Taliban Training Monkey Terrorists?

 

Analysis by Jennifer Viegas

Monkeys have been trained by the Taliban in Afghanistan to use machine guns and trench mortars against U.S. military forces, reports People's Daily Online.

According to this Chinese media story, monkeys can now operate the Kalashnikov, Bren light machine gun, and have the ability to identify and attack U.S. soldiers based on the appearance of their uniforms.

The below photo has been widely distributed over the Internet.

The report indicates the Taliban was inspired by none other than the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, which it claims used peanuts and bananas to train "monkey soldiers" in Vietnam. This information was, in turn, attributed to a "British media" report from last month. 

The story ends by saying, "A senior U.S. military source confirmed the existence of the Taliban monkey soldiers, military experts call armed monkeys 'monkey terrorists.'"

So we have a story built on rumor, with no named sources, quoting a media source of unknown origin. Personally, I think a clever monkey could be behind the whole thing.

Blogger Jeff Schogol, who calls himself "The Rumor Doctor" investigated the monkey terrorist claims.

NATO spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale told Schogol, "We have absolutely nothing that leads us to believe that this tale could be even remotely based in reality."

Christopher Coe, director of the Harlow Center for Biological Psychology, also is quoted as saying, "While you could train a monkey to shoot a gun, I certainly wouldn't want to be anywhere in the neighborhood after that. I rather doubt you could trust its aim," he said. "In addition, the noise would certainly scare most animals and make them stop."

Coe added that he'd heard rumors before about monkeys wielding grenades when India and Pakistan were at war, but no one has yet been able to prove that actually happened.

CNN put together a full video report on the supposed Taliban monkeys. You can watch it here.

http://news.discovery.com/animals/taliban-training-monkey-terrorists.html

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Dog Guilty in Shooting

by Steve Dale

Sadly, shootings occur too often in Chicago...but never a shooting like this. In Wellington, New Zealand shootings of any kind are infrequent.

On Saturday, July 10 -A dog accidentally stepped on the trigger of the .22 rifle and ended up firing at his 40-year-old owner.

The injured man was among a group of four who had just killed and butchered a domestic pig. They were climbing into a SUV to leave when the gun went off.

The man was flown to Whangarei Hospital , where doctors removed the bullet from his left buttocks.

Senior Constable Ian Anderson (is this what the lead player in Jethro Tull is doing these days?) said the man was lucky not to have been more seriously injured.

No charges will be filed - for there are no laws in New Zealand which deter dogs from using firearms.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/steve-dale-pet-world/2010/07/dog-guilty-in-shooting.html

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The plan

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General Petraeus summarizes

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When at first you don’t succeed, lie, lie again

Political Irony

Humor and Hypocrisy from the World of Politics

 

by Iron Knee

Further evidence that when reality doesn't match their political needs, Republicans will just ignore reality and lie. The tax cuts for the wealthy that Bush and the Republicans got passed in 2001 and 2003 were completely insane, marking the first time in our nation's history when taxes were cut during war time. But now those tax cuts are about to expire, and the Republicans want more tax cuts. But there is just one problem — Republicans are currently attacking Obama and the Democrats over the deficit, even filibustering extending unemployment benefits. So how can they block unemployment benefits (because they will raise the deficit), while simultaneously wanting to hand out more money to the rich (which will dramatically increase the deficit)? Easy, just lie.

Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) started it by saying on Fox News that he wanted to extend Bush's tax cuts, but that they didn't have to be paid for, even though he insists that unemployment benefits be paid for by cutting other government programs. But the real whopper came from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who claimed:

There's no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue. They increased revenue, because of the vibrancy of these tax cuts in the economy.

McConnell is trotting out the old myth that cutting taxes for the wealthy raises revenue, because it stimulates the economy. That may be his opinion, but when he said that there is no evidence that Bush's tax cuts diminished revenue, he is blatantly lying.

http://politicalirony.com/2010/07/14/when-at-first-you-dont-succeed-lie-lie-again

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David Vitter: People Who Live in Rubber Rooms Shouldn’t Throw Stones

DIAPERMAN – Vitter needs to look at himself before buying into rumor-mongers like the Birthers. That whole diaper fetish thing may come back to haunt him.

