No matter what, there’s a thread… 21 August 2007
Posted by marisacat in Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Viva La Revolucion!.trackback
sorry, just a thread yet again… not quite up to a real post. There are several unfinished, yesterday’s on the San Francisco Health plan that is rolling out this summer, to provide care for the city’s 82,000 who have no coverage. Earlier, a little thing I had stumbled across that might illuminate the Chevron ads last year at Dkos…
But here is a link and a snip to Naomi Klein’s comments at the recent American Sociologist Association (ASA) meeting… couple of her grafs on Poland which remind of some concerns in the last thread, who may rise as a leader
[N]ow, did they get the chance to try that, to act on that vision of a worker cooperative economy as the centerpiece of the economy, to have democratic elections but still have socialism? Did they get that chance when they voted for Solidarity? No, they didn’t. What they got was an inherited debt, and they were told that the only way that they would get any relief from that debt and any aid is if they followed a very radical shock therapy program. Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that the person who prescribed that shock therapy program was Jeffery Sachs. And I — no, I say that because I really had hoped that we could debate these different worlds, because there are differences, there are real differences that we must not smooth over.
Now, in 2006, 40% of young workers in Poland were unemployed, 40%, last year. That’s twice the EU average. And Poland is often held up as a great success story of transition. In 1989, 15% of the Poland’s population was living below the poverty line. In 2003, 59% of Poles had fallen below the line. That’s that opening of that gap. That’s what these economic policies do. And then, we can say we’re very, very worried about the people at the bottom, let’s bring them up, but let’s be clear about what we’re talking about. These jarring levels of inequality and economic exclusion are now feeding a resurgence of chauvinism, racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, rampant homophobia in Poland. And I think we can see, actually, that it’s inevitable that this would be the case, because they tried communism, they tried capitalism, they tried democratic socialism, but they got shock therapy instead. After you’ve tried all that, there really isn’t a whole lot left but fascism. It’s dangerous to suppress democratic alternatives when people invest their dreams in them. It’s risky business. [snip]
and the graf – and a bit – at the close:
… I spent the past four years pulling these stolen and betrayed alternatives out of the dustbin of our recent history, because I think it matters. I think it matters that we had ideas all along, that there were always alternatives to the free market. And we need to retell our own history and understand that history, and we have to have all the shocks and all the losses, the loss of lives, in that story, because history didn’t end. There were alternatives. They were chosen, and then they were stolen. They were stolen by military coups. They were stolen by massacres. They stolen by trickery, by deception. They were stolen by terror.
We who say we believe in this other world need to know that we are not losers. We did not lose the battle of ideas. We were not outsmarted, and we were not out-argued. We lost because we were crushed. Sometimes we were crushed by army tanks, and sometimes we were crushed by think tanks. And by think tanks, I mean the people who are paid to think by the makers of tanks. Now, most effective we have seen is when the army tanks and the think tanks team up. The quest to impose a single world market has casualties now in the millions, from Chile then to Iraq today. These blueprints for another world were crushed and disappeared because they are popular and because, when tried, they work. They’re popular because they have the power to give millions of people lives with dignity, with the basics guaranteed. They are dangerous because they put real limits on the rich, who respond accordingly. Understanding this history, understanding that we never lost the battle of ideas, that we only lost a series of dirty wars, is key to building the confidence that we lack, to igniting the passionate intensity that we need.
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Marisacat 
Thanks for the Naomi Klein excerpt. Here’s the bit that I found the most heartening:
Global capitalism, which elevates profits above people (in fact, people don’t count at all unless they’re multimillionaire investors), is an abject failure. Yet it is ascendant, and it is ascendant because
I don’t believe that the Hegelian dialectic of history is over. History is still moving, and thanks to a growing global communications network, it is not only easier for the global capitalists to coordinate their actions, it is getting easier for the working classes of the various nations to coordinate their actions.
The capitalists are far ahead of the working class in shedding the ideologies of nation and ethnicity: their motto is, “Every billionaire is my brother.” Yet a working class man in the United States is more likely to identify with George W. Bush, that scion of old money whose c.v. includes Andover, Yale, and Harvard, than he is with an Iraqi resistance fighter in Basra, or an Indian computer programmer in New Delhi. But it is the Iraqi and the Indians who are truly his kin; George W. Bush and his class are the oppressors.
The working class of the world is waking up, though. Peasants in so-called “Third World” nations have taken up arms against oppressive governments that cooperate with the global capitalists; the working class rebels shut down the central Mexican city of Oaxaca in defiance of a venal, brutal provincial governor. The ruling class wants us to go to sleep, but once people’s eyes are open, they will not close them again.
I can point, as Chomsky does, to an example of working class wakefulness that many people have missed: resistance to the invasion of Iraq. People point to resistance of the Vietnam War v. that of Iraq and say that the American people have lost their way.
But let us look at it another way. There is no draft, as there was during Vietnam, and thus far, American combat deaths have been 3500 v. 56,000 in Vietnam. And there were virtually no protests before the United States went into Vietnam, but millions mobilised, not only in the USA but in Europe and Asia and South and Central America, against the war before it even began.
Protesting a war before it has even begun is extraordinary. Chomsky explains it better than I:
http://tinyurl.com/2he4sl
Brinn’s husband, “lostmywinter”, has posted a diary protesting MSOC’s “decision” (if you can call a temper tantrum by a 39 year old woman a “decision”) to ban Brinn from MyRightWing.
http://tinyurl.com/2eyers
Predictably, MSOC–who has left the daily operation of MyRightWing in the far more capable hands of Curmudgette–roused herself from a post-party absence to express her personal contempt for a long-time member, and to once again erase all doubt that there are no rules for banning people at MRW (thereisnospoon remains an honoured member); all are subject to the vacillations of the Proprietoress:
It seems that MSOC has not quite yet thinned all the dissenters from her ranks (although I’m sure that’s only a few temper tantrums away):
Personally, I wish MSOC would get the hell out of her own blog. I’m not a personal fan of Curmudgette, but at least Curmudgette discusses politics, rather than personal issues, and is attempting to steer discussions that way. Curmudgette also argued against the banishment of 5Hearts, aka Brinn, wondering aloud what “principle” or “rule” 5Hearts had violated (The One and Only Rule: 5Hearts got on the bad side of a mood swing).
The one person who needs to be banished from MyRightWing, thereby guaranteeing an instant improvement, would be…Mary Scott O’Connor (and yes, I purposely misspelled her name just to drive her bonkers).
This has been your daily meta. Please do not overdose on meta, which leads to the dreaded Moulitsas Syndrome (see: Holland, Francis L.) and attendant obsession with all things blogdom.
Ok, one more bit from that MyRightWing diary because this one made me laugh out loud:
No, MSOC, YOU try it. This was written by a blog owner who hasn’t posted anything on her own site for three days, and who has left the operation of her blog in the hands of a volunteer (Curmudgette). How is that “running” things, again?
MSOC keeps threatening to shut down her blog, but she never does it. Why oh why can the members of La Kosanostra NEVER keep their promises?
There was an NY Times article over the weekend that mentioned that Poles were one of the largest immigrant groups in Ireland now.
wilfred
I lost track of it fairly soon, but the election of the very-strange-brothers in Poland, looked to be very bad news. Not surprising there is migration. Migration OUT.
Shock therapy, as NK calls it. Some of what we are in for…
****************
ST
yes Chomsky says that in interview – about the protests, and writes of it too. Very true.
I have no idea what the American people will do as the wars go on. Many, possibly most, may not care at all.
Should gas go to 5, 6 or 7 USD a gallon? They will squeal. Then squeal some more.
300 million in this country. They want to add, have been adding, a full million a year by legal immigration. Frankly I think the only reason they discuss changing what I consider to be a very good rule, from the founding fathers, that you should be native born to lead the nation, is to insert some hard core rightie with dual citizen ship, US Poland (they fly “home” to elect the righties)
US Taiwanese – same thing, they fly “home” to elect – or at least vote for – the righties… or US ISraeli. Same thing. They fly “home” to vote..
