August 28, 2010 archive

Open Balcony

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David Ray Griffin shifts 9/11 scientific burdens to Chomsky, Cockburn, Taibbi et al.

In 2004, I saw the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7 for the first time on an internet video.  The building had not been hit by a plane, had insignificant damage from falling debris from the other two big towers that fell, and had spotty fires burning asymmetrically across a handful of its 47 or so floors.  Out of nowhere, it suddenly dropped its four-square topmost corners symmetrically and descended rapidly to the ground as if the entire supporting matrix of steel I-beams had not just weakened according to local areas of damage, but had vanished entirely and instantaneously:

Although I knew instantly — by my own cognitive recognition hardware — exactly what I was watching from seeing many similar demonstrations before, I watched the video again another 25 times, or so, out of sheer incredulity at the implications (eliciting the subsequent autonomic re-shuffling upon first viewing), before sitting back in my chair and conceding, “Holy shit!  That is a fucking duck!

Jacob Freeze Smacks Down Arnold Schwarzenegger at the WSJ

Physically, Arnold Schwarzenegger is just about the biggest, strongest Republican of them all, and even mentally, compared to the rest of those idiots, he’s almost a genius. But in a battle of wits against anyone of approximately average intelligence, the Governator has about as much of a chance as Elmer Fudd against Godzilla.

For example, in Arnold’s recent editorial for the Wall Street Journal, he makes several claims that even a fifth-grader could refute.

Few Californians in the private sector have $1 million in savings, but that’s effectively the retirement account they guarantee to public employees who opt to retire at age 55 and are entitled to a monthly, inflation-protected check of $3,000 for the rest of their lives.

Hundreds of the Wall Street Journal’s dim-witted readers accepted this silly claim with pitiful credulity, little suspecting that their all-time favorite action-hero was about to be beaten to a bloody pulp by a left-wing Terminator.

Docudharma Times Saturday August 28




Saturday’s Headlines:

Why are so many Americans hostile to Islam?

BBC’s Mark Thompson takes aim at Murdoch empire in MacTaggart lecture

USA

Dangers of war persist for soldiers left in Iraq

U.S. wary over example of first military tribunal case

Europe

UN tells France to stop forced expulsion of Roma

ECB chief Trichet warns failure to tackle high debts risks a ‘lost decade’

Middle East

The great chess game of the Middle East

Iraq put on high alert ahead of expected bombing campaign

Asia

‘We want to talk to the Taliban. But they would rather kill themselves’

The Dear Leader has left the building

Latin America

Fresh violence hits Mexico

Late Night Karaoke

Random Japan

STRANGE DAYS

Staff at a ramen shop in Osaka were stunned when a customer paid his bill and then handed over an extra ¥1 million, “saying he wanted the restaurant to offer children free meals.”

Cops in Gunma were stymied by the mysterious explosion of a tractor trailer truck that was carrying construction machinery from Maebashi to Yokohama Port. The blast destroyed a nearby shop and injured a local resident.

A nearly complete skeleton of a 110-million-year-old frog was discovered in Hyogo. Scientists say this is “a very important find for researching the evolutionary history of frogs.”

Researchers from a trio of Japanese universities claim to have found a protein in the brain that limits depression. They made their discovery by inducing stress in mice by forcing them to swim.

A 54-year-old Nagano salaryman who spent over ¥1 million beefing up his PC claims to have calculated pi to 5 trillion decimal places, which would be a world record.

Headline of the Week: Hacker Arrested for Octopus Virus (via The Asahi Shimbun)

Original v. Cover — #40 in a Series

Boy George Pictures, Images and Photos

Ever encountered someone who almost perfectly embodied androgyny in appearance, mannerisms and demeanor? What has been your reaction if someone matching such a description enters the men’s or women’s restroom, and you are also present? Depending upon your sensibilities, you may feel compelled to immediately confirm their gender (unless you belong to the cast from “Ally McBeal”).  

You may be one of those who merely asks the question up front or preferring a more subtle approach, attempt to discern if the stature, body build, five o’clock shadow, broad shoulders, or other disgtinguishing features might provide a clue, at the same time taking care to not appear too obvious.

Original v. Cover — #40 in a Series

Boy George Pictures, Images and Photos

Ever encountered someone who almost perfectly embodied androgyny in appearance, mannerisms and demeanor? What has been your reaction if someone matching such a description enters the men’s or women’s restroom, and you are also present? Depending upon your sensibilities, you may feel compelled to immediately confirm their gender (unless you belong to the cast from “Ally McBeal”).  

You may be one of those who merely asks the question up front or preferring a more subtle approach, attempt to discern if the stature, body build, five o’clock shadow, broad shoulders, or other disgtinguishing features might provide a clue, at the same time taking care to not appear too obvious.

More Than One Truth

As our own Dharmasyd essayed about today, Glen Ford writing at Black Agenda Report said on Wednesday “We Are Cornered: There’s No Way Out Without A Fight”: “Obama and his Democratic legislative allies have successfully shielded their Wall Street masters from anything worthy of the name financial reform.”, and “The pace of finance capital deterioration quickens, accelerating the timetable of the Right’s offensive. As the hunger grows, Wall Street’s servants become more aggressive and demanding, and there is nothing in the Democratic Party, as presently constituted, to stop them.”

Ford closed his essay with: “One truth remains: only a massed people can defeat massed capital. If the American Left is capable of bearing that in mind in the critical times ahead, it might just escape the cul-de-sac and make some modest contribution to the world.”

Ford is right about many things, but wrong about one thing.

There is more than one truth.

Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the Earth

— Archimedes

Popular Culture 20100827: Blue Laws

Blue Laws are (well, actually mostly now) were laws that restricted what products and services could be legally traded on Sundays over much of the United States.  They varied from region to region, with some places pretty much shutting down everything except emergency medical treatment, to other places where there was little difference from other days.

In most of the United States, Blue Laws no longer exist for the most, except for the sale of alcohol, and they are vestigial remnants in that area.  When I was a child (only months after the last mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs, LOL!), Blue Laws were common in west central Arkansas, and applied to lots more than alcohol.

“We Are Cornered: There’s No Way Out Without a Fight” by Glen Ford

With a big “Thank you” to Glen Ford, executive editor of Black Agenda Report, for permission to post his recent essay here.  

          Black Agenda Report

                    Introduction by Glen Ford

A corporate offensive is rolling down upon us, aimed at wholesale privatization of the public sector. If the Left has learned anything in the last year and a half, it should be that President Obama is Wall Street’s guy, having “delivered the highest return on corporate campaign investment in the history of bourgeois democracy.” In this struggle, the people will be left to their own devices.

Ford’s essay is below the fold:

Friday Philosophy: Transpeople in the News

Sacramento, CA:  The California State Senate passed the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Prisoner Safety Act (AB 633) by a 26-9 vote and sent it on to Governor Scharzennegger.  The bill is designed to protect LGBT people who are incarcerated.  Arnold vetoed a similar bill last year.

A recent study from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) found that 67 percent of LGBT inmates report being sexually assaulted by another inmate, a rate 15 times higher than the overall prison population. Another study by UC Irvine and commissioned by CDCR found that 69 percent of transgender inmates reported sexual victimization while incarcerated.