2/27/12

Blackwater Is A Stain on America

NYT: Web of Blackwater companies revealed - World news - The New York Times - msnbc.com: "The Senate Armed Services Committee this week released a chart that identified 31 affiliates of Blackwater, now known as Xe Services. The network was disclosed as part of a committee's investigation into government contracting. The investigation revealed the lengths to which Blackwater went to continue winning contracts after Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in September 2007. That episode and other reports of abuses led to criminal and Congressional investigations, and cost the company its lucrative security contract with the State Department in Iraq."

Rahm is an educational disaster


Rahm is an educational disaster
Deforming education day by day
He was no great shakes in the White House
He's no great shakes in Chicago today


Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

"Mad Men" mirrors sickness of patriarchy

Spinster aunt casts jaundiced eye at popular television show � I Blame The Patriarchy: "Never heard of Mad Men? It's a "critically acclaimed" — which means that edgy dudes like it — American TV show set in the early pre-feminist 60's, about handsome dudes in an ad agency and the hot women they screw. Its chief appeal is the sex they have in painstakingly authentic sets and period costumes.

"Aside from the obvious thrill of enjoying without compunction a throwback fantasy Man's World untainted by the unseemly Women's Lib movement, Mad Men is problematic for another reason. Unsurprisingly, actual women are now being encouraged to emulate the "lovely ladies" of the show, on the subject of whose "kicking silhouettes" much ink has been spilled. From sheknows.com:"

From one of my favorite sites. I point you there. Bookmark. Enjoy.

Our profound ignorance of everything

William Shatner tackles the weird and inexplicable in Weird or What? - thestar.com: ""Almost everything that takes place is weird, whether it's a social transaction or a physical event. Anything that we perceive is, in its final analysis, kind of weird because there are ramifications that we don't even know. The possibilities that are suggested in quantum physics tell us that everything that we're looking at may not be in fact there, so the underlying nature of being is weird.""

Deep in this informative post about the 79-year-old former Captain Kirk. I found something that conforms almost exactly with what I think. So if you are interested. give it a read. And if you are interested in more about the man who thought it click to read all about him.

William Shatner notes our profound ignorance of everything. 

Bravo.

The GOP Sin Knows No Bounds

The GOP sin knows no bounds
Sin is transsgression
Idolatry
Unhelpfulness
Intolerance
Crucifying the democratic process

The GOP sin knows no bounds
The President would have given ten in cuts
For one in revenue
The GOP refused
Why

Not because the President was 
Wrong
But because he was right and they knew it
And because they cared more about getting him
Than about solving the debt
And now the GOP yells deficit reduction all around

The GOP know no bounds
And we know it
And Despise it
And will toss them out
In November

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Pagels on Revelation on a Single Page : The New Yorker

Elaine Pagels on the Book of Revelation : The New Yorker: "John of Patmos’s hatred for the pagan world extended from its cruelties to its beauties—the exquisite temple at nearby Pergamon was for him the Devil’s Altar, worthy only of destruction. For all that, Pagels tells us, many claim to have found in John “the promise, famously repeated by Martin Luther King Jr., that the ‘arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ . . . This worst of all nightmares ends not in terror but in a glorious new world, radiant with the light of God’s presence, flowing with the water of life, abounding in joy and delight.” Well, yeah, but this happens only after all the millions of heretics, past and present, have been burned alive and the planet destroyed. "

'via Blog this'

In order for history to have a happy ending i would inevitably have to be following the horrendous genocides and war ravages of the past. It is up to us to minimize or end them.

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Why Santorum will go off the cliff

The Fluke-Limbaugh incident reduced to absurdity the notion that Rick is defending religious freedom. Romney should be dancing with delight.

I think if Santorum takes the pipe from now on it will be because of this massive misjudgment of the tenor of the times.

Freedom of religion has everything to do with the right of all to think and worship as they choose wherever they are. It has nothing to do with legislating positions taken by priests of a particular religion.

If Santorum goes down, Blunt and Rubio should get an honorable mention along with John Boehner and Daryll Issa.

Why The Academy Had Its Back to The Future

It's because no film in the last ten years has even gotten close to coming to grips with the present and future. We are happier with evocations of the past or suppositional fantasies and action adventures. I assume the mega-volume in today's theaters is meant to contribute to the general alienation from consideration of the present and future. The only contender that was close was The Descendants. That film at least acknowledged some aspects of current reality. Giving it more awards would have suggested that Hollywood might open its eyes to the world as it is.

Is Putin in danger or just manipulative?

Plot to Kill Vladimir Putin Uncovered - NYTimes.com: "“This is a sign that the real leaders of Mr. Putin’s political structure, the people from the Federal Security Service, are trying to mobilize public opinion according to the logic that we are surrounded by enemies and that we have one decisive, effective and intelligent national leader that they want to destroy,” Dmitri Oreshkin, a political analyst, said on Echo Moskvy radio station.

“The timely disclosure of this conspiracy against this leader is a serious addition to the electoral rating of the potential president,” he said."

'via Blog this'



Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Europe chose a gold standard (aka the euro)

What Ails Europe? - NYTimes.com: "More specifically, the creation of the euro fostered a false sense of security among private investors, unleashing huge, unsustainable flows of capital into nations all around Europe’s periphery. As a consequence of these inflows, costs and prices rose, manufacturing became uncompetitive, and nations that had roughly balanced trade in 1999 began running large trade deficits instead. Then the music stopped.

If the peripheral nations still had their own currencies, they could and would use devaluation to quickly restore competitiveness. But they don’t, which means that they are in for a long period of mass unemployment and slow, grinding deflation. Their debt crises are mainly a byproduct of this sad prospect, because depressed economies lead to budget deficits and deflation magnifies the burden of debt."

'via Blog this'

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

We are leaving Afghanistan sooner than later

Burning of Korans Complicates U.S. Pullout Plan in Afghanistan - NYTimes.com: "Despite an American-led training effort that has spanned years and cost tens of billions of dollars, the Afghan security forces are still widely seen as riddled with dangerously unreliable soldiers and police officers. The distrust has only deepened as a pattern of attacks by Afghan security forces on American and NATO service members, beginning years ago, has drastically worsened over the past few days. A grenade attack on Sunday, apparently by a protester, wounded at least six American soldiers."

'via Blog this'

Yes this is a prediction. Yes I believe it.

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Santorum should be in a monastery

Santorum Makes Case for Religion in Public Sphere - NYTimes.com: "“What kind of country do we live in that says only people of nonfaith can come into the public square and make their case?” Mr. Santorum said on the ABC News program “This Week.”"

'via Blog this'

Santorum is not alone. Everyone does it. They confuse spirituality which is individual and religion which is institutional. They say religion should be in the public square. They mean that the teachings of the institution they are a part of should dominate us all. Everyone is spiritual. We were made with values within us waiting to be accepted and acted on. Individuals in the public square bring with then  their inner spirituality, whatever it may be. To the extent that religion informs, it they have influence. But spirituality based on inner values transcends all religion. The universal ontological values are helpfulness, democracy. tolerance and non-idolatry. The public square is hardly devoid of spirituality. Sadly Santorum believes religion should dominate. And that everyone but those who disagree with his religion is a  person of nonfaith. He is not alone. This misunderstanding hobbles our society even though most people are at least aware of the distinction between religion and spirituality. Santorum belongs in a monastery, not trying to turn religion into public policy.

RECCMENDATION Richard Gordon Quantum Touch

The Slow as Molasses Press