I do believe in picking ONE country to vote in.
As I said earlier, my personal distasteful bias is against the wealthy immigrants who buy their way in and never really identify iwth America – nor in fact with many who are here.
So, yes what will “America” do as the wars go on.
Who knows.
From a piece on TNH yesterday, on the shortage of migrant field workers, crop foods will definitely be going up.
That America will notice and it will hurt the poor most of all.
Who knows what is coming.
And by think tanks, I mean the people who are paid to think by the makers of tanks.
Good line.
What I found interesting the other day was an article in the WaPo about Bush and his crusade to spread democracy where it stated that Bush was inspired by movements like the Orange Revolution.
Beyond the irony that they had protested a stolen election and that the revolution was solely people-powered – not driven by the US gov’t – Bushco took that as a sign that his strong-armed crusade would be more than welcome around the world. A huge disconnect between people choosing their own futures v having it imposed on them by some foreign gov’t.
And always – the interference:
I doubt Bush et al would stand for some foreign gov’t cabal trying to cancel US elections, but that’s how the empire carries on.
And this:
Yes, those neocons have big ideas about how to change the world: wars, “democracy promotion” – but they consistently lack any sort of actual plan.
So I do see optimism in Klein’s words as well:
But the “dirty wars” are far from being over.
LOL well on my hard drive, and I have used it somewhere here before, I have a picture of Hillary, McCain and Lieberman dutifully wearing their orange scarves in solidarity iwth the
“Orange Revolution”. It sure smelled as tho we paid for that “revolution” – and a few others.
Well, the price of basic foodstuffs is already sky-high.
I strolled into Target (yes, Target) to pick up some film I had left for development and realised I needed a gallon milk. Target’s prices for such things were always reasonable, so I thought, “Why not?”
But the milk is now $5 a gallon.
It was less than $2 a gallon a couple of years ago.
Now, I can afford $5 a gallon (but I did not pay it; I went to Trader Joes instead and spent 25 cents in gas to save $2 on milk, but it was the principle of the thing), but I’m well aware there are people struggling to support a family on half, or far less than half, of my annual salary.
What explains the rise in milk prices?
First, this loopy ethanol scheme, which has raised the price of corn. Corn is fed to dairy cows, and if the price of feed for those cows goes up–well, you know the rest.
An AP article published earlier this month attributed the rise in dairy prices (which is an international price increase) to:
That’s in addition to a rising demand for milk in Asia (i.e., China), which has limited ability to produce its own milk for lack of land.
But it’s the use of animal food to produce “ethanol” fuels that bothers me:
It bothers me for two reasons:
First, corn is a heavily subsidised crop. I thought subsidies were supposed to keep food cheap and plentiful, not expensive and scarce. I wouldn’t feel quite so bad if the subsidy money was at least going to support sturdy Jeffersonian farmers, but in fact much of the subsidy money goes to corporate operations such as Archer Daniels Midland. Oh, joy.
Second, there is no appreciable energy gain from converting corn into fuel. It is true that Brazil, for example, uses “biomass” to derive fuel, but Brazil uses cellulose waste from its sugar cane harvest to do so. Using switchgrass (which is a native, renewable plant that thrives on the Great Plains and is not used as animal feed) makes far more sense, especially since there is a large net energy return (more energy gotten out than put in) when deriving ethanol from switchgrass as opposed to corn.
No one wants to comment on the latest contretemps at MyRightWing? Good on you. It gives me a headache and I’m sorry I mentioned it! I really must exercise more self-restraint and stop visiting that place. There’s nothing there to see but a shabby imitation of the worst of DailyKos.
One of the unintended benefits of the current American focus on all things Middle Eastern/Central Asian is that the nations of Central and South America have been left relatively unmolested. Chavez hasn’t been overthrown, I think, because those who would ordinarily be charged with helping to plot the coup are busy elsewhere. There’s only so many professional murderers and torturers to go around, you know, and they are required elsewhere in the Empire.
So we have it that Chavez is what Castro always wanted to be, a regional leader.
And I may be brushing up on my Spanish and heading south if things continue to develop in the United States. At least south of the border, there is hope for the future:
South America is moving to the left, as was its natural inclination for decades–but this time, the US bullies lack the power to intervene.
By the time America swings its attention back towards its Latin American sphere of influence, it may well be too late: the Central and South Americans will have developed the necessary means to resist gringo economic and military aggression.
http://tinyurl.com/2xg4r5
I’m well aware there are people struggling to support a family on half, or far less than half, of my annual salary.
Exactly, and to get personal for a moment, being ill (with lupus and fibromyalgia) it’s important that I eat properly but food prices are so high (esp fruits and vegetables) that the diet I can afford makes me more ill. And that, of course, increases health care costs and risks for society etc etc. Around and around it goes.
No one wants to comment on the latest contretemps at MyRightWing?
I might after I’ve finished my second cup of tea. MyLeftDrama – around and around that goes as well.
Has he given any thought to the fact that maybe war is not the way to implement ideas? Haven’t read the entire article, so I don’t know what he deduces from his analyses.
Regarding Chompsky’s observations on the pre-war opposition around the world, I remember that. It was historical. It was live-blogged (yes, people were doing that back then) from various countries on the liberal site I was on back then. It was exciting, on every Continent there were demonstrations. Still, they were ignored by the war-mongers in both parties.
People no longer matter, not just in third world countries, but here also. Almost all polls from European countries showed opposition in the 80s and 90s, yet some, Spain eg, went ahead anyway. What does that say? Governments are no longer concerned about their people. The people will have to change that. They did in Spain. I remember the photos of millions of people out in the streets of Spain, it was spontaneous, after the Government lied about the terrorist attack. I still have a newspaper photo of that massive demonstration. That is what we need here.
well the silliness – and tragedy – of politicians learning to say (as I have said before) cellulosic is going to be a burden on us all.
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) got rich for decades off criminal mischief and ethanol. The reason Iowa is so privotal in the wretched primary system/
Between shifting priorities on who grows what and why to manufacturing a limit on availablity of migrant workers, the plan is to starve people out.
Talk about a back door draft.
The last two big Safeway grocery orders I have put together it was clear, food stuffs going up by .50 to 1.00
Not milk or cream yet – at Safeway, but bread and other dairy products.
That is a lot more than a couple nickels. The news reported weeks ago, maybe three months ago that a product I DON’T buy, corn and wheat cereals went up. Not in price but the big cereal companies cut the box contents by around 20%.
But I have said for years, it will take food riots, starvation for America to wake up.
******
Well sadly MSoc is just the same thing, over and over. And then again. She has not changed since she arrived at Dkos, to be frank. Dramarama.
I did follow the link that FLH left in the previous thread and he is sinking to just garbled gibberish. Endless run-on repitition… Somewhere on that site tho he links to a comment that the [banned] Blogging Curmudge left at Wingless, TBC agrees with Sabrina, soon it will be old home week at the Kos Ranchera. The beloved children who became The Banned will be reinstated.
I have no idea. I do know it is all dull kabuki.
NEW DRAMA is needed. 😉
#9. That seems to be the world’s future: blocs of regional governments. The EU, the N American union and now a S American union. More integrated, interdependent power all centered around oil concerns. That could make for more very “interesting” times and I don’t mean that in a good way – especially with China, Russia, the ME and nuclear powers like India and Pakistan not being aligned.
NEW DRAMA is needed.
lol…stay tuned next week. 😉
(A note to the paranoid: no, I’m not planning anything – there is always new drama to be found when that’s your raison d’etre)
Still, they were ignored by the war-mongers in both parties. — Sabrina
Feinstein admitted then and still will say, mail faxes phone calls emails to her offices ran 9 to 1 agaisnt the war vote.
I have heard others quote the same ratio and even in some non blue areas, I heard 2 to 1 mail ran against the war vote.
People HAVE to stop rewarding anti democratic behavior with votes.
Til then, til the electorate has some strength or voting blocs can band together, it does not matter.
For instance I am SICK TO DEATH of Edwards smarmy apology.
For his vote.
