#2
Yes... but this was particularly awful - and awful because the People's Temple silenced critical news coverage, bullied local politicians into giving them cover and generally silenced critics by screaming "racism!" and threatening protests, lawsuits and general mayhem.
Sound familiar? No, I guess that kind of faux-religious/social/political nuttery hasn't gone out of style at all.
I remember the pictures, in the weekly news-mags... the sprawled and bloated bodies strewn all over the compound. The father of a neighbor of mine in San Antonio was then a senior Army medic, who went down with the mortuary team to collect them all. My friend says her father was particularly affected by the sight of the small children... and the appalling smell hanging over the compound. They didn't get there until about a week afterward, of course.
One is supposed to cheerfully welcome any scientific or technological advancement achieved by a close or remote nation, especially if this advancement has nothing to do with an aggressive military project or a hegemonic scheme. Yet, I must admit that I was overtaken by frustration and envy when the news agencies circulated the story of the Indian probe. The India Space Research Organization announced that a tiny probe no bigger than a small TV set has landed on the moon as part of the first Indian unmanned lunar mission. The probe split from the satellite Chandrayaan-1 (which stands for lunar vehicle) on its way on a two-year mission to capture three dimensional images of the lunar surface, particularly in the two dark poles, in addition to searching for water or snow on that same surface and identifying the chemical structure of some rocks. This mission crowns the efforts by the India Space Research Organization that was established 45 years ago.
This event can be understood in light of the Indian-Chinese competition. Mao Zedong's nation no longer accepts to sit in the back seat whether in terms of economic or technological development. It no longer accepts American or Russian leadership in challenging fields, and Chinese scientists are currently busy with the preparations for sending a Chinese to the moon.
I felt envious. Had India followed our path, it would now been an ocean of the starving and unemployed. Instead, it chose a different path. It is true that hundreds of millions are still living at or below the poverty line, but it is also true that this nation, which has secured its position in the nuclear club, has also achieved massive progress in the computer and chip industries. With the scenarios predicting the rise of Asia in the coming phase, many states have already started building commercial, scientific and technological relations with the Indian giant. This is attributed to two reasons: India's success in rehabilitating itself to play a major role, and the desire of several states to keep the Chinese giant in check by formulating an alliance with the Indian giant.
My preoccupation with the Indian probe did not prevent me from following Arab news, which is always sweet and reassuring. Arab League Secretary General broke startling news to al-Mutanabbi's descendants when he announced that the Arab world's population of illiterates has now reached 100 million. This means that the illiterate in the Arab world easily constitute a population bigger than that of Germany - without counting the semi-illiterate and the technologically illiterate.
I was about to forget the story of the 100 million illiterates when I found myself facing other news. The First Arab Report on Cultural Development revealed that reading is not among the established habits of Arabs. The report noted that published books in the various fields of science and knowledge represent no more than 15% of all books published in the Arab world last year. It also noted that one book is published for every 12,000 Arabs versus one book for every 500 Britons and 900 Germans. In other words, the reading average in the Arab world is almost 4% of that in Britain.
I was taken by a sense of defeat that was doubled as I read about an incentive plan by the German government aiming at attracting brilliant researchers from all over the world. The plan offers deserving and willing researchers the opportunity to finance their projects on German territory with expected great returns, including the opportunity to restore German universities to the top ranks among the best universities in the world.
It is no secret that the future is made today, in schools, universities, research centers and technological institutes. Evidently we are losing the battle for the future. We are not asking for sending an Arab probe to the moon. We demand probing the Arab mind itself to find out how it has frozen and discover how we can bring its comatose state to an end. The largest party in the Arab world is the party of illiterates. The loudest voice in the Arab world is that of the semi-illiterate. This is horrific. The probe has to dig deep inside the Arab mind before it can find out what went wrong. We neither write nor read, and if we write, it is ancient language that we produce. This is why we have lost our status and this is why we envy the Indian probe. We have lost the space too and won nothing but the enjoyment of a pleasurable nap in front of TV screens.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Also the following quote from an Arab author: the circulation of a mediocrely successful book in Israel is greater than the one of a very successful one in the entire Arab world.
