Benji, re: food aid, cf brief discussion with ryan on the inquiry site (link above) on same topic with regards to united foods and latin/south america. shocking mechanisms hey

this is very entertaining, do look into it: The Life of an American Jew in Racist-Marxist Israel (complainin' about kibutz movement! hehe)

"Before Israel became a state in 1948, Jews world-wide were filled with the Zionist propaganda that Israel would be a homeland for all Jews, a refuge for persecuted Jews, a truly democratic country, and the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.

I am an Ashkenazi Jew who spent the first 25 years of my life in the United States, the country that has given ALL Jews freedom and the opportunity to prosper -- and prosper we Jews did, to the point that one segment of the Jewish population (the Zionists) have gained a position of political and economic dominance in the U.S.

To fully understand the story I am about to tell, it is important that you understand what Zionism really is. Zionist propganda has led the American people to believe that Zionism and Judaism are one and the same and that they are religious in nature. THIS IS A BLATANT LIE. Judaism is a religion; but Zionism is a political movement started mainly by East European (Ashkenazi) Jews who for centuries have been the main force behind communism and socialism. The ultimate goal of the Zionists is one-world government under the control of the Zionists and the Zionist-oriented Jewish International Bankers. Communism and socialism are merely tools to help them accomplish their goals.

[...]

The ASHKENAZI Jews, who now comprise 90% of the Jews in the world, had a rather strange beginning. According to historians, many of them Jewish, the Ashkenazi Jews came into existence about 1200 years ago. It happened this way:

At the eastern edge of Europe, there lived a tribe of people known as the Khazars. About the year 740 A.D., the Khazar king and his court decided they should adopt a religion for their people. So, representatives of the three major religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, were invited to present their religious doctrines. The Khazars chose Judaism, but it wasn't for religious reasons. If the Khazars had chosen Islam, they would have angered the strong Christian world. If they had chosen Christianity, they would have angered the strong Islamic world. So, they played it safe -- they chose Judaism. It wasn't for religious reasons the Khazars chose Judaism; it was for political reasons."

ludicrous!

When the USA gives huge ammounts of food aid to developing countries, local farmers do not innovate and compete in a normal way they cannot, artificial prices, lack of incentives etc. This is a massive bargaining chip, (one of many the US possesses) poor nations are kept in a perpertual state of dependence on US grain. Countries like India have some of the lowest agricultural productivities, and need to feel the need to innovate and improve THEMSELVES. They produce tones of opium for use as morphine in the US (so the US doesn't have to grant licences for drug production on their soil) In return the US exports grain to India. I see some connections here> opium...cheap grain imports....low agricultural productivity, ohh its a dirty world for sure.

Point by point refutation of Bush speech by reference to the facts.

Now on one leftist mailing list a bombarded with new information, here's a decent sustainability type site.

Am increasingly finding myself turning into Benji these days.... hair growingly longer, desire to eat only lentils etc. Rejection of genetic heresy and belief in the force really only of capital, both social and economic, as the source of injust authority and power.

"He who pays the piper" - check out the Condoleeza Rice one, says it all;

Dick Cheney - Vice President, between Bush regimes worked for oil services company Halliburton Industries, known to have dealing with Burma and Iraq.

John Ashcroft - Attorney General, pro-gun, anti-abortion (even when incest or rape) nutter who previously lost his Senate re-election bid against a dead man.

Paul O'Neill - Secretary of the Treasury, said that Social Security and Medicare are not necessary. No suprise since really since he gets an annual pension of $926,000 from former employer Alcoa. As President and CEO of Alcoa aluminium company, O'Neill used the Vinson and Elkins law firm (coincidentally the 3rd largest contributor to Bush's campaign) to work a loophole into the law allowing Alcoa to emit 60,000 tonnes of Sulphur Dioxide each year.

Ann Veneman - Sectretary of Agriculture, served on the board of Calgene, the first company to market GM food to stores. Her policies helped to ensure that over 80% of US beef is now processed by only 4 companies.

Don Evans - Secretary of Commerce, was Chairman and CEO of Tom Brown, Inc. oil and gas company before joining the Bush administration. The control of US coastlines fall within this oil mans domain.

Don Rumsfeld - Secretary of Defence, Republican old-timer who used to work with Dick Cheney for Nixon, was CEO of large pharmaceutical company, is very pro-'Star Wars' and against all arms controls.

Spencer Abraham - Secretary of Energy, has opposed research into renewable energy and thought drilling for oil in Alaska was a good idea. In 2000 he voted to abolish the department he now heads and recieves subtaintial support from the automotive industry.

Tommy Thompson - Secretary of Health and Human Services, another extreme anti-abortionist who served on the advisory board for the Washington Legal Fund as it filed briefs on behalf of those who promote smoking. Phillip Morris tobacco company also gave him $72,000 for his campaign.

Gale Norton - Secretary of the Interior, has declared the Endangered Species Act unconstitutional and used to work for a conservative environmental think tank funded by the oil companies.

Elaine Chao - Secretary of Labour, used to sit on the board Northwest Airlines.

Colin Powell - Secretary of State, when not fighting wars sits on the board of Gulfstream Aerospace and AOL. His son Michael sat on the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) and was the only members to advocate that the AOL/Time Warner merger go through without question. Michael has since been named chairman of the FCC by Bush and part of his job is to oversee the activities of AOL/Time Warner. Hmm.

Norman Y Mineta - Secretary of Transportation, has recieved campaign contributions from virtually all the airlines and used to work for Lockheed Martin. Now he 'oversees' them all. Hmm.

Andrew H Card Jr. - White House Chief of Staff, has lobbied against stricter fuel emissions standards and gave personal cash contributions to the failed campaign of collegues John Ashcroft and Spencer Abraham.

Mitch Daniels Jr. - Director of the Office of Management and Budget, used to work to Eli Lilly pharmaceuticals, but in his new job will oversee the drafting of the federal budget, including how much money will be ear-marked for a prescription drug benefit for Medicare patients - a provision Eli Lilly and other pharmaceutical companies are lobbying against. Hmm.

Condoleezza Rice - National Security Adviser, had an 130,000-ton oil tanker named after her for her service at Chevon.

Karl Rove - Senior Adviser to the President, as adviser to Governer Bush he got paid $3000 a month by Phillip Morris tobacco company to get an inside opinion on what was happening in the elections and with the candidates.

Kenneth L Lay - Shadow Adviser to the President, was head of Enron.

"As you can see, friends and neighbors, this is a regime that is intent on lining its pockets - and who won't leave office without a fight. It is their mission to combine the economic and (newly acquired) political power to rule the country and help their friends get even richer along the way. These Stupid White Men must be stopped. I have informed Kofi Annan of the various locations where these (mostly) men can be found and apprehended by UN troops. Mr Annan, I beseech you. You have invaded other countries for less grievous offenses. Do not ignore our plight. We plead with you: Save the United States of America! Demand that new, clean elections be held. Give the junta forty-eight hours to agree - and, if they don't, then treat them to a US Air Force-style laser light show!" - Michael Moore, Stupid White Men

I told you as much...

"hey, us too!"

Read article on link below, quite good. Re Messiah - The Bush administration IS in a sense wallowing in the same absurdity that a non-secular and theologically legitimized power structure would represent if applied in modernity. It's mostly reminiscient of Mesopotamian polytheistic high cultures (by way of personifying political entities with gods, they too would find mythical justifications for attacking neighbouring city states ("axis of evil" - did he mean this poetically?): God -> gives monarch power, gives him legitimacy -> monarch acts according to theological cosmic model. There is an automatic justification of power involved that essentially rests on myths. Only that here this cosmic myth is some intransparent half-truth that everybody has been educated to not care about. It's the fucking McDonald's myth and has a logo. The Bush administration seems to appeal to the same mechanism when explaining (and feeling legitimate about): "We have to do what we think is right."

Potentially, they are just ill-educated and not informed about the humanistic implications of their political reality ("reality") ("I guess they didn't understand...").

Messianic War Cult

We have met the hegemony, and he is us

by Matthew Hogan hoganzeroes@aol.com

HIJACKING NATIONAL SECURITY: THE WAR PARTY

Who's flying the plane? --- The probable terrifying final thoughts of many September 11, 2001 victims.

