Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Turn the other cheek


Yes, but this is not the message of salvation.
It does not "get" you anything, except a slap in the face.
Don't rejoice too much over one more slap.
Love is the point; not passivity or submission.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Everybody knows


the deal is rotten

Friday, December 11, 2009

We Have Never Fought a Democracy


Well, Germany in 1941.
And Gaza today.
And we have overthrown democracy
for "our men"
Chile in 1974: Allende for Pinochet
Iran in 1953: Mosaddeq for the Shah
Venezuela in 2002: Chavez, but it failed
so should that really count?
And East Timor, after their vote for independence?
and Haiti, 2004, kidnapping Aristide

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Global Water and Air Volume

[>]
That's it, so they say.
water: .3 billion cu. miles

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Q: Where is this coal going?


A: Into the air.
And that is not the half of it. CO2 weighs 3 times as much as C

Friday, November 27, 2009

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Terri Schiavo

news from the UK.
This will also be dismissed as - nothing.
---
The first point, however, is:
If you love someone who is desperately ill,
you want to do everything reasonable
plus two crazy things.
Her future ex wanted to DNR her, but
the staff had to tell him it was illegal.
---
Who cared - who cried - for Terri?
Who went broke trying to help her?
Her parents lost everything.
He got matching Mercedes
and a new house.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Learned helplessness


Reaching for one too many stars.
Pretend

Monday, November 16, 2009

New Currency


to be backed by opium.
Not the gold standard, but something besides nothing.

Fight them over here


vs. strong personal relationships [with] local populations
New York Times

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Saturday, November 14, 2009

We are all in this together


Barak Obama, talking about the Wall St bail out, or
socialism, for the rich.
See?
We are all in what together?

Thursday, November 12, 2009

James Polk Silver Dollar


How fitting that, at this time, the US
would select a war-monger for its new
non-silver dollar.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Secrets


make you sick

Cindy Sheehan

on Facebook
If elections changed anything, they would be illegal
I hear that the administration is less popular
than King George was in 1776.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Looking for poppies in Afghanistan


RAWA provides some clues: [1] [2] [3]
on how to find them.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

What is the boiling point of terrorism?

Is it torture if you boil someone in water?
Uzbekistan. YouTube of ambassador Murray.
I know. It's old news.

Where I have been

I've been posting lately on the Arghand site, here.
If you do need an invitation to join, I can send one.

Iran misdirection

We concentrate on Iran's nuclear capabilities, which are irrelevant when they have oil, and neglect its kiloton range shipments of conventional arms into areas of conflict. See this post on the recent Israeli interdiction of weapons.
Is this misdirection on purpose? And if so, what is the purpose?

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Beautiful


young girl from Mirwais Mena

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Will Russia Join NATO?

to fight the terrorists, of course, silly.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Malalai Kakar


Sunday, September 28th, 2008

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The Nuclear Option


from "War made easy" @0:13:49 Nixon in Vietnam
Also
Eisenhower in Korea.
Eisenhower re Quemoy and Matsu.
prior to Dien Bien Phu, offer of 2 bombs to the French.
The Pueblo.< /br> ====
I suspect that Kennedy came close in Laos.

Economic reform and Transparency

AKA: Perestroika and Glasnost
and by advanced economy I mean one in which the lights stay on
James Howard Kunstler

Consumers


can change the world.
"The dollar bill is a phenomenal force for change, I now know, if spent on products and processes that respect the environment and promote dignified livelihoods, rather than destroying them." Sarah Chayes

Sunday, September 13, 2009

How many warlords does it take

to change a lightbulb?
Ans: Warlords don't change lightbulbs
In fact, they prefer the dark.

Friday, September 04, 2009

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Drugs and Arms


Power and dope corrupt governments.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Post Peak


hello.....

Why No Warning Shot?


Hiroshima and Nagasaki were warning shots.

Japan was already defanged.

Even after the bombs, Japan did not surrender unconditionally.
They surrendered on the condition that the Emperor be treated with respect, something that the US refused previously.
The US accepted this condition, on the condition that the Emperor obey MacArthur.

We had the bomb. The US, especially General Leslie Groves, needed to move the bomb from the shadows onto the world stage.
No peace before that.
See “House of War” by James Carroll.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Rethinking death


Against defenseless people,
there is not much that nuclear weapons can do
that cannot be done with an ice pick.
or a machete

Friday, August 21, 2009

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Oswald's security clearance


Oswald worked the radar at Atsugi, Japan.
Atsugi was a CIA base; one that the U2 flew out of.
All radar controllers knew the altitude that the U2 could fly at.
This was top-secret information.
YouTube

JFK


Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled we are -- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation," a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.
The inaugural address
James Carroll in House of War

Monday, August 17, 2009

Africa / America



Is this where it goes?

Power from Water or Solar Collector.
Not sure which.


George Schultz talks with the head of Chevron about getting energy from the MIT swimming pool. George has a PhD from MIT and is on the New Energy Initiatives panel at MIT.
(I don't how the fuel cell figures in - just burn the hydrogen.)

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Our Policy In Africa

Testimony of General WILLIAM E. WARD, AFRICOM.
Strengthen our African partners and oppose the weak.
Achieve positive change in the lives of millions of people.
Support U.S. foreign and national security policy, through non-military means, where possible, including access to oil in the Gulf of Guinea. Ensure the safety of the American Empire.
(I paraphrase.)

Friday, August 14, 2009

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Knowledge

Knowledge we ask not
For knowledge Thou has lent
But the will
There lies our bitter need

The will to build
above the deep intent
the deed.
John Drinkwater
3/1/11:
Lord, not for light in darkness do we pray,
Not that the veil be lifted from our eyes,
Not that the slow ascension of our day
Be otherwise.

We know the paths wherein our feet should press,
Across our hearts are written Thy decrees;
Yet now O Lord, be merciful to bless,
With more than these.

Grant us the will to fashion as we feel;
Grant us the strength to labor as we know;
Grant us the purpose, ribbed and edged with steel,
To strike the blow.

Knowledge we ask not, knowledge Thou hast lent,
But Lord, the will, there lies our bitter need;
Give us to build above the deep intent
The deed, the deed.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Masters of the Universe


We won't be they.

The earth is not divided into states


And the term "failed states" is an admission of that.
Failed states are not an exception to the rule: there is no rule,
but the rulers can't admit that.

Q: Why are these borders so straight?


A: Used a ruler.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Monday, August 03, 2009

The swans are flying


hunky dory asks Kunstler.
Duck and cover replaces pheasant under glass.

BAU - Blood for oil

in Peru

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Afghan Massacre - 2001


General Dostum at Kunduz and Mazar al Sharif.
prisoner abuse.
remember John Walker Lindh?
Here is the video, from Democracy Now!

David Halberstam


Glen Greewald's commentary
on speaking falsehoods to weaklings

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

New Yorker


"Fortunately, it doesn't last long".
"We have woven the sound of the alarm clock into our dreams." Lovelock.

Monday, July 06, 2009

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Clean energy


is not this, and it's not mountain top removal.