#5
And that, my friends, is the difference between the Arab mind and the Western one. They say,"Someone must find out why this is so." We say, "We currently have 100 million illiterates, that is X% of the population. What must we do to reduce that to 20% of adults and 5% of school children?"
The 2008 presidential election ended less than two weeks ago, but the mythmaking machine has already begun to churn. President-elect Barack Obama transformed the face of the electorate! The Republican Party will be a miserable minority in Congress for the next century! Cats and dogs are now living together! Below we explode the five biggest myths that have already sprung up around the election that was.
1. The Republican Party suffered a death blow.
There's no question that losing six Senate seats and 24 House seats (not to mention the White House) wasn't a step forward for the Grand Old Party. But there are two good reasons to believe that Republicans will be back on their feet sooner than many people expect.
First, much of the Republicans' permanent political class has concluded that electing Sen. John McCain as president would have amounted to applying a Band-Aid to a gaping wound. Given the state of the party -- bereft of a signature new idea and without many fresh faces -- plenty of Republican operatives have come to subscribe to what I'd call the Ra's al Ghul theory of rebuilding: Ghul, a villain in the movie "Batman Begins," advocates destroying the city of Gotham to rebuild it from the ground up. "It is beyond saving and must be allowed to die," he says -- a sentiment echoed by many Republicans these days, who argue that hitting rock bottom was the only way to allow new faces and ideas to emerge.
#1
Perhaps a quibble, but the "8 years of the Bush administration" were so bad they produced Bush's re-election and an atypical pick-up in House seats during his first mid-term election. So it wasn't 8 years - it was 1 or 2, maybe 2.5, starting in 2005.
Plus, gotta love this MSMer casually referring to the "poisonous" atmosphere facing the GOP. Gee, guy, who do you think was responsible for a major part of that poison?
For all of Bush's failings (limited, but important), and his utter and inexplicable refusal to defend or explain his policies or, really, engage in politics while in office, it is the outlandish distortion and bias of the media that are the more important and more enduring problem. We're now essentially conducting an experiment on how a modern democratic society operates when it has limited access to accurate information or analysis. First result - the empty suit president-elect.
Aside from all that, the treatment of Bush by the media, and more broadly by the society (and not just the cultural or educational swamps - but the electorate), has been a contemptible and inexcusable thing, and has forever changed my feeling about the country.
And I'd argue you can't separate the casual and despicable slander of Bush by so many public figures from the ease with which our military is slimed and insulted.
#2
Mccain was also not helped by the angst of many Arizona and SW US Voters on the steady rise and influx of illegals into the region, as coupled wid the "virtual border/border fence" fracas = voter-perceived lack of willingness on the part of Public Govt to even try to [seriously]stop the illegals. LOCALS > IFF MCCAIN, RICHARDSON, + OTHER POLS CAN'T RESOLVE SERIOUS PROBS OR ISSUES AFFECTING THEIR OWN AREAS, HOW CAN THEY PER THE NATION AND WORLD? This kind of Voter anger played well to the already anti-Dubya/GOP MSM.
#3
It's the exact same slander, Verlaine, not merely connected: the besliming of those who sacrifice to protect and serve the rest of us instead of choosing to advance only themselves.
On 7 November, American military aircraft once again violated Pakistani airspace to launch another missile attack on civilian targets in northern Pakistan. This was the 20th attack since August in which many civilians have been made shaheed.
Furthermore in September, American Special forces launched a raid on Angoor Adda killing 20 civilians in Pakistan after secret orders were given to them by President Bush to launch land attacks. Since the fighting in FATA over 700,000 people have been displaced from their homes and are now facing the harsh winter in the northern areas.
