November 27, 2010 archive

Open Hesse

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142nd Anniversary of the Washita Massacre of Nov. 27, 1868

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The intent to commit genocide at Washita is hidden in plain view, unless key elements are brought together. These are: that the Cheyenne were placed on land where they would starve while promises to avert starvation were broken; that George Bent observed how Civil War soldiers did not harm white women and children by a “code of honor,” while Indian women and children were slaughtered; that Sheridan declared “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead;” and that the War Department did not differentiate between peaceful and warring Indians. Hence, the orders “to kill or hang all warriors.” As the consequence, the intent was to kill all men
of a specific race.

Docudharma Times Saturday November 27




Saturday’s Headlines:

‘The Fight Is Not Hopeless’

USA

U.S. strips intelligence analyst of security clearance and job but won’t say why

Somali-born teen arrested in car bomb plot

Europe

Sinn Fein signals big trouble for Cowen

Polish politicians welcome admission on Katyn massacre

Middle East

WikiLeaks may show US has helped terrorist group

Iraq’s Troubles Drive Out Refugees Who Came Back

Asia

As Seoul dithers and US ships circle, an island tries to live with its grief

Son of ex-Taiwanese vice-president shot during election rally

Africa

Egypt Facebook pages vanish before vote

Latin America

Rio de Janeiro gun battle sees toddler and photographer among casualties

U.S. now in Afghanistan as long as Soviets were

The last Red Army troops left in 1989, driven out after nine years and 50 days by U.S.-backed fighters known as mujahedin. Despite contrasts, the U.S. and Soviet wars have common narrative elements.

By Laura King and Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times

November 27, 2010


Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Moscow – As wartime days go, Friday was a fairly quiet one in Afghanistan. Helicopters skittered across the sky; convoys rumbled along desert roads; soldiers in mountain outposts scanned the jagged peaks around them.

But one thing set the day apart: With its passing, the length of the U.S. military’s campaign in Afghanistan matched that of the Soviet Union’s long and demoralizing sojourn in the nation.ion.

The Lost History of Helmand

Spectrum
Kabul, 2005

Modernization Theory was invented by an ambitious academic at Harvard called Walt Whitman Rostow. He said that if you put the right technologies in place and educated key elites then the countries would inevitably develop into advanced capitalist societies. They would go through a series of logical stages (there were five) until you got what he modestly called “Rostovian Lift-off”.

Rostow laid out his theory in a book he called “The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto”.

Rostow’s theories obsessed the American development agencies and they came up with all sorts of ideas about how to turn countries like Afghanistan into modern democracies.

One of the oddest was the belief that it was possible to scientifically discover who the crucial “transitional personalities” were in the society. These were people who had underlying “capitalist personalities” that they were unaware of. A psychologist called David McClelland invented a way of discovering who had these traits – and techniques to then develop what he called “the need to achieve”. He was convinced you could use behavioural psychology to turn people throughout the world into model Americans.

McClelland worked tirelessly to prove his case. Here is one of his diagrams that shows that the frequency of achievement imagery in children’s books in the late 19th century leads inevitably to a rise in inventions in America as they grow up – as shown by the number of patented inventions.

From THE LOST HISTORY OF HELMAND, by Adam Curtis

Late Night Karaoke

Your worm’s-eye view of global banking

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We really are suckers.

Filed under:

