tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33746052011-12-14T20:04:31.888-07:00Beyond GreedHuman need, not corporate greed ... without justice, there can be no peace. That's the meme stringing these items together.Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.comBlogger3341100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-73622354929683096932008-04-02T21:09:00.000-06:002010-10-10T11:52:08.705-06:00This is a test of Writely and so that's how it goes. Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-58300140977680569982007-12-11T00:17:00.001-07:002011-06-03T21:34:37.819-06:00Affect and Quality of Consciousness*reprise*
hfx_ben: If folk act as stunned as I say they do .... This post to LiveJournal, citing "'Thirst for knowledge' may be opium craving", reads in part:Maybe I get upset. Maybe too upset, and maybe too often. And maybe angry, and then depressed. But at least I'm thinking. So what? *D'uh!* is the appropriate answer to that pseuco-clever trash.
[...]
But hey, go ahead ... coast ... the Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-48440247110367510742007-10-20T13:34:00.000-06:002007-10-20T13:39:36.265-06:00Too simple to understand (a thought in the moment)It comes down to this: not only what we do, but how we do it. Ultimately, "why" becomes the point. (Which is another way of saying that in the end our actual motive manifests ... it comes to be ... it creates karma.)
The number of "errancy modes" is beyond estimation. Either our motive is some variation of "for the good of all sentient beings" or it's in error. Necessarily. Inexorably. Like Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-88544570968900334062007-03-10T21:36:00.000-07:002007-03-10T21:36:14.231-07:00hfx_ben: Actual mysticism - 1 of a continuing serieshfx_ben: Actual mysticism - 1 of a continuing series
I finally had my say:
Okay fine, I'll say it: the 1 thing I've been witholding from everyone, everywhere, everybody, all this time, is just that I've been training to be a shaman since I had my vision at age 5.That's why the unconventional life-style and personal history ... from having a scholarship to Banff School of Fine Arts to dropping Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-32361545365138455932007-02-21T09:41:00.000-07:002007-02-21T09:41:57.058-07:00"Compliance in the face of threats" - CBC Radio | The CurrentIn the February 21 episode of CBC Radio's "The Current" there was an item about harassment of opinions that were anything other than hard-line, the persecution of whatever might be painted as "liberal".
One spokesperson who in effect defended thugism by minimizing it and rationalizing it had a lot to say about "respect" and the need for "speaking softly".
It's the classic bully-boy tactic.
"If Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-13140600395242568032007-02-11T11:46:00.000-07:002006-10-19T10:19:43.860-06:00Millennium Development Goals Symposium - TranscriptMillennium Development Goals Symposium - Transcript - Panel Discussion on Eliminating Poverty - Welcome by Lisa Anderson; Webcasts and Transcripts; The U.N. Millennium Project: Practical Action Plan to Combat Poverty at Columbia's "Earth Institute"; Columbia's "Center for Environmental Research and Conservation" (CERC)
UN Millenium Project - Project Publications
Briefing and Discussion with Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1158081354675352082006-09-12T11:15:00.000-06:002006-09-12T11:15:54.793-06:00In case you think "Matrix" is nothing but a movie concept:Google Groups: alt.gathering.rainbow
"another MySpace.com trend: the social networking site now lets users make "friends" with fictional characters supplied by marketing companies pushing movies and new TV shows and who pay for a chance to form relationships with the nearly 45.7 million unique visitors MySpace logged last month.
-- "The real counterculture: Music can make a difference"
A friend Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1157904520875808472006-09-10T10:08:00.000-06:002006-09-10T14:23:07.596-06:00Science as Wisdom: The New Story as a Way ForwardScience as Wisdom: The New Story as a Way Forward: from EarthLight Library
This article came to mind when I was telling a friend how I saw tantra operating through vajrayana practice:"The point in vajrayana is to drop the ?what? puritanism and get to what moderns might call "the dark side". What motivates us is what motivates us; what we actually think and dream is what we actually think and Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1157659759578859962006-09-07T14:09:00.000-06:002006-09-07T14:09:19.693-06:00YES! Magazine - supporting you in creating a more just, sustainable, and compassionate worldYES! Magazine - supporting you in creating a more just, sustainable, and compassionate world
David Korten; "The Great Turning; From Empire to Earth Community" - greatturning.org; the ''GreatTurning blog at Yes!
