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Sunday, June 15th, 2008
| Time |
Event |
| 12:14a |
Exigent circumstances
While its generally recognized that Lenin's Mafia started the civil war - by abolishing the closest thing to a representative assembly - and the Social Revolutionaries had to defend themselves, the first mass repression operations by the Cheka were on the basis of a law-and-order campaign.
Fast forward to today and who are the cops in our movement?
Its no secret they're all either 'recovering' Marxists or confirmed neo-Marxists in their approach. The Plats are our new Bolshevik police force and probably just itching for some exigent circumstances to wipe out us 'Menshevics'. ( Majority) So long as any circumstances exist they represent a clear and present danger to anarchists and anarchism. | | 12:33a |
Lama Rama Ding Dong
"Actually as far as social economy goes, I'm a Marxist," he says, with that characteristic staccato laugh.
"I am more red than the Chinese leaders, who seem to be only concerned with money. In Marxist theory there is a concern with the equal distribution of wealth. So this has a moral principle which capitalist theory doesn't.
"I don't agree with the authoritarian side. Authoritarianism has ruined Marxism."
From the Dalai Lama's point of view, Kevin Rudd pulled off the right balance when he criticised Beijing for its human rights abuses while visiting China, yet remained on good terms with China: "The Australian Government took the right stand. While keeping genuine friendship and good relations with China, it stands firm on matters of principle.
"There is an old Chinese saying that real friends can be very frank. If you just ignore your friend's fault, you are not a good friend."
Jack O'Lantern-head Tim was a good friend of the wealthy and powerful. He was a cocksucking stenographer, and good at his job. But he committed the ultimate sin, and testified against other arselicking flunkies gone bad. Cocksuckers that tried to kill him, but got the religion he loved instead. Accused of enabling mass murder, now he prowls the badlands of Hades. A Gotcha entertainment-journalist hunting Russert shade in hell, a scorched crap hound, a piece of shit on burnt toast. A real friend. | | 1:02a |
Bad faith interventions Lead directly to bad outcomes - and not just in SW Asia AUSTRALIA'S peak doctors' group will drop out of the Northern Territory intervention and has blasted the Federal Government for relying on altruism to prop up the initiative. As relations between the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the Government sank to a new low today, its president Rosanna Capolingua said the group had not put in a bid for a new $10 million contract to recruit doctors for the intervention. The news comes as Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT accused the AMA of profiting by about $150,000 under its current contract with the Federal Government, which expires on June 30. The AMA's Queensland and Western Australian branches recruited GPs and other health professionals to go to the territory for a fee of about $1300 per person. Dr Capolingua said the fees were to cover costs associated with recruitment and the AMA was not profiteering. She said the AMA had not submitted a bid for the new two-year contract with the Federal Government to establish a Remote Area Health Corps for the intervention. The deadline for tender submissions was June 10. "It's too costly and too difficult to work with the Commonwealth," Dr Capolingua said. MORE ON http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23864188-421,00.htmlIts also reported that a Hansonite cop is still working in Qld , while as far as I know, absolutely no efforts been made in the denazification of the police in general or the army. Jackbooted thugs with white supremacist beliefs are on the march up north...and not just in SW Asia. | | 1:48a |
Vociferous Winch
TARA JUNE WINCH'S mouth is caught in a smile, her cheeks worked into neat apostrophes on either side. She has just been selected for one of the most coveted creative mentorships and is about travel to Europe to begin the program.
"You could look at it one way as this competition, this philanthropic game, if you like," the Wollongong author said of the Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative, awarded to her in London overnight.
"You can look at it another way where it's parallel to how culture is passed down - you have a mentor, you have an elder, and you have a young person that is being presented with something true and something sacred."
As part of the program Winch, 24, will be mentored by the Nigerian Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, described by The New York Times as the voice and face of African democracy.
Past mentors include David Hockney and William Forsythe. This year they also include Martin Scorsese and Rebecca Horn.
"It's an absolute honour to be able to stand in awe of someone, to stand so close," Winch said of Soyinka, who chose her from a group of four finalists who stayed with him for a week last month.
"What I hope now, for the next year, is that I become more vociferous. That I speak louder and stronger and that he inspires me to do that however our relationship unfolds."
Winch was named among the Herald's Best Young Australian Novelists last year and has finished a draft of her second novel, which she expects to edit with Soyinka.