He should get on his knees and crawl to Iraq and apologise for being a CO AUTHOR of the AUMF.
Screw them all.
well I think it will be regional corporate masters, who then, as much as ever and more so, determine who goes into office.
BTW, McCain last night on Charlie Rose said he is “very pleased” with both Sarkozy and Merkel. Said it was a big relief to get Sarko in… LOL..
SO SCREWEDDDDDDDDDDD
And Hillary was chirping about the fact(?) that she “regrets” her AUMF vote in Sunday’s debate but she always adds the qualifier a la: if I’d only known how badly Bush was going to screw up the war. That is not encouraging.
well I think it will be regional corporate masters, who then, as much as ever and more so, determine who goes into office.
That’s exactly why these secretive SPP meetings, with corporate leaders from Mexico, Canada and the US directing policy, are so bloody dangerous. Access means power and they definitely have both. It’s like the new and improved version of the Bohemian Grove but this time around, they’re much more bluntly shoving the publics’ nose in the fact that they are in charge.
South America is moving to the left, as was its natural inclination for decades–but this time, the US bullies lack the power to intervene. Shadowthief
Yes, and it is exciting to watch. S.A. may become the refuge of many from future oppressed countries, ie, the US. I too have thought about it.
Re the MLW drahma – well, it’s clear that Brinn and The BC were banned right after helping to expose (although he could have controlled himself) thereisnospoon’s prejudices towards women. Imo, though, it was the exchanges between him and Caliberal that were the most revealing. He WANTED to hurt her and he did and in doing so, he attacked women in general. He also attacked teachers. I would be hurt, but his opinions are meaningless to me.
Msoc went to Blackamazon’s blog to defend herself from criticism brought on by Tins’ attacks on minorities. His and MissLaura’s (and the rest of the BBB’s defensive dismissal of bloggers of color as ‘uneducated and poor’ was hurtful to people. They are tribal in their reaction to any criticism, lashing out at everyone, excusing rather than questioning, their own actions.
Brinn had nothing to do with Tins hurtful, ignorant dismissal of minority bloggers. Msoc’s attempt to defend him failed because outside of the elitist right-leaning ‘netroots’, their hatred of lefties in general is glaringly obvious and universally rejected. I have said little about MSOC personally, I don’t know her and in fact, have often felt sympathy for her, especially when she was subjected to hatred on DK like I’ve rarely seen.
Nothing I have seen here compares to the vitriol and hate she was subjected to at DK. Yet she seems willing to overlook that. I admire the ability to forgive (though never forget) those who have harmed you but I do not understand a self-professed Liberal/Leftie defending the Republican-lite Tins who has been rightly taken to task all over the blogosphere for his ignorance on the YrlK diversity issue, not to mention his attacks on women, which were vicious and intended to hurt. But to each his/her own. There are more important issues to think about.
His and MissLaura’s (and the rest of the BBB’s defensive dismissal of bloggers of color as ‘uneducated and poor’ was hurtful to people.
I take it diversity week on the BBBs is over now and they can get back to discussing real issues – like winning. (snort)
OK OK it IS ABC”S The NOte, but the opening grafs are not far off the sludge we are stuck in… and the title is “Frozen in Place”…
It’s not tentative, that unwillingness to confront the war … the donklephants are FINE with the war, they just think they could run it better. Meanwhile, Holy Joe, who they refuse to kick out of the caucus, is talking about attacking Syria now.
madman
I agree, but that it the pro status quo framing.
That both parties agree on and as we all know ABC perpetuates.
You know, Hillary a lefty liberal feminist with all those entrenched corporate insterests… Edwards a good guy populist. Obama, here to merge us and save us.
I could go on but it is so boring.
Hadassah and Joe need to move to Israel and sit shiva for America.
Should not post without fully reading … and without multiple cups of coffee. I responded to an excerpt of Naomi Klein’s rather read the full text of Marisacat’s post, which I just now did. Saw ‘Klein’ and, lol, did what I just accused the BBBs of doing, posted a thoughtless, knee-jerk reaction to an excerpt. I would like to take it back …
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Marisacat, I don’t know if you saw this, I was looking for the post on the Blogosphere’s treatment of women and came across it:
Blogs That Make Me Think: The Thinking Blogger Award
Brief follow-up to SB’s comments about Berube, from the last thread.(sorry. Not feeling too well today.)
SB, what gets me about the man is that he doesn’t want to personally sign off on any opinions when I lean on him to actually expound upon them. It’s all “Well, why don’t you read THIS book by so-and-so or THAT book by so-and-so and ALL will be explained.” The man doesn’t understand that blogs are not his clasroom and I’m not his fucking student. Let him state why HE thinks both [sic] parties are slavering over Darfur (oil) but not Haiti (no oil). All he does is dance around the main issues at hand and crack jokes when he’s cornered. Then he thinks we, the unlettered slobs who aren’t fortunate enough to have his approved reading list, don’t notice what he’s doing. FUCK, but it’s annoying.
Berube also loathes Chomsky, which is funny when the former demonstrates so well the latter’s theory that highly educated people are likely to be more vulnerable to government propaganda disseminated through the media than uneducated people are.
this is funny (from the comments at open left)
I agree that what I get from TINS is ANGER towards women. Notice how he and his brother Hekebolos insert themselves in “feminist” diaries with a malevolent glee. TINS’ breezy dismissal of minorities as uneducated po’ folk was done without a second thought or even any real malice: just his usual smug nonsense. But get him or his equally repellent brother discussing “wimmin’s issues” and they become very bitter and nasty. I can’t even begin to dissect their mentality, and won’t try, save to observe that their blogging on “wimmin’s isues” is the verbal equivalent of a fist in the face.
At the risk of being accused of dime store psychologising, and analysing someone whom I don’t really know (MSOC), I’d say that she’s attracted to abusive men. That explains her friendship with, and attempted protection of, both Thereisnospoon and Armando, and her (recently ruptured) affiliation with Moulitsas. All three of them are abusers in their own particular way, although it doesn’t appear to me that Armando is as openly misogynistic as the other two.
So really, it’s all personal, not political. Like many others, I am rapidly losing interest in keeping track of her drama, because it’s the same script again and again, only with different players. I’d rather spend my time refinishing my antique desk (a much-delayed task) than contemplate the train wreck that is her blog.
As far as being concerned about “diversity” on the Establishment Blogs–well, the WEBBiese (White Establishment Blogging Boys) and their helpers, the WEBBettes, have judged that the news stories about the whites-only atmosphere at YearlyKos and DailyKos have faded. So it’s time to chuck the whole “concern” about “diversity” into the bin and move on to more “important shit”, like attacking Sean Hannity for being a (gasp) Republican Party supporter! Oh my oh my, who would have guessed that Hannity wasn’t a liberal Democrat. I’m shocked, shocked to learn that gambling is going on in this establishment…the Major Reynault routine gets a bit old after awhile.
More coffee needed. Meant to highlight his mention of Marisacat. And to say that personally I would value that endorsement from xicanopwr far more than any from the BBBs, which would actually cause me to worry, should it ever happen.
Bayprairie, LMBAO (that’s Laughing My British Arse Off)!
“Loyal to the Democratic Party except in her votes!”
Hm, isn’t that the equivalent of “But dear, I was faithful to you other except when I slept with dozens of other women”?
Well, who are you going to believe: the Democratic Party apologists or your own lying eyes? Close your eyes and go to sleep whilst they whisper in your ear: “All is well if only the Democrats had a super-duper-ultra-majority!”
I cannot wait for the DailyKos diary that explains, in painstaking detail, why the Democrats cannot be expected to pass progressive legislation when they only have 434 of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 99 of the 100 Senate seats, plus the White House.
I dyslexic am. My poor jest should have read:
“But dear, I was faithful to you except when I slept with dozens of other women?”
I will now contemplate at what point my brain turned to mush. I took one too many jolts when riding in a tank, I think, or else Gulf War Syndrome has attacked what’s left of my thought organ.
