Saturday, August 7, 2010
Wheat rots in India as world prices at 2 year high
The russian wheat disaster is not the end but the beginning it seems. Jim Rogers agrees.
From AP
By ERIKA KINETZ (AP)
MUMBAI, India — A wheat stockpile in India that could feed 210 million people for a year is starting to spoil because the government lacks enough warehouses to store it — a lightning rod for local discontent that could send ripples through the world market for the grain...
From AP
By ERIKA KINETZ (AP)
MUMBAI, India — A wheat stockpile in India that could feed 210 million people for a year is starting to spoil because the government lacks enough warehouses to store it — a lightning rod for local discontent that could send ripples through the world market for the grain...
Drug Gang Got Los Alamos Secrets in 2006? Russia Accuses U.S. of loose weapons control
Never heard of this one, and I haven't found much additional info on it either.
From Reuters.
(Reuters) - Russia accused the United States on Saturday of breaching its obligations over the non proliferation of weapons, a sign of strained relations between the two powers...
...The ministry also said secret information from the U.S. Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory had ended up at the hands of a drug dealing gang in 2006.
"The peculiarity of the incident was that, unlike in several other such cases -- when nuclear secrets were obtained by foreign intelligence services -- now they were found by police with a criminal group connected to the drug trade," it said.
From Reuters.
(Reuters) - Russia accused the United States on Saturday of breaching its obligations over the non proliferation of weapons, a sign of strained relations between the two powers...
...The ministry also said secret information from the U.S. Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory had ended up at the hands of a drug dealing gang in 2006.
"The peculiarity of the incident was that, unlike in several other such cases -- when nuclear secrets were obtained by foreign intelligence services -- now they were found by police with a criminal group connected to the drug trade," it said.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Ludlow Massacre
From Wikipedia.
The Ludlow Massacre of 1914, provides an interesting historical mirror in which to view the corruption and brutality of the contemporary corporate mafia which runs America. Today the massacres (Waco, 9/11 etc aside) are largely held outside our borders in places like Afghanistan or Central America, but the same greed and callousness of the Rockefeller family is perhaps the continuing link, like a long skeletal vertebrae linking America's oppressive past to what might resemble our future.
This was the deadliest incident in the 14-month 1913-1914 southern Colorado Coal Strike. The strike was organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against coal mining companies in Colorado. The three largest companies involved were the Rockefeller family-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I), the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company (RMF), and the Victor-American Fuel Company (VAF). Ludlow, located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Trinidad, Colorado, is now a ghost town...
...The fighting raged for the entire day. The militia was reinforced by non-uniformed mine guards later in the afternoon. At dusk, a passing freight train stopped on the tracks in front of the Guards' machine gun placements, allowing many of the miners and their families to escape to an outcrop of hills to the east called the "Black Hills." By 7:00 p.m., the camp was in flames, and the militia descended on it and began to search and loot the camp. Louis Tikas had remained in the camp the entire day and was still there when the fire started. Tikas and two other men were captured by the militia. Tikas and Lt. Karl Linderfelt, commander of one of two Guard companies, had confronted each other several times in the previous months. While two militiamen held Tikas, Linderfelt broke a rifle butt over his head. Tikas and the other two captured miners were later found shot dead. Their bodies lay along the Colorado and Southern tracks for three days in full view of passing trains. The militia officers refused to allow them to be moved until a local of a railway union demanded the bodies be taken away for burial.
During the battle, four women and eleven children had been hiding in a pit beneath one tent, where they were trapped when the tent above them was set on fire. Two of the women and all of the children suffocated. These deaths became a rallying cry for the UMWA, who called the incident the "Ludlow Massacre."[13]
In addition to the fire victims, Louis Tikas and the other men who were shot to death, three company guards and one militiaman were killed in the day's fighting...
