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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

30 October - feedly

Weekend EditionThe best content from your favorite sites

Featured
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Al Jazeera English
Israeli ex-soldier faces prison over leaks
4 Anat Kamm sentenced to more than four years in jail for leaking documents linked to the killing of Palestinian fighters.
Trees are the Winners in the Landscape Photography of the Year Prize
6 © Robert Fulton - Winter Field, Trees are the winner in the Landscape Photographer of the Year 2011 prize. And what a stunning stand of trees they are....Read the full story on TreeHugger
Build a Cell Phone Charger in Five Minutes While Inside Radio Shack
16 YouTube user Spiritplumber demonstrates how he built a cell phone charger using four parts from Radio Shack on the store counter immediately after his purchase. The parts cost around ten bucks, and while that's three times cheaper than buying the actual cable at Radio Shack, but how did he know he wouldn't blow out his phone? More »

Blogger-Following
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Judge Refuses to Charge Demonstrators Arrested at 'Occupy Nashville': VIDEO
"There has been some twists in the overnight arrests of the Occupy Nashville protesters downtown." Hat-tip David Swanson on the Twitters... * * * Just some of The BRAD BLOG's most-recently related 'Occupy Wall Street' coverage... 10/28/11: He was Standing Stone Still Amid Tear Gas in Oakland - Clutching a Copy of the U.S. Constitution 10/27/11: It's The Accountability, Stupid (or Lack Thereof) 10
'Green News Report' - October 27, 2011
TWITTER: @GreenNewsReport VIA SMART PHONE: Stitcher Radio! IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: It's no trick! BP gets a treat, as the Obama Admin approves their application for deep-water drilling in the Gulf; More record flooding overwhelms Bangkok; World population to hit 7 billion by Halloween; PLUS: The War on Halloween vs. Greening up yours! ... All that and more in today's Green News Report! Listen on

Blogger-Following
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Suzie-Q
10 unread articles
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Muammar Gaddafi Killed, Captured In Sirte:
AP/The Huffington Post First Posted: 10/20/11 08:00 AM ET Updated: 10/20/11 06:28 PM ET Longtime dictator of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, has been killed following the capture of his hometown of Sirte. [CLICK HERE FOR LIVE UPDATES] There were confusing reports of Gaddafi’s capture and death, and questions remained over exactly how he was killed. Arab broadcasters showed graphic images of the balding,
Cornel West Arrested at Supreme Court
The Root By: Sheryl Huggins Salomon | Posted: October 16, 2011 Cornel West arrested (NCFTV)Update on Monday, October 17 at 3:25 p.m.: A spokesperson for Dr. Cornel West told The Root that following a court appearance this afternoon he was released from jail. Update: According to a message retweeted on Cornel West’s Twitter page, “Dr. Cornel West will be spending the night behind bars and is orde
Occupy Boston Under Attack~ 100′s Arrested
Occupied Boston Live is currently offline, but there is a message at the bottom. The following is a link from Twitter by Keith Olberman Boston police move in on protesters on Greenway, scores arrested boston.com Oct. 10, 2011 By John M. Guilfoil and Derek J. Anderson, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent Boston police moved in and began arresting scores of Occupy Boston protesters who refused to l
Occupy Wall Street the Media is the Message
The Invisible 99%: Sunday Morning Talk Shows Ignore Occupy Wall Street PoliticsUSA October 2, 2011 By Jason Easley The five Sunday morning talk shows on CBS, Fox, CNN, NBC, and ABC devoted zero segments with zero guests to Occupy Wall Street today. To the media inside the Beltway, the 99% do not exist. A day after over 700 protesters were arrested during a march over the Brooklyn Bridge, the five

Green & White
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Temporary Post Used For Theme Detection
This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (4048bb0a-ac97-486c-b2c0-20aba2941447 – 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)
P@SHA social innovation fund announces first round winners
P@SHA today announced winners of first round of Social innovation fund. Following are the winners of first round. There will be another round soon, details of which along with other information about the fund and how it operates can be found here 1. Alif Laila – Sabah Rehman A Program which plans to equip atleast 10 Government Schools with Laptops connected to internet through EvDO devices. It als
Dr Umar Saif selected to lead Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) as Chairman
6 This comes as great news, Dr Umar Saif who recently was being ackonowledge recently for his great research projiect like poor man’s broadband and startup ventures like bumpin, smsall coming out of his Incubator (Saif Center of Innovation) has been appointed as Chairman of Punjab Information Technology Board. Timing could not have been more perfect for our industry with Imran Zia at the helm of PS
Update to Job area of Green White
Some of you might remember we launched a startup focused job area few months back. At that time it was just a limited functionality area. How ever people from bayt came forward and offered me to help make it better. And they have been able to setup a job portal for greenwhite users. you can go check it out at http://jobs.greenwhite.org Now you can create your organizations profiles and post jobs,