Mcat, they don’t deserve the chance to sit shiva. They should have to keep the mirrors uncovered so they can look themselves in the face. Couple of psychos. So humiliating to share a culture with somebody like Holy Joe. I wish I could excommunicate myself. >:
The Klein piece is amazing Marisacat … thanks so much for linking to it. I’ve enjoyed her stuff for a while, but she seems to really be sharpening it.
Spot on. Look at all the focus on big megachurches down in NOLA and the rest of the Gulf on CNN … while little collectives of students and hippies and others go unremarked in the corporate media for the work they continue to do (I’m thinking of the work documented over the last two years by Duranta, along with others. Only documented in blogs and indymedia).
Really boils our predicament down. I especially like the way she built her entire argument to aim it at the heart of what her (cowardly, cancelling) opponent advocates for. Not in a nasty way, but she shreds that entire worldview.
Silber has a slam up… and he is right. Most will fall in line and vote for her.
Ms Xeno, can Jews be “excommunicated”? I thought that was reserved for us Catholics. I’m sure His Holiness would excommunicate me if my true views were brought to his attention.
I always tell my parents: “If you didn’t want me to become an atheist, you shouldn’t have sent me to parochial school.” Prolonged exposure to Catholicism is what turned me against it, and religion in general, so I suppose Sister Mary Redempta did me a favour when she left those scars on my knuckles (it was a long story, but I was a Catholic schoolboy rebel with a cause, expelled three times from school for various thoughtcrimes).
JFTR, my parents walked out of their local Catholic church in Januar 2005. The tsunami in Southeast Asia had just claimed hundreds of thousands of lives a week earlier, and left millions more in want, so when the monsignor came to speak, my parents assumed he would appeal for funds for disaster relief.
The monsignor made an appeal for funds, alright. “A great tragedy has befallen innocent people”, the monsignor reported. “I hope that all of you will donate generously to the legal defence fund for priests who have been accused of molestation.”
Not a word about the tsunami victims. Not one. So much for “good works”.
To my parents’ credit, after seven decades as baptised and confirmed Catholics, they gathered their things and walked out of that church–and have not looked back. They are now affiliated with a Protestant denomination that is STILL raising money for the victims of the tsunami and sending it on a regular basis, nearly three years after the tragedy.
ms xeno
I went and finished that thread at Scruggs… I ahd read it earlier, I guess thru the Scruggs comments of the 14th. At least when I was there, Berube had not replied to your last comment, of the 20th.
Good going. he is so typical.
Ms x, well, I think both you and Scruggs exposed him very well. It was my first encounter with him and I was not impressed at all. Your responses brought out what you see so often in these faux, armchair ‘lefties’. They TALK a lot, and expect ‘oohs and ahhhs’ as they receive in their small, protected circle of like-minded friends. But when faced with challenges to their self-proclaimed superiority, where possible they make the challenger disappear (see bannings on DK) and when that is not possible, they revert to distraction from the issues by again, attempting to establish their superiority.
I saw what he tried to do with the ‘read this’ tactic. The presumption that others are not as informed or educated as they are is odious to say the least. I think you took care of that very nicely. His authoritarian ‘teacher/student’ routine reminds me of the righties I have sparred with.
He will go back to his safe environment, certain that you and Scruggs and two thirds of the population are lesser beings who simply don’t ‘get’ that a even ‘the worst Democrat is better than the best Republican’. A message that is no longer resonating, even with former loyal supporters.
The only way he could gain respect for his words, Digby and Greenwald also, would be to use the platform they have to make sure that these ‘worst Dems’ are not rewarded over and over with the excuse that ‘we can’t get a true progressive elected in this area’. But we all know that will not happen. I have come to think now that this meme is the result of closed, narrow thinking even more than Party loyalty for some. They really can’t see any options. And so the status quo will continue, with their help which they will never take responsibility for.
Bush at SPP news conference dismissed concerns about their secret meetings as “conspiracy” theories. Well maybe if you’d open up the damn meetings, you wouldn’t have that problem. He actually accused opponents of spreading “fear”. That, coming from Mr Fearmonger himself.
The Catholic CHurch is just horrifying. And by now parents who send their childten to parochial school are just offering the children up, vulnerable to ritual sexual sacrifice. It is not going to be ending. Not even the huge settlement in LA, by which Cardinal Mahoney avoided testifying.
Big bill (660 million or so) to hide behind, but aht is what he did..
Romney goes to the right (of Giuliani):
http://tinyurl.com/35fl37
Oh yes, the “borders” must be secure. What a sad joke. Secure against what? Oh, that’s right, TERRORISTS. Romney’s not going to win any points in the “business community” for this stance–the dirty little not-so-secret is that Big Business relies very heavily on exploiting the labour of illegal immigrants. The American economy, in fact, is premised on a ready oversupply of cheap labour that depresses wages and keeps the work force from unionising, among other things.
To think that this scary, unprincipled bastard could well be the next President of the United States, must give us pause.
That Klein speech is divine… I really have nothing more to add at the moment.
Just an observation on the HuffPo and censorship. A few weeks back when that guy had that film on Lieberman and the Armaggedon Evangelics they closed the comments. It quickly got to around 325 and then stayed there. The article was on the front page most of the week but the comment count never went up. Vey odd since it was also linked to thru out the blogosphere
huffpo must have very specific comment censor squads there.
they rarely let me thru when i deign to respond to one of their incessant “Why PIRATE MASTER is the best show in the history of my life” blogs. huffpo has great essays but it’s out of whack with the gossip pop trivia that make the site look like an E channel adjunct.
speaking of comments… reminds me of something I sometimes think about… aside from the fact that Kevin Drum (who is a self described centrist and thus far to the right of me) when he had his own blog, Calpundit, had perfectly tolerable threads on I/P (this was 2002/03) but also at WashMonthly, at least when I read his blog, htere (Political Animal, think it ws called) the threads were unmoderated and epople would jsut GO AT IT. I mean really.
Which I think is the way it should be able to be. Let people fight it out. People are adults. Don’t interfere.
LOL After all it was McCain last night bitching and moaning for “respectful dialogue”. Over the WAR!
yeah right.
Well, I had praised HuffPo as superior to DailyKos, but now I see that it’s just a smoother version of it: they practise censorship of inconvenient people and ideas, albeit without announcing it or by deploying gangs of thugs.
My comment in response to Moulitsas’ article on “traditional v. MSM”, while sharply critical, was not disrespectful and should have been published. I think that it was not published because I referred to Moulitsas’ mass banishments of progressives, which is an impolite fact neither he nor Huffington want discussed.
Wrongly Arrested Bush Protesters Talk About Their $80K Government Settlement On Hardball
Elvira Arellano Arrested!
Looks like someone’s been fucking with wikipedia again… I just went to Elvira’s page to find out why she was being arrested & found this whopper:
MIMT, re: the arrest of Elvira Arellano.
Every illegal immigrant knows that Election Season is Illegal Immigrant Crackdown Season.
After November 2008, it will be business as usual. Until then, none of the illegal immigrants have sanctuary. They are political as well as economic pawns all of the time, and now especially, as Romney tries to destroy Giulani (his only real obstacle to the nomination) once and for all with the bludgeon of Giulani’s rather tepid support for illegal immigrants.
yes but that “change” in the wikipedia is where they are headed.
Citizenship is devalued. Esp if you can be identified as an “anchor” baby, or slurred as one. Nobody is an anchor baby, there are just babies.
And for now the child is with the priest at the church in Chicago, from what I read yesterday.
San Francisco is a sanctuary city. For over two decades now.
I put myself in the position of the illegal immigrants: shall I starve in my home country or flee to the United States and survive?
Given such a stark choice, I know exactly what I’d do, and I wouldn’t give a toss if I violated US immigration and naturalisation laws or not.
If I were President, I’d give “amnesty” to any illegal immigrant who’s been living in the United States five years or more, and increase the number of people allowed to legal immigrate from neighbouring countries (Canada, Mexico, Central and South America). The simplest, and most overlooked, solution to the problem of illegal immigration is just to allow more legal immigration.
The people are coming here, anyway, so why waste all this time chasing them around and deporting them when you can just give them a legal entry into the country? Aren’t a whole bunch of legal immigrants better than a whole bunch of illegal immigrants?