...A United States Commission on Industrial Relations (CIR), headed by labor lawyer Frank Walsh, conducted hearings in Washington, collecting information and taking testimony from all the principals, including John D. Rockefeller, Sr., who testified that, even after knowing that guards in his pay had committed atrocities against the strikers, he "would have taken no action" to prevent his hirelings from attacking them.
The video below with Aaron Russo ties the Rockefeller family into 9/11, the War on Terror, and the contemporary tragedy we are now living in. The bit about socialism at the end I find confusing however, since none of this has much to do with socialism of the modern democratic kind, and everything to do with greed, totalitarianism, plutocracy, corporatism, and gangster capitalism. But let's not get lost in labels. The viral strain of the Rockefeller family in American political history is the topic at hand.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
American Warmongering Behemoth Loses Another Friend Over Target Iran
"Clinton was trying to convince Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to drop or postpone his controversial efforts to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran..."
They don't want a deal. Lula is right. The Americans and their Israeli buddies want war. That's all they want. In the end everybody will hate us but the Israelis, and with good reason. Don't worry though, I'm sure Israel will make everything good for us after we are trillions in debt for them, and our society, economy and military is in tatters. Don't worry, it's worth it I'm sure. Besides, the New York Times says that war is good, so they must be right.
Lula also isn't drinking the Clinton kool-aid about how it's all different now that Mr. Change is in office. Ha Ha. One point for Brazil, another country with a better future then the U.S.
From Reuters.
Exclusive: Fight between U.S. and Brazil threatens trade
(Reuters) - The road to rock bottom for relations between Brazil and the United States, a dispute that now threatens business ties between the two Western Hemisphere economic giants, began in Brasilia in March.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was trying to convince Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to drop or postpone his controversial efforts to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, and support a new round of sanctions instead.
Lula refused. Then, he dropped a diplomatic bombshell, telling Clinton he was worried Iran would become another Iraq -- that is, that the United States was on a path to war, according to sources familiar with the exchange.
Clinton bristled, replying that Lula wasn't taking into account the fact that Barack Obama was now president, rather than George W. Bush, the sources said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
The meeting ended badly...
They don't want a deal. Lula is right. The Americans and their Israeli buddies want war. That's all they want. In the end everybody will hate us but the Israelis, and with good reason. Don't worry though, I'm sure Israel will make everything good for us after we are trillions in debt for them, and our society, economy and military is in tatters. Don't worry, it's worth it I'm sure. Besides, the New York Times says that war is good, so they must be right.
Lula also isn't drinking the Clinton kool-aid about how it's all different now that Mr. Change is in office. Ha Ha. One point for Brazil, another country with a better future then the U.S.
From Reuters.
Exclusive: Fight between U.S. and Brazil threatens trade
(Reuters) - The road to rock bottom for relations between Brazil and the United States, a dispute that now threatens business ties between the two Western Hemisphere economic giants, began in Brasilia in March.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was trying to convince Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to drop or postpone his controversial efforts to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, and support a new round of sanctions instead.
Lula refused. Then, he dropped a diplomatic bombshell, telling Clinton he was worried Iran would become another Iraq -- that is, that the United States was on a path to war, according to sources familiar with the exchange.
Clinton bristled, replying that Lula wasn't taking into account the fact that Barack Obama was now president, rather than George W. Bush, the sources said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
The meeting ended badly...
Afghan Diary Dig Tool
I recently found an online resource tool which is very helpful if you want to search through the recently released Wikileaks documents quickly. It's called Diary Dig. Type in the search box anything, ISI for example, and you get all the documents containing that word, just like a google search. Pretty cool. Here it is.
Also: If you need a glossary of abbreviated military terms for the Afghan Diary, here is a good one.
Also: If you need a glossary of abbreviated military terms for the Afghan Diary, here is a good one.
Senators Introduce Legislation to Eliminate SEC FOIA Exemption
From Zerohedge.
