Nearly a third of the members of Parliament are on Twitter bandwagon
Yves Engler’s The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy
- After World War I, Canada asked Britain for its Caribbean colonies;
- Washington did not press Ottawa to break relations with post-revolutionary Cuba because it wanted Canada to spy on the island;
- Canadian companies were heavily invested in apartheid South Africa;
- Canada helped overthrow Patrice Lumumba, the first elected Prime Minister of the Congo (Kinshasa), who was then murdered;
- Canadian “aid” has often been used to rewrite mining codes to benefit Canadian mining companies;
- Days after the September 11, 1973 overthrow of elected Chilean President Salvador Allende, Canada’s ambassador in Santiago called the victims of the military coup “the riffraff of the Latin American Left”;
- Canada has been the 5th or 6th largest contributor to the US war against Iraq;
- On many occasions since 1915, Canadian gunboats have been deployed in the Caribbean and around Central America’
- Canada had between 250 and 450 nuclear-armed fighter jets in Europe in the 1960s;
- Leftist US intellectual Noam Chomsky considers Peace Nobelist Lester Pearson, the icon of Canada’s “peacekeeping diplomacy”, a war criminal because of his support for the US war on Vietnam.
This Constitution Kills Fascists
Johann Hari has a fascinating piece in The Independentthat recounts his interviews with several British nationals that have made the journey from active participantsin jihadi/terrorist causes and back. Hari's quest to find out how and why certain people join terrorist groups, or espouse and propagate radical Islamist ideology, had been frustrated by the reticence and dissembling of persons active in those circles. His entreaties were met more with propaganda than introspection or insight.
More recently, a group of increasingly vocal disillusioned ex-jihadis (the subjects of the story) have provided Hari with a more unguarded glimpse into the thought processes and evolution of radical. Unsurprisingly, the profile that emerges tracks with the findings of Marc Sageman:
1. Those that join these causes tend not to be very religious in their younger years. In fact, their ignorance of Islam leads them to uncritically accept certain radical Wahhabist teachings as gospel.
one of the most effective means of rehabilitating terrorists/jihadists is Koranic study.
2. The enlistees are not poor or uneducated - quite the opposite. Most have quality educations and come from middle class backgrounds.
3. There is a common element of alienation: they tend to be first or second generation immigrants caught between worlds, without feeling at home or comfortable in any particular identity. This is one of the reasons that many go looking for deeper meaning in their religious roots, and one of the alluring aspects of joining jihadist groups: they create a gang-like sense of group identity, belonging and a powerful bonding mechanism.
Every one of them said the Bush administration's response to 9/11 – from Guantanamo to Iraq – made jihadism seem more like an accurate description of the world. Hadiya Masieh, a tiny female former [Hizb ut-Tahrir ]HT organiser, tells me: "You'd see Bush on the television building torture camps and bombing Muslims and you think – anything is justified to stop this. What are we meant to do, just stand still and let him cut our throats?"
The dynamic flows something like this: when the United States and other Western powers/groups appear to act hypocritically - treating democracy and freedom by double standards - it has a radicalizing effect on a population that perceives itself to be at the sharp end of that hypocrisy.
On the other hand, where those same Western elements act in accordance with their ideals - especially when doing so, on principle, is against their immediate, narrow interests - the example set can begin to loosen the hold of radical Islamist propaganda.
Afghan detainee issue makes news in China
( No problem. Harper wouldn't know what to do with 'Moral Authority' if he had any. )
Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals
n his surprisingly arresting photoessay book, Asylum, photographer and architect Christopher Payne reveals that mental institutions were quite often considered the pride of local communities across the U.S. in the 19th century, providing a safe haven and humane care for the mentally ill. Through his camera lens, Payne pays tribute to these now empty places, capturing abandoned palatial redbrick estates, grand theaters, long, deserted hallways with light streaming through arched windows, and peeled paint gathering on the floor.
The Jellyfish Menace
Are humans making the oceans fit only for jellyfish?
Foreclosures: Prime Borrowers Are The Latest Victims
Barack Obama rewards big donors with plum jobs overseas
As Wall Street Posts Record Profits and US Hunger Rate Grows, Robert Scheer Asks: “Where Is the Community Organizer We Elected?”