Ah, but LEGAL immigrants have rights and won’t work for crap wages. Well, there’s an onion in the ointment…
And wasn’t there something – maybe patriot act II – in which Congress approved the ability of the US gov’t to strip any American citizen of their citizenship if it was in the interest of national security?
ST – I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we get rid of NAFTA, which has effectively gutted the Mexican economy, directly causing the poverty that forces people to come here in order to not starve.
The Democrats won’t even discuss NAFTA. Much less other trade deals as well CAFTA…
No sign we are in a primary. NONE. We are in the run up to electing a R, by Democratic party acclamation.
**************
lucid, forget in what, it might have been PATRIOT II but yes citizenship is conditional now.
And they proved it wiht Padilla.
*************
ST
well the mess of a bill that failed in congress ws labeled “amnesty”… and frankly the US Chamber of Commerce wrote the damned thing. With creeps like Feinstein and the president fronting for business. Not news I realise.
Right, that is what they want, a hunt-down-able, abusable, deportable frightened work force. IWth no rights.
News Flash:
Endeavor did nto blow up on re-entry.
Neo-con Dems.
I no longer fear the Kucinich Revolution: Part 2
meant to add … until Dennis folds and falls in behind the party, like last time. We’ll see if (when) he does it again.
another scion of the New Corporate Media, one jerome armstrong, offers a kossackian take on the dem prez candidates — minus kucinich and gravel from his wonk chart. happily, the comments are slamming armstrong for his unserious and typical “we’re in good shape democrats” position:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerome-armstrong/the-candidates-sidebysi_b_61263.html
That’s crazy talk.
NAFTA was signed into law by a Democratic President (Clinton).
Since everything Democrats do is Good, then NAFTA is also Good.
Haven’t you been reading DailyKos?
I would like to see all these treaties–NAFTA, CAFTA, etc.–scrapped and replaced with a hemisphere-wide FTA (Fair Trade Agreement) that enshrines environmental and worker rights over the profits of the capitalists.
Marisacat is right, though: people won’t entertain the necessary next step until the wolf is not only at the door, but has his muzzle inside the doorway. And even then, I wouldn’t wager that another Great Depression would lead to New Deal-style socialism. The United States could have just as easily gone the other direction (fascism), and very nearly did.
#60 Cad, re: Jerome “Con Man” Armstrong @ HuffPo:
You mean the comments allowed through are taking Armstrong to task. I can only imagine the ones that didn’t slip through the censors’ fingers.
Re: Withdrawal from Iraq under a Democratic President.
What nonsense. They should just stop talking about it.
There’s $8 trillion worth of oil (proven reserves) in Iraq, with more being discovered in the western regions. No President can walk away from that much oil and not be destroyed by the ruling class. $8 trillion is, in case you were wondering, a LOT of money.
Not only that, but even if Iraq’s oil dried up tomorrow, a Republican is more likely to withdraw the troops from Iraq than a Democrat. The Democrats are all scared rabbits: “But the Republicans will say that I LOST Iraq!”
It’s the same mentality one witnesses at DailyKos in the comments, time and again, when the Kos Kops warn people not to say things that the Republicans can twist and distort. Thus is bold action ever circumscribed and caution and triangulation rule the day.
Rue the day, more like it.
If the United States ever withdraws from Iraq, ironically, it will be under a “tough guy” Republican President–quite possibly George P. Bush (“the little brown one”, who is now all grown up) in 2024.
Bush has opened another front in his global War of Terror.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Bush has launched an attack on that well-known hotbed of terrorism, the State of California:
There’s more, but you can follow the link.
http://tinyurl.com/34lkmg
From the same SF Chronicle editorial:
Pfffffft, since when did the expressed wishes of the majority of the public have any effect on Bush’s policies? We’re all just a “focus group”.
Re: the MSock drama du jour – how ridiculous she is. And her supporters are, if possible, even worse. I just read that thread. Now I feel I need to soak in a hot bath full of sea salt to wash off the toxins. Nuf sed.
Badges? DynCorp don’t need no stinking badges to patrol the U.S. borders!
Articles like what Jerome cranked out are useless. They rely on public statements.
USELESS.
In fact .. thanks to the Reuters Politics RSS feed over on the right I noticed this earlier:
FULLFUCKINGSHIT.
When? She never did. She prattled and still prattles the WHITE HOUSE lines.
She is Mccain in drag.
That Sinking Feeling
It’s a few days old, but I just came across this interesting tidbit…
Synthetically engineered microbes to create alternative energy sources… I’m not sure whether to get excited by the prospect or run screaming in fear that we’ll fuck up and create some synthetic nightmare that will decimate all mammalian life on the planet…
Madam Speaker now has her own Air Force. From democrats.com:
Wow, talk about National Security issues. I knew our Health-Care system was bad, but is simply shocking.
US tumbles down the world ratings list for life expectancy
This statement is dripping with disdain for the American people with its ‘blame the victims’ attitude. What a disgraceful, deceptive attempt to avoid the problem:
I suppose those babies are ‘fat and lazy’ also ….
I wonder what it will take for the American people to finally rise up against the abuse they are subjected to by this government. It’s not as though people have not died as a result of this.
HA! From Page 2 of The Note:
Same old same old. Only now there are anti terror laws on the books.
“I think it matters that we had ideas all along, that there were always alternatives to the free market. ”
At one point in my past I convinced myself that I was a believer in free markets. That in turn was an evolution from an earlier more rebellious bourgeois belief in a latin american path to at least social equality if not socialism.
The belief in the value and efficiency of markets was predicated on so many fancy mathematical theories of Nash equilibrium and game dynamics. It was Adam Smith’s myth of the invisible hand taken to the nth degree. Unfortunately, the facts on the ground in the world make a good portion of this fancy stuff pretty much useless…I could go on and give reasons why the mathematics fails or maybe possible ways of correcting it, but what’s the point? In the end it’s more grist for the bourgeois mill.
What can we honestly respond to Chavez? His style may remind of us of the unpleasant caudillos of the past, but he’s really got a point. Poverty won’t eradicate itself.
Silber is on a roll today… 😉
Thanks for the Silber link. We need to be reminded of so many things…
CSTAR,
I was so glad to see your comment the other day.
I hope you are well.. 😉
Thanks. I’m fine. Just busy and ever more dispirited by the direction of political discourse in this country.
The monsignor made an appeal for funds, alright. “A great tragedy has befallen innocent people”, the monsignor reported. “I hope that all of you will donate generously to the legal defence fund for priests who have been accused of molestation.”
Which is very much a parallel for the BBBs acting as ATMs for the Democratic party.
(Why do I feel like I must add a disclaimer to some of my comments here so lurkers won’t misinterpret them? No. I did not say Dems are child molesters.)
LOL shooting butterflies. Getting them on board and selling entrails as filet.
YOu do realise that a weak passive very inexperienced candidate, that would be LAMONT, forced Lieberman from the party…
As if. Scraping the barrel.
Marisacat, thanks for the links to Arthur Silber’s posts. The Hillary piece is especially disturbing.
The fact that Bill Crystal finds her acceptable, as he points out, that alone should finish her, certainly with Liberals. There is so much in his article to single out, but this paragraph especially could not be more accurate.
Illinois we have a Bush Dog named Melissa Bean. She looks like Carney in a lot of ways, but has always been loyal to the Democratic party (except in her votes)…
Oops, meant to attribute that last paragraph to Bayprairie. Was it from Bowers or Stoller? Rushing out the door and I can’t remember but it’s hilarious. It’s Comedy Central material! Rotfl!
Thanks for the Klein and Silber links. I’ve destested the Jeffrey Sachs for a long time and his African village is more of him telling little people how to live. Get them mosquitos net, “seed potatos” of their choosing and leave them alone because otherwise you’ll find some way to screw it up and leave them worse off than they were before.