Tom Atlee's research on Interdependence Days & Declarations
David Suzuki Foundation - davidsuzuki.org
The Earth Charter - earthcharter.org
YES! Issue #38, 5000 Years of Empire...Ready Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1155450448242218642006-08-13T00:27:00.000-06:002006-08-13T17:43:21.516-06:00Why the World is ready for the Semantic Web - O'Reilly XML BlogWhy the World is ready for the Semantic Web - O'Reilly XML Blog: "we’re still a couple of years away from fully embracing and adopting Semantic Web"Those who serve psychopaths will argue that technology is neutral. My instincts and my predispositions move me to align with Heidegger on the question. That this doesn't serve people as an answer sorta proves my point.Contrary to market mechanisms, Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1155257725695083942006-08-10T18:55:00.000-06:002006-08-10T19:07:30.223-06:00Eat The Press | Harry Shearer: The Rhetorical vs. the Empirical | The Huffington PostI posted my first rant comment on HuffingtonPost in response to Harry Shearer's "The Rhetorical vs. the Empirical":"It is the simplicity of the plot that yada-yada bla-bla-blah" ... CNN is having a field day!K, sorry, but it's not a happy day.In short: post-tantra I inevitably revert to what I extracted from Sun Tsu, "Let each and every strive in their own way to be a sage general."Minutes after Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1155147234428259672006-08-09T12:13:00.000-06:002006-08-09T12:58:02.340-06:00Passive agression of the finest kindFlashing back to the fairly recent past I visited the ill-starred Indymedia site that so blighted my activity in Nova Scotia. (It was started by a small tight clique, quite contrary to Indymedia process; ours had all the problems of a pluralistic collective. With a bit of preferential help by a couple of friends in the elite group at the heart of the network that clique was up and running while Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1154663038676014462006-08-03T21:43:00.000-06:002006-08-03T22:04:55.980-06:00''What I just sent to CNN''NB: as I post this CNN's headlines presents a severely skewed version of Hezbollah's latest statement ... spreading the lie, stiffling the gesture.Originally hfx_ben at LiveJournalConfirmed: Blitzer blew off a significant Hezbollah gesture. (Hey, Wolf, where were you during the Cuban Missile Crisis?!)Not only did Nazrallah /not/ say "If Israel continues to hit Beirut we'll hit Tel Aviv", not onlyBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1154662496260458832006-08-03T21:34:00.000-06:002006-08-03T22:10:20.290-06:00''The truly evil ones only show themselves from time to time ...''*as usual, blogger.com trashes the title to this item because I posted another more recently. "Amercian inventiveness", yaaaa right*
And here's Rice with her god-damned "status quo ante" ... how often will she manage to say it tonight? 6 times? 8? more? Pathetically twisted puppy.
''The truly evil ones only show themselves from time to time ...''
... and even then only for a moment.Originally Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1153241317052096242006-07-18T10:48:00.000-06:002006-07-18T10:58:02.330-06:00hfx_ben: Maybe I owe folk a bit of an explanationX-posted to Togo's LiveJournalIn a previous post I had written:"Guess what: once you're addicted to dishonesty you're just another junkie ... just another whore.That's the best you think you deserve? Sure ... it's like that ... the fuckers have messed with your brains.My experiences didn't make me a loser. I may not have succeeded in my work but I'm still hard at it.What are you doing?Are you Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1153068473343713712006-07-16T10:47:00.000-06:002006-07-16T10:59:57.273-06:00The Centre for Restorative JusticeListening to David Cayley on CBC radio brought something of my own past to mind. A moment on the web brought me to The Centre for Restorative Justice at Simon Fraser University, where I so much wanted to do media studies in 1978. (I was trying to find a way of staying in Vancouver to study shakuhachi.)
Caley spoke about Illich's view of development work and how it was paradoxically Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1153060081077222882006-07-16T08:28:00.000-06:002006-07-16T10:02:40.656-06:00Far too busy for our own good, as usual.*a fine aggregation from TruthLaidBear: "Crisis in the Middle East: Local Bloggers Report"*X-posted Togo's LJ - hfx_ben: ''Who wishes for peace?''Too busy, too busy, far far too busy. Must buy, must consume, must maintain persona, must flirt, must schmooze ... like junkies scuttling around in search of a fix the "nice people" and "good citizens" of the wealthy nations lead their bug-like Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1152726459990090002006-07-12T11:39:00.000-06:002006-07-13T03:53:19.776-06:00Sabres, so often rattled, too often leave their marks.*update at bottom*Israel has rolled into Lebanon. Six years after it "unilaterally" withdrew its forces, Israel has launched raids into southern Lebanon.see "Israel has rolled into Lebanon. Here we go again?" - HfxBen"How many realize that Hezbollah owes its existence to Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the area six years ago? Now they kidnap Israeli soldiers with a cross-border attack?! It Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1151345351274113832006-06-26T12:08:00.000-06:002006-06-26T12:09:11.286-06:00It's always ''hard to say''.In his "Say what?" Jon Udell responds to a comment about his writing style. (He self-deprecatingly called it a "dope slap" ... Jon's the sorta fellow who knows the benefits arise from proper user of a clue stick or clue by 4.) BTW "Say what?" is an allusion to Ami Hendrickson's blog, ''Muse Ink''.
Later in the piece Jon describes a system users Eureka moment ... "we bought the wrong kind of Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1151183878555385472006-06-24T15:17:00.000-06:002006-06-24T15:18:01.816-06:00Affect and Quality of Consciousnesshfx_ben: If folk act as stunned as I say they do .... This post to LiveJournal, citing "'Thirst for knowledge' may be opium craving", reads in part:Maybe I get upset. Maybe too upset, and maybe too often. And maybe angry, and then depressed. But at least I'm thinking. So what? *D'uh!* is the appropriate answer to that pseuco-clever trash.
[...]
But hey, go ahead ... coast ... the planet will die Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1150775462915774112006-06-19T21:51:00.000-06:002007-09-16T17:13:30.606-06:00Can we deliberate interactively?In the first post to the blog for the new "Democratic Strategist", Scott Winship (the Managing Editor) included this invitation:
"you (dear reader) can help make this a better blog by passing along links to articles or studies that I can deconstruct. I know that sounds like I'm pushing my work off on you, but hey"My reply was this:
Passing along links and articles you can deconstruct? Ok!