Americas undeclared war on Pakistan
While America, fearful of fighting a country with the worlds sixth largest army, has not formally declared war on Pakistan, it is carrying out regular military incursions on Pakistani soil. President Bush has given orders for 13,000 additional troops to be sent to the Afghan border and Barack Obama during his campaign speeches pledged he will move two battalions to the border. Furthermore, he went to state we must get off the wrong battlefield in Iraq and get on the right one in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He has openly declared that if Pakistan is not prepared to kill the so-called militants operating in the northern regions, then America will unilaterally attack targets in Pakistan. It is now a daily occurrence that the American military is violating Pakistans sovereignty. Are these not the statements and policies of war?
The war on terror
The state of affairs in Afghanistan today is not due to terrorism; rather it is the result of the American invasion. The people of Afghanistan have retaliated by fighting these occupiers using hit and run tactics. Have we not seen how the Americans created a similar situation in Iraq? Did we not witness how they took what was one of the most developed Arab nations at the time, imposed on it harsh sanctions before dividing it into three weak states which they control through a puppet government in Baghdad. Now the Americans have turned their attention to the most powerful Muslim country, Pakistan.
Pakistan the next Iraq
By accusing it of harbouring terrorists and the military of being terrorist sympathisers the Americans are following the same path as in Iraq. The famous 45 minute lie was used to create panic in the West so that there would be justification for attacks. Today, the media is reporting that Pakistan, with its nuclear weapons, is a failed state and out of control in order to justify its attack. By forcing the Pakistani army to attack the people in FATA, the Americans have created civil conflict in Pakistan and are using the same tactics to suggest that Pakistan is out of control. Some of the American policy think-tanks are openly suggesting that Pakistan should be divided into smaller states and have part of the land annexed to Afghanistan and Iran. The Indian government and the Mayor of Kabul, the American agent Karzai, have been the most vocal in supporting the American propaganda.
Pakistans puppet democracy is the problem
Todays democratically elected farcical and corrupt government has continued the same policy by helping the Americans in their attacks. Despite the half hearted protests against the attacks the Zardari-Gilani government continues to allow supplies for American forces to be sent through Karachi. They have given open support to the American attacks and supported the American media lies to suggest that Pakistan is facing an internal insurgency. They have betrayed the people of Kashmir by moving troops from Kashmir to the FATA to support American troops, which has also assisted the Americans to strengthen the hand of their new allies, the Indian occupiers, in Kashmir.
Pakistans economic crisis
Decades of Western economic solutions and adherence to the IMF have brought Pakistan to the brink of disaster. Despite Pakistan having abundant agricultural and mineral resources and even being able to manufacture its own heavy weapons the economy was built on the imitation of weak western solutions by corrupt democratic and dictatorial governments alike. Now the IMF is being used as a political tool to further weaken the country by demanding cuts in defence spending before the Zardari government will be permitted to line their pockets. The people of Pakistan already facing great hardship and are now faced with up to 10 hours of load shedding and huge price hikes for basic foodstuff.
Only Khilafah can address the needs of Pakistan
Only the Khilafah will establish a sovereign government that is not a puppet to Western colonialist nations where democracy and dictatorship have established subservience. It will be obliged to establish unity and defend the blood and honour of the people against foreign aggression. It will establish a stable economy with gold backed currency and utilise the resources to provide for people, not privatise to provide profits for foreign companies and corrupt parliamentarians.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/18/2008 00:00 ||
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OTOH, PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > MOSCOW'S UNDECLARED WAR IN INGUSHETIA/UNREPORTED, UNDECLARED, RUSSIA SPREADS ITS WAR TO INGUSHETIA, ANOTHER CHECHNYA!?
#3
Yeah, that guy is right! Caliphate & Sharia-based Economy! That's ticket to make pakiland a Superpower that shall humble and dominate India - next stop, the world.
Yaaaassss... because, if there's one thing that islam has produced over and over all through the centuries, it's certainly moral, well-adjusted societies...
#1
Without moral corruption, like would be very, VERY, boring.
I, for one, would like to propose a net INCREASE in moral corruption, to be implemented immediately.
I'm going to go have a beer right now to celebrate this bold new decree.
Barack Obama sought to silence his critics during his 2008 campaign. Now, with the ink barely dry on this November's ballots, Obama has begun a war against conservative talk radio.