On MSOC – so many blogs, so little time, why go there? Didn’t know the dKos natives turned on her. Ah, that’s the problem with love or seduction, frequently blind. But seriously, she’s a pain in the ass and there’s no reward for putting up. I want insightful, intellectually challaneging, rich, deep or funny and MSOC offers none of that.
Food prices definitely going up. But why are milk cows being fed corn? They can’t digest corn. Save it for the chickens and cars (yeah, not a good solution but better than we and the cows eating it) – better yet, stop growing so damn much of it. High fructose corn syrup in everything. My mother never let us have corn syrup, she thought it was worse for us than cane suger. Try buying jam without this 1980 technological breakthrough – high fructose corn syrup. That and corn chips may do us in before we run out of oil or global warming turns the US into a bunch of tiny desert islands or swampy ones.
Nir Rosen, on with Amy:
Maybe in the USA!USA! Future Version, San Francisco can attack Las Vegas. Or the reverse.
Then Los Angeles, already a mega mega city from San Diego to San jose, can attack both cities. And consolidate.
Marie – I’m convinced high fructose corn syrup is directly responsible for the type II Diabetes epidemic in this country.
American Psychological Association Rejects Blanket Ban on Participation in Interrogation of U.S. Detainees
EVERY institution in this country is broken … Little Eichmans indeed.
cattle should eat grass. Some that go to market can have their diet tweaked a bit at the end for flavor, but corn does not cut it.
Tjey are fed corn and corn trash as we fucking sold out and grow the damn stuff.
So Andreas could get rich. And be big power in both parties for decades.
yes agree on corn sucrose and karo syrup, it’s in everything.
cattle should eat grass.
Yes but that might mean letting them [gasp] graze and naturally replenish soil by pooping in the fields… That is against the principles of factory farming!
Los Angelenos Represent!
lucid – not sure it’s directly responsible but plays a big role. What I mean is it may not be any worse for us than sucrose – cane suger. But sugar can’t be produced in high enough volume to make it really cheap, and therefore that limited how much we consumed. (btw Karo syrup is chemically different from high fructose corn syrup. So, far the dark syrup is exactly what they been selling for like forever. The light syrup is 50%/50 traditional corn syrup and HFCS.) HFCS is so cheap that they dump it in everything — most of it we don’t even taste except for maybe a slight hint of sweetness. Excessive sugars require the pancreas to work overtime and then it wears out — presto Type II Diabetes.
CSTAR – I noted a couple of years ago that the only good thing aoub the war in Iraq was that it was keeping the US out of Central and So. America. Might even give them enough time to put their countries together well enough that they won’t be vulnerable to a later interest by the US (which should arrive after we’ve had our butts kicked in the ME and have to go find some ass to kick to restore our sick little egos.)
Thanks to SB and Mcat for the earlier pep talks. I still feel like death on a saltine, but not because of you. 😉
I’ve been meaning to post , regarding the agribusiness and corn cultivation. Has anyone seen it ?
Charlie Rose had a food panel a while back. They thought the price of corn was a good thing because the expense would lead to manufacturers eliminated HFCS. Sa,e with all the Spagettios
One thing that concerns me is that kids eat a lot of Campbells Soup which is loaded with MSG and HFCS. And those juice boxes. Much of hypeactivity and the so-called ADD is caused by the high sugar intake in kids IMO.
People used to bring their kids in late in the day at one of my offices and and I would see the behavioral changes after they had been to the vending machines.
There are some easy-to-make jokes to be made about this, but I’ll resist the impulse.
Good News Argulas – The new Ikea catalog is out. Thats what Iowa needs; an Ikea in the Quad Cities.
Ian Brown with Sinead O’Connor: “Illegal Attacks”
Is that Bill Kristol the neocon, or Billy Crystal the actor? Because either way, I agree: his support of Hillary is VERY disturbing.
71, Revisionist: wasn’t Dr Ben Marble the guy who said “Fuck you Mr Cheney” after his house was destroyed in Katrina?
This impulse toward SILENCING people is pretty disturbing.
93, Revisionist again: Good News Argulas – The new Ikea catalog is out. Thats what Iowa needs; an Ikea in the Quad Cities.
Hey, I love IKEA! They’re the best source for inexpensive, good quality bookshelves. It’s bizarre how difficult it is to find bookshelves. Makes life difficult for bibliomaniacs like me. Though apparently 1 in 4 Americans read no books at all last year, so I shouldn’t be surprised.
IKEA has nice Swedish meatballs in its cafeterias, too.
Re: HFCS: my intuition screams at me to avoid it. Something wrong with it. That being said, I do occasionally indulge in a Coke – it goes so well with certain salty things.
Compare and Contrast: Two Recent Articles Published In My Hometown Newspaper
word hit the local business press two years ago that Milwaukee was on Ikea’s radar … sadly, that’s the last I heard about it.
Marie wrote:
A rapprochement is in the works. MSOC, like an exiled leader during China’s Cultural Revolution, is going to be “rehabilitated” and brought back into the Party apparatus–but just for the elections. Armando will be joining her and together they will mercilessly beat down anybody in blogdom who dares utter the phrase, “Gee, isn’t Hillary Clinton basically just a Republican who’s somewhat less evil?”
Actually, somebody collected the evidence that MSOC actually doesn’t really “blog” any more, except to post updates on her various medical conditions. Granted, the poor lady does suffer from chronic pain and a number of other ailments, with a cumulative debilitating effect…but the evidence is pretty clear that except for personal feuds and the occasional meta meatgrinder, MSOC has left the building. I was surprised to learn that MSOC hasn’t done any substantial blogging (writing) in about 18 months. I think being deprived of the wider audience of DailyKos has undermined her motivation to write. I was never a fan, anyway: there’s only so many times you can scream “We are FUCKED” or “This is BULLSHIT” before you change the station to something more nuanced.
Eh, all this meta is making me queasy.
Either way, problem solved.
“All mammalian life”, eh? So you’re saying that Republicans will inherit the earth?
Re: The obesity epidemic and the introduction of high fructose corn syrup into our food (even the bread you buy in stores).
I saw a very convincing chart–which I don’t have at hand–with two lines running parallel. The lines kept bumping each other as they climbed from the left side to the right side of the chart, peaking at the far right hand side.
Line 1 of the graph showed the percentage of foods in the American food distribution system that contained high fructose corn syrup.
Line 2 of the graph showed the percentage of Americans who are obese.
The rise of corporate farming in the early 1980s to the present was instrumental in the obesity epidemic.
The obesity epidemic began a few years after the introduction of high fructose corn syrup in the American (and later the British) diet: about 25 years ago.
Other factors making Americans fat are lack of preventive health care (doctors put you on diets!), the prevalence of fast food as a substitute for home-cooked meals, and the “suburban” lifestyle (suburbanites tend to be fatter than either rural or urban dwellers because they drive more than they walk).
I recommend the book (a slender volume, ironically enough) “Fat Land” by Gregory Critser (only 260 pages), which details how Americans became the world’s second-fattest people (the Tonganese are still more portly).
I also forgot to mention that, thanks to that lovely phenomenon known as “tax cuts”, many public schools have eliminated physical education courses–which used to guarantee that every child and teenager got at least SOME much-needed exercise five days a week.
I also think computers and television make people fat by making them sedentary.
MarisaCat: I have a picture of Hillary, McCain and Lieberman dutifully wearing their orange scarves in solidarity with the “Orange Revolution”
If they Lieberman, Hillary Clinton and McCain wear scarves in solidarity, it’s not my revolution.
If Lieberman, Hillary Clinton and John McCain ever express support some social movement which I’m already a part of, they need to be officially excommunicated or the movement needs to be re-branded to something they find distasteful and saddening.
Whatever saddens Joe Lieberman is probably the right thing to be doing or saying.
Also, if you manage to “disappoint” Joe Lieberman, you’re probably on the right track.
The reason for this is that Joe Lieberman emotes backwards.
If something is bad, Lieberman is joyful.
If something is good, Lieberman is saddened it.
It’s like being evil, but with his enthusiasm curbed and his irrational exuberance suppressed.
Sigh, back at MyLeftWing again…because it’s an endless source of dismay and amusement.
