Society's Child
When attempting to take the pulse of a nation, look no further than popular culture, family and politics, they say. Well, a quick look at these areas of American life gives a diagnosis of either clinically insane or clinically dead.
Every time you use an internet search engine, your inquiry is stored in a huge database. Would you like such personal information to become public knowledge? Yet for thousands of AOL customers, that nightmare has just become a reality. Andrew Brown reports on an incident that has exposed how much we divulge to Google & company.
In March this year, a man with a passion for Portuguese football, living in a city in Florida, was drinking heavily because his wife was having an affair. He typed his troubles into the search window of his computer. "My wife doesnt love animore," he told the machine. He searched for "Stop your divorce" and "I want revenge to my wife" before turning to self-examination with "alchool withdrawl", "alchool withdrawl sintoms" (at 10 in the morning) and "disfunctional erection". On April 1 he was looking for a local medium who could "predict my futur".
But what could a psychic guess about him compared with what the world now knows? This story is one of hundreds, perhaps tens of thousands, revealed this month when AOL published the details of 23m searches made by 650,000 of its customers during a three-month period earlier in the year. The searches were actually carried out by Google - from which AOL buys in its search functions.
In March this year, a man with a passion for Portuguese football, living in a city in Florida, was drinking heavily because his wife was having an affair. He typed his troubles into the search window of his computer. "My wife doesnt love animore," he told the machine. He searched for "Stop your divorce" and "I want revenge to my wife" before turning to self-examination with "alchool withdrawl", "alchool withdrawl sintoms" (at 10 in the morning) and "disfunctional erection". On April 1 he was looking for a local medium who could "predict my futur".
But what could a psychic guess about him compared with what the world now knows? This story is one of hundreds, perhaps tens of thousands, revealed this month when AOL published the details of 23m searches made by 650,000 of its customers during a three-month period earlier in the year. The searches were actually carried out by Google - from which AOL buys in its search functions.
Let me give you a little scenario to ponder:
An innocent man who offers no suggestion that he is a threat in any way, is murdered on a London train with 7 point blank shots to the head of the victim over a 30 second interval by an UK police officer with Scotland Yard's elite CO19 gun squad.
In a sane world, what should happen to this officer? Reprimand? Dismissal? Jail time?
Think again:
An innocent man who offers no suggestion that he is a threat in any way, is murdered on a London train with 7 point blank shots to the head of the victim over a 30 second interval by an UK police officer with Scotland Yard's elite CO19 gun squad.
In a sane world, what should happen to this officer? Reprimand? Dismissal? Jail time?
Think again:
Such was the extent of the negative exposure that the British government received from reports that mothers at UK airports were being forced to taste and dump their baby milk to prove they are not "terrorists", the British government has today invented an utterly racist and xenophobic "explanation" for these obvious fascist policies.
On Saturday night July 30th 2006, in the Lebanese village of Qana,64 Lebanese civilians, comprising the members of two extended families, were sleeping in an unfinished building...
In a recent article, Michael Chossudovsky asks an interesting question:
Is there a relationship between the bombing of Lebanon and the inauguration of the World's largest strategic pipeline, which will channel more than a million barrels of oil a day to Western markets?
An opposition member of parliament has alleged that a government scientist who cast doubt on intelligence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction may not have taken his own life.
A judicial inquiry into the death of David Kelly in July 2003 concluded that the one-time UN weapons inspector and expert on Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes committed suicide.
He did so after he was named as the source of a BBC news report suggesting that Tony Blair's government had "sexed up" intelligence in the run-up to the US and British invasion of Iraq four months earlier.
"Today, I challenge that conclusion," wrote Norman Baker, from the Liberal Democrats, in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
"I do so on the basis that the medical evidence available simply cannot sustain it, that Dr Kelly's own behaviour and character argues against it and that there were serious shortcomings in the way the legal and investigative processes set up to consider his death were followed."
A judicial inquiry into the death of David Kelly in July 2003 concluded that the one-time UN weapons inspector and expert on Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes committed suicide.
He did so after he was named as the source of a BBC news report suggesting that Tony Blair's government had "sexed up" intelligence in the run-up to the US and British invasion of Iraq four months earlier.
"Today, I challenge that conclusion," wrote Norman Baker, from the Liberal Democrats, in the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
"I do so on the basis that the medical evidence available simply cannot sustain it, that Dr Kelly's own behaviour and character argues against it and that there were serious shortcomings in the way the legal and investigative processes set up to consider his death were followed."
The public record is replete with 'historical' accounts of the cause and effect of the many wars enjoyed by the sprawling masses of humanity. A little known fact however is that, from the point of view of accuracy, the public record stinks.
A Saskatchewan alcoholic with a string of more than 30 criminal convictions has become the second person in his family to be designated a long-term offender this year.
The long-term offender designation is used for people convicted of a serious personal injury offence who are likely to re-offend. They are given special attention in jail and are supervised for up to 10 years after their release.
The long-term offender designation is used for people convicted of a serious personal injury offence who are likely to re-offend. They are given special attention in jail and are supervised for up to 10 years after their release.
A recent Time magazine report on the effects of the current Gaza crisis on the many Palestinians whose family members are being held in Israeli prisons, many on no charge, quite clearly shows (as if we needed any confirmation), that the Israeli government, in refusing to end the crisis, cares nothing for the suffering of the Palestinian population.
Comment: Speaking of David Kelly, don't miss our Signs Supplement on Ethnic Specific Weapons.