informant38
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...But of these sophisms and elenchs of merchandise I skill not...
Milton, Areopagitica
Except he had found the
standing sea-rock that even this last
Temptation breaks on; quieter than death but lovelier; peace
that quiets the desire even of praising it.
Jeffers, Meditation On Saviors
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15.12.07
13.12.07
here poor statecraft has trumped
our improved efforts :
Wouldn't oil production policies be used to separate us from our allies or further manipulate the world's economy? Wouldn't we face a region increasingly hostile to our interests? Wouldn't we see the prospect of Arab-Israeli peace diminish as Iran worked to weaken, isolate, and demoralize the Jewish state? And to avoid being at the mercy of Iran, wouldn't the Saudis decide to go nuclear -- and wouldn't that impel the Egyptians to do the same?Dennis Ross/WINEP 12.Dec.07
The point is that even the image of Iran as a nuclear power carries with it very dangerous consequences, including that the Middle East might become a nuclear-armed region.
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Heaven forfend the Middle East should become the fertile womb of nuclear weaponry.
As for Israel being "weakened, isolated, or demoralized", depending on the degree, and the attitude with which a response to that degree is undertaken, it may be the only possible path toward actual healing now available, to the Middle East and the world.
These are precisely the conditions near-universally imposed by communities on their erring brethren or sistren. They must be made to realize that communality is more to be honored than individuality, at least in some circumstances.
This is the prison experience generally - isolated, weakened, demoralized, then ideally, remoralized, strengthened, and brought back into the fold.
Israel and its apologists are convinced they must lie to the world in order to survive. Israel has nuclear weapons, lots of them. Israel wants Iran out of the way nuclear or not, and Israel wants the Americans to remove Iran for it, and Israel and its apologists and champions are lying to make that happen, exactly as Americans were lied into supporting the removal of Saddam Hussein and the destruction of Iraq. To the great and lasting detriment and shame of America.
The academic community is appalled by how many of its university freshmen have taken the myth of Saddam's responsibility for 9/11 into the core of their lives. No accident there. An intentional lie pounded into the heads and hearts of American families through insinuation by the television and the radio. Media whose interests are never exposed, whose owners and their interests are never exposed. The pretense that there are no interests other than mercantile there matching the cynical "blood for oil" most soldiers in Iraq still find at the bottom of their search for answers to their personal nightmares.
Inasmuch as the interests of the Jewish state are profoundly altered by what's happened to Iraq, and what's proposed for Iran, and that those interests are never, at least until now, discussed prominently in the public air as a possible cause for these military assaults, it is a committed lie.
The risk and burden of lying about such grave matters is it can produce sociopathic denial.
still here 21:59
12.12.07
10.12.07
a people under fire:
If only Colombia or México could show the same confidence and trust in their (electoral) institutions!
still here 16:37
8.12.07
a quasi-putsch
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chaos everywhere you turn
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off the map
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a woman believed to be in her late 40s or early 50s who had three sons killed by the Iraqi army
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in which a subject is made to believe he is being drowned
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President Bush has no recollection of being made aware
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Without fresh sea water the fish will start going bad
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in the State Department after 5:00
still here 14:13
7.12.07
a modern-day allegory
"...instead of being lured into a sterile argument about how offensive the word 'Muhammad' can be, it's probably much more sensible to either ignore this horseshit entirely or diagnose the media obsession itself. But then there are other people, probably some of them sniffing around this blog, who want to do exactly what the news says, follow orders and belch out feckless denunciations every five seconds. I know some people imagine that they're seriously, unproblematically outraged at someone being locked up for something this ridiculous. Well, fine, but I don't believe you. I think you only care about this because the television said so, so you can take your fake 'concern' about this case and go fuck yourself with it. Here's a reminder: for every minute you've spent emoting about this case, you've ignored another dead Iraqi (approximately one a minute is the going rate). Not that this is the only thing worth focusing on, but let's not pretend that your apparent outrage is anything other than a disgusting display of narcissism."lenin's tomb 03.Dec.07
still here 00:26
6.12.07
We know where Al Smith would have stood
"Either the argument will be, as our enemies want, framed as Islam versus the West; or it will be, as we want it, framed as moderates of whatever faith, colour or race against extremism however it manifests itself..."Tony Blair, speech to the Al Smith Dinner 18.Oct.07
democratiya
via wood s lot
still here 20:56
Fur's quiet comeback
- Weisman/IHT
In Russian luxury market, companies strategize to reach the rich consumer
- Alderman/IHT
The Millionaire Fair: Art becomes the next step along the path of riches
- Kishkovsky/IHT
still here 14:42
5.12.07
...under the watchful eye of soldiers a sigh of relief always getting tricked power grab 10 times as much money just to scare the daylights out of the Jewish community an unabashed anti-Semite the greatest thing that could have happened a doomsday scenario the rabbi a frequent target anti-Semitic expressions on state-controlled media:
The defeat of Hugo Chavez's broad-ranging referendum has eased Jewish fears in Venezuela. Yet many remain fearful about their future in the country and are making plans to leave.For me it’s very easy an apartment in Miami one in New York a large home behind a high protective wall in Altamira cheese blintzes and chocolate eclairs...
JTA/JDF 04.Dec.07
still here 14:31
4.12.07
2.12.07
"After seven years of waiting, [Dziekanski] arrived to his utopia, Vancouver," said the Polish consul general, Maciej Krych. "Ten hours later, he was dead."
still here 18:51
"It doesn't look good. I agree with that":
Friday, the Bush administration did an about-face, abruptly withdrawing the text while Israeli diplomats reiteratedLynch/WashingtonPost 01.Dec.07
The incident raised the hackles of some State Department officials, who said Khalilzad has a history of diplomatic freelancing and that he had stumbled into his current predicament by failing to adequately consult the Israelis or his boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"the need to encourage the parties concerned to follow diligently the joint understanding that was reached."
still here 17:34
1.12.07
This investigation will help end the war:
On the weekend of 13-15 March, 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War will assemble history’s largest gathering of US veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Iraqi and Afghan survivors. They will provide first hand accounts of their experiences and reveal the truth of occupation.Support Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan Investigation
They saw it for themselves, now — with your support — they’ll tell it for themselves. On the weekend of 13-15 March, 2008 Iraq Veterans Against the War will assemble history’s largest gathering of US veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan , as well as Iraqi and Afghan survivors. They will testify to their first hand experiences and reveal the truth of occupation.
still here 00:24
Freedom of the press is dead in totalitarian Venezuela, but alive and well in the democratic United States.except
...the opposition in Venezuela still broadcasts on more major TV channels than there are channels sympathetic to the government. In stark contrast, the alternative media in the US cannot be viewed on any major channel. Consequently the vast majority of Americans receive all their news from a mainstream media which never questions whether the US has any right to dominate other nationsRobin Hahnel/Monthly Review 30.Nov.07 > feral scholar
[...]
The most dramatic increase in social spending was in the area of health care. In 1998 there were over 14,000 Venezuelans for each primary healthcare physician, and few physicians worked in rural or poor urban areas. By 2007 there was one primary healthcare physician for every 1,300 Venezuelans, and many of the new physicians were working in clinics in rural areas and poor barrios that had never had physicians before. There are also now 16,000 stores in poor areas throughout the country selling staples at a 30% discount on average.
still here 00:07
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