She was nominated by Julia Leigh, who won the award in 2002, because of what Leigh described as an instinctive response to the work.
"Writing is a profoundly 'solo' experience, the best work is done alone," Leigh said. "But from my own mentorship with Toni Morrison I can say that it is a comfort and a boon to be able to spend time with a master of the craft."
Winch's win is the second major award for an Australian novelist in as many days. In Stockholm on Wednesday, the Melbourne novelist Sonya Hartnett won the richest prize in youth literature - the $880,000 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, named after the creator of Pippi Longstocking.
Previous winners of the award include Maurice Sendak and Philip Pullman. - SMH | | 2:33a |
When push comes to shove
Ghan is where old empires go to die. The Afghans are fighters! They gave it to the British up the Khyber Pass and beat the Reds black-and-blue. The last empire is doomed - it is written. In May, more US and allied troops were killed by guerrillas in Afghanistan than in Iraq.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Massive Guerrilla attack in Afghanistan
Pushtun guerrillas mounting an insurgency against the Karzai government and against NATO troops in the Pushtun areas of Afghanistan staged a daring prison break on Friday. They set off bombs at a prison in Qandahar, killing 15 prison guards and allowing 1100 inmates to escape, including 400 captured guerrillas. Although the US refers to the guerrillas as 'Taliban' it is not clear that they are seminary students are actually linked to the Taliban movement of the 1990s. Many appear to be disgruntled Pushtun villagers.
The jailbreak spoke eloquently of the weakness and incompetence of the Karzai government, which many observers believe is in the process of collapsing under the weight of its own corruption.
The collapse seems to be accelerating even though the number of foreign troops in the country has grown enormously, to some 30,000 US and 30,000 NATO soldiers. Foreign donors recently pledged $20 bn in aid, though $10 bn of that came from the US and European donors seemed distinctly wary of having their money go into the pockets of the Afghan bureaucrats and those of their extended families.
In May, more US and allied troops were killed by guerrillas in Afghanistan than in Iraq. - I-Comment | | 2:40a |
The nuclear option
When the guests take over the house
Al-Maliki: May ask US Troops to Leave;
Al-Sadr Forms Special Groups to Fight Occupation
First, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that negotiations between Iraq and the Bush administration over a status of forces agreement were at an impasse. He said that the US was asking Iraq to give up too much sovereignty. Earlier this week he had met with Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who warned him against giving away Iraq's sovereignty to the US.
Then on Friday al-Maliki went further:
' "Iraq has another option that it may use," Maliki said during a visit to Amman, Jordan. "The Iraqi government, if it wants, has the right to demand that the U.N. terminate the presence of international forces on Iraqi sovereign soil." - INFORMED COMMENT
Don't let the door hit you on the way out | | 2:45a |
7 days in June
The Bush crime families power is running away like a Hemophiliac with a nosebleed. Bush has seven days to turn things around. I'm suggesting Mr President, there's a military plot to take over the Government of these United States, next Sunday. Have Perino announce the president will speak to the nation about the B3 bomber. The plan itself, called ECOMCON (for "Emergency Communications Control"), entails the seizure of the nation's telephone, radio and television network infrastructure by a secret United States Army combat unit created and controlled by Cheney's conspiracy and based near Fort Bliss, Texas.