Today, many are asking the same thing about the Bush Administration's subsequent foreign policy. Despite failing to secure Osama bin-Laden's fate, the Administration now careens in search of ever-expanding Executive Branch-initiated war against an "axis of evil." First stop, Iraq.

Of course, there may be a case for war against Iraq. The benefit potential for Iraq alone of ending the rule of Saddam Hussein is obvious. But for those steering the policy, Iraq is only the beginning. And the actual Iraq-specific case for war appears to be of secondary importance to them at best.
Now, who's flying that plane?

President Bush remains the ultimate party responsible, but it is no secret that a factional War Party has won the ears, hearts, and minds of the President, Vice-President, National Security Adviser and Secretary of Defense. As Scott Ritter, the Republican ex-Marine who hounded Saddam's secret weapons group for several years, has warned:

"The national security of the United States of America has been hijacked by a handful of neo-conservatives who are using their position of authority to pursue their own ideologically-driven political ambitions."

"also friends"

Foreign Policy -- A Grand Strategy

President George W. Bush's national security strategy could represent the most sweeping shift in U.S. grand strategy since the beginning of the Cold War. But its success depends on the willingness of the rest of the world to welcome U.S. power with open arms.

[...]

The Bush NSS, echoing the president's speech at West Point on June 1, 2002, sets three tasks: "We will defend the peace by fighting terrorists and tyrants. We will preserve the peace by building good relations among the great powers. We will extend the peace by encouraging free and open societies on every continent." It's worth comparing these goals with the three the Clinton administration put forth in its final NSS, released in December 1999: "To enhance America's security. To bolster America's economic prosperity. To promote democracy and human rights abroad."

The differences are revealing. The Bush objectives speak of defending, preserving, and extending peace; the Clinton statement seems simply to assume peace. Bush calls for cooperation among great powers; Clinton never uses that term. Bush specifies the encouragement of free and open societies on every continent; Clinton contents himself with "promoting" democracy and human rights "abroad." Even in these first few lines, then, the Bush NSS comes across as more forceful, more carefully crafted, and--unexpectedly--more multilateral than its immediate predecessor. It's a tip-off that there're interesting things going on here.

actually quite excited about end to WTO- might be their new chief, a brownie btw.

sheepish?

"We have allowed First World countries to raise trade barriers protecting their companies, even as we have served as their forum for insisting that Third World countries lower their trade barriers more and more."

the protestant and guilt hey!

Porn. Doing it for ourselves.

Intoxicated ladies off radar? fuck...

Lula's Brazil by Monbiot

The WTO's not so bad...

look closely and you'll see what i mean. someone explain it to sj...

for instance;

"WTO cartel members, in their review of Zambia's profit policies on 23 and 25 October 2002, commended the unit on its continuing commitment to profit liberalization despite various difficulties. The Chairperson expressed the hope that the The Safe Zone Development Agenda would evolve in such a way as to make possible greater access to the unit's products, and contribute to the diversification of its ecology."

"WTO members, in their review of Zambia's trade policies on 23 and 25 October 2002, commended the country on its continuing commitment to trade liberalization despite various difficulties. The Chairperson expressed the hope that the Doha Development Agenda would evolve in such a way as to make possible greater access to the country's products, and contribute to the diversification of its economy."

can we bomb them? Please ~~~???


US weapons secrets exposed

Julian Borger in Washington
Tuesday October 29, 2002
The Guardian

Respected scientists on both sides of the Atlantic warned yesterday that the US is developing a new generation of weapons that undermine and possibly violate international treaties on biological and chemical warfare.
The scientists, specialists in bio-warfare and chemical weapons, say the Pentagon, with the help of the British military, is also working on "non-lethal" weapons similar to the narcotic gas used by Russian forces to end last week's siege in Moscow.

They also point to the paradox of the US developing such weapons at a time when it is proposing military action against Iraq on the grounds that Saddam Hussein is breaking international treaties.

Malcolm Dando, professor of international security at the University of Bradford, and Mark Wheelis, a lecturer in microbiology at the University of California, say that the US is encouraging a breakdown in arms control by its research into biological cluster bombs, anthrax and non-lethal weapons for use against hostile crowds, and by the secrecy under which these programmes are being conducted.

"There can be disagreement over whether what the United States is doing represents violations of treaties," Mr Wheelis told the Guardian. "But what is happening is at least so close to the borderline as to be destabilising."

In a paper to be published soon in the scientific journal Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the two academics focus on recent US actions that have served to undermine the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. In a move that stunned the international community last July, the US blocked an attempt to give the convention some teeth with inspections, so that member countries could check if others were keeping the agreement.

Mr Dando believes Washington's motive for torpedoing the deal, which had the support of its allies, was to maintain secrecy over US research work on biological weapons. He said that work includes:

· CIA efforts to copy a Soviet cluster bomb designed to disperse biological weapons

· A project by the Pentagon to build a bio-weapon plant from commercially available materials to prove that terrorists could do the same thing

· Research by the Defence Intelligence Agency into the possibility of genetically engineering a new strain of antibiotic-resistant anthrax

· A programme to produce dried and weaponised anthrax spores, officially for testing US bio-defences, but far more spores were allegedly produced than necessary for such purposes and it is unclear whether they have been destroyed or simply stored.

In each case, the US argued the research work was being done for defensive purposes, but their legality under the BWC is questionable, the scientists argue.

For example, a clause in the biological weapons treaty forbids signatories from producing or developing "weapons, equipment or means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict".

Furthermore, signatories agreed to make annual declarations about their biodefence programmes, but the US never mentioned any of those programmes in its reports. Instead, they emerged from leaks and press reporting.

The focus on Washington's biological and chemical weapons programme comes at an awkward time for the Bush administration, which is locked in negotiations at the UN for a tough resolution on arms inspections of Iraq. According to Mr Dando, British and US research into hallucinogenic weapons such as the gas BZ encouraged Iraq to look into similar agents. "We showed them the way," he said.

Mr Dando added that the US was currently working on "non-lethal" weapons similar to the gas Russian forces used to break the Moscow theatre siege. Those include "calmative" agent which are designed to knock people out without killing them.

"What happened in Moscow is a harbinger of what is to come," Mr Dando said. "There is a revolution in life sciences which could be applied in a major way to warfare. It's an early example of the mess we may be creating."

He added that Britain "is implicated as well", as the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate has worked with British officers on its research.

Jonathan Tucker, a chemical weapons expert at the US Institute for Peace in Washington, said much of the work on non-lethal weapons was being carried out by an institute under the US justice department but was funded by the Pentagon.

"They are trying to keep it at arms length, but it is problematic especially for military purposes. The chemical weapons convention makes a very clear distinction between riot control and incapacitants," he said.

While Mr Tucker believes that such knock-out gases are explicitly banned under the treaty, Mr Dando and Mr Wheelis believe the Pentagon has exploited a loophole that allows for such weapons for "law enforcement purposes".

But by blurring the edges of the treaty, they argue the US is inviting other countries to do the same. The US, Mr Dando said, "runs the very real danger of leading the world down a pathway that will greatly reduce the security of all."

"friends"

Thanks for comment on larium benji. reports sound pretty nasty. i've been advised to take a couple if i happen to catch it, no prophylaxis as it's pretty low risk around latin america anyway. going over in a week or so, might be interesting to compare notes on the hispanic deal.. ;-)

Shock Horror!

In a country where weekly church attendance is about 20 times the level it is in Britain (40% v 2%), the relationship between religion and politics in the US is intense. And there is little doubt that, last spring, when President Bush dithered and dallied over his Middle East policy before finally coming down on Israel's side, he was influenced not by the overrated Jewish vote, but by the opinion of Christian "religious conservatives" - the self-description of between 15 and 18% of the electorate. When the president demanded that Israel withdraw its tanks from the West Bank in April, the White House allegedly received 100,000 angry emails from Christian conservatives.

A decade ago, when the president's father was in the White House, his eldest son's election-time job was to act as unofficial ambassador to this group, offer assurances that they and the administration were at one on such matters as abortion and pornography and prayer in schools, the issues they like to group together as "family values". US-Israel relations, which reached rock bottom when George Bush Sr was president and the obstreperous Yitzhak Shamir was Israeli prime minister, were never an issue.

What's changed? Not the Book of Genesis, which is what Michael Brown, the coalition's church liaison officer, quotes when you ask him to explain the support for Israel. "And I will make of thee a great nation," the Lord told Abraham, "And I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee."

