Posted on Sunday, 31 January, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
“Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don’t understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it’s profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it’s profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it’s profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it’s profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us.” — Mike Prysner
This guy should have been invited to speak at the Iraq Inquiry opposite Tony Blair. Thanks IVAW.
Posted on Thursday, 28 January, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
War Made Easy “reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.”
It featuresa great use archive footage and use of media clips to weave together half a century of constant propaganda to show that U.S. military activity for the last 50 years has had little to do with defence.
Posted on Thursday, 28 January, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Howard Zinn, 1922-2010. A great thinker, activist, contrarian and an eloquent spokesman for the right to dissent. His plea for people to simply pay attention and participate in what happens around them will echo for generations to ocme, and perhaps even be acted on at some future date.
“I’m worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel – let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they’re doing. I’m concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that’s handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers.” – Howard Zinn
Posted on Wednesday, 27 January, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Ah, the good ol'e days.
I’m old enough to remember the televised Iran/Contra hearings long, long ago in the United States. Now in the United Kingdom the Iraq Inquiry seems a little like Déjà vu minus Oliver North’s hot secretary.
If the former is to offer any spoilers on the latter: Nothing much will come of it. Still, it’s interesting how the UK is at least willing to explore the illegality of the the invasion of Iraq while President Obama has more or less offered unqualified amnesty to the previous White House wrecking crew that set about demolishing Iraq without any legal or logical security rationale what so ever. So it goes.
As Bush’s prayer buddy Tony Blair is to give his account in the next couple of days, 38 Degrees is asking people in the UK to press Sir John Chilcot to not go light on the New Labour patriarch.
What question would you like Tony Blair to answer?Visit the 38 Degrees website to sign their petition and let the Iraq Inquiry know what you want him to answer.
Here are the questions 38 Degrees have put forth, with my own amendments in red.
Being that the reasons given for the invasion were widely known at the time to be based on missing or questionable evidence and misleading statements, what were you offered from the White House When did you first promised George Bush you’d back an invasion?
Since there was no evidence of a stockpile and quite a bit of publicly available evidence that there wasn’t one before you made your decison, When did you really realise Saddam Hussein probably didn’t have WMD?
To what extent Did you cover up advice that the war mightwould be illegal?
Given that there was no legal basis for the war, Why did you decide to ignore the anti-war protests by the British people?
Given the highly corrupt and illegal nature of what you’ve done, why shouldn’t you be in prison right now?
Yeah, they probably won’t get asked, much less with my amendments. Maybe Cherie can make a documentary about it some day. I can likely guess what the real answer would be regarding to the protests: why would you pay attention to protesters when you’re not in any danger of losing their support at the polls?
Posted on Tuesday, 19 January, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
I love a novel approach in activism and it’s nice to see a corner of the pro-science camp take it to the streets for a change. At exactly 10:23 am on January 30, hundreads of homeopathy sceptics across the UK will go into Boots, a UK chain of pharmacies and join a mass homeopathic ‘overdose’. No need to fret about safety of swallowing a hundred or so pills of the alleged “cures” unless you happen to suffer from hyperglycemia.
The effect of downing a bottle of homeopathic ‘pillules’ would be about the same as quaffing as many Pez, and that’s the point. While homeopathy has no proven ability to cure anything, the pills are offered for sale in Boots pharmacies with labels alleging to help with various physiological problems. A number of them have the boots brand. This is interesting since the company itself gave testimony to the Commons Science and Technology Committee that it doesn’t find homeopathic remedies to be effective. So is the snake oil industry just to lucrative to give up on?
The 1023 Statement:“We call upon Boots to withdraw all homeopathic products from your shelves. You should not be involved in the sale of ineffective products, because your customers trust you to do what is right for their health. Surely you agree that your commitment to excellent patient care is better served by supplying only those products whose claims can be substantiated by rigorous scientific research? Or do you really believe that Boots should be in the business of selling placebos to the sick and the injured?”
Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man. — Aung San Suu Kyi
Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.