What can we say: it would be flagrantly criminal if the most incompetent and corrupt organization in the world was allowed to be unaccountable to anyone, least of all the US citizen. Our respect to Senators Leahy, Cornyn and Kaufman and Grassley for doing what is so obviously right, we are stunned only four senators ended up sponsoring legislation proposed by the Senate Judiciary Committee to strike the FOIA exemption for the SEC...
What can we say: it would be flagrantly criminal if the most incompetent and corrupt organization in the world was allowed to be unaccountable to anyone, least of all the US citizen. Our respect to Senators Leahy, Cornyn and Kaufman and Grassley for doing what is so obviously right, we are stunned only four senators ended up sponsoring legislation proposed by the Senate Judiciary Committee to strike the FOIA exemption for the SEC...
The Death of Paper Money
An interesting article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard from The Telegraph.
As they prepare for holiday reading in Tuscany, City bankers are buying up rare copies of an obscure book on the mechanics of Weimar inflation published in 1974.
Ebay is offering a well-thumbed volume of "Dying of Money: Lessons of the Great German and American Inflations" at a starting bid of $699 (shipping free.. thanks a lot).
The crucial passage comes in Chapter 17 entitled "Velocity". Each big inflation -- whether the early 1920s in Germany, or the Korean and Vietnam wars in the US -- starts with a passive expansion of the quantity money. This sits inert for a surprisingly long time. Asset prices may go up, but latent price inflation is disguised. The effect is much like lighter fuel on a camp fire before the match is struck.
People’s willingness to hold money can change suddenly for a "psychological and spontaneous reason" , causing a spike in the velocity of money. It can occur at lightning speed, over a few weeks. The shift invariably catches economists by surprise. They wait too long to drain the excess money...
As they prepare for holiday reading in Tuscany, City bankers are buying up rare copies of an obscure book on the mechanics of Weimar inflation published in 1974.
Ebay is offering a well-thumbed volume of "Dying of Money: Lessons of the Great German and American Inflations" at a starting bid of $699 (shipping free.. thanks a lot).
The crucial passage comes in Chapter 17 entitled "Velocity". Each big inflation -- whether the early 1920s in Germany, or the Korean and Vietnam wars in the US -- starts with a passive expansion of the quantity money. This sits inert for a surprisingly long time. Asset prices may go up, but latent price inflation is disguised. The effect is much like lighter fuel on a camp fire before the match is struck.
People’s willingness to hold money can change suddenly for a "psychological and spontaneous reason" , causing a spike in the velocity of money. It can occur at lightning speed, over a few weeks. The shift invariably catches economists by surprise. They wait too long to drain the excess money...
Another American Dumps U.S. Citizenship.
From Cryptogon.
Oh you don't want to live in the dimwitted mafia clan empire of Schumer, Pelosi, Bush, Cheney, Obama, Netanyahu, Blair, Rockefeller, Lieberman? Wonder why...
Btw, I'm jealous as I just last night spent an hour waiting on a train platform after a bomb scare on the New York subway, increasingly seeming more like the New Tel Aviv subway by the day. But hey screw it, lets bomb Iran, the New York Times thinks it's a great idea. Don't worry about the money, we'll just get Bernanke to print some more! Oh and sorry about those social cuts but we need to make the world safe for Israel (and the multi-national corporations of course), that's more important. You know, supporting right-wing fascistic militaristic rascist nations, that's what America is all about!
Oh you don't want to live in the dimwitted mafia clan empire of Schumer, Pelosi, Bush, Cheney, Obama, Netanyahu, Blair, Rockefeller, Lieberman? Wonder why...
Btw, I'm jealous as I just last night spent an hour waiting on a train platform after a bomb scare on the New York subway, increasingly seeming more like the New Tel Aviv subway by the day. But hey screw it, lets bomb Iran, the New York Times thinks it's a great idea. Don't worry about the money, we'll just get Bernanke to print some more! Oh and sorry about those social cuts but we need to make the world safe for Israel (and the multi-national corporations of course), that's more important. You know, supporting right-wing fascistic militaristic rascist nations, that's what America is all about!