acquiescence, appeasement, assent, backing down, bowing, capitulation, cringing, defeatism, deference, docility, giving in, humbleness, humility, malleability, meekness, nonresistance, obedience, passivism, passivity, pliabilty, prostration, recreancy, resignation, servility, subjection, submissiveness, submitting, surrender, tractability, unassertiveness, yielding,succumb, submit, yield, bend, resign, defer to., lay down one’s arms, deliver up one’s arms; lower colors, haul down colors, strike one’s flag, strike colors., surrender, surrender at discretion; cede, capitulate, come to terms, retreat, beat a retreat; draw in one’s horns (humility) [more]; give way, give round, give in, give up; cave in; suffer judgement by default; bend, bend to one’s yoke, bend before the storm; reel back; bend down, knuckle down, knuckle to, knuckle under; knock under., eat dirt, eat the leek, eat humble pie; bite the dust, lick the dust; be at one’s feet, fall at one’s feet; craven; crouch before, throw oneself at the feet of; swallow the leek, swallow the pill; kiss the rod; turn the other cheek; avaler les couleuvres, gulp down., obey; kneel to, bow to, pay homage to, cringe to, truckle to; bend the neck, bend the knee; kneel, fall on one’s knees, bow submission, courtesy, curtsy, kowtow., pocket the affront; make the best of, make a virtue of necessity; grin and abide, grin and bear it, shrug the shoulders, resign oneself; submit with a good grace (bear with).

Your worm’s-eye view of global banking

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We really are suckers.

Random Japan

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL DESK

A kids’ book written by a 34-year-old Tokyo housewife about the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Miyazaki Prefecture has become an internet hit, being downloaded approximately 2,600 times since late September. Sounds positively uplifting.

Kenya’s Daily Nation reported that a former ambassador to Japan was questioned by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) over dubious dealings regarding the purchase of land in Tokyo. Not a terribly interesting story, but we just had to get that acronym in there.

Virgin Atlantic Airways and Mori Building City Air Services have started free helicopter shuttles from Ark Hills in Akasaka to Narita Airport for high-end travelers from Tokyo to London.

A few weeks after getting busted in Chiba with cocaine in his pocket, Aussie pro golfer Wayne Perske was banned for the rest of the season by the Japan Golf Tour Organization.

Perske’s problems came on the heels of Kiwi golf pro David Smail’s sex scandal, when his former Japanese girlfriend sent compromising photos and videos to the media after the married Smail tried to break up with her. Man, talk about putting it in the wrong hole!

A female desk clerk at a hotel in Aichi held a press conference to draw light to her situation after a male guest called her to his room to “apologize” over some issue with an escort service. The horny old dude then tried to jump her, “unbuttoning her clothing and touching her lower body.”

Original v. Cover — #53 in a Series

Rainy night Pictures, Images and Photos

Many among us recently celebrated that annual holiday designated for the giving of thanks; a day when we take note of that half of our glass that is full and express our gratitude for that inheritance, however meager it may be.

By contrast, if we are among the privileged few whose fortunes have continued to grow, in spite of and often because of the euphemistically named Great Recession, our glass is probably 75%, 90% or even 95% full.  

Popular Culture 20101126: The Who, Entwistle’s Contributions

Most everyone who is aware of The Who as a major British band realize that the three instrumentalists were very good at their crafts, and some say that Keith Moon may have been the best rock and roll drummer who ever lived.  However, the bass player, John Entwistle, did much more than play bass.

John Alec Enwistle, born 19441009 and died 20029627, was one of the original members of the band.  He and Pete Townshend formed a band in the late 1950s, and he left to join Roger Daltrey’s band in the early 1960s.  He convinced Daltrey to have Townshend join, and with the admission of Keith Moon The Who were formed.

Class War is in America’s roots

“The U.S. has never been a society riven by class resentment.”

 – David Brooks

 According to wealthy conservatives, class and wealth inequality has never been a factor in American history. Of course these are the same guys who believe that the Boston Tea Party was about high tea taxes when in fact it was a protest against government tax breaks for a huge multinational corporation.

   Can you imagine today’s Tea Party movement protesting corporate tax cuts? I can’t.

 Today’s Tea Party, which is largely ignorant about the event that it is named from, would be shocked to discover the revolutionary spirit of America was founded on class war.

Friday Philosophy: Personal Identity

We are not confused about our gender.  It is other people who have that problem.  They confuse who we are with their image of who we should be.

Would you stand for anyone else doing that to you, for whatever reason?

Transgender people look long and hard into our identities to discover who we truly are.  Self-introspection.  We don’t look between our legs for that.  Human identity is in the mind.

Identity has no material form (Locke:  “Consciousness makes personal identity.”).  Identity does not reside in the chromosomes or genes.