Barack Obama: Iran faces fresh nuclear sanctions within weeks
Shocking new threat to web freedom
What that means is that an unelected official would have the power to do anything without Parliamentary oversight or debate, provided it was done in the name of protecting copyright. Mandelson elaborates on this, giving three reasons for his proposal:1. The Secretary of State would get the power to create new remedies for online infringements (for example, he could create jail terms for file-sharing, or create a "three-strikes" plan that costs entire families their internet access if any member stands accused of infringement)
2. The Secretary of State would get the power to create procedures to "confer rights" for the purposes of protecting rightsholders from online infringement. (for example, record labels and movie studios can be given investigative and enforcement powers that allow them to compel ISPs, libraries, companies and schools to turn over personal information about Internet users, and to order those companies to disconnect users, remove websites, block URLs, etc)
3. The Secretary of State would get the power to "impose such duties, powers or functions on any person as may be specified in connection with facilitating online infringement" (for example, ISPs could be forced to spy on their users, or to have copyright lawyers examine every piece of user-generated content before it goes live; also, copyright "militias" can be formed with the power to police copyright on the web)
Mandelson wants to impose law by decree on filesharing
join the facebook group against this proposal.
Where will workers live?
Death stars
"Gamma-ray bursts occur when a giant star uses up all its fuel, collapses, and turns a vast amount of its mass into hard radiation in a few seconds, leaving behind a massive black hole," says Neil Gehrels, another Goddard astrophysicist. The star emits a blast of gamma radiation, followed by a burst of X-rays and finally, a pulse of visible light: "the death throes of a great star and the birth cries of a black hole," as Gehrels describes it.
THIS IS PHYSICS at its most extreme. Almost daily, one of these violent stellar paroxysms is detected by astronomers (see "The light fantastic", p73). Yet only a few decades ago, scientists had absolutely no idea of their existence. The story of their discovery is one of the most extraordinary scientific detective tales of modern times and takes us from the intrigues of the Cold War to the setting up, in the 21st century, of the slickest, most complex astronomical operation ever devised: a series of satellites that track these eruptions, alerting astronomers, on 24-hour duty, so they can then turn their huge, mountain-top telescopes to study the glowing leftovers.
posted by Len Hart at The Existentialist Cowboy - 16 hours ago
by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy Hitler scapegoated jews! The American right wing now scapegoats Obama! Why are we surprised? The GOP/right wing is just doing what psychopathic screw-ups and habitu...
*For years I wonder* how certain sounds are propagated in nature. Not so strange, then -living in a desert-like surrounding- one can easily find some places without any sounds at all! Total silence on win...
posted by Len Hart at The Existentialist Cowboy - 1 day ago
by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy A nation in which about one half of the population openly pines for the murder of the only fairly elected president in some 9 years is finished. The writing is on th...
Url movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j34gG2xR3I Dire Straits? To me its sounds super! John
posted by Len Hart at The Existentialist Cowboy - 1 day ago
by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy The 'bomb' did not shorten the war, nor did it affect --in any way --Japan's insistence upon retaining its emperor. Absolutely nothing was gained by the wanton murde...
posted by Alison at Creekside - 1 day ago... updated below ... A month ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time Peter MacKay , and Minister of Defence at the time Gordon O'Connor all denied ever seeing any of th...
posted by C. Moffat at Lilith News - 2 days ago
ENTERTAINMENT/TECHNOLOGY - The Kingle ebook is a wireless electronic book which allows you to download books whenever you want and read them on a wireless device that is easily portable... for a fee, of co...
posted by C. Moffat at Lilith News - 2 days agoCANADA/ENTERTAINMENT - Canadian broadcasters are urging the CRTC to allow "skinny cable", essentially a smaller and dramatically cheaper variation of basic cable. But cable companies don't like the idea, ...
posted by C. Moffat at Lilith News - 2 days agoCANADA - Have you registered your phone number with Canada's National Do Not Call List in an effort to prevent telemarketers from calling you? I know I did. I registered it over a year ago when the DNC Lis...
posted by Alison at Creekside - 2 days agoTailored, according to David Pugliese, for Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver? Scott Duncan, Defence Research and Development Canada in Suffield, Alta. : "If you were to refer back to the Canada First Defenc...
posted by Alison at Creekside - 2 days agoSo far, the cornerstone of Premier Gordon Campbell's green revolution consists of forcing the *public* utility BC Hydro to buy power at twice the market value from *private *independent* *power producers a...
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