Monday, December 29, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
War in Gaza
After continued daily rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel, and after a warning by the Israeli PM Israel bombs Gaza killing 235 people.
The attack on Hamas targets are, according to reports from Israel, destroying rocket launching silos. That civilians are killed in this non surgical intervention is absolutely guaranteed. Gaza is the most populated place on the planet. People have to live somewhere.
More on Disturbing Trends - future politics
The attack on Hamas targets are, according to reports from Israel, destroying rocket launching silos. That civilians are killed in this non surgical intervention is absolutely guaranteed. Gaza is the most populated place on the planet. People have to live somewhere.
More on Disturbing Trends - future politics
Monday, December 22, 2008
How to solve the financial crisis
Economic Regression
The path that GW Bush has set the United States upon is inverse socialism. It is regression. It has produced an incipient depression in the world economy by creating a inverse bubble. A huge cash vacuum has removed 2 trillion from the American federal reserve.
To reduce the treasury into a funding agency for the seriously wealthy, bankers and those who take a cut from everyone, is grand scale theft.
more
The path that GW Bush has set the United States upon is inverse socialism. It is regression. It has produced an incipient depression in the world economy by creating a inverse bubble. A huge cash vacuum has removed 2 trillion from the American federal reserve.
To reduce the treasury into a funding agency for the seriously wealthy, bankers and those who take a cut from everyone, is grand scale theft.
more
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The inner sanctum
As blogger has reactivated all my blogs (phew) I am able to post to both the group blog and this one as well. This means that the site domain http://disturbingtrends.org can be the front cover and the inner site can be more experimental and selected articles from contributors may appear here when selected.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Disturbing trends back
The blog site inside the site has been very successful. It will continue as the Disturbing Trends Community and this will be the "front page" highlighting and linking articles inside.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Georgia
The history lessons that the leader of Georgia attended may have given him a distorted concept of valour. Giving the Russian army an excuse to invade seems rash at best. Risking all for territorial integrity, why?
Russia used to control all sorts of countries that became independent of the USSR last century. Of course there are going to be territorial disputes. There is an obvious need therefore to monitor the collapse of large empires, and follow it up with border certification, acceptance by both sides that the border will be honoured. By enjoining a Russian enclave, Georgia actually had the opportunity to make peace with its giant adversary. All the other satellites are anxious that Russia not be allowed to overrun recognised borders militarily. There is merit in that concept, certainly.
Is the Bush reponse to Russia the right one? Somehow, it seems irrational to involve America so rapidly. It is not like Georgia had joined NATO just yet. So why is GW Bush basically rattling sabres? It seems political in the extreme. But is it correct?
It does seem that it is true that Georgia sent its troups in first, apparently the Georgians started to excercise military force in Ossetia before Russia crushed their army in no uncertain terms. One has to wonder, if an invader of similar scale attempted a landing in Florida, what would the USA do in response?
The "new world order" achieved by Bush's daddy has recklessly and systematically been destroyed by the actions of the second Bush administration. The American right has a chance to reconcile with that legacy before they start launching holus bolus into Obama. But then is the shooting of the Arkansas Democratic Chairman by a disgruntled sacked employee of Target the actual cost of the Second Amendment? That we are all essential free to be equal if anyone can have a loaded gun, anywhere?
The American state is allowed to enact laws decided by its own democracy. But Disturbing Trends has questioned if the USA is in fact a democratic country? Are the people allowed to make any kind of rational decision as to what happens next or are they a victim to their own hysteria and need to be controlled? Is the predictions of 1984 by George Orwell not already evident and accepted in the same way that the citizens of Germany were taken in by the rise of Nazism?
If America destroys the hope in the Obama campaign and do not enter into a fresh New Deal phase, then, under McCain - we see America entering a more severely military face off with Russia. The current opportunity Russia took to punish Georgia is limited by the simple fact that if they do not now respond honourably, then paranoia will be rife.
The fact that Bush/McCain wanted to have nuclear weapons in Georgia is why Russia has invaded Georgia. Given a good excuse, they are likely to get away with it if they are honourable.
If they are not, like in the 1968 that Condi Rice alluded to, then they will set the world on edge, and Obama will get drowned by the paranoia - such is the hopes of the Bush reaction. It is political, afterall.
Russia used to control all sorts of countries that became independent of the USSR last century. Of course there are going to be territorial disputes. There is an obvious need therefore to monitor the collapse of large empires, and follow it up with border certification, acceptance by both sides that the border will be honoured. By enjoining a Russian enclave, Georgia actually had the opportunity to make peace with its giant adversary. All the other satellites are anxious that Russia not be allowed to overrun recognised borders militarily. There is merit in that concept, certainly.
Is the Bush reponse to Russia the right one? Somehow, it seems irrational to involve America so rapidly. It is not like Georgia had joined NATO just yet. So why is GW Bush basically rattling sabres? It seems political in the extreme. But is it correct?
It does seem that it is true that Georgia sent its troups in first, apparently the Georgians started to excercise military force in Ossetia before Russia crushed their army in no uncertain terms. One has to wonder, if an invader of similar scale attempted a landing in Florida, what would the USA do in response?
The "new world order" achieved by Bush's daddy has recklessly and systematically been destroyed by the actions of the second Bush administration. The American right has a chance to reconcile with that legacy before they start launching holus bolus into Obama. But then is the shooting of the Arkansas Democratic Chairman by a disgruntled sacked employee of Target the actual cost of the Second Amendment? That we are all essential free to be equal if anyone can have a loaded gun, anywhere?
The American state is allowed to enact laws decided by its own democracy. But Disturbing Trends has questioned if the USA is in fact a democratic country? Are the people allowed to make any kind of rational decision as to what happens next or are they a victim to their own hysteria and need to be controlled? Is the predictions of 1984 by George Orwell not already evident and accepted in the same way that the citizens of Germany were taken in by the rise of Nazism?
If America destroys the hope in the Obama campaign and do not enter into a fresh New Deal phase, then, under McCain - we see America entering a more severely military face off with Russia. The current opportunity Russia took to punish Georgia is limited by the simple fact that if they do not now respond honourably, then paranoia will be rife.
The fact that Bush/McCain wanted to have nuclear weapons in Georgia is why Russia has invaded Georgia. Given a good excuse, they are likely to get away with it if they are honourable.
If they are not, like in the 1968 that Condi Rice alluded to, then they will set the world on edge, and Obama will get drowned by the paranoia - such is the hopes of the Bush reaction. It is political, afterall.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Funding Untruth
It is real nice to learn that Exxon Mobil has been funding "authorities" to create FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about the stark reality of climate change. Burning carbon is causing unusual growth in global warming which, if not reversed or at least limited - will cause untold damage to the future world. It is very irresponsible to keep at it, even after it is fully accepted that something has to be done to reduce pollution. The greatest gift of the Olympics being in Beijing is that no outdoor endurance or speed records are likely to be broken - it may be the most difficult games to breathe in since Mexico City - but that was due to elevation and low pressure making rapid breathing more difficult. Beijing has to virtually shut down (90% of its motor fleet are disabled for the games) in order to allow its think smogs to clear enough for the needs of performance athletes. If they become sick inhaling too much industrial level pollution, and can not compete, it may just convince the world that pollution is the real enemy of humans, that climate change disasters can be circumvented if we take pollution far more seriously. It is just as serious as climate change and global warming and will als kill us. Allowing the unrestrained growth of pollution is socially detrimental and false economics.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Death by a thousand Debts
The United States of America is being swallowed by its own shallowness and greed. There is a wonderfully revealing article in the NY Times today with a revealing interactive graph of events during each decade. It is most remarkable that the savings rate which deteriorated badly in the Great Depression mirrors what is happening now, the collapse of savings. The difference is the debt levels then were conservative - the debt levels of the extreme 90s overboiled in the 2000s.
The Bush era has left a legacy that is far more damaging to the USA economy than it seems, all that debt has to be matched with savings, or you get a deficit, which is funds that the average US citizen owes to the oil producing OPEC countries. How exactly is the Government going to bail out the average citizen drowning in excess credit and crippling interest? By preventing millions of bankruptcies and foreclosures? Preventing banks from reselling properties at a huge discount? The bailouts of major mortage lenders proves this to be true. Bush has run the most socialist economy possible by making the middle class the needy class.
Where is the debt going to be absorbed? Deterioration in the value of the capital reserve? Does that means the grandchildren of the Bush years will be far less wealthy than those who benefitted from ridiculously biased tax breaks that has worsened the position of the average person to such a degree that they are now prisoners of credit card companies - owned by the intensely rich?
Seems like the most devastating blow delivered to everyday Americans is the mass transfer of effective wealth and ownership from American hands, from the Ma and Pa businessscape into the hands of corporatisation, increasingly foreign owned banks and retirement funds that seem more vulnerable by the minute.
Who's fault? It seems that a country that eats its way to doom has a lack of direction in its culture as a major malady. Hip-hop had it's social revolution, now with "Pimps and Bitches" being part of the mainstream conversation and "bling" having lost any bad ass connotation - that it was stolen - now it's seen as a badge of billionary success - any excuse for radically masculine boys to wear diamonds.
Cultural decay - a kind of illiteracy - seems successful. All these make over reality wife swaps and inverted entertainments (Supernanny goes to visit you with her camera crew) are not really engaging people. They are just really cheap fomulae to execute, and like most cheap fodder, it bloats the mind with plenty of useless nonsense. That is cultural decay as it is consumable by anybody, and most do not want their entertinment to challenge them.
But challenging the mind is the entire point of entertainment. That is why the new generation of video games that are immersive, require you to think on your feet and enact a strategy. After fighting for months in some kind of imaginary desert scenario against "bad guys" - the futility and sheer quantity of death necessary - it becomes evident that war is an activity civilization should find absolutely abborhent; but, yet - at the onset of either Gulf war there was a palpable sense of "get on with it!", and a sense of relief that the bombs had finally started to drop.
While America gets sucked into fruitless wars, Bush seems to have opened the floodgates for the Saudi establishment to buy more American capital with their oil wealth before the Green lobby replace a need for oil with a need for solar energy capture and wind farms rendering the end to this new age of slavery.
The American economy is huge and can still easily absorb this level of indebtedness - it's the poverty created now that seems the real problem for far too many.