On the conference floor, however, the explanation has more to do with the end of the world than the start of it. What has really changed is the emergence of the doctrine known as "dispensationalism", popularised in the novels of the Rev Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. LaHaye and Jenkins may not mean much to you or to the readers of the New York Times Book Review, but the ninth volume of their Left Behind series sold three million hardback copies in the US last year, eclipsing John Grisham.

Central to the theory - based on a reading of scripture Brown would prefer not to discuss - is the Rapture, the second coming of Christ, which will presage the end of the world. A happy ending depends on the conversion of the Jews. And that, to cut a long story very short, can only happen if the Jews are in possession of all the lands given to them by God. In other words, these Christians are supporting the Jews in order to abolish them.

Oh yes, agreed Marion Pollard, a charming lady from Dallas who was selling hand-painted Jerusalem crystal in the exhibition hall at the conference. "God is the sovereign. He'll do what he pleases. But based on the scripture, those are the guidelines." She calls herself a fervent supporter of Israel, as does Lewis Hall of North Carolina. "I believe they do have to accept the Messiah." And if they don't? "I believe they will when they know who He is. I believe that one day they are going to wake up. It might take a third world war to do that."

Meanwhile, outside the hall was Leanne Cariker from Oklahoma, carrying a placard saying "Just Say No! To A Palestinian State". Her support of Israel is based on the same premise. "The Bible says there is no way to worship God except through the son," she explains.

To add to the bizarreness of this scene, she was standing opposite another group of demonstrators: anti-Zionist Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn in long black coats, who oppose the state of Israel based on their own reading of the Bible. Confused? You should be. Poor Leanne Cariker was. "I'm not against them," she wailed. "I'm for them. I believe they're God's chosen people."

SRC not SCR! publ on 28

"Wall Street is looking to see if the Lula who takes office is the more moderate, forward-thinking person who appeared in this campaign or if he reverts to his life-long leftist stance," said David Roberts, senior international economist at Banc of America securities.

We are watching and we are powerful and if you start to assert the agenda of the people who elected you and ignore our agenda we will punish you.

My experiences with larium were depression, sleeplessness, feelings of uselessness and persecution, bordering on the suicidal. I think taking it in any proximity with psychoactive drugs (mushrooms in my case) is a mistake. I have taken it and been fine in the past, but after my experience last year I won´t again. I think it varies from person to person and time to time. My normal 14 year old mind had no problems with it, but at 22, my mind had a few more substances floating around in it and a few more crossed wires which didn´t like the Larium at all...

Fuera de Irak, Fuera de Palestina, Fuera Los Yanquis de America Latina...

I went to an anti-war demonstration here in Madrid on Sunday. It was a subdued affair with about 1000 people strolling through the streets. The demonstration was also too politicised for my tastes, There was a republican section and a Communist section to the demonstration and we were forced to march under one or other´s banners. Spanish politics is very tied up in the civil war, and all the ´goodies´ are hopelessly divided. We stuck up with the Communists as a bunch of old Communist campaign warriors were belting out some amusing and tuneful songs sush as the one above. ´Fuera´ means get out... Another good one was "Los Yanquis nessesitan- garabe Vietnamita" which is something along the lines of: The Yankies need a dose of Vietnam or the Vietnamese medecine... The best thing about the march was the old communist comrades who were hilarious. They gave me a USA TERROR sign which I carried around through the streets for the rest of the day and got many shouts of encouragement...

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Russia tries to stem scandal over gas victims

The authorities initially refused to tell doctors what the gas was, compounding the difficulties of treating patients with antidotes.

In London, where Tony Blair had been one of the first western leaders to congratulate Mr Putin on Saturday morning, the Russian ambassador, Grigory Karasin, said the authorities did not want to give away operational information helpful to potential terrorists.

Big Brother excuse again...

Silva's in boys... play.

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Silva Voted President in Brazil Silva Voted President in Brazil

Monday October 28, 2002 6:00 AM
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Former union boss Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won Brazil's presidential election runoff by a landslide Sunday, marking a historic shift to the left for Latin America's largest country.
Ruling party candidate Jose Serra conceded defeat, shortly after Silva's Workers Party had declared their candidate the winner.

[...]

Silva's criticism of free-market policies is at odds with Washington. His election could complicate President Bush's goal of creating a hemispheric free-trade zone by 2005. Silva wants the U.S. markets more open to Brazilian orange juice, steel and sugar.

But the Bush administration has been careful not to criticize Silva during the campaign, aware that any comment could be seen as interference.

Everyone is hungover, eh? I can't remember the last time my head hurt this much... would much prefer to puke - which may be coming...

hungover! jesus piss!

Masonry? Am VERY hungover, so generally suspicious this morning, harhar...

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Anti-war senator Wellstone dies in plane crash

Democrat liberal killed with wife and daughter

Suzanne Goldenberg in Minneapolis
Saturday October 26, 2002
The Guardian

Paul Wellstone, called the conscience of the US Senate for his passion and liberal convictions, was killed in an air crash yesterday, in the final days of a knife-edge mid-term election campaign.
Wellstone, 58, was seen as a symbol of the anti-war movement for voting against President George Bush earlier this month on the resolution authorising the use of force against Iraq, a stand that gave this contest in Minnesota national significance.
He was killed with his wife and daughter, three campaign staff and two pilots when their small propeller plane went down in icy rain at Eveleth, in north-eastern Minnesota.

[...]

The race for the Minnesota Senate seat, which Wellstone held for 12 years - two terms - was perhaps the most closely followed in the country, not only because of its importance to the future of the house, but because Wellstone's stand on Iraq had been seen as courageous, but political suicide.

Mr Bush personally intervened to anoint Wellstone's challenger, Norm Coleman, and has visited the state three times to campaign on his behalf.

[...]

He did not mention Iraq - except to say that it was jobs and the economy that mattered. "I think the national media got it wrong, the focus is NOT on Iraq," he said.

[...]

It also made Wellstone a magnet for young anti-war volunteers. "I've got to wonder now whether Iraq hurt him," said Mr Coleman. "It seems to have mobilised his base."

It is unclear what effect Wellstone's death will have on the campaign. After Mel Carnahan, the Democratic challenger for the Senate seat in Missouri, died in a plane crash during the campaign for the 2000 elections, his name remained on the ballot and he defeated his Republican opponent. His wife, Jean Carnahan, eventually took up his seat.

when posting images straight out of "source" or whatever, do delete all font, table tags etc because it fucks up the remainder of the blog.. a.i.!

development of weapons of mass destruction? indiscriminate use on civilian populous? threat to the continuing existence of "intelligent" life in the solar system? Iraq? I don't think so.. "Between 16 July 1945 and 23 September 1992 the United States of America conducted (by official count) 1054 nuclear tests, and two nuclear attacks."

just read the lafontaine profile by chomsky, linked in phil's post below. is really very good.

hello folks, tried to enter newspeak but doesn't appear to work from office. is it java or something?

OK... boys... am back from lunch (Dimsums with two bottles of Tsingtao... noice...)

ok am online, am on groupboard- where art thou verhave? enjoying swiss (12-15:30 hrs) lunch break no doubt! anyway, should be avail

did download pics obviously, admired work.. it was a but, rather than a don't.

ryan: whiteboard link at top of page: "newspeak", the third in line.

ps where's the link to the whiteboard from phil? never found...

love the me story from cho... cannot wait for the prophetic vision to pass (tho I hope I contain the stammer, knowing what's coming...)

Sorry Philipp (come on! - 1.2 megs with ISDN? You lazy sod...;-), or were actually prevented from download?! ). Anyway, am spending a fruitless day at work so would appreciate any company in the newspeak chat.

Anybody?

verhave! please don't send 1.2 mb files to my hotmail! i get bill g personally writing me bullockings etc..

well, its been a great evening at that jazz bar and i'd just like to share the results. after years of barely speaking to each other, and years of taking the piss out of his half-baked leftism, [and having become a progressive proper myself], tonight, following some positive input from moi and a rather charming rendition of oleo, the male parental unit suddenly revealed it all: having stood for the euro-elections to raise money for anti-nuclear campaign "Friedensliste" by drawing on the KPD (german socialist party), as well as Christian pacifist and green vote, in the late 70s, "I threw this half-baked study regarding the escalating nuclear threat I had produced earlier that day onto Schmidt's [then-chancellor] table at the SPD annual conference; a project Oskar [Lafontaine] and I had been planning for a while.. The next day, I was escorted to Hardthöhe (German military HQ Bonn) to 'discuss my thesis'".. The jist of the whole discussion being "at least I never sold my ass", i.e.: "I'm a Socialist".