You have to see this one for yourselves, folks:
http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=18444
The diarist in question has attacked Koreans for taking over the black hair care industry. No one is calling it a racist attack, although clearly that’s what it is.
Maybe I’m a not very bright British person, so I misconstrued the diarist’s statements as racist:
MyLeftWing is now apparently running infomercials, because the diary contains a pitch for a produt, and Shanikka, in comments, makes a pitch for another product.
This comment has been brought to you by Diet Dr. Pepper. Diet Dr. Pepper–the taste that refreshes!/i>
Looks interesting…
God’s Warriors:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/gods.warriors/
Lieberman is Senator Opposite (Seinfeld reference).
If every instinct Lieberman has is wrong–whether it’s aid for Israel, support for spying on Americans, or attacking Iran-then The Opposite must be the correct thing to do!
well high salt high grease fat food is responsible for a lot. I am not that old and I remember when they changed the number of ‘millions served’ at a McDonald’s sign by hand.
MSOC was never much of a writer. She’s a performance artist who does a one-woman Apache dance number. For those who are unfamiliar with the term:
MSock’s interpretation of this style is similar to the scene in Liar Liar in which Jim Carrey beats himself up in the men’s room.
As such, MSock’s act is sui generis and a remarkable achievement, but gets old very fast.
I was thinking this evening about the rants of “she HATES me” etc. and comparing them to the obsessive attacks on alleged “trolls” and “blogwreckers” at DKos and other BBBs. It seems that some people are unable to deal with disagreement of any sort and prefer to cast it as destructive “hatred”. Just like the rightwingers deal with any criticism of the US.
sorry!
Just found Madman and Shadowthief in Spam.
madman is a ways up thread… at 86.
ShadowT is at 107
JFTR: The commentators in that racist MLW diary about evil Koreans preying on helpless Black folk don’t know a damn thing about Koreans. It just so happens that Koreans manage to own so many small business because they pool their financial resources. Aspiring Korean entrepreneurs join an investment club and everybody kicks in some money. One member uses that money to buy a business and then uses the profits to repay the other members; the repaid loan allows at least one and possibly two or even three club members to then go out and start THEIR own businesses…and the cycle continues.
It’s a very ingenious scheme that bypasses the problem small businesses, especially those started by immigrants, have in securing traditional (bank) financing. It’s one that non-Asian minorities, such as Blacks and Latinos, would be well-advised to emulate. It would certainly be a more fruitful strategy than this tired old “Koreans suck the life out of Black communities” racist bollocks.
It would also be nice if somebody on MLW had experience with a culture outside their own. I think Stu Piddy (one of the MLW commentators) is correct when he states that the MLWers are very provincial; they seem to limit their experience to a very narrow world.
Supervixen
Re: MSOC’s writing.
MSOC once compared herself (favourably) to Chomsky, Zinn, and Ehrenreich in the depth and quality of her writing.
I’d say that self-assessment was an exercise in delusion.
MSOC was more correct when she likened herself to the fictional character Howard Beal, the mentally unbalanced news reader in “Network” whose rants attracted–and then repelled–people. The “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” rant feels good once in a good while to purge all of that pentup frustration, but taken as a daily dose, it becomes a bitter pill. I think that may be why MSOC appears to have “burnt out” as a blogger: after the one thousandth “We are FUCKED by this BULLSHIT!” rant-and-rave, it all becomes quite tedious.
The people of this blog introduced me to the writing of Arthur Silber, for which I am grateful: now there’s a chap who can write!
Wow. I feel like I’ve missed a class for 2 weeks, and don’t have a chance of catching up.
So I’m waving hello. Application review for the new position for which I’m applying for starts in 2 days, and I already have a sense of dread because they lowered the educational requirements from a MA to a BA. And I think they are going to give it to someone who has been working in that area part-time, but hasn’t finished her MA yet. I couldn’t even list some of my best department references because the interim director actively and thoroughly hates them, and is a vindictive person–in fact, one of the most vindictive people I ever met.
MCat – well high salt high grease fat food is responsible for a lot.
In principle, yes, but my feeling is that there’s something else going on. Look at Julia Child and all the people who thrived into a ripe old age while eating high-salt high-fat foods. My sense is that there’s something in our food, and/or something lacking, and it’s happened in the last decade or two. I’m especially suspicious of supermarket meats. I can eat a very fatty cut of organic beef and feel a marvelous sense of wellbeing and infusion of energy. But if i eat even a few McDonalds’ fries or goddess forbid, one of their hamburgers, I feel like shit. I feel like energy is actually being removed from my body.
111 SV Great Call re the Apache!
….Iooked around and found a vid that that shows her footwork WRT Orange choreography.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5508130987283500868
Excuse Us, Nancy Pelosi
SV
yes but high grease high salt fast food is NOT good quality beef cooked at home or in a restaurant that slightly handles food.
It is the volume and the process, all of that matters too.
I was very shocked when I worked in the Embarcadero Center out here, the closest thing we have to a mall inside the city with 4 towers of offices rising over the shopping expanse. Anyway – at the mezzanine level of my building, was a McDonalds.
I was very shocked to see all manner of people, across the base pay scale, trooping down there to pick up lunch everyday.
The odor outside that McDonald’s was AWFUL and you could follow it down the office halls when someone brought it up into the law firm.
Worse you knew when they had hauled their daily trash to the basement compactors using the freight elevators. Oh my god.
That is not a fine cut of beef and I love well marbled NY strip, I prefer it to filet… I love butter, Julia managed to teach Americans a few things.
And when food is good, filling and well made, you are satisfied. You can actually not feel hungry until well past when someone who has eaten cheap empty food.
In other news a naked woman with hammer is arrested in Iowa …Hillary?
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070820/NEWS/70820002/1001/NEWS
Stop Voting, Change the Country — Why Your Vote Will Never Matter
Withhold the vote … it is the only way. Strike. Vote only for local people who share your values in local races. Abandon the national races, the national parties.
2005 Incomes, on Average, Still Below 2000 Peak
SV and M-Cat the truth is that most Americans are lab rats for agra-business and the processed food industry. If we survive, then the whole world will eat as we do. The signs aren’t encouraging for us, what with Type II diabetes, falling life expectency and we’re getting shorter (or maybe not increeasing our height as fast as others).
Carl’s Jr. isn’t bad (I can’t eat McD), but you have to be careful and limit yourself to one thing, two if you get a salad. Wendy’s acceptable. A body can probably handle once a week. Doubt that the meat is inferior to most of what’s in the supermarket. The key is to watch out for hidden sugars and fats. There is also something weird about low fat foods – they taste fine but never fill me up.
MCat – agreed, the smell of McD’s is not only an odor but a STENCH. It’s not just the smell of stale fryfat, which is bad enough, but something more like rotting flesh. Deadness.
Yes, that French lady Mireille whatever-her-name-was was right about that, in her book French Women Don’t Get Fat – when people have a lack of delicious, well-prepared food, they’ll satisfy themselves by gorging on quantity. Hence the Triple Cheeseburger, which doesn’t taste any better than a single cheeseburger.
Then again – as Shadowthief will testify, I’m sure – the Brits have eaten vast quantities of horrible shit for decades (e.g., deep-fried Mars bars, and the Scotch pies accompanied by loads of “chips” and several Imperial pints of beer) yet are not reaching the 400-800 lb territory at the same rate as my countrypeople are.
Maybe we don’t drink enough beer!
Ron Paul supporters in Montebello
well I do realise that 60 Minutes popularised, to some degree, the so called French or Mediterranean system about 15 years ago.
Not breaking news.
However in America there are areas with increasing lack of easy access to fresh, properly gown, tree ripened or vine ripened produce, properly fed rendered food stuffs. And more and more for reasons of cost, survival, people are relying on non food – well, trash. Expanses of America where it is clover leaf freeways multiple turn offs to nothingness – and a selection of franchises.
Also not news.
Further, not the rather rote things who claim to be nutritionists today, but more knowledgeable sorts decades ago, said our farm land was empty of nutrition. They were right. We have farmed much of it out. The Imperial Valley here can produce 5 crops a year. Does not mean it should.
