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Changing of the God: The Conceit of Science, the Poverty of the New Atheism, and the Rise of Techno-Fascism
ddjango
These days, no one should be faulted for feeling a certain overload of the senses and emotions. Good news seems to be hiding under big boulders somewhere. "If it isn't one thing, it's another" is a cliche that doesn't quite get at it.
It isn't just the economy or the environment or the wars and rumors of wars - it's damn near everything. "Hell in a hand basket" doesn't make the grade either. Where is the relief? Even those who hoped that things might brighten up with the ascendancy of Barack Obama are finding holes in their armor of "hope" and "change".
It's as if we were bolted into the tarmac at the intersection of several runways. Toward each one of them a massive, crippled Airbus heads in for a crash landing, landing gear up, engines aflame, air brakes screaming.
Oh, come all ye faithful… Let’s crush Gaza, starve their little ones
Stuart Littlewood
Who is holding the governments of Britain, the EU and the US to account this Christmas for aiding and abetting the deliberate starving of 1.5 million in Gaza?
Hardly anybody. Most of those in a position to do so are Friends of Israel.
What of our foreign secretary, David Miliband, our very Christian prime minister Brown and our even more pious peace envoy Mr Blair…. have they done anything at all to insist that Israel’s blockade is ended?
Fear of Socialism
Jim Miles
Two recent events have prompted the ideas behind this article – in truth, the whole history of recent events have prompted the following comments, but it is two in particular that gave the push to write them down.
The first event, unknown to most of the world, was a tempest in a teapot when the opposition parties in Canada made a legal political manoeuvre under our representational parliamentary system to take over the administration of the government. Stephen Harper, Canada’s answer to George Bush, has made several critical mistakes recently, the first was an election call before his own mandated four year date, an election during which he argued that the economy was fine and they would not run a deficit budget, and then having received a minority government, proceeded to act as if he had a majority (when in reality he only had 38 per cent of the popular vote) and introduced a budget outline that was at best lousy. That budget paper incurred the wrath of the opposition parties and brought about the announcement of a coalition to defeat the government. Harper’s immature rant in response included the good old U.S. fear factor of socialism, with Harper and cronies warning everyone about the socialist hordes in the opposition (who combined held - obviously - the majority of the votes).
In auto bailout, don't make workers pay the price for corporate greed
Mary Shaw
I don't usually see eye-to-eye with George W. Bush, but I am grateful that he took some steps last week to bail out the auto industry.
After all, how could we bail out the Wall Street elite without also making an effort to save the largest single segment of the U.S. manufacturing industry?
In other words, how can we bail out the white collar bankers without making a similar gesture to save the blue collar auto workers who have traditionally formed the foundation of the U.S. economy?
The Power Elite Playbook, Controlled Conflict and Staged Incompetence, Part 20
Deanna Spingola
The war conspirators included a Standard Oil attorney, Henry L. Stimson (Skull & Bones), who was a Thomas Lamont ally, and partner with Elihu Root in a law firm on Wall Street, the nucleus of the powerful American Establishment. Following Washington’s proverbial revolving door collusion strategy between corporate oligarchies and government, Stimson held the following strategic positions: civilian Secretary of War under fellow Skull and Bonesman Taft (1908-1912), Governor General of the Philippines (1926-1928), Secretary of State under Hoover (1929-1933) and civilian Secretary of War under Roosevelt and Truman (1940- 1946), where he managed the drafting and training of 12 million soldiers and airmen, and directed the purchase of 30 percent of the nations industrial output to the battlefield. He was responsible for the internment and subsequent property seizure of thousands of Japanese-American citizens.
Obama v. Richard Falk on Israel and Occupied Palestine
Stephen Lendman
Obama leaves no ambiguity where he stands. From public statements, campaign pledges, policy advisors, and war cabinet selections, his positions affirm:
-- one-sided pro-Israeli zealotry;
-- continued Palestinian oppression;
-- no end to the Iraq war and occupation;
-- possibly attacking Iran and/or allying with Israel to do it;
-- pursuing an imperial agenda; targeting Pakistan, Russia and other countries;
-- expanding the size of the military; increasing expenditures for it; and
-- providing Israel annually with billions of dollars; the latest weapons and technology; the same zero interest rate loans Wall Street gets; liberal debt forgiveness; virtually anything Israel requests on the pretext of security, to wage aggressive war, or expand its illegal settlements; and
-- acquiescing and remaining silent after Israel insulted a high UN official by harassing and detaining him, then expelling him from the country.
Waves of hope and change
Mickey Z.
It’s holiday season in Manhattan and despite the economic downturn, there seems to be no shortage of well-dressed humans cavorting, laughing, and spending freely. Walking among them, a homeless man begs for money—shaking his tattered coffee cup (adorned with images of Greek architecture) to rattle the few coins therein. A veteran of the first Gulf War, this man is no longer concerned with yellow ribbons. Right now, he’d settle for a scrap of food and a dry pair of shoes.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) estimates that nearly 200,000 veterans are homeless on any given night and nearly 400,000 experience homelessness over the course of a year. Forty-five percent of America’s homeless veterans suffer from mental illness and half have substance abuse problems. According to the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients, veterans account for 23% of all homeless people in America.
Strangling Gaza to near death while pretending to be victim
Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem
No one is enthusiastic about the latest escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, except perhaps the warmongers in Tel Aviv and the American-backed Arab and Palestinian traitors who would do anything and go to any extent to please their masters in Washington, D.C.
In Israel, the Gaza Strip is becoming the central election issue in a country deeply menaced by political and religious extremism.
Israeli political leaders from right and left are already promising the Jewish public that they will destroy Gaza and murder untold thousands of poor Gazans if only they are elected in the 10 February polls.
A New Wind Blowing
Mary Pitt
The whole country is agog with the news of the Madoff Ponzi scheme and the billions he scammed from big investors, but nobody appears to realize that it is only the tip of a huge iceberg. There are other so-called legitimate institutions afloat in the private sector that are profiting from similar scams with the heartfelt approval of the raging capitalists in government as well as private individuals.
Foremost among these are the insurance companies as they have become established in America. Even the government social programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are administered by the accounting departments of insurance companies. The regulations regarding these programs were written in large part by the insurance companies and, as the result, even the very poor are not getting the services they need under their provisions.
This is an Emergency
David Spratt
A year ago I was researching what was intended to be a short submission to the Garnaut review, when events in the polar north turned the world of climate policy upside down. It was found that eight million square kilometres of sea-ice — an area the size of Australia — was melting, in the immortal words of one glaciologist, "a hundred years ahead of schedule".
Yet the international policy debate carried on as if this had not happened. Out-of-date scenarios, research and observations were being used to propose emission reduction targets that would still lead to catastrophe even if fully implemented.
And so a short submission became a long detour into how the climate debate is being constructed, and the result, with Philip Sutton, was a book we did not intend to write, "Climate Code Red".
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