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As promised, here's the rundown of tracks from my entry in the CDP's CDP Worldwide Mix-Tape Trade 8. The title of my mix CD is "For Malachi Ritscher." You can read more about Ritscher here and you can read about the history and theme of the mix here.
1. "Ban the Game" by Men Without Hats (from the album Rhythm of Youth) Not many people would use the word "poignant" when referring to Men Without Hats. For most folks, the band's name evokes images of midgets at a Renaissance fair. But "Ban the Game," the first track on their 1982 debut album, is quite the poignant tune and I thought this was a good way to introduce the program.
2. "The Mob Rules" by Black Sabbath (from the soundtrack to the film Heavy Metal) Although Ozzy-era Sabbath is laden with political themes, this was seldom the case with their Dio-era material. "The Mob Rules" is something of an exception. The idea that "when you listen to fools, the mob rules" is a reminder that mass hysteria generally yields the worst of what the world has to offer. In the wake of 9/11, this kind of polarized groupthink brought our worst prejudices to light and ultimately led us to the invasion and occupation of two countries. (I used the Heavy Metal edit because on Mob Rules, there's about half a second of the song "E150" that bleeds into the beginning of "The Mob Rules" and it's pretty much impossible to edit out. I wish the sound quality of this particular track was a little better.)
Allen Ginsberg
3. "The Sunflower Sutra" by Allen Ginsberg (from the album Howl and Other Poems) Both for his own time and well beyond, few voices of protest and activism are as thought-provoking and insightful as that of Allen Ginsberg. Laden with vivid imagery and ethereal symbolism, "The Sunflower Sutra" is a work that evaluates and celebrates self-awareness while chronicling his personal struggle to make the world a better place. (Had I not been going for the whole "three word title" pattern, I might've included "America," which is one of my favorite Ginsberg works.)
4. "No Fucking War" by 7 Year Bitch (from the album Sick 'Em) 7 Year Bitch was one of the most underrated punk bands of the 1990's. They were heavy as hell and something of a standout from the "riot grrrl" and grunge ensembles of their time. Selene Vigil belted out songs with the bulldozer-like ferocity of a female Cronos (and that, friends, is the highest of compliments from yours truly)."No Fucking War" was 7 Year Bitch's song of protest against Operation Desert Storm, but the lyrics became even more relevant during America's second foray into the Persian Gulf. With George W. Bush leading the new charge, the line "Bush, pull out like your father should have" (originally aimed at George HW Bush) turned a simple double entendre into an irony that was profoundly unfortunate.
5. "Two-Sided Politics" by Suicidal Tendencies (from the album Suicidal Tendencies) Some Cold War-era musings on alienation and injustice going on here: I'm not anti-Reagan, Reagan's anti-me /And I'm not anti-government, government's anti-me/And I'm not anti-politics, politics is anti-me/And I'm not anti-anything, I just wanna be free. Well…It still rings true, doesn't it?
6. "Pen Cap Chew" by Nirvana (from the box set With the Lights Out or possibly from the Pay to Play bootleg) It's not so much of a pacifist's anthem, but there's definitely some political awareness in the line "Kill a politician and then wear his clothes." Part Robin Hood, part Bolshevik revolutionary….all Cobain. The spoken word lead-in is an outtake I pulled from side four of the LP version of From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah. It's not really relevant to the song, but it's funny because Bob Larson is a yutz. I originally spliced these tracks together for another mix CD many years ago.
7 Year Bitch
7. "Levi Stubbs' Tears" by Billy Bragg (from the album Talking with the Taxman About Poetry) So beautiful and so sad, all at the same time. This song is about trudging through life despite the worst kinds of trouble and tragedy: "When the world falls apart, some things stay in place."
8. "The Call Up" by The Clash (from the album Sandanista!) Sandanista! should make each and every list of the greatest rock albums of all time, now and forever. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that this album is still woefully underappreciated despite innovation, musicianship and content (both artistic and political content) of the highest caliber. Think of "The Call Up" as something like the punk equivalent of Phil Ochs' much-celebrated draft evasion anthem "Draft Dodger Rag."
