Frognosis

Hindenburg Omen

noreply@blogger.com (sm/dvmx) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:10:00 +0000

Market doom signal confirmed. Some await with baited breath. Some already baiting.

The End of (Military) History? The United States, Israel, and the Failure of the Western Way of War

noreply@blogger.com (sm/dvmx) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 01:42:00 +0000

Important article by Andrew Bacevich; excerpts:

". . . By 2007, the American officer corps itself gave up on victory, although without giving up on war. First in Iraq, then in Afghanistan, priorities shifted. High-ranking generals shelved their expectations of winning- at least as a Rabin or Schwarzkopf would have understood that term. They sought instead to not lose. In Washington as in U.S. military command posts, the avoidance of outright defeat emerged as the new gold standard of success.

". . . It remains to be seen whether Israel and the United States can come to terms with the end of military history. Other nations have long since done so, accommodating themselves to the changing rhythms of international politics. . . .

" . . . There is a chattering claque of militarists, calling for jihad and insisting on ever greater exertions, while remaining alert to any hint of backsliding. In Washington, members of this militarist camp, by no means coincidentally including many of the voices that most insistently defend Israeli bellicosity, tacitly collaborate in excluding or marginalizing views that they deem heretical. As a consequence, what passes for debate on matters relating to national security is a sham."

The End of (Military) History? The United States, Israel, and the Failure of the Western Way of War- Andrew Bacevich, Author of The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism

Sakineh Ashtiani and the Fate of Iran

noreply@blogger.com (sm/dvmx) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:30:00 +0000

Iran July 8, 2010: Sakineh Ashtiani, an Iranian mother of two, was accused by her husband of adultery, and was condemned to 99 lashes; upon review, a more zealous judge changed the sentence to death by stoning; a sentence which may be carried out at any time. In Iran, women who are executed by stoning are first buried up to the neck; only small stones are thrown to guarantee slow and painful death.

International outrage is there, to be sure. But outrage abroad won't stop this monstrosity from happening, the outcome depends on maneuverings in the deep obscurity of Iranian politics. We have seen two faces of Iran- the retrograde mullah world, and the modernity of the Green movement last year. Which is the real Iran now?

Frognosis: If Sakineh is unjustly executed in this barbarous manner, the stain on Iran's honor will be powerful, and the face of Iran seen by the world will be ugly, making it much easier for Israel to launch a pre-emptive attack.

Update July 26: Sakineh's lawyer's family arrested; warrant out for her lawyer, Mostafaei. More recent updates at FreeSakineh.org.

See also "Sakineh and Neda" by Azar Nafisi at the HuffPo

Update, July 9, 2010: A message from AVAAZ.org

Dear Friends,
Yesterday an Iranian woman, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was saved by global protests from being stoned to death.
But she may still be hanged -- and, meanwhile, execution by stoning continues. Right now fifteen more people are on death row awaiting stoning in which victims are buried up to their necks in the ground and then large rocks are thrown at their heads.

The partial reprieve of Sakineh, triggered by the call from her children for international pressure to save her life, has shown that if enough of us come together and voice our horror, we may be able to save her life, and stop stoning once and for all. Sign the urgent petition now and send it onto everyone you know -- let's end this cruel slaughter now!

Sakineh was convicted of adultery, like all the other 12 women and one of the men awaiting stoning. But her children and lawyer say she is innocent and that she did not get a fair trial -- they state her confession was forced from her and, speaking only Azerbaijani, she did not understand what was being asked of her in court.

Despite Iran's signing of a UN convention that requires the death penalty only be used for the "most serious crimes" and despite the Iranian Parliament passing a law banning stoning last year, stoning for adultery continues.

Sakineh's lawyer says the Iranian government "is afraid of Iranian public reaction and international attention" to the stoning cases. And after Turkey and Britain's Foreign Ministers spoke out against Sakineh's sentence, it was suspended.

Sakineh's brave children are leading the international campaign to save their mother and stop stoning. Massive international condemnation now could finally stop this sickening punishment. Let's join together today across the world to end this brutality. Sign the petition to save Sakineh and end stoning here

In hope and determination,
Alice, David, Milena, Ben and the whole Avaaz team

When the roof caves in...

noreply@blogger.com (sm/dvmx) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:34:00 +0000

Last spring there was a rare-breed-rabbit convention in Sweden. All kinds of super special rabbits... then there was a snowfall and the roof of the building collapsed and all the humans fled... when they got back, they discovered all the rabbits had gotten loose, and with no humans around, you guessed it, had been doing what rabbits are famous for, mixing up the breeds, quel désastre!

"They made new friends and they became a bit aroused by the incident. The builders told me it was a veritable circus in there," one rabbit breeder told public broadcaster SVT's local Sörmland affiliate.

With rabbits of all stripes and colours trapped in the wreckage the pairing frenzy has thrown up all manner of new combinations, as Dwarf Hotots nuzzled up to British Giants and Lionheads mounted Himalayans.

"When the dust had settled and relieved owners returned home with their rescued rabbits, some 50 to 70 breeders found they were the beneficiaries of surprise litters, local newspaper Södermanlands Nyheter reports."

I hope that's what we humans do when our roof caves in...

