Mine Blog
“At the bottom, people tend to believe that class is defined by the amount of money you have. In the middle, people grant that money has something to do with it, but think education and the kind of work you do almost equally important. Near the top, people perceive that taste, values, ideas, style, and behavior are indispensable criteria of class, regardless of money or occupation or education….The special hazards attending the class situation in America…are disappointment, and following close on that, envy.”
—Paul Fussell’s “A Touchy Subject”
February 2012
19 posts
STFU, Conservatives: A pro-choice Democratic legislator has taken a novel approach to fighting an Oklahoma “personhood” bill. - adds ‘Every... →
stfuconservatives.net
State Senator Constance Johnson of Oklahoma City has introduced a measure that calls to mind the famous Monty Python “Every Sperm is Sacred” sketch from the 1983 film “The Meaning of Life.”
The concept of “personhood” defines human life as beginning at the…
Pro-life folks seem to be placing their concerns in the wrong place…it’s like they’re caring about a fetus that will go through pain once (or do they even know pain at that stage? do they even have nerves yet?), but they can care less about the millions of children and babies around the globe that suffer everyday—and to an irritable degree! Makes sense!
“The most powerful engine of change in the relative decline of the state and rise of non-state actors is the computer and telecommunications revolution, whose deep political and social consequences have been almost completely ignored….In every sphere of activity, instantaneous access to information and the ability to put it to use multiplies the number of players who matter and reduces the number who command great authority”
—Jessica Matthews, Essentials of International Relations
Uncle Sam, Global Gangster | Andrew Bacevich →
tomdispatch.com
The United States is finished with the business of sending large land armies to invade and occupy countries on the Eurasian mainland. Robert Gates, when still Secretary of Defense, made the definitive statement on that subject. The United States is now in the business of using missile-armed drones and special operations forces to eliminate anyone (not excluding U.S. citizens) the president of the United States decides has become an intolerable annoyance. Under President Obama, such attacks have proliferated.
This is America’s new MO. Paraphrasing a warning issued by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a Washington Post dispatch succinctly summarized what it implied: “The United States reserved the right to attack anyone who it determined posed a direct threat to U.S. national security, anywhere in the world.”
Furthermore, acting on behalf of the United States, the president exercises this supposed right without warning, without regard to claims of national sovereignty, without Congressional authorization, and without consulting anyone other than Michael Vickers and a few other members of the national security apparatus. The role allotted to the American people is to applaud, if and when notified that a successful assassination has occurred. [more]
Who Won the Vietnam War? →
globalresearch.ca
“Vietnam never received war reparations payments from the U.S. for the massive loss of life and destruction, yet an agreement reached in Paris in 1993 required Hanoi to recognize the debts of the defunct Saigon regime of General Thieu. This agreement is in many regards tantamount to obliging Vietnam to compensate Washington for the costs of war.”
Learn the injustice.