9. "Canons of Christianity" by Phil Ochs (from the album Phil Ochs in Concert) Phil Ochs is not just one of my favorite artists; he is one of my favorite human beings. I think a lot of people believe Phil ultimately took his own life because he lost his sanity. I prefer to think that Phil stayed sane while the rest of the world went crazy. "Canons of Christianity" nicely sums up the problems wrought by religion's best of intentions.
10. "Over the Edge" by The Wipers (from the album Over the Edge) If you've never heard any stuff by The Wipers, do yourself a favor and buy the 3 CD box set that includes is This Real?, Youth of America, and Over the Edge. This is a great song for those days when you feel like everyone is pushing your damn buttons. (I had hoped to include the song "Youth of America" in this mix and then use the Hole cover of "over the Edge" but with "Youth" clocking in at almost 10 minutes, I wouldn't have been able to contain this collection in a single disc.)
11. "Cult of Personality" by Living Colour (from the album Vivid) My head almost exploded when I first saw Living Color perform on Saturday Night Live back in 1989. I still remember seeing how annoyed my mom was with the performance and pretty much deciding right then to go buy their album. She was less than thrilled when I brought it home. I think I missed the whole point of the song "Cult of Personality" back then but as I've grown older, I can appreciate it in a different context. Any way you look at it, this song is tremendous.
12. "Worried Man Blues" by Woody Guthrie (from the album Muleskinner Blues: The Asch Recordings Vol. 2) The quintessential poet and songwriter of the American Left, Woody fought for a better world and shared his vision far and wide. His voice and music remain the heart and soul of the continuing struggle against corruption and injustice. it was one of my favorite moments as a parent thus far when I heard baby Z. -- at about the age of 2 years old -- singling along with Woody's "Muleskinner Blues."
13. " Ένα το χελιδόνι" ("Ena to helidoni" or "A Solitary Swallow") by Mikis Theodorakis (from the YouTube video "ΝΟΕΜΒΡΗΣ 1973-ΠΟΛΥΤΕΧΝΕΙΟ") The YouTube video collage "November 1973 – Polytechnic" chronicles the 1973 uprising by students of the Athens Polytechnic in opposition to the fascist dictatorship of Greece's military junta. "Ena to Helidoni" was originally written during the Greek Civil War of 1946-1949 but it became symbolic of the struggle against the junta during the years of the dictatorship. The voice at the beginning of this track is Maria Damanaki, who was a leading voice of the students during the uprising (Damanaki has long since given up radical politics in favor of a career with ruling-class organizations and institutions). In the excerpt included in this track, Damanaki proclaims, "Everyone united in the struggle for democracy and national independence; Long live the people's struggle!" The gunshots immediately following the song are taken from audio of the junta's brutal suppression of the students on 17 November. My friend Anthony once described the juxtaposition of the song with the sound of gunfire as "chilling" (or words to that effect." I edited the audio a bit to bring these elements closer together. Thanks to Anthony for the translation help.
14. "Commerce of Grief," an excerpt from a presentation by Arundhati Roy In her September 18, 2002 talk "Come September, writer and activist Arundhati Roy commented on the dangers of jingoism and militarism that flourished in the wake of the September 11 attacks. In this particular excerpt, she explores the hypocrisy of killing innocent people to avenge the deaths of other innocent people.
15. "Search and Destroy" by The Stooges (this version from the soundtrack to The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou) I wish I had a coherent explanation for including this song, but I have to settle on the explanation that it just felt right. All of this talk of death and destruction probably brought this tune to my mind.
16. "Gimme Some Truth" by John Lennon (taken from the soundtrack to The U.S. vs. John Lennon) John Lennon, much like the rest of us, wanted the one thing that's the hardest to get.
The great Phil
Ochs
17. "Ringing of Revolution" by The Weakerthans (from the album Return of the Read Menace) Somebody gave me a compilation of stuff by the Weakerthans some years ago and to be totally honest, I never got past this song, which was the first track. This is a dynamite cover of the epic tune by Phil Ochs (without Phil's cinematic, spoken-word prologue, mind you) and after hearing this, I figured the bar was set too high and that I wouldn't appreciate anything else by Yhe Weakerthans on the level that I loved this particular performance.