A controversial part of Operation Domestic Freedom will be the massive use of Latino mercenaries. These will be paid in Euro's and promised independence similar to Francos use of Africans. The Vatican and the Chinese are also backing this plan in order to protect their investments. | | 3:04a |
The power of one According to Noam one Russian submariner saved the world from a nuclear shooting war during the Cuban missile crisis. Now its Conyers turn... Conyers: Stop the War Crimes by Gordon Prather Members of the House of Representatives have voted to refer the Articles of Impeachment [.pdf] introduced by Dennis Kucinich [D,OH] – requesting that George W. Bush be impeached by the House for specific violations of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States – to the House Judiciary Committee for appropriate action. "Appropriate action" means the Judiciary Committee is to hold hearings on each of the articles, and after due deliberation, decide which of the 35 articles, if any, should be sent to the full House – with or without recommendations – for debate and eventual vote by Members on each count; to impeach or not to impeach. Cynics have noted that even if Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D,MI) managed to schedule and conduct expedited hearings, there would not be enough time to complete the House indictment process, much less conduct the Senate trial this year. True, but there will be time enough for Conyers to hold vitally important nationally and internationally televised hearings on Article VI – which calls for the House to effectively indict Bush for the crime of "invading Iraq in violation of the requirements of HJ Resolution 114 – and on Article VIII – which calls for the House to effectively indict Bush as a war criminal for ‘"invading Iraq, a sovereign nation, in violation of the UN Charter" and U.S. law. Those hearings would amount to Conyer’s Committee essentially playing the role of prosecutors and the whole world acting as their Grand Jury. The simple airing on national and international television of the charges included in Article VI and in Article VIII about the crimes Bush committed in waging a war of aggression against Iraq more than five years ago might – just might – prevent Bush from launching another war of aggression, this time against Iran, before leaving office. Here are excerpts from Article VI of Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment – Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of Joint Resolution 114 – as supplied to the Judiciary Committee and now made a part of their permanent record for historians to ponder. "In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States…exceeded his Constitutional authority to wage war by invading Iraq in 2003 without meeting the requirements of HJRes 114, the "Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002"… "Section 3 of HJRes 114 states: (b) PRESIDENTIAL DETERMINATION.—In connection with the exercise of the authority granted in subsection (a) to use force the President shall, prior to such exercise or as soon thereafter as may be feasible, … make available to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate his determination that -- reliance by the United States on further diplomatic or other peaceful means alone either (A) will not adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq or (B) is not likely to lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; "On March 18, 2003, President George Bush sent a letter to Congress stating that he had made that determination. "[However] President Bush knew that statements [made in that determination] were false, as evidenced by information provided with Articles I, II, III, IV, V and VI. "Section 3c of HJRes 114 [further] states that "Nothing in this joint resolution supersedes any requirement of the War Powers Resolution … which states: Nothing [in this WPR] is intended to alter the constitutional authority of the Congress or of the President, or the provision of existing treaties’. "The United Nations Charter was an existing treaty and …the invasion of Iraq violated that treaty. "[Hence] President Bush knowingly failed to meet the [necessity] requirements of HJRes 114 and violated the War Powers Resolution and, thereby, invaded Iraq without the authority of Congress. "In all of these actions and decisions, President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and Commander in Chief, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. "Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office." Here are excerpts from Article VIII – Invading Iraq, a Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter and International Criminal Law – as supplied to the Judiciary Committee and now made a part of the permanent record for historians to ponder. "In his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed," violated United States law by invading the sovereign country of Iraq in violation of the United Nations Charter. "Article VI of the United States Constitution, states 'This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land;' "The UN Charter, which entered into force following ratification by the United States in 1945, requires Security Council approval for the use of force except for self-defense against an armed attack … All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations. Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. "There was no armed attack upon the United States by Iraq. "The Security Council did not vote to approve the use of force against Iraq. "On September 16, 2004 Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, speaking of the invasion, said, 'I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN charter. From our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal.' "[Hence] President George W. Bush, in ordering an attack upon Iraq, a sovereign nation, is in direct violation of United States Code, Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 118, Section 2441, governing the offense of war crimes. "In the course of invading and occupying Iraq, the President, as Commander in Chief, has taken responsibility for the targeting of civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, use of antipersonnel weapons including cluster bombs in densely settled urban areas, the use of white phosphorous as a weapon, depleted uranium weapons, and the use of a new version of napalm found in Mark 77 firebombs. "Under the direction of President George Bush the United States has engaged in collective punishment of Iraqi civilian populations, including but not limited to blocking roads, cutting electricity and water, destroying fuel stations, planting bombs in farm fields, demolishing houses, and plowing over orchards. "Under the principle of 'command responsibility,' i.e., that a de jure command can be civilian as well as military, and can apply to the policy command of heads of state, said command brings President George Bush within the reach of international criminal law under the Additional Protocol I of June 8, 1977 to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, and Relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, Article 86 (2). "The United States is a state signatory to Additional Protocol I, on December 12, 1977. "Furthermore, Article 85 (3) of said Protocol I defines as a grave breach making a civilian population or individual civilians the object of attacks. "This offense, together with the principle of command responsibility, places President George Bush's conduct under the reach of the same law and principles described as the basis for war crimes prosecution at Nuremburg, under Article 6 of the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunals: including crimes against peace, violations of the laws and customs of war and crimes against humanity, similarly codified in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Articles 5 through 8. "In all of these actions and decisions, President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and Commander in Chief, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. "Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office." So, Chairman Conyers, it’s up to you. By simply airing on national and international television the charges included in Article VI and in Article VIII you might – you just might – prevent Bush (or his successor) from launching another war of aggression, this time against Iran. Of course, if you’ve got better things to do, nevermind. FROM http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=12989 | | 4:04a |
Boot Hill
Darwin award for Best Individual Contribution to Workplace Health & Safety:
Captain Sharryn Batt, Department of Defence, Special Air Service Regiment (SASR), Army (Comcare) won Best Individual Contribution to Workplace Health and Safety for her education program covering the personal risk management of lead. - FROM
www.ascc.gov.au/ascc/NewsEvents/Newsletters/
Duck and cover | | 4:34a |
Cuban pants-missile crisis
On Cuba libre
While it is necessary to defend Cuba against any imperialist attacks on Guantanamo Bay and break the US imposed sanctions on sugar for obesity and cigars for cancer, it's not the same as claiming that Cuba whose economy is based on sex-worker exchange value and the bureaucratic planning is very inefficient and leads to a great waste of labor. China is a Mercador Marxist police state.