When did this start. Click on the heading of this article to view the NY Times interactive display (requires Adobe Flash Player). Hover over 1984. Observe the trend in savings. 1984 is the top of the mountain that has collapsed ever since. Savings is the degree of participation in ownership possible - the spoils of war. The USA may be able to walk in militarily but it may not be able to afford to "stay the course", if it carries on with this trend. Even in the past four years savings as a fraction of debt is the worst its ever been, apart from the early 1930s when there were no savings, so America rebuilt by borrowing leading to gradual increase in capital, until 1984. What happened then? Oh yes, let's see. Regan was elected.
The Bush era has left a legacy that is far more damaging to the USA economy than it seems, all that debt has to be matched with savings, or you get a deficit, which is funds that the average US citizen owes to the oil producing OPEC countries. How exactly is the Government going to bail out the average citizen drowning in excess credit and crippling interest? By preventing millions of bankruptcies and foreclosures? Preventing banks from reselling properties at a huge discount? The bailouts of major mortage lenders proves this to be true. Bush has run the most socialist economy possible by making the middle class the needy class.
Where is the debt going to be absorbed? Deterioration in the value of the capital reserve? Does that means the grandchildren of the Bush years will be far less wealthy than those who benefitted from ridiculously biased tax breaks that has worsened the position of the average person to such a degree that they are now prisoners of credit card companies - owned by the intensely rich?
Seems like the most devastating blow delivered to everyday Americans is the mass transfer of effective wealth and ownership from American hands, from the Ma and Pa businessscape into the hands of corporatisation, increasingly foreign owned banks and retirement funds that seem more vulnerable by the minute.
Who's fault? It seems that a country that eats its way to doom has a lack of direction in its culture as a major malady. Hip-hop had it's social revolution, now with "Pimps and Bitches" being part of the mainstream conversation and "bling" having lost any bad ass connotation - that it was stolen - now it's seen as a badge of billionary success - any excuse for radically masculine boys to wear diamonds.
Cultural decay - a kind of illiteracy - seems successful. All these make over reality wife swaps and inverted entertainments (Supernanny goes to visit you with her camera crew) are not really engaging people. They are just really cheap fomulae to execute, and like most cheap fodder, it bloats the mind with plenty of useless nonsense. That is cultural decay as it is consumable by anybody, and most do not want their entertinment to challenge them.
But challenging the mind is the entire point of entertainment. That is why the new generation of video games that are immersive, require you to think on your feet and enact a strategy. After fighting for months in some kind of imaginary desert scenario against "bad guys" - the futility and sheer quantity of death necessary - it becomes evident that war is an activity civilization should find absolutely abborhent; but, yet - at the onset of either Gulf war there was a palpable sense of "get on with it!", and a sense of relief that the bombs had finally started to drop.
While America gets sucked into fruitless wars, Bush seems to have opened the floodgates for the Saudi establishment to buy more American capital with their oil wealth before the Green lobby replace a need for oil with a need for solar energy capture and wind farms rendering the end to this new age of slavery.
The American economy is huge and can still easily absorb this level of indebtedness - it's the poverty created now that seems the real problem for far too many.
When did this start. Click on the heading of this article to view the NY Times interactive display (requires Adobe Flash Player). Hover over 1984. Observe the trend in savings. 1984 is the top of the mountain that has collapsed ever since. Savings is the degree of participation in ownership possible - the spoils of war. The USA may be able to walk in militarily but it may not be able to afford to "stay the course", if it carries on with this trend. Even in the past four years savings as a fraction of debt is the worst its ever been, apart from the early 1930s when there were no savings, so America rebuilt by borrowing leading to gradual increase in capital, until 1984. What happened then? Oh yes, let's see. Regan was elected.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The World's Greatest Polluter
Bush can go down in history as the self admitted greatest polluter in the modern world, in fact, ever. That his administration had done everything in its power to destroy the environment in favour of oil exploration and development, energy not to mention war and corporate criminality seems like a cynical joke to the senior members of it, not the life and death serious issue that the rest of humanity can see staring at it with deadly clearity. This is govenment of the people by delusion. The Bush administration wants to draw down soldiers from Iraq because they are needed in Afghanistan.
Of course they are. Just a few years late.
Of course they are. Just a few years late.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Iran Missle excercise
You can posture with spyplanes and missile tests all you like, but when you start lopping atomic bombs at each other you ruin most your own homes. Its the MAD principal that finally makes it so pointless. Iran is defying logic claiming not to have a nuclear weapon programme. The actions speak louder than their words. Having nuclear power plants inevitably leads to plutonium, weapons grade is quite feasible with plutonium. Why do you think there are so many atomic bombs in the world? Because the Governemnt has to do something with nuclear waste. Making bombs and thousands of them is what the Russian and US governments are ferociously guilty of - it will take years and years to decommission all these bombs. A defense system that when used spells the end of humantity and quality of life is not a defense system.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
World Depression
and how to avoid it
Is the world falling into some kind of recession? That is when growth starts to subside and things economically suck, but if one understands it right, then what it is seen as is the loss of confidence based on property ownership - a line of credit was generally loosened up for billions of home owners, a culture of being able to borrow against one's mortgage increased leveraging and the profits were handsome so the banks continued to go further.
The tragedies that underlie sub-prime + the oil hunger - a direct consequence of the Iraq war + lack of real progress with the nuclear question = potential for another Depression. It is not just that bills will not get paid, it is that assets will lose their value, nobody will buy things and prices will start to fall. If that fall accelerates - the potential for severe economic storms becomes more likely.
The authority carried by Security Council decree against a country, especially one of its nuclear capable members, may help guide us from disaster. The only thing that makes "nuclear weapons" necessary is other nuclear weapons. What real point is there in having nuclear weapons? To conquer any chance of threat in case of unpredictable behaviour. After all humans have their finger on the button. The USSR had Breshnev. America has Bush. Both caused recession.
Both also fought with Afghanistan. Not that fighting Afghanistan has been the problem for America - but because they did not provide their full ferocity to win the war in Afghanistan with commitment, they still are at war with malign forces.
Sorry, Osama bin Laden, it is hard to admire a person who promotes the death of innocents. It was not bin Laden that alerted the world to George Bush's America. Osama bin Laden is not doing the work of God. It is not definite that he is not working for his homeland.
Neither is the US military incursion into Iraq, although by doing that and by not wiping out the Taleban, and at the same time efforts to quell appear to be fanning the flames of nuclear trouble with Iran, well - one can only imagine the end game.
The Office of President is not being attacked by Congress because it is "at war". That is all keeping Bush and Cheney in office till February 2009.
To bring charges against Bush or Cheney would require that they depart office or end the state of war, and a pardon from their successor, whomever wins is all it takes to bury this sad chapter.
But the extraction of trillions of dollars from the US economy by chiefly OPEC countries, well. How many trillions has Saudi directly cost the US?
I think that the high oil prices are a direct result of the US uncovering its own lack of ruthlessness in war allowing a relatively degraded enemy to survive. Now the Arab nations smell nuclear technology within reach, and the confidence they now have in bargaining power seems the new reality.
Is the international recession in fact a deliberate plot to vacuum wealth out of US hands and into the hands of Arabia? The underlying economic war is far more serious because of sub-prime and the loss of confidence and money from a system growing on increasingly thin vapour.
A belief that the source of economic difficulties are "asset related" but providing free housing to the poor has been found to be an unsustainable activity of the US Government - is another way to put it.
It appears to be the problem, but it is the oil shock that will change economies the world over. Unless Bush can win his wars real soon now, and instantly restore confidence in the unassailability of the USA, the rest of the world will not start trembling has they now have been given the lever it needs to even the economic stakes.
Perhaps the only way to stop the spread of the Taleban cult or the Al Qaeda insanity is for taxes to increase for the wealthy, the US to pay its debts and stop living so ridiculously beyond its means.
Is the world falling into some kind of recession? That is when growth starts to subside and things economically suck, but if one understands it right, then what it is seen as is the loss of confidence based on property ownership - a line of credit was generally loosened up for billions of home owners, a culture of being able to borrow against one's mortgage increased leveraging and the profits were handsome so the banks continued to go further.
The tragedies that underlie sub-prime + the oil hunger - a direct consequence of the Iraq war + lack of real progress with the nuclear question = potential for another Depression. It is not just that bills will not get paid, it is that assets will lose their value, nobody will buy things and prices will start to fall. If that fall accelerates - the potential for severe economic storms becomes more likely.
The authority carried by Security Council decree against a country, especially one of its nuclear capable members, may help guide us from disaster. The only thing that makes "nuclear weapons" necessary is other nuclear weapons. What real point is there in having nuclear weapons? To conquer any chance of threat in case of unpredictable behaviour. After all humans have their finger on the button. The USSR had Breshnev. America has Bush. Both caused recession.
Both also fought with Afghanistan. Not that fighting Afghanistan has been the problem for America - but because they did not provide their full ferocity to win the war in Afghanistan with commitment, they still are at war with malign forces.
Sorry, Osama bin Laden, it is hard to admire a person who promotes the death of innocents. It was not bin Laden that alerted the world to George Bush's America. Osama bin Laden is not doing the work of God. It is not definite that he is not working for his homeland.
Neither is the US military incursion into Iraq, although by doing that and by not wiping out the Taleban, and at the same time efforts to quell appear to be fanning the flames of nuclear trouble with Iran, well - one can only imagine the end game.
The Office of President is not being attacked by Congress because it is "at war". That is all keeping Bush and Cheney in office till February 2009.
To bring charges against Bush or Cheney would require that they depart office or end the state of war, and a pardon from their successor, whomever wins is all it takes to bury this sad chapter.
But the extraction of trillions of dollars from the US economy by chiefly OPEC countries, well. How many trillions has Saudi directly cost the US?
I think that the high oil prices are a direct result of the US uncovering its own lack of ruthlessness in war allowing a relatively degraded enemy to survive. Now the Arab nations smell nuclear technology within reach, and the confidence they now have in bargaining power seems the new reality.
Is the international recession in fact a deliberate plot to vacuum wealth out of US hands and into the hands of Arabia? The underlying economic war is far more serious because of sub-prime and the loss of confidence and money from a system growing on increasingly thin vapour.
A belief that the source of economic difficulties are "asset related" but providing free housing to the poor has been found to be an unsustainable activity of the US Government - is another way to put it.
It appears to be the problem, but it is the oil shock that will change economies the world over. Unless Bush can win his wars real soon now, and instantly restore confidence in the unassailability of the USA, the rest of the world will not start trembling has they now have been given the lever it needs to even the economic stakes.
