October 2007
Monthly Archive
Monday 22 Oct 2007
Digest 34: Delivered Straight to Your “Door”
The Scourge of War
The Good and the Bad News about the Bush Wars
On the one hand, The War on Terror hasn’t become entirely like total war in WW2, yet there still isn’t much of a mass movement to unseat the imperialist genocidsts occupying positions of power right now.
This piece is so powerful and dares to refer to the death inflicted by American forces in Iraq as genocide.
Airstrikes Hit Civilians in Pakistan: Hundreds Dead In Latest Round Of Terror War By Proxy
I have one slight quibble to make with this comment:
“That analogy and its bloddy-minded “moral” were seriously flawed for two reasons. First of all, the U.S. couldn’t stay on and fight in Vietnam, even if it wanted to, because increasingly after 1968, the soldiers on the ground were refusing to fight, and in many cases were in passive or even open revolt against their officers, and besides, they were losing to the infinitely more motivated Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. And secondly, Iraq’s insurgents are not coming from another part of the country that is sheltered from attack by US troops, the way North Vietnamese regulars were coming down to help their brothers and sisters in South Vietnam,. Iranian troops aren’t fighting and dying, or even being captured, in Iraq. It is the Iraqi people who are living in and around the U.S. forces that are fighting them.”
I have heard from a credible person that the head North Vietnamese general was surprised that the Americans pulled out because the NVA/Vietcong were not militarily winning the conflict, and had lost a lot of their strength in the infamous Tet Offensive of 1968. Of course, it’s undoubtedly true that the Tet Offensive was a political victory since many Americans or Congress people did not wish to further continue the U.S. role in the conflict. It’s common practice for anti-colonialist forces to wear down a larger and better equipped imperial power rather than to outright win the military conflict.
An Antiwar Defense of Blackwater
If you or I didn’t have to pay the costs of war, then would there be as much of it? Is military state socialism a positive or a negative? I like to see it as a negative, and wish I could end all finical support for the U.S. standing armed forces tomorrow without risking jail time. I only registered for the selective service after they sent me a “nice” letter reminding me of the 250,000 fine or jail time for not doing so. I was just ignoring them up until then 
Isolationism and the Foreign New Deal
Murray Rothbard delivers a good explanation of isolationist sentiment in WW2. It’s the fifth chapter of his The Betrayal of the American Right.
The Holidays of American Culture
A very balanced perspective on Columbus day that points out the horrors of both the man and the native peoples.
Unhealthy Ideas on Health
Drug Money and the Clinton Campaign
Clinton’s proposed healthcare reform plan is to universalize the Massachusetts policy of compulsory health insurance. Yes, you heard that right. In the alleged land of the free, you’ll have to put money into the coffers of the health insurance companies or face a tax penalty/fine.
I had to wonder about how much money the Clinton campaign was receiving from insurance companies, so this article caught my eye. Check out this part:
“Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler supports Hillary Clinton for president. This is an abrupt departure from the path taken by Kindler’s predecessor, Hank McKinnell. McKinnell was a Bush Ranger and right-wing Republican who repeatedly asked Pfizer employees to support Presidents Bush’s reelection campaign.”
Insurance policies help pay for drugs, so it would be perfectly logical for a CEO of a major drug company to support a candidate whose policy was to mandate the purchasing of health insurance. They will get guaranteed profits in the situations where people rely on insurance to purchase the medicines they need.
You could make the same point about President Bush’s prescription drug plan for seniors. The drug companies get customers they might not have otherwise had, since the state takes the money via taxation and then hands it over to the drug corporations.
In other words: this is the operation of the corporate state we’re seeing at work.
Civil Liberties to Hold Onto
Coming Soon to an Antiwar Demo Near You?
For anybody who plans to attend a protest in the future.
And this too: Unguarded Moment: Another Brake on Tyranny Stripped Away
Economics to Oppress
Cheap HIV Drugs More Important Than Patents
A recent conversation with someone showed me just what a price difference patents can make. They buy a generic brand — thus competition in the manufacture of that drug has been allowed — of a drug that costs 4 dollars while the name brand would be 50. I can’t remember whether that was after insurance paid for part of it or not though.
Laughs to be Had
Reaganomics Finally Trickles Down to Area Man
Supply-side economics worked after all. You just had to have patience.
Sex and Romance to Be Inspired By
A Review of the Movie Flirting
I can’t find this movie anywhere! May be time to sign onto Netflix instead of hunting around video stores for movies.
A Review of the Erotica Collection Called Animal Attractions
For the bestiality inclined. A taboo breaking sentence
By the way, some may have noticed that Lady Venus is my name at the moment. I’ve decided to undergo a sex change after returning to a pondering of transgenderism I had done a while back. I haven’t really settled on it yet though, so anyone who has a neat suggestion is welcome to offer one.
Sunday 21 Oct 2007
Digest 33
I’ve altered it a bit from its original posting in the Yahoo Group.
War and Peace’in it
Ahmadinejad at Colombia: A Libertarian Student’s Perspective
Like him or despise the guy, the attack on the Iranian president on some things is downright war propaganda. I do find the Iranian regime to be deplorable yet strongly oppose an attack on Iran by the U.S. government.
On a related note, check out this other piece on the speech listed below:
Where Raimando links to an elaboration on why homosexuality has a different meaning in Iran than in America. I’ll just quote it in full since it’s short:
“The National Post opines: “Of all the provocative things for the Iranian president to say in his rambling address, the strangest has to be his contention that there are no gay people in Iran.”
Yet not so strange, if you understand his point of view. In Iran, you see, homosexuals are thought of as women trapped in male bodies. That’s why they offer free operations for those who want to change their sex (from male to female, that is. Women into men would be too much for them to handle.)
