big on love, tolerance, and the human potential
This proposition for a war with Iraq, then followed by 100s of his editors around the world:
“The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy… would be $20 a barrel for oil. That’s bigger than any tax cut in any country.” – Rupert Murdoch, about 2003
Some say this is the most talked about book this summer.
“The extent of Americans’ ignorance is underestimated.
“To take one example that will give you an idea of the vast ignorance with which policy makers must come to terms: A majority of Americans do not know that it was their own country which dropped the atomic bomb.”
“Twenty-five per cent of Americans believe that the sun revolves around the earth.
“Encouragingly, today the number of Americans who can correctly identify and name the three branches of government is up to 40%.”
Half believe Saddam Hussein was behind the Sept. 11 attack. 1 in 5 know that we have 100 US senators. 2 out of 5 citizens can name the three branches of the federal government.
“If facts don’t drive our politics, what does? Shenkman says it’s myths. Politicians tell people what they want to hear. They tell us we’re smart, better than others, and God’s favorites. To win us over they pretend to be just like us, belting back shots of whiskey and playing pool, in a crude exploitation of the myth of the common man.
“Decade after decade Americans have been getting more and more schooling while our politics have been getting dumber and dumber.”
Just How Stupid Are We?
Facing the Truth About the American People
Rick Shenkman’s blog
Is it price or cost we must learn?
J. K. Rowling says to Harvard:
Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts, that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticized only by fools.
Ignored by idiots, we become poverty .
This era has been so proud, then failing duty to itself, when ignoring gifts of others.
The Sex Difference Evangelists (a six-part series)
Meet the Believers
Pick a Little, Talk a Little
Empathy Queens
Mars, Venus, Babies, and Hormones
The Ghost of Larry Summers
Minnesota teen charged with offering his vote on eBay [yahoo story]
jWalk points out the 1893 law making it a felony to sell your vote, but notices it’s “still quite legal for Congressmen to sell their votes”.
From a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian:
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% – far more than previously estimated.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises.
Typical of the rolling intimidation practiced by Bush:
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.
“It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House.”
And from a related article at the Guardian:
If politicians want to reduce emissions and stop global warming, biofuels are not the solution. Recent research suggests that biofuels may increase greenhouse gas emissions rather than reduce them. And by pushing up demand for agricultural land, they’re causing farming to expand into other areas that store carbon – such as wetlands and forests – releasing way more carbon than is saved through biofuels.
Nor will biofuels offer the holy grail of fuel security and stop us from having to curb our insatiable demand for oil or oil alternatives. Oxfam estimates that if the entire corn harvest of the USA were diverted to ethanol, it would only be able to replace about one gallon in every six sold in the USA. And if the entire world supply of oilseed were converted to biodiesel, this would only be able to replace, at most, 10% of global diesel consumption.
…inconvenient facts that Bush will ignore… ahhh, this Administration leaves me stunned… …the price of lives… the bully ideology… our impotent reply…
There’s too many voices for me to sort. I trust none on TV, few in news, and never bloggers… 🙂 …thus I’m free to be utterly blind but never led, the only hope remaining.
Richard Cook is resolute and will not stop saying we are fools under a cynical trump of super rich too arrogant to be wise.
Day after day, Richard Cook is working to say their errors will condemn us, not the first time. He is proving we have too little knowledge about the wielding of power.
It’s nonsense, don’t you think, to know so little about the rich? Why on this good earth are we blind to power?
This link is to a chronology of his articles. This link is to his home site. This link is to a recent article, “The End of the Anglo-American Empire?“
Much of the world’s history over the last century has been dominated by the United States. But by the turn of the millennium in 2000-2001, the “American Century” had begun to descend into a chamber of horrors.
The years since then have been marked by the huge financial bubbles engineered by the U.S. Federal Reserve System and the virus of predatory global capitalism. We have the looming worldwide economic crisis with rising bankruptcies, credit disruptions, and soaring fuel and food prices. Alongside has been the thinly-disguised but continuing attempt by the U.S. to conquer the Middle East by force of arms under the heading of the “War on Terror.”
With a tip to Christopher Locke, I am hoping this tidbit will lure you.
Again and again, we seekers of truth are told that our primordial, essential nature is always already the case, always and only available now, no matter what the circumstances of our inner or outer lives, and therefore all desire to change our inner or outer lives in order to somehow get closer to the ever-elusive spiritual prize are not only fruitless, but are actually the problem itself.
Blah, blah, but here’s the line I like:
Seeking truth or God or enlightenment or Buddha nature is the equivalent, it has often been said, of a fish swimming endlessly in search of water.