The Angry Black Woman
4 unread articles
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I Got Your Book: Signal Boosts
I’m still reading — and enjoying Moondancer Drake’s Ancestral Magic. Until I get the chance to do an actual review, here’s a couple of fabulous signal boosts. :) Ahem! Delux_Vivens linked to Inside the Favelas Linda Addison has a new collection out, entitled How to Recognize a Demon Has Become Your Friend Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop continues to wow  Nisi Shawl gets interviewed Amal El-Mohtar ha
I GOT YOUR BOOK: Post the First
This here is a new series designed to boost the profile of SF authors of color. First up, we have a few signal boosts: Tobias Buckell is looking for help to fund Apocalypse Ocean, a Sly Mongoose novel. Ephemere is nearly done with Kandila  An excerpt from the horror collection Let’s Play White   A series of SF short films    Lisa Suhair Majaj has been featured on Split This Rock   Next time? We’ll
On Being An Actual Nigger Woman
4 I can remember the very first time someone called me a nigger. I was 12 years old and in the 8th grade. I was walking from the gifted program at Kenwood high school in Chicago back to Kozminski, my grammar school. I wasn’t alone, there were 5 of us that walked that way every day. Two boys and three girls. All kind of nerdy, but with delusions of coolness ahead in high school. And every day these
Life with Racism & Kids
6 My sons are 12 & 5. They’re black. Male. Adorable. Sweet. Sarcastic. Silly. Oh sure, my oldest is biracial, but he can’t pass for anything but light skinned black male. And he chooses to ID as black. Some of that is probably about his biological father’s abandonment & his subsequent attachment to his black stepfather. He’s a great kid, who loves life, video games, his family, drawing &

Altmuslim
6 unread articles
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Assessing the ummah: What we can learn from Gilad Shalit
As Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas more than five years ago, was finally released in a vast prisoner exchange, it made me think about the relentless pursuit of his release by Israel. Such a pursuit by one's family is both natural and understandable. Yet, not only was his family behind him, but the entire nation of Israel was behind him. So many times, Israelis - from government
TV portrayals: Cheering a Muslim as we do a murderer
Last weekend, millions of Americans (and I) tuned in to watch the premiere of the sixth season of Showtime's Dexter. The show's protagonist is a serial killer who follows a personal code of harming only those who have harmed others. Fans of the show identify with him, wondering who his next victim will be and hoping he doesn't get caught by the police. It doesn't matter that Dexter is a lying mur
Headcoverings in France: The burden of bans
As September gasped its last, something unprecedented happened in the French town of Meaux, located about 25km from the heart of Paris. In this town, whose previous claim to renown had been its cheese and a special variety of mustard, the first fine was imposed on two women who had been found wearing the niqab, or the full-face veil, in public. The women, Hind Ahmas and Najate Nait Ali, were order
Occupy Wall Street: Just give me liberty, cause this feels like death
I want to be patriotic. I want to say the pledge of allegiance in a strong voice. I want to pledge my allegiance knowing that I cannot lose this country, these values, this brotherhood, this opportunity. I want to see an American flag and see the people supported by a system, not the people supporting a system. But I don’t believe we have that. I’ve watched to many Americans suffer. I’ve watched t

Town Called Dobson
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After the High School Reunion
It was wonderful to see everyone at the 1981 Surry Central High 30th Year Reunion last night and I love the fact that we are still just as loud, obnoxious, fun, irreverent, honorable and hilarious as we used to be as teenagers. After I got tossed out of the homecoming dance by certain Dr. Ratledge (I wasn’t even drinking this time), four of us found one of the only open bars in the county and sta
Steve Jobs RIP
I always thought his belief in reincarnation was so infused in his work. Apple is famous for their product cycles and how they will kill something to great nerd rage and grief, only to come out with something new that takes their breath away. Life. Death. Rebirth. He was a complicated man and I will miss him.

Amygdala
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Said The Red Queen
SAID THE RED QUEEN.First, we don't kill all the lawyers. Let's continue the examination of the lawfulness of the killings of American citizens Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan I began in my post, Off With Their Heads! (Many comments there; Amygdala version here.(That various other non-citizens, including Muhammad Salme al-Naaj and Abdul-Rahman bin Arfaj, and another several Yemenis, were killed
Papers, Please
PAPERS, PLEASEChildren.Who we hates, we do, because their parents are illegal immigrants.And in Alabama, this is now happening: FOLEY, Alabama -- Many of the 223 Hispanic students at Foley Elementary came to school Thursday crying and afraid, said Principal Bill Lawrence.  Nineteen of them withdrew, and another 39 were absent, Lawrence said, the day after a federal judge upheld much of Alabama’s s

