Owner: Carson's Post URL:http://carsonspost.wordpress.com Join Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:36:18 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Two guys talking about politics and society, a generation apart. Site statistics:Click here
Fred Halliday looks at the world through it’s history 2007-07-18 03:38:44 Whenever I see something written by Fred Halliday, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, I read it. I am never disappointed, and always much smarter for it.
There is an inevitable gap that exists between the academic and the journalist. Between Noam Chomski and Robert Fisk, or Samuel Huntington and Anderson Cooper. I think of it as between micro-news, that of the day, or macro-news, the trends that create it. Few can bridge this gap, and that he can is what makes Fred Halliday so interesting.
So, I am very lucky that he writes a biweekly column for OpenDemocracy.net. On his “authors” page, there are links to all his articles. A selection of titles of these illustrates my point: “Iran’s revolutionary spasm“, “The Left and the Jihad“, “Crises of the middle east: 1914, 1967, 2003“, and “A 2007 warning: the world’s twelve worst ideas“. It was the last of these that first drew me
Multiculturalism: looking for partnerships. 2007-07-18 02:19:26 Out of the various ways that the conflicts of globalization and multiculturalism manifest itself, we find a clear example of the gulf between the rights and responsibilities of one culture to criticize another in the recent Salman Rushdie knighthood episode. Here we have one of the brightest, most exceptional novelists of our time, yet to honour him is apparently to insult Islam.
This is an example of where Islam’s right to have a credible face is being abused.
Through the systematic shouts and wails of victimization, we do not hear any reason, nor any respect. Why the Queen of England and the head of the Church of England must defer to the ghosts of Ayatollahs past, or harpings of distant politicians in Iran or Pakistan in need of a local image boost, or the lunatic fringe is not explained.
As Tom Freeman points out, the moderate voice of Islam in the UK, that of the Muslim Council of Britain for example, does not try to condemn this radical and self serving fringe, or promote Read more:Multiculturalism
, partnerships
The Wall: not just about height 2007-07-17 14:25:23 “The terms ‘Wall’ and ‘Fence’ mistakenly evoke an image of the vertical displacement of mere air. These terms fail to convey the permanent displacement at ground level of enormous expanses of land, property and people,” writes Susan Miller in an article entitled Displacement and Israel’s Wall in CounterPunch.
She adds:
The structure is more accurately understood by its width, not its height. Winding its way down from the northern most point of the West Bank it leaves in its wake a 65 to 87 yard wide swath of bulldozed land on which trenches, barbed wire, footprint tracer paths, a two-lane patrol road and watch towers have been placed. From edge to edge, the structure exceeds the width of six lane segments of Interstate 95 or half the length of a football field.
From edge to edge, the structure exceeds the width of six lane segments of Interstate 95 or half the length of a football field.
Local and international NGO’s concur that the com
Footprints of vanished places 2007-07-17 12:38:10 “We carry with us these footprints of vanished places: apartments we moved out of years ago, dry cleaners that went out of business, restaurants that stopped serving…”
We all carry around in our heads countless blueprints of nostalgia, from old bedrooms to corner bars in foreign countries.
There is wonderfully imagery in this brief piece in the NY Times by Verlyn Klinkenborg, entitled Remembered Spaces.
Read more:Footprints
Michael Moore: is he sooo yesterday? 2007-07-17 12:24:52 Has MichaelMoore
shot his bolt? Has the MSM already moved on? Has the status quo won again? Seems so.
The PR army employed by the US healthcare providers is already on the march …
Paul Howard opines in the Washington Post A Story Michael Moore
Didn’t Tell:
Michael Moore’s Sicko is now in national release, chock full of anecdotes and scare stories denigrating American health care in favor of the United Kingdom, Canada and even Cuba. But Moore ignores the fact that our greater commitment to market-driven medical innovation makes miracles possible for patients with the most deadly and rare diseases, like cancer.
Don’t you just love watching the PR/lobby industry at play? You know they are going to win, the only question is: By what means?
Child marriages 2007-07-17 11:45:52
Laxmi, 8, dressed in bridal finery, waits for her
marriage ceremony to start in Rajgarh, India
“Every year in poor countries, millions of girls — preteens and teens — become the wives of older men,” Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn says. “This custom is not marriage, but rather sanctioned sexual abuse and a human rights violation that destroys girls’ lives.” USA Today has the story Child marriages
rife in nations getting U.S. aid
The Reasons for Impeaching Bush 2007-07-17 11:01:26 She called it Reining In an Out-of-Control Executive, she might just as well have called it The Basis for the Impeachment of the President of the US. It is all here.