There are only a handful of people in Congress that can compare to Rep. Michele Bachman (R-WTFistan) for sheer, willful igrnorance and buffoonery, but right at the top of the short list has to be Sen. David Vitter (R-Asshatylvania).

Vitter answered a question from an Orly Taserer over the weekend about Barack Obama's, "refusal to produce a valid birth certificate." Rather than just saying "it's already been settled" and rolling his eyes like any sane person, Vitter provided an answer as slick as Lousiana's best BP crude. The answer simultaneously proved he knows the correct answer, is a-skeered of some his own inbred constituents, and has mastered the age-old technique of all charlatans – flinging guano at someone else so as not to get any on their own shoes.

Vitter never said anything about Obama and the state of Hawaii producing birth records so many times that Hawaii has started turning down requests and judges have batted away frivilous lawsuits like Vitter swats bats in his own belfrey.

No, he said he supports "conservative legal organizations and others who would bring that to court. I think that is the valid and most possibly effective grounds to do it." In other words, "I ain't sayin' it's true, but it's a mighty interestin' question."

http://omnipotentpoobah.com/2010/07/13/david-vitter-people-who-live-in-rubber-rooms-shouldnt-throw-stones-2/

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Tree Hotel - Sweden

 

An exclusive first look at 'Treehotel', a lofty new hotel concept in the woods of northern Sweden which aims to elevate the simple treehouse into a world-class destination. The motto of the Tree Hotel: "Feel Free In A Tree".

 

http://www.flixxy.com/tree-hotel-sweden.htm

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Senators: Did BP help secure Lockerbie bomber’s freedom?

By Agence France-Presse

US senators urged US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday to investigate whether oil giant BP pressed Britain to free the Lockerbie bomber to protect a lucrative deal with Libya.

"Evidence in the Deepwater Horizon disaster seems to suggest that BP would put profit ahead of people," said Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey.

"The question we now have to answer is, was this corporation willing to trade justice in the murder of 270 innocent people for oil profits?" the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Clinton.

The lawmakers pointed to a September 2009 report in Britain's Times newspaper -- denied by BP -- that the oil giant lobbied British Justice Secretary Jack Straw for the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi to safeguard a 2007 oil exploration deal valued at 900 million dollars.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0713/senators-bp-involved-helping-secure-lockerbie-bombers-freedom/

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Tribes Unite to Fight BP

 

A delegation of indigenous leaders from Ecuador visited Louisiana to share what they learned in a decades-long battle with Texaco.

 

by Sue Sturgis

A delegation of indigenous and community leaders from Ecuador visited Louisiana this week at the invitation of the United Houma Nation, a tribe in coastal Lafourche and Terrebone parishes that has been hit hard by the BP oil catastrophe. The Ecuadorians have come to share lessons they've learned dealing with another oil disaster: U.S. oil companies' dumping of toxic waste in the Amazon rainforest.

Arriving in Louisiana, the delegates prepare to speak of their experiences with their own oil crisis.

To view the video documenting the first day of their visit to the Gulf, see the link below, or click here.

Photo by Amazon Watch.

From 1964 until it pulled out in 1992, Texaco—which merged with Chevron a decade ago—dumped some 17 million gallons of crude oil and 20 billion gallons of drilling waste water into waterways and pits in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The contamination has seeped into water supplies, where it's killed fish and is blamed for health problems among local residents, who suffer from elevated rates of cancers, reproductive disorders, and respiratory ailments.

At a town hall meeting that took place July 1, in Dulac, La., the delegation discussed a report about their experiences back home. Titled "The Lasting Stain of Oil: Cautionary Tales and Lessons From the Amazon," it offers advice for holding polluters accountable and planning for long-term recovery after severe environmental contamination.