American Leftist
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The War at Home
UPDATE 2: There is now a guest post at naked capitalism (!) describing police brutality in Denver similar to what transpired in Oakland, replete with pictures of officers pointing non-lethal weapons at protesters and reporters, rubber bullet wounds inflicted upon protesters and a report that the police fired upon protesters seeking to assist the injured.UPDATE 1: Oakland, Nashville, San Diego and,
The War at Home
Oakland, Nashville, San Diego and, now, Denver. Contrary to what I said yesterday, it appears that the persistence of the protests and increasing grassroots liberal support has necessitated aggressive police action. In Denver, the police provoked a confrontation by attacking protesters who ascended the capital steps without a permit.
Occupy Sacramento Meltdown
Watch live streaming video from occupysacto at livestream.comFatigue, the emergence of personal and political conflicts among the participants and a feminist fissure as a consequence of the men, it seems, deciding to prevent an alleged sexual assault in the area from being publicized during the assembly are the prominent features of this tumultuous session. Security comes across as a predominately
Memo to OWS: Please Start Talking About Bank of America
Actually, as the excerpt from this article by masaccio indicates, the fraud predictably involves not just Bank of America, but all the usual suspects as well, such as J. P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and, drum roll please . . . Goldman Sachs: The Bank of America (BAC) recently moved derivatives out of its Merrill Lynch subsidiary into a subsidiary plump with FDIC insured deposits. Bloomberg says the
The Economic Collapse of Greece
For those of you who haven't followed the implementation of austerity in Greece since 2009, the Guardian reports that the EU and European Central Bank have determined that the Greek economy will contract by 15% between 2009 and 2012. Think about that for a moment. 15%. From July 2009 to August 2011, unemployment rose from just under 9% to 16.3%, with the IMF projecting 18.5% unemployment for 201
Greece: Strikes, Clashes and Intensified Austerity
UPDATE 2: Greek unions are saying that the strike today was the largest in the country's history with 500,000 people participating in it, with the media reporting 100,000. Significantly, a BBC reporter familiar with Athens said that he had never seen so many people on the streets. Meanwhile, others note that the Greek government is showing a shocking inability to control the crowds. Follow tweet

Texas Liberal
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Texas Progressive Alliance Round-Up
At the end of this post is the most recent Texas Progressive Alliance round-up. The TPA is a confederation of the best political bloggers in Texas.  TPA members are citizen-bloggers working for a better Texas. (Above–Photo from Occupy Houston taken on October 28. Photo Copyright 2011 Neil Aquino)  Every Texan and every American has the ability to attend a public meeting, attend or organize a prot
Events At Occupy Houston—Please Take The Time To Learn More About The Occupy Wall Street Effort
Above is the poster for the Corporate House of Horrors to be held by Occupy Houston at Tranquility Park this evening. Here is the Occupy Houston website.  Tomorrow–October 30– there will be the event you see on the poster below. It is hopeful to see this type of energy and creativity here in Houston and in our nation. This stands in sharp contrast to efforts that spend a lot of time asking silly
You Can See Michelle Obama In Houston If You Have Thousands Of Dollars To Attend The Fundraiser At The Mansion Of The Former Enron Trader
Michelle Obama is coming to Houston on November 1. (Above–Michelle Obama.) You can see the First Lady in Houston if you have thousands of dollars to attend a fundraiser being held by a former Enron trader. Here are some details from the Houston Chronicle— “The First Lady will be in town Nov. 1 for a glitzy Democratic fundraiser at the River Oaks mansion of Laura and John Arnold. The super-wealthy
Karen Derr Makes Her Case For Houston City Council District C In 2011
I asked Houston City Council District C candidate Karen Derr if she would like to make her case with a brief statement at my blog. I live in District C. I am voting for Ms. Derr. Ms. Derr was nice enough to provide the following statement— In 2009, when I first ran for city council at large, my previous political experience had been volunteering for candidates I admired since I was a child.  Thos
2011 Harris County Green Party Endorsements For Houston City Council
Below are the Harris County Green Party endorsements for Houston City Council in 2011. Here are my Houston municipal election endorsements for 2011. LOCAL ELECTIONS Green Party members: Don Cook, for Houston City Council At-Large Position 1 Video interview on Greenwatch Amy Price for Houston City Council At-Large Position 4 Video interview on Greenwatch also endorsed: Jenifer René Pool (At-Large 2
Iraq Veteran Scott Olsen Wounded By Police At Occupy Oakland—Please Consider Supporting The Occupy Wall Street Effort
Above is a picture of former Marine Scott Olsen after he was seriously wounded by Oakland police yesterday as they attempted to break-up the Occupy Oakland effort. Mr. Olsen was hit in the head with a projectile of some kind. The folks who helped bring about this recession with economic crimes and fraud don’t go to jail, but you see above what can happen when you advocate for economic fairness. Y