Cuba is a poor imitation and part-island of Dr Mabuse and the political policy of the regime that opposed working class revolutions, for example in Czechoslovakia, by supporting a popular front government, has only led to further Hoxa style isolation.
Only the working class can build a libertarian revolution which is a transitional stage to peaceful anarchy and the Cuban revolution was not even a working class revolution but a bourgeois revolution, based on the a guerrilla movement, whose based of support was the planet-of-the-apes peasantry.
In 1959 the Cuban Communist party controlled the working class and this party opposed Castro led revolution. In his first visit to the US following the revolution, Castro denounced the Communist party as a party striving to imposed a dictatorial regime. The Castrationist movement merged later on with the Communist party to control the working class testicles exploded by the Marxist bureaucratic vise.
The fact that the capitalist economy is now mostly nationalized does not show that Cuba is a workers state.
Israel's economy for example until some 20 -30 years ago was mostly nationalized and many people believed for this reason at least in the first years of the existence of Israeli state and in particular because of the Kismybutzim that it was a socialist state. Needless to say it was nonsense. Israel is and was all the time a capitalist state of a very particular colonialist kind similar to the Rhodesian and South Africa under the Apartheid-settler colonialist society.
The problems we see now in Cuba moving in the direction of prostitution is not a change of a state, nor relationship of production, but a change of the form of ownership under the same state. All ready Engel's made the point that a nationalized whore house will not be strictly Marxist but also have to cater for 'Mosleyists'.
The sex-working class in Cuba need independent democratic trade unions , workers control of the nationalized brothel enterprises and most of all a lumpen working class revolutionary party to overthrow this corrupt Marxist capitalist state and replace it by a sex-workers state based on sex-workers soviets that its highest executive committee is the revolutionary government.
Most of all the sex-working class in Cuba needs to participate in the world libertarian-socialist revolution and help smash the ideological imperialist elites control of the world economy. | | 5:25a |
From little acorns...
Laurie Oakes glowers
POMMY politicians are a strange lot. Take London's new Tory Mayor, Boris Johnson.
His bright idea to counter Britain's epidemic of knife crime is to make disadvantaged kids learn ancient Greek and Latin.
Or Andy Burnham, the Labour minister responsible for clamping down on teenage binge drinking. As a student at Cambridge he was a leading member of the Mornie Onion Society - a drinking club with an initiation ceremony that involved chug-a-lugging a yard of ale with an onion floating on top while wearing only a towel.
Eccentricity and politics go hand in hand in the UK. A London newspaper columnist the other day recalled a story about a former prime minister, the late Edward Heath.
A bus carrying Heath, staffers and journalists had a minor bingle with another vehicle. There were no injuries but a middle-aged woman thrown to the floor was obviously shocked.
"Heath called for brandy, impressing the rest of the bus with his decisiveness and compassion," the columnist wrote. "When the brandy arrived, he drank it himself."
Now the British have another PM they can laugh at. (If they didn't laugh at him, they'd have to cry.) Gordon Brown, who took over from Tony Blair, is widely known as "Mr Bean".