18. "Black Wind Blowing" by Billy Bragg and Wilco (from the album Mermaid Avenue, Volume 2) The Mermaid Avenue albums, collections of Woody Guthrie's heretofore unpublished lyrics, contain some of the best music ever recorded. The song "Black Wind Blowing" reminds me of something that I often say about the state of the world today: "Things have to get a whole lot worse before they ever get better."
19. "Power to the People" by Huey P. Newton (excerpted from a public address) Brother Huey, much like Paul Robeson, Phil Ochs and so many others like him, had a brilliant vision of a better world that was compromised and marginalized through sustained campaigns of repression and harassment from elitists and their proverbial "running dogs." He was the epitome of the doctrine of revolutionary suicide: "I, we, all of us are the one and the multitude."
20. "Until the End" by The Nightwatchman (from the album One Man Revolution) I used to refer to Phil Ochs as the last great songwriter of the American Left… Then I heard Tom Morello's material from his "The Nightwatchman" project.
21. "for Malachi Ritscher" (original composition) This is an original "sound collage," created using my Epiphone Les Paul, Karera bass guitar and the keyboard simulator from Apple GarageBand. The spoken content was performed by K. and Z. (Z.'s line took about 37 takes.)
When it comes to sharing information, garnering awareness, and organizing campaigns there are few forms of media that can compete with the accessibility and reach of Internet-based "social networking" sites. For every "MySpace," "Twitter," and "LinkedIn," there are many dozens of smaller sites that are scraping and clawing for their own share of this burgeoning market.
In only 6 years, Facebook has evolved from a quaint and entertaining novelty to a bona fide brand unto itself, now boasting over 500 million users worldwide. It's become a billion-dollar enterprise, enjoying a far-reaching and profound influence upon social networking, the Internet and upon popular culture itself.
Of course, as individuals and groups see the power and appeal of Facebook, it is understandable and expected that such a user-friendly service might be harnessed to further all sorts of objectives and causes. Such was the vision shared by supporters of Colombian revolutionary Ricardo Palmera when they created a Facebook page aimed at publicizing the rather unusual twists and turns of Palmera's battles in the American legal system.
The Facebook group "Free Ricardo Palmera!" was created by three members of The National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera. In its relatively short existence on the web, the group's membership grew to nearly 700 members before Facebook administrators deleted the page on June 30, acting without any sort of advance notice or legitimate justification. Josh Sykes, one of the co-founders of the "Free Ricardo Palmera!" Facebook group explained the situation in an interview with Fight Back! News:
Facebook's reason was that it violated the 'terms of use' so they shut it down on June 30. They said that it was obscene, that it attacked people, or was hateful. Nothing could be further from the truth. They also threatened the administrators of the group with having their profiles disabled if we continued to "abuse" facebook features - which we never did.
On July 7, the personal Facebook account of Josh Sykes and those of the group's co-founders, Angela Denio and Tom Burke, were also locked by Facebook, ostensibly as a penalty for organizing support for Palmera. A groundswell of support for Sykes, Denio and Burke followed on the web and beyond. Under pressure from individual users and sympathetic organizations and media groups, Facebook eventually reinstated the accounts of Sykes and Denio while still attempting to justify the deletion of the Palmera group with vague and disingenuous terminology:
After reviewing your situation, we have determined that your group violated our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. One of Facebook's main priorities is the comfort and safety of our users. We do not allow credible threats to harm others, support for violent organizations, or exceedingly graphic content. Your violation of Facebook's standards has resulted in the permanent loss of your group. We will not be able to reactivate this group for any reason. This decision is final.
The Palmera group remains a virtual "third rail" along with a number of other causes that are unwelcome on Facebook. In the weeks and months leading up to the sacking of the Palmera group, Facebook also disabled a group calling for a boycott of BP as well as a page condemning Israeli oppression of Palestinians. The glaring inconsistency in Facebook's allegedly egalitarian motivations lies in the fact that plenty of other Facebook pages – including those created by groups who openly espouse racism, fascism, misogyny and even murder – remain unchallenged and unmolested despite a flagrant disregard for Facebook's terms of use. Some might view this as simple irony in that Facebook purports to support free speech, information sharing and democracy around the world. The sad reality is that their actions with regard to the Palmera group and other causes are demonstrative of calculated and intentional censorship; In a word, we're talking about hypocrisy.