If you’re wondering why impeachment proceeding should be undertaken now, read this opinion from Marjorie Cohn in the Huffington Post. And remember, an impeachment will have little to do with Bush and everything to do with restoring the checks and balances of a government out -of-control.
Looked on another way, in a country dependent on precedent, not to impeach this president is to encourage others to be like him.
Read more:Reasons
No, you can’t work with Israel 2007-07-17 10:46:07 You can almost hear the panic at the American-Israel
Political Action Committee: a notable in the main stream media actually published a dissenting view: Yes, you can work with Hamas.
With the US so unilaterally locked into the Israeli position words like those amount almost to a heresy, perhaps even a kind of treason.
Are there two side to this story after all?
Full credit to the Christian Science Monitor for publishing … the obvious. But the op-ed by scholars Augustus Richard Norton and Sara Roy is pretty tepid below its volatile headline. For instance, take the three ’specific’ steps it encourages President Bush to take to “correct course:”
• Announce support for a Hamas-Fatah dialogue to revive a unity government and quietly open diplomatic contacts with Hamas.
• Commit serious diplomatic muscle to restarting substantive Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.
• In cooperation with its Quartet partners – the European Union, Russia, a
Robert Fisk needs a rest 2007-07-17 00:03:27 Robert Fisk, the one journalist to trust in the Middle East, is showing signs of some fatigue.
Whether it’s from the strain of writing a 1300 page book, or living in city constantly under siege or reporting from the hell on earth, the man seems to be fraying about the edges.
As proof, read this article from CommonDreams entitled TE Lawrence Had It Right About Iraq.
In the space of a page he manages to weave TE Lawrence, Canada’s Defence Minister, Gordon O’Connor and Daniel Pipes, director of Middle East Forum into a single rant of general disgust.
But as always, he makes his points:
• TE Lawrence saw it all coming and wrote in down in 1929
• O’Connor, our arms lobbist defense Minister, is a sycophant to power, even disgraced power
• Daniel Pipes is a shill for the Israel lobby in the US and doesn’t give a damn who knows it
But judging by his tone, it’s looking like Fisk could use a holiday. I’m thinking he’d enjoy Pakist Read more:Robert
Laissez faire US, we beg you, laissez fair! 2007-07-20 15:57:43 The Pakistanis will resume military operations to quell the violence in Helmand Province while the US invests $750 million to beef-up Pakistani border patrols while pressing dictator Musharraf to hold democratic elections this year.
That’s according to this Washington Post Editorial entitled Facing al-Qaeda. But it’s not good enough for the Post, no sir, not good enough by half: the US has to start shooting:
Yet that won’t address the imminent threat of a revived al-Qaeda organization able to strike the United States from a secure base. If Pakistani forces cannot — or will not — eliminate the sanctuary, President Bush must order targeted strikes or covert actions by American forces, as he has done several times in recent years. Such actions run the risk of further destabilizing Pakistan. Yet those risks must be weighed against the consequences of another large-scale attack on U.S. soil.
This seems to be an extension of the US Iraq strategy of ‘bomb t Read more:faire
Harper and the lone smile 2007-07-20 14:06:19
This is a really cheap shot but when a Prime Minister visits an horrific slum in the darkest of third world countries where, obviously, children are having children under unimaginable circumstances, it is not a good idea to be seen smiling about it. No one else is. From the Globe and Mail PM arrives in Haiti, visits notorious slum
Read more:Harper
Helmets: protecting us from ourselves 2007-07-20 13:58:39 I live in the Yukon where some guy who rides his bike all year round — like, through the frozen streets of winter — convinced city council that for my own safety I must wear a helmet while I sashay a bike path along the Yukon River. There is a $25 fine (I think) if I don’t.
Talk about boiling blood.
I understand why we’re forced to wear car seat belts: the state doesn’t give a shit if we live or die, they just don’t want us to linger between life and death in some highly expensive vegetative state. Got it. But where do you draw the bleeding line?