"Although BP says that it plans to take full responsibility for the damages caused by its spill and restore the Gulf Coast to the way it was before, the experience in Ecuador shows that oil companies do the right thing only when compelled to do so by a combination of political, financial, media, and community pressure," says the report, which was prepared by the Asamblea de Afectados por Texaco (Assembly of Those Affected by Texaco), along with Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/tribes-unite-to-fight-bp

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Feds: Columbia college-spam operation made $4.1 million

 

Two brothers are accused of running a huge spam operation in Columbia, targeting about 8 million college students with ads for tooth whiteners, iPods and other goods. Yesterday, a codefendant, 57-year-old Paul Zucker of New Jersey, pleaded guilty to giving spam software and providing proxy servers so Amir and Osmaan Shah could do business.

Here's a PDF of the indictment. It's a little long, 59 pages, but it's kind of interesting to see how they could carry this out. The Shahs are accused of illegally acquiring email addresses for all of those college students and -- for a time -- using Mizzou's own system to send the spam.

If you were wondering who replies to those stupid messages, I'm sad to report that someone does. The feds allege the Shahs made more than $4.1 million.

Read more: http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_scene/2010/07/feds-columbia-spam-operation-made-41-million.html#ixzz0tm1AKX8x

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FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful

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Larry Hagman of 'Dallas' fame becomes the new face of SolarWorld

by Richard Read

Actor Larry Hagman was all about petroleum when he played oil magnate J.R. Ewing in television's longrunning "Dallas" series.

These days, he's pitching solar energy with a new slogan -- "Shine, baby, shine," -- soon to air on a television near you.

Hagman is the face of a new ad campaign for SolarWorld, the German company making solar cells in Hillsboro. He admits the slogan is a jab at Sarah Palin's "Drill, baby, drill," refrain during the 2008 presidential campaign.

"'Shine, baby, shine' is an inexhaustible source of energy," said Hagman, who plans to address the Intersolar trade show today in San Francisco. "When affordable oil gives out, we're in real trouble -- I mean the collapse of civilization, within 15 to 20 years."

 

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/07/larry_hagman_of_dallas_fame_be.html

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Message from Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash

Dear Nuke Free friends,

This is nuclear power's summer of desperation. It has just a few short weeks to grab billions in taxpayer funding for new nuclear plants.

Last time we wrote, a $9 billion package was being slipped into an "emergency" war appropriations bill. Amidst a wave of your letters, the vote did not happen.
The issue is now in the Senate, and has been greatly complicated by our efforts.

Now the industry is demanding $25 billion for unspecified projects. Again, your voice can make a difference.

Please join us (Bonnie, Jackson, Graham and the NukeFree team) in writing and calling the members of the House, and especially in calling members of the House Appropriations Committee, per the below alert from NIRS, and ask them to oppose this latest industry boondoggle. A key vote may come up as soon as Thursday afternoon.

Your voice HAS made a difference. But we need to keep shouting. Please contact Congress ASAP.

Thank you!!!

~ Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash

 

HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE TO MEET THURSDAY, JULY 15. WILL CONSIDER SPENDING BILL THAT INCLUDES $25 BILLION OF TAXPAYER MONEY FOR NEW REACTOR CONSTRUCTION LOANS. ACT NOW! TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE ONE MORE TIME: NO TAXPAYER SUBSIDIES FOR NUCLEAR POWER!

Dear Friends,

We have to act again, and we have to act now.

A House Appropriations Subcommittee plans to hold another meeting to try to pass an energy budget for Fiscal Year 2011 on Thursday (July 15) afternoon.

As you may remember, the subcommittee had scheduled a meeting in June but cancelled it when some pro-nuclear Democrats (especially Chet Edwards (Tex.) and Chaka Fattah (Penn.) complained that the bill did not include the Obama Administration's request for $36 Billion to loan to wealthy nuclear utilities to build new nuclear reactors.

Since then, the House has passed $9 billion in new nuclear loans through the emergency supplemental funding bill (the Senate has not yet taken up that bill). Not satisfied with that, the pro-nuclear faction has succeeded in getting the rest--$25 Billion--on the energy appropriations bill that will be considered on Thursday.

Now we have to get this money removed from the bill. And your actions can make the difference.