It's not necessarily a matter of expecting wealthy, propertied interests to uphold apparently elusive concepts like "free speech" because for progressives who see the inherent repression in bourgeois society, we must surely have reasonable expectations based on what we see and experience from day to day and from year to year. There was a time when people might have legitimately expected Facebook to stand for something radically different. These expectations are now little more than illusions. In retrospect, perhaps it's not so surprising that Facebook—a business entity that has effectively redefined the elite ranks of global mass media—has slowly become yet another arm of ruling elites and the military-industrial-media complex. Facebook has indeed descended into the bowels of the corporate sewer and, to quote Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, "If you live in the toilet, you get used to shit and the smell no longer bothers you."
Tom Burke, co-founder of the "Free Ricardo Palmera!" group on Facebook remains in social networking limbo as Facebook administrators ponder his virtual fate. Meanwhile, individuals and groups continue to struggle against censorship on Facebook, mounting campaigns to reinstate Burke's account while creating new pages to shed light on the struggle of Ricardo Palmera.
Read more about the situation through Fight Back! News here and watch an interview with Josh Sykes and Angela Denio on YouTube.
God help me, we are women, and this whole cursed abortion thing is a part of the war on women. Do you understand? Try to understand, because I need you. We have to do it together, women and men, and it's a long road to go."
– Abigail Goodman from the conclusion of Howard Fast's The Trial of Abigail Goodman
But I want to point out that the first step, in my view, is that Roe v. Wade be overturned...I am fighting for an overturning of Roe v. Wade.
– Mitt Romey on the Dec. 16, 2007 edition of Meet the Press
A couple of Sundays ago, I was laying in bed, still half-asleep as I watched Meet the Press. Mitt Romney was the big guest for the hour and the interview was pretty run-of-the mill and boring until Russert brought up the topic of abortion. Romney, who was unabashedly pro-choice until recently, struggled to in vain to explain the sense behind his major about-face on the matter. Even after Russert aired an old video clip of Romney pledging, "I will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose and am devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard," Romney continued to attempt to present his current political line as being largely unchanged from previous periods. Ultimately, Romney told Russert that it was, in his mind, of the utmost importance that Roe v. Wade be overturned as the first means of banning abortion in the US. With that, Romney fell right into line with the other right-wing zealots of his party. (Read the full transcript here) It's not that this is that much of a surprise to me, but sometimes it takes something like this to really impress me as to how much trouble we're really in these days. Romney's comments about Roe reminded me at once of the novel The Trial of Abigail Goodman by the great novelist Howard Fast. I picked up a cheap copy of the book at an estate sale a few years back, buying it not so much for its content but because I recognized Fast's name from previously reading his work on Josip Tito and also from reading pieces of Fast's own autobiography, Being Red. I read the dust jacket of Abigail Goodman on the way home the day that I had purchased it and the plot was rather intriguing as it was a fictionalized account of what might follow if abortion was banned in the United States. In the book, 41 year-old Abigail Goodman, college professor and mother of two grown children, is put on trial in a small southern town after it is learned that she had an abortion. Regrettably, at the time that I purchased it, Abigail Goodman became so much like many other books that I have acquired in recent years. It is certainly a cliche to say this, but as the saying goes, "So many books, so little time..."
Seeing the Romney interview again piqued my curiosity regarding the Fast novel and thankfully, my home library is not in too much disarray, so I was able to locate the book quickly. Abigail Goodman is a short book and something of a fast read. It only took me a few evenings and afternoons to polish it off. Now, I don't read a lot of novels and I really hesitate to put too much stock into a fictionalized "what if" tale, but Fast's work on Abigail Goodman is very good at a number of levels. Of particular importance is Fast's portrayal of American attitudes towards abortion as having specific class distinctions that are, in real life, both painfully apparent and seldom discussed. Moreover, Fast had the foresight to publish Abigail Goodman in 1993 – the early years of the Clinton Administration – at a time in which most dyed-in-the wool American liberals were content to rest on their collective laurels in the belief that our civil liberties would be secure for the foreseeable future. (As if the Democratic Party's neoliberals won't compromise the reproductive rights of women for political gain if it means winning a dogfight with the Republicans...)