Had I only known
America too beautiful,
We fall again.
Lost once more,
I love you.
One
Ultimately, they argued, low status may drain performance by forcing people to devote part of their thoughts to the uncertainties and threats that can arise from their superiors’ changing whims. A result is that the powerless narrow their focus to small-picture goals and to “details” that might not be relevant to the task.
The findings “have direct implications for management and organizations.”
Two
Appalling behaviour is regularly tolerated in companies too — and indeed celebrated by the mass media. Witness the celebrity status now enjoyed by Sir Alan Sugar, a barrow-boy-turned-entrepreneur who has become the star of a popular TV show, The Apprentice. Or the gibbering rages of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who reportedly once threw an office chair at a Microsoft subordinate who had the temerity to announce that he was leaving to join Google. Bill Gates is likewise celebrated in the media for his inexcusable rudeness. His stock line “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard!” is endlessly (and admiringly) reported. The gibbering rages of Oracle boss, Larry Ellison, (whose curious habit of collecting F16 fighter bombers also appeals to reporters seeking a bit of color) are also the stuff of admiring legend. And as for Steve Jobs…
It’s time we stopped worshiping these vulgar, undisciplined, ego-maniacal brutes.
If we would solve the bully nearby we could march on power.
World marketed energy consumption is projected to increase by 50 percent from 2005 to 2030, according to a new report from the United States Energy Information Agency.
Total energy demand in non-OECD countries is projected to increase by 95 percent, while OECD countries are expected to increase consumption by 24 percent.
USAToday –
Wars have cost $700B since 9/11
A new Congressional Research Service report says the U.S. government has spent about $700 billion on “military operations, base security, reconstruction, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans’ health care for the three operations initiated since the 9/11 attacks.”
Put that in your tank….
I remember a story:
Richelieu was a great warrior gentleman that brought several hundred young men to America to support the Revolution. He was a loud energetic man with a creed he spoke day upon day. I visited the barracks in Newport RI where he had met each night with his little Army – still a true threat to the English nearby. He would talk hours each night to his young charges, his regalia and his stallion always with him in the great barn. My guide, a Rhode Island judge, pointed earnestly to a yard-wide medallion next to the pedestal where Richelieu spoke each night. The General’s bold white stallion had hoofed a 4 inch deep circle into the old oak planks because night after night, waiting and waiting, the stallion’s impatience circled a bowl into the hard wood floor as if to commemorate that these are the arguments and speeches and agonies and fears that make nations the horse did say.
I wouldn’t know if either God or you will approve then it shouldn’t matter if I tell you my proud moment today is a dozen thumbs of hot dog I put along the dash and I whooped in some odd glory when my good dog waited ’til the last before he tongued each gift knowing this man is no cheat.
We’ll meet at their office:
On the Last Fourth of July, the subjects of the new King George thought long and hard. Would they grill hotdogs, turn up the air-conditioning, cheer for militarism, and wait for total tyranny. Or would they go to the local offices of their senators and say: “If you follow through on eliminating our Fourth Amendment, we will be through with you. We do not care what you threaten us with. We do not care what faction or party you belong to. You will restore our Fourth Amendment or you will be finished in public life.” Will they go to their representatives, also home for the holiday, and say “You must now put one piece of the Constitution back where it belongs, the fundamental piece, the keystone on which all else depends. You must impeach this president, join our cause, and enjoy our gratitude, or we will end your career as court jester and replace you with a representative of the will of the Free and Independent People that our ancestors gave their lives to create.”
Peddlers can be so tacky.
J-Walk noticed these TicketMaster fees:
…a $17 ticket has these additional fees:
- $0.75 Facility Fee per ticket
- $2.50 Print At Home Delivery Fee per order per ticket
- $3.00 Convenience charge per ticket
- $3.10 Processing/Handling fee per order per ticket
- $4.25 Convenience charge per ticket per ticket
Yes, per ticket per ticket.
The small spot is the formation of a new planet as it ‘collects’ gas, dust and debris, says Popular Science.
To commemorate the Hubble telescope’s 18th year, NASA has compiled 59 pictures of Galaxies Gone Wild.
An error page at Cornell University wizened, “Some kind of unknown error occured” [sic].
I trudged along. And what did I learn?
The newly popular bio-tech corn kills butterflies!
You betcha some kind of unknown error occurred.
An increasingly popular commercial corn, genetically engineered to produce a bacterial toxin to protect against corn pests, has an unwanted side effect: Its pollen kills monarch butterfly larvae in laboratory tests, according to a report by Cornell researchers.