Perhaps the only way to stop the spread of the Taleban cult or the Al Qaeda insanity is for taxes to increase for the wealthy, the US to pay its debts and stop living so ridiculously beyond its means.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Senator Jesse Helms
Former Sen. Jesse Helms, who built a career along the fault lines of racial politics and battled liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during 30 conservative years in Congress, died on the Fourth of July.
He was 86.
Helms died at 1:15 a.m., said the Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University in North Carolina. The center's president, John Dodd, said in a statement that funeral arrangements were pending.
He was 86.
Helms died at 1:15 a.m., said the Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University in North Carolina. The center's president, John Dodd, said in a statement that funeral arrangements were pending.
Afghanistan death toll pressures U.S., allies | csmonitor.com
Afghanistan death toll pressures U.S., allies | csmonitor.com
"I don't have troops I can reach for to send into Afghanistan until I have a reduced requirement in Iraq," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a Pentagon briefing Wednesday.
"I don't have troops I can reach for to send into Afghanistan until I have a reduced requirement in Iraq," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a Pentagon briefing Wednesday.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Privacy Threat
A judge has ordered that YouTube turn over its complete logs of private viewings of videos to Viacom. Are we moving away from tenets of humanity and reason just to return to preindustrial era ideas of human ownership? Has the concept of privacy been abandoned in the US Justice system? How are 4 terabytes of logs going to be analysed by Viacom and what will stop them from using this commercial information for their own commerical gain? Has the judge overstepped the mark - and played into the hands of a dismissal? Or is this revealing of a more sinister campaign against individuality. Can what we do be handed over like chattels in this way without consulting us first?
The terms and conditions of any website are so long and complex 99% of humans do not read them. Folly, say the laywers. They still apply. I do not however agree that a term that my viewing patterns would be available to Viacom was on offer when I used YouTube and found otherwise buried content owned by Viacom. Now what will happen - will Viacom start to persue billions of damages from millions of users of YouTube?
Why? For goodness sake. Viacom is supposed to be an entertainment company. Not the bleeding gestapo.
The terms and conditions of any website are so long and complex 99% of humans do not read them. Folly, say the laywers. They still apply. I do not however agree that a term that my viewing patterns would be available to Viacom was on offer when I used YouTube and found otherwise buried content owned by Viacom. Now what will happen - will Viacom start to persue billions of damages from millions of users of YouTube?
Why? For goodness sake. Viacom is supposed to be an entertainment company. Not the bleeding gestapo.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
The Fight to End Aging Gains Legitimacy, Funding
The Fight to End Aging Gains Legitimacy, Funding
If we never died, would we fight wars? Would our bodies have a greater degree of priority over the environment, and therefore is humans being able to live two or three times as long not environmentally hazardous? Will there be warnings in generontological pill boxes, warning, taking these may make the future more unpleasant?
Does not the cold thrill of death, the end, the finish, the waste of everything the hard reality that makes it possible for us to appreciate bliss and procreate madly, rather than trying to make that same nebulous "everything" (a meaningless word if there ever was one) - somehow stretch further than it can before the rate of human progress makes your cost to the world unbearable?
If we have to confont living for ever, it may seem the answer to millions of dreams. Even if everyone got 100 more years. What would happen to the world? Much change. Much unplanned change. Slowly inexorably it would change. People would compensate by being careful to have less children. With current life spans, this is already happening.
The trend here is inward. The attention is on the self. Wanting to live forever is going to take quite some getting used to...
If we never died, would we fight wars? Would our bodies have a greater degree of priority over the environment, and therefore is humans being able to live two or three times as long not environmentally hazardous? Will there be warnings in generontological pill boxes, warning, taking these may make the future more unpleasant?
Does not the cold thrill of death, the end, the finish, the waste of everything the hard reality that makes it possible for us to appreciate bliss and procreate madly, rather than trying to make that same nebulous "everything" (a meaningless word if there ever was one) - somehow stretch further than it can before the rate of human progress makes your cost to the world unbearable?
If we have to confont living for ever, it may seem the answer to millions of dreams. Even if everyone got 100 more years. What would happen to the world? Much change. Much unplanned change. Slowly inexorably it would change. People would compensate by being careful to have less children. With current life spans, this is already happening.
The trend here is inward. The attention is on the self. Wanting to live forever is going to take quite some getting used to...
Friday, June 20, 2008
Justice for America?
As rats desert sinking ships, the question of justice for Americans becomes urgent. Should Haliburton get away with the effective theft of middle class wealth, by requiring miliary expansionalism to excecise its hardware muscle most profitably they effectively planted their CEO into the White House and look at the result.
It is not only that the acts of Bush-Cheney led the USA to war on false pretexts but the vice-president's company stood to profit from those invalid decisions and that damaged the average American. The direct cost to the citizens of the USA was hidden by inventing sub-prime mortgages that creating billions of dollars of vapour wealth based on greed and irrational risk. This was deliberate transfer of your wealth to Dick Cheney's old company. Is that not called conspiracy?
After 9/11 Bush had a mandate to defeat his enemy. Instead he stirred a hornet's nest in a lurching dive for oil control. Instead of that he has handed his perceived enemy an economic whip of unbelieveable consequence. All for the SUVs and industry, unregulated are that affecting the air we breathe.
If it were not for the imperatives of not polluting the atmosphere so our children will breathe - it is the imperatives of disasterous climate change gripping the world with a peak of apocalyptic fear not unlike that which peaked around AIDS, SARS or Bird Flu. The media get excited and focus on the issue of the day. Sorry, we are being misled. AIDS is more dangerous today everyday. SARS may reappear as something else we do not understand yet. And Bird Flu does not depend on the continued interest of journalists or anyone.
Recent events of Biblical proportions appear to be submerging cities from the American landscape, climate change? Or just normal?
You can find "right thinking" rationales that we must keep on polluting as its progress - because 1934 was the hottest year recorded which "disproves Global Warming".
Eh? This trend of creating a layer of unrestricted pollution in our atmosphere is most probably the real cause of intergenerational acceleration of cancer, heart and resporatory problems. This stuff, this industrial scale pollution is not just changing the chemistry of the air. It is becoming part of our cellular makeup, our children are sicker and more problematic for it, and its certainly is therefore the very opposite of progress.
Is this the start of the new dark ages?
It is not only that the acts of Bush-Cheney led the USA to war on false pretexts but the vice-president's company stood to profit from those invalid decisions and that damaged the average American. The direct cost to the citizens of the USA was hidden by inventing sub-prime mortgages that creating billions of dollars of vapour wealth based on greed and irrational risk. This was deliberate transfer of your wealth to Dick Cheney's old company. Is that not called conspiracy?
After 9/11 Bush had a mandate to defeat his enemy. Instead he stirred a hornet's nest in a lurching dive for oil control. Instead of that he has handed his perceived enemy an economic whip of unbelieveable consequence. All for the SUVs and industry, unregulated are that affecting the air we breathe.
If it were not for the imperatives of not polluting the atmosphere so our children will breathe - it is the imperatives of disasterous climate change gripping the world with a peak of apocalyptic fear not unlike that which peaked around AIDS, SARS or Bird Flu. The media get excited and focus on the issue of the day. Sorry, we are being misled. AIDS is more dangerous today everyday. SARS may reappear as something else we do not understand yet. And Bird Flu does not depend on the continued interest of journalists or anyone.
Recent events of Biblical proportions appear to be submerging cities from the American landscape, climate change? Or just normal?
You can find "right thinking" rationales that we must keep on polluting as its progress - because 1934 was the hottest year recorded which "disproves Global Warming".
Eh? This trend of creating a layer of unrestricted pollution in our atmosphere is most probably the real cause of intergenerational acceleration of cancer, heart and resporatory problems. This stuff, this industrial scale pollution is not just changing the chemistry of the air. It is becoming part of our cellular makeup, our children are sicker and more problematic for it, and its certainly is therefore the very opposite of progress.
Is this the start of the new dark ages?
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Jailbreak
Terrorist Jail Break in Afghanistan
Suicide bombers and militants coordinate an attack on Khanadar's main prison releasing 1000 Taleban POWs back to the wilds.
Suicide bombers and militants coordinate an attack on Khanadar's main prison releasing 1000 Taleban POWs back to the wilds.
Afghanistan worsens
As Dennis Kuchinich reads his charges for impeachment of GW Bush and Dick Cheney, the folly of their actions is starting to kill more Americans in Afghanistan than Iraq, for the last month at least. This is partly due to "the surge" in Iraq reducing insurgency by killing more "terrorists" and others, but also to increased Taleban activity and the Al Qaeda leadership who continue to find sheltered and a base of resistance in Pakistan. But there are so many more soldiers in Iraq that each American death in Afghanistan is proportionately more "damage value" to the opposing side.
Reading the article linked above (click on the heading, or right-click to open it in a new tab*) makes me feel that there is an effort to say it is too hard to find Osama and this will be - or will be attempted to justify a limited nuclear strike to cut the head from the dragon, so to speak. There does seem to be a gathering force to expose evident obsessiveness of the American leadership combined with moral blindess and apparent illiteracy. Heading his old Press guy go public with his New York Times best seller - you distictly get the impression that as long as these guys run the USA, the world is playing Russian Roulette.
That another irrationally struck war or action this President could take to ease his frustration with the non-progress on his "War on Terror" - terrorism is worse than before but draconian Homeland Security has increased the risk to Al Qaeda operatives. As unbelieveablely huge and inefficient the DHS may be, it does require terrorists to fill out lots of forms, a sort of medevil test of guilt, perhaps.
But the DHS is more effective than the US forces are fighting a nonsensical war against all takers who want to try their luck in this human landscape video game emulation. It is a failure of Islam to allow youths to be so stupidly killed by overwhelming force. It is a failure of Christianity to allow its leader to justify committing crimes against humanity with a pack of lies.
The fierce war in Afghanistan/Pakistan threatens the United States of America. The insurgency in Iraq is a self inflicted wound.
*or update your browser to the latest Firefox 3, or Opera, or IE8 when it arrives
Reading the article linked above (click on the heading, or right-click to open it in a new tab*) makes me feel that there is an effort to say it is too hard to find Osama and this will be - or will be attempted to justify a limited nuclear strike to cut the head from the dragon, so to speak. There does seem to be a gathering force to expose evident obsessiveness of the American leadership combined with moral blindess and apparent illiteracy. Heading his old Press guy go public with his New York Times best seller - you distictly get the impression that as long as these guys run the USA, the world is playing Russian Roulette.