Phronesisaical
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Bits and Pieces - October 29, 2011
Evidently some New York City Police see themselves as part of a 1%. (via Ta-Nehisi Coates and Crooked Timber)The Daily Show and a Minnesota Republican on the Republican war on science.Why the Republicans like Herman Cain.The United States spends on health care alone what the 65 million people in France spend on everything.Advice to OWS from Iran's Green Movement.
Bits and Pieces - October 27, 2011
More on the Occupy Movement.Glenn GreenwaldSome thoughts on social justice.The police attack on Occupy Oakland. And some police departments have been asking YouTube to take down those nasty videos that show police brutality, but Google has politely declined. The times, they are a'changing.Dahlia Lithwick on why the pundit class doesn't get it.Changing the subject slightly, is this the kind of pers
Always Russia
I've been reading a lot of Russian history lately, and there were two articles today that fell right in line with some of the recurring themes of that history.Russia might not be pleased for the United States to leave Afghanistan. It's hard for us Americans to understand just how difficult it is to maintain a large country that has boundaries with not-necessarily-friendly countries around it. So i
Bits and Pieces - October 26, 2011
Ian Fraser: The dukes and earls in America’s Great Tower of Bulls**t are starting to blink a little.Matt Taibbi: OWS's Beef: Wall Street Isn't Winning – It's Cheating.The phone that Murdoch's News of the World used for hacking has been found, with call records.A critique of the Libyan intervention and Responsibility to Protect, from Eric Posner. I've been concerned about some of the arguments goin
One Reason College Tuition Is So High
Today's good news on the unilateral presidential action front is that paying back college loans will be less onerous. It's all over the blogosphere, but here are (rather similar) selections from Kevin Drum and Brad Plumer.In those two links, they're talking about the decrease in wages of college-educated people making paying off those loans more difficult. That's true, and there's plenty that can
Bits and Pieces - October 25, 2011
I didn't know they still make Necco Wafers. The article is right - the flavors were bizarre, but their shape and consistency were fun.Here's an explanation of complexity in social systems. A lot of what it says describes "complex systems" more generally. Unfortunately, it's at a fairly high comprehension level, so most of the people who blather on about complex systems and emergent properties will

Obsidian Wings
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CPT Thomas J. Casey's Bronze Star
by Gary Farber Published this morning in the Valencia County News-Bulletin of New Mexico:  John Casey will tell you the story of his son. He will tell you Thomas J. Casey was always polite and well behaved as a child — had a great attitude, competitive and a team player.  Casey will tell you Tom made it through the rigors of the Albuquerque Academy and graduated cum laude in 1997 from the Univer
Your migrating dinosaur Friday open thread
by liberal japonicus Though I may be assuming that my foibles are shared by everyone my age, I think that American kids of a certain age, had a fascination with dinosaurs. So if that's the case, this, from the Guardian, discusses recent evidence for dinosaur migrations. What is the evidence? Fricke's team attempted to reconstruct camarasaur migrations by measuring oxygen isotopes (variant
The future of Libya open thread
by liberal japonicus This is an open thread for what's happening in Libya and anything related to that. If anyone has good links, especially to explanations of factions, people who may emerge, stuff like that, I'll try and move them up here as they appear. I'm also wondering if the various gory pictures that I've been seeing in new reports represent a one off, because of Qaddafi
The Last Refuge of Climate Change Skeptics
by Eric Martin Kevin Drum recounts an intriguing tale of a Koch-funded, climate change skeptic (Richard Muller) who undertook a scientific study to test what were thought to be the hyped numbers about increased global temperatures.  A funny thing happened along the way: Muller's study actually confirmed that, as the overwhelming consensus of climate scientists holds, temperatures over the past
Your DIY Friday open thread
from Tony P. via liberal japonicus hoisted from the comments and placed below the fold to heighten the suspense I am a pack rat. My basement is full of old "broken" devices that any self-respecting American homeowner would have thrown out long ago. It might seem like a trash dump to any normal person; to me, it is a sort of mine of not-exactly-raw material. A few months ago, I built a
Flat tax and pulling your own weight
6 by Doctor Science Herman Cain has lured all the flat-tax advocates out into the open again, and I'm trying to find a more effective way to reply to them than banging my head against the wall and chanting "regressive! regressive!" Here's a typical specimen, taken from the comments to Paul Krugman's blog:Why should taxes be at a higher rate for higher income individuals? In fact, why should taxes

