8/22/11

Why talk about the economy in isolation is silly anywhere

Middle East: Bread and Dignity | Chatham House: Independent thinking on international affairs: "The economies of the Arab world are fundamentally shaped by the region’s political, social and institutional structures and economic problems such as unemployment, inflation and inequality are inextricably bound up with the political context"

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President Obama's Commitment to Libya

Greg Jones' BLACKS 4 BARACK ! Official Site: "The future of Libya is now in the hands of the Libyan people. Going forward, the United States will continue to stay in close coordination with the TNC. We will continue to insist that the basic rights of the Libyan people are respected. And we will continue to work with our allies and partners in the international community to protect the people of Libya, and to support a peaceful transition to democracy."


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You don't believe in Bush 3? (Damning Photo)

The Symmetry of Bush Perry — BagNews

The camera does not lie. Neither do I. I feel neocon Bush 3 in my bones when I listen to this guy. And if you don't think Bush 1 was neocon, go back to his early career and look at his appointments. Each number multiplies to the third power.

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These guys should talk to me

The Billionaire King of Techtopia: Critical Eye : Details: "It goes like this: Friedman wants to establish new sovereign nations built on oil-rig-type platforms anchored in international waters—free from the regulation, laws, and moral suasion of any landlocked country. They'd be small city-states at first, although the aim is to have tens of millions of seasteading residents by 2050. Architectural plans for a prototype involve a movable, diesel-powered, 12,000-ton structure with room for 270 residents, with the idea that dozens—perhaps even hundreds—of these could be linked together. Friedman hopes to launch a flotilla of offices off the San Francisco coast next year; full-time settlement, he predicts, will follow in about seven years; and full diplomatic recognition by the United Nations, well, that'll take some lawyers and time."

I've thought about this longer and harder than they have. They do not have to do all of this to have the mega-impact they want. They could launch the new civilization right here quite soon.
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Under any name permanent victims

UK: Irish Travellers could face forced eviction | Amnesty International: "Irish Travellers are an ethnic group, originally from Ireland, who are recognized and protected as an ethnic group in English law. Many Irish Travellers live in caravans on unauthorized encampments or on authorized sites. Irish Travellers, along with other Romani, Travellers and Gypsies in the UK, face widespread discrimination and significant obstacles in getting housing, education and health services."

One might argue that when this is no longer a cause for oppression, we will have gotten to the point of, shall we say, the beginning of actual civilization. What we have now is the undertow of barbarism infusing our culture and diminishing our values.
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I would retitle this corporations are toast

5 Reasons Capitalism Has Failed | Economy | AlterNet: Global corporations have ravished the world and citizens of every nation live with the consequences: dirty air, foul water, and pollution of every sort.

Until capitalism is reprocessed as actual growth of capital and becomes tied to the universal circulation of money, we will witness the gradual extinction of the dinosaur corporations that produce less and less and deal more and more in intangibles until they fall of their own dead weight. We've seen the beginning and this century will live through their end.

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Axelrod fires across the bow

Axelrod: Right-Wing Politics Preventing Economic Action - Topix: President Barack Obama's senior campaign strategist warned Sunday that Republicans catering to tea party politics threatened much-needed progress on job creation.

When this gets down to a true vote the truth will be laid bare. Either a bipartisan jobs bill will pass. Or everyone will know just who wagged the dog and made it lie down.

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Maybe there is bipartisan after all

Safety in Numbers? » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union: This weekend, the New York Times reported on how the trend to rethink incarceration is catching on even in conservative states. There’s more in the new ACLU report, Smart Reform Is Possible: States Reducing Incarceration Rates and Costs While Protecting Communities, which details how several states with long histories of being “tough on crime” have enacted bipartisan reforms relying on alternatives to incarceration.


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One day they'll get around to barcodes on our toes

Antennas in your clothes? New design could pave the way: The next generation of communications systems could be built with a sewing machine. To make communications devices more reliable, Ohio State University researchers are finding ways to incorporate radio antennas directly into clothing, using plastic film and metallic thread.

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10 Photos from Evil-Wracked Somalia

Photo Booth: Postcard from Dadaab: Flight from Famine : The New Yorker

Evil is nothing more or less than the conscious taking of life. It is something human beings do in part or in whole every day. It is the source if what the church has called sin. Terror and the humanitarian systems that respond to it are part of a genocidal pattern of human evil. The response is democratic revolution and the assumption of responsibility for the institutions around us.


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This article misses why Perry is Bush 3

Assessing Rick Perry : The New Yorker

The writer makes the mistake of assuming Perry believes anything. He may talk of an idealized past but he has ever and always been an opportunist. The only difference between him and W is their background. W is reflexively neocon and corporate. Perry has been weaned on right money and has responded with state money in return. That is how the power structure works. Military industrial supported by our taxes and by reigning politicians of both parties. When the GOP rules it is worse than when Dems try to rule. But the whole kahuna is essentially the same with nuances. Like Bush's Iraq adventure.


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Even if Irene doesn't hit

Hurricane Irene Nears Florida - The Daily Beast

It's good to consider that with work scarce we could be building and designing to become protected from hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes and such. There are ways. It's just that no one has the apparent will to begin recreating our civilization so that the structures we live in are as sophisticated as the gadgets we hold in our hands. The disconnect is getting embarrassing.

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Wheels within wheels - How the NATO Libya Op Worked

Libya News: Inside the Rebels’ Secret Endgame - The Daily Beast

Kinda cool and great food for thought for dictators who think they are secure because they can just kill off their democratic opponents. This is another arrow in the quiver of the global democratic revolution. If we are going to have military we need to put them to better use than becoming fodder in unilateral ground wars. Formula - rebel, then help.