Apparently amongst the comrades involved in the thesis project were ex-General Bastian, who had quit the mil nonsense 1980 to join "Friedensliste", and his wife Petra Kelly, who were both amongst the "first five" founding members of the green party. they were sidelined by Joschka Fischer from 1985, who was driving the party from APO (Ausserparliamentarische Opposition, i.e. idealist beyond the party-political system) towards participating in government "one way or another" no matter what the price (aka selling soul). Kelly legendarily remarked "Ist Fischer überhaupt schon Mitglied bei uns?" i.e. to we even know this guy, which renders the current situation w Fischer now spearheading the ex-movement even sadder [foreign policy]. Obv any meaningful sustainability movement has to be socialist/primitivist or whatever, so Bastian quit the party in 1984 (she did later) and legendarily committed collective suicide in 1990, isolated politically, cut off from their own movement and left with nothing but love for each other.. no-nonsense romance amongst idealists hey- imagine!

Its obv great news finding out there's a comrade in the family.. viva etc!

Hopper: Excursion into Philosophy, '59

>>Ryan rents an apartment in New York and goes to the lobby to put his
>>name on the group mailbox. While he is there, an attractive young lady

>>comes out of the apartment next to the mailboxes wearing a robe.
>>
>>Ryan smiles at the young girl and she strikes up a conversation with
>>him. As they talk, her robe slips open, and it's quite obvious that
>>she has nothing under the robe. Poor Ryan breaks out into a sweat
>>trying to maintain eye contact. After a few minutes, she places her
>>hand on his arm and says, "Let's go in my apartment, I hear someone
>>coming."
>>
>>He proceeds with her into the apartment, and after she closes the
>>door, she leans against it allowing her robe to fall off completely.
>>Being completely nude, she purrs at him, "What would you say is my
>>best feature?"
>>
>>The flustered, embarrassed Ryan stammers, clears his throat several
>>times, and finally squeaks out, "Oh, it's got to be your ears!"
>>
>>She's astounded! "Why my ears? Look at these breasts! They are full,
>>don't sag, and they're 100% natural! My buns -- they are firm and do
>>not sag, and have no cellulite! Look at this skin -- no blemishes, or
>>scars! Why in heaven's name would you say my ears are the best part of

>>my body?!"
>>
>>Clearing his throat once again, Ryan stammers,
>>"Outside when you said you heard someone coming -- that was me."

Lariam pretty shit news, thanks for that.. am prob not doing prevention, just take em after primary infection.. apparently that's usual course of action in low-risk countries.

"Now a new study suggests that these side effects, known as the mefloquine syndrome, may be caused by a previous history of liver damage or thyroid abnormality."

piss

Was syntax error, Matt... allowed myself to fix it. Something wrong with the mouseover tag, forgot to close the tag with '>'.

Look at box no. 3 carefully...

Larium

ok, i've set up a chat and whiteboard facility on a seperate page as the java loads some sort of stupid advert. it's on "newspeak", link added above..

“The poor complain, they always do; but that’s just idle chatter.
Our system brings rewards to all, at least the ones that matter!”

a ditty by a canadian development economist cited by chomsky in a lecture on globalisation I found the other day. can't remember link, will let you know if find.

hello benji, welcome. as you may have deduced the lounge for any chat/general nonsense and the inquiry is supposed to be for the more serious stuff.

phil has initated me into rudimentary html, for links you can either paste in say http://www.blogger.com and then highlight it and then press shift + ctrl + a and add the link you want to use in the box as prompted.

you can also write it in @<@a href="http://www.blogger.com">blogger<@/a@> so that the word blogger is a link (remove all the @ and it works).

giving you blogger

if you click on edit (below the message) you can see how it looks.

Hello, all, I´m still getting the hang of this blogging business, can you cut and paste links etc. as normal? any other tips or instructions from you computer geeks/wizards... still fighting the luddites within.

aaahhh the humble letter.

Interview With Noam Chomsky about US Warplans

The Real Roots of Arab Anti-Americanism

by Barry Rubin
From Foreign Affairs, November/December 2002

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barry Rubin is Director of the Global Research in International Affairs Center and Editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs. His latest books are The Tragedy of the Middle East and Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East.

DAMN YANKEES

Since last year's attacks on New York and Washington, the conventional wisdom about the motivation behind such deadly terrorism has gelled. The violence, we are often told, was a reaction to misguided U.S. policies. For years, certain American actions -- such as the country's support for Israel and for unpopular, oppressive Arab regimes -- had supposedly produced profound grievances throughout the Middle East. Those grievances came to a boil over time, and finally spilled over on September 11. The result was more than 3,000 American deaths.

Although anti-Americanism is genuinely widespread among Arab governments and peoples, however, there is something seriously misleading in this account. Arab and Muslim hatred of the United States is not just, or even mainly, a response to actual U.S. policies -- policies that, if anything, have been remarkably pro-Arab and pro-Muslim over the years. Rather, such animus is largely the product of self-interested manipulation by various groups within Arab society, groups that use anti-Americanism as a foil to distract public attention from other, far more serious problems within those societies.

Any of you guys have a Foreign Affairs login? Would appreciate disclosure, thanks (one hardcopy costs an extortionate 30 CHF here, just for letting civ's clash...)

US boxed in by Bush's strike-first doctrine

Key Clinton adviser assesses the dangers of America's new national security strategy

James Rubin
Wednesday October 23, 2002
The Guardian

Reading the National Security Strategy of the United States one is reminded of the old story about America's First Lady in 1865: "So, Mrs Lincoln, other than that one small interruption, how did you like the play?"
For more than 20 pages, this new document lays out the political, economic, and military objectives of the United States in the world, reflecting a post-September 11 consensus regarding the importance of fighting terrorism, stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and promoting democracy, peaceful resolution of disputes and market economics.

letter to the editor on progressive response sent out by michael.

what a cock.

*** LOOKING AND ACTING AMERICAN IN TEXAS ***

I think you all are as wrong as you can get. everyone knows he is a bad man and needs to be out of power. Y'all just want to find every little loophole in the system. Y'all talk about human rights are y'all paying attention. Saddam is one of the worst violators of human rights. Show some American pride and respect for your leader. We don't have to go to the UN if we don't want to. We know we are the best and the most powerful nation around. I can't understand why y'all are wasting all of your money on this web site and rallies and other non important stuff when you damn well know we are going to attack and get rid of Saddam. Y'all are a small voice that no one wants to hear. What y'all are saying is that you want Saddam to prove to us that he has weapons of mass destruction. Ok, y'all set back and watch another 3,000 people die then if y'all approve we will go get him. I believe y'all are as un-American as you can get. Come down to Texas, we'll show you what a true American looks and acts like.

Communications technology has expanded the cultural space. We now have thousands of specialized magazines, newsletters, and Web sites catering to every social, ethnic, religious, and professional clique. You can construct your own multimedia community, in which every magazine you read, every cable show you watch, every radio station you listen to, reaffirms your values and reinforces the sense of your own rightness. It is possible, maybe even inevitable, that you will slide into a solipsism that allows you precious little contact with people totally unlike yourself. But in your enclosed sphere you will feel very important. "

oxymorons from michael's dad..

Leugnen der Widersprüche.. Die Aussöhnung der Gegensätze ist das eigentliche Mysterium.

Act naturally
Found missing
Resident alien
Advanced BASIC
Genuine imitation
Good grief
Same difference
Almost exactly
Sanitary landfill
Alone together
Silent scream
Living dead
Small crowd
Soft rock
Butt head
New classic
"Now, then ..."
Synthetic natural gas
Passive aggression
Taped live
Clearly misunderstood
Peace force
Temporary tax increase
Computer jock
Plastic glasses
Terribly pleased
Tight slacks
Definite maybe
Pretty ugly
Twelve-ounce pound cake
Diet ice cream
Working vacation
Exact estimate

ehem maybe krugman ought to consider progressive taxation for redistribution of wealth? at the moment pyramid-building's on.. once again.. and that's not even a secret or anything.. no need for an assessment of some mystical middle class culture or whatever.. With the Bretton Woods system, Keynes explicitly sought to "eliminate the rentier", the international branch of speculative capital ventures.

if you post anything with a tag (<>) make sure the same tag is followed by a terminating "/" tag.. eg. jesse's "center" tag has to be followed by a "/center" tag to stop it from flooding the document.. same for href (link), i(talic), b(bold) tags of course..

apologies - due to amateur html skills appear to have centred entire contents pardon moi...