I was nattering about this to a visitor from the UK the other day telling her that in some jurisdictions kids are forced to wear helmets … while playing soccer! Seeing her shock I, quite naturally, pushed the point: I’ve even seen swimmers at our pool wearing helmets while practicing their turns. Really? Well, no but it’s getting to that: my wife wouldn’t take our grandchild out in Read more:Helmets
, ourselves
Lindros & Yashin: longing for selfless sacrifice? 2007-07-20 13:33:59 ‘Yashin heads home to Russia,’ the banner cried. And yesterday, there was one about Lindros contemplating his future.
Together, Yashin and Lindros beg the question: will these guys be happy with their careers?
Both were big, strong, talent athletes … with attitude, the attitude that they wanted to do it their way, not the way it was done. And they did, with some success and considerable riches. But as they put their feet up and look back, will they be as disappointed with their results as their fans are for them?
Both were sure-fire Hall-of-Famers, can’t-miss goal-scoring power-forwards who would carry their teams on their shoulders. But, as contrarians, both were never leaders and as hockey players they only toyed with the top tier.
Would it have been different if, say, they took the Gordie Howe/ Bobby Clark approach and worked like hell while glad for the opportunity? We’ll never know.
But, in the nadir of their careers, both do seem like a single warn
A measure of greed 2007-07-20 12:57:41
Warning, Google might just start charging for all its on-line services — gotta get that profit back up to 80% for all those disgruntled stockholders.
China to join top 3 economies 2007-07-20 12:46:53 SHANGHAI — China
’s economy grew at an extraordinary rate of 11.9% in the second quarter, the fastest clip in more than 12 years and a pace that puts the nation on track to overtake Germany this year as the world’s third-largest economy.
For the last 35 years, the United States, Japan and Germany have ranked 1-2-3 in gross domestic product, but as growth in those mature economies has slowed, China’s has accelerated, powered by foreign investments and trade amid a global shift in production activity to the Far East.
Just 12 years ago, China’s economy ranked No. 8, behind Brazil’s, and was less than one-third the size of Germany’s.
What an unbelievable accomplishment. The LA Times in an economic report entitled China to join top 3 economies.
In the space of a few short years, China went from this in ‘89 Beijing …
To this in today’s Shanghai — not even 20 years later.
In 1981 I went on a bicycle tour of China from Beijing
Chrysler learns that toasting pooch isn’t appropriate 2007-07-20 12:05:56 See this? Chrysler
pulls SUV ad with electrocuted dog.
Seems a Dutch advertising company, for the Dutch market, had created an advertisement that had a dog peeing on the wheel of a Dodge Nitro SUV, getting electrocuted and then bursting into flames! (It has been pulled from YouTube.)
Pretty funny stuff until the allegations against Michael Vick taught us all that killing animals isn’t quite as funny … as we have always thought.
And then the appalling corporate hypocrisy:
“Chrysler Group was dismayed to discover that an advertisement created by an ad agency supporting our Netherlands Market Performance Center goes far beyond the bounds of what the company considers appropriate,” Chrysler said in a statement. As if this ad hadn’t been approved by the company.
The company said the ad included “fictional yet inappropriate treatment of an animal” and said it was “in extremely bad taste.”
“Although European commercials — espe
In Palestine: fine-tuning the West’s ‘democracy’ 2007-07-20 11:57:01 What are we to make of the recent release of more than 250 Palestinian prisoners, some in jail for 18 years?
The move was designed by Israel/US to add credibility to the Abbas government immediately after Abbas did their bidding by dismissing his government, which included a duly elected Hamas component, and installing a new administration in the larger West Bank.
Recall, that after Hamas was popularly elected in January, Western countries cut off funding to the Abbas’ government and Israel deprived the government of the tax revenue it raised on Palestine
’s behalf with a result that the democratically elected government was effectively throttled.
Recall also that as a result of Western meddling, &lsquo
;Palestine’ is now two states: the Fatah-led government of the West Bank and the Hamas-led ‘government’ of Gaza.
Now, in the waning years of a discredited Bush Administration we have a desperate putsch to force peace on a region through the direct repudiatio Read more:democracy
Is Pakistan a powder keg? 2007-07-20 11:22:53 If the recent riots weren’t evidence enough, the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to the Supreme Court is an obvious repudiation of the dictatorial rule of President Pervez Musharraf who seized power from a democratically elected government in 1999.