FWIW Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1072886824973481732003-12-31T09:07:00.000-07:002004-04-11T12:39:15.950-06:00A rough draft of my core idea (see also material on "dispositional" and "punitive"):
Solipsistic, individuals seek out the company of those who a) they can dominate, or b) who do not threaten the integrity of their own denials (ideally, who actually corroborate them, conspiratorially, which provides entertainment, validation, and other forms of social utility).
Those who maintain their Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1063301050927948112003-09-11T11:24:00.000-06:002003-09-11T11:24:10.913-06:00Two years ago, in NYC, hundreds of "just folk" died while going about their daily lives.
Thirty years ago, in Chile, a nation's democratically elected government was overthrown in a coup that shocked even the aristocrats and oligarchs who had pressed for it. 3000 of those who were executed or killed by torture had their bodies hidden away so that their families could not reclaim them and grieve.Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1061944611102908132003-08-26T18:36:00.000-06:002003-08-26T18:36:51.033-06:00Why is 30 years more potent than 25?
A couple of weeks ago I had a profound insight into my PTSD, but didn't get it quite right: it turns out that I taint moments of success /not/ because I have come to believe myself unworthy, but rather (and, friends, incredible as it might seem, this next detail explains away my writer's block!), because that "success" was actually negative ... retrograde ...Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-1059353836701897562003-07-27T18:57:00.000-06:002003-07-27T19:01:47.516-06:00War Nerd - Iraq: the “Duh!” Theory from eXile #170:
"Q: Why don’t they love us?
A: Cause we invaded them, DUH!"Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-957249832003-06-16T12:30:00.000-06:002003-06-16T12:30:10.456-06:00KRT Wire | 05/30/2003 | Mean streets getting meaner; Cities launch crackdowns on homeless (Chicago Tribune)
"A growing number of cities, including Los Angeles, Seattle and Atlanta, are criminalizing activities of the homeless, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. More than 60 cities are introducing measures to make it illegal to beg or sleep on the streets, to sit in a bus Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-957237572003-06-16T11:51:00.000-06:002003-06-16T11:52:04.000-06:00You a good person? Typically honest, typically loyal, typically rational?
Read this, wudya? The biggest difference between this dude and I is that he collected salary for the decades it took him to do the arithmatic; I walked out when I was 19.
Ex-security aide blasts terror warBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-952184362003-06-02T20:43:00.000-06:002003-06-02T20:52:37.000-06:00A volunteer with UK Indymedia and independent reporter had the back of his leg torn off by a concussion grenade fired at close range. (Even when mortared up into the air these things are some wicked dangerous.) This took place in a police attack against a group of returning from peaceful anti-G8 demonstration.
*What, if you don't smash windows, you get gunned down for failing to provide the copsBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-951407042003-05-31T22:00:00.000-06:002003-05-31T22:07:01.000-06:00Hey! Yank! Did you raise your boys to be Gestapo?
I'm not saying I did right by shit-canning my military career ... but I did that rather than do wrong. What, precisely, is your problem? Gutless? Spineless? Brainless? Crooked? Corrupt? Sold out? On the take? Too lazy? ('Scuze me, but neither pot nor booze is an excuse for eating the sort of shit you're choking back by the bucket-full.)
I've gotBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-946152012003-05-19T21:48:00.000-06:002003-05-19T21:48:48.893-06:00I don't think actions like this are taken without appreciation of the message that's sent to the public. And I don't think it's done with the intention of inspiring young Americans with digust for their nation's foreign policy. I think its done understanding that those who it disgusts can be set aside for special treatment, so that those with principles can be dealt with in the same manner as MajBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-945850232003-05-19T09:40:00.000-06:002003-05-19T09:40:27.570-06:00Bottom line: Rumsfeld isn't strong enough to support free speech, sets Army up as censors.
Army Orders Troops to Seize TV Station in Northwest Iraq - The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition
"The U.S. Army issued orders for troops to seize this city's only television station, leading an officer here to raise questions about the Army's dedication to free speech in postwar Iraq, people Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-944808682003-05-16T20:26:00.000-06:002003-05-16T20:45:04.000-06:00This blog has drifted a long way from its initial intent ... but the situation requires it.
How is it that the "coalition of the willing" have funds to destroy, but not to protect? If a water plant were selected as a target, millions would be spent in its destruction (Remember: a single plain vanilla cruise missile is US$1M ... a fancy one can be half again as much), but resources aren't Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-942385442003-05-12T19:46:00.000-06:002003-05-12T19:46:56.800-06:00"Mr. Holmes has a problem with women. He doesn't see them as equals. ''The wife is to subordinate herself to her husband,'' he has written. The woman, in Mr. Holmes's view, ''is to place herself under the authority of the man.''
Those who adopt the ''feminist principle'' of the equality of the sexes, he has said, ''are contributing to the culture of death.''