Red
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By Any Other Name
Among the unacknowledged hazards of board games, is that one may suddenly feel compelled to leap across the table and repeatedly stab another player for perceived “cheating at Monopoly.” A New Mexico woman repeatedly stabbed her boyfriend after accusing him of cheating during a Monopoly game early yesterday, according to police. Laura Chavez, 60, and her boyfriend were playing the popular board ga
I Flew With A Zombie
In the November 2011 Harper’s, pharmacopeia correspondent Hamilton Morris recounts his journey to Haiti, there to attempt to duplicate the decades-old exploits of Wade Davis, and, like Davis, return with evidence of zombies and zombie powder. Morris’ sojourn becomes a farce and a fiasco, though he does learn that that these days zombies are enslaved before computers—”they work on the computers,” h
A Little Spin
So. NASA is now going to build gas stations in space. That’s not what the NASAoids are calling them—”propellant depots” is the preferred euphemism—but that’s what they are. Says the New York Times: By considering a proposal to put filling stations in the sky, NASA is looking to accelerate plans to send astronauts to distant destinations. The filling stations—NASA calls them propellant depots—would
“No, Those Are Next Door”
They are making some interesting humans in Egypt. First we had Al-Sayed al-Essawy, the self-described “strongest man in the world,” who lives to enter cages and there fight lions (who, to date, have not been interested), and has vowed to “pull an airplane with my teeth, and I will pull an airplane with my hair[;] I will also be run over by an airplane.” Now there is Ahmed Mohammed, a Cairo tour gu
Drive Me To The Moon
In a reluctant attempt to move into something resembling the 20th Century, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia recently decreed that women will be allowed, here and there, to vote. Driving, however, remains out of the question. Under Saudi law, women are prohibited from driving; it is forbidden for x-chromes even to ride a bicycle. And they’re pretty serious about it. One Shaima Jastaina was recently sent
It’s Too Late To Stop Now
Okay. This is a mighty magic mushbag story. Norma and Gordon Yeager were married for 72 years. We are going to assume that it was good. Because: it was. On Wednesday, they went driving. He was 94. She was 90. They were hit by another car. They were transported to a hospital in Marshalltown. In the intensive care unit of Marshalltown’s hospital, nurses knew not to separate Gordon and Norma. “They b

(Title Unknown)
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MLK: Made in China
A few years ago when I learned about the Martin Luther King Jr. monument that was to be constructed in our nation’s capital, I got excited. When I learned that the artist assigned to produce the sculpture of perhaps the most notable Negro in American history was a Negro himself, I got even more excited. Not too long after hearing this news, I learned that the project leaders decided to go with an
“Why don’t Dictators learn?” by Nkwazi Mhango‏
It did not require osteric or astrological mighty to tell that Libyan strongman, Muammar Gaddaffi, would shamefully and rapidly fall from gracce. It’s just the matter of reading signs of time when imperialistic NATO offered to take on Gadaffi. For those who either were there or remember the brutal death of Samuel Kanyon Doe, former Liberian tyrant on 9 September 1990, will agree with us that dict
Public meeting on black deaths in police custody in the UK
A public meeting on the issue of black deaths in custody will be held at the London School of Economics Students Union (LSE SU), from 6.30-9.00pm on Wednesday 26 October 2011. Organised by Black Mental Health UK in association with the LSE SU, this event comes in the wake of a spate of incidents where young black men have lost their lives at the hands of the police. This public meeting, which is
Slavery: A 21st Century Evil
I haven’t been paying too much attention to the Occupy Wall Street fiasco. Like the Tea Party Movement, it’s become a media fueled circus (panem et circenses), a reality tv inspired showcase of privileged White americans who are pissed at being forced to downsize their decadent lifestyle, as well as their unrealistic expectations. Americans, both White and Black, are finally waking up and coming

Obsolete
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The geniuses behind UK Uncut return to the fore.
It's difficult to know when it comes to OccupyLSX (an entirely misleading descriptive term/hash tag, seeing as the group miserably failed to occupy the stock exchange) which side is being the more disingenuous. The obvious problem for the demonstrators is that having been prevented from taking control of an actual target identified with the 1%, they're now occupying the square in front of what is
This is a dead parrot!
The Graun's editorial on the changes to the rules of royal succession says it "would be churlish not to welcome the news". Would it? What exactly is the point of making an institution which is discriminatory by its very nature ever so slightly less discriminatory? Whether you want to compare it with putting lipstick on a pig or nailing a dead parrot to its perch, it's an absolutely nonsensical
Clarke should resign and truly break the cycle.
The usual tendency in politics is to offer much before you win power, then to do very little, if not the direct opposite to that you promised once you're in it. Ken Clarke and the Conservatives seemed for a time to have got it backwards. Despite their manifesto making the usual noises on law and order, with mandatory jail sentences for those committing a crime using a knife and a pledge to "rede
Footballers! Put up with racism!
(h/t to both Tabloid Watch and Angry Mob.)If nothing else, Steve Doughty displays an interesting thought process in his quite remarkable article for the Daily Mail's RightMinds blog (edited by Simon Heffer, who just so happens to be Enoch Powell's biographer). After a couple of weeks in which it's been claimed that Premier League footballers have racially abused each other, Doughty does the sensi
Everybody's talking 'bout the bad old days.
There are now it seems three, rather than two certain things in life: death, taxes, and that the Conservative party will find a way to have a fight with itself over Europe. It can't help but conjure up memories of political times past. Here with we are after all with rising unemployment, a government seemingly powerless to do anything about the state of the economy, or rather, completely unwilli