Abigail Goodman is, at the very least, a great piece of literature by a wonderful author. In many respects, though, it is a warning to Americans at what we face from the Romney, Huckabee and many others like them. It is certainly a "must-read" for a time in which our civil liberties – and our common sense – are slowly slipping away amidst very little fanfare.
When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.
One of the best things about having friends who are much smarter than you is that just by chatting or corresponding with them, you're bound to learn something new. Such is the case with a recent online discussion in which I have been participating. The premise of the discussion is the question of whether or not the Big Bang Theory (BBT) sufficiently and definitively explains the origins of the universe. Now, I should note that I have never taken a formal course on physics. My college-level science studies stopped at biology and chemistry. The little I know about physics comes from my own limited reading of works by Einstein, Asmiov, and Sagan. I have also read some interesting pieces of Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe. So while the details of the aforementioned discussion on BBT are a bit over my head, the general concepts are not entirely beyond my grasp.
It has been my experience that BBT is generally portrayed as something of a scientific alternative to the creationist explanation of the origin of the universe. But what has been pointed out by some scientists is that BBT itself actually fails to adequately explain certain the premise of the big bang itself. This is well articulated in Dr. Lin Jung Wang's 2005 work "Dispersive Extinction Theory of Redshift" in which Dr. Wang notes:
"There are a number of fundamental difficulties with the big bang theory. First, the notion of having the enormous mass and energy of the universe coming out of nowhere defies every fundamental law and all logic known to physics."
This very simple point is an issue which I would guess has been overlooked many times aver by the average lay person. In fact, the point begs the question of whether or not this particular notion serves as an inherent loophole in BBT which makes the existence of God not only a foregone conclusion but a necessity if one is to ultimately accept BBT as the most viable explanation as to the origins of the universe. With this point at issue, BBT becomes less of a scientific theory and more of a dogmatic belief.
Nevertheless, Dr. Wang continues his scientific critique of BBT by taking issue with the notion of "the expanding universe." The "expansion" phenomena is, in very basic terms, the phenomena of bodies moving away from each other as a direct result of the outward force of the big bang itself. Proponents of the expanding model point to the cosmic redshift as evidence of the expansion and of the validity of BBT itself. However, Dr. Wang's work points to a different explanation altogether:
"We attribute the redshift to the dispersive extinction, which includes absorption and scattering by the space medium...The dispersive extinction by the space medium would cause the central wavelength of a spectral line to shift to the red or to the blue, depending on the characteristics of the space medium."
This is an intriguing alternative to the concept of an "expanding universe." Although the Dispersive Extinction Theory (DET) does not itself present an alternative to BBT, it does serve to further weaken the already questionable foundations of BBT. With time and effort on the part of scientists like Dr. Wang, we are sure to learn the truth someday.
Thanks to my friend Youzhong for helping with this article.
During the Viet Nam War, Buddhist monks in Saigon set themselves on fire to protest the war. The whole world watched as these martyrs for peace went up in flames.
Last Friday, a man approached the "Millennium Flame" sculpture on the Kennedy Expressway near the Ohio Exit, and set himself aflame, leaving a note stating: "Thou Shalt Not Kill." The local media just wrote this off as another unfortunate case of mental illness.
But it wasn't mental illness. It was an anti-war protest. Malachi Ritscher was a martyr for peace. (full story)
Malachi Ritscher (1954 - 2006)
“Here is the statement I want to make: if I am required to pay for your barbaric war, I choose not to live in your world. I refuse to finance the mass murder of innocent civilians, who did nothing to threaten our country. I will not participate in your charade — my conscience will not allow me to be a part of your crusade.”