Mr. Holmes, a lawyer, is an absoluteBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-942280342003-05-12T16:04:00.000-06:002003-05-12T16:04:35.540-06:00LiveJournal
SOS_USA
Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-942262872003-05-12T15:30:00.000-06:002003-05-12T15:33:22.000-06:00Israel couldn't stand having peaceful witness in Gaza, so what did they do? Why, they sent the troops in, of course! Israel Raids International Solidarity Movement Offices
And, in case there are some folks out there who realize just how dangerous the war-mongers are (Oh hey, I think right-thinking Republicans are a totally appropriate component in the unfolding of history ... why do they have Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-941857102003-05-11T23:06:00.000-06:002003-05-11T23:06:31.850-06:00What a piece of crud Blogger.com has become! If this is what happens when google buys a company ... or maybe they're just trying to drive free users away?Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-941856172003-05-11T23:04:00.000-06:002003-05-11T23:04:12.533-06:00Well, who'd'uh thunk it! When I heard that Ms. Bodine was Washington bound to fly a desk for State, I figured it was Rumsfeld screwing with Powell again. But General Jay getting drop-kicked as well?! hmmmm ... or maybe Ms. Bodine was the price of getting "Jay" out of there!
US recalls Baghdad governor after three weeks [dailytelegraph.co.uk] - " ...Lt Gen Garner is being replaced by L Paul Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-941693872003-05-11T17:10:00.000-06:002003-05-11T23:12:01.000-06:00Q: To whom do words matter more than deeds?
A: To one who has resigned from self-determination.
* The folks who pillaged the antiquities in Baghdad's museums (our history ... one sky, one future!) ignored or trashed the replicas while stealing away with the very best items.
* The responsible authorities (read: Rumsfeld and company) protected the ministry of oil while making no efforts to Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-940672512003-05-09T12:58:00.000-06:002003-05-09T12:58:18.806-06:00France Insists on U.N. Role in Iraq " ... [T]he United States and nations that backed it in Iraq submitted a new resolution to the U.N. Security Council that calls for lifting sanctions and putting Iraq's oil revenues under U.S.-British control to help pay for reconstruction efforts. [emph added]
The resolution would only give the United Nations a limited, largely advisory role. The plan Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-940256302003-05-08T19:52:00.000-06:002003-05-08T19:52:11.696-06:00Peace Action "In the 1980s the Reagan Administration saw Saddam Hussein as "vital to US efforts to contain the spread of Islamic fundamentalism." In December of 1983, Donald Rumsfeld met with Hussein to discuss US support for Iraq. Throughout the 1980s, the US assisted in the development of Iraqi chemical, biological and missile system programs.
They are doing it again
The next war is already Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-940168962003-05-08T16:37:00.000-06:002003-05-08T16:37:45.383-06:00I guess American business are going to show mid-east crooks how to do it right!
Cheney's old firm handed lucrative oilfield contract [Times Online] - "Halliburton, which was headed by Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, for five years until 2000, was handed a much larger role in post-war Iraq than previously believed. Its emergency contract, which it won from the US Government without having to bidBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-939396152003-05-07T11:54:00.000-06:002003-05-07T11:54:43.110-06:00Okay, so you haven't the spine to add 2+2 without perjuring yourself ... but you're angling to live out your days in something like comfort, right? Now, tell me you aren't insanely in denial!
Cop Photographed Class Projects [Associated Press] BARRE, Vt. -- A uniformed police officer persuaded a custodian to open a school in the middle of the night so he could photograph class projects he found Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-939367752003-05-07T11:03:00.000-06:002003-05-07T11:03:35.030-06:00(This note in another venue got some good comments and so I'm reproducing it here. h_b)
A note of something like hope.
Perhaps the worst consequence of the war-mongering we're experiencing now is it's effect on our fundamental understanding of power: whether it's the red-neck cracker screaming at the peace-nik in the street, or the smarmy right-winger squelching conversation at the water coolerBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-939009362003-05-06T20:19:00.000-06:002003-05-06T20:19:28.560-06:00I first encountered President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell speech in the 70s, when I was trying to rationalize having trash-canned my military career ... trying to make sense of why Canada was being drawn into the sink-hole of militarism. It chilled me then. It chills me now. Let yourself be chilled, for a moment:
Military Industrial Complex [ideotrope.org] "In the councils of government, we Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-938685602003-05-06T09:57:00.000-06:002003-05-06T09:57:01.490-06:00 - The Pentagon's one-size-fits-all 'liberation' is a disaster in Iraq
"American efforts to foist new rulers on the people of Iraq are becoming increasingly grotesque. In some cities US troops have sparked demonstrations by imposing officials from the old Saddam Hussein regime. In others they have evicted new anti-Saddam administrators who have local backing.
They have mishandled religious Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-938655672003-05-06T09:01:00.000-06:002003-05-06T09:01:42.283-06:00Slight aspects of something vaguely like democracy manifest in the Iraqi take-over
Another regime change in Iraq [Asia Times] - "The war between the Pentagon and the State Department appears to be raging as furiously as ever with reports that the latter may have mounted something of a coup d'etat against the neo-conservative hawks around Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld by having former diplomatBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-938222442003-05-05T15:05:00.000-06:002003-05-05T15:05:07.203-06:00If the people of the USofA are disgusted by Enron's accounting hi-jinks, do they feel themselves represented by the Bush administration's crony capitalism in Iraq? A peculiar way to dedicate the lives of sons and daughters ...