Craig Murray
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Neo-Cons on Welfare Benefits
Our three neo-con major political parties have come up with a jolly cunning plan to lift money direct from the taxpayer, in addtion to being paid by big business to promote the interests of big business against the people. A government inquiry is recommending that £20 million a year in public funding be given to the three neo-con parties. Is there no end to their greed? I suppose the logic is pe
1/17 and 7/84
With impeccable timing, today we have official US government statistics saying that the top 1% of the US population have 17% of the take-home earnings. Their share has more than doubled from under 8% in 1979. This vast gap between rich and poor, and rich and middling, has expanded fast and is now expanding exponentially faster. I have no doubt figures for the UK would show the same trend. It al
Arrogant and Vicious Corporate Bastards
If anyone needed convincing that they should offer the Occupy protestors full and unconditional support, all doubts should be set aside by the stunning news that the average earnings rise of directors of major companies is 49%. There is a massive squeeze at present on the living standards of ordinary people, with unemployment rising, inflation rising and salary increases substantially below infla
Solar Subsidy – Government That Works
One of the ways I stop myself getting over-depressed in periods whent I am skint is to make plans for what I will do with money when I have some. At the moment I am looking at mounting solar panels on my roof. I intend to put up 12 panels producing 3000 kWh per year, at an initial cost of about £7,000. This will produce an income based on the feed-in tariff of about £750, index linked, on offici
Canon Dr Giles Fraser
Canon Dr Giles Fraser is being forced from his job for the dreadful sin of actually acting as a Christian. I was sent this recently; different church, same shit. I am some kind of confused deist myself. I was recently told what I am sure is an old joke, but it struck me as very true: God looked down at the sufferings of man, turned to the Devil, and said: “The plight of man moves me to compassi
Capitalism in Crisis?
I am not blogging about the EU summit. It is pointless. It will of course produce a communique to reassure the markets. It makes no difference. The economic system in which most of our readers live is little to do with capitalism. The value of goods traded is an insignificant fraction of the flow of funds around the world, much of which relates to either bets on the future values of goods, or

Amused Cynicism
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Why I’m not a Tory
The pay of directors of top companies rose by 50% last year, compared with averages rises in private sector pay of just 2.6%. Commenting on the injustice of this, Tim Montgomery says: Earlier today a report from Income Data Services noted that pay for the directors of Britain’s top businesses rose by 49% over the last year once salary, benefits and bonuses were counted. These increases were much g
Should Britain have a referendum on withdrawal from the EU?
So, should we? In the general case, the people should have a referendum on whatever policies they want to. These will typically be ones that the people conside important and where the government is perceived to be thwarting the will of the majority. The way to decide if that’s true of a particular question would be to use a revamped version of the government’s epetition websites. If the number of
Should Occupy Join Forces with Pirate Parties?
Max Keiser says that Occupy should team up with Pirate Parties.
Similarities between the Occupy movement and the Pirate movement
Adrianne Jeffries of Betabeat, regarding Occupy Wall Street, says: Occupy Wall Street is nothing if not tech-savvy. (One of the earliest criticisms was the preponderence of Macbooks among the protesters.) The protest has had a near-constant Livestream from the headquarters at Zuccotti Park, which has also broadcast from Times Square and during the now-infamous mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge.
What the Occupy movement should demand
Some people have criticised the Occupy movement for having vague or no demands. In this post I’ll make some suggestions as to what they should demand; bearing in mind the need to have demands that (i) lots of people can get behind, and (ii) will alleviate the economic problems we’re having and thus improve people’s lives. I’ll also say some of the things they shouldn’t demand. Summary: Demand Real
Retoxification
Cameron’s retoxification of the Tory Party continues.