Like the Rowan Atkinson character, Brown can do nothing right. In just 12 months he has become a joke.
When the "Mr Bean" nickname was first applied by a Liberal Democrat MP, Vincent Cable, the House of Commons erupted in laughter. Even Labour MPs joined in, and some members of Brown's Cabinet privately congratulated Cable on the jibe.
The Tories put out posters: "Mr Bean Goes to Westminster" and "Mr Bean's Parliament". It has stuck and Brown will never shake it off. Which makes watching British politics a rewarding pastime.
But, while I have enjoyed the entertainment during a visit to the UK, it has also become clear that there are some serious lessons in this country for Australian politicians.
For example, in the current debate over why it has all gone so wrong so quickly for Brown, there are echoes of the concern in Australia over Kevin Rudd's 24/7 work ethic and his control freak reputation.
Andrew Rawnsley, who has just produced a BBC TV documentary to mark the first anniversary of Brown's move to No. 10 Downing Street, wrote in The Observer last Sunday: "His response to adversity was not to take a pause for breath and concentrate on the bigger picture, but to slog even harder and work even longer hours. He made the strain on himself worse by trying to micro-manage everything."
The Australian PM would do well to take note.
He should also look at, and learn from, the trouble Brown has got himself into over petrol, climate change and so-called "green" taxes.
Tory Opposition Leader David Cameron had been using climate change to win brownie points from voters.
He got headlines for cycling from his home in West London to Westminster to reduce car emissions, and was only slightly embarrassed when it later emerged that a chauffeur-driven limousine followed behind, carrying his briefing papers and shoes.
Like Rudd, Cameron knows the value of a bit of cheap political symbolism.
Cameron's Tories also pushed for tax measures to encourage the use of more fuel efficient cars. The Liberals in Australia are considering the same line, as an alternative to including liquid fuel in an emissions trading scheme.
But in the last month Cameron has changed his tune, arguing that - with petrol prices soaring and families feeling the pinch of rising grocery prices - now is not the time to clobber the motorist.
The Tories have decided that the voters once preoccupied with green issues have moved on. They are doing the same.
As a result, when Brown introduced increases in excise duty on high polluting cars - not just new vehicles, but those registered since 2001 - Cameron took up the cudgels against the tax hike.
Brown had made it easy for him by designing the excise change so that it could be easily portrayed as a revenue grab rather than a measure to protect the environment.
It was the same mistake Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan made with their Budget excise increase on alcopops. The claim that it was primarily an anti-binge-drinking measure aimed at teens failed to convince.
British Treasury projections showed that, while the higher excise duty will see billions of pounds pour into government coffers, carbon dioxide emissions from motoring will hardly change at all.
The Tories branded it a "stealth tax". The Greenpeace director said: "It's the kind of measure that gives green taxes a bad name because it does not change behaviour."
And, because older vehicles are included, low-income families would be hardest hit.
Cameron humiliated Brown in Parliament. The Labour Government's fortunes took another dive. Mr Bean had struck again.
Brendan Nelson has shown, with his proposal for a 5c a litre cut in petrol excise, that he is prepared to be every bit as populist as Cameron.
Nelson, too, thinks voters have moved on from their pre-occupation with green issues as economic conditions tighten and prices at the bowser rise.
So Rudd needs to avoid Brown's mistakes.
Clearly the Australian Government, like all governments, should be taking action through the tax system to improve energy efficiency and reduce the use of fossil fuels.
Rudd will not be able to avoid the issue when Cabinet tackles the hard decisions on an emissions trading scheme later this year.
Either petrol will be included, which will hit motorists, or the Government will hit them in a different way through measures to promote greater fuel-efficiency.
The lesson from the past few weeks in Britain is that, if so-called "green taxes" are to beaccepted as genuinely aimed at protecting the environment, they need to be revenue neutral.
Otherwise the "stealth tax" line of attack will bite in Australia as it is biting here.
At the height of the row over Brown's ill-conceived scheme, a spokesman for the Tories set out the approach Cameron would adopt in government.
He said: "We will increase the proportion of taxation raised through green taxes by rebalancing taxation away from taxing 'good' things, like jobs and investment, towards taxing 'bad' things,like pollution and carbon emissions."
In other words, when "green" taxes are imposed, other taxes will be reduced. This is the only way to counter opposition opportunism and voter skepticism.