That another irrationally struck war or action this President could take to ease his frustration with the non-progress on his "War on Terror" - terrorism is worse than before but draconian Homeland Security has increased the risk to Al Qaeda operatives. As unbelieveablely huge and inefficient the DHS may be, it does require terrorists to fill out lots of forms, a sort of medevil test of guilt, perhaps.
But the DHS is more effective than the US forces are fighting a nonsensical war against all takers who want to try their luck in this human landscape video game emulation. It is a failure of Islam to allow youths to be so stupidly killed by overwhelming force. It is a failure of Christianity to allow its leader to justify committing crimes against humanity with a pack of lies.
The fierce war in Afghanistan/Pakistan threatens the United States of America. The insurgency in Iraq is a self inflicted wound.
*or update your browser to the latest Firefox 3, or Opera, or IE8 when it arrives
Monday, June 9, 2008
The end of war
The End of War is a notion, certainly, but it is also a statement of intent. Many do not understand war as anything other than a force that some evil leads our side into, until our side bluffs its way into warfare and we then question if our leadership really does know what it is doing, what right it has to life and death and what the limits on use of armies as police are, and why.
Leadership has to be more than bravery and, let's face it, being suckered up to by the manufacturers of weapons that require Governments to consume their armanents to stay in business is a source of election funding.
Americans may blame Jimmy Carter for things that were economic consequences of the massive cost of Vietnam. When shall we learn the Republican adventure is actually a larger and more expansionalist form of Government?
Leadership has to be more than bravery and, let's face it, being suckered up to by the manufacturers of weapons that require Governments to consume their armanents to stay in business is a source of election funding.
Americans may blame Jimmy Carter for things that were economic consequences of the massive cost of Vietnam. When shall we learn the Republican adventure is actually a larger and more expansionalist form of Government?
Sunday, June 1, 2008
On the brink
As the days tick by, the world seems to be waiting for the relief of the commencement of battle between Barack Obama and John McCain. The disquieting suspense of the inevitable is becoming unbearable, but if Hillary Clinton now wins, well...
It does seem to me that she is more likely to take the Presidential election without effort from John McCain. Which one would you buy an insurance policy from? Politically, that is exposure to a weakness.
In contrast, Barack Obama will have to fight and decimate McCain on the pulpit of leadership. There is a chance, from that, will emerge a leadership that can take the fight to and defeat a far larger dragon.
It seems to me that Barack Obama has it over the other two in terms of command presence. John McCain is too likely to have ideas based on the history of the Middle East and Europe and so antagonise a war between East and West - whereas Barack Obama is the only leader who sees his country's many problems as a non-unique status in the world.
He appears to be the one leader who can reconcile the American dream so that it does not appear like a nightmare to the rest of the human race.
It does seem to me that she is more likely to take the Presidential election without effort from John McCain. Which one would you buy an insurance policy from? Politically, that is exposure to a weakness.
In contrast, Barack Obama will have to fight and decimate McCain on the pulpit of leadership. There is a chance, from that, will emerge a leadership that can take the fight to and defeat a far larger dragon.
It seems to me that Barack Obama has it over the other two in terms of command presence. John McCain is too likely to have ideas based on the history of the Middle East and Europe and so antagonise a war between East and West - whereas Barack Obama is the only leader who sees his country's many problems as a non-unique status in the world.
He appears to be the one leader who can reconcile the American dream so that it does not appear like a nightmare to the rest of the human race.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Red Alert
Ever wonder how the ingenious Dept of Homeland Security Alert System of colour coded warnings was derived?
Take a look at the linked movie. Click the title. It explains the design team's philosophy and perhaps explains why the Dept of HS is so effective at stopping terrorists (except white ones) from being able to harm Americans. Damn! It is so effective that even GW got it almost immediately!
Here is the link again:
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Baby Trees (donationware)
You can spend a few dollars and fund planting a baby tree in the forests of Indonesia. If you want a good look at the forests of Borneo and the Amazon, check out Microsofts' super globe and sky examination tool downloadable on www.worldwidetelescope.org - one of the finer Microsoft implementations. Beautiful. Here is a "fair use" clip that shows its LOD (level of detail) of how humans hack into the Amazon rain forest.
WWT has less resolution at this stage than Google Earth; but the upward view of the galaxy is this product's strength. Yes, the view of this planet is rather good, notwithstanding the ability to use your mouse wheel and once the images resolves, but the a space eye view through one of the world's great telescopes of some of the largest works of natural art you will see. Nebulae and the huge huge galaxies dotted through space like sand. You see a night sky, and can zoom into The Plaiedes - like in this image clip. In the WWT you see it full screen.
Download WWT and maybe you will understand the world's climate when you look at the Southern Ocean and its furious cloudscape.
And anyone who plants a baby tree - let me know. It would be fun to watch it grow here! We could have a baby tree forest.
Friday, May 16, 2008
The new Obama
After confirmation of the Democratic nomination the guns train on the opponent - not the rival. John McCain may be a maverick Republican, but he firmly believes in respecting the historical emnity between "The West" and "The Axis of Evil".
GW Bush has been the "big game player" taking the very foolish and risky path into the Iraqi quagmire. If he had doubled his efforts in Afghanistan now, Al Qaeda may no longer be motivating and enabling young criminals to walk bombs into crowds of innocents or plant incendiaries aimed at US military targets in Iraq.
Or has the cancer spread on a train of its own infamy? Such a belief is frankly, madness. When GW Bush started to try and move against "the enemies of freedom" he did so in order to go to war in Iraq as that was his primary intention. Going to war in Afghanistan seems a pretext by Bush to secure involvement of NATO to reduces the military cost to the USA. He hoped for a coalition force in Iraq but few could take that faith electorially. Except Tony Blair.
Now, the USA is sick of being seen as an invalid invader and this is more than likely to be the meme during November more than the colour of either candidates' skin. In the end the logic of solving the problems of extraction is a military one, rather than a political one. And so Mr Obama enters the argument with an agressive and just approach constrasts starkly with McCain - stay there at all costs - logic.
During the presidential debate, I would not be suprised to hear more aggressive tactics in Obama's speaches - the Left will not lose faith as he has already expressly committed to ending the Iraq calamity - and when it comes down to it, even with GW Bush at the helm, the USA has just about survived. There is plenty of reasons that a message of hope is going to work with the democratic voice of Americans - but unless they dispose of the voting machines or audit them - there is no chance that it will be a fair fight.
The new Obama - the gloves can come off for the battle with McCain. Whomever the Democrat candidate is will face an ugly Republican attack. They call it "free speech" and that makes it okay and "constitutional".
Obama expresses a more detailed and diplomatic approach. He sees the value of winning the war in Afghanistan by not fighting one in Iraq but preventing one from brewing in Pakistan.
GW Bush has been the "big game player" taking the very foolish and risky path into the Iraqi quagmire. If he had doubled his efforts in Afghanistan now, Al Qaeda may no longer be motivating and enabling young criminals to walk bombs into crowds of innocents or plant incendiaries aimed at US military targets in Iraq.
Or has the cancer spread on a train of its own infamy? Such a belief is frankly, madness. When GW Bush started to try and move against "the enemies of freedom" he did so in order to go to war in Iraq as that was his primary intention. Going to war in Afghanistan seems a pretext by Bush to secure involvement of NATO to reduces the military cost to the USA. He hoped for a coalition force in Iraq but few could take that faith electorially. Except Tony Blair.
Now, the USA is sick of being seen as an invalid invader and this is more than likely to be the meme during November more than the colour of either candidates' skin. In the end the logic of solving the problems of extraction is a military one, rather than a political one. And so Mr Obama enters the argument with an agressive and just approach constrasts starkly with McCain - stay there at all costs - logic.
During the presidential debate, I would not be suprised to hear more aggressive tactics in Obama's speaches - the Left will not lose faith as he has already expressly committed to ending the Iraq calamity - and when it comes down to it, even with GW Bush at the helm, the USA has just about survived. There is plenty of reasons that a message of hope is going to work with the democratic voice of Americans - but unless they dispose of the voting machines or audit them - there is no chance that it will be a fair fight.
The new Obama - the gloves can come off for the battle with McCain. Whomever the Democrat candidate is will face an ugly Republican attack. They call it "free speech" and that makes it okay and "constitutional".
Obama expresses a more detailed and diplomatic approach. He sees the value of winning the war in Afghanistan by not fighting one in Iraq but preventing one from brewing in Pakistan.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
The future of solar power
The future of solar power is linked to the cost of the medium for generating it. If it is too expensive, then the cost savings do not come into play fast enough to make it attractive to the greed instinct. A possible future breakthrough lies in a thin film that absorbs sunlight and generates electricity. It takes far less material to build photovoltaic cells from high grade silicon that is over US$500 per pound. Solar power is therefore a whole lot cheaper to generate and once you have established a solar farm it works without moving parts for 30 years. Instead of adding to global warming, nuclear waste dumps or using a finite resource, maintaining large scape solar power batteries becomes more possible when it is seen in a social context. Every roof in a city for example. It is time to evolve away from dependence upon a resource that is always going to be available for free. Unless we pollute the atmosphere with too much soot from burning coal, or worse a 500 year nuclear winter.
Zimbabwe nightmare
It looks more and more like Mugabe is going to clasp on to power perhaps by changing the mind of everyone in the country who voted him out. Remains to be seen. But so far he has raided the opposition and rounded up election monitors who declared the recount went against him. He is the worst kind of fascist. A damn stupid one.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Tradition and history
We reflect on the heroes of past wars. And wear poppies to celebrate their pointless loss. Films of children on the news, five year olds saying lest we forget - "they gave their lives so we could be free" one blonde six year old deliberately spells out for us incase we did not see it. They were talking about the twenty thousand young ANZACs slaughted on the beach at Gallipoli during WW1.
She seemed too young to understand why exactly those young men gave their lives. She seemed too innocent to understand what privations and horror those young men suffered, or would have suffered if their military achivements were not cut short in perhaps their very first day of battle. A soldier dead on a beach landing does not make invasion more successful. It does not advance the cause.
The use of landing craft was so much more effective at Dunkirk. But many were killed. The tradition has now outlived its use, parachute them in or use air strikes if you have to eliminate hard targets. War is evolving, on both sides of the divide.
If North Korea have been more active in exporting nuclear expertise, according to Israel and reason for bombing an alleged reactor in Syria that the US has kept secret until now, and this latest revelatation that Kim Jong-il (the "genius") has figured out a way to counter the US first strike advantage bestowed on it by superior gun power. Military evolution at the expense of the people? Is this shocking?