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‘Sovereign Citizens’ Guru Sentenced to Nearly Five Years in Scam
A Las Vegas federal judge yesterday sentenced influential “sovereign citizen” Samuel Lynn Davis of Idaho to 57 months in prison for his role in a $1.3 trillion money laundering scheme, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. In 2009, following a three-year FBI investigation into activities by Las Vegas sovereigns, who generally believe they don’t have to obey [...]
State-Certified Texas Gun Safety Instructor Won’t Teach Muslims
Crockett Keller wants handgun owners to know how to be “victors, not victims.” That’s why the Texas-based concealed carry license (CHL) instructor, who owns Keller’s Riverside Store and HooDoo Ranch Realty (established in 1862 by Keller’s great-great-grandfather), teaches courses in handgun use and safety in exchange for $100. He’ll accept cash, checks, credit cards, gold, silver [...]
MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan Reacts Furiously to Calls for Firing
Pat Buchanan and his extremist allies are up in arms over liberal media watchdog groups’ recently launched campaign to get him fired from his news analyst position at MSNBC. Following Buchanan’s Saturday appearance on James Edwards’ racist radio program “Political Cesspool,” to promote his new book, Suicide of a Superpower, Color of Change and Media Matters [...]
Lively’s Letter to LGBT Community: I Love You, But You Are Sinners
Anti-gay activist Scott Lively has something to say to the LGBT community he has vilified for two decades on three continents: You’re all sinners, undeserving of welcome or affirmation from any truly Christian church. But God loves you, and you should seek help. In an open letter to the LGBT community, published Monday on the website [...]
The Crying Shariah Game: Groups Protest Hotel Cancellations
Anti-Muslim activists are crying Shariah again – this time, over the separate decisions of hotels in two cities to cancel anti-Muslim conferences and a former Maryland state lawmaker’s call for the cancellation of a third. Yesterday, former Maryland lawmaker Saqib Ali issued an open letter condemning an upcoming conference sponsored by Maryland Conservative Action (MDCAN). “Instead [...]
Christian Reconstruction Group Cruises ‘Patriot’ Waters
American Vision is a hard-line Christian Reconstruction organization whose current leader, Gary DeMar, has said that democracy should be replaced by a theocratic government run by Christians who will impose Old Testament prohibitions and the occasional executions of “sodomites” to drive gay people back into the closet. It’s no surprise, then, that American Vision has [...]

In These Times
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TV That Finally Lifts Journalism Back ‘Up’
Waking up at 4 a.m. is rarely enjoyable, and arising at that unspeakable hour to appear on a cable news show is particularly painful. In such situations, you feel as if you're dragging yourself out of bed only to be treated like a canine in a dogfight, with the typical show pitting you in a contrived death match against another guest who is your equally angry, equally mangy opposite. That, or you'
Deporting the Vote
The battle for the Latino vote sums up President Barack Obama's precarious position as he enters the 2012 election season. Sixty-seven percent of Latino voters chose him in 2008. But a poll conducted in August by the blog Latino Decisions showed that only 38 percent of Latino voters were certain to vote for Obama in 2012, down from 49 percent in June. It's a measure of the difficult path ahead for
Deporting the Vote
The battle for the Latino vote sums up President Barack Obama's precarious position as he enters the 2012 election season. Sixty-seven percent of Latino voters chose him in 2008. But a poll conducted in August by the blog Latino Decisions showed that only 38 percent of Latino voters were certain to vote for Obama in 2012, down from 49 percent in June. It's a measure of the difficult path ahead for
In Search of ‘Reproductive Justice’
In the spring of 2011, pro-choice activism seemed to be undergoing a renaissance. The right to abort a pregnancy, secured by Roe v. Wade in 1973 is one of the most definitive victories of the feminist movement--and remains one of the most vehemently contested. Still, the right has long felt relatively well-defended by large organizations, like NARAL and Planned Parenthood, which made it seem there
Lessons From The Single-Payer State
BURLINGTON, VT. -- On May 26, 2011, as we watched Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) sign "Act 48: Relating to a Universal and Unified Health System" into law--which sets Vermont on course to become the first U.S. state to have a universal healthcare system--we were struck by how far we had come. Only three years before, when the Vermont Workers' Center launched the Healthcare Is A Human Right campaig
The Violent Silence of a New Beginning
2 What to do after the Wall Street occupation, after the protests that started far away (Middle East, Greece, Spain, UK) reached the center, and now, reinforced, roll back around the world? One of the great dangers the protesters face is that they will fall in love with themselves, with the nice time they are having in the "occupied" places. In a San Francisco echo of the Wall Street occupation on O

ArmsControlWonk
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Patton on Khushab
Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Rose Gottemoeller, in a speech at Stanford, praised one of my students, Tamara Patton, for her outstanding work on modeling Pakistan’s Khushab Plutonium Production Complex: I recently learned about some interesting work of a Master’s Candidate at Monterey Institute, Tamara Patton. Patton is focusing her research on the pr
Hasaka Spinning Factory Revisited
Earlier this week, I posted about a location in Syria that some folks in the IAEA believe was originally intended to house centrifuges as part of a nuclear weapons program. This is just a housekeeping post, bringing that conversation up to date based on comments and few off-line conversations. The short version is that it is almost certainly a textile factory today.  The allegation, apparently, i
Full Cost Accounting & the B53
2 Workers at PANTEX dismantled the last B53 nuclear gravity bomb, a nine-megaton behemoth affectionately known as the “Crowd Pleaser.” It sheer size and unfathomable explosive power — 600 Hiroshimas! — are so difficult to comprehend that one can’t help think about the Cold War and ask: What the hell were they thinking? That’s not what interests me, though.  What really interests me is not that the U
Hasaka Spinning Factory
2 Reporters are calling around town inquiring about this site, which is located at 36°30’33.99″N, 40°46’34.75″E near the town of Al Hasaka in Syria (sometimes transliterated as Hasakah or Hasekeh).  The facility is said to be of some interest to the IAEA.  (Like my use of the ambiguous passive voice?) There will, undoubtedly be a story in one rag or another soon enough, so I wanted to give readers
Apogees of Dream-Catching
Before wars exhaust America’s patience and treasury, they can generate even more far-reaching aspirations. Higher purposes vary. During the Spanish-American War, President William McKinley felt obliged to set his sights beyond Cuba in order to uplift, civilize, and Christianize Filipinos. World War I was supposed to be the war to end all wars. When World War II followed soon thereafter, Washing
More on Iran at the GC
4 The other day, I posted a picture of an Iranian give-away at the IAEA General Conference — a laser-pointer shaped like a centrifuge. Another reader, who also must remain anonymous, sent along this image of the booth. Gosh, that’s a heck of an IR-1 model. You don’t see URENCO with those sorts of displays.  Just saying.

