria [12.8]: Hersh Says al-Nusra May End Up As The Only Group With CW In Syria, PYD Leader Salih Muslim Says Kurds Must Be Represented As An Independent Delegation At Geneva II, Turkey Says Al-Qaeda Poses Threat To Its Security
*1. An excerpt from, "Whose sarin?" by Seymour M. Hersh, London Review of
Books, December 8: *
The administration’s distortion of the facts surrounding the sarin attack
raises an unavoidable question: do we have the whole story of Obama’s
willingness to walk away from his ‘red line’ threat to bomb Syria? He had
claimed to have an iron-clad case but suddenly agreed to take the issue to
Congress, and later to accept Assad’s offer to relinquish his chemical
weapons. It appears possible that at some point he was directly confronted
with contradictory information: evidence strong enough ... more »
You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money [update 2]
Poverty campaigners have released a report this morning suggesting one in
four NZ children are living in poverty. The poverty measured today is not
poverty measured in *absolute* terms--that is, it is not the grinding
poverty someone from before the industrial age would recognise as having
existed for most of human history up to that point.
*Prior to the advent of industrial capitalism (in roughly the 1760s) the
lot of the English working class was generally miserable. Utter destitution
was rampant, literal starvation not uncommon and the country was overrun
with paupers. T... more »
Sunday Classics: Bruckner's Fourth Symphony -- four stories for four movements
[*This post appeared in somewhat different form on Jan. 10, 2010.*]
The Bruckner Monument in City Park, Vienna
*by Ken*
Back in January 2010, when the original versions of this series of posts
appeared, we had only recently adagio-ed our way from Beethoven's two great
symphonic Adagios, of the *Eroica *and Ninth Symphonies, to those of Anton
Bruckner (1824-1896) and Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) -- which I used as a
pretty nervy way to tramp onto the turf of two of the trickier composers in
the pantheon. Having thus sneaked up on Bruckner, I reasoned at the time,
why not try to build ... more »
Nelson Mandela - Tool of the New World Order
*Trouble brewing - President Mandela is greeted by Rev. Jesse Jackson of
the Council on Foreign Relations.*
Best bit of Mandela hyperbole so far:* "Mandela midwifed a world- class
constitution that respected all, put in place programmes to reverse effects
of apartheid, retired honourably after one term, wasn't corrupt."*
I'm not a big supporter of the idea of heaping praise on people for sh*t
their expected to do anyway.
Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lamumba and Gabdul al-Nasser are three
anti-colonialist African leaders who were not corrupt, liberated their
nations from white colonial... more »
A tribute to poet and scholar Kathleen Raine 2003 (Video)
An excerpt from *her obituary* by Janet Watts, published in The Guardian on
July 8, 2003:
Kathleen Raine, who has died aged 95, was a poet who believed in the sacred
nature of all life, all true art and wisdom, and her own calling. She knew
as a small child that poetry was her vocation.
William Blake was her master, and she shared his belief that "one power
alone makes a poet - imagination, the divine vision". As WB Yeats, her
other great exemplar, put it, "poetry and religion are the same thing". To
this vision she committed not only her poetry and erudition, but her whole
life.... more »
Longest Walk 4 headed over Echo Pass, California
Sunday,
Dec. 8, 2013: Walk 4 die-hards are chaining up the support vehicle
tires, ready to walk over Echo Pass, Calif., will be in Shingle Springs
Miwok for stay place tonight! The walkers are on Hwy 50 headed toward
Shingle Springs, Sacramento and Alcatraz! Photos by Bad Bear.
Funerals and funnymen
Well, off they go to South Africa, our Prime Minister and assorted
hang-arounds past and present from different parties. They all were,
are, or want to be in the driver's seat, so they are all hang-arounds.
Chief
among them but far from a chief is the current occupant of two-four
Sussex Drive. The gall of someone like him showing up at the hero's
funeral of Nelson Mandela, a man he would
SHATTERING THE CLASS MYTHOLOGY
Chris Hedges, whose column is published Mondays on *Truthdig*, spent nearly
two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East,
Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has
worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas
Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign
correspondent for 15 years. He has written nine books, including "Empire of
Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle" (2009), "I
Don't Believe in Atheists" (2008) and the best-selling "American Fascists... more »
Sunday Question for Liberals
What lessons from the Barack Obama presidency -- positive or negative --
are you keeping in mind when choosing a presidential candidate for 2016?
Heroes of the ZSRDF
*Awarded in perpetuity: The Golden Clusterfuck*
I have to protect the identity of Pinko Cleanser, I can only say Rob Ford
is down with the cause. Pinko can not be arrested because CISIS is
protecting him. The ZSRDF has awarded him their highest honor. He has
selflessly reached out to the Pleiadians by extremely altering his
consciousness repeatedly, he rode the horse for you. Pinko never drove
drunk, his vehicles have always been guided by the ZSRDF.
For decades Zombies and Space Aliens have been a immutable white
people problem. Pinko has gone into many ethnic communities to bri... more »
Airport in Chesterfield Inlet
Remember the song "Take the long way" ... more »
Simultaneous translation inadequate for bilingual jury trials
R v Gagnon 2013 QCCA 1744. Serious implications especially in Quebec and
Nunavut.
Sunday Question for Conservatives
What lessons from the George W. Bush presidency -- positive or negative --
are you taking with you when it comes to selecting a presidential candidate
for 2016?
Babies, black holes, Bonnie Greer, Nelson Mandela (inevitably) and bloody Marcus Brigstocke
Slowing working through this morning's *Broadcasting House* and, with just
two items down, there's already been a Bushtucker Trial's worth of bias
from the programme, thanks to Hugh Sykes and Paddy O'Connell. So we've
already had the kangaroo's willy and the witchetty grubs. What's up next?
Well, here's Paddy bringing in the turkey testicles...
...namely the tale of an Italian woman visiting Britain who was forced by a
British council to give birth to her baby by *caesarian section* under the
provisions of the Mental Health Act. (The father was Senegalese, I read
elsewhere). The l... more »
(Minor Fines Are Cost of Doing Bankster Fraud) If You Thought Jason Bourne's Handlers Were Smart, You're Going To Love What the CIA Has Paid For (/SNARK) Good Reasons Why The US Can't Fund Healthcare, Education, Infrastructure or Anything Else?
Solar panels on a home in Los Angeles. Alec will promote legislation planning to penalise individual homeowners who install solar panels. (photo: Cultura/Rex) (Please consider making even a small contribution to the Welcome to Pottersville2 Quarterly Fundraiser happening now ($5.00 is suggested for those on a tight budget) or at least sending a link to your friends if you think theRelated articles
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Should Catholics Praise Nelson Mandela?(catholictruthblog.com)
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Obama Is The United States' Nelson Mandela - God help us!(politicalvelcraft.org)
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Editorial: Pope Francis' anti-capitalism message resonates(stltoday.com)
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