The Antikythera Mechanism
"The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes." --- Benjamin Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield)
"Know, Will, Dare, and be Silent!" --- Aleister Crowley1. MY INTRODUCTION TO YOUR INITIATION ~
"During the first month, I experienced extreme, almost manic tendencies. My mind raced, I was restless, I couldn't sleep. Eventually that restlessness subsided (18)."
"Some experts suspect that in the first few weeks of therapy, drugs like Paxil can shove a small number of patients toward a mental precipice, perhaps because they can cause a severe form of restlessness known as akathisia. Patients who make it through the first weeks of drug therapy uneventfully do fine on the medication on the long term, these experts say (3)."
"For too long, drug companies have been allowed to tell us only the good news about their products. Now we're ready for the whole story (21)."
"Millions of rural people have come to reject the larger framework of urban life," writes public radio reporter Brian Mann in his compelling new book Welcome to the Homeland: A Journey to the Heart of America's Conservative Rural Rebellion. "They despise the liberal modernism that shaped metro culture in the twentieth century and see it as an ideology that is every bit as foreign and threatening as communism."
"Urban America breeds things that will probably never be here [in Perryton, Texas], but it scares people," Jim Hudson, publisher of Perryton Herald, tells Mann. What kinds of things? asks Mann. "Gay culture," he replies. "HIV sure wasn't bred in rural America."
"People are hurting in the countryside," Chris Kromm, executive director of the Institute of Southern Studies, told me. "You go into western North Carolina, and you see hundreds of thousands of people whose lives are being shattered by economic dislocations. If progressives turn their backs on those people, they're losing a huge opportunity and they're failing to address this country's deepest problems."
"Put bluntly, our political system is no longer a neutral playing field," Mann writes. "In ways our founding fathers could never have imagined, the Electoral College and the Senate now favor one way of life, one set of cultural and political values, over another. Because those values are no longer shared by most Americans, the result is a growing disconnect between our political elites and the people they govern."
First, we are all responsible for each other's security.
Second, we can and must give everyone the chance to benefit from global prosperity.
Third, both security and prosperity depend on human rights and the rule of law.
Fourth, states must be accountable to each other, and to a broad range of non-state actors, in their international conduct.
My fifth and final lesson derives inescapably from those other four. We can only do all these things by working together through a multilateral system, and by making the best possible use of the unique instrument bequeathed to us by Harry Truman and his contemporaries, namely the United Nations.
In short, human rights and the rule of law are vital to global security and prosperity. As Truman said, "We must, once and for all, prove by our acts conclusively that Right Has Might." That's why this country has historically been in the vanguard of the global human rights movement. But that lead can only be maintained if America remains true to its principles, including in the struggle against terrorism. When it appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused.
And states need to play by the rules towards each other, as well as towards their own citizens. That can sometimes be inconvenient, but ultimately what matters is not convenience. It is doing the right thing. No state can make its own actions legitimate in the eyes of others. When power, especially military force, is used, the world will consider it legitimate only when convinced that it is being used for the right purpose -- for broadly shared aims -- in accordance with broadly accepted norms.
"Someone has to get the message to this man that there have to be significant changes." -- Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Everyone already assumes bloggers are unemployed losers... thanks for reinforcing that stereotype...
the 48th IB is 'hamletting' the village in 'total disregard of the supremacy of civilian authority and the civil rights' of residents
residents are arrested and detained without warrant and subjected to torture, intimidation, harassment and grave threats as part of the government's counter-insurgency campaign
torture and threats against the Gallardo couple and their family led them to commit suicide
the village hall is under control of the 48th IB and barangay officials are required to report to the army commanding officer
even children were interrogated by the military and teen-agers were subjected to cruel punishment in violation of the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of a Child
1. China has a strict policy of non-interference in other nations' internal affairs allowing Chinese firms to enter countries where international sanctions restrict activities by US or European firms. This has served China well as it secures resources from authoritarian style governments that the west has criticized or sanctioned. At least China isn't hypocritical.
2. Chinese firms have access to financing from state-owned banks, which are more willing to back projects where risk-versus-return tradeoffs would seldom appeal to private investors. China's existing projects in Sudan, as well as the preliminary agreement by Sinopec to develop the Yadavaran oilfield in Iran, illustrate this effect.
3. The Chinese government can make side deals involving foreign aid and arms sales to promote its interest in acquiring raw materials. Sudan is a prime example, as Chinese state-owned arms manufacturers have sold T-59 tanks and Shenyang F-7 combat aircraft in the wake of Chinese development of Sudanese oil resources.
4. Lack of transparency constitutes another competitive advantage. Western firms have reporting requirements that do not apply to Chinese firms and are often under pressure from their home country governments and investors to keep their transactions with foreign governments transparent. For US firms, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits some types of side payments that Chinese firms could easily make.
The Antikythera Mechanism
|
We see the International Socialist Organization, which was almost dead, begin to suddenly arise, and one of the first issues they started talking about was Palestine. But when the Afghan War started and we were going to have a big march, and a number of us wanted to bring up the issue of Israel and the Occupation, the ISO opposed that. I wanted to debate one of the ISO leaders, who happens to channel Chomsky without even quoting him. (We can get into Chomsky later.) And he agreed to do it and discuss the Israel Lobby. I was going to give them all the money from the proceeds. And then he wrote back that, "I've been told that we don't really have time to have me debate you." And then we have ANSWER, the Workers World Party. They also opposed . . . all the Left groups have opposed the Palestinian issue being made a major part of the anti-war movement until fairy recently. SF-IMC: Why? Jeffrey Blankfort: For various reasons, some that are obvious but not valid. None of them are valid. One is labor. The American labor movement is part and parcel of the Israel Lobby. Seventeen hundred unions own over five billion dollars worth of Israel Bonds. That obliges them to support Israel to make sure the investment of their members' dues, made without their members' knowledge, is secure. Twenty three states have also invested in Israel Bonds as well. This is taking taxpayers' money and investing in the economy of a country that is dependent economically and politically on the United States. This makes all these people lobbyists for Israel. Very clever on their part.