Empowering Iraq [tompaine.com] - "Jack Kemp, director of the conservative think tank Empower America, has emerged as a key player in the debate over how best to rebuild Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-938157872003-05-05T13:06:00.000-06:002003-05-05T13:09:51.000-06:00Hearts and Minds: Aid and reconstruction in Iraq - Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq (CASI)
"The politicisation of relief complicates the provision of aid, and may yet scupper the effective reconstruction of Iraq. At its worst, using humanitarian aid as a political or military tool to woo the 'hearts and minds' of the Iraqi population risks prolonging suffering, entrenching unilateralism, and Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-937770812003-05-04T20:57:00.000-06:002003-05-04T20:57:03.163-06:00*Duhh* ... blog works again, for a while, in a test.Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-937704072003-05-04T18:44:00.000-06:002003-05-04T18:52:36.000-06:00Dare you look to see what American industry rewards?
What once was a usable archive listing ... you'll notice that the entirety of the Iraqi invasion period is missing. Entirely deniable, of course. I mean, fuck, who has the time to track such chicken-shit stuff down, right? *buncha fucking lamers!*
N.B.: I now have to fire up IE to edit my blog ... nice going, google! Keep that chicken-vultureBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-937685472003-05-04T18:02:00.000-06:002003-05-04T18:02:34.270-06:00Stupidity of heroic proportions
The US stole the richest real estate on the face of the earth ... get it?
The consequences of google's buy-out on blogger.com have come clear: they have blocked NS4.X users ... nice move, ya buncha fucks.
I'm happy this happened on my birthday; all these years I've laboured under the feeling that, by going deep and trusting to fundamental dynamnics I had Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-937643672003-05-04T16:23:00.000-06:002003-05-04T16:49:26.000-06:00Hey yuppy .. ya, you *psssst* c'mere
Didja realize yer fucked?
No, hey, no, c'mere, hey ... no no
I mean, objectively ... no judgement ... ya realize yer fucked? I mean, since yer fucked, it's the sorta question a friend should ask, right?
Israel bans peace activists [Globe and Mail] (the sort of item "smart" yuppies ignore.)
*Hey pssssst yuppy, you know what I think of you after 30 years inBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-937296732003-05-03T20:36:00.000-06:002003-05-03T20:36:32.663-06:00When I was very young I earned a very nice salary using hi-tech to track the Evil Empire; it wasn't terribly difficult because I was good at it. Later I earned even nicer salaries using hi-tech in communications ... the stress was higher, but the work was easier; civilian life is a wasteland. Since then, I have slipped into an ever deepening poverty engaging in more salient pursuits. And still, Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-936796422003-05-02T18:07:00.000-06:002003-05-02T18:07:34.780-06:00WHO reports Iraq medical system as being on the verge of collapse. Typically a hospital needs US$3K/month.
I was calling for rapid reaction ?what? 2 weeks ago.
Assessment: industrialized yuppies are fat, ignorant, slothful, self-indulgent hypocits. In short, same old same-old.Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-931616072003-04-23T23:52:00.000-06:002003-04-24T00:25:02.000-06:00Open Letter
SecState Colin L. Powell
Sir:
I know for a fact that you are no "ChickenHawk". You do not know, but can establish as a fact, that I trained infantry and then airborne and then remustered CommRsch RegForce. I know "decapitation" of command and control so instintively that I knew it then, without having been taught it. I never did receive instruction in, because I abandoned my careerBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930661792003-04-22T14:15:00.000-06:002003-04-22T14:19:28.000-06:00Slugs and maggots, the war-mongers are!! Even the Marshall of Baghdad is a vampire!
Iraq bidder's apartheid past - "Fluor Corporation, the US building firm tipped to land a massive reconstruction deal in postwar Iraq, is facing a multibillion-dollar lawsuit claiming that it exploited and brutalised black workers in apartheid-era South Africa."
[...]
Fluor denies all the allegations. Meanwhile,Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930638732003-04-22T13:29:00.000-06:002003-04-22T13:29:54.766-06:00My idea was to get food / water / medicine to the most needy ASAP ... not only for humanitarian reasons. Is it only Bushite vampires that are capable of pragmatic thinking?!
The Iraqis' idea of democracy may differ from that of Mr Bush [an unfortunate title: those who accord most with Bush care least about civil society; these disruptions favour the vampires] - " ... Unless General Garner and Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930612852003-04-22T12:40:00.000-06:002003-04-22T12:43:04.000-06:00On what principles do Bush's vampires base their actions? Read, if you dare ... and quake:
The Redistribution of Honor [weeklypander.com] " ... You can divide Americans increasingly by their attitudes
towards Europe. [Well, ain't that a comforting thought? Stars of David and pink triangles to go around?! h_b_] The academic and media elites tend to see Europe as the enlightened home of a moreBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930609392003-04-22T12:33:00.000-06:002003-04-22T12:51:36.000-06:00Another Bushite rogue fit for the gallery!
He's William Kristol, Not Billy Crystal, and His War's Not Fun Anymore " ... Along the way he bonded with the circle of Republican "chicken hawks" who urged uncompromising war in Iraq, unilateralism in foreign policy, and massive military buildups. His pages bristled with neo-conservative visions of empire and running acclaim for the British imperial Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930591362003-04-22T11:58:00.000-06:002003-04-22T12:08:34.000-06:00Empire vs. Republic [informationclearinghouse.info]
Missing U.S.-Iraq History - " ... Last September Newsweek reported that the Reagan administration in the 1980s had allowed sales to Iraq of computer databases that Saddam could use to track political opponents and shipments of "bacteria/fungi/protozoa" that could help produce anthrax and other biological weapons. [Newsweek issue dated Sept. 23,Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930582862003-04-22T11:42:00.000-06:002003-04-22T11:43:41.000-06:00Rumsfeld trashed 6000 years of world history to diminish Powell ... maybe he'll do the same to North Korea? What'll the "collateral damage" be in /that. case?
