January 2011
70 posts
"CNBC anchor implies US must support dictators to... →
Elephant in the room.
1 tag
"Egypt’s Class Conflict" →
The military regime in Egypt initially gained popular legitimacy in part by its pluck in facing down France, Britain and Israel in 1956-57 (with Ike Eisenhower’s help). After the Camp David accords, in contrast, Egypt largely sat out the big struggles in the Mideast, and made what has widely been called a separate peace. Egypt’s cooperation in the Israeli blockade of Gaza and its general quiet...
“If you would like to know why the United States does not have credibility in the...”
– Mohamed ElBaradei on the “tightrope” that the US is walking over the Egyptian situation.
Egyptian Police Using U.S.-Made Tear Gas Against... →
“Another cable, from March 2009, shows the US’s astonishingly intimate...”
– Wikileaks cables show close US relationship with Egyptian President
“Mubarak has been in power, as a virtual dictator, since 1981. And he has been...”
– The Egyptian Meltdown
"Egypt's Day of Rage goes on. Is the world... →
The initial call for the Day of Rage was made by young Facebook activists inspired by the success of Tunisians in overthrowing Ben Ali. The Facebook invitation for the protests received 95,000 positive responses. Other forces and opposition groups later responded to the call, including the Muslim Brotherhood, whose participation has so far been quite low-key.
In America, people use Facebook...
1 tag
“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the...”
– John Cage
US Gov. Says DARE Program Completely Ineffective
“The estimated cost of DARE annually is already $1 to 1.3 billion. 46 That’s a lot for a completely ineffective, often counterproductive, program.”
Many of us recall the DARE Program in school. A police officer would come in once week or so, and talk about the “dangers” of drug use and offer some ideas about how to not use drugs. It appears the intention of...
Mexican Drug Lord Officially Thanks American... →
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera reported head of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, ranked 701st on Forbes’ yearly report of the wealthiest men alive, and worth an estimated $1 billion, today officially thanked United States politicians for making sure that drugs remain illegal. According to one of his closest confidants, he said, “I couldn’t have gotten so stinking rich without George Bush,...
"Police: Philadelphia Man Shoots Friend for Eating... →
HOLY SHIT AMERICA, CHILL THE F*CK OUT.
L.A. Ranked #1 Rudest City in America →
Agree or disagree?
100% agree. If I had a nickel for every time some asshole pretended to listen to what I was saying whilst browsing their smartphone and juggling a vente cup of Starbucks, I’d be swimmingly in a Scrooge McDuck-size pile of nickels.
“Unfortunately, I believe there is a negative side to the relationships among...”
1 tag
Watch90’s CG cartoon Reboot as a movie that never came out. That is all.
“What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have...”
– Hegel
"The First Decade of the Future is Behind Us"
Imagine it’s 1995: almost no one but Gordon Gekko and Zack Morris have cellphones, pagers are the norm; dial-up modems screech and scream to connect you an internet without Google, Facebook, or YouTube; Dolly has not yet been cloned; the first Playstation is the cutting edge in gaming technology; the Human Genome Project is creeping along; Mir is still in space; MTV still plays music;...
1 tag
“In trying to assert peoples’ right to protect themselves by carrying a...”
"Giffords Shooting Leads Two Lawmakers to Carry... →
Two lawmakers said Sunday they’ll pack heat back home after the deadly attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
The decision by Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) raises new questions about whether lawmakers should carry guns for self defense - or need to.
Yeah. Politicians “packing heat” definitely seems like the most rational solution to this problem.
The Giffords shooting
It’s very important to understand what we’re witnessing right now. Societies that trade in violence and war ultimately consume themselves. This carnage is a symptom of the nationalist psyche: the self-worshipping belief that we have the right to exact violence and wage war on those we disagree with.
This is the terrorism that we export abroad, committed not by swarthy foreigners but now by...
“If people aren’t telling you that your idea is crazy, then it is likely not a...”
– Francis Ford Coppola
"Why the new global elites don't care about the... →
Still, it certainly feels as if America is dominated more and more by an elite class that cares less and less about the public good because they don’t really feel like they have a stake in the public good anymore: they’ve never served in the Army or the Peace Corps, their kids never come within yelling distance of public schools, they donate their money exclusively to their own...
Report: 97% of scientists say man-made climate... →
mohandasgandhi:
This data comes from a new survey out this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study found that 97 percent of scientific experts agree that climate change is “very likely” caused mainly by human activity.
The report is based on questions posed to 1,372 scientists. Nearly all the experts agreed that it is “very likely that anthropogenic...