INFRASTRUCTURIST
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Jon Stewart Asks: Is the Federal Home Weatherization Program Working?
2 How to reduce America’s energy consumption has been a key concern of policymakers in recent years, as such efforts can both save people money in this weak economy and also help the environment. The Obama administration has said that weatherizing Read more ›
The Daily Dig: Is China Sabotaging the U.S. Solar Market?
• The American solar manufacturing industry isn’t as robust as expected, and many point fingers at China’s state-sponsored solar industry. (GreenTech) • Democrats introduced a bill to create a national infrastructure bank, which proposes to create the bank and fund Read more ›
Prisoners of Transit: Why Public Transportation Deserves More Attention
2 With the economy being what it is, the United States is heading into a transportation crisis for low and middle class citizens. Those able to afford cars find themselves spending more and more of their incomes on gasoline, and those Read more ›
The Daily Dig: Is ‘Transportation Poverty’ a New Trend?
• A report by Transportation for America found that over 64% of the elderly population in Cincinnati will be living in “transportation poverty”  in 2015, meaning they will be without adequate transit access, a trend that many other cities are Read more ›
How Energy Efficient Are the World’s Tallest Buildings?
Energy efficient architecture has never been more popular as developers strive for eco-friendliness in the face of ever-higher energy costs. For example, Portland and Seattle are currently competing to build the most nature-inspired building, with a rating system called Living Read more ›
The Daily Dig: New $5.50 ‘Canadian Tax’ Imposed on Travelers
• The U.S. has announced that any Canadian traveling to the country by air or boat will be charged a $5.50 tax. (NPR) • A bill written by the House and passed by a voice vote on Monday states that Read more ›

Centauri Dreams
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A Surprise at Lutetia
8 Sometimes our spacecraft take us past an asteroid, and other times the asteroid comes to us. Asteroid 2005 YU55 pays Earth a visit soon, closing to a bit less than the distance of the Moon on November 8. The Deep Space Network dish at Goldstone (CA) and the Arecibo facility in Puerto Rico will track the object, with images from Goldstone expected to achieve resolutions as fine as 2 meters per pix
New Findings on Eris
10 Back when I was writing my Centauri Dreams book in 2004, I remember talking to JPL’s James Lesh about various aspects of communicating with distant spacecraft. Lesh had written an interesting paper on how we might communicate with an Alpha Centauri probe, and we went on to discuss laser communications in the context of today’s Deep Space Network. What stuck in my mind about that conversation was h
JWST: The Starshade Option
4 Imaging an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone may happen some time in the next decade if the James Webb Space Telescope can make its way through its budgetary hurdles and achieve a 2018 liftoff. But the word ‘imaging’ is a bit deceptive when you consider that we won’t be getting anything remotely like the view of a planet in our own Solar System through Webb’s instruments. No small disc with
The Next NASA Sail
10 Back in August I mentioned NASA’s solar sail plans beyond NanoSail-D in the context of a larger survey of sail designs and experimentation. It’s great to see multiple sail projects in motion, and before I return to NASA I should mention not only the Planetary Society’s ongoing sail effort but the CubeSat sail being built by a consortium from the University of Surrey and aerospace firm Astrium, an
Water Found in Planet-Forming Disc
14 An orange dwarf star a bit smaller than our Sun is giving us valuable clues about how water-covered planets like Earth may evolve. TW Hydrae is 176 light years away, so young (5 to 10 million years) that it is still in the early stages of forming a planetary system. Working with data from ESA’s Herschel space observatory, astronomers have found cold water vapor in the disc of dust and gas that sur
Project Icarus: Extreme Aerospace Engineering
10 by K.F.Long, co-founder Project Icarus Kelvin Long is well known to Centauri Dreams readers. The physicist and aerospace engineer is, in addition to being one of the most energetic voices in the service of interstellar propulsion studies, the co-founder of Project Icarus, the successor to the 1970s-era Project Daedalus starship design study. Here Kelvin looks at where the ongoing Icarus effort sta

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