17 January 2012

Passing Briefs ...

MLK the Socialist firebrand * How many slaves do you own? * Cancer Barbie vs AIDS Barbie * Technically colorblind * Purge of left-wing Federal employees? * Ancient civilization before the Hun? * Escaping monkeys * When Mr. Galloway came to Washington


While I do not like the definitive title of this Youtube clip, but the sentiments from King impressed me a long time ago. He was a "socialist" [not a "Socialist!]."

I am not a Christian in any form, but I am impressed by the example of the Jewish rabbinical carpenter who spoke about justice and our only human birthright: each other, who was executed by Rome, as I am impressed by the Baptist preacher who spoke of a just society, who demanded we do in deed and word to act against Our Rome, who was also executed by Rome.

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HOW MANY SLAVES DO YOU OWN?

I listened to an NPR-radio discussion this morning about the controversies around an infamous Apple Corporation plant/labor camp in China, where workers are committing suicide due to horrific work conditions and treatment.

The moderator asked the audience "how much more would you be willing to pay for you Apple products, and would you pay double" to ensure all the workers in the development were paid well and afforded labor rights?

Can you imagine an abolitionist asking such a morally bankrupt question in 1850? NO! Only a slave trader would pose such a question.

The question to ask our iPhone- and ePad-loving society is Derrick Jenson's: How many slaves do you own?


Further, it is the wrong question posed by our masters: how should we compete with China? The correct question is: Should we?

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There used to be a lively, radical 'zine in San Francisco put out by activists from ACT UP/SF (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) called DISEASED PARIAH NEWS [DPN], which featured "AIDS Barbie" complete with photos of her swathed in KS lesions and stories about her vomiting from the side effects of those noxious drugs. MATTEL tried to sue.

DPN packed a punch back in those street marching, AIDS-phobic times.

Now I wonder if we're at risk of normalizing a cancer pandemic among women without really solving it. And I wonder what Mattel's contribution - who dropped the lawsuit earlier because these activists weren't dumb enough to incorporate and list their names - is doing with cancer Barbie.

What eats at me is we no longer have a health industry but rather a pharmaceutical economy. We no longer end disease but find expensive, patented treatments to enrich big pharm.

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"Technically it's not mine"

... aka technically it's not my canal, technically it's not my land, technically it's not my oil, technically it's not my country, ... but we're going to bomb it/steal it/drain it anyway ... funny how lack of values spread like a plague and WHO is permitted to commit the crime and who is presumed guilty prima facie.

Color blind my ass. The undercover video shows who we are in word vs deed.

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“I think an intelligent conservative wants the right federal employees delivering the right services in a highly efficient way and then wants to get rid of those folks who are in fact wasteful, or those folks who are ideologically so far to the left, or those people who want to frankly dictate to the rest of us,” Gingrich said in response to a question from a federal employee at the forum.

Yeah, I just got a copy of TSA's Office of Human Capital's Management Directive HB Addressing Unacceptable Performance & Conduct ... 15-day suspension, 15-day suspension, Removal from Federal Service, Removal from Federal Service.

Gingrich wants to frighten federal employees into silence and submission. The ground has already been plowed by the current administration!

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And this BBC story is supposed to be a surprise, that civilization began with the Western religions and Conquest??

Civilization ended with the Western religions and the Conquest. The barbarians - by sheer, brute force forged from whence they came: barren, cold Europe - imposed themselves on the richest, most civilized parts of the world to extract resources to make the wasteland of Europe into an industrial power house.

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This story from Brazil about some ingenious monkeys is proof that not only are other species smarter than we credit them but also these monkeys are smarter than most of us.

At least they have the sense to try and escape from their prisons while we keep endorsing, collaborating, defending, justifying our failed state, waiting like characters from old Greek drama for the Deus ex machina to come down from stage left to right all wrong.

***

This 43-minute Youtube video is might seem somewhat dated coming from 2005. But in case you missed the original airing and in light of the alleged US troop withdrawal from Iraq - almost 10 years later!! - it's worthy to note how George Galloway undresses and owns our useless US Senate.

Galloway is a firebrand socialist and, at the time, a member of the British Parliament. Then British prime minister, Tony Blair, orchestrated Galloway's removal from the Labour Party for his criticism of the illegal war. Galloway bashed back by forming his own political party, running against a Labour MP, and winning.

Go, George!

Often apologists and revisionists gloss over historical atrocities saying the ancient times weren't thinking as advanced as we [supposedly] are. This is a lie. Fr de las Casas made sermons against the Spanish extermination of the indigenous population in the Americas. He was ignored. The British Anti-War movement, and members of the British Parliament, like Galloway and Glenda Jackson, spoke loudly through the smokescreens of the rationales for war.

There is always someone speaking out.