July 5, 2010 archive
Jul 05 2010
Open Scent
Jul 05 2010
Iraq War Ended But Nobody Told You
According to a New York Times Special Edition almost two full f’ing years ago, and while you weren’t looking because you were distracted by the dazzling light of the 2008 Presidential election campaign, both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars had been finally brought to an end shortly after the November 2008 Presidential Election and before Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, and all US troops in both countries returned home immediately.
Across the country and around the world thousands took to the streets to celebrate the culmination of years of progressive pressuring of the Bush administration and Congress, but the rest of the media and most blogs never reported this because they were too busy shining you.
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has publicly apologized on behalf of the Bush administration and admitted that the administration simply lied through it’s teeth to justify the initial invasion, that she and Mr. Bush had known well before the invasion that Saddam Hussein lacked weapons of mass destruction, and that the hundreds of thousands of US Troops in the country in fact never did face instant obliteration.
“It was all complete and utter bullshit” Rice said tearfully, as she begged a weary nation for forgiveness, while she was led away in handcuffs by four burly officers.
George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, was indicted on charges of high treason, took it like a man, and didn’t even stamp his foot, or curl his lip.
In other news that you were never told about at the time because all the big blogs were busy blowing smoke up your ass to generate the massive advertising revenue that has always been their real raison d’etre, the controversial USA PATRIOT Act was repealed by Congress by a vote of 99-1 in the Senate and 520 to 18 in the House, Congress voted to nationalize the entire oil industry and place ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, British Petroleum, and other major oil companies under public stewardship to fund addressing climate change worldwide.
Jul 05 2010
News at Noon
| From Reuters |
BP eyes stake sale as spill cost tops $3 billion
By Raji Menon and Eman Goma
July 5, 2010
| (Reuters) – Shareholders in British oil company BP balked at reports it would seek urgent investment from a wealthy Middle East or Asian country as clean-up costs for its U.