Please send a message to your Representative now here. And please help us spread the word to your networks, friends and relatives: there isn't much time. Here is the link to the action page: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=3179

And if your Representative is on the list below, he/she is on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy. Please call his/her office today with the simple message: Vote against all loans for new nuclear reactors. You can reach every member of Congress at 202-224-3121.

We don't need more radioactive waste, more radiation leaks, and higher electric bills--all the things more nuclear power would bring.

We had hoped to begin moving our attention to the Senate this week, which soon will be taking up energy/climate bills--with potentially disastrous nuclear provisions.

But first we have to stop $25 billion in new nuclear loans. So we all need to act, and act fast. Please send your letter here; if your Representative is listed below, please call him/her today.

And, last and probably least, if you can support this ongoing (and seemingly never-ending) campaign, please make a tax-deductible contribution here. Your support enables us to do this essential work.

Thanks for all you do,

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org

House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water

Democrats

• Chair: Peter J. Visclosky (IN)
• Chet Edwards (TX)
• Ed Pastor (AZ)
• Marion Berry (AR)
• Chaka Fattah (PA)
• Steve Israel (NY)
• John W. Olver (MA)
• Lincoln Davis (TN)
• John T. Salazar (CO)
• Patrick Murphy (PA)
• David R. Obey (WI), Ex Officio

Republicans

• Ranking Member: Rodney P. Frelinghuysen (NJ)
• Zach Wamp (TN)
• Michael K. Simpson (ID)
• Dennis R. Rehberg (MT)
• Ken Calvert (CA)
• Rodney Alexander (LA)
• Jerry Lewis (CA), Ex Officio

http://nukefreeorg.createsend3.com/T/ViewEmail/r/C6D370A4D52786B1/7AD7666066DE00122540EF23F30FEDED

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Don't Ask Where I Got This

Pages from an unreleased first draft of Dignity & Respect: The U.S. Army Training Guide On Homosexual Conduct Policy.

 

 

http://jeffcrook.blogspot.com/2010/07/dont-ask-where-i-got-this.html

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Even U.S. News Suggests Law School Tuition Is Getting Ridiculous

By Elie Mystal

Over the past few days we've seen an outpouring of support for the proposition that people should go to law school. It's clear that there are many students in law school or heading to law school who believe that they've made the right decision (and it is the right decision, for some people). Moreover, we've learned that a lot of people seem to think that ATL — or, more specifically, me — have some kind of vested interest in crushing dreams and making law students feel bad.

Duly noted. I probably should stick my vuvuzela up my butt and let you guys enjoy the excitement of starting out on a new career.

But as Gandalf once said: "I'm not trying to rob you, I'm trying to help you."

So fine, don't take my word for it. Maybe you'll listen to your friend, your God, the U.S. News & World Report…

From a U.S. News article yesterday:

Demand for a legal education remains high, despite odds stacking against it.

Tuition has risen for the 2010-2011 school year at law schools across the country, even as industry jobs disappear by the month. The most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows 3,900 jobs were cut from the legal sector in June alone, capping off a year of 22,200 job losses…

With demand and cost climbing higher and job prospects diminishing, what's happening to the value of a legal education? The answer is questionable, at least for the J.D. credential itself, says Bill Henderson, law professor at the Indiana University—Bloomington's Maurer School of Law.

You know, when U.S. News — a mainstream magazine that makes money off of people's fascination with law schools — is pushing out articles questioning the value proposition of going to law school, you've got to stand up and take notice.

The information is out there, people. But prospective law students simply refuse to listen:

California-based law school admissions consultant Ann Levine says that dimming job prospects and increasingly high tuition have yet to deter her nationwide client pool from seeking elite placements.

"I had thought people would be more concerned about scholarships and willing to let go of ranking a little bit; I was wrong," says Levine. "Still, people want to generally go to the best law school they can get into, regardless of costs."…

While "everyone talks about the cost of tuition," Levine says, "it's actually not going to impact demand greatly because I think people see it as somewhat inevitable and beyond their control."