Rumsfeld calls for regime change in North Korea - "A secret Donald Rumsfeld memorandum calling for regime change in North Korea was leaked yesterday, opening a fresh foreign policy split in the Bush administration. The classified Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930577092003-04-22T11:32:00.000-06:002003-04-22T11:32:37.060-06:00"Regime change" because Hussein was a rogue, right? and in league with al-Queda, right? and he hated US freedom, right? and he had weapons of mass-destruction, right?
Does anyone in the Bush administration accept any principles other than those of Enron accounting and M$ FUD?
The Silence about September 11 - "... The 9/11 attacks are the principle reason, according to the Bush administration, Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930438362003-04-22T07:18:00.000-06:002003-04-22T07:18:06.853-06:00That's the stuff!
One town's test of Iraqi democracy [csmonitor.com] - "How the 'founding fathers' of Umm Qasr went from tyranny to town council in days."
"Shortly after US and British forces pushed through this dusty port town in southern Iraq at the start of the coalition invasion, a school administrator got a crazy idea.
It was the kind of inspired thought that might have gotten him Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930134282003-04-21T18:27:00.000-06:002003-04-21T18:32:15.000-06:00This just in (2055AST on the board) Rumsfeld calls for regime change in North Korea - "A secret Donald Rumsfeld memorandum calling for regime change in North Korea was leaked yesterday, opening a fresh foreign policy split in the Bush administration."
Franks! Boots and saddles you worthless old fart! And someone wake Powell!!Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930123932003-04-21T18:04:00.000-06:002003-04-21T18:04:48.606-06:00I stepped away from the 90s in total disgust, ya know?
Does intrinsic value ring a bell for you? Yaa?
Read this, wudya? The End Of The World As We Thought We Knew It; Ron Suskind - WritingsBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930106152003-04-21T17:28:00.000-06:002003-04-21T17:28:27.263-06:00American Right discovers the source of our greatest ills!
Environmentalists Hate Humanity!!
Environmentalists Would Make Human Life Impossible - "Earth Day approaches, and with it a grave danger faces mankind. The danger is not from acid rain, global warming, smog or the logging of rain forests, as environmentalists would have us believe. The danger to mankind is from environmentalism.
The Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930094352003-04-21T17:03:00.000-06:002003-04-21T17:17:38.000-06:00More on Why Karl Rove is Conducting a Behind-the-Scenes Campaign To Get Trent Lott to Step Down as Majority Leader; BuzzFlash News Analysis (Dec 2002) - "... That is also why Bush participates in so many photo opportunities with young black school children. It is not to win over black votes; it is to convey the image of a man who cares about minorities to women, suburban males and independents.Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-930092722003-04-21T16:59:00.000-06:002003-04-21T17:42:24.000-06:00"Henny Penny" Rumsfeld tells us that Pentagon never ever even considered establishing long-term military facilities in Iraq. *long pause* Ohhhhh com'on, Donald, who the fuck are you talking to?!
Oh-wooops ... I keep forgetting these pathological assholes know precisely and exactly who they're talking to. "The limits to what the oppressed will suffer are the constraints of the oppressors", Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-929846372003-04-21T08:56:00.000-06:002003-04-21T08:56:00.140-06:00In the face of the US military's many outrages, the Shia are showing real dignity. Dignity, in a world of Rumsfelds and Perles ... does that carry any clout? How many divisions can "dignity" command? (Answer: sufficient.)
New role for mosques in Iraq [bbc.co.uk]Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-929786532003-04-21T06:28:00.000-06:002003-04-21T06:28:55.110-06:00What's with the deleted stories at CBS?
CBS News | THIS STORY HAS BEEN DELETED | March 26, 2003 19:33:58Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-929551512003-04-20T19:13:00.000-06:002003-04-20T19:13:18.296-06:00My god, internet culture really is universal! Our favorite spokesperson from Baghdad has gotten himself a personal internet journal!
Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf's JournalBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-929482892003-04-20T16:18:00.000-06:002003-04-20T16:18:01.390-06:00Game, set, and match: the only reason the pretext of democracy in the US is maintain is to safeguard the markets from shock,
After the War, New Stature for Rumsfeld
Dig: Pentagon Expects Long-Term Access to Four Key Bases in Iraq
Perhaps most Americans are so feckless that they value honesty not at all (google: Microsoft + FUD) ... are we all to hope that the rest of the world is similarly Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-929448962003-04-20T14:43:00.000-06:002003-04-20T16:31:57.000-06:00The heroic saga of Saving Private Lynch? (Regular readers will know I've written about the courageous couple who reported Lynch's location.)
Iraqis Say Lynch Raid Faced No Resistance Hassan and other doctors said they were on duty that evening, when "we heard a big thumping nearby the hospital. And the sound of helicopters -- not just one. Then someone from the hospital, a colleague, said Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-929440032003-04-20T14:17:00.000-06:002003-04-20T14:23:33.000-06:00I think I'm finally getting bitter ... after all these years.