Critics of the president say the suspension was an attempt to undermine the judiciary’s independence in an election year, reports this BBC article entitled Pakistan
’s top judge reinstated.
Mr Chaudhry’s suspension in March caused mass protests which became more wide-spread as he toured throughout the country speaking out again the injustice to him, though never directly criticizing the President.
Musharraf has been aggressively backed by the United States in one of a string of obvious political contradictions: how can the Bush Administration insist on spreading freedom throughout the world while it embraces a dictator who grabbed power from a democracy or, in the case of Hamas in Palestine, where the
Bill Maher on the Jihad drive 2007-07-19 12:58:25 Why does it have to be a comedian to make this point? Bill Maher
states the obvious in George Bush’s Jihad
Recruitment Drive, from Huffington Post.
For some reason, I recall a contest in New York magazine 31 years ago asking for Predictable Headlines of 1976, and the one that made me laugh was “Ghetto Residents Apathetic about Bicentennial”. I thought of this recently when I saw a headline “Doctor Accused in Glasgow Attack Described as Loner Angry about Iraq War.” Isn’t it pathetic that what strikes us as utterly predictable still eludes President Daydream Believer?
A common right-wing talking point is that we weren’t in Iraq on 9/11 and they still attacked us. Yes, but this “war” is a numbers game: before we invaded Iraq, how many young Muslim men were ready to join up for a suicide mission against the west? Some, but my guess is, not very many. But now? My guess is very many. The exact opposite of what the president says is true: Read more:drive
, Bill Maher
Israel, Palestine and the Right of Return 2007-07-22 22:37:48 The Right
of Return
.
What is this all about? What is the Israel
i side? What is the Palestinian side? Where did the Palestinian refugee come from? What is UN Resolution 181?
This balanced, bite-sized article at AlterNet by Barry Lando entitled Israel’s Primal Myth: A Barrier to Peace deals with this linch-pin issue for without its resolution no peace can ever come between the Israeli and the Palestinians.
It’s a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about this issue.
Read more:Palestine
Screwed by our own biases. 2007-07-22 14:40:26 We are constantly screwing ourselves and we don’t even know it.
Of the 30 or so behaviour biases we tote around with us all day, at least 8 of them reinforce information we want to believe:
Bias blind spot — the tendency not to compensate for one’s own cognitive biases.
Choice-supportive bias — the tendency to remember one’s choices as better than they actually were.
Confirmation bias — the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions.
Framing by using a too narrow approach or description of the situation or issue.
Mere exposure effect — the tendency for people to express undue liking for things merely because they are familiar with them.
Post-purchase rationalization — the tendency to persuade oneself through rational argument that a purchase was a good value.
Selective perception — the tendency for expectations to affect perception.
Status quo bias — the tendency for peopl Read more:Screwed
Amsterdam: the city of canals — and a subway 2007-07-22 13:47:11 Dutch devise subway for Amsterdam
&mdash
; that sounds like the equivalent of an engineering oxymoron; much of Amsterdam is below sea level. But it’s true, as the article in USA Today explains.
And what an engineering feat it is. Having already mastered the technology of keeping the ocean from its streets, the Dutch are now building streets below their streets, but at an incredible cost:
Scheduled for completion in 2013, the $2.4 billion project stretches 5.9 miles in all and will transport an estimated 200,000 people daily, adding a new dimension to Amsterdam’s traffic of bicycles, trams, cars, taxis, buses and boats.
You’ve got to love the Dutch. This tiny country has a fabulously intriguing history of trade, cultural expression, engineering originality, perseverance … the list goes on. Plus, they’re the tallest people on the planet.
Pity about those wooden shoes, though.
A millimeter is the thickness of a paper clip 2007-07-22 13:26:59 Finally, I now know what a millimeter is. This is very, very important to me.
On its end the normal paper
clip is 3 cms.
Some information demands to be passed on. You’re welcome.
Try reading about oil and thinking — at the same time 2007-07-22 13:15:07 Here’s a challenge. Try reading the text in the pic below and thinking
at the same time.
I tried. It’s hard.
For instance, as I was reading I was thinking that US oil hasn’t built a new oil refinery in the US since the 70’s; has piled up record profits for years now; got billions in US federal subsidies it didn’t need; created Cheney’s national energy policy.