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Schumer Revises Whistleblower Shield Bill After Wikileaks
Who will want to live in the United Stasi-land of Schumer, Lieberman and Mike Rogers(the one who calls for the execution of whistleblowers)?
I for one think this country is going to go to hell. These old schmucks don't know what the hell they are doing. The future of America seems like it will be dominated by the same dull, brutish and visionless minds of today. In contrast, Iceland sounds like a good place to be: http://immi.is/
They are expanding journalistic freedom, not expanding the death march of their invading armies.
From The New York TImes.
WASHINGTON — Democratic senators who have been working on legislation providing greater protections to reporters who refuse to identify confidential sources are backpedaling from WikiLeaks, the Web site that recently disclosed more than 75,000 classified documents related to the Afghanistan war.
Senators Charles E. Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, Democrats of New York and California, are drafting an amendment to make clear that the bill’s protections extend only to traditional news-gathering activities and not to Web sites that serve as a conduit for the mass dissemination of secret documents. The so-called “media shield” bill is awaiting a vote on the Senate floor.
“WikiLeaks should not be spared in any way from the fullest prosecution possible under the law,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. “Our bill already includes safeguards when a leak impacts national security, and it would never grant protection to a Web site like this one, but we will take this extra step to remove even a scintilla of doubt.”
Schumer of course can't like Wikileaks, because he likes the War on Terror so he can have American kids from Indiana blow apart with gattling guns the supposed Arab enemies of Israel all over Central Asia, that makes Chuckie Schumer happy, not Wikileaks, or journalistic freedom.
I for one think this country is going to go to hell. These old schmucks don't know what the hell they are doing. The future of America seems like it will be dominated by the same dull, brutish and visionless minds of today. In contrast, Iceland sounds like a good place to be: http://immi.is/
They are expanding journalistic freedom, not expanding the death march of their invading armies.
From The New York TImes.
WASHINGTON — Democratic senators who have been working on legislation providing greater protections to reporters who refuse to identify confidential sources are backpedaling from WikiLeaks, the Web site that recently disclosed more than 75,000 classified documents related to the Afghanistan war.
Senators Charles E. Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, Democrats of New York and California, are drafting an amendment to make clear that the bill’s protections extend only to traditional news-gathering activities and not to Web sites that serve as a conduit for the mass dissemination of secret documents. The so-called “media shield” bill is awaiting a vote on the Senate floor.
“WikiLeaks should not be spared in any way from the fullest prosecution possible under the law,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. “Our bill already includes safeguards when a leak impacts national security, and it would never grant protection to a Web site like this one, but we will take this extra step to remove even a scintilla of doubt.”
Schumer of course can't like Wikileaks, because he likes the War on Terror so he can have American kids from Indiana blow apart with gattling guns the supposed Arab enemies of Israel all over Central Asia, that makes Chuckie Schumer happy, not Wikileaks, or journalistic freedom.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Wikileaks Likely Has Nothing To Do With Tribal Leader Deaths
Though the powers that be would have you believe that Wikileaks and their recent document release are to blame for a recent rash of tribal leader killings in Afghanistan, on closer look it seems highly unlikely that the two have anything to do with one another. One can read in Newsweek or in The New York Post that:
the Taliban has already begun to retaliate against Afghan collaborators named in more than 90,000 secret U.S. files released by a whistleblower website
and how...
over the weekend one tribal elder, Khalifa Abdullah, who the Taliban believed had been in close contact with the Americans, was taken from his home in Monar village, in Kandahar province’s embattled Arghandab district, and executed by insurgent gunmen.
What isn't made clear, and probably for very good reason, is what the execution has to do with the Wikileaks documents. I found another article which sort of filled in the details that Newsweek and The New York Post chose to leave out.