Nelson and the Liberals will no doubt take inspiration from Cameron. Rudd should avoid making Mr Bean his role model. END
It seems beyond obvious to me that the low-hanging-fruit here is now rock-solid and cast-iron undertakings to shrink the overall size and power of the state...any state. The EU has been told this three times now so they're making Homer Simpson look like Albert Einstein. If governments don't do this then we'll do it for them, I promise you. From little dead pools great rivers flow. | | 6:08a |
Hosting Catholic youth
First consult yr bible
"Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make the vile, and will set thee as gazingstock." (Nahum 3:5-6)
"Look, I am against you!- declares Yahweh Saboath- I shall lift your skirts as high as your face and show your nakedness to the nations, your shame to the kingdoms. I shall pelt you with filth." (Nahum 3:6, The New Jerusalem Bible)
"And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man, in their sight. And the LORD said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them." (Ezekiel 4:12-13)
"But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?" (II Kings 18:27)
"The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed." (Deuteronomy 28:27)
"But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, [even] Ashdod and the coasts thereof" (I Samuel 5:6)
"And it was [so], that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts." (I Samuel 5:9)
"If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it." (Malachi 2:2-3)
Wherefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kirharesh. (Isaiah 16:11)
"He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD. A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 23:1-2)
"And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son...." (II Kings 6:28-29)
"And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also." (Genesis 38:7-10)
It's interesting to speculate how it developed that in two of the most anti-feminist institutions, the church and the law court, the men are wearing the dresses." -Flo Kennedy | | 7:12a |
State of play
There are many natural scientists, and especially Anarchs, who continue to reject the notion that the academic disciplines concerned with social and cultural Marxism can have anything to contribute, except perhaps peripherally, to their research. Still less are they receptive to the idea that the very foundations of their world-view must be revised or rebuilt in the light of any criticism from Marxists.
Rather, they cling to the dream of reason imposed by the long post-Enlightenment rennaisance over the Western intellectual outlook, which can be summarized briefly as follows: that there exists a 'Newtonian' enough political economic space, whose properties are independent of any individual human being but not of humanity as a whole; that these properties are encoded in eternal 'enough-for-now' social laws; and that human beings can obtain reliable, albeit imperfect and tentative, knowledge of these laws of political-economy by hewing to the objective procedures and epistemological strictures prescribed by the (so-called) scientific socialist method.
Now deep conceptual shifts within twentieth-century Marxism have undermined their social-Darwinist phenomenology; Gramscian revisionist studies in the history and philosophy of authoritarian socialism have cast further doubt on the credibility of scientific-socialism as practised by Marxist-Leninists since 1918; and, most recently, feminist and poststructuralist critiques have demystified the substantive content of mainstream Marxist pseudo-scientific practice, revealing the ideology of domination concealed behind the façade of dialectics.
It has thus become increasingly apparent that ideological reality, no less than imperialist reality, is at bottom a social and linguistic construct of the bourgeoisie; that Marxist 'scientific' knowledge, far from being objective, reflects and encodes the dominant ideologies and power relations of the same bourgeois culture that produced it; that the truth claims of Marxist dogma are inherently theory-laden and self-referential; and consequently, that the discourse of the Marxist community, for all its undeniable critical value on occasion, cannot assert a privileged epistemological status with respect to counter-hegemonic narratives emanating from all the dissident or marginalized communities who constitute a concrete majority.
These themes can be traced, despite some differences of emphasis, in Stirner's analysis of the cultural milk co-op fabric that produced deconstruction; in Proudhons' discussion of oppositional discourses in post-commune social science; in Bakunin and Fanelli's exegeses of federation encoding in fluid mechanical sign language from the Jura to Spain; and in Emma Goldman's comprehensive critique of the gender ideology underlying the Marxist sciences in general and Quack Freudianism in particular.
Here my aim is to carry these deep analyses one step farther, by taking account of recent developments in anti-work praxis: the emerging branch of primitivism in which Bookchin's post-scarcity and Blacks general relativity are at once synthesized and superseded. In post-left anarchism, as we shall see, the dead-time manifold ceases to exist as an objective physical reality; everyday life becomes relational and contextual; and the foundational conceptual categories of prior workerist leftism -- among them, work existence itself -- become deproblematized and relativized away by play. This conceptual revolution, I will argue, has profound implications for the content of a future post-leftist and liberatory science.