In the Persian mindset—and in much of the Muslim world—anyone who wants a man is, in essence, a woman. That’s why there’s so much more sodomy in that part of the world than even in certain English boarding schools—coupled with unrelenting hostility to homosexual identity. After all, if women are veiled and generally unavailable, and, furthermore, men who have sex with men are perceived by the Persians as really women, then … well, why not?
So, it’s a trade-off: the Persian gay boy gets laid by a lot of “straight” guys, but unless you’re willing to (literally!) become a eunuch, you’re taking a really really big risk.”
Of course, if you don’t get a sex change and proudly strut around with a gay identity then the Iranian Mullahs — being the closed minded and anti-hot gay sex tyrants that they are — will hang you.
Blinded by Hatred? On So-Called Pro-War Libertarians
What’s up with all this talk of pro-war libertarianism? When did mass murder become compatible with respect for individual life and rights?
Blackwater is about as genuinely private as Halliburtion. When your main business consists of helping out the local superpower occupy the latest conquered province, your not exactly a sterling example of private enterprise, but of that collusion between government and private economic interests that is characteristic of fascist economies. Remember that scene in the movie Schindler’s Listwhere Schindler is meeting with the Nazi war contracts people? Just insert American officials and a guy from Blackwater in there. You’ll understand my meaning then.
Will the Iraqi demand that the personnel involved in the recent alleged unprovoked shooting of innocent Iraqis be tried under Iraqi law cause a major confrontation between the U.S. military and the armed forces of the admittedly weak Iraqi state? Justin Raimando weighs in. I’d note that there is more than one incident in which Blackwater is accused of acting with excessive force. It’s coming to light that there were attempted coverups with assistance from the state department.
And guess what? Blackwater is still getting contracts as we speak. That’s crony capitalism for you.
It’s the Sexual Revolution All Over Again
Sex Toys and the Technology of Orgasm
You have to read this one or the sex police will show up at your door. Not really, but it’s very interesting. I had no idea that vibrators were originally used for the purpose of “curing” people of the “disease” of hysteria.
Get this part too: “Doctors believed that using massage to bring women to orgasm would make them less emotional”
Let’s all deaden our feelings said the medical profession to women.
The lady blogger who wrote the above piece blogged about it too. I want to visit her In the Flesh: Erotic Reading Series when I go to NYC again.
You heard it right. There are hobo strippers in this world. I give them a thumbs up for novelty and living by their own standards.
From the Annals of Mark Morford
I was looking through Mark Morford’s archives today to track down a piece to link to on a message I was sending out on a Yahoo group and found some lovely pieces to include in this digest.
A blast to the past. Before there was Noam Chomsky, or Emma Goldman, or Murray Rothbard for me, there was the great Mark Morford who continues to lead the battle for freedom to access good porn on the net to this day.
Read some of his many pro-free wheeling sexuality columns and you’ll know what I mean.
The piece above was the first I ever read of him that my friend Thea sent me.
And to finish up, one of the aforementioned sexuality columns:
Don’t Disrespect Taco Night Folks
Son, You’ve Made A Mockery Of Taco Night
Song of the Week: Percy Sledge’s When a Man Loves a Woman
Watch it on YouTube
Or
Read the lyrics.
Friday 05 Oct 2007
Free Burma or Myammer: Whichever Name You Prefer
Please consider signing this Free Burma! petition.
Hat tip to Matt Jenny.
2 comments Natasha | Civil Liberties, LeftLibertarian.org, Miscellaneous
Thursday 04 Oct 2007
Sociopathic Bush Regime? Guess This Post is No Suriprise
Courtesy of Chris Floyd.
December 5, 2002 — If any of us are to have a future worth having, the world’s leaders, the members of Congress, the US corporate media and people of all political persuasions who value freedom and democracy had better start seeing George W. Bush for what he is: a sociopath and a passive serial killer.
Psychiatrists tell us that all serial killers lack the emotions that make us human; that they have to learn to emulate those emotions in order to get by in society. Hence, a charming, well educated fellow like Ted Bundy who is known to have murdered 15 women and may have killed 36 before he was caught.
While Bush is no Bundy, when it comes Bundy’s education and acquired charm, and to our knowledge has never personally murdered anyone, it has been evident to us that there is something missing in George W. in terms of his lack of compassion and empathy. As governor of Texas, he set a record in signing death warrants — 154 in five years. He even made fun of the way convicted killer Karla Faye Tucker begged for her life.
If we believe the psychiatrists, a sign of a future serial killer is a child who delights in torturing and killing animals. George W., as a child, did exactly that. In a May 21, 2000, New York Times’ puff piece about the values Bush gained growing up in Midland, Texas, Nicholas D. Kristof quoted Bush’s childhood friend Terry Throckmorton: “‘We were terrible to animals,’ recalled Mr. Throckmorton, laughing. A dip behind the Bush home turned into a small lake after a good rain, and thousands of frogs would come out. ‘Everybody would get BB guns and shoot them,’ Mr. Throckmorton said. ‘Or we’d put firecrackers in the frogs and throw them and blow them up.’”
On Sept. 12, 2000, Baltimore Sun reporter Miriam Miedzian wrote, “So when he was a kid, George W. enjoyed putting firecrackers into frogs, throwing them in the air, and then watching them blow up. Should this be cause for alarm? How relevant is a man’s childhood behavior to what he is like as an adult? And in this case, to what he would be like as president of the United States.”
The whole article is here, if anyone is interested in reading it all.
0 comments Natasha | LeftLibertarian.org, Miscellaneous, Non-Human Animal Issues