In an article originally from Asia World News that I found on Earthtimes, some added details are given around the events. Wikileaks however is never mentioned in the article. Were the events simply lifted and blamed on Wikileaks to fit the propaganda purposes of the Pentagon? Perhaps. But there is more. It is hard to imagine how the deaths could be connected to Wikileaks for two reasons. The Wikileaks documents came out on Sunday, the 25th of July. According to the article:
70 tribal elders in Panwayi district had received death threats unless they leave the country within five days.
The tribal leader, Khalifa Abdullah, who was recently killed, and mentioned in Newsweek as being a result of Wikileaks, was killed on Friday. Assuming they did give him five days, that would mean the same day Wikileaks released their material the Taliban was in a position to scourge through it all in english and find his name and issue the letters and have them arrive the same day so that the leaders would have their five days before the killing would begin. Not satisfied? There's still more...
At the very end of the article which doesn't mention Wikileaks at all, another more logical reason is given for the murders:
NATO said earlier this month that Taliban chief Mullah Omar had sent to his followers a list of tribal leaders to kill.
A month ago? What can that possibly have to do with the Wikileaks Afghan Diary?
If you wish you can also read another article from more than a month ago which talks of the Taliban assassinations as an ongoing event in the region way before Wikileaks was even making news.
It seems obvious to me that the Pentagon and their propaganda artists in the mainstream media have done a bit of cut and paste to make this suddenly all the fault of Wikileaks. Nice smear campaign.
the Taliban has already begun to retaliate against Afghan collaborators named in more than 90,000 secret U.S. files released by a whistleblower website
and how...
over the weekend one tribal elder, Khalifa Abdullah, who the Taliban believed had been in close contact with the Americans, was taken from his home in Monar village, in Kandahar province’s embattled Arghandab district, and executed by insurgent gunmen.
What isn't made clear, and probably for very good reason, is what the execution has to do with the Wikileaks documents. I found another article which sort of filled in the details that Newsweek and The New York Post chose to leave out.
In an article originally from Asia World News that I found on Earthtimes, some added details are given around the events. Wikileaks however is never mentioned in the article. Were the events simply lifted and blamed on Wikileaks to fit the propaganda purposes of the Pentagon? Perhaps. But there is more. It is hard to imagine how the deaths could be connected to Wikileaks for two reasons. The Wikileaks documents came out on Sunday, the 25th of July. According to the article:
70 tribal elders in Panwayi district had received death threats unless they leave the country within five days.
The tribal leader, Khalifa Abdullah, who was recently killed, and mentioned in Newsweek as being a result of Wikileaks, was killed on Friday. Assuming they did give him five days, that would mean the same day Wikileaks released their material the Taliban was in a position to scourge through it all in english and find his name and issue the letters and have them arrive the same day so that the leaders would have their five days before the killing would begin. Not satisfied? There's still more...
At the very end of the article which doesn't mention Wikileaks at all, another more logical reason is given for the murders:
NATO said earlier this month that Taliban chief Mullah Omar had sent to his followers a list of tribal leaders to kill.
A month ago? What can that possibly have to do with the Wikileaks Afghan Diary?
If you wish you can also read another article from more than a month ago which talks of the Taliban assassinations as an ongoing event in the region way before Wikileaks was even making news.
It seems obvious to me that the Pentagon and their propaganda artists in the mainstream media have done a bit of cut and paste to make this suddenly all the fault of Wikileaks. Nice smear campaign.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Shadowy Spy Group Building Dossiers On Internet Users For Feds
A follow up to the Lamo & Uber article. This one written by Paul Joseph Watson.
From Prison Planet.
An organization that tracks 250 million IP addresses a day has been developing portfolios on Internet users and handing the information to U.S. federal agencies as the latest incarnation of the supposedly defunct Total Information Awareness spy program is revealed.
A group calling itself Project Vigilant went public at yesterday’s Defcon security conference in an effort to add more recruits to its 600 member strong cyber spy force. The outfit announced that it had been tracking “Internet villains” for no less than 14 years and handing the information to federal authorities as part of a massive intelligence gathering program.