Further reading Obituary (as written by Malachi Ritscher) Right on! greeklish.org
It looks like the Greek monopoly on feta cheese
is simply not enough to keep their economy strong. The celebrated
cradle of Western civilization and birthplace of reason and democracy,
has now written a new page in the annals of political economy. Under
pressure from the EU because of it’s budget deficit, the Greek
government has come up with a rather...um... innovative way to bring it’s GDP on to a more even par with its budget deficit:
Athens
has announced that its economy is 25% bigger than thought thanks, in
part, to the round-the-clock duties of the country's prostitutes, who
were known as hetairai in ancient times.
The
Greek authorities are revising the country's gross domestic product
(GDP) after deciding that the black market should be included in the
figures.
Manolis
Kontopyrakis, the head of the national statistics service, told
Reuters: "The revised GDP will include some money from illegal
activities, such as money from cigarette and drinks smuggling,
prostitution and money laundering."
Greece's
economic output was €180bn (£128bn) in 2005 and is expected to rise to
€194bn this year. The black economy is estimated at up to €60bn,
according to Reuters. (full story)
Bootlegging and prostitution revenue figures in the GDP? Let’s see if it measures up to what we know about GDP...
...(GDP) is a measure of National
Income. It is the total value of all goods and services produced over a
given time period (usually a year) excluding net property income from
abroad. It can be measured either as the total of income, expenditure
or output.
Hmm...I
guess the bootlegging covers the "goods" end of things. And
prostitution definitely involves "servicing" of one sort or another. But
a proposal like this has to be based on some sort of intensive field
research, doesn’t it? I wonder if Kontopyrakis paid for the research
with his own money or if he used government funds in his study of price
structures, exchange rates, and the like.
At
any rate, the silver lining in Greece’s cloud of vice and profiteering
might ultimately come with an even higher cost at the end of the day.
Not only will Athens have to contend with some unwelcome scrutiny from
the EU over their new GDP figures, they also will face the likelihood
of losing money should their inflated GDP numbers ultimately be
accepted by the EU.
The
country’s newfound wealth raised eyebrows in Brussels, because it means
Greece will find it easier to bring its budget deficit below the
European Union’s 3 per cent of GDP ceiling.
Having
previously been found guilty of underestimating the size of its budget
deficit, Greece’s new GDP calculation will be scrutinised by Eurostat,
the EU statistics agency.
"Member
states revise their figures regularly, but this is quite a significant
revision and needs to be checked," said a spokeswoman for Joaquín
Almunia, EU monetary affairs commissioner.
Mr
Almunia’s aides admit they were surprised by Athens’ announcement,
which was not discussed in advance with Brussels or other EU finance
ministers. Typically, such upward GDP revisions are of between 1-2 per
cent, although Greece and Italy have each previously made big revisions.
[...]
Among
the snags of becoming so much richer, Greece will have to contribute
more to the EU budget and could lose €470m ($597m, £318m) a year in EU
funds earmarked for poor countries after a review in 2010. (full story)
Best
of luck to the Greek government in this new wacky and sensational
scheme. It kind of gives new meaning to the phrase "fetishism of commodities," doesn't it?
Efharisto
-- once again -- to the superior intellect of Antonis, who is the
honorary Minister of Cultural Affairs for greeklish.org.
Have you seen the rivers of the blood? First a trickle, then a flood -- First the ocean's pounding roar, Then a tidal wave hits upon the shore. Knives and arrows fell like rain, And the powder burst aflame, And the flames they flew so high -- Dropped their poison down from the sky.
I had intended to write about something lighthearted today. I
even had a topic in mind. That was until I saw the pictures from Qana
on the news. Though the pictures are played over and over
again, they are no less shocking each time they flash across the
television screen. And the images from Western media, shocking though
they are, are edited in the name of "discretion." A few minutes
on the Internet (browsing independent media sites and non-Western media
outlets) brings the whole gruesome reality of war crimes into a
perspective which is admittedly unpleasant but far more true to
life. The pictures are of the bodies of dead women
and children in their nightclothes, all killed — all murdered — in the name of a so-called "right of self-defense". As if anyone — be they man, state, or military-industrial complex —
needs to be "defended" from frightened children and anxious mothers.
The world should remember today as a day of great
tragedy...and great shame.