All military evolution is at the expense of people.
If the US had spent just half of what they expended on the Iraq war, they could have fixed their health and education and the next generation of children educated there would not culturally short circuit the moment you say "learn from history".
The Traditions of Warfare have no meaning in today's world. The West routinely tortures and does not respect the rights of citizens to exist free of political interference. Politics was invented to prevent the abuse of power. The definition of security is not the same as "real security". It is easier for a Government to survive on doublespeak than the raw truth.
If tradition is no longer seen as a value or learned from, if it is seen as redundant because we now can kill people in more ingenious and threatening ways, then we lost our way.
Health and Eduction for all (including Iraqi children) is the slow and definite answer. War as an expedient is the traditional source of real evil.
She seemed too young to understand why exactly those young men gave their lives. She seemed too innocent to understand what privations and horror those young men suffered, or would have suffered if their military achivements were not cut short in perhaps their very first day of battle. A soldier dead on a beach landing does not make invasion more successful. It does not advance the cause.
The use of landing craft was so much more effective at Dunkirk. But many were killed. The tradition has now outlived its use, parachute them in or use air strikes if you have to eliminate hard targets. War is evolving, on both sides of the divide.
If North Korea have been more active in exporting nuclear expertise, according to Israel and reason for bombing an alleged reactor in Syria that the US has kept secret until now, and this latest revelatation that Kim Jong-il (the "genius") has figured out a way to counter the US first strike advantage bestowed on it by superior gun power. Military evolution at the expense of the people? Is this shocking?
All military evolution is at the expense of people.
If the US had spent just half of what they expended on the Iraq war, they could have fixed their health and education and the next generation of children educated there would not culturally short circuit the moment you say "learn from history".
The Traditions of Warfare have no meaning in today's world. The West routinely tortures and does not respect the rights of citizens to exist free of political interference. Politics was invented to prevent the abuse of power. The definition of security is not the same as "real security". It is easier for a Government to survive on doublespeak than the raw truth.
If tradition is no longer seen as a value or learned from, if it is seen as redundant because we now can kill people in more ingenious and threatening ways, then we lost our way.
Health and Eduction for all (including Iraqi children) is the slow and definite answer. War as an expedient is the traditional source of real evil.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Banned (from TV) cartoon
"very creepy, disturbing children's cartoon, banned from TV"
Views: 3,135,364
Original Sin, Version 0.31 ?
With over 3 million views, it carries a title that deserves to be quoted. An internet magic formula at work that also prompts me to comment about it. Is it sacreligeous? Heretical? Well, not quite.
Whether you agree with its ideas or imagery or find it objectionable you have to admit it is any bit as mystical as religious dogma of any faith - in that sense it seeks to be art. But to also be perceived as giving children a vision of that which competing religions seek to define, is troublesome to those who seek to steer clear of such defining influence.
The YouTube presentation is effective marketing. For clay-mation to subvert reality so effectively it simply has to be good because it is such a committed form of film making. When the mask of theatre becomes the mask of death it reveals that the powers that dictate seek to use our very lives as collateral that could be swallowed up in their wars for power. We are not very meaningful to the results of that equation.
Consider what the underground media in China spreading as their version of grass roots "conspiracy theory", stories of how the CIA exploits Tibet in a grand plot; where do you think "conspiracy theory" is written? Tibet is clearly a place to absorb a displaced population or burgeoning community. It is land theft on a massive scale. Overpopulation is a problem that will not just "go away"; addressing it by brute force to create a more successful low-cost economy out of a feudal cooperative always claims economic victims. Does China have the twin benefits of huge centralised wealth in an ocean of feudal poverty? How effectively capital can now successfully exploit the huge working class. Or does it elevate the masses to the very heart of power?
The rise of financial power powers this virtual continent within a continent but how socialised did it become after its one-child policy? It seems to have made an historical leap away from the cultural revolution. There are over a third of a million millionaires in China. "The number of U.S. millionaire households has risen to a record high of 9.3 million as of mid-2006". - TNS Newswire. Granted, China's wealth is more centralised and the potential for growth is enormous. But does this explain the adoption of concern by the Right Wing about "The Environment"? Perhaps it does. Addressing this without war is crucial to the continued existence of life on Earth. It probably really is.
Monday, April 21, 2008
The broken view
"McCain's whole discourse on Iraq is just a typical rightwing Washington fantasy made up in order to get you to spend $15 billion a month on his friends in the military industrial complex and to get you to allow him to gut the US constitution and the Bill of Rights." - Juan Cole
McCain takes a soldier's view. If you can't understand it, shoot it. If it still looks disagreeable, send in a tank or a cluster bomb and silence them. The USA does not need political leaders who appear to be still acting out of post traumatic stress disorder from being to hell and back as a soldier.
The world does not need the USA profiting from the sufferering created by enforcing an inaccurate political view of the world. The World agrees, terrorism is not the answer for anybody. Engagement by the US political machine now gearing up for its "big decision" may invoke discussions to prevent more military misadventures. A country committing to the unwise acts of a failed leadership seems inevitable as a result of the collective guilt accumulated and unjustified.
Can wisdom take over, or are we stuck with the broken view, this endless cycle of creating conflict and resolving it by killing people?
McCain seems to have a handle on the "failed war on drugs" because he takes a logical view that first time offenders require treatment instead of interment.
One can see him extending that logic to apprehend the guilt vote by saying that it is only fair the USA should complete the job it started. The problem seems that the situation in Iraq is not better or more stable than before and it has magnified the threat of terrorism.
One hears Obama saying he would walk away, or Clinton saying she would nuke Iran.
It does not sound contextually geniune - if Democrats who regularly return to this blog do not object too loudly.
Does the United Nations really understand the sitution in Iraq? And if Iran is about to harm Israel they have to do so knowing that Israel's response may be far worse than the USA's inevitable long term rebuilding excercise if it engaged with Iran over nuclear arms - whether they actually exist or not has proven to be a matter that the USA holds itself beyond the usual norms of truth or reality. Never mind, they are at war. So their behavior over the past seven years is beyond question.
Barack Obama may ultimately be the Democratic candidate, but defining his position on Iraq as chicken is too powerful a political tonic for McCain to exploit. Hilary Clinton realised that and that explains her recent belicose language about the USA response to Iran's threats towards Israel.
McCain takes a soldier's view. If you can't understand it, shoot it. If it still looks disagreeable, send in a tank or a cluster bomb and silence them. The USA does not need political leaders who appear to be still acting out of post traumatic stress disorder from being to hell and back as a soldier.
The world does not need the USA profiting from the sufferering created by enforcing an inaccurate political view of the world. The World agrees, terrorism is not the answer for anybody. Engagement by the US political machine now gearing up for its "big decision" may invoke discussions to prevent more military misadventures. A country committing to the unwise acts of a failed leadership seems inevitable as a result of the collective guilt accumulated and unjustified.
Can wisdom take over, or are we stuck with the broken view, this endless cycle of creating conflict and resolving it by killing people?
McCain seems to have a handle on the "failed war on drugs" because he takes a logical view that first time offenders require treatment instead of interment.
One can see him extending that logic to apprehend the guilt vote by saying that it is only fair the USA should complete the job it started. The problem seems that the situation in Iraq is not better or more stable than before and it has magnified the threat of terrorism.
One hears Obama saying he would walk away, or Clinton saying she would nuke Iran.
It does not sound contextually geniune - if Democrats who regularly return to this blog do not object too loudly.
Does the United Nations really understand the sitution in Iraq? And if Iran is about to harm Israel they have to do so knowing that Israel's response may be far worse than the USA's inevitable long term rebuilding excercise if it engaged with Iran over nuclear arms - whether they actually exist or not has proven to be a matter that the USA holds itself beyond the usual norms of truth or reality. Never mind, they are at war. So their behavior over the past seven years is beyond question.
Barack Obama may ultimately be the Democratic candidate, but defining his position on Iraq as chicken is too powerful a political tonic for McCain to exploit. Hilary Clinton realised that and that explains her recent belicose language about the USA response to Iran's threats towards Israel.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
UK Terror plot facing court
"The man, Assad Sarwar, was said to be in contact with terrorist leaders overseas and visited Pakistan a month before his arrest as preparations for the airline attacks were being finalised."
- quote from The Times article
UK based terror operations busted by the state now in trial. Our assessments about Pakistan seem to unfortunately be bearing out. Although it is a vast society and may take years to change in any direction, politically, it had the expedient of military rule that eventually just succumbed to civilian rule, reluctantly. Or he should, if I understand this right, from Khaleej Times. It is PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.
"Gen. (Retd) Pervez Musharraf will have to accept the verdict of the people given in the election and step down," Sharif said in an interview with Indian TV channel Aaj Tak to be telecast today, according to a PML-N Press release here.
"We intend to bring the legislation in parliament for President's removal," he said, adding "Musharraf is isolated and will have to go."
There is a terrifying sense of political entropy in Pakistan and Zimbabwe. The idea that the leader must change seemed not believed by the autocratic aspirations of leaders who deserve no recognition for their decisions.
Intransigent leaders who will not let go of power are subject to law to allow other minds time to make a difference. The result of no change of leadership is social sickness and intergenerational domination leading to decay. We must hope that the disease does not spread.
- quote from The Times article
Disturbing Trends Analysis
UK based terror operations busted by the state now in trial. Our assessments about Pakistan seem to unfortunately be bearing out. Although it is a vast society and may take years to change in any direction, politically, it had the expedient of military rule that eventually just succumbed to civilian rule, reluctantly. Or he should, if I understand this right, from Khaleej Times. It is PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.
"Gen. (Retd) Pervez Musharraf will have to accept the verdict of the people given in the election and step down," Sharif said in an interview with Indian TV channel Aaj Tak to be telecast today, according to a PML-N Press release here.
"We intend to bring the legislation in parliament for President's removal," he said, adding "Musharraf is isolated and will have to go."
There is a terrifying sense of political entropy in Pakistan and Zimbabwe. The idea that the leader must change seemed not believed by the autocratic aspirations of leaders who deserve no recognition for their decisions.
Intransigent leaders who will not let go of power are subject to law to allow other minds time to make a difference. The result of no change of leadership is social sickness and intergenerational domination leading to decay. We must hope that the disease does not spread.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Blair aide says talk to the Taleban
"Jonathan Powell, who served as Blair's chief of staff from 1995 to 2007 and is widely regarded as having been instrumental in negotiating a settlement in Northern Ireland, said his experience in the province convinced him that it was essential to keep a line of communication open even with one's most bitter enemies." - quote from article linked to headline.