In short, the liberalism of their youth was probably reflexive and poorly thought out, and when they finally did get around to giving it any real thought, say, around the time they graduated into a respectable tax bracket, they suddenly realized: my gosh! I'm not a liberal at all! And more power to them--this space is unambigulously in favor of critical thought. After all, what a terrible waste it is to lose one's mind.

[...]

On an entirely different subject, I was recently contacted by a writer for a large circulation magazine (who requested anonymity), working on yet another article about blogging. And looking at the questions this person emailed, I realized: I don't want to do this anymore. The interview, I mean, not the blogging. Blogging is a fine thing to do, and I'm happy that you all take the time to read mine, but let's face it--this isn't something that requires extraordinary talent, or much more skill than the ability to post an html link. It's like being interviewed about eating dinner or going to the movies or something--it's a fine way to pass your time, but it's not much more than that. In the last six months, I think I've done more interviews about blogging than about the cartoon itself, and that's just silly. I don't have that much to say about it. Yep, I sure do post them links. Rant a little every now and again. Yessir.

Tom Tomorrow

Struggling with the inexplicable


I approached Paul Krugman's essay in the Sunday Times Magazine, "The End of the Middle Class," with some eagerness, and on one level it did not disappoint, providing an abundance of statistics and analysis to underscore the obvious--yet perversely disputed--reality of increasing income inequality in current-day America.


Krugman's basic thesis is that the decades from the thirties to the seventies, roughly, comprised a sort of economic golden age during which income levels in this country achieved some degree of parity. But see if you can spot the unacknowledged 900 pound gorilla in the middle of Krugman's analysis:


Some -- by no means all -- economists trying to understand growing inequality have begun to take seriously a hypothesis that would have been considered irredeemably fuzzy-minded not long ago. This view stresses the role of social norms in setting limits to inequality. According to this view, the New Deal had a more profound impact on American society than even its most ardent admirers have suggested: it imposed norms of relative equality in pay that persisted for more than 30 years, creating the broadly middle-class society we came to take for granted. But those norms began to unravel in the 1970's and have done so at an accelerating pace.


Hmmm…so the gap between the rich and the poor decreased during the middle of the last century…how can we explain this puzzling phenomenon? Is it the work of this mysterious deus ex machina to which Krugman refers, these vague "social norms" which somehow helped to set things straight during the span of time from the thirties to the seventies…?


…or, um, does it have anything to do with the fact that this time period coincides exactly with the rise and fall of organized labor?


It's a strange blind spot in an otherwise perceptive article, that the single most obvious factor responsible for an increased middle class standard of living is never even mentioned.

posted by Tom Tomorrow at 3:42 PM link

young people from all over tell how they see it;

Kenya

"I used to work as a casual labourer in a pharmacy, and I hoped I would be a pharmacist. But it costs 120,000 shillings a year (£1,100) to go to college, and even if I had the grades I do not have this money. My father cannot help at all. He is a driver for someone and he is already paying to send my two brothers to school. He has no money left for me. There are some scholarships for colleges in countries like the US and the UK, but there is a lot of corruption with them. Even to apply you have to cough up a bribe. "

Brasil

"We live in an American culture. Everyone of my age just wants to eat in McDonald's. People are not politicised because there is no education. Everyone just wants a house and a job. "

Japan

"I've been saving up by working as a hostess. It is good money - about £800 a month - but we work hard until 2am almost every night. There is no sex involved: just pouring drinks, lighting cigarettes and chatting to middle-aged men in high-paid jobs. I used to be upset if one of them touched my bum, but now I put up with it. I look at it as a burden of being born a woman. "

Pakistan

"My greatest fear is trying to balance it all, my beliefs with my practical life. Here, if you are in a good job you are offered bribes, or you have to pay them and you have to do things that go against the values that I have. I don't want to do these things but I don't want to limit myself either. When you see the priests and the mullahs telling you how to act, often they are not living the way they tell you to either. "

Mexico

"The money isn't bad and lots of girls hang around. Here people get married at 13 or 15, but I still don't want to, although I suppose I will. I don't think much about politics, and the government never understands that they should let us sow more marijuana seeds. With the extra money you can maybe build a little house. The plants grow big here and almost every family has been doing it forever, as far as I know. "

Germany

"Being 18 is important to me. Under German law, it marks the start of a five-year period in which I have to make up my mind whether I want to be German or South Korean. My parents came here in 1975, my father to study, my mother to work as a nurse. So I have a Korean passport. My father wants me to take a German one instead. But I don't know. I want to hold on to something that's Korean. Germany's my homeland, but I don't think that I'm German, and I don't think that I'm Korean either, though I speak both languages."

just saw a program on it on the BBC about the issue below, about a guy who lived in his room for 9 years....

this is interesting....

Japan's Voluntary Shut-Ins
Locked in Their Rooms, Young Men Shun Society

By Kathryn Tolbert
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 29, 2002; Page A01


TOKYO -- Akiko Abe has barely seen her 25-year-old son in six years, yet they live in the same small house. He leaves his room only when he's sure his parents are out or asleep, she said. She can tell when he has used the kitchen, and she knows he goes to the living room to watch television and use the computer at night.

She has waited patiently for him to tire of his isolation, sometimes standing outside his door and talking, to herself as much as to him. But, afraid that many more years would pass like this, she finally approached an organization that works with shut-ins by making home visits. "It will be difficult, because he won't open his door," she said quietly.

As many as a million Japanese -- most of them young men -- are considered shut-ins, either literally cloistered in their rooms or refusing to work and avoiding all social contact for periods ranging from six months to more than 10 years. Forty-one percent live reclusively for one to five years, according to a government survey.

Some shut-ins suffer from such illnesses as depression, agoraphobia or schizophrenia. But experts say the vast majority shut themselves up at home for six months or more without showing any other signs of neurological or psychiatric disorder.

The seriousness of the problem has increased dramatically over the past decade as Japan's economy has slid into recession, bringing record unemployment rates and little job security as companies restructure or go bankrupt.

Psychologists and other mental health experts here say that Japan has the biggest problem of this type in the world, and that it is growing. They give a long list of reasons why young men are dropping out of society, including a declining birthrate, which means there are more families with only one son on whom they place all their hopes in this patrilineal society. Also, boys grow up without male role models because their fathers are working all the time. Psychologists also cite Japan's "culture of shame," which makes people fear how they're perceived if they have a problem fitting in.

Japan's wealth makes it possible for people to cut themselves off from society. Young adults live at home much longer than they do in the United States, traditionally until marriage. Teens and adults who drop out of school or leave work are simply supported by their parents.

"When I was young, there was no question that you would have to go to work," said Abe, 61, who asked that her son, who refused to talk to a visitor, not be named. "Now, families have enough money so that the children don't need to find jobs right away." In an attempt to get their son to communicate with them, Abe and her husband have decided that from now on, they are not going to slip an envelope under his door with his $400 monthly allowance.

Shut-ins -- 70 to 80 percent of whom are men -- often sleep much of the day and are up all night, watching television, using the Internet and popping out to the 24-hour convenience stores that are located in most neighborhoods and sell all kinds of microwaveable packaged meals. Japan's convenience store culture caters to the solitary life -- providing everything for the person eating alone, living alone.

"In Japan, it's easy for anybody to live with walls around themselves," said Seiei Muto of the Tokyo Mental Health Academy. "And with the number of children declining, you play alone, eat alone, study alone."

Muto and other mental health workers talk about the decline of communication skills, the increasing anonymity of urban Japan and the collapse of a cooperative society. "If a child is walking down the street, it would be rare for someone to ask the child, 'Where are you going?' " Muto said.

Others say the problem has deep historical and cultural roots. "Japan is a rich country, but we have no identity, no confidence, no ability to communicate with others," said Tadashi Yamazoe, a professor of clinical psychology at Kyoto Gakuen University. "Japanese have a passive personality."