Maybe tomorrow the world will seem less cruel and less hopeless. But not today. Certainly not today.
"If I've offended you by this rather mild account...I'm not in the least sorry." -- Edward R. Murrow, reporting on-site from the liberation of Buchenwald, April 15, 1945
This
is the question that I was left with after reading D. Landon’s
June 28 Forum column (“Kim Jong-Il Tries Hand at Texas Hold’em”).
Landon has again proven his ignorance by reducing his analysis of an
impending global crisis to a black-and-white oversimplification steeped
in blustery and nonsensical partisan polemics.
According
to Landon, North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is the fault of the
Clinton administration, part and parcel. Is it that simple? Common
sense and an eighth-grade history textbook might suggest otherwise.
So
how can it be that over a decade after the United States “won” the Cold
War that we are again headed toward a new global nuclear crisis?
Perhaps it is because the people of the world learned some lessons
during the Cold War that aren’t easily forgotten. In 1945, over 200,000
people were killed by the American bombs that landed on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. For decades, the people of the world lived day by day and
minute by minute with the awareness — and sometimes even the
expectation — that we would die in a nuclear holocaust. In the 61 years
since the nuclear age began, the American nuclear arsenal has
multiplied to such a degree that our country could kill each and every
person on the planet — with or without a good reason — many, many times
over. And during the course of these several decades, the United States
has invaded and occupied countries around the world with virtual
impunity while acting on an agenda aimed at perpetuating the supremacy
of the American military-industrial complex to the collective detriment
and expense of the world’s poor and working-class citizens.
But why should North Korea feel that it is necessary to pursue nuclear technology?
Perhaps
it is because Pyongyang is only several hundred miles away from both
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Perhaps it is because they recall how Douglas
MacArthur pressed for the use of the atomic bomb against North Korea at
the height of the Korean War. Perhaps it is because the President of
the United States has declared North Korea to be a charter member of
the so-called “Axis of Evil.” Perhaps it is because America acts with a
complete disregard for the interests and welfare of others with virtual
impunity and righteous indignation. Perhaps it is because North Korea
can read the handwriting on the wall — handwriting that is written in
the fresh blood of tens of thousands of dead Iraqi civilians. Perhaps
it is all of these things.
I
am certainly not an apologist for the Clinton administration. The
implementation of NAFTA and the failure to develop and implement a
universal health care program proved that the Clinton administration
was no champion of the interests of working people in America. And the
continued embargoes of Iraq and Cuba during the Clinton years proved
that the Clinton administration viewed the suffering of civilians and
children as a simple matter of politics as usual.
But
did Bill Clinton’s failures drive North Korea to seek the bomb? Not
exactly. There’s plenty of credit to be shared by the Democrats and the
Republicans on this one. It’s the drumbeat of American imperialism
heralded by narrow-minded partisan hacks like Mr. Landon that will
distract us from knowing the truth of the matter if we continue to
succumb to their jingoism and partisan rhetoric.
Is
Mr. Landon an idiot or a fool? Does he even know for sure? Well, an
idiot doesn’t know the difference between partisanship and the truth,
and a fool wouldn’t bother to figure it out. So maybe Landon is a
little bit of both.
Monday Night's Countdown with Keith Olbermann featured Olbermann’s most blistering indictment of Bill O'Reilly since their very public feud began...whenever that was, anyway.Last night’s #3 segment on Countdown was a continuation
of the flap over O’Reilly’s baffling comments regarding the WWII massacre
at Malmedy (which was actually O'Reilly's thinly-veiled justification of the Haditha massacre).Although
Olbermann’s previous barbs and spots on O'Reilly have been largely
satirical up to this point (he frequently refers to O'Reilly as "The
Big Giant Head" and "Ted Baxter"),
last night's segment was an utterly
(and justifiably) scathing assessment of O’Reilly's complete disdain
for the truth...And when I say "the truth," I am not just referring the
truth about Malmedy but "the truth" as aconcept in and of itself.While the segment
included archival footage of the exhumation of the mass grave at Malmedy, the most
powerful moments of the spot were the shots of Olbermann himself – who
is often cool and composed – virtually trembling with contempt for
O'Reilly as he recounted the flap step by step, from O’Reilly’s initial misrepresentation of the events atMalmedy to the FOX News revision of O’Reilly’s on-air transcripts to O’Reilly’s half-assed on-air correction (which made even less sense than his original gaffe).