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Do you ever get the sense they have been after the DSK victim all along?.

Dominique Strauss Kahn dismissal: DA Cyrus Vance plans to ask judge to dismiss case this week.

Let's see first there was the Blago fiasco which we paid for. Now we're paying prosecutors to do what? Blame the victim? Whitewash the accused? I give up on our justice system. Maybe in ten years I will have faith again. Something is wrong and I am not sure what it is.

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St. Paul Had one Thing Right (Free MP3 Original Song)


http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/audioPop.jsp?episodeId=21209&cmd=apop

Enjoy

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And you do not think this guy is Bush 3?

Talking Points Memo | Breaking News and Analysis: Rick Perry: Just because I wrote a book calling for privatizing Social Security doesn't mean I'm for privatizing Social Security. Also, the Perry campaign won't say whether he still favors repealing the 16th Amendment, which sanctified the income tax, as he proposed in the book.

And you do not think this guy is Bush 3? I want Bush 3 to become viral so that whenever Perry's name comes up. Use Bush 3 with Rick Perry. Why? Because just this sort of stuff was what enabled people to give W a pass. When he got in he did what he damned pleased. Or rather what his handlers - big oil (aka Cheney) - damned well pleased. Rick Perry Bush 3 is a carbon copy of this monstrous banality. Don't think about what Perry Bush 3 no longer believes. Think about what Perry Bush 3 will do no matter what he tells us in advance.

I love these studies so enlightening

Women Gain Weight After Marriage; Men Gain After Divorce - - TIME Healthland: Previous studies of weight gain and coupledom have looked at average gains and losses, but sociology professor Zhenchao Qian and his doctoral student Dmitry Tumin decided to break down the weight effects by gender to better understand whether marital transitions affected men differently than women.

The notion that weight is an effect of divorce is most interesting. Let's say this is correct. What might it mean? That a poor underweight male should run for the divorce court? That an abused female with a perfect body - by our warped definition - should stick with the monster she was fool enough to marry? Worry not. We invest billions in such studies. They produce jobs. The occupy journalists and bloggers. It is all wonderful.

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Why not how the Republicans can save their hide

E.J. Dionne, Jr.: How Obama Can Save His Presidency - Truthdig

Everyone knows all this. Sure we need more revenue. Sure we need the grand compromise for the good of the order. Side sure sure. Why not focus on the real criminals in this drama and dig into the contributions that support them. You will find a big O for OIL and a big K for KOCH and numerous other usual suspects. It is our job to ferret this stuff out but it is people like Dionne with some clout tho need to connect the dots.

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Darned right they should continue with reforms

Officials urge Salazar to continue with drilling reforms despite court ruling | The Washington Independent

Lovely to have the courts and the GOP in such synch. Go Mr. President. Go Mr. Salazar.

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Biden in China (Photos)

VP in Asia Day One: Beijing China | The White House

He may not get an opera but he is there, being confident about America's future while the GOP grouses about the mess it has created.

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Yes and this review does not help very much

Imagining Malcolm X: "Professor Marable’s biography is a notable achievement. But clearly there is much more work to be done to achieve a more complete reckoning with Malcolm X, the man and the image."

Clearly Malcolm was a changed man when he returned from Mecca, starting over almost from scratch. Any amplified account must simply be silent after at least recognizing that he might have become a towering figure in the years that were denied to him.


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Assad = Muammar Gaddafi 2

BBC News - Syria unrest: Assad says his government will not fall

Just to contradict Mr. Assad:

Sir. When you go about killing your citizens with impunity you are trying to protect your own posterior by committing the worst sin there is - knowingly taking the lives of others who, like you, have Abba within them. You kill Abba. We have advanced to the point when people like you can be deemed war criminals and tried. That is the fate you waning dictators all face. Do not try to draw a line between you and who share your Abba-killing ways.

If Jesus had his way there would be no public prayers

Preacher who calls for jailing gays gets invite from Minnesota GOP to give House prayer | The Washington Independent

The only time Jesus expatiated on this subject was when he condemned someone for thanking God that he was not as other men. He generally favored inconspicuous private prayer with an emphasis on awareness of one's shortcomings. As in lord have mercy on me a sinner. Jesus would reject most gaudy be-they church display out of hand.

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Another voice for getting rid of cars

The Ugliness of the Modern Urban Environment: A Review of The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler | Suite101.com: "This is why, Kunstler believes, the economy will need to change if people’s environments are to change. Instead of having behemoth corporate companies fly into towns with their goods and services, offering crappy jobs in return while shipping back local money to company headquarters, towns and suburbs will have to create their own stable local economies. Local economies will keep money in the area, and it will also build respect for the local urban environment."

This is not utopian. It is more survivalist.

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The Ugliness of Wealth

The ugliness of wealth
Is the result
Of Abba within
Whose ontological
Values
Are in sufficient conflict
With those of self serving wealth
That a disjuncture becomes visible
Palpable
And damnably
Revealing

Peter Buffett Speaks

“Life is What You Make It”: Fran Korten Interviews Peter Buffett: If I can help redefine success and privilege then I think it’s my duty to do it. If I can show up vulnerable and real, I think it gives other people permission to show up vulnerable and real.

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Gateway to Charles Sanders Peirce

Charles Sanders Peirce Online - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com:

I am a content buff. I define content as anything freely available and readable online. I do not include book results, condensed biographies and things you must sign up for.


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RECCMENDATION Richard Gordon Quantum Touch

The Slow as Molasses Press