"News that's not known, or not known enough."
Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion.
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"News that's not known, or not known enough." Helen & Harry Highwater's cranky weblog of news and opinion. |
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Suspicious by Madeline Zane Monday, August 4, 2008 PERMANENT LINK US military detains Reuters photographer
Yeah, sure, America's actions with respect to journalists violate every tenet of international human rights. On the other hand, this guy's a CAMERAMAN who claims that he's freelanced for National Public RADIO? If that's not suspicious, I don't know what is. Madeline Zane  Corporations as doomsday devices by Pavel C. Monday, August 4, 2008 PERMANENT LINK The article I sent in recommending breaking up the companies that are deemed "too big to fail" reminds me of a story from one of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books -- I can't remember which one, perhaps it was So Long And Thanks For All The Fish... Anyway, there was once a very warlike race inhabiting a far-off planet who asked their computer to devise a Doomsday Device. The computer was the smartest computer in the universe, at that time, and it invented the device. But it secretly put a flaw into the device so that it would fail to go off. The Doomsday Device would instantaneously connect the cores of every star in the universe using a hyperspace bypass, thus bringing about the total destruction of the universe. The race of warlike beings discovered that the device was flawed during one of their many regional wars when they grew frustrated at their inability to dislodge an enemy army from a patch of ground. They pushed the button and the device didn't explode. They were very angry at the computer, who explained that he had analyzed every possible outcome and decided that there was no conceivable result which would be worse as a result of failing to explode the Doomsday Device than would result from using it. These mega-corporations are like that. Leaving them lying around waiting for some retards to blow us all up is just stupid. There is no conceivable outcome of breaking up these corporations which would be worse than keeping them as they are. Pavel C. Organize and resist by Herb Ruhs, MD Monday, August 4, 2008 PERMANENT LINK Oppression has only one basic strategy -- divide and conquer. The basic defense therefore is organize and resist. The unorganized will be enslaved as long as the forces of oppression are triumphant. My money's on the latter, especially as the problems have continued, leaving us off-line all Saturday evening and most of Sunday.I haven't noted any problems using Safari. Sometimes I blame my ISP wrongly I suppose, but I do frequent speed checks when I am having problems with downloads and if I have been having problems it seems it is always my ISP. Of all the humiliating aspects of life in today's USA perhaps the most exasperating is our fourth world (it is becoming insulting to compare ourselves to third world countries who are doing better on so many fronts) internet service issues. We need to change the slogan "America first" to "America next to last, if we try harder" (as soon as improvements are in place that is) Herb Ruhs, MD Whites only for McCain by Janice Lester Monday, August 4, 2008 PERMANENT LINK Racial profiling much? McCain campaign has only black reporter present removed from rally Janice Lester The anthrax embarrassment by JR Mooneyham Monday, August 4, 2008 PERMANENT LINK Libertarians' march blacked out by media By ignoring virtually all peaceful protests like this one, the media is encouraging NON-peaceful protests, as the only way such protesters can get out their message. But of course, in the event of NON-peaceful protests, the government gets to use force, the media gets to portray the protesters as dangerous extremists (and get higher TV ratings/more advertising bucks to boot), and both government and media get to keep the status quo all to themselves... I'm pretty sure you can find quite similar media blackouts in the history of the USSR... Note the FBI and US government in general looked awfully bad in the multi-year anthrax investigation, especially after they had to pony up penalty money to their long-time star suspect recently. Only a week or two later, there's a 'suicide' and US officials act like the case is all wrapped up... The anthrax embarrassment isn't the only one for the FBI, either. There's actually a slew of others out there, which bring into serious question whether the FBI is a legitimate professional organization anymore... JR Mooneyham (www.jrmooneyham.com/) I rather doubt there's been anything that could credibly be called an investigation into the anthrax killings, and I doubt there ever will be, unless Obama (a) wins the Presidency and (b) turns out to have a little more spine than he appears to have now. Helen & Harry
Quirky coincidences by SirJ Monday, August 4, 2008 PERMANENT LINK Re Patsy by Kathy Fisher Wikipedia has a nice photo of Colin Powell telling his tall tale of Iraq's anthrax hoard to the U.N. I had forgotten how the anthrax mailings had been pushed as yet another bogus reason to invade Iraq. It's curious how Richard Cohen relates he was warned to take Cipro even before the anthrax mailings began. Must be one of those quirky coincidences in life, not a sign of inside knowledge of bad things to come. After all, this was a lone assassin we're talking about here, and not a government conspiracy. My IE version7 is now opening Unknown News website pages just fine. Sorry to bother you with my previous message shown below. SirJ No need for sorry. I definitely want to know when such problems occur. Helen & Harry
Washington D.C. indicted (all of them!) by Mr. Chuckles Monday, August 4, 2008 PERMANENT LINK This essay has the "right stuff". It lays blame on the Democrats as well as the Republicans, the Fed, and Wall Street (plus bankers, brokers, and the rest). And it provides actual solutions which make sense, like breaking up the financial institutions deemed "too big to fail", and formally nationalizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the shareholders would be toasty brown now if not for the federal guarantees and money). Another key point in the article is that it shows how fully and righteously the wealthy and powerful have already been bailed out (Steve Liesman of CNBC estimated $1.4 trillion even before the new bail-out bill). I think that if the new president and Congress don't do what Mr. Greider is recommending, then they are laying the foundation for more catastrophic problems in the future. The hole we are in now is so deep that to continue digging is insane, even by Washington D.C. standards. Some people in power now need to be reamed out and made examples of so that this can never happen again. Economic free fall? by William Greider
Mr. Chuckles |
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