Individual Liberty—Progress—Humanity—Ethics—Rule of Law
"...if by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties—if that is what they mean by a "liberal," then I am proud to be a liberal."
Last week ABC News—obviously not clear on the concept—promoted the idea that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made the internet the center of U.S. foreign policy! I hope the ABC News watching public understands that "the center" and "a centerpiece" are very distinctly different concepts. But make no mistake about this, Washington believes that the internet is crucial to modern American jingoism—the promotion of American values and our form of government (corrupt and otherwise ... certainly not the model of representative democracy that the Framers had in mind ... certainly the form that best suits a nation reduced to selling guns and peon-izing its citizens) across the breath and length of this planet.
There is more than just a cynical thread of truth in this notion of the importance of the internet, but Washington in its hubris misses the point that the internet, whatever its sources of funding, is essentially two things: it is democratic to a fair-the-well, and it is fragile.
I shudder when my computer crashes and I imagine millions of computers "crashed" because government has gotten control of the hubs and nodes and closes us down. Absolutist Control is a work in progress in China, of course, and that is the putative model for this notion that ABC has misunderstood. When the internet goes down for political reasons, there is no substitute for what we have evolved over these last twenty years. Commerce will plummet, in fact, there will be a depression, panic, and political upheaval. The internet is extremely important, but there is one thing that it is not.
The democracy of the internet is not a form of government. It is the democracy of three billion voices and ears and eyes. The internet is what we make of it, and sex is what we have made of it. This may speak more to the weird notions we have about the sexual nature of our species, but it is what happened. Sex and political propaganda, then commerce. The American ideal, if you are to read ABC News straightforwardly, is that people have the god-given right to access (and even contribute to) the array of sexual content, the political propaganda, and especially to buy stuff. ABC believes (and maybe Hillary does too) that the motives energizing the internet are "manageable" in the same way that television audiences are "managed" into bogus "reality shows" and news media that express corporate interests. ABC and Hillary may be right, for the facts are that the vast majority of people do not stop to question authority, assertions, or much less the psychology of presentation on TV. Why would they on the Internet?
We come to the conclusion that the "centerpiece" of American outreach to the rest of the world is for the rest of the world to emulate the American way of being docile and managed citizens. The hubris of this idea is astounding, and the possibility that it is accurate utterly horrifying.
Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.
François-Marie Arouet
Nom de plume Voltaire (1694-1778)
French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher
You will search high and low for news of Greece and her economic problems, her political problems, the precipice over which the Greeks stare in horror at this very moment. The press in the United States is oblivious. No, not oblivious, "managed."
Here is what is happening in a nutshell. Greece has piled up a national debt equal to that of Germany, but without the productive capacity to resolve that debt within the frame of financial obligations. The result is that Greece was poised on the brink of defaulting to its European neighbors, who, when they got wind of the immediacy of the situation began to act like market managers always do—irrationally. Immediately, Portugal, Spain, and Italy began to survey their own situations and their financial connections to Greece. All at once, the horrid truth emerges that these countries, too, are very fragile and closer to the brink than generally reported, even in Europe.
My colleague in Montreal, whose access to information and whose keen eye sees the situation for what it is, reported these matters to me yesterday and I was appalled ... primarily at the domestic U.S. press's obliviousness and collusion with Wall Street to keep this "greatest financial crisis in Europe since the meltdown two years ago" out of the imaginations and thoughts of snowbound Americans. Thank you, "Justina!"
Yes, the Euro is in danger, and yes, the problem affects the almighty dollar as well. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is trying to get involved, but the folks in Brussels, Belgium, the seat of the EU leadership has asked IMF to play a smaller role than IMF wants. So, the international repercussions will extend outward like low waves in deep water, but treatening tsunami when reaching the shallower waters of individual nations.
As "Justina" says, keep an eye on the Greece situation. There may be portents for the future here that threaten contemporary politics far more than Sarah Palin and her teapot revolution talk down in the bowels of Tennessee.
With all the talk lately about the sort of inheritance we are leaving our children, just what exactly do you think this young girl felt was in her generation's future? Just what are we really leaving for future generations?
We have nearly 4,000 members of this website. While SueZ is recovering (hopefully), some of you could consider writing an essay about things that concern you ... or articles you have read recently ... and publish them under Essays (upper right menu). I will be checking here for good matches to the goals of the Project and promoting the best to frontpage. No commercials please.
Everywhere I travel in Africa, there's increasing acknowledgement about the importance of nutrition when it comes to treating HIV/AIDS. Many retroviral and HIV/AIDS drugs don't work if patients aren't getting enough vitamins and nutrients in their diets or accumulating enough body fat.
According to Dr. Rosa Costa, Director of the Kyeema Foundation in Mozambique, many farmers are often too sick to grow crops, but "chickens are easy."
Unlike many crops, raising free-range birds can require few outside inputs and very little maintenance from farmers. Birds can forage for insects and eat kitchen scraps, instead of expensive grains. They provide not only meat and eggs for household use and income, but also pest control and manure for fertilizer.
Man - despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments - owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.
In this TED offering, Alan Russell gives a short lecture on the workings in medicine to be able to regenerate our bodies. Another reason for healthcare reform!
Maybe I missed something but I do not recall ever hearing anything about the government coming to take my guns away...not that I own any personally, but you know what I mean. I am a great believer in the Constitution's second amendment which gives one the right to bear arms but as it is stated in that august document, in order to have a "well ordered militia." Still, since Barack Obama was elected President the myth that those who own firearms are in constant danger of having them removed has persisted and the noise about it is increasing.
In this week's Hatewatch, the Southern Poverty Law Center would like you to be aware that there is going to be a protest march aginst what is perceived as a real threat.
Last Friday's Q&A with President Obama and the Republicans was such an outstanding success that many are anxious to see it repeated. Can we do it again, Mr. President, please? It would be nice to see this happen on a monthly basis, or perhaps quarterly? David Corn has this report in Mother Jones News.
The Republicans just will not give up. It's as if the have OCD when it comes to telling the truth!
In this piece we hear Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) tell her version of what happened with the interviewing of the Christmas day bomber, Umar Abdulmutallab. In fact Mr.Abdulmutallab has been most forthcoming, but not in Ms. Collins version of events. As Rachel Maddow points up, even though he had "lawyered up", a benefit accorded anyone in our criminal justice system, he was still cooperating with investigators.
I keep remembering the words to the old song, It's A Sin to Tell A Lie!
"The newspaper is of necessity something of a monopoly, and its first duty is to shun the temptations of monopoly. Its primary office is the gathering of news. At the peril of its soul it must see that the supply is not tainted. Neither in what it gives, nor in what it does not give, nor in the mode of presentation, must the unclouded face of truth suffer wrong. Comment is free but facts are sacred."
C. P. Scott (1846-1932)
British journalist, publisher and politician
Since last week's meeting (confrontation?) between President Obama and the Republican members of Congress, (with televison cameras rolling at the suggestion of the Republicans we remind you) there has been much consternation on the part of the Republicans. Why? Because the President has decided to come out of the neutral corner and start slugging. He is finally calling out the Republicans on their constant negative yammering and untruths about his agenda.
And he is taking his voice back to the American public. He has been quiet too long and has allowed those on the right, in Congress, to usurp the truth. This from the Rachel Maddow show.
We are not going to the moon in my lifetime. By "we" I mean the U.S., and by "lifetime" I mean that I am old and the prospects are therefore dim for mounting and executing an effort to establish a permanent base on our moon that I will see. It is a sad thing, I think, despite the many reasons that have contributed to the decision.