But most people say it is a modern phenomenon, evidence of a great generation gap between those who built Japan's postwar economic success, and their children, who cannot expect lifetime employment in today's weak economy and say they do not want it anyway.

"In Japan there has been only one path, and today an increasing number of people are not on it," said Noki Futagami, who began the nonprofit New Start Foundation to work with shut-ins. "It's easy to say that academic background is not everything. But the parents cannot suggest another path because they don't know one."

The existence of large numbers of shut-ins in many ways encapsulates the social problems of modern Japan and the wrenching period it is now going through. The Japanese word for the phenomenon -- hikikomori -- translates as withdrawal, and it is becoming increasingly familiar. It is the subject of television documentaries and newspaper and magazine articles.

Many adult shut-ins start as school dropouts.

For a country obsessed with education, there is a surprisingly high number of dropouts. A record 134,000 elementary and junior high students were absent from school for at least 30 straight days during the 2000-01 school year, more than twice the number 10 years ago.

Abe said her son's school years were normal, but in high school he failed the university entrance exam. That is not unusual; most who fail study for another year and try again. Abe's son said he was going to study on his own instead of enrolling in a cram school, and that began his withdrawal.

The family has tried to keep the problem hidden, not even talking about it to relatives, much less neighbors.

But Futagami said this means the family is shutting itself in as well, making the problem worse. "There are things parents can and cannot do," he said. "They should be more open and get help from others, nurture social ties. I regard this as an illness stemming from society. Nobody helps these people, so they accumulate."

In a few recent cases, socially withdrawn young men have committed shocking crimes, including a 27-year-old who kidnapped a 9-year-old girl in 1990 and kept her in his room for nine years. His mother, who lived downstairs, was never permitted to enter his room.

"In America, the child's room belongs to the parents and is seen as being rented out to the kid," noted one of the actors appearing in a new play on shut-ins. "The child can be displaced for guests." This is a remarkable concept in Japan, where the norm is that teens or young adults can forbid their parents from entering their rooms.

As the problem gets more national attention, parent support groups, counseling centers and mental health clinics have geared up to help families. Home visits over the course of months and sometimes years bring many people out of their rooms.

But finding a job after having spent several years as a shut-in is extremely difficult. To provide work experience, Futagami's New Start organization runs a welfare center for the elderly, a restaurant and coffee shop.

Takeshi Watanabe, a counselor with the Tokyo Mental Health Academy, and Yasutaka Masuko, 28, seem like brothers. For 10 years Watanabe visited Masuko once a week at the home Masuko refused to leave. Masuko said he doesn't remember anything specific causing him to drop out of school during his second year of junior high. "Maybe I was feeling pressure," he said. For a while he became physically ill when people came to see him.

But Watanabe's steady visits, their shared interest in music and eventually Masuko's purchase of a computer slowly convinced Masuko that he could go out. The turning point was soccer. He wanted so badly to go to the games of his favorite team -- an interest encouraged by Watanabe -- that he bought a season ticket, and before the first game practiced going outside.

"For night games I went early in the morning to get a good seat," he said. "I made friends because I was in the same place every game."

Masuko has taken other big steps. He got his high school degree through a correspondence course and is now enrolled at Nihon University, majoring in philosophy and education. He said there are many other former shut-ins there, and they often talk.

He also found a part-time job at a loan collection company.

An understanding society is critical to dealing with the problem, Watanabe said. The mental health clinic in a Tokyo suburb where he works has cultivated about a dozen business establishments in the immediate neighborhood, where they have introduced themselves and the young men who come by.

"We wanted them to understand we are not a cult," Watanabe said. At the bike shop, coffee shop and 7-Eleven, people started to talk to them, started to say, "Hi, how's it going?" They got emotional support from the neighborhood and some shopkeepers hired them to work two to three hours per week, he explained.

"Many people feel nostalgic about Japanese traditions and the warmth that is harder to find today," Watanabe said.

Special correspondent Akiko Yamamoto contributed to this report.

Guardian Unlimited Observer | Special reports | War plans under fire as even Bush heartland talks peace

But the most dramatic intervention comes from President George Bush's own United Methodist church which launched a scathing attack on his plans for war.
Jim Winkler, responsible for the application of the church's teachings to social policy, said war against Iraq was 'without any justification according to the teachings of Christ'.
After careful study of Christian doctrinal writings on Just War, Winkler said he was 'told flatly' by the church's scholars, 'that they simply did not apply to this situation'.

wait, foolin with those settings up top alter things for everyone, not simply each individually? Sorry guys, didn't mean to take the time glory, just thought y'all would find it funny seein what times I actually posted...

morning SJ..

looks like you were up til four m.v.. great ntl letter, where did you source, or are you that bitter with them? still owe them about 200 UK$ so no bad blood from my side, don't know about them..

took decision to turn both blogs onto GMT+0, felt compelled to as SJ is blatantly most important member of cabinet!

Estimated portion of all U.S. nuclear waste that Nevada's Yucca Mountain dumpsite will hold when it is full in 2046 : 3/5

Richter-scale magnitude of an earthquake last June twelve miles from the Yucca site : 4.4

Minimum number of U.S. companies, individuals, and organizations that are licensed to possess radioactive material : 67,000

Decades by which the United States applied last spring to extend its nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands : 4


Full contents here

----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 12:40 PM
Subject: English Humor

Please excuse the "language"!

What follows is a superb example of English humor - albeit a letter
that was truly written and sent. The piece suggests two things:

1) Americans are not the only ones who get poor service from their
ISP and/or cable companies. (NTL is a cable operator in Britain.)
2) The Brits get a better education than most Americans, enabling
them to write some fine letters of complaint.

Dear Cretins:

I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up for
your three-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem and telephone. During
this three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which
I had not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and
stupidity of monolithic proportions. Please allow me to provide specific
details, so that you can either pursue your professional prerogative,
and seek to rectify these difficulties -- or more likely (I suspect) so
that you can have some entertaining reading material as you while away
the working day smoking B&H and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in
your office.

My initial installation was canceled without warning, resulting in my
spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat arse waiting for your
technician to arrive. When he did not arrive, I spent a further 57
minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more
annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful
website. HOW? I alleviated the boredom by playing with my testicles for
a few minutes - an activity at which you are no-doubt both familiar and
highly adept. The rescheduled installation then took place some two
weeks later, although the technician did forget to bring a number of
vital tools -- such as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum.

Two weeks later, my cable modem had still not arrived. After 15
telephone calls over four weeks my modem arrived, six weeks after I had
requested it, and begun to pay for it. I estimate your internet
server's downtime is roughly 35% -- the hours between about 6 pm and
midnight, Monday through Friday, and most of the weekend. I am still
waiting for my telephone connection.

I have made nine calls on my mobile to your no-help line, and have been
unhelpfully transferred to a variety of disinterested individuals, who
are it seems also highly skilled bollock jugglers. I have been informed
that a telephone line is available (and someone will call me back);
that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a
telephone line is available (and then been cut off); that I will be
transferred to someone (and then been redirected to an answer machine
informing me that your office is closed); that I will be transferred
to someone and then been redirected to the irritating Scottish robot
woman. And several other variations on this theme.

Doubtless you are no longer reading this letter, as you have at least a
thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one
of those crucially important testicle moments to attend to. Frankly I
don't care. It's far more satisfying as a customer to voice my
frustrations in print than to shout them at your unending hold music.
Forgive me, therefore, if I continue.

I thought British Telecom was shit; that they had attained the holy
piss-pot of god-awful customer relations; and that no one, anywhere,
ever, could be more disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to
delivering service to their customers. That's why I chose NTL, and
because, well, there isn't anyone else is there?

Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and foolhardy
quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that you cease
any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for the
services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to
deliver. Any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and
disbelief --quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps bemused
rage.

I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my cat's
litter tray, as an expression of my utter and complete contempt for
both you and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have
not become desiccated during transit -- they were satisfyingly moist at
the time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if
you did not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture.
Consider them the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and its
worthless employees.

Have a nice day. May it be the last in your miserable short life, you
irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of twits

German Phil, what does this mean?

great article at z-mag, all articles on-line til dec!


what happens after Dec?

