In its pure, unregulated sense and form, capitalism is the creed and practice of psychopaths, nothing more than a vehicle for the uninhibited expression of psychopathological freedom.  Capitalists, once called “captains of industry,” and more recently known as “masters of the universe” due to malignant effects of their outsized egos on the global population at large, often pretend to adhere to some marginally plausible ethos purely for public relations value, e.g., “bringing cheap energy to market,” or “creating market efficiencies,” to mask and continue their depredations unmolested by the indignant outcries of normal people, in the end, the psychopath simply takes what he wants without any standard feeling of remorse for horrific outcomes.

Sociopaths are “outstanding” members of society in two senses: politically, they command attention because of the inordinate amount of crime they commit, and psychologically, they elicit fascination because most of us cannot fathom the cold, detached way they repeatedly harm and manipulate others.

http://www.bbsonline.org/Prepr… (1 of 63) [04/01/2008 16:28:32]

THE SOCIOBIOLOGY OF SOCIOPATHY: AN INTEGRATED…

Whether criminal or not, sociopaths typically exhibit what is generally considered to be irresponsible and unreliable behavior; their attributes include egocentrism, an inability to form lasting personal commitments and a marked degree of impulsivity. Underlying a superficial veneer of sociability and charm, sociopaths are characterized by a deficit of the social emotions (love, shame, guilt, empathy, and remorse). On the other hand, they are not intellectually handicapped, and are often able to deceive and manipulate others through elaborate scams and ruses including fraud, bigamy, embezzlement, and other crimes which rely on the trust and cooperation of others.  The sociopath is “aware of the discrepancy between his behavior and societal expectations, but he seems to be neither guided by the possibility of such a discrepancy, nor disturbed by its occurrence” (Widom 1976a, p 614). This cold- hearted and selfish approach to human interaction at one time garnered for sociopathy the moniker “moral insanity” (McCord 1983, Davison & Neale

1990).

What makes capitalism an ideal vehicle for the expression of psychopathology is its inclination toward pure profit regardless of external costs, hence its hypertrophic emphasis on unregulated, laissez faire, “let do” behavior.

Insofar as psychopaths and their creed of unfettered capitalism have infested and subverted the very government both regulating them and giving them license to operate, the United States has turned into what some have called a “pathocracy,” the rule of, by, and for the morally insane.

Imperialism takes teamwork:

Bands of chimpanzees violently kill individuals from neighboring groups in order to expand their own territory, according to a 10-year study of a chimp community in Uganda that provides the first definitive evidence for this long-suspected function of this behavior.

Admittedly, it probably does require a 10-year study to substantively indicate what we’ve known all along.

http://ckm3.blogspot.com/

Consistently true and hilarious, even if it ain’t so funny, after all.

Chief Justice Roberts cracks wise:

“Congress and the executive (branch) are uniquely positioned to make principled distinctions …”

Bwaa haa ha!  Principled distinctions?  As in “universally applicable discriminations?”  As in “Iraq = Al Qaeda?”  As in “Whoops, we killed a million people and shattered the cradle of civilization?”  As in “torturing innocent humans to secure false confessions to justify brazenly fallacious war-mongering = self-defense?”   As in “lobbing Hellfires from predator drones to kill women and children = winning hearts and minds?”  As in “extrajudicial assassination by fiat = due process?”

Okay, let’s let him finish:

“Congress and the executive (branch) are uniquely positioned to make principled distinctions between activities that will further terrorist conduct and undermine United States foreign policy, and those that will not,” Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. “A foreign terrorist organization introduced to the structures of the international legal system might use the information to threaten, manipulate and disrupt.  This possibility is real, not remote.”

OMG!  Don’t let terrorists near the law!  They might use it!  “To threaten, manipulate, and disrupt [U.S. foreign policy]”  You see, U.S. foreign policy is, by definition, above the law.  And the legal use of the law by terrorists threatens the orderly use of the legal, universally principled, discriminative distinctions of law U.S. foreign policy.

The law is what we say it is, because we determine who can use it.   And even if you are not a terrorist, even if you are exercising your constitutional rights to free speech and association, we plan to intimidate you with lengthy prison sentences for exercising those rights.  Wow!  Talk about principled distinctions!

The vote was 6-3, Stevens concurring.  So, I guess Elena Kagan will, in fact, be the perfect replacement for Stevens, because 9/11 changed everything.

If I were president, I’d declare the Supreme Court a terrorist organization for providing legal assistance to U.S. war crimes.

Jeebus Lord God His-Self, MacroAdvisers:

Flying saucer?  Four-way window pane?  What are they eating?

This is a pretty creepy idea for a movie.

Says the blog:

Here’s a quick synopsis of “Foreclosure” via its official Web site:

Foreclosure is the story of a broken family striving to stay together while a curse and the ghosts of a haunted house try to tear them apart.

Ledes reveals in an interview with ScreamStress.com that the nationwide foreclosure crisis served as inspiration for the theme, saying:

Isolation is intrinsic to the sense of horror in the film. The isolation felt by the characters in our story is created through the effect of foreclosures on the neighborhood in which they live.”

Trapped in a home you can no longer afford with paranormal spirits who won’t leave. If there was ever a strong case for a homeowner “walking away” from a home, this might be it.

Doesn’t that hit a little “too close home?”  