My approach will be as follows: First I will review very briefly some of the philosophical and ideological issues raised by the internet and by classical general anarchist theory. Next I will sketch the outlines of the emerging theory of post-left anarchy, and discuss some of the conceptual issues it raises. Finally, I will comment on the cultural and political implications of these scientific developments. It should be emphasized that this article is of necessity tentative and preliminary; I do not pretend to answer all of the questions that I raise. My aim is, rather, to draw the attention of readers to these important developments in libertarian socialist science, and to sketch as best I can their philosophical and political implications. I have endeavored here to keep RAT Institute finance mathematics to a bare minimum; but I have taken care to provide references where interested readers can find all requisite details.
DEVELOPING... | | 3:44p |
OBAMA - LIEBERMAN TRANSCRIPT!
BO - Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing; 'twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed. Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving. Your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.
Even now, now, very now, an old black ram is tupping your white ewe.
O thou invisible spirit of whine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee devil!
Villain, be sure thou prove my love a whore, be sure of it; give me the ocular proof;
Or, by the worth of mine eternal soul, thou hadst been better have been born a dog
than answer my wak'd wrath.
JL - In sooth I know not why I am so sad: it wearies me; you say it wearies you. Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time. I hold the world but as the world, Senator,- a stage, where every man must play a part; and mine a sad one.
Fish not, with this melancholy bait, for this fool gudgeon, this opinion. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions; I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than to be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. Still have I borne it with an ancient shrug, for sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, and spit upon my Jewish gaberdine, and all for use of that which is mine own. Ships are but boards, sailors but men: there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and land-thieves. I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? | | 3:56p |
Friends of Hugo Chaves Berlusconi attacks Gypsies. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a pseudo-fascist Hugo Chavez has saluted as his 'friend', is now on a hunt for Gypsies: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/15/italy.raceChavez: "I am going to visit President Chirac, I have lunch with Prime Minister de Villepin, I talk with Prime Minister Zapatero and Prime Minister Berlusconi. We are friends." http://vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200510251056Don't let the state-capitalist nationalist 'Left' fool a new generation with their messianic Party states. Nemo Etomer | | 4:20p |
Pounds of flesh
Chicago rules. Lets roll - you touch me...I touch you back
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said. “Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl."
Obama, with ample stocks of policy ammunition, will be able to rain a hell of fire on McCain.
We got yr back jack.
If they put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of them in the morgue. Lets RUMBLE! | | 4:40p |
Sheridan sheets
Greg Sheridan really is a tiresome little hack sometimes.
Doesn't he know there is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come?
Greg, it seems, would rather quickly cash his filthy Murdoch lucre and channel Stalin who once facetiously inquired as to how many divisions the Pope had, than actually commit journalism. A gopher-faced FOX news administration spokes-creature is the cheapest kind of political hack, a greedy little bum making a squalid living by throwing his hat on the ground and juggling two lemons for suckers. | | 5:36p |
Amory mon amour - make love, not war
SAN FRANCISCO — Cybernet Expo 2008 ended Thursday with an inspiring address by John Stagliano of Evil Angel and a memorable visit to Kink.com’s armory home.
Stagliano, of course, was recently indicted in federal court on obscenity charges, and Kink.com is the BDSM producer that made a bold statement in 2006 by purchasing the huge San Francisco armory, attracting national attention and protest in the process.
Ending the show with Stagliano and Kink underscored the strong points of the event, which is trying to reinvent itself during a difficult economic time for the industry, and paved the way for a viable future for a show that has crossed the country twice in the past three years.
Stagliano spoke not only about his personal and professional history in the industry but also his current situation running one of the most well-known companies in the business. He spoke openly about the downturn in business, and was refreshingly candid saying that for the first time in his career he doesn’t quite know how to counter the economic and market forces currently impacting the industry.
"We did very well up until a few years ago, and now we're trying to do the Internet," he said. "But the skills are complicated; we're doing our best."
As far as the obscenity case against him, Stagliano expressed some concern but added that he looks forward to defending content that he certainly does not believe is obscene, and poignantly expressed his intention to remain a positive role model for the industry.
“I hope to represent all of you correctly,” he said, to a hushed room.
