10/9/11

South Afraca HIV Status Report

South Africa’s Health Policy and HIV | Chatham House: Independent thinking on international affairs: "This is a summary of an event held on 16 September at Chatham House. The Honourable Dr Pakishe Aaron Motsoaledi Minister of Health, Republic of South Africa, discussed his government’s health policies, with a particular focus on those aimed at tackling HIV."

Downloadable PDF

Global Online Privacy

Not a good day in Cairo

At least 19 dead in Cairo rioting - CBS News: "Fierce clashes erupted Sunday between Christians protesting a recent attack on a church and the Egyptian military, leaving at least 19 people dead and more than 150 injured, Health Ministry officials said.

In rioting outside the state television building along the Nile in Cairo, witnesses said some of the protesters may have snatched weapons from the soldiers and turned them on the military. The protesters also pelted the soldiers with rocks and bottles."

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

Eliminate subsidies to the fossil fuels industry

"RE: End Fossil Fuel Subsidies to Reduce the Deficit

Dear Member of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction:

I am writing to urge you to end subsidies for the oil, coal and gas industries as part of your recommendations to Congress. Eliminating subsidies to the fossil fuels industry could reduce our national debt by $122 billion over ten years while bettering the environment and public health. Wealthy fossil fuel corporations simply do not need handouts from the federal government in order to produce energy. "

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

Saudi Arabia Is The Texas of the Middle East

Saudi Arabia executes eight Bangladeshi nationals | Amnesty International: "“Court proceedings in Saudi Arabia fall far short of international standards for fair trial and news of these recent multiple executions is deeply disturbing,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Middle East and North Africa.

“The Saudi authorities appear to have increased the number of executions in recent months, a move that puts the country at odds with the worldwide trend against the death penalty.” "

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

Declare a moratorium on foreclosures

5 New Rules for an Economy That Works | Economy | AlterNet: "Even if the top six banks were to absorb the full cost of modifying all underwater mortgages in the country, they would still have $70 billion left for bonuses and compensation"

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

Tax all income as ordinary income

5 New Rules for an Economy That Works | Economy | AlterNet: "In 2007 the 400 Americans with the highest income—nearly $345 million—were taxed at less than 17 percent, less than half the ordinary income tax rate of 35 percent because most of their income was derived from investments. If we were to require that all their income be taxed at the 1999 tax rate of 39.6% this alone would generate an additional $300 billion in revenue over the next 10 years"

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

New York Times Practices Drone Silence

ShortFormContent at Blogger: We're not throwing in the towel. We are automating war for a dismal future.: "But, for the life of me, I cannot see why we think it is smart to build drones that any idiot can put together and lob them all over and think we are protecting our national security. It is like poison gas in World War One. We have breached the rules of war in more than one way. And we will pay."

Just as the New York Times fudged W's entry into Iraq and disaster, a material cause of it, given its potential to have stopped him, the Times has failed to raise the banner against drones. I raised my little play flag here in on July 6, 2011 and had less than 100 readers. Each day I watched NYT ads that revealed to millions its main purpose. To grease the skids for upward mobility in a society where upward mobility produces Wall Street criminality. Is it any wonder I have spent a life time as amazed by the misdeeds of liberals as the horrendous values and actions of conservatives? If you happen to be one of the less than 100 who read this, relax. Today the public editor of the Times finally wondered on at the paper's mute response to the most important potential cause of future wars that we have allowed to exist.


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Tax Financial Transactions

5 New Rules for an Economy That Works | Economy | AlterNet: "Economist Dean Baker suggests that a modest tax (0.25 percent) could easily raise more than $100 billion a year. “A small increase in trading costs would be a very manageable burden for those who are using financial markets to support productive economic activity. However, it would impose serious costs on those who see the financial markets as a casino in which they place their bets by the day, hour or minute.”"

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

Money is not speech

5 New Rules for an Economy That Works | Economy | AlterNet: "The Supreme Court rulings declaring money is speech and corporations are persons make for a lethal cocktail. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland state senator and law professor at American university points out that Fortune l00 corporations had profits in 2008 totaling about $600 billion. If they spent only l percent of their profits on elections, a trivial sum to protect and foster their interests, the total comes to $6 billion. That is more money than was spent for and on behalf of all congressional and presidential candidates in 2008.

We need a Constitutional Amendment consisting of four words. Money is not speech."

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

Execute Corporations if They Are People

5 New Rules for an Economy That Works | Economy | AlterNet:

"A wonderful sign at the Occupy Wall Street protest reads, “I won’t believe corporations are people until Texas executes one.”

We need a constitutional amendment consisting of four words. Corporations are not persons."

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

You Ain't Going Nowhere (Infographic)

International travel restrictions [infographic] - Holy Kaw!: "Citizens of countries that are unpopular on the global stage often face great challenges in traveling abroad. Check out this infographic of the countries whose residents have the least freedom to travel."

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

Pundits are forgetting the people as usual

As 2012 dawns
The people will see what the stakes are
And they will have a balanced view of where the roadblocks are
And this will give the Democrats more than an edge
It will give them the chance to take back the House
And widen their Senate majority
The exact opposite of what pundits right and left surmise today
They do not understand the people
The people are wise enough to know the difference between
A possible future of opportunity
And little or no future at all
The people can see that the corporate power that the GOP serves is
Not interested in anything but profit
They can see that today's gridlock has two sides
Those who would support the President in doing the right thing
And those who are betting that the people favor anything but
Another four years of Barack Obama
That is a bet that the anti-Obama zealots will lose


Global Online Privacy

Interesting Steve Jobs Things

9 Little-Known Facts About Steve Jobs - SocialHype: "In an authorized book entitled The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, one of his college buddies wrote that Jobs had a short fling with musician Joan Baez. Baez later confirmed that the two were close for a brief period of time, but she is more known for her romance with Bob Dylan (coincidentally, Jobs' favorite musician). According to the same biography, Jobs also dated actress Diane Keaton."