And it's not going to change. Administrators running these law schools have no incentive to control tuition costs:

In Arizona, where tuition increased at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and University of Arizona Law School's James E. Rogers College of Law, outgoing president of the Arizona Board of Regents Ernest Calderón said graduate schools shoulder more of the budget burden.

"Certainly for the professions that tend to have a significant financial reward on the back end, we believe that students can pay a higher rate — whatever the market will allow for professional and graduate school," Calderón said. "Then, if they have debt, they can retire that."

Employment statistics are not taken into serious consideration, Calderón adds, because his board is not supplied with raw data.

Employment statistics are not taken into serious consideration. The people who control law school tuition openly admit that it has become totally detached from what graduating attorneys can actually expect to earn.

http://abovethelaw.com/2010/07/even-u-s-news-suggests-law-school-tuition-is-getting-ridiculous/

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Young 'America's Next Great Cartoonist' winner honed craft at Va. college paper

Olivia Walch, 20, is the winner of America's Next Great Cartoonist Contest. (Family photo)

 

By Michael Cavna

Olivia Walch ordinarily would have seen the announcement for a cartoon contest. As an avid comics-and-crosswords reader, she misses little in the middle of the Style section. Except that in May, while The Post was announcing its contest for "America's Next Great Cartoonist," Walch happened to be sitting obliviously at Oxford, temple-deep in Waugh.

Walch, a rising senior at the College of William and Mary, was completing a semester abroad. The math and biophysics double major recalls being in Oxford University's Evelyn Waugh Room, reading the great writer's works and sitting beneath an imposing painting of Waugh himself when comic inspiration struck. Her dad, back in Fairfax Station, had told her about the contest. "You should do it!" he urged.

The prize was $1,000 and the winner's strip would run for a month in Style and on the Comic Riffs blog, as well as be considered for syndication. Walch, who turns 21 this weekend, had been seriously drawing cartoons for only three years -- topical cartoons for William and Mary's campus paper, the Flat Hat -- but she decided she'd give the contest a shot.

Some 500 other aspiring cartoonists did, too. By reader poll, Walch bested the lot of 'em.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/15/AR2010071502123.html

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Harvey Pekar, We Will Miss You

By Doug

Harvey Pekar, who died on Monday, was unique in underground comics. In a sea of artists like Robert Crumb who wrote and drew their own stuff, Harvey was a writer. Just a writer who wrote about… well, himself. Crumb illustrated his "American Splendor" comic along with many other artists who were happy to bring this man's amazing words to life. Paul Giamatti portrayed Harvey in a film entitled American Splendor and he hit the nail on the head. But the thing that I will always remember Harvey for is his appearances on David Letterman.

Here are some of those:

And finally, Paul Giamatti as Harvey Pekar:

http://media.gunaxin.com/harvey-pekar-we-will-miss-you/64934

 

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Non sequitur...

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The only war for which Republicans won't go into debt

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ASCAP's attack on Creative Commons

 

 

by Lawrence Lessig

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) has launched a campaign to raise money from its members to hire lobbyists to protect them against the dangers of "Copyleft." Groups such as Creative Commons, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are "mobilizing," ASCAP describes in a letter to its members, "to promote 'Copyleft' in order to undermine our 'Copyright.'" "[O]ur opponents are influencing Congress against the interests of music creators," ASCAP warns. Indeed, as the letter ominously predicts, this is ASCAP's "biggest challenge ever." (Historians of BMI might be a bit surprised about that claim in particular.)

As a founding board member of two of those three organizations, and former board member of the third, I guess I should be proud that a 96 year old organization would be so terrified of our work. And I would be -- if there were anything in this fundraising pitch that was actually true.

But there is not. Creative Commons, Public Knowledge and EFF are not aiming to "undermine" copyright; they are not spreading the word that "music should be free"; and there is certainly not yet any rally within Congress in favor of any of the issues that these groups do push.

I know Creative Commons best, so let me address ASCAP's charges as they apply to it.