And I was thinking that Exxon recently sued to get out of paying the balanced owed for screwing up the Alaskan seashore.
And that the Iraq war has always been about oil and is pumping less now than Saddam did.
And I began to get really tired … then exhausted … then defeated. We really are tiny pathetic amebas in a word of marauding Gonzillas.
If you want the full sorry story, you’re a masochist, but it’s here.
Read more:mdash
Deceit and a new Israeli textbook 2007-07-22 12:47:16 A new school text book in Israel teaches that “some of the Palestinians were expelled following the War of Independence and that many Arab-owned lands were confiscated.”
Great news! A step in the right direction! Truth will out! There is hope!
Ya? Well, read further in this article at the BBC entitled Israeli
textbook states Arab view and you will learn that this is no break-through at all, it is a typically deceitful half-measure that pretends at a glasnost … while placating the apartheid-nics.
Why? The book will only be used in Arab schools in Israel.
So the text is an acknowledgment of the truth … to the people who already know it while it passes on an opportunity to educate those who don’t. Talk about a two-book solution.
And this from a people who stake its spiritual existence from the wisdom of a text.
Where is the outrage?
Do (real) adults read Harry Potter? 2007-07-22 12:11:45 Yes, certainly, to see what the fuss is about. Why not? I haven’t, but my wife has.
But, if you read two or more in the series, maybe this guy has a point: “Its part of a dumbed-down consumerist nonsense that encourages adults to behave like children.”
The guy is Rob Winder who wrote a post for Huffington’s entitled I Hate HarryPotter
and I’m Glad It’s Over — chiefly for that reason, the books dumb-down our lives.
I’ve Googled “Who reads Harry Potter?” to get the stats. But I can’t find any. But it would be interesting to see the adult/kid split.
Personally, I don’t much care about Harry Potter but I’ve always really wondered: Do (real) adults watch Jay Leno?
It seems to me that when he took over from Johnny Carson Leno became the very personification of the notion of ‘dumbing down.’
But, then, I watch Letterman sometimes and I think he’s brilliant.
Ann Coulter and Nancy Grace — are there male equivalents? 2007-07-22 11:53:05 Are there any male equivalents to Ann Coulter
and NancyGrace
?
I’ve been wondering this for years. Or is their unique blend of ‘femininity’ and caustic imbecilities a whole new schtick we haven’t yet figured out?
I know they aren’t cut from exactly the same clothe but first and foremost both imperil logic using their femininity, which they use, at once, as a bludgeon and a defence mechanism.
In trying to understand them it may be useful to find a male equivalent. Of course, if there is a male equivalent that would entirely invalidate my analysis, if there isn’t a male equivalent then …
Read more:mdash
, Ann Coulter
World’s largest building: stalactite in the desert 2007-07-22 11:37:44
Burj Dubai — a tower rising in the booming Gulf emirate — has become the tallest building in the world at 512.1 metres (1,680 feet), surpassing Taiwan’s Taipei 101 which is 508 metres (1,667 feet) tall.(AFP/File)
Notes, from an AP article entitled Builder: Dubai high-rise world’s tallest
• The Burj Dubai is expected to be finished by the end of 2008 and its planned final height has been kept secret. The state-owned development company Emaar Properties, one of the main builders in rapidly developing Dubai, said only that the tower would stop somewhere above 2,275 feet.
• When completed, the skyscraper will feature more than 160 floors, 56 elevators, luxury apartments, boutiques, swimming pools, spas, exclusive corporate suites, Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani’s first hotel, and a 124th floor observation platform.
• “It’s a symbol of Dubai as a city of the world,” said Greg Sang, the project director for Emaar Proper Read more:World
Jerusalem and the condominium concept 2007-07-22 11:23:19 Sometimes and in some places, conflict is so intractable that all but the most unlikely solutions are fated to fail. In those times and places, we need to try methods that have not been considered in the hopes that unconventional solutions will offer opportunities not available through line-drawing. This is such a time; Jerusalem
is such a place; shared sovereignty is such a solution. And the benefits can be global.
The term ‘condominium’ has been kicking around in recent weeks as a way of dealing with a peace settle for Jerusalem, recognized by all as one of the true thorns in any two-state solution. What does it mean? What are the danger areas?
This article in the Washington Post entitled For Jerusalem, Shared Sovereignty answers these questions, but warns that, as always, the devil is in the details.
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