'via Blog this'

Global Online Privacy

Making Local Really Local

ShortFormContent at Blogger: Actually I could improve Yelp: "Actually I could improve Yelp"

If my cyber-communities ever get built, everything can be both local and tied in globally. This is because my cyber-communities are about 10 k people living within a space with a mile diameter max. Modular mass construction creates the lego-like living-work-commerce-entertainment-recreation spaces that attach to the global eco-skeleton which makes the whole thing affordable and sustainable. Even franchises would be more local than today's highway culture versions. Kiosks every 300 feet or so would replace today's stores. Squares every 300 feet or so would house the eateries and schmoozing places. In a kiosk, you find an expert (or a teacher) in this or that and they direct you to this or that on a big screen. Education is rampant. You watch big brother, not the other way around. Big brother is the best of the best. Quality increases exponentially. When local is really local and face to face, trust starts returning, life starts becoming more interesting, community starts to grow once again. Just get rid of the cars and it will all start to become clear,



Global Online Privacy

Actually I could improve Yelp

Can Yelp Help Independent Restaurants Drive Chains Out of Business? - Business - GOOD: "More often than not, if you want to find a good restaurant, you’re going to Yelp it. While the individual reviewers may not be the most charming, in aggregate, they’re changing the restaurant market, creating new business for well-reviewed companies and cutting into the market share of chains."

Turns out I was schmoozing for loyal restaurants just yesterday. But Yelp was no help in actually doing what I needed, which was to find out the exact mileage (I walk). To do this I used GrubHub. Much better for actually enabling a search. Try it you will agree. But once you get the restaurant you want Yelp because it gets you to the menu quicker. Raising the question why either one of these sites cannot incorporate the capability of the other. And reminding us all that decent usable programming trumps everything else.

Global Online Privacy

John Boehner Manque Returns



Goddammit
I defend myself against that man
And all I get is grief
They say I lie and prevaricate and play the consummate hypocrite
Screw it
Screw them
Just because I care more about DOMA
Than that man
When will they get it
We want that man out
Out 
Dammit pass me that bottle
You have to admit that when I have to perform
I can perform
Damn

Global Online Privacy

Did I Hear Waffle? Mildred Purse Returns


Rick Perry is incapable of waffling
He tried once and his jaw fell off
It dribbled down his front
It was disgusting
Perry is disgusting
I much prefer that nice Mitt fellow
I like my lies tasty

Global Online Privacy

2012 Will Be The Year of the Waffle

GOP Field Narrowing to 2 Anti-Gay Candidates - Topix: "The GOP presidential field apparently set, Republican primary voters are likely facing a choice between an experienced, establishment candidate in Mitt Romney and an insurgent presidential campaign novice in Rick Perry."

Have you ever seen a red-faced waffle?

Global Online Privacy

What is free speech

It could be Dionysian babbling
Hip hopping down a bunny trail
It could be tempting incarceration
Echoing what once was free now up for sale
In which case it would instigate a penalty
And be denoted robbery
Or it might be
A yes or no that springs from
Some deep freedom sensed within
A destiny
Odd to say that
Yet nothing is more free

Global Online Privacy

A sticky public domain issue that threatens free speech

Talking about Jimi Hendrix, the Star-Spangled Banner, and Free Speech at the Supreme Court » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union: "Our brief argues that the First Amendment doesn't permit Congress to take away the public's right to use speech that has previously been in the public domain whenever it wants to do so. Speech based on words first used by others — like political signs or t-shirts — are entitled to full First Amendment protection."

Worth a careful read.

Global Online Privacy

Venality and Hypocrisy Are Partners

Venality is unfair competition.
Hypocrisy is knowing and denying.
Venality is cruelty that injures.
Hypocrisy implies it is not so.
Venality creates an unjust system.
Hypocrisy will call it great progress.




I spend more time rejecting than accepting

I spend more time rejecting than accepting
Like just now I rejected a long video
Why because it never reached an ending
It was put out without the requisite thought
It was inconclusive
Or maybe I didn't get it
But here I decide
So whether right or wrong
It was an instance in which a one and two did not
Become a three
Save here and now
For me
 
Global Online Privacy

What is non-idolatry?

What is non-idolatry
It's seeing a universal penumbra that is vague
It is knowing there's a distance you can never breech
It's knowing every perspective you have is different
From every other perspective others have
And accepting the ambient mystery that 
Renders ambient all certainty
It is accepting the I am I of the One you say is All in All
As the universal self identity of the One
Who is in everyone

It is having no other core value 
Than non-idolatry
It is making free and happy ignorance
The basis for all you are and do
It is hanging loose to reality

Iconoclasm is the air we breathe
It sustains us
It fuels our no
To all but the I Am

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Freedom, Chance and Fate

Is there any freedom which is not subjective
Very little
I know I'm free is a stretch
What bites you is also free
Following a destiny
Affecting you in ways you never sought 
Non-idolatry is humility and watchfulness
Before the mystery
In amor fati may be perfect freedom
For then
Freedom chance and fate are one
Use your mind
Think
Choose the values you live by
Starting with non-idolatry

Global Online Privacy

RECCMENDATION Richard Gordon Quantum Touch

The Slow as Molasses Press