12/10/11

Elites 'n us

The World Seen from a Hilltop | Dissident Voice: "The elite of Roman abused the common folk. The elite of Europe abused the common folk, first at home and then abroad in their colonies. The elite in the old Soviet Union abused the common folk. The elite in China have and are abusing the common folk. The elite in the US are abusing the common folk. The elite in India are abusing the common folk. The elite of the major institutional religions abuse the common folk. And in places where the common folk are not being abused, the elite are preparing conditions of the global economy to abuse them. When there is sufficient stored and tradable excess converted to private wealth, 10, 20, 50 times greater than basic need meeting wealth, this will always be the outcome."

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We need some back channels to Iran

Is war with Iran inevitable? | Comment is free | The Guardian: "Abbas Edalat: Sixty years ago the British government was demonising the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh, and it is doing the same to the Islamic Republic. When sanctions failed then, it organised with the US the 1953 coup and brought back the Shah. And in Iraq the same unfounded allegations of weapons of mass destruction that we are seeing now were used to justify an illegal war. Western intelligence sources are feeding fabricated evidence to the IAEA, whose new head [Yukiya Amano] was disclosed by WikiLeaks to be a hardline supporter of the US. But the IAEA's latest report [last month] is disappointing for the western alliance because it says Iran has not diverted its declared nuclear material [to weapons]."

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Global Online Privacy

Journalist Jail Toll Rises with Iran Leading the Charge

Imprisonments jump worldwide, and Iran is worst - Reports - Committee to Protect Journalists: "The number of journalists imprisoned worldwide shot up more than 20 percent to its highest level since the mid-1990s, an increase driven largely by widespread jailings across the Middle East and North Africa, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, CPJ identified 179 writers, editors, and photojournalists behind bars on December 1, an increase of 34 over its 2010 tally."

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Global Online Privacy

Newt apparently invented his silly Palestinian remarks

Newt Gingrich ‘Ignorant,’ ‘Racist’ Say Palestinians - ABC News: "Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has been slammed by Palestinians for telling a Jewish television channel that they are an “invented” people.
“These are extremely trivial, demeaning and ridiculous remarks,” Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said, according to the Ma’an News Agency . “Even the most extremist settlers of Israel wouldn’t talk in such a ridiculous way.”"

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Global Online Privacy

Success Charter Appears to Have A Sorry Record in Brooklyn

REPORT CARD Here Comes Success - The Brooklyn Rail: "Success Charter, bringing the wisdom of the private sector to public education, spends staggering sums, not on educating children, but on marketing. Our neighborhoods are blanketed in slick mailings and billboards advertising Moskowitz products. Juan Gonzalez of the Daily News has reported that in 2009 – 2010, Success spent $1.6 million on such marketing. That means the chain spent $1300 per child to lure kids—and therefore money—from other public schools. "

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Global Online Privacy

Short is Sweet Online

Short online videos 'as effective as long content': "Short form online videos are just as effective marketing tools as longer content videos, new research shows. Called VITAMIN (Video Testing and Measurement Insights), the study was launched by Specific Media as part of the IAB Video Engage event."

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Peirce linked the metre to the wavelength of a spectral line

CultureLab: Inches to metres: how the metric system was born: "But one thing still missing was a "natural standard" that associated a length measurement with a property of nature. In the 1870s, US logician Charles Sanders Peirce made the key suggestion: link the metre to the wavelength of a spectral line. This way, the standard metre could be reproduced anywhere."

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Global Online Privacy

BainCapital BainMan Bane of Society



Cap tip Catherine


In past literature there have been objective correlatives 
to signify the relentless advance of capital over persons
McTeague, So Big and much in Dreiser
Today that advance would be signified by Bain Capital (or)
BainCapital
to suggest that a marriage of two like words needs no impediment
And if you think there is a gulf between capital and government
consider that the BainMan 
aspires to own the government
and is even as we speak
offering people $50,000 tickets to
as it were
touch the hem of his garment
prior to his coronation





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Were this a symphony

The Complete History of Adam Panflick: Book Three:

"Were this a symphony, I think it would have two themes when it reached the period covered by the present book. It would have a dogged theme, almost Stakhanovite, a Moldau shorn of trills and evocations of sweetness, fluidity and light. That would be Mildred and Melchizadek forging ahead in the realm of aquisitions, building and generally doing their thing, if one may borrow a phrase from a later generation. Then there would be something from Beethoven, dark, ominous, yet beautiful in its pathos and infused by moments of hope and peace. Dark and ominous would apply to Parousia Academy. Life outside the school was brighter but not without moments of pathos."

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Amending Citizen's United into History's Dustbin

Los Angeles Calls for a Constitutional Amendment Ending Corporate Personhood by Brooke Jarvis: "In order to reverse Citizens United—and a long line of other rulings supporting corporate rights over human ones—the resolutions passed by Los Angeles and Occupy L.A. call for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution clearly stating that corporations are not people and money is not speech."

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The Best Purpose of A Blog

The best purpose of a blog is to point the scales toward Abba's way
That is the way of tolerance strong to resist but quick to bend 
That is the way of helpfulness enabling all to heal and mend
That is the way of democracy in which all people would be free
That is the way of  non-idolatry
which never claims to know the whole 
and lives calmly with mystery 
There is a balance in all things and there is progress too
The blog's best purpose is to tilt things to the tune
these fundamental values sing

   




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