Following the Stagliano address, which ran half an hour, show attendees scattered to their rooms to prepare for the Kink.com party. Shuttles ran throughout the evening from the hotel to the armory, where they entered stealthily though a large metal door that raised slowly as the bus approached, opening into a massive hangar-sized room that Kink plans to turn into a community center.
In addition to an open bar and a huge spread of food, courtesy of CoreMetrics, special tours provided Cybernet attendees a look at the impressive sets downstairs used to shoot content for the various Kink.com websites. Visitors were also treated to naked wresting and a live sex show that lasted a few hours, featuring a very submissive Stephanie Sin, Dom Claire Adams, John Strong and two amateurs.
The shoot was part of a new website, conceived by director Princess Donna around the theme of public humiliation. The idea is to stage creative set pieces where public happenings are also taking place, such as dinner or cocktail parties, or Thursday night’s industry party. The audience is on camera and definitely part of the show.
This evening, Sin was subjected to a variety of public and physical forms of humiliation by Adams and the audience, including being strung up by ropes and fucked mercilessly by Strong and the other performers. Sin also got to jerk off a well-endowed midget in a suit, who came in a prodigious burst on the stage, after which Sin was forced to get down on all fours and clean the mess up. She obeyed dutifully at all times.
Consummate professionals who knew exactly what they were doing, the performers provided the webmaster crowd with an impressive performance that succinctly showcased the Kink-com oeuvre.
Also on the last day, two models from SoloSlutCash.com won the finals of the XXX Iron Man Beer Pong Tournament. Their names were not available, but YNOT VP Jay Kopita said the final matches were of a very high quality, verging on the professional.
"It was awesome," he said. "The girls were so good." - X-Biz | | 6:40p |
Lola Montez WIKI - '...In 1846, she arrived in Munich, where she was discovered by, and became the mistress of, Ludwig I of Bavaria. She soon began to use her influence on the king and this, coupled with her arrogant manner and outbursts of temper, made her unpopular with the local population, particularly after documents showing that she was hoping to become a naturalized Bavarian citizen and be elevated to the nobility were made public. Despite the opposition, Ludwig made her Countess of Landsfeld on his next birthday, August 25, 1847. The entertaining rumour that at the time they met Ludwig had asked her in public if her bosom was real, to which her response was to tear off enough of her garments and prove it[3][4] is entirely unfounded, and the story only first appeared many decades after Lola's death. It seems likely that Ludwig's relationship with her contributed greatly to the fall from grace of the previously popular king. In 1848 under pressure from a growing revolutionary movement Ludwig abdicated, and Lola fled Bavaria, her career as a power behind the throne at an end. After a sojourn in Switzerland, where she waited in vain for Ludwig to join her, she made one brief excursion to France and then removed to London in late 1848. There she met and quickly married George Trafford Heald, a young army cornet (cavalry officer) with a recent inheritance. But the terms of Lola's divorce from Thomas James did not permit of either spouse's remarriage while the other was living, and the beleaguered newlyweds were forced to flee the country to escape a bigamy action brought by Heald's scandalized maiden aunt. Mr. and Mrs. Heald resided for a time in France and in Spain, but within two years the tempestuous relationship was in tatters, and in 1851 Lola set off to make a new start in the United States, where she was surprisingly successful at first in rehabilitating her image...' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_Montez | | 6:54p |
Portal to America
The lower east -side...picked up a copy of Albert Frieds, ' The rise and fall of the Jewish gangster in America', today. ( Sear Amazon) Looks like a good read...least till ' Tough Jews' hits the remainder bins.
' You see studying human nature I came to the conclusion people prefer to be righteous at home and a so-called sinner someplace else. As for myself I stick to this saying: When you lose yr money you lose nothing; when you lose yr character you lose everything.' - Meyer Lansky | | 11:45p |
Nuclear strike advisory The usual suspects are reporting heightened prospects of a nuclear device being detonated at a major US city center. Terrorist chatter here http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/14/AR2008061402032_pf.htmland The Corner - Iran plans blah, blah, blah. For the cost of a city , say San Francisco, thats packed with 'hostiles' anyway, Team America gain a new 9-11. This time fascism is not just legislated - its dictated and fully instituted down to curfews and concentration camps. Believe me folks I was not expecting this. It appears unrelated to the ongoing 7 days plan. The threat is verifiable - the threat is real. |
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