Creative Commons is a nonprofit that provides copyright licenses pro bono to artists and creators so that they can offer their creative work with the freedom they intend it to carry. (Think not "All Rights Reserved" but "Some Rights Reserved.") Using these licenses, a musician might allow his music to be used for noncommercial purposes (by kids making a video, for example, or for sharing among friends), so long as attribution to the artist is kept. Or an academic might permit her work to be shared for whatever purpose, again, so long as attribution is maintained. Or a collaborative project such as a wiki might guarantee that the collective work of the thousands who have built the wiki remains free for everyone forever. Hundreds of millions of digital objects -- from music to video to photographs to architectural designs to scientific journals to teachers lesson plans to books and to blogs -- have been licensed in this way, and by an extraordinarily diverse range of creators or rights holders -- including Nine Inch Nails, Beastie Boys, Youssou N'Dour, Curt Smith, David Byrne, Radiohead, Jonathan Coulton, Kristin Hersh, and Snoop Dogg, as well as Wikipedia and the White House.

These licenses are, obviously, copyright licenses. They depend upon a firm and reliable system of copyright for them to work. Thus CC could have no interest in "undermining" the very system the licenses depend upon -- copyright. Indeed, to the contrary, CC only aims to strengthen the objectives of copyright, by giving the creators a simpler way to exercise their rights.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-lessig/ascaps-attack-on-creative_b_641965.html

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Where is the anti-capitalist ideology?

The claimed economic and social crisis means circumstances are ripe for a bold ideological response, yet it hasn't emerged

by Antony Lerman

Pro-communist protests such as this one at the Sorbonne University in 1968 were once common, but where is today's movement for change? Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Just as the heatwave ended and the sun went in, the government announced that "the deepest recession in Britain's post-war history was even more severe than previously feared". For some people this news may trigger further rounds of intense discussion about what the economic statistics mean and what the prospects are for a sustained recovery.

Very important, I'm sure. But for most of us, I guess – especially if, like me, your grasp of economic theory struggles to get beyond the 1960s Tory prime minister Lord Home's reliance on matchsticks – our thoughts turn to the human cost, the devastating impact on people's lives, whether for us personally, for already disadvantaged groups, the country as a whole, developing nations, or the more than 2 billion people already living on less than $2 per day.

Predictions about the consequences of the deficit-reduction measures proposed are already dire. And for many millions, the debilitating impact of financial retrenchment is a reality today. Commentators of all political stripes are falling over each other to tell us that state social programmes will collapse. Unemployment will rise massively. Millions will be impoverished. Health services will be curtailed, pensions reduced, infrastructure projects cut, educational opportunities diminished. Worldwide living standards will deteriorate. And things won't get better any time soon.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/13/anti-capitalist-ideology-economic-crisis

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'60s anti-war rocker Tuli Kupferberg dies in NYC

By FRANK ELTMAN

Tuli Kupferberg, a founding member of the underground rock group and staple of 1960s anti-war protests, the Fugs, has died.

Kupferberg, who had suffered strokes in the past year, died Monday in a Manhattan hospital, said his friend and bandmate Ed Sanders. He was 86.

"I think he will be remembered as a unique American songwriter," Sanders told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home in Woodstock, N.Y. "Tuli had an uncanny ability to shape nuanced lyrics."

Sanders, who is writing a new memoir about the Fugs, said he visited his friend in the hospital on Thursday. Although Kupferberg was clearly ailing, he leaned into his ear and sang him the lyrics to a Fugs classic, "Morning, Morning," Sanders said.

"And then I said, `goodbye,'" he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100713/ap_en_mu/us_obit_kupferberg

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'A Chart That Screams, "Extend Unemployment Benefits!" '

 

 

You'll have to excuse me for simply stealing Daniel Indiviglio's headline for this chart, but it's really the right way to introduce it:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/a_chart_that_screams_extend_un.html

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Holocaust survivors dance to I Will Survive at Auschwitz

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Catholicism, Homosexuality, Hate Speech, and … Incompetence.

Kenneth Howell, an adjunct professor of religion at the University of Illinois, has been let go after sending his students an email about Catholic moral theories of homosexuality that one student described as "hate speech."