This diary is about the Berlin blockade and airlift.  From wiki:

The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and the first such crisis that resulted in casualties. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies’ railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under their control. Their aim was to force the western powers to allow the Soviet zone to start supplying Berlin with food and fuel, thereby giving the Soviets practical control over the entire city.

In response, the Western Allies organized the Berlin Airlift to carry supplies to the people in West Berlin. Great Britain’s Royal Air Force and the recently formed United States Air Force, flew over 200,000 flights over the time span of one year that provided 13,000 tons of daily necessities such as fuel and food to the people of Berlin [1]. By the spring of 1949, the effort was clearly succeeding, and by April the airlift was delivering more cargo than had previously flowed into the city by rail.

The success of the Berlin Airlift brought humiliation to the Russians who had refused to believe in its capability in making a difference. The blockade was lifted in May 1949 and resulted in the creation of two separate German States [1].The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) would now make up the land that was once known as Berlin [2]. In remembrance of the Berlin Airlift, three airports in the former western zones of the city served as the primary gateways to Germany for another fifty years.

Huh.  Establishing spheres of influence by breaking a siege.  Interesting!  Two-state solution followed by reconciliation.  Interesting!

Let’s line ’em up.

Three Israeli nuclear-armed submarines are headed for the Persian Gulf to be stationed there permanently and “potentially land Mossad agents in the region.”

Amid speculations about Israel’s hostile future policies against Iran, a report says Israel is to deploy three submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles in the Persian Gulf.

Snip –

The Sunday Times quoted a flotilla officer as saying that the vessels were sent to carry out intelligence gathering missions and potentially land Mossad agents in the region.

Talking about the prospect of a possible military attack against Iran, a navy officer said, “The 1,500 km range of the submarines’ cruise missiles can reach any target in Iran.”

The revelation came after earlier this week, Iranian naval forces detected a US nuclear-armed submarine in the Strait of Hormuz.

Not that they’d do anything crazy.

But it is an interesting development given this recently published paper by Harvard professor and Israeli Strangelove, Chuck Freilich.

The Free Gaza flotilla incident seems to have pushed Israel and its supporters, including those in the US government, over the edge of reason (Original reporting Here). And you thought our neoconservative psychotic episodes had subsided once BushCo left office.  

A Democratic member of the US House of Representatives says he wants to see US citizens aboard the Gaza flotilla prosecuted for providing aid to terrorists.

In a conference call organized by The Israel Project, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) told reporters that activists participating in the flotilla were aiding Hamas and therefore breaking US law.

“The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 makes it absolutely illegal for any American to give food, money, school supplies, paper clips, concrete or weapons to Hamas or any of its officials,” Sherman said, as quoted at Jim Lobe’s foreign policy blog. “And so I will be asking the Attorney General to prosecute any American involved in what was clearly an effort to give items of value to a terrorist organization.”

Sherman also said that he plans on working with the Department of Homeland Security to make sure that any non-U.S. citizen involved with or aboard the Flotilla are excluded from entering the U.S.

Now, before I tee off on Brad Sherman or any other member of Congress contemplating the use of demented and Orwellian “anti-terrorism” laws to coerce free-thinking Americans into silence, or to bring them in line with crazy and criminal policies of Israel’s ever-worsening bunker mentality, over at TPM, M. J. Rosenberg makes an appropriate distinction worth acknowledging:

Brad Sherman (D-CA) is probably (possible exception Shelley Berkley of Nevada) the most pro-Likud Democratic member of Congress. (No, not pro-Israel. You can’t support policies that cause the whole world to turn against Israel and use that label).

But this is crazy even for Sherman.

Okay, caveat made.  We’re not talking pro- or anti-Israel.  We’re talking about insane pro-Likudnik policies.  Now, cue the outrage.

I more or less get it, okay?  Do we really have to destroy the village in order to save it?

all photo credits: East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast on Thursday, June 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Somebody light a match!

At least two builders were “panicking” in late 2006 over the smell coming from drywall they had acquired from Miami-based Banner Supply, according to e-mails and letters, and the builders had isolated the problem to wallboard made by a Chinese manufacturer.

Snip –

But in a sworn deposition in May, Banner executive Scott Giering said he wasn’t aware of any problem with the Chinese-made drywall his company sold, other than through media reports. When [Miami attorney Ervin] Gonzalez asked him about if he was aware the drywall smelled bad, Giering said that was up for interpretation.

“Some people happen to like rotten egg smells,” Giering said.

“Smells like flatulence, doesn’t it,” Gonzalez asked, to which Giering replied, “Some people happen to like that.”

This hasn’t gone to the jury yet, so my conclusion is still “up for interpetation,” but I’m ruling in favor of the plaintiffs.  

The Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla was an overt political act aimed at breaking the siege of Gaza.  Bringing food, medicine, and supplies to humans suffering extreme privation in defiance of “the authorities” is an act far less theatrical or playful but conceptually tantamount to hippies stuffing flowers into rifle barrels as a form of protest so good-natured and free of overt threat as to be disarming and impossible for the world audience to find the least bit menacing, much less provoking a violent response.   Indeed, military responses to expressions of “flower power” are unthinkable, and would instantly discredit and delegitimize those bearing actual weapons in support of establishmentarian power.  While the analogy may be imperfect, it generally seems that Israel has done the unthinkable by shooting the flower children dead, including an American and some Turks, citizens of their most critical allies.