September 2007 archive
Sep 24 2007
My 9/11 Theory Vol.2: 9/11 Changed Everything
Sep 24 2007
A basic Pamphlet for Non-voters and Republicans alike
This is a work in progress. To say the least. I tapped this out this morning. Basically, I can only feel my heart drop when I hear uninformed people making comments about what is going on in the country and about all of our futures. I don’t even debate them. But I want to have something to hand them. A pamphlet. Something that paints the entire picture.
Below the flip is just the introduction to pamphlet I am creating. If you care to read through some or all of it (I know it’s long), I would appreciate any critiques or advice. I got to where I stopped today… the part where I start to go into what the Bush Administration has been up to. I am going to have to tackle that more methodically; there are so many crimes!
Sep 24 2007
It’s Confirmed: Dick Cheney is an official “Evil Genius”
Doctor Evil can’t hold a candle to this guy, both in the depths of his machinations and in his proclivity to do exactly the wrong thing strategically.
I did a quick search to see if anyone had noticed this little item buried deep in the
Newsweek article on Israel’s raid on Syria… didn’t see it anywhere, so here’s the money graph:
Sep 24 2007
Neo-Nazis Target Jena 6
The American National Socialist Workers Party has reportedly targeted the Jena 6 and called for some vigilante justice.
The FBI is reviewing a white supremacist Web site that purports to list the addresses of five of the six black teenagers accused of beating a white student in Jena and “essentially called for their lynching,” an agency spokeswoman said Saturday.
Sheila Thorne, an agent in the FBI’s New Orleans office, said authorities were reviewing whether the site breaks any federal laws. She said the FBI had “gathered intelligence on the matter,” but declined to further explain how the agency got involved.
CNN first reported Friday about the Web site, which features a swastika, frequent use of racial slurs, a mailing address in Roanoke, Va., and phone numbers purportedly for some of the teens’ families “in case anyone wants to deliver justice.” That page is dated Thursday.
Sep 24 2007
The Allure of the Fake Everything
One
Let us all nod our heads sagely . . .
The Axiom of Existence: “Existence exists.”
The first axiom states that something other than one’s own consciousness exists. If it did not, according to Rand, consciousness itself would be an impossibility. Rand believes that this principle is self-evident (its truth is given in perceptual experience) and such that any attempt to refute it implicitly assumes it. This axiom entails metaphysical realism, the view that things are what they are independently of the mental states (beliefs, desires, etc.) of individual cognizers.
— exposition of Ayn Rand
Now . . . you tell me. I think I’ve just been told that a tautology entails “metaphysical realism”. In other words, if you’ve ever scratched your head wondering if maybe you haven’t lived your life in a dream, or in the Matrix, you can rest assured you have not, because, well, “existence exists” and whatnot. This is heady stuff! Ice cream headspike heady.
That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you call ‘free will’ is your mind’s freedom to think or not, the only will you have, your only freedom. This is the choice that controls all the choices you make and determines your life and character.
— Ayn Rand herself
I enjoy being told that my character is “determined” by my “only freedom” (drum roll please): the freedom to not think. Self-improvement with a good mallet. Well, it worked for Harrison Ford in “Regarding Henry”, though he needed a bullet.
On the list of sentences I get a real kick out of, the first was pointed out by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison: the Frugal Gourmet reminding us that “Irish immigrants came to this country wishing to maintain their love for the potato.” But, “Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses) is man’s only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival,” is a close second, for sheer moxie. Objectivists do like their “reason”, dontcha know.
One would have thought that a person willing to trumpet her view as “Objectivism” would have the decency never, ever, to say that “reason” is the “only source of knowledge”. The world can go take a hike, apparently — a hike in an objective park, I hope. Love dem objective boids.
(Continued . . .)
Sep 24 2007
“Shared National Sacrifice” and ‘The War’ Tonight on PBS
crossposted at Daily Kos, Truth & Progress, and Progressive Historians
Ken Burns’ PBS Series About World War II, ‘The War’ Begins Tonight, 8:00pm, EDT
If you’ve ever visited London or had the opportunity to live there for an extended period of time, you’d know which war Londoners refer to when they mention “The War.” Not so in the United States, where you’d get a quizzical look in return should you mention that term to most people. Since World War II, the United States has been involved in so many wars that an average person can perhaps be excused for his or her ignorance.
Unlike ‘The Civil War,’ Burns’ ‘The War’ is quite different as it looks at World War II not from the perspective of politicians, generals, or scholars but from the ground up. It chronicles the experiences of veterans from four towns in four different regions of the country.
It will also, I am fairly certain, spark a debate around the country about the reasons as to how and why we fight wars.
Sep 24 2007
Tasers the new “weapon” of choice for law enforcement
Are you sick of hearing about Taser abuse? Do you believe most people deserve getting Tasered? Are you unclear about why Tasers are even used and under what circumstances they were intended to be used?
You are invited below the fold for some essential information regarding the startling reality of Taser abuse. Hopefully armed with this knowledge be pissed off enough to do something in your town to change the use of something even more popular and equally as lethal as choke holds.
snackdoodle's essay
Sep 24 2007
September 11th Changed Everything for a small boy in the Philippines
Master (I use the term “Master” as a title because I didn’t hear his first name) Andrada was only 7 years old when the terrorist attack on the twin towers occurred but it has deeply affected his life. Master Andrada wasn’t in NY city at the time of the attack. In fact, he’s never been to the United States. This boy was born and has lived his entire life halfway around the world in the Philippines.
Master Andrada has become obsessed with the topic of the Twin Towers attack. At first he began to draw pictures of it.
Sep 23 2007
A Change in Strategy
Once a month, Joe Lieberman can pick 100 soldiers at random from our stateside combat brigades training for their next deployment to Iraq, fly them to Washington, stand them in formation on the White House lawn. The Commander Guy could swagger out to a podium, give a speech about the great job they’re doing defending freedom, etc, etc, and then a patriotic defense contractor could blow them up.
Sep 23 2007
The Big Picture Vol.1
(I’ll be putting this in Orange in an hour or so)
There has been a sea change in the time since I have started working on Docudharma and neglecting my other blogging stuff. The anticipation of that sea change is one of the reasons I started Docudharma. I began to see that the Dems were locked in to their “Don’t Oppose Bush and We Will Win in ’08” strategy and were NOT going to make a serious effort to hold Bush accountable for his many crimes….and that they weren’t even SERIOUSLY going to try to end the war.
It occurred to me that ACTIVISM on blogs was about to become pretty irrelevant as far as Congress was concerned. Why spend time lobbying for something they have absolutely no intention of doing?
And with so much time left in Bush’s term….what should we do next? What do we do now? What is the Big Picture?