Debate on the firing has proceeded along two lines of dispute — firstly whether Howell's perceived bigotry places him outside the protections of academic freedom, and secondly whether the concept of academic freedom can even be properly applied to an adjunct faculty member with a semester-by-semester contract.

But I don't want to talk about either of those issues today.

What I want to talk about is this defense of Howell's email, posted at National Review's "Phi Beta Cons" blog:

The university is making a conscious decision to enforce ignorance on its students. The university would rather see its students remain ignorant of one of the world's most common moral theories than have their delicate feelings damaged. This is not education; it's indoctrination in its purest form.

The charge that UI is "making a conscious decision to enforce ignorance" proceeds from the assumption that Howell is competent to teach moral philosophy.

At least, I hope it's an assumption. Because by the evidence of the email, Howell is utterly ignorant of the subject he was hired to teach:

• He badly bungles his discussion of utilitarianism, as when he asserts that any utilitarian would necessarily regard children and animals as capable of consenting to sex.

• Despite cautioning students against drawing conclusions about human sexual morality unless they "have done extensive research into homosexuality," he bases his own conclusions on a conversation with "a physician"  who told him that gay men "have been known to engage in certain types of actions for which their bodies are not fitted."

• He contends that "what lies behind the idea of sex change operations" is the belief "that we can use our bodies sexually in whatever ways we choose without regard to their actual structure and meaning."

This isn't serious philosophical or theological instruction. It's not a scholarly discussion of human sexuality. It's what we in the academy refer to as "talking out of your ass."

http://studentactivism.net/2010/07/12/catholicism-incompetence/

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Exclusive Intifada Interview with Greta Berlin - Free Gaza Movement

By Elias F. Harb

Elias Harb interviews one of the leading voices in the movement to bring freedom to the people of Gaza.

Greta Berlin (France/US, English) has been an advocate for justice for the Palestinians since the early 60s. She is the mother of two Palestinian/American children whose father was born and raised in Safad, Palestine and is a 1948 refugee. She has an MFA in Theatre and a bachelor's in English and, when she's not working with the Palestinians, has spent the past 32 years teaching engineers and scientists how to design and deliver presentations. In 2003, she volunteered with the ISM, working in several villages in the occupied West bank as well as manning their media office, then returned to work again in 2003, 05 and 07.

She is one of the founders of the Free Gaza Movement and was on board the FREE GAZA, the first boat with internationals to reach this besieged strip of the Mediterranean in 41 years. She then helped run three more successful voyages to Gaza between October 22 and December 23, 2008 working on the land crew and media in Cyprus, sending more than 50 human rights workers to Gaza on board the DIGNITY. She is available to speak in Europe or the U.S.

In the pre-dawn hours of Monday, May 31, showing a terrifying disregard for human life, Israeli naval forces surrounded and boarded ships sailing to bring humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip. On the largest ship, the Mavi Marmara, Israeli commandos opened fire on civilian passengers, killing at least 9 passengers and wounding dozens more. The final death toll is yet to be determined.

Elias Harb interviews Greta Berlin Co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement

Elias Harb:Can you tell us what motivated you to the Palestinian Cause and the Free Gaza Movement and when was the movement founded?

Greta Berlin: I married a 1948 Palestinian refugee from Safad and have two Palestinian/American children. I've been part of justice for Palestine since 1967. Once you go and see what has happened to the Palestinians (I call them the final victims of WWII, because they have paid the price for what Europe did to the Jews), it is impossible to leave. I am no longer married, my children are grown, I am still working for justice.

The movement was founded in September/October 2006. A group of us were trying to figure out how to bring to the attention of the world what was happening in Gaza. One of the people working for justice for Palestine, Michael Shaik, emailed us and said, "OK. I have been thinking about this for a long time but am aware that I'm better at ideas than practicalities, so I'll outline what I'd envisaged and let the rest of you do the sanity check. My plan was this: - Charter a big boat to sail from New York. Make it clear that its purpose is to "Break the Siege of Gaza" (that can be the slogan of the campaign). It is very important that the boat have a big send off with speeches by important people that will get it as much publicity as possible." That kernel of an idea is what started the movement (of course, in a much smaller set of boats).