Nor do we have a Jose Bove, as the French do, to fight GM foods.
In the end, I suppose but for pockets, the MOnsanto system (copyrigting seeds and removing them availability, banning farmers harvesting their own seeds) will win. ADM, caucuses in Iowa that pass for democracy – for all manner of reasons.
moiv has one of her best up at DKos:
Mcat —
Thanks very much for the link, and for posting that comment by one of my personal heroes (from a very short list). No one wants to listen to the voices of dread experience, such as hers. From another diary I posted nearly two years ago.
Can we just have the general election in March?
Oh, Revisionist, you dreamer, you.
What a blessed relief it would be to have the whole shebang reduced to three months, tops. One more point in favor of public financing — they’d all run out of ad money within a few weeks.
moiv, thanks for posting that second comment…
*******
well that SC recent ruling on free speech and campaigns has sentenced us to long messy ad crowded polemic driven shrieking screawming campaigns.
More than ever…
I don’t see us ever getting free of it. media, corporations and special interest groups from 527s to the ubiquitous PACs all want it.
And the candidates. hell they DESERVE their hair dos and whatever else to be the headlines.
Screw them all.
Paranoid idiocy.
Ya…ha ha. Gee someone from UC Davis also visits my blog regularly. Imagine that. They’re obviously part of the paparazzi cabal who’s been brainwashed by our subversive techniques. Psyops accomplished.
Dorks.
or eat enough marmite on toast!
“deep-fried Mars bars”? Ewww!
132 Whatdya know–HooHooBoobman gets some of his hits other than the half that come from rawle.com ..LOL I hope the proxy servers at HUP hold up ooooo
Looks interesting…
God’s Warriors:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/gods.warriors/
And they had the audacity to talk about the power of AIPAC! Obviously that Christiana Amanpour must be anti-semite. (snort)
hmm catnip
Thanks for the link. I notice from the Froggy Bottom thread (where it is so worrisome that a UC referral comes into Mcat then to BMT, yikes! man the gunners!)…
I see this guy is of interest to martin. According to his comment in that thread.
All i can say is how long has Adame been faking it as a Dem. Don’t miss his issues page. Martin’s comment linked to the “family” issue. Love the code words for underage abortion.
And don’t miss all the chritian blither on the bio page.
Love that a 22 year veteran of the mil does not want any active or ret mil to pay taxes on their mil sal or ret benefits.
My uncle retired as a two star. He spent the next two years in Saudi Arabia (and this was 25 years ago, or more) at a contract of 1 million USD a year. His retirement salary goes up automatically every time the US congress votes itself a raise.
Get real. They should get this tax free?
I am sick of the officer class gravy train in a nation under seige with the grunt class suffering.
What fucking bullshit.
trouble in the new Fatah paradise:
Looks like Abbas is being choked – by Hamas and by the Martyrs Brigade.
And this doesn’t exactly help Israel or Abbas either:
And they were “targeted” for that?
Right. So just kill them. That’ll show ’em.
I really shouldn’t post with html late at nite (obviously).
I see this guy is of interest to martin.
The guy’s writing is atrocious as well, to be a nitpicker.
Another military “logistics” guy just like kos. Maybe that’s the appeal.
New post
LINK
Re: MITM @ #118–
Pelosi thinks she’s helping the Democratic Party by excluding impeachment as an option, but the author of that article is quite correct in stating that Pelosi is helping to disillusion people about the Dems and drive them to despair, apathy, or a third party.
I sometimes wonder, in my most paranoid moments, if Pelosi and Reid are not “Manchurian Candidates” who have been planted in the Democratic Party to destroy it. But then I think of Neville Chamberlain and his well-intentioned appeasement of another would-be world conqueror, and I realise the sad truth: Pelosi and Reid are just hopelessly compromised servants of the ruling class. The only difference between them and Bush is that Bush IS of the ruling class.
well imo Reid is just an elevated hack. Plucked long ago by what are referred to as “business men” in his community of Searchlight NV, for “greater things” shall we say. Off to Georgetown, and a nice job as a cop on the Hill.
Then back to the burgeoning mass that NV was to become. Tool hack minor fixer… and so on.
Pelosi. Well I think power mad does it.
People should look at Reid, Pelosi. Rahm. Shumer. Murtha (take a real look)… and others.
That is the party. Thenks, NO.
#124 Supervixen–
Actually, Brits have now adopted the American fast-food lifestyle and are #2 in the race for fattest industrialised nation in the world (America’s still #1!!!!). I was queuing at a theatre in London and took a moment to notice the young people around me: most of them were rather doughty, and even the teens had “middle aged” bulges. At their age, my mates and I were rail-thin and didn’t fill out until our early or mid-twenties.
Marisacat is right about McDonald’s: it is an abomination that doesn’t deserve to be called “food”. The French will serve you a rich food slathered in creams and butter, but it’s small portions and so rich that it leaves you well satisfied. Eating at McDonald’s is a joyless experience, and I don’t understand why people do it. I’d rather have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich than stick my snout in that trough.
My parents eat a lot of traditional English food, which means loads of pork (sausage, ham, etc.), but it’s getting harder and harder to find real pork that tastes as it ought to. These factory-farmed pigs don’t have a proper taste because they’re full of antibiotics and hormones and are sedentary: a real pig roots and moves about. That’s why my parents took to raising their own pigs and chickens, the old-fashioned way. My Dad also has a few beef cattle. My mother has never cooked with anything but butter, but my parents in their middle 70s are hale and hearty: if I ring them at 6 am their time and ask what they’ve been up to, they’ll say, “Oh, been doing the garden”. They’re active, not sedentary, and do hard labour for 6-8 hours a day in “retirement”.
Our neighbour, Albert, smoked, drank, and ate as he pleased, but was quite healthy because he worked outside every day, rain or shine. In fact, Albert was fine right up until his 88th year, when he fell off the roof of his house while patching shingles.
It’s very typical in the small town where my parents grew up (and still live) to see people live quite well into their late 80s and even early 90s. People don’t eat “fast food”, but they eat well, they get out of doors and get fresh air, and they keep their bodies moving.
All these chemicals in food, including hormones, are making people sick. Young girls are developing sexually at the age of 9 and 10 now because of all the growth hormones in their food!
It’s important to remember two things:
First, the “obesity epidemic” is a recent phenomenon going back no more than 25-30 years, and is largely a result of leading more sedentary lives and the growing expansion of fast food and factory-farmed food laden with chemicals, hormones, and injected with high fructose corn syrup, which is readily converted to fat.
Second, what ails us is easily reversed: the government can just break up the big agribusiness combines and turn the farm lands back to family farmers. If Americans have forgotten their old ways, then bring in a batch of immigrants from Eastern Europe: many Czechs, Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians, et al, still farm the old ways and would be happy to come to the United States and farm these rich lands. Or give the Mexicans and Guatemalans the land they have been harvesting all these years. If the big land owners squawk at the confiscation of their property, deport them to make room for the peasants. I’d rather have a Mexican campesino as my neighbour than some snotty plutocrat.
Fear and greed explain a lot. Pelosi and Reid have much to lose.
That’s the Scots, not the English, who do that. At least they don’t boil the Mars bar inside a wee sheep’s stomach.
PS I keep forgetting to say – I love the pic you chose for this thread, MCat. The imagery and the colors are striking. I remember it from one of your threads a while back.
ST – maybe the English don’t eat deep-fried Mars bars, but they eat some bad stuff. One of my hosts when I was in England made broiled pork chops and then poured the fat from the pan all over the chops. I gather she considered it a kind of sauce. She served green peas with it. it was quite a challenge trying to corral the peas to eat them – they were shooting all over the greasy plate like blobs of quicksilver.
Did you ever see that episode of Yes Minister in which Hacker must defend the honor of the British Sausage – the EC authorities have decided that there isn’t enough meat in it to consider it a true Sausage, so they rename it an Extruded Offal Tube.
One thing I do have to say for English food – they have great Indian restaurants! 😀