Obama is on record as saying he does not plan an exhumation of the now-dead "Fairness Doctrine". Instead, Obama's attack on free speech will be far less understood by the general public and accordingly, far more dangerous.
Continued on Page 49
#1
If a few complaints about an FCC licensee is enough to interfere with the renewal of its license, it would be easier to gum up the entire FCC renewal system by submitting a few complaints about each and every FCC licensee across the country. Jujitsu works both ways.
#2
In San Diego we have local conservative talk show hosts. One of them is Rick Roberts who frequently fills in for Michael Savage so he has national experience as well. How are they going to silence him?
This is really scary stuff. Really, really scary. Anti-democratic, dark and evil.
BTW, would it mean they're gonna shut down Clear Channel while they're at it. CC has been the worst thing that ever happened to music on the radio and they desperately need to go away. Or does the One prefer bland, boring music over the seditious strains of genuine rock'n'roll played by real people?
But I think streaming audio over the Internet could provide a remedy...that is until the One figures out what to do about that. As for listening in your car, it's about time we got computers with broadband wireless Internet in our cars and hook them up to the speakers. That would be far more versatile than the current radio/CD players. That's just another case where the geniuses in Detroit have dropped the ball.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/18/2008 13:24 Comments ||
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#3
Will they entertain my complaints about a Prairie Home Companion?
#6
IT sounds similar to the Canadian content law on a microscale. The result of that law was Bob & Doug McKenzie on the end of most episodes of SCTV. I suspect that having one block of local programming would be more than enough to satisfy all but the most obvious partisans when it comes to local content. Either that or one day a week is entirely local content.
If not, I suspect a lot of new and varied conservative voices will fill in the void rather than have stations be silenced.
Conservatism isn't simply in political retreat, it is fast travelling beyond the pale, fast becoming anathema in America. And not just "conservatism"--any bumper sticker sentiment that denies due reverence for the precepts of progressivesm as exemplified by the leftward evolving sensibility of the media and cultural mainstream. We had support for McCain-Palin support garner a concussion for a college freshman here; an arrest for a passer-by here; and now general opprobrium and even curses here--and toward a middle schooler!
It is anything that smacks of the traditional that is under assault now in the public sphere, in the cultural mainstream, and sometimes literally.
Look at the reaction to the passage of Proposition 8 in California, which amends the California Constitution to limit marriage to one man and one woman. Having seen homosexual marriage fail at the polls by a margin of 52 to 47 percent, Prop 8 opponents are already busy filing lawsuits, hoping to overturn the poll results in the courts, staging protests, and singling out for ridicule and attack at least the weaker elements of the coalition that brought the proposition to victory: namely, the Mormons, who heavily supported the measure. Opponents of the measure are not, notably enough, targeting black voters, who also heavily supported the man-woman marriage measure.
The Los Angeles Times reports generally about what it describes as "an outpouring of demonstrations ranging from quiet vigils to noisy street protests against Proposition 8, including rallies outside churches and the Mormon temple in Westwood as well as boycotts of some businesses that contributed to the Yes on 8 campaign."
#1
Thin end of the wedge and all that. Soon it'll be NAMBLA and man-boy-goat night down at the firehall. And people still insist there's no slippery slope.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/18/2008 11:54 Comments ||
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#2
As I recall, Hitler's Sturmabteilung, from whom we get the term "brownshirts" had a substantial "gay" membership, including its leader.
Posted by: me myself and I ||
11/18/2008 12:04 Comments ||
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#3
As I recall, Hitler's Sturmabteilung, from whom we get the term "brownshirts" had a substantial "gay" membership, including its leader.
#6
Thanks A5089. Maybe I should revise "substantial gay membership" and just say, the SA was a gay military organization. And the Nazi Party too, apparently.
Posted by: me myself and I ||
11/18/2008 15:02 Comments ||
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#8
I wish these people would quit apologizing for their principles. It makes them look weak and waffling, heck, in contrast this restaurant lady should've said:
"oh, I offended you by supporting Prop 8...too fucking bad, get over it. How do you like those enchiladas!?"
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
By Jim Boulet, Jr.