EH: How many times have the Free Gaza movement tried to break the Israeli siege and have you succeeded in getting any boasts into Gaza so far?

GB: The Freedom Flotilla was our 9^th voyage. We successfully entered Gaza five times. This attempt was the fourth time we were stopped. If you look on our website under http://www.freegaza.org/en/boat-trips/passenger-lists, you will find the stories and passengers there.

EH: Israel declares that it had the legal right to confront the flotilla from reaching Gaza. Do you think there is any justification in that stance??

GB: Israel has no right to stop us under international law UNLESS it wants to admit that it occupies Gaza. Since Israel says it no longer occupies Gaza and Gaza is free, they have no right to stop us. In addition, the blockade is collective punishment against a civilian population that is WAY out of line. International law, Amnesty International and the International Red Cross have all said the same thing. Israel's blockade is illegal. The illegal entity in the neighborhood is Israel, not us.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Exclusive-Intifada-Intervi-by-Elias-F-Harb-100714-234.html

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Boom Times for Millionaires

Wealth accumulation among the richest North Americans (excluding Mexico) grew in 2009, with millionaires in the U.S. and Canada enjoying a 15% increase in their total worth. Collectively, these millionaires possessed $4.6 trillion, according to a report from the Boston Consulting Group.

http://www.allgov.com/Where_is_the_Money_Going/ViewNews/Boom_Times_for_Millionaires_100712

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A Fine Line Between Reporter and Publicist.

Last night, The Washington Post posted a very important story:

Gingrich says he's considering presidential run

In other news, I, too, am considering a presidential run.

Newt Gingrich's Walter Mitty campaign fantasies are, well, just that. The former Speaker pretends to "consider" tossing his hat in the ring whenever he's got a book to sell. These trial balloons are, as a wise man once wrote, "as perennial as the grass."

In its defense, The Post, which ran an AP story, isn't the only offender. Outlets of all stripes get taken in.

 

http://instaputz.blogspot.com/2010/07/fine-line-between-reporter-and.html

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The Root of Economic Fragility and Political Anger

Missing from almost all discussion of America's dizzying rate of unemployment is the brute fact that hourly wages of people with jobs have been dropping, adjusted for inflation. Average weekly earnings rose a bit this spring only because the typical worker put in more hours, but June's decline in average hours pushed weekly paychecks down at an annualized rate of 4.5 percent.

In other words, Americans are keeping their jobs or finding new ones only by accepting lower wages.

Meanwhile, a much smaller group of Americans' earnings are back in the stratosphere: Wall Street traders and executives, hedge-fund and private-equity fund managers, and top corporate executives. As hiring has picked up on the Street, fat salaries are reappearing. Richard Stein, president of Global Sage, an executive search firm, tells the New York Times corporate clients have offered compensation packages of more than $1 million annually to a dozen candidates in just the last few weeks.

We're back to the same ominous trend as before the Great Recession: a larger and larger share of total income going to the very top while the vast middle class continues to lose ground.

And as long as this trend continues, we can't get out of the shadow of the Great Recession.

http://robertreich.org/post/805148061/the-root-of-economic-fragility-and-political-anger

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Just a crutch

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Sen. Kyl: $678-billion tax break for rich should not be offset

By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer

Sen. Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, believes that any extension to unemployment benefits "ought to be paid for." But when it comes to the $678-billion cost of extending the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy, the senator says no offsetting is necessary.

In an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace Sunday, Kyl argued that Congress and the Obama administration should extend the tax cuts enacted by President George W. Bush during his first term.

Extending the entire package of tax cuts would cost the US $2.2 trillion over the next 10 years. The Obama administration has argued in favor of allowing to expire at least the part of the tax cuts that applies to people earning over $250,000 a year. That portion is estimated to cost $678 billion over 10 years.

"Tell me, how are you going to pay that $678 billion to keep those Bush tax cuts for the wealthy?" Wallace asked Kyl.

"You should never raise taxes in order to cut taxes," Kyl said.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0711/kyl-you-offset-tax-cuts/

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