Writing in the May 20 issue of the journal Nature, the researchers note that this hybrid crop, known as Bt-corn, has genes from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) spliced into the plant genes. These hybrids are very effective against the ravenous European corn borer, a major corn pest that is destroyed by the plant’s toxic tissue.
The article quickly assures us, “The engineered corn is safe for human consumption”, but continues describing the new poison:
Unlike many pesticides, the Bt-corn has been shown to have no effect on many “nontarget” organisms — pollinators such as honeybees or beneficial predators of pests like ladybugs.
But the Bt-modified corn produces pollen containing crystalline endotoxin from the bacterium genes. When this corn pollen is dispersed by the wind, it lands on other plants, including milkweed, the exclusive food of monarch caterpillars and commonly found around cornfields.
It’s not funny sprinkling surety among surprise….
Desmond Morris Redux
Joe Navarro at The Washington Post:
For 25 years I worked as a paid observer. I was a special agent for the FBI specializing in counterintelligence — specifically, catching spies. For me, observing human behavior is like having software running in the background, doing its job — no conscious effort needed.
The head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies reported to Congress that the chief executives of the oil companies should be charged with “high crimes against humanity”.
From a consolidated post at Daily Galaxy:
Hansen is no stranger to controversy. The Bush administration has attacked Hansen on several fronts, but the most frustrating attack is perhaps its outright attempt to silence scientific reports like the U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change. This multi-volume assessment, mandated by the Global Change Research Act of 1990, included a decade of thorough scientific study. Shortly after George W Bush became president, the White House barred government scientists from using its contents or even referring to it. In a severe “conflict of interest” move that has defined the Bush administration, oil industry lobbyist Philip Cooney was appointed chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Cooney resigned from the CEQ when he was caught changing data and deleting scientific information from reports in 2005. Immediately after his resignation he was hired by ExxonMobil.
Search Google. Very strong positions here.
From Anil Dash, for those who want to understand more about Bill Gates:
“Gates’ mother Mary Maxwell Gates … how philanthropic work opened doors for a fledgling Bill Gates and Microsoft.
“Mary Maxwell Gates was deeply involved in the work of the United Way for many years before her passing in 1994, most notably as its first female chair. And one of the connections she made through that work back in 1980 was to John Opel, the chairman of IBM who was also a member of the United Way’s executive committee.
“It’s become fairly clear in the years since that at least part of the reason IBM was willing to hire Microsoft to create an operating system for the initial release of the IBM PC was because of the introductions made through that connection.”
On the other hand, Michael Masnick at Techdirt takes us down a different road:
Bill Gates, Microsoft CEO, 1991: “If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today… A future start-up with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose.”
If you needed any proof that Microsoft has shifted from a “young company innovates” to an “old company litigates” stance, just take a look at the massive ramp up in patents awarded to Microsoft over the last decade and a half. It’s been steady growth, with a massive leap in the past two years.
Every week, if you follow patents granted to Microsoft you see huge numbers. In the past four weeks alone, Microsoft has been granted 49 patents (June 24), 44 patents (June 17), 42 patents (June 10) and 76 patents (June 3). That’s 211 patents this month alone. Compare that to a company like Google, who was granted a grand total of 7 patents in June.
And I just found an ‘exclusive exit interview‘ of Bill Gates conducted by Michael J. Miller at PCWorld.
the thunder of beauty
not memories
not dreams
Long and artificial nails are a breeding ground for bacteria.
Even after thorough washing bugs such as E.coli remain under finger nails and can be transfered to food.
“A chef has to have their nails short and clean at all times”, said David Belford, London Hygiene Center concluding new research. [BBC]
Around 90% of bacteria on the hands is under finger nails.
By withholding a most devastating indictment of the lawless regime in power, namely illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens, the New York Times denied citizens the option of a fully informed choice in 2004 and it played a major role in returning Bush-Cheney to power. [story from New Zealand]
Bush toasts President Arroyo of the Philippines:
In the spirit of meeting Buddha on the road, George Carlin rants a bit in “You Are All Diseased”:
I want you to know, when it comes to believing in god- I really tried. I really really tried. I tried to believe that there is a god who created each one of us in his own image and likeness, loves us very much and keeps a close eye on things. I really tried to believe that, but I gotta tell you, the longer you live, the more you look around, the more you realize…something is fucked up. Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best god can do, I am not impressed. Results like these do not belong on the resume of a supreme being. This is the kind of shit you’d expect from an office temp with a bad attitude. And just between you and me, in any decently run universe, this guy would have been out on his all-powerful-ass a long time ago.