However, the target of one such investigation did not fall into the category of cyber criminals – “terrorists, drug cartels, mobsters” – that the group claims to be fighting.
The organization “encouraged one of its “volunteers”, researcher Adrian Lamo, to inform the federal government about the alleged source of a controversial video of civilian deaths in Iraq leaked to whistle-blower site Wikileaks in April,” reports Forbes...
From Prison Planet.
An organization that tracks 250 million IP addresses a day has been developing portfolios on Internet users and handing the information to U.S. federal agencies as the latest incarnation of the supposedly defunct Total Information Awareness spy program is revealed.
A group calling itself Project Vigilant went public at yesterday’s Defcon security conference in an effort to add more recruits to its 600 member strong cyber spy force. The outfit announced that it had been tracking “Internet villains” for no less than 14 years and handing the information to federal authorities as part of a massive intelligence gathering program.
However, the target of one such investigation did not fall into the category of cyber criminals – “terrorists, drug cartels, mobsters” – that the group claims to be fighting.
The organization “encouraged one of its “volunteers”, researcher Adrian Lamo, to inform the federal government about the alleged source of a controversial video of civilian deaths in Iraq leaked to whistle-blower site Wikileaks in April,” reports Forbes...
Netherlands becomes first NATO country to end its combat mission in Afghanistan
From The Washington Post.
The Netherlands became the first NATO country to end its combat mission in Afghanistan, drawing the curtain Sunday on a four-year operation that was deeply unpopular at home and even brought down a Dutch government...
The Netherlands became the first NATO country to end its combat mission in Afghanistan, drawing the curtain Sunday on a four-year operation that was deeply unpopular at home and even brought down a Dutch government...
Adrian Lamo Is a “Volunteer” for Project Vigilant, a Private Internet Surveillance Company Closely Linked to U.S. Intelligence
Every Yin has a Yang.
You've met Assange, now meet the other side,
Lamo and Uber.
From Cryptogon and Forbes.
A semi-secret government contractor that calls itself Project Vigilant surfaced at the Defcon security conference Sunday with a series of revelations: that it monitors the traffic of 12 regional Internet service providers, hands much of that information to federal agencies, and encouraged one of its “volunteers”, researcher Adrian Lamo, to inform the federal government about the alleged source of a controversial video of civilian deaths in Iraq leaked to whistle-blower site Wikileaks in April.
Chet Uber, the director of Fort Pierce, Fl.-based Project Vigilant, says that he personally asked Lamo to meet with federal authorities to out the source of a video published by Wikileaks showing a U.S. Apache helicopter killing several civilians and two journalists in a suburb of Baghdad, a clip that Wikileaks labelled “Collateral Murder.” Lamo, who Uber said worked as an “Adversary Characterization” analyst for Project Vigilant, had struck up an online friendship with Bradley Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who currently faces charges of releasing the classified video.
In June, Uber said he learned from Lamo’s father that the young researcher had identified Manning as the video’s source, and pressured him to meet with federal agencies to name Manning as Wikileaks’ source. He then arranged a meeting with employees of “three letter” agencies and Lamo, who Uber said had mixed feelings about informing on Manning.
“I’m the one who called the U.S. government,” Uber said. “All the people who say that Adrian is a narc, he did a patriotic thing. He sees all kinds of hacks, and he was seriously worried about people dying...”
You've met Assange, now meet the other side,
Lamo and Uber.
From Cryptogon and Forbes.
A semi-secret government contractor that calls itself Project Vigilant surfaced at the Defcon security conference Sunday with a series of revelations: that it monitors the traffic of 12 regional Internet service providers, hands much of that information to federal agencies, and encouraged one of its “volunteers”, researcher Adrian Lamo, to inform the federal government about the alleged source of a controversial video of civilian deaths in Iraq leaked to whistle-blower site Wikileaks in April.