The idea of wiping ones enemy from the face of the Earth may be the only other way of dealing with the Taleban and Al Qaeda. There is no black and white ruling that says that every member is as culpable as Osama bin Laden. In other words there is questionable moral justification setting out to murder every member of the cult just because of the actions of its leaders and its leading henchmen. There is little use if a more vicious generation seeking jihad and revenge for the death of their family then join the cult.
There is a military side that speaks against all this posturing against Iran. Treat them like they have nuclear weapons. Do not invade them, but take up negotiations with them and afford them the respect of knowing them. Hatred between countries is meaningless.
The way for the USA to grow up and out of this need to push others down to feel on top of things is to get around a table and talk. If Iran want to make unreasonable demands or the extremes of Islam want to destroy the West - then we had best seek clarification of their real meaning before killing every single one of them.
I doubt Iran wants very much to be a Nuclear state. It would be a political ace up any leader's sleeve to have recourse to nuclear weapons. Of course the US president is probably advised daily of the danger that they do not really know Iran's intentions. So why not talk with them and find out?
The idea of wiping ones enemy from the face of the Earth may be the only other way of dealing with the Taleban and Al Qaeda. There is no black and white ruling that says that every member is as culpable as Osama bin Laden. In other words there is questionable moral justification setting out to murder every member of the cult just because of the actions of its leaders and its leading henchmen. There is little use if a more vicious generation seeking jihad and revenge for the death of their family then join the cult.
There is a military side that speaks against all this posturing against Iran. Treat them like they have nuclear weapons. Do not invade them, but take up negotiations with them and afford them the respect of knowing them. Hatred between countries is meaningless.
The way for the USA to grow up and out of this need to push others down to feel on top of things is to get around a table and talk. If Iran want to make unreasonable demands or the extremes of Islam want to destroy the West - then we had best seek clarification of their real meaning before killing every single one of them.
I doubt Iran wants very much to be a Nuclear state. It would be a political ace up any leader's sleeve to have recourse to nuclear weapons. Of course the US president is probably advised daily of the danger that they do not really know Iran's intentions. So why not talk with them and find out?
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Juan Cole - who is Al Qaeda's choice for US President?
Video produced by NY Times bloggingheads with Juan Cole. For more Juan Cole check out his blog on our list below.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Where is the final straw?
It started with the gross tax cuts. Giving several billion back to the echelon of the very rich provided opportunities for insanity. And out it came - another fictional revolution in valuation. The property market revalued and revalued but the US sharemarket has been relatively flat over the past eight years. Strange how a disinterested at first President caught at the ranch not just in the weekends until a strange blessing from his rival in the disguise of extreme disaster blessed this President with outrageous power. Tax cuts. They would go ahead. And they did. And then new vehicles to absorb the extra cash were invented, possibly the very very rich stopped buying futures when they started to bite back or maybe the extra liquidity violates the primary law of monetary policy - hunger provides need that makes logic paramount. In the US economy risk became paramount to keep the stock brokers from ennui when nothing but profit rocked the 90s. Since they started to pillory Hillary and her husband some years back, the US seemed to lose the plot.
Maybe that is because they are under the control of a politician who's only definition of management is after-the-fact over-reaction and waste caused by a lack of real consideration beyond making Dick Cheney fat - like he was winning a bet with his Dad - the real President Bush. This President Bush tarnished the memory of his father by violating the principal upon which his father gained the world's support going to war against Saddam. Bush Jr was always going to have something to resolve and putting the US military at the whim of this man has proven to be horribly expensive.
So the tax cuts generated pointless liquidity, no need to worry, clever dick's at investment banks invented ways to dress bad debt up so it looked like people could pay them, but no real capital gain was realised. Too much building changes the nature of the economy. Ownership gets centralised.
The frivalous investment in bad debt - which when you think about it is simply snake oil - had to collapse as nobody is going to want it. Who wants over expansion when we know we are already damaging nature to the degree that our children's lives are threatened? What kind of people are we? Sub-primates?
And now - the US Government with its most Right wing of right winged leaders finds his treasury bailing out the fifth largest financial institution. Is this a meltdown? Is that an earthquake on the horizon? If so, watch out for the Tsunami.
Maybe that is because they are under the control of a politician who's only definition of management is after-the-fact over-reaction and waste caused by a lack of real consideration beyond making Dick Cheney fat - like he was winning a bet with his Dad - the real President Bush. This President Bush tarnished the memory of his father by violating the principal upon which his father gained the world's support going to war against Saddam. Bush Jr was always going to have something to resolve and putting the US military at the whim of this man has proven to be horribly expensive.
So the tax cuts generated pointless liquidity, no need to worry, clever dick's at investment banks invented ways to dress bad debt up so it looked like people could pay them, but no real capital gain was realised. Too much building changes the nature of the economy. Ownership gets centralised.
The frivalous investment in bad debt - which when you think about it is simply snake oil - had to collapse as nobody is going to want it. Who wants over expansion when we know we are already damaging nature to the degree that our children's lives are threatened? What kind of people are we? Sub-primates?
And now - the US Government with its most Right wing of right winged leaders finds his treasury bailing out the fifth largest financial institution. Is this a meltdown? Is that an earthquake on the horizon? If so, watch out for the Tsunami.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
First Plauges
The idea that climate change is "far off" is indeed unfortunate. It excuses the United States from its claim to indulge itself. Utterly. With wealth and ridiculously so. They measure their progress by how much a presidential candidate may spend. By how close to suicide its celebrities can be driven. But for most it is the daily drudge of meeting the obligations life lays on you. Not understanding that what used to be a score card in a game you could lose was now your bank account.
For most however falling back on credit is not really going to do a whole lot, as there is no possibility that payment will proceed. It is as though the Bush Administration looked at what they had inherited and decided unanimously that it was not taking enough risk. Bushnomics is to reduce taxes and spend up huge on military wastage. It will take a generation to recover from, we keep hearing, but the idea that it has hastened certain economic doom and risk human extinction seems more like where its headed.
Climate change is immediate in economic terms. Damage from increasing unpredictability is just the wave building up. We have to face the fact that are are doing nothing about climate change; and if the USA elects McCain it is likely that the incredibly useless Iraq war will escalate, thus forcing more carbon into the atmosphere. The eventual result of that is non-recovery from the changed condition it may inflict - real global warming - that may take thousands of years to recover from - but that is only if McCain were to escalate the war.
We as a race, a human race, work best when we have hope.
It is necessary to have a thinker who understands how to improve the situation at the top. A tough US president who seeks to fool his opponents into surrender was tried already; with disasterous consequences, by Nixon threatening the Soviets with Nuclear attack and flying laden B52s up their way for twelve hours. Kiss the ground.
It is also necessary to have a person who understands the mutual effects of progress. It is perhaps a pity that Hillary Clinton went a little negative attack in this race, as it makes here look bad. Obama is at least an extraordinary opponent for anyone.
And that is his strength. He holds the key to unlock the deadly way of the American mindset that so devalues their currency and price to the rest of us. But that is not the crisis that the incoming president will face.
It will be the starvation and disease causing population decreases in some parts of the world, spreading like deserts into their own community. Unless they sit up and change their war making polluting ways, we are all bound to be annihilated by arrogance.
For most however falling back on credit is not really going to do a whole lot, as there is no possibility that payment will proceed. It is as though the Bush Administration looked at what they had inherited and decided unanimously that it was not taking enough risk. Bushnomics is to reduce taxes and spend up huge on military wastage. It will take a generation to recover from, we keep hearing, but the idea that it has hastened certain economic doom and risk human extinction seems more like where its headed.
Climate change is immediate in economic terms. Damage from increasing unpredictability is just the wave building up. We have to face the fact that are are doing nothing about climate change; and if the USA elects McCain it is likely that the incredibly useless Iraq war will escalate, thus forcing more carbon into the atmosphere. The eventual result of that is non-recovery from the changed condition it may inflict - real global warming - that may take thousands of years to recover from - but that is only if McCain were to escalate the war.
We as a race, a human race, work best when we have hope.
It is necessary to have a thinker who understands how to improve the situation at the top. A tough US president who seeks to fool his opponents into surrender was tried already; with disasterous consequences, by Nixon threatening the Soviets with Nuclear attack and flying laden B52s up their way for twelve hours. Kiss the ground.
It is also necessary to have a person who understands the mutual effects of progress. It is perhaps a pity that Hillary Clinton went a little negative attack in this race, as it makes here look bad. Obama is at least an extraordinary opponent for anyone.
And that is his strength. He holds the key to unlock the deadly way of the American mindset that so devalues their currency and price to the rest of us. But that is not the crisis that the incoming president will face.
It will be the starvation and disease causing population decreases in some parts of the world, spreading like deserts into their own community. Unless they sit up and change their war making polluting ways, we are all bound to be annihilated by arrogance.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Fearmongers will select McCain
In this article a disturbing trend is revealed that fear in the US election gives McCain a formidable weapon. It seems people who think that the war is a mistake to fight think McCain is the most likely person to get America out of this mess. Yeah, right. It seems obvious and we have tried to make this point obvious. But what I find suprising is that they have more faith in Barak Obama than Hillary Clinton in this matter. One has to ask why, when she voted for the war, so did McCain. She does not say pull the troops out, yet Obama does.
A sign of mass delusion? Dangerous?
Yes. It is.
A sign of mass delusion? Dangerous?
Yes. It is.
The US Military Knows
The US Military intelligence has finally caught up with common sense and revealed that the exaggerated threat of Saddam Hussein never had much to do with the underestimated threat of Al Qaeda. And although the military operation in Afghanistan was widely supported, the one in Iraq was not. And that is due to the perceived threat of the Taleban. An organisation that took over a nation in political turmoil after it was created mostly by the cold war if not the CIA to oppose the Russian invasion. Al Qaeda claims to be inresponse to the American occupation of Islamic Holy Lands, and the attacks the alliance of the Saudi elite and the US Government unreflected democratically in that country. Pakistan moved away from military rule when given the democratic option. At least that means it can evolve albeit fairly slowly from the status of the oppressed to that of the free. "Free" meaning that part of the world that pays its taxes, supports a huge military and is agressive to everyone else except one or two "allies".
