Stat Counter
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Capitalism & Crack
The subprime mortgage crisis shows what happens when psychological crack addicts, i.e., people who have surrendered their intellects to the insatiable demands of the profit motive, to the exclusion of almost all other values, including self-preservation, run the economy.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Arundhati Roy
First caught Ms. Roy on one's local cable-access TV channel.
Recommended without hesitation, reservation, or qualification. Excellent thinking, excellent music.
Recommended without hesitation, reservation, or qualification. Excellent thinking, excellent music.
Overheard
Overheard somewhere recently a comment that has stuck in mind:
"We can have separation of church and state but we cannot have separation of morality and state."
Why is the U.S. repeatedly resorting to criminality in its foreign policy? Why this determination to alienate the rest of the world? Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize speech on You Tube is recommended to interested readers without qualification, hesitation or reservation.
The right to dissent is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. The obligation to dissent is enshrined in the human conscience.
Education is the only road out of the ethical swamp into which this country has descended.
All hail the teaching profession!
The U.S. military has issued a statement saying reports of more than 140 civilian deaths as a result of this past Monday/Tuesday bombing raid in Farah Province in Afghanistan are "over-exaggerated"--without referring to any facts to support the claim--and that an investigation is underway.
"We can have separation of church and state but we cannot have separation of morality and state."
Why is the U.S. repeatedly resorting to criminality in its foreign policy? Why this determination to alienate the rest of the world? Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize speech on You Tube is recommended to interested readers without qualification, hesitation or reservation.
The right to dissent is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. The obligation to dissent is enshrined in the human conscience.
Education is the only road out of the ethical swamp into which this country has descended.
All hail the teaching profession!
The U.S. military has issued a statement saying reports of more than 140 civilian deaths as a result of this past Monday/Tuesday bombing raid in Farah Province in Afghanistan are "over-exaggerated"--without referring to any facts to support the claim--and that an investigation is underway.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Afghanistan: The Oil Factor
One is aware that the reason the U.S. military is in Afghanistan is to secure access to future oil supplies in Asia. Fine. Understandable idea. But it does not justify the killing of innocent people. An ends-justifies-the-means philosophy is the philosophy of the Nazis. We cannot prance through the world inflicting holocausts on innocent men, women and children. What the U.S. is doing is despicable, intolerable, irrational, self-defeating and--one says this without exaggerating--unforgivable. We must get out of Afghanistan immediately. If there are problems with respect to future supplies of oil, we'll deal with that then, acting responsibly and humanely and with honor.
Deeper Into the Abyss of Afghanistan
The New York Times reports today that (1) the United Nations has put the total number of Afghan casualties in 2008 at 2,000, and (2) that the governor of Farah Province has stated that the American bombing and strafing raid there this past Monday from 5 p.m. till midnight may have killed more than the 100 civilians originally reported.
A U.S. military spokesman said the deaths "may" have been the work of the Taliban.
Obama has dispatched an additional 20,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
What is it with the U.S. government's enchantment with blood baths on foreign soil?
A U.S. military spokesman said the deaths "may" have been the work of the Taliban.
Obama has dispatched an additional 20,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan.
What is it with the U.S. government's enchantment with blood baths on foreign soil?
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Man With Message
The other night on one's wonderful and indispensable local cable-access TV station they broadcast a short documentary I guess you'd call it, no narration, showing a guy in a Speedo standing on the main corner in Central Square on a day when everyone was wearing coats and he's holding this sign on a stick that says on one side "Honk for Peace" and on the other "Honk for War" and he keeps switching it back and forth every so often and the honking is about the same for the one side as the other.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Contemporary Warfare
What is contemporary warfare? It is the mass murder of innocent human beings. It is unethical, obsolete, finished. Technology has made the weapons so deadly they cannot--in a humane world--be used. You go into Iraq and 90 percent of the victims are innocent people. This is so despicable it's almost incomprehensible, surreal, bizarre. So much for "smart" bombs. We're slaughtering people by the busload.
The U.S. is supposed to stand for something besides mass murder.
The U.S. is supposed to stand for something besides mass murder.
U.S. Out of Afghanistan Immediately
An AP dispatch of twenty minutes ago quoted Afghan officials stating that between 30 and 100 civilians were killed as a result of recent US bombing raids. This is murder. This is inexcusable. One's local cable-access TV station has reported that civilian deaths during WWI came to 10 percent of total casualties, 50 percent during WWII, 75 percent during the Vietnam War, and 90 percent in Iraq.
U.S. foreign policy is so far off the path of decency and rationality that one strikes one's forehead in disbelief.
Killing innocent human beings is beyond despicable, beyond contemptible--and what goes around comes around. To ignore the universal justice of "karma" is to walk off a cliff. The U.S. has gone over the edge.
To kill a single innocent person is inexcusable. In Iraq we've lost some 4,000 soldiers; the Iraqi government recently released an Iraqi casualty estimate of some 80,000. Is this a fair fight? Or is it unmitigated brutality and insanity?
I'm very disappointed by Obama's militaristic outlook on Afghanistan. We should pull out now. We've started another blood bath before we've even finished in Iraq.
It is immoral to kill innocent women and children. This is self-evident. I pray to God Obama realizes this and starts to pull our troops out immediately.
Peace is the answer, not permanent war.
U.S. foreign policy is so far off the path of decency and rationality that one strikes one's forehead in disbelief.
Killing innocent human beings is beyond despicable, beyond contemptible--and what goes around comes around. To ignore the universal justice of "karma" is to walk off a cliff. The U.S. has gone over the edge.
To kill a single innocent person is inexcusable. In Iraq we've lost some 4,000 soldiers; the Iraqi government recently released an Iraqi casualty estimate of some 80,000. Is this a fair fight? Or is it unmitigated brutality and insanity?
I'm very disappointed by Obama's militaristic outlook on Afghanistan. We should pull out now. We've started another blood bath before we've even finished in Iraq.
It is immoral to kill innocent women and children. This is self-evident. I pray to God Obama realizes this and starts to pull our troops out immediately.
Peace is the answer, not permanent war.
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