(unlikely though. . . rabbits don't stockpile weapons)

Catching Up

noreply@blogger.com (sm/dvmx) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:11:00 +0000

Well, It's been a couple years since I last posted, before the election of 2008. Where are we now? First, overjoyed that Obama won the election, and then progressively more disappointed as he left rendition and secret prisons, Guantanamo, and the wars in place. Looks like he couldn't stand up to the war industry, not even slightly. Same goes for the financial industry, the pharmaceutical and health-insurance 'industries', the petrochemical industries, and the telecoms. He hasn't even purged the Justice Dept of the worst Bush era abuses and abusers, and continues to put forward Bushian arguments in the courts. To make it worse, he has gone after the whistleblowers instead of the criminals. As for a new foreign policy, his administration apparently takes orders from Likud, just like the previous.

Looks bad; either he's impotent or a collaborator. Somehow I still like the guy, but we sure are badly disappointed. That Nobel Prize wouldn't have happened if they had waited a couple years to see what he would actually do.

Worrying the Election

noreply@blogger.com (sm/dvmx) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:25:00 +0000

I'm afraid that if Hillary prevails the wind will go out of our sails, the youth and newly awakened will quit and go back to sleep, echoing suspicions will widen a chasm of resentment within our electorate, independents will desert to McCain, and in the end, having killed the Unique excitement wave, Hillary will be weakened and undefended when the Zombicans come after her in the fall, reptilians slithering through the cornfields, a twilight Shyalaman scene...

more

Abolishing The IRS

noreply@blogger.com (sm/dvmx) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:14:00 +0000

Two Republican candidates, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul, have both called for the elimination of the IRS and the income tax. Instead, government revenues would come from a national sales tax, with adjustments so as not to penalize lower income households*.

Abolish the IRS, and put an end to payroll taxes, witholding taxes, income taxes, and capital gains taxes- rewarding earnings, savings and investment, while shifting the tax burden to consumption, which we can all agree we do too much of anyway. It makes great sense. Maybe our citizens would discover the pleasures of saving money, and if they did, they'd be investing it in our future, and earning tax-free profits on our growth. We have the reverse now, where we deepen our debt hole, increasing a negative investment in the future.

Could there not be a huge appeal in this idea? Even beyond the visceral shout of joy we may feel at the idea of ending the IRS and the income tax, surely one of the greatest causes of anxiety and trouble for the citizen, the IRS is also the foundational rationalisation for the government's invasion of personal privacy, which has lately run amok. Abolishing taxes on income and earnings, and making up the revenue with a modified VAT, makes a lot of sense in an age of toxic over-consumption, shrinking income in the middle class, and negative savings rates; tax consumption, not earnings and savings.

I wonder if abolishing the IRS can emerge as a pivotal issue in 2008. For one thing, politicians and talking heads are fundamentally lazy, and this one sounds like it could be complicated. And there must be tens of millions of people who live off the whole income tax lollapalooza; they'll want to keep this quiet too.
More importantly perhaps, we measure the health of our economy by the growth in consumer spending, regardless of growing debt. You hear the monthly reports, 'Consumer spending, which represents 72 percent of the economy, grew in the last quarter....'
This is a pretty stupid way of measuring the health of the economy.
Changing our measures along with abolishing the IRS, we might hear instead something along these lines: 'Economists are buoyant on the nation's health- over the last month, earnings increased 5%, individual savings increased 4.8% , and investment increased 4%, while consumption grew at 1.5%...'

Unfortunately, this is an idea that is not part of any of the democratic candidates' policy promises.

*In France in the 70's for example, VAT rates were at the maximum on luxury goods, and diminshed to zero on necessities. Huckabee has proposed a 'prebate' of the percent of the individual's income that would be collected in the VAT. (This opens the door to federal inspection of income records, which could snowball into a mini-IRS. The French solution avoids this.)

Signs and Wonders

noreply@blogger.com (sm/dvmx) — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 07:08:00 +0000

Manhattanites stroll in t-shirts as temperatures hit 72 degrees; the next day the region is bathed in a foul smell, like methane. In Austin Texas, scores of birds drop dead from the sky, littering the streets; men in space suits close and scour a 10 block area of downtown. Causes remain mysteries.

Defense Department Funding Weaponized Suicide Gene?

noreply@blogger.com (sm/dvmx) — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 18:42:00 +0000

The New Scientist reports on Defense Dept funded efforts to discover lethal genes:
'"There must be some DNA or protein sequences that are not compatible with life, perhaps because they bind some essential cellular component, for example, and have therefore been selected out of circulation. There may also be some that are lethal in some species, but not others. We're looking for those sequences.'
...Hampikian believes the applications of his work could be wide-ranging. He has already received a $1 million grant from the US Department of Defense...
"...there is the possibility of constructing a "suicide gene" to code for deadly amino acid primes. It could be attached to genetically modified organisms and activated to destroy them at a later date if they turned out to be dangerous, Hampikian suggests" New Scientist Jan 07

Global Orgasm for Peace

noreply@blogger.com (sm/dvmx) — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 08:11:00 +0000

"The Event

WHO? All Men and Women, you and everyone
you know.

WHERE? Everywhere in the world, but especially in countries with weapons of mass destruction.

WHEN?
Winter Solstice Day - Friday, December 22nd,
at the time of your choosing, in the place of your choosing and with as much privacy as you choose.

WHY? To effect positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy a Synchronized Global Orgasm. There are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti-submarine equipment that can only be for use against Iran, so the time to change Earth’s energy is NOW!"

“Rapture as a state of being explodes the very subjectivity of the subject.”
- Friedrich Nietsche