Chet Uber, the director of Fort Pierce, Fl.-based Project Vigilant, says that he personally asked Lamo to meet with federal authorities to out the source of a video published by Wikileaks showing a U.S. Apache helicopter killing several civilians and two journalists in a suburb of Baghdad, a clip that Wikileaks labelled “Collateral Murder.” Lamo, who Uber said worked as an “Adversary Characterization” analyst for Project Vigilant, had struck up an online friendship with Bradley Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who currently faces charges of releasing the classified video.
In June, Uber said he learned from Lamo’s father that the young researcher had identified Manning as the video’s source, and pressured him to meet with federal agencies to name Manning as Wikileaks’ source. He then arranged a meeting with employees of “three letter” agencies and Lamo, who Uber said had mixed feelings about informing on Manning.
“I’m the one who called the U.S. government,” Uber said. “All the people who say that Adrian is a narc, he did a patriotic thing. He sees all kinds of hacks, and he was seriously worried about people dying...”
Let Them Eat Cake
From Prison Planet
Paul Craig Roberts
Prisonplanet.com
August 2, 2010
It is not unusual for members of the diminishing upper middle class to drop $20,000 or $30,000 on a big wedding. But for celebrities this large sum wouldn’t cover the wedding dress or the flowers....
Read more.
Paul Craig Roberts
Prisonplanet.com
August 2, 2010
It is not unusual for members of the diminishing upper middle class to drop $20,000 or $30,000 on a big wedding. But for celebrities this large sum wouldn’t cover the wedding dress or the flowers....
Read more.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
New Yorker Article On Assange
This is an interesting article and makes for a good read and so I recommend that anyone with the time go ahead and read it. Unfortunately the author makes some lame conclusions here and there, for example:
The Web site’s strengths—its near-total imperviousness to lawsuits and government harassment—make it an instrument for good in societies where the laws are unjust. But, unlike authoritarian regimes, democratic governments hold secrets largely because citizens agree that they should, in order to protect legitimate policy. In liberal societies, the site’s strengths are its weaknesses. Lawsuits, if they are fair, are a form of deterrence against abuse.
The author apparently has no idea of the amount of corruption at work in the U.S. establishment which owns our government. But in a land of corporate conformists what can you expect. It's still an interesting article.
I especially like Assange's descriptions of the journalistic process as "a craven sucking up to official sources to imbue the eventual story with some kind of official basis” and also his description of a physics conference as "sniveling fearful conformists of woefully, woefully inferior character."
Read the entire article at The New Yorker.
The Web site’s strengths—its near-total imperviousness to lawsuits and government harassment—make it an instrument for good in societies where the laws are unjust. But, unlike authoritarian regimes, democratic governments hold secrets largely because citizens agree that they should, in order to protect legitimate policy. In liberal societies, the site’s strengths are its weaknesses. Lawsuits, if they are fair, are a form of deterrence against abuse.
The author apparently has no idea of the amount of corruption at work in the U.S. establishment which owns our government. But in a land of corporate conformists what can you expect. It's still an interesting article.
I especially like Assange's descriptions of the journalistic process as "a craven sucking up to official sources to imbue the eventual story with some kind of official basis” and also his description of a physics conference as "sniveling fearful conformists of woefully, woefully inferior character."
Read the entire article at The New Yorker.
Are Most Manhattanites Unthinking Droids Who Fully Support Their Government? From This Video It Seems So.
The only person who makes any sense in this clip is the first guy, who says he wants transparency. He wants to know what's going on. Unfortunately it sounds as if he has a foreign accent. The rest of the Manhattanites interviewed just think it is absolutely fine that their government keeps them in the dark. They might as well be working for Robert Gates in their ho-hum conformist capitulation to state and military secrets. It seems the free and rebellious spine of these Manhattanites has all been but dissolved as they drivel off little cowardly rationales supporting the secrecy of the military-industrial complex which runs their government.
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