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Genesis, 3.1

"Why read, if you can just flip on the tube?"

The Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq (CASI)aims to raise awareness of the effects of sanctions on Iraq, and campaigns on humanitarian grounds for the lifting of non-military sanctions.

The Japan Times Online Kenka Matsuri: death and hairy butts

By AMY CHAVEZ

Butts! Hairy butts! That's all I could think of among the chaos of men in loincloths rushing around Shirahama in Himeji last weekend. I was there for the Kenka Matsuri, or Fighting Festival, at Matsubara Hachiman Shrine. The official name is the Nada Fighting Festival, perhaps because that is what the participants are wearing -- nada! With such flesh on display, one can't help but be impressed with the variety of Japanese butts: hairy butts, pimpled butts, dimpled butts, square butts and bony butts. It's all part of the Japanese festival atmosphere.

"Well, looks like we've got ourselves a reada!"

(sorry Phil, just had to... harhar)

The Holocaust Industry - Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering

great article at z-mag, all articles on-line til dec!

However, one learns the sad story of Finkelstein’s mother, a survivor of Majdanek camp and slave labor camps. She received $3,500 in compensation. The agreement that the German authorities reached with the Claims Conference stipulated that the monies would be assigned to those Jewish survivors who had not been adequately compensated by German courts. However, the Claims conference violated this agreement and used these funds for what they called the rehabilitation of communities. It provided money for some individuals: rabbis and “outstanding Jewish leaders.” The leaders of the Holocaust Industry organizations were more interested in helping themselves than the victims of the Nazi holocaust. The monies received were also used for Zionist purposes. Finkelstein shows that the Holocaust Industry has provided a lot of lucrative opportunities for big shots. Former U.S. Senator D’Amato pocketed $350 per hour. In six months he bagged $103,000. Former U.S. Undersecretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger netted an annual salary of $300,000 for his services to the Holocaust Industry.

sorry, couldn't resist.. this one's just too funny.. thanks a.i.!

Fascism breeds fascism, as terror breeds terrorism

There is nothing sensational in the reports from the Occupied Territories, pt I - Goebbel's diary re: Warsaw Ghetto

The only thing noteworthy is exceptionally sharp fighting in Warsaw between our Police, and in part even the Wehrmacht, and the Jewish rebels. The Jews have actually succeeded in putting the ghetto in a condition to defend itself. Some very hard battles are taking place there, which have gone so far that the Jewish top leadership publishes daily military reports. Of course this jest will probably not last long. But it shows what one can expect of the Jews if they have arms. Unfortunately they also have some good German weapons in part, particularly machine-guns. Heaven only knows how they got hold of them.

No mention of massive starvation, long-term goals remain implicit. Mildly annoyed with ability of civilians to defend selves against army-led assault. Now-

There is nothing sensational in the reports from the Occupied Territories, pt II - J-Post

In a meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell Thursday morning, Sharon said there are currently 51 warnings of terrorist operations, and he specified from which cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip the threats are coming. [annoyed with civilians defending selves]

Powell and Sharon discussed humanitarian issues [starvation, below] in the Palestinian Authority areas, including the best way to transfer Palestinian tax revenues to the PA in a transparent manner, and broader issues including North Korea's confession regarding its nuclear weapons program, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.*

But Israeli officials said Powell, while indicating he is eager to see steps to improve living conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, acknowledged the dangers loosening restrictions sometimes entails. [army deployed against civilian populous, as above]

*:Israel recently announced its intention to release about 7 percent of the $600 million in Palestinian tax revenue it has seized since the start of the Intifada..

Quest for Lebensraum, pt II

A U.S.-financed assessment of the overall malnutrition level of Palestinian children, recently released by the U.S. Agency for International Development (US-AID), found that one in five Palestinian children under the age of five suffers from chronic or acute malnutrition. Such figures, the report noted, are “considered an emergency by most humanitarians and public health officials.” The report points to Israeli-imposed closures and sieges of major civilian centers as the primary cause
The collective punishment policies pursued by Ariel Sharon’s government against the Palestinians are not reactive but deliberate. Sharon is the head of the Likud Party, which to this day vows never to permit the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. Sharon’s solution is to depopulate as much as possible the Occupied Palestinian Territories by making life for its citizens unbearable.

[...]

But how can the slow starvation of a whole population be stopped when that very starvation is being denied by the Israeli government and ignored by the U.S. administration? Major General Amos Gilad, Israel’s coordinator of government affairs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, was hardly ruffled by the USAID findings. He asserted, “hunger is when people have swollen bellies and fall over dead. There is no hunger yet.”

[...]

What is most alarming is that Sharon may be having his way. As recently reported in the Jerusalem Post (an English-language Israeli daily), 80,000 Palestinians have allegedly left the Occupied Palestinian Territories for Jordan and other nations to seek economic relief for their families. In parallel, private Israeli efforts have been pursuing their mission of “helping” any Palestinian who wishes to leave the West Bank or Gaza. As the president of one organization that seeks to assist Palestinians to “permanently emigrate,” put it: “Our aim is to empty the state of Arabs.” Another group, Gamla, founded by former Israeli military officers and colonists, has published similar recommendations on its website in a 9,000 word manifesto titled “The Logistics of Transfer.” It argues that the mass expulsion of every Palestinian is “the only possible solution” to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and makes the ludicrous claim that this is “substantiated by the Torah".

At last, John Pilger brings us news on what's actually going on around the Bali incident..

there is no need for great revelations on which particular group is responsible for this atrocity.. state terror has created fertile ground for radical groups of any sort.. recruiting the desperate and angry facilitated by Western policy

Bali/Australia/Terror - New Statesman

How truly bizarre the American enterprise of world conquest has become. First, there was the bombing of Afghanistan, the equivalent of bombing Sicily in order to eradicate the Mafia. "Terrorism" is the enemy; or as Python's Terry Jones remarked, "They're bombing an abstract noun!" What is clear is that the more bellicose Bush and Blair and Howard become, the more they place the citizens of their own countries at risk.

[...]

Seldom a day passes when Howard and his inept foreign minister, Alexander Downer, do not utter vacuities about "the war on terror". The truth is that, for almost 40 years, Australian governments have played a significant role in colluding with state terrorism in neighbouring Indonesia. In 1965, the then prime minister Harold Holt joked about the mass murder that accompanied the seizure of power by General Suharto, the west's man. "With 500,000 to a million communist sympathisers knocked off," he said, "I think it's safe to assume a reorientation has taken place." During the long years of Suharto's dictatorship, which was shored up by western capital, governments and the World Bank, state terrorism on a breathtaking scale was ignored. Australian prime ministers were far too busy lauding the "investment partnership" in resource-rich Indonesia. Suharto's annexation of East Timor, which cost the lives of a third of the population, was described by the foreign minister Gareth Evans as "irreversible". As Evans succinctly put it, there were "zillions" of dollars to be made from the oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

[...]

Today, largely unreported, the Indonesian military, with the tacit approval of the United States, Britain and Australia, is terrorising the populations of Aceh and West Papua. Most of the "human rights violations" in these provinces - the euphemism for state terrorism - have been part and parcel of "protecting" the American Exxon oil holdings in Aceh as well as the vast Freeport copper and gold mines and BP holdings in West Papua. Those who need a link between the march of multinational capital and state terrorism need look no further.

One of the sacred taboos for western journalists and broadcasters is the terrorism of their own governments. Only when they recognise this and its pivotal role in the fate of much of humanity will they be able to report honestly the lesser terrorism of non-state groups. Research by Edward Herman and Gerry O'Sullivan covering the period since 1965 points to the killing of several thousand people by non-state terrorists, such as al-Qaeda, compared with 2.5 million civilians killed by state-sponsored terrorism.

[...]

St Augustine tells the story of a conversation between Alexander the Great and a pirate he captured. "How dare you molest the seas?" asks Alexander. "How dare you molest the whole world?" the pirate replies. "Because I do it with a little ship only, I am called a thief. You, doing it with a great navy, are called an emperor."

love to you all! attended great, if mildly pretentious jazz soiree.. here's the pic i was trying to send to you earlier michael:



lot of truth in harrelson article a.i. posted below..