All I had to do was take a little walk down the red carpet and right now I'd be as comfortable as any bleeding-heart liberal ... with a decent car in the parkade, a fast internet connection, an appropriate box on my desk, and a closet full of skeletons ... but nooooooooo, I had to opt for integrity. What a turkey I've been.
TIME Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-929293372003-04-20T07:26:00.000-06:002003-04-20T07:54:29.000-06:00A couple of thousand years ago the Roman Empire, responding to the demands of local oligarchs, executed a popular dissident by hanging him from a cross and publically exposing him. Interesting stuff, history.
Hawai'i and the Rosy Dawn of US Imperialism - "110 years ago, U.S. Marines, acting at the invitation of wealthy haole (white) sugar planters, invaded the Kingdom of Hawai'i and overthrew Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-929289922003-04-20T07:11:00.000-06:002003-04-20T07:11:21.950-06:00Democracy and free speech in the USofA ... hey, it's a concept!
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | 'Our voices are lost in the tide of intolerance sweeping America' - " ... A relative tells me that a history teacher tells his 11-year-old son, my nephew, that Susan Sarandon is endangering the troops by her opposition to the war. Another relative tells me of a school board decision to cancel aBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-929286522003-04-20T06:57:00.000-06:002003-04-20T07:04:06.000-06:00I cut my teeth on intentional wounds ... not sure how the Hungarian revolution came to be salient for a little boy in Northern Alberta, but it left me thinking that those who have managed comfortable ignorance lack what it needs to make well informed decisions.
Read this, would you?
Final Proof that War is About the Failure of the Human SpiritBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-928943072003-04-19T11:03:00.000-06:002003-04-19T11:03:08.653-06:00In email with a UK aid worker, and in conversation here with friends involved with community work, I've been exploring an alternative criteria for policy ... harm reduction through appropriate response to emergent situations ... anti-biotics now rather than amputation next week.
CAFOD's Focus on Iraq carries this description of their "Iraq Appeal" - "War on Iraq has prompted a humanitarian Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-928934412003-04-19T10:41:00.000-06:002003-04-19T10:41:10.293-06:00My good god, another example of fine martial common sense! Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-928639982003-04-18T18:19:00.000-06:002003-04-18T18:19:57.670-06:00A site to make regular: OneWorld.netBen Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-928638012003-04-18T18:13:00.000-06:002003-04-18T18:41:21.000-06:00From Institute for War and Peace Reporting (so many good items here!!), America’s New Iraqi Order: Promising Democracy While Protecting Abusers - "A free and democratic Iraq will begin today,” Jay Garner, the retired American general overseeing the politics of the new Iraq, told opposition and community leaders in the southern town of Nasiriya this week. At the same time, however, at the other Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-928443662003-04-18T10:37:00.000-06:002003-04-18T10:37:28.513-06:00This morning I listened to an Indy recording of a pro-war rally that was blocking a protest march: "USA! USA! USA!" they chanted, over and over. And occasionally you'd hear an organizer exhorting them, "Don't let them be heard! Don't let them be heard!" Kind of sums things up rather nicely, no?
From Save the Children Fund (UK), this bit of news: Plane carrying vital medical supplies refused Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-928435182003-04-18T10:19:00.000-06:002003-04-18T10:24:28.000-06:00Reading this review of "Neville Chamberlain, Appeasement and the British Road to War" at airstripone.blogspot [British foreign policy as if national interests mattered] brought me to this think piece:
"Why Export Democracy?: The 'Hidden Grand Strategy' of American Foreign Policy'" - "The "hidden grand strategy" of American foreign policy is reemerging into plain view after a long Cold War Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-928163132003-04-17T21:23:00.000-06:002003-04-17T21:25:01.000-06:00So this thing with the police conspiring to knock off Catholics in Northern Ireland ... and we're re-positioning Saddam's police in Baghdad? Gee, who'd be doing that?! Let's look ... oh ya, the GIs who stood by while the world's history was pillaged and trashed, yaa ... the Pentagon, ok there's Rumsfeld ... ya, ok, that bunch ... Wofowitz and Perle hanging from the rafters.
And the Bechtel Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-928147732003-04-17T20:52:00.000-06:002003-04-17T20:52:10.593-06:00The Progressive Response | V2N11 | Part II:Imperialism in Globalization - "The following is the second part of a February 1998 essay by Alejandro Bendaña, director of the Centro de Estudios Internacionales in Managua. At the end of the first part of the essay, Bendaña enters into a discussion of the notion that the "G-7 is the real culprit" in shaping and maintaining the global capitalist system,Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-928025232003-04-17T16:04:00.000-06:002003-04-17T16:07:59.000-06:00Coalition of the Coerced; IPS Releases Report on U.S. Arm-twisting Over Iraq War - "As U.S. officials intensify their arm-twisting offensive to gather support for a war on Iraq, the Institute for Policy Studies is releasing a new study today that examines the specific levers of U.S. military, economic, and political power.
The study, entitled "Coalition of the Willing or Coalition of the Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927849452003-04-17T10:16:00.000-06:002003-04-17T10:18:23.000-06:00How do the activities / actions and principles of Bush et al contradict / undercut humane democracy?