Bill sez: "Ugh. What the hell is wrong with me?"
Perhaps
the most compelling moments of Olbermann’s narrative were
the similarities noted between O’Reilly’s version of the events at Malmedy and
the version of events proffered by Joseph McCarthy back in 1949.The
parallel is not so surprising at the end of the day, as McCarthy and
O’Reilly are fundamentally the same type of demagogic zealots who rose to
prominence through grandstanding and self-righteous fear-mongering.And while one of them has already been consigned to history’s dustbin, the other is surely destined to join him.
Countdown with Keith Olbermann is on MSNBC every weeknight at 8 PM and again at 12 AM (Eastern).If you’re not already watching it, you might want to give it a shot.
Go, Keith, go!
Further Reading Countdown with Keith Olbermann June 5, 2006 full transcript (Malmedy segment is about halfway down the page)
Our
friend “K” has provided a firsthand report on International Women’s Day
in Iran, written especially for our site. His article is
presented below in its entirety, starting with his translation of a
hymn that was sung at the March 8 demonstration in Tehran.
Thou! woman the presence of life,
the time of slavery is finished.
The freedom of women is possible,
our effort is constructing it.
This voice is the voice of freedom,
This call is the outburst of consciousness.
Another world is possible,
This movement is engendering it.
At 5 P.M. on March 8, around 1000 people, mainly the young, gathered in a park in Valie Asr street in Tehran, singing the above hymn. There were people of all ages and sexes, but the
number of women and girls was high. A lot
of activists from workers' and university movements also participated in the demonstration. As
soon as they started singing, the security forces began speaking
through the loudspeaker saying, "Since this get-together is illegal, you
must leave the area."
Noticing that the people seemed to be indifferent as to what was said, one of the officers said, "You
will be given 5 minutes, after that you will be treated differently." At
the same time, one of the girls who was asking the public to be silent started
reading a declaration. Now the officers and civil forces, forgetting
what one of their officers had announced, behaved ridiculously and
started attacking the people.
They beat the people violently, no matter how old they were. Simin Behbahani, a
very famous Iranian poet aging above 70 was attacked while the others
tried to let their bodies be the barriers between the batons, kicks and
the lady. They tried to scatter the crowd, but some young girls sat there and let their bodies be run over by the soldiers and officers while singing the above hymn.
Others, instead of
leaving the area, just turned around. A lot of people being followed by
the guardians had to go through a current of water and left in wet pants and
shoes as a result. The crossroad was blocked for more than an hour. The
crowd was scattered at about 7, while the police did not let anybody
stand in that street or the streets nearby.
It may be interesting and perhaps incredible for many people living in different countries to know that in Iran that Internet sites have been widely filtered as to the word WOMEN and everything related to International Women's Day.
We
again extend our sincere gratitude to “K.” for his assistance in
helping us to understand and appreciate the difficult conditions in
Iran. Further Reading Iran: Police Attack Women's Day CelebrationReuters 09 Mar 2006 Simin BehbahaniBiography and poetry from the Iranian Chamber Society
When it comes to sharing information, garnering awareness, and organizing campaigns there are few forms of media that can compete with the accessibility and reach of Internet-based "social networking" sites. For every "MySpace," "Twitter," and "LinkedIn," there are many dozens of smaller sites that are scraping and clawing for their own share of this burgeoning market.
One of the best things about having friends who are much smarter than you is that just by chatting or corresponding with them, you're bound to learn something new. Such is the case with a recent online discussion in which I have been participating. The premise of the discussion is the question of whether or not the Big Bang Theory (BBT) sufficiently and definitively explains the origins of the universe. Now, I should note that I have never taken a formal course on physics. My college-level science studies stopped at biology and chemistry. The little I know about physics comes from my own limited reading of works by Einstein, Asmiov, and Sagan. I have also read some interesting pieces of Brian Greene's 