I am a father, and no amount of propaganda can convince me that half a million dead children is acceptable "collateral damage". [more on M. Albright and Satan's cock here] The fact is that Saddam Hussein was our boy. The CIA helped him to power, as they did the Shah of Iran and Noriega and Marcos and the Taliban and countless other brutal tyrants. The fact is that George Bush Sr continued to supply nerve gas and technology to Saddam even after he used it on Iran and then the Kurds in Iraq. While the Amnesty International report listing countless Saddam atrocities, including gassing and torturing Kurds, was sitting on his desk, Bush Sr pushed through a $2bn "agricultural" loan and Thatcher gave hundreds of millions in export credit to Saddam. The elder Bush then had the audacity to quote the Amnesty reports to garner support for his oil war.

"I'm an American tired of American lies"

Woody Harrelson

"The history taught in our schools is scandalous. We grew up believing that Columbus actually discovered America. We still celebrate Columbus Day. Columbus was after one thing only - gold. As the natives were showering him with gifts and kindness, he wrote in his diary, "They do not bear arms ... They have no iron ... With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." Columbus is the perfect symbol of US foreign policy to this day. "

Noam

Check out OpenCourseWare

story of my life


greetings brethren!


harhar! more

They're all naked!

MJM: This project is going to be utilised in media awakening project at some stage.. as discussed..

pisstake on real afghanistan propaganda below:



"The Partnership of Nations is Here to Help"

more (slightly out of date i know) giggling here

I just read the US speech text, and I don't want to continuously take the piss on this issue, but when they put up statements such as

This is an opportunity for peace-loving nations in the region to deal, effectively, with this challenge.


it is literally asking for just about every non-americans to rip the piss.

SJ

Should the US decide to use military force in North Korea, I swear it, I'm going to conscript in their army to fight the yankee-doodle-doos.

despite my worries over this, the bright side of this is that once we do reunite (and oh yes we will), we will be a nuclear power to protect ourselves/display aggression. In many ways, I feel happy that NK has one of the best missile range that could at least knock out most targets in Alaska & Hawaii.

I read this. I guess they're going to bomb us now, Tony & Bush. I assume Japan will play the Kuwait role by providing air bases. Holy shit, I forgot, South Korea also has bio/chemical weapons. Hell, I guess it'll suit those anglosaxons to sink our peninsular all together....

Being serious, I am dying to find out what the US media says about this. "shall we bomb North Korea too? After all, they also have an unpredictable despotic leader responsible for 2 million lives in the 90s...". Eagerly waiting for US to wake up this afternoon. Hahahaha!

SJ

US Statement to NK admission

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | N Korea 'nuclear admission': US statement

Peace netter

Noam Chomsky is a political writer and professor of linguistics at MIT

Interviewed by Hamish Mackintosh
Thursday October 17, 2002
The Guardian

When did you encounter the internet? In the early days of the military Arpanet, my daughter was studying in Nicaragua. Because the US was essentially at war with them, contact was difficult. I managed to use MIT's Arpanet connection and she found one, so we could communicate thanks to the Pentagon!

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and South Korea, stung by North Korea's admission that it has a secret nuclear weapons program, are calling on Pyongyang to reverse course and abide by promises to renounce development of these armaments.


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush on Wednesday signed a congressional resolution authorizing war against Iraq, and told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Israel has a right to retaliate if Saddam Hussein strikes his nation now without provocation.

harharhar

We're at war with Eurasia! Erm, Oceania! No, Eurasia! The Soviets! Fuck it.. the muslims!

critique of pure nonsense

Two days after a horrific bomb blast in Bali, Indonesia, killed over 180 people--including at least two Americans--Bush, appearing at a Republican campaign rally in Michigan, cited the assault as yet another reason for vigorous prosecution of the war on terrorism. But as he rallied the GOP loyalists, he focused less on al Qaeda (which, naturally, is suspected of being associated with the Bali attack) and more on Saddam Hussein. Bush maintained that the Iraqi dictator hopes to deploy al Qaeda as his own "forward army" against the West, that "we need to think about Saddam Hussein using al Qaeda to do his dirty work, to not leave fingerprints behind," and that "this is a man who we know has had connections with al Qaeda."

[...]

The sources stressed that CIA analysts--who are supposed to be impartial--are fighting to resist the pressure. But they said analysts are increasingly resentful of what they perceive as efforts to contaminate the intelligence process..

No-one does it like Chomsky.. No blood for oil!

"PROFESSOR NOAM CHOMSKY: First of all, they certainly have made available no evidence about such facilities or any indication that they pose a threat or even that they're aware of attacking them.

That's not what they're aiming at.

What they're aiming at, as we all know, let's not be innocent, Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world. One way or another, the US is going to attempt to regain control of them and deny them to its adversaries who have an inside track, primarily France and Russia, and they may think this is a good pretext for it.

Saddam Hussein remains the same monster he was when the US and Britain actively and happily supported him right through his worst crimes, right through the period when he was dangerous and developing weapons of mass destruction. That remains true. But let's not delude ourselves about the reasons that might be used as a pretext, the actual reasons for what will be described under other pretexts."

this is great, just great. do read and see the world we've made for ourselves, hahaha

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Polo Ralph Lauren says it "invites customers to be part of our dream" with high-end clothing reminiscent of garden parties, yacht regattas and swank society soirees.

But a new lawsuit charges that dream has turned into nightmare for Polo's own sales staff, who allegedly are required to spend tens of thousands of their own dollars on Polo products to fit the company's stylish image.

Saddam aims for 100% support

Some voters marked their referendum slips with blood

The people of Iraq queued outside polling booths on Tuesday, voting in a referendum on whether or not to give Saddam Hussein another seven years in office.
He is the only candidate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/2328405.stm

thought y'all, and perhaps ben in particular, might find this of interest;

"Suddenly people forgot their obsession with the price of petrol, and began queueing at the more expensive "full-serve" pumps, so they could stay safely in the cars and let the poor sap who works there take the risk. One man told me he was pumping his own petrol the other morning, then suddenly remembered and went down into a cowardly crouch. He looked up a few moments later and saw a bloke on the other side of the pump doing precisely the same thing. "

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,812091,00.html

that was a short little nothing from london days...

If you were a good friend, he would tell you he is scared. He would continue to stare, as if searching the forms of individual leaves in the silhouette of trees on the other shore, and he would tell you he is scared because, since it happened, he has felt nothing. He might tilt his head up, the reflection in his eyes brighter than the one in the moon, and he would be silent for minutes, many, until his quiet melded them all into a moment, his moment, his control. One moment all his, you both would know it, so you are sealed, it was his creation, it shall be his destruction, a sensitive pity to give him control one last time.
"I feel nothing. I fear I’ve ended up killing myself. If there were guilt, I would be natural, wouldn’t I? If I felt vindicated even, that would be natural, yes? Human? I feel nothing." Silence again. Nothing to say. You might focus on the circles expanding towards you, some night-owl bug foolishly frolicking through this time. You could almost smile, but that would be dangerous.
A thought: latch on: "If you fear, you feel. There’s a long road yet, friend. This is nowhere to get stuck."
He would look at you, then. Blinking rapidly. Down, smooth the sand – how strange, sand here, but it happens – sparkles from tousled quartz hitting his chin. More moments. The wind picks up, you might glance at him, the long straight blond straw of his head blowing into his face, leaving you patterns to interpret. Just as good. Clouds pass in and out of light, brighter themselves than the purple-painted sky, these gray blobs delivering drizzle in small, measured doses, speeding up, many circles now.
"So I feel." More. And more still.
"Yes. You feel. Isn’t that good?" The patterns fall to shadows as his paleness faces you. Now you would be scared.
He would say nothing, but you, being a good friend, would guess at thoughts. The fear of constant fear, of nothing but, of lumpy throats with aching dryness and slickster wetness, of stomachs that rumble themselves to hemorrhaging, of eyes that are already changing, losing that nothing something everyone recognizes only in absence, lost not through deed, but through dealings with deed, his panic, more circles now, more moments, too many, it’s not natural. It is wrong, and you both would know it. Just never say it.
But you are not a good friend. Only his voice echoes into the water. There is sometimes greater sanity in sounding wildly alone than in babbling sanely to another. The silence remains the same. He wants to leave, to run, he splashes the lake, but the coldness catches, he’s not ready for this, and he finds a sodden log, collapses upon it, crushing wood fibres together, squeezing the sponge, down to head to knee to hide to silence.

the indexed lounge


Philosophy