October 2008 archive

I’ll deal more with this later.

What Dick Pound said was really dumb – and also true

Was Canada once a land of savages? And is saying so tantamount to racism? Many people would answer no, and yes. That’s why Dick Pound, the high-profile Olympics figure, is in a heap of trouble for describing the Canada of four centuries ago as ” un pays de sauvages.” He was talking to a reporter from La Presse about the Beijing Olympics and the issue of human rights. “We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages, with scarcely 10,000 inhabitants of European descent, while in China, we’re talking about a 5,000-year-old civilization,” he said.

More bullshit of the dominant cultures “superiority.” Anything to make them feel better about the Pipeline and the Caledonia land dispute.

The Dominant culture was so much more “civilized,” they put the Indigenous children in holes in the ground who had been kidnapped and forced into Boarding Schools.

1. McClatchy Newspapers report the U.S. threatens to halt services to Iraq without troop accord. Iraqi politicians see this as blackmail by the United States.

   The U.S. military has warned Iraq that it will shut down military operations and other vital services throughout the country on Jan. 1 if the Iraqi government doesn’t agree to a new agreement on the status of U.S. forces or a renewed United Nations mandate for the American mission in Iraq…

   In addition to halting all military actions, U.S. forces would cease activities that support Iraq’s economy, educational sector and other areas _ “everything” _ said Tariq al Hashimi, the country’s Sunni Muslim vice president. “I didn’t know the Americans are rendering such wide-scale services.”

   Apparently this ‘threat’ has taken Iraqi leaders “by surprise”.

Four at Four continues with finding the right strategy for Afghanistan, the bailout’s mission creep, and Project Midas.

By the Law of Periodical Repetition, everything which has happened once must happen again and again and again — and not capriciously, but a regular periods, and each thing in its own period, not another’s, and each obeying its own law. The eclipse of the sun, the occultation of Venus, the arrival and departure of the comets, the annual shower of stars — all these things hint to us that the same Nature which orders the affairs of the earth. Let us not underrate the value of that hint.

Mark Twain

   True, without falsehood, certain and most true, that which is above is the same as that which is below, and that which is below is the same as that which is above, for the performance of miracles of the One Thing.

Hermes

Okay, a little philosophy (sprinled with some mystical crap and some “science fiction!”)for a Monday morning (here on the left coast.)

Twain cites nature, Hermes tells us that we too, as much as we try to deny it, are a part of nature, a part of the cosmos…and that thus we follow the same laws. Patterns repeat, reality is circular, the earth, the planets and the stars wheel round and round in their set and well grooved tracks until… they don’t. Because evolution is linear.

We all know (or are) people who repeat the same patterns of behavior or thought in their lives, doing the same thing, making the same mistakes, again and again. Until finally, one day, they don’t. Until they learn the pattern that they are repeating well enough to see it clearly, and then and only then, have the power to change it, until due to some revelation or some sort of lifechanging shock, they learn and grow and evolve. As above, so below. Societies, history, the human race all follow the same pattern. We do the same thing until something changes, until we as a species learn and grow…and change. Until we evolve, pulling us out of the circle and putting us on a straight line to a new future, a new (though still circular)reality. A new, when we look back at the repetitive process and see the change from that perspective, history.

But while we are ‘stuck’ in the circular pattern, things are not static. We still progress within that circle. The world and the planet and the stars still turn…..  

Vissi d’arte

from Puccini’s opera Tosca, performed by the radiant Leontyne Price, 1965

Dennis on the current campaign:

Bush Decides To Blackmail Iraq

Believing He Hasn’t Wrecked

The Country Enough

End of Battle Centers on Turf Bush Carried



By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY

Published: October 26, 2008

Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama are heading into the final week of the presidential campaign planning to spend nearly all their time in states that President Bush won last time, testimony to the increasingly dire position of Mr. McCain and his party as Election Day approaches.

With optimism brimming in Democratic circles, Mr. Obama will present on Monday what aides described as a summing-up speech for his campaign in Canton, Ohio, reprising the themes he first presented in February 2007, when he began his campaign for the presidency.

From here on out, Mr. Obama’s aides said, attacks on Mr. McCain will be joined by an emphasis on broader and less partisan themes, like the need to unify the country after a difficult election.

Asian stockmarkets crash again

apan’s Nikkei index falls 6.4% to its lowest level since 1982 amid panicky selling

Graeme Wearden

guardian.co.uk, Monday October 27 2008 07.58 GMT

Stockmarkets around the world crashed again today as the prospect of a deep worldwide recession continued to haunt investors.

Fears that the financial crisis is spreading to emerging nations sparked another day of panicky selling, despite speculation of another round of interest rate cuts to try to stimulate the global economy,

As the current crisis sparked by the failure of Lehman Brothers entered a seventh week, Japan’s Nikkei index fell 6.4% to its lowest level since 1982, extending its recent slump. It has now lost 20% of its value in the last week.

Hong Kong also saw shares routed, with the Hang Seng index plunging almost 12% in late trading – putting it on track for its biggest daily fall since 1997.

USA

Gun Sales Thriving In Uncertain Times



By Fredrick Kunkle

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, October 27, 2008; Page A01

Americans have cut back on buying cars, furniture and clothes in a tough economy, but there’s one consumer item that’s still enjoying healthy sales: guns. Purchases of firearms and ammunition have risen 8 to 10 percent this year, according to state and federal data.

Several variables drive sales, but many dealers, buyers and experts attribute the increase in part to concerns about the economy and fears that if Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois wins the presidency, he will join with fellow Democrats in Congress to enact new gun controls.