Is America Becoming Fascist? [counterpunch.org] - " ... No doubt, fascism is a descriptor too carelessly thrown around; but Nixon and Reagan, no matter how reprehensible their politics, were not quite fascist. Bush is the most dangerous man in contemporary history: Hitler didn't have access to Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927828262003-04-17T09:38:00.000-06:002003-04-17T09:38:24.890-06:00What sort of person works for the man who relies on the likes of Tricky Dick Cheney, Henny Penny Rumsfeld, and Dark Prince Perle?
Exposing Karl Rove - ... "If you're not with me, you're against me." Bush's binary view of "good and evil" and "friend and enemy" sits well with the Rove strategy. Georgia's conservative but libertarian-minded Representative Bob Barr found out about this in last Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927810452003-04-17T09:06:00.000-06:002003-04-17T09:06:23.966-06:00Awwww geez ...
Library books, letters and priceless documents are set ablaze in final chapter of the sacking of Baghdad [Independent | Argument | Commentators] - "... Then the library of Korans at the Ministry of Religious Endowment was set ablaze.
I saw the looters. One of them cursed me when I tried to reclaim a book of Islamic law from a boy of no more than 10. Amid the ashes of Iraqi Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927609992003-04-16T23:12:00.000-06:002003-04-16T23:45:03.000-06:00I heard two interviews with ICG spokes today ... very sensible, they seemed to me.
International Crisis Group report: "Voices from the Iraqi Street" [casi]
International Crisis Group - publications
Iraq / Gulf area reports
War in Iraq: Managing Humanitarian Relief - "The impassioned controversy that surrounded the decision to invade Iraq had the unfortunate consequence of impeding Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927422972003-04-16T16:46:00.000-06:002003-04-16T16:46:22.856-06:00blogger.com has become unusable; status.blogger.com lies.
Funny thing is, I was just going to blog this item:
Reluctant Pentagon steps up police role [SanFran Chronicle] - "U.S. sending in more peacekeeping forces"
"Even as it insists that its soldiers aren't cut out for police work, the Pentagon is increasing its peacekeeping role in Iraq and bringing more military police and civil affairs Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927411982003-04-16T16:23:00.000-06:002003-04-16T16:23:40.170-06:00Bear Left! I can pretend to have a life so long as my precious Gloria finds it in herself to put up with me ... but if my blog begins to look like this site, well ...Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927391902003-04-16T15:40:00.000-06:002003-04-16T16:00:36.000-06:00"The world is a dangerous place to live;
not because there are people who are evil
but because there are people who do nothing about it."
Albert Einstein
Some folks actually do their bit: International Solidarity
April 10, 2003: Tom Hurndall; shot in the head by Israeli sniper
April 5, 2003: Brian Avery; shot in the face by Israeli Forces
March 16, 2003: Rachel Corrie; run Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927369632003-04-16T14:59:00.000-06:002003-04-16T15:30:32.000-06:00Looks like "permanent war" is quite the meme! (It sure beats drilling down through "war-mongering hate-filled boars".)
In the Grip of a Permanent War Economy [counterpunch.org] - "Now, at the start of the twenty-first century, every major aspect of American life is being shaped by our Permanent War Economy.
Civilian manufacturing industries are being swept away as a war-focused White House and Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927352832003-04-16T14:27:00.000-06:002003-04-16T15:22:26.000-06:00Trotsky and Tony Cliff were all over the notion of "permanent-war economy".
The Permanent War Campaign [motherjones.com] - "President Bush seems to be planning to run on Sept. 11 and its aftershocks straight through the 2004 election."
"Back in 1980, a little-known writer named Sidney Blumenthal published a small book called "The Permanent Campaign." Much of what Blumenthal laid out in that Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927310892003-04-16T13:09:00.000-06:002003-04-16T13:17:58.000-06:00When the apparatus of the state must be protected from the citizens ... what then?
My life has involved an ongoing battle against resentment: I stepped away from the rank and status games that surround conventional success, partly from principle [my Zen precepts included 1) do not make a livelihood from selling the wines of delusion, and 2) do not abet what makes the untrue appear true] but Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927303042003-04-16T12:47:00.000-06:002003-04-16T12:47:55.340-06:00A lot of people distrust paternalist authoritarian hierarchies ... does that make them limp-wristed fuzzy-minded pacifists? If you think so, please leave ... you really aren't going to get anything from what I write here. (Nothing personal ... e-mail me and we'll discuss your pathological pessimism, and maybe you'll become a democrat ... or at least a mature adult.)
For one perspective on Iraq, Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927261702003-04-16T11:26:00.000-06:002003-04-16T11:26:30.716-06:00I've been monitoring BBC News24 on RealVideo throughout the Iraq adventure [there's something not quite right about that URL ... often get errors]. A BBC weekly to watch is Panorama.Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927260112003-04-16T11:23:00.000-06:002003-04-16T11:23:38.450-06:00blogger.com has been a mess all day ... and yesterday too. How come system changes can't be done without degrading basic service? Oh yaa ... it's all about marketing, not product ... I keep forgetting.Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3374605.post-927209512003-04-16T09:47:00.000-06:002003-04-16T11:11:44.000-06:00Women Against Fundamentalisms - articles ... if I had an eagle on my passport, and some seed funding, I think I would concentrate on breakfast for kids.Ben Tremblayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04097630017893920397noreply@blogger.com0