Another way of looking at the twentieth century is seeing American dominance as a beneign hegemony over its own fragmented empire. A Federal State with 50 client states many with national sized economies has augmented the most in terms of debt and militarised economy in human history. But now the rest of the world sees it as a hungry beast. One that must be fed ahead of everyone else. This is not hatred of Americans or anything like that. The poor will always look at the rich with some antipathy, but wealth is a choice, or in fact a series of choices. How can you be the wealthiest and yet the most in debt? If "communism" is such a failure as Regan promised, why is China just as successful as India?
That is what makes democracy so smart. It is like evolution, if it improves things, those in power get more power. If things get worse, they are on thin ice. In theory.
Probably exactly the opposite has become true due to the distortions in the social order imposed by the weight of American debt, how the lack of investment in basic needs for progress rather than paranoia has become an American trait - why America is very likely to actually go for John McCain. The dream ticket is evident for the Democrats, democracy will win through. In the end though it seems that the choice of VP will make all the difference no matter who runs for the White House.
Another way of looking at the twentieth century is seeing American dominance as a beneign hegemony over its own fragmented empire. A Federal State with 50 client states many with national sized economies has augmented the most in terms of debt and militarised economy in human history. But now the rest of the world sees it as a hungry beast. One that must be fed ahead of everyone else. This is not hatred of Americans or anything like that. The poor will always look at the rich with some antipathy, but wealth is a choice, or in fact a series of choices. How can you be the wealthiest and yet the most in debt? If "communism" is such a failure as Regan promised, why is China just as successful as India?
That is what makes democracy so smart. It is like evolution, if it improves things, those in power get more power. If things get worse, they are on thin ice. In theory.
Probably exactly the opposite has become true due to the distortions in the social order imposed by the weight of American debt, how the lack of investment in basic needs for progress rather than paranoia has become an American trait - why America is very likely to actually go for John McCain. The dream ticket is evident for the Democrats, democracy will win through. In the end though it seems that the choice of VP will make all the difference no matter who runs for the White House.
Friday, March 7, 2008
International Connectiveness
Disturbing Trends is now being served from Atlanta based servers to improve international availability for all. We noticed a slowdown when we hosted locally.
The problem is apparently a lot of contention for international bandwidth - our local infrastructure is good for local sites, but Disturbing Trends is hardly about New Zealand, although this year we had to sadly report that it suddenly became troubled by a huge police operation against multiple "terror cells" - some of them were probably some local boys out shooting ducks but the public needs an explanation for the Napalm rehearsals.
Tama Iti, one man famous not just for his remarkable face full moko - and it's a superb example of the power of the reality of this powerful Maori art form has become the symbol of the forces that want to set up a Maori sovereign nation that the New Zealand Government is strictly opposed to; a separitist state run by Maori for Maori has a point, but only up to a point. There is more to gain by sharing strengh than arguing. But debate is between the living, on both sides of any thing worth debating.
Weapons of war have no place in this magical land. The meeting place is a place where minds work best but the battle field may bring about the flash of heroics, fear and dread: progress is about enabling people to get what they want as individuals, not selfish demagogs who are dictating to others that violations may unlock magical political clout. Nobody is going to want to listen to anyone who commits atrocities. We want to listen to what Mr Iti has to say. What he thinks as well as his more media savvy grand gestures.
The problem is apparently a lot of contention for international bandwidth - our local infrastructure is good for local sites, but Disturbing Trends is hardly about New Zealand, although this year we had to sadly report that it suddenly became troubled by a huge police operation against multiple "terror cells" - some of them were probably some local boys out shooting ducks but the public needs an explanation for the Napalm rehearsals.
Tama Iti, one man famous not just for his remarkable face full moko - and it's a superb example of the power of the reality of this powerful Maori art form has become the symbol of the forces that want to set up a Maori sovereign nation that the New Zealand Government is strictly opposed to; a separitist state run by Maori for Maori has a point, but only up to a point. There is more to gain by sharing strengh than arguing. But debate is between the living, on both sides of any thing worth debating.Weapons of war have no place in this magical land. The meeting place is a place where minds work best but the battle field may bring about the flash of heroics, fear and dread: progress is about enabling people to get what they want as individuals, not selfish demagogs who are dictating to others that violations may unlock magical political clout. Nobody is going to want to listen to anyone who commits atrocities. We want to listen to what Mr Iti has to say. What he thinks as well as his more media savvy grand gestures.
Hilary vs John McCain
It seems to be that Hillary Clinton has a better chance against John McCain than Barak Obama as she is presents a less liberal target for him to hurl shame at, she voted for the same war he would fund, she would at least want to lower taxes, whereas Barak Obama may have to raise them. That is at least what Mr McCain will claim. So lets assume that Hillary is in the running. Who will she pick as a VP? Someone who inspires us of inherent value.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Risking the game
One of the most obvious things to other would be leaders is there are risks in the game. These are the calculated actions that help, not repeatable, but significant. Corner turning moments captured by the media and represented as somehow world changing or significant. Sometimes they are significant. Like the day that Dr Martin Luther King stood up and spoke of his dream. Oprah's favourite moment. So it is signficant as heck.
How about Hillary's tears. Although it is repeatable, it is not a moment that should or should not be repeated, for goodness sake. Hillary is best when she, like Obama is both well rehearsed, relaxed and spontaneous.
Relaxing before the world's every moment recorded as reality by the snapping news hungry digital dissection services that are providing the adverting haul of the century.
Nature - that is what will win the election. Our sense of being ourselves, or in the case of folk from the U.S of A - their-selves.
The noble possess power and allow others to exhibit full dignity. Not sharing power - for example those who "own" the mineral rights of the land wreaked sluicing out the coal, diamonds or ore - the ignoble disinheritance of the land is gradually being reversed in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Spiritual ownership does not represent much if there are no rights associated with it. Perhaps mineral rights? Conflict with indigenous rights present deep trouble to post colonial government. And empowering rather than asset stripping the indigenous folk of New Zealand has resurrected one of the greater cultures mankind has devised with a rich system of roots over a thousand years inhabiting this land, an evolved system of justice, government and a sense of enterprise.
The culture never went away, but "mainstream" perception of it was entirely lacking. White culture perhaps is so as it used bleach on its perceptions. How else can you cover the crime of slavery or enforced possession via convenient acts of war?
The right wing governments say "move on - move on" from all this regression into yesteryear and the multitude of injustices that can be harvested from history.
There does come a point where moving on is more practical, but what point is there allowing the ideals of slavery to rule our existence?
There comes a point when risking the game is necessary, when your principles take front seat and you stake your claim in your corner. Candidates that have achieved that seem to get ahead. Unless their view is too different from the norm.
Sounds like I am saying that Hillary can win? I doubt it. I think the winds of change have blown the electorate off its conventions and balance.
How about Hillary's tears. Although it is repeatable, it is not a moment that should or should not be repeated, for goodness sake. Hillary is best when she, like Obama is both well rehearsed, relaxed and spontaneous.
Relaxing before the world's every moment recorded as reality by the snapping news hungry digital dissection services that are providing the adverting haul of the century.
Nature - that is what will win the election. Our sense of being ourselves, or in the case of folk from the U.S of A - their-selves.
The noble possess power and allow others to exhibit full dignity. Not sharing power - for example those who "own" the mineral rights of the land wreaked sluicing out the coal, diamonds or ore - the ignoble disinheritance of the land is gradually being reversed in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Spiritual ownership does not represent much if there are no rights associated with it. Perhaps mineral rights? Conflict with indigenous rights present deep trouble to post colonial government. And empowering rather than asset stripping the indigenous folk of New Zealand has resurrected one of the greater cultures mankind has devised with a rich system of roots over a thousand years inhabiting this land, an evolved system of justice, government and a sense of enterprise.
The culture never went away, but "mainstream" perception of it was entirely lacking. White culture perhaps is so as it used bleach on its perceptions. How else can you cover the crime of slavery or enforced possession via convenient acts of war?
The right wing governments say "move on - move on" from all this regression into yesteryear and the multitude of injustices that can be harvested from history.
There does come a point where moving on is more practical, but what point is there allowing the ideals of slavery to rule our existence?
There comes a point when risking the game is necessary, when your principles take front seat and you stake your claim in your corner. Candidates that have achieved that seem to get ahead. Unless their view is too different from the norm.
Sounds like I am saying that Hillary can win? I doubt it. I think the winds of change have blown the electorate off its conventions and balance.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Three Trillion US Dollars
The real cost of the Iraqi misadventure to the people of the USA has been calculated by a Nobel winning economist at over three trillion dollars.
The Politic of it all
The language dictating insticts of voters is distinct. At least those who admit they would be guided by sounds of his name are aware of the insidious effect of a cultural apathy towards obvious things that "could be better".
Intelligent deconstruction, recognition of what content versus delivery consists of, or reveals of each American candidate.
Looking past skin colour, religious history, gender, marital trust issues, the sounds of names or dollars invested in advertising - there still has to be a "politic" to win the final battle.
Mr Obama wins as he has richer friends behind his message?
Or will the money be made truly irrelevent as McCain sails past soul searching Democrats. Damning themselves for "not going with the woman".
Intelligent deconstruction, recognition of what content versus delivery consists of, or reveals of each American candidate.
Looking past skin colour, religious history, gender, marital trust issues, the sounds of names or dollars invested in advertising - there still has to be a "politic" to win the final battle.
Mr Obama wins as he has richer friends behind his message?
Or will the money be made truly irrelevent as McCain sails past soul searching Democrats. Damning themselves for "not going with the woman".
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Frog from hell' fossil unearthed
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Frog from hell' fossil unearthed
70 million years ago a 4 kg giant toad lunged about eating small animals in Madagascar or what was it then. Evolution included their ability to maintain their food source. It looks to me that it just ate everything in sight, eventually leading to its own extinction.
70 million years ago a 4 kg giant toad lunged about eating small animals in Madagascar or what was it then. Evolution included their ability to maintain their food source. It looks to me that it just ate everything in sight, eventually leading to its own extinction.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Daily Kos
If "race" is the subject matter they talk about, should attacks on Barak Obama venture into that territory? Probably a rather out-dated form of politics, we think.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Spy vs Spy
All the billions of dollars spent on the homeland security venture and the CIA and this is the best they can do, writing in-credible press releases. The trouble is that the world's media swallow it all up without question. Perhaps those days of media collaboration are finished.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Elizabeth Holtzman's Courageous Call for Impeachment -- It Is Necessary, It is Possible, And It Will Strengthen Us | BuzzFlash.org
Elizabeth Holtzman's Courageous Call for Impeachment -- It Is Necessary, It is Possible, And It Will Strengthen Us | BuzzFlash.org
Read Elizabeth Holtzman on the call for impeachment. It is certainly not too late and may indeed be vital for the future if America is to remain at all democratic.
It has in effect acted like ruthless and legalistic totalitarian force in a world that has been damaged by the deliberate crimes against progress for the USA.
Read Elizabeth Holtzman on the call for impeachment. It is certainly not too late and may indeed be vital for the future if America is to remain at all democratic.
It has in effect acted like ruthless and legalistic totalitarian force in a world that has been damaged by the deliberate crimes against progress for the USA.
Friday, February 8, 2008
AFP: US military in Iraq shows video of 'Al-Qaeda training children'
AFP: US military in Iraq shows video of 'Al-Qaeda training children'
In recent weeks, US and Iraqi spokesmen have raised new concerns over Al-Qaeda's alleged use of children and the mentally impaired in suicide bombings, which Smith called a "disturbing trend."
This supports our earlier allegations that Al Qaeda is a cult. And one that victimizes, bullies and breeds adherents to follow their martyrs in causing death.
In recent weeks, US and Iraqi spokesmen have raised new concerns over Al-Qaeda's alleged use of children and the mentally impaired in suicide bombings, which Smith called a "disturbing trend."
This supports our earlier allegations that Al Qaeda is a cult. And one that victimizes, bullies and breeds adherents to follow their martyrs in causing death.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
The Gutter
One must accept that it could be propaganda, but if so, then it is highly effective.
The use of Downs Syndrome women to deliver explosives unwittingly, sheds new light on this "war on terror". The idea of abusive men strapping explosives to the bodies of the innocent is hard to erase and the daunting little walk they had to take to be clear of the perpetrator's remote signal.
Can the CIA identify the perpetrators of these "suicide" missions when everyone has a cellphone? It is possible to receive and record that traffic - since the time and place of the event is known, it figures that the CIA would invest some of their considerable resource measured in billions of dollars establishing a method by which they can find those responsible so such actions are no longer tenable.
The use of mentally impaired people in this way is unsuprising, it is an act of extraordinary cowardice and exposure of these men to their own society is essential to rid the Islamic faith of the Al Qaeda disease. They have no right to call themselves men of Islam if they are offering the lives of those they have abused and who can not say no. They are nothing. Why are we calling it a "suicide bomber" attack?
It is murder, murder and more murder. Nothing but murder. Yes, it is sad they used dupes to carry their explosives into a crowded market. That they use mentally impaired women reflects Al Qaeda misogyny more so than a measure of the US invasion or its "effectiveness". One has to consider, is the effect of each no different to the lives of the individual Iraqi?
The use of Downs Syndrome women to deliver explosives unwittingly, sheds new light on this "war on terror". The idea of abusive men strapping explosives to the bodies of the innocent is hard to erase and the daunting little walk they had to take to be clear of the perpetrator's remote signal.
Can the CIA identify the perpetrators of these "suicide" missions when everyone has a cellphone? It is possible to receive and record that traffic - since the time and place of the event is known, it figures that the CIA would invest some of their considerable resource measured in billions of dollars establishing a method by which they can find those responsible so such actions are no longer tenable.
The use of mentally impaired people in this way is unsuprising, it is an act of extraordinary cowardice and exposure of these men to their own society is essential to rid the Islamic faith of the Al Qaeda disease. They have no right to call themselves men of Islam if they are offering the lives of those they have abused and who can not say no. They are nothing. Why are we calling it a "suicide bomber" attack?
It is murder, murder and more murder. Nothing but murder. Yes, it is sad they used dupes to carry their explosives into a crowded market. That they use mentally impaired women reflects Al Qaeda misogyny more so than a measure of the US invasion or its "effectiveness". One has to consider, is the effect of each no different to the lives of the individual Iraqi?
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Nuclear Inflation
"The cost of decommissioning Britain's 19 ageing nuclear plants has jumped from £61bn to £73bn in two years and could land the taxpayer with even higher bills in the future, a report by the National Audit Office reveals today."
So, the cost of decommisioning goes up by 10% per annum. The UK had better get cracking before they can not afford to do it.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Al Qaeda - The grass roots?
BOPA Daily News Archive
Industrialization and globalisation have some unremarkable consequences. Empowering rebellion is going to be a risk when profiteering companies harvest cheap human labour.
The terrorism crisis is partly down to the greed popularly contested for by our Western multinationals. Not to be outdone, watch out for similarly lumbering bests from the East.
Industrialization and globalisation have some unremarkable consequences. Empowering rebellion is going to be a risk when profiteering companies harvest cheap human labour.
The terrorism crisis is partly down to the greed popularly contested for by our Western multinationals. Not to be outdone, watch out for similarly lumbering bests from the East.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Background Developments
Ask Al Qaeda
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/21/ask.alqaeda.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Medicinal plants facing extinction
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7196702.stm
Nuclear Warfare
http://www.guardian.co.uk/nato/story/0,,2244782,00.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/21/ask.alqaeda.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Medicinal plants facing extinction
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7196702.stm
Nuclear Warfare
http://www.guardian.co.uk/nato/story/0,,2244782,00.html
Monday, January 21, 2008
Crash
This insane economy that has failed to grow since 2000 has basically lived on borrowed money with a hope that things may get better but the end result is much worse.
The whole point of releasing the top 1% to invest is productivity. Instead we have increased risk with sub-prime madness. Why lend to those who can never repay? How is that going to work?
Oh it is easy Mr Treasury. We flood the market with tax cuts at the top end and raise speculation through the roof. This gambling with the financial stability of our grandchildren undertaken primarily by the Bush administration and the cowboys running the big banks has resulted in wiping out the capital base of many huge financial institutions. The return of slavery is probably next.
The whole point of releasing the top 1% to invest is productivity. Instead we have increased risk with sub-prime madness. Why lend to those who can never repay? How is that going to work?
Oh it is easy Mr Treasury. We flood the market with tax cuts at the top end and raise speculation through the roof. This gambling with the financial stability of our grandchildren undertaken primarily by the Bush administration and the cowboys running the big banks has resulted in wiping out the capital base of many huge financial institutions. The return of slavery is probably next.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Clinton Is Victor, Defeating Obama; McCain Also Wins - New York Times
Clinton Is Victor, Defeating Obama; McCain Also Wins - New York Times
Each field of candidates in the USA Presidential primaries have established two leading voices. In Iowa, the moral aspirations of each side prevailed but in New Hampshire a harsher reality was reflected. Obama and Hukerbee appear to share commitment and charm. They appear to represent the more optimistic side of things.
Clinton and McCain reassure those who still feel security is paramount. This is the pessimistic side. The "realists". They enter office believing America is under threat and continue losing much money with military adventures to "protect Americans".
The trouble with an apologist following a monster is the actions the monster took are not reversed but diluted - they continue to rust away the foundations of security, albeit in more rationale doses. Until eventually it becomes too expensive, and then they stop. It is the money involved that makes change a more likely democratic solution.
Change only usually occurs by doing something different. It is not that there are singular right answers to the problems the new president will face in 2009. Bush and Cheney have until them to continue to excercise their beliefs; ergo, an impeachment hearing may not just defeat such efforts, but it would turn US politics on its head. But for good reason. Impeaching Bill Clinton was political. Would impeaching Dick Cheney could help Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama be more evenly matched and thus give Americans a better democratic choice?
Each field of candidates in the USA Presidential primaries have established two leading voices. In Iowa, the moral aspirations of each side prevailed but in New Hampshire a harsher reality was reflected. Obama and Hukerbee appear to share commitment and charm. They appear to represent the more optimistic side of things.
Clinton and McCain reassure those who still feel security is paramount. This is the pessimistic side. The "realists". They enter office believing America is under threat and continue losing much money with military adventures to "protect Americans".
The trouble with an apologist following a monster is the actions the monster took are not reversed but diluted - they continue to rust away the foundations of security, albeit in more rationale doses. Until eventually it becomes too expensive, and then they stop. It is the money involved that makes change a more likely democratic solution.
Change only usually occurs by doing something different. It is not that there are singular right answers to the problems the new president will face in 2009. Bush and Cheney have until them to continue to excercise their beliefs; ergo, an impeachment hearing may not just defeat such efforts, but it would turn US politics on its head. But for good reason. Impeaching Bill Clinton was political. Would impeaching Dick Cheney could help Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama be more evenly matched and thus give Americans a better democratic choice?
Friday, January 4, 2008
Barak Obama and War
Barrack Obama has the largest turnout and number of votes. In this speech to the Democratic Party - he shows why he is generating an emotional response from his electorate.
Does he represent what Americans want, or is he so bound to his convictions he will fail to see the "bigger picture"? One senses a sort of obsessive left wing response to the failed Bush years that made America the terrible, invading Iraq for the sake of it rather than to win a war against the Taleban - the bastard children of yesterday's war, rape and pillage. War without end is a terrible drain on the future. The effect on the American health system of a few thousand badly disfigured and derranged vets is minor compared to the effect of war on the young of Afghanistan. Thank Bush for the next wave of convicted Jihadi warriors born in Iraq during the violence of the past 10 years. Yes we know Saddam was evil. Bush has unleashed a more evil evil by committing American forces to war crimes.
The challenge the next president faces include the containment of a nuclear Pakistan, Iran and Israel. Disturbing Trends predicts you can add Turkey and Saudi Arabia to that list. Turkey may wage war against an emerging Kurdish state.
It is not the use of nuclear weapons guiding circumstance, it is the threat of them being controlled by a fundamentalist Islamic logic. That has already occurred by proxy. How much pressure can exist inside Pakistan and Afghanistan before Iran does not feel it needs better defenses? Is that not the real issue Iran is going to be facing over the next ten years?
The USA and the USSR were not able to negotiate without one bankrupting the other. US Government has flirted with nuclear superiority as a right. It then postulated M.A.D. - a state of neither side wanting to murder its voters. It nurtured a military class in Afghanistan and supported a military dictatorship in Pakistan then invaded Iraq. Like Iran-Contra, these strategies have landed the US in danger.
Rename the war on terror the war on the Taleban and win it.
The USA will withdraw from Iraq gradually over the next few months. Then it may invade Pakistan unless a democratic process is able to produce a constructive government.
A Barak Obama led White House says it would withdraw the troops from Iraq. But is Pakistan going to let him withdraw troops from Iraq? What about Saudi Arabia? Maybe after a CIA briefing or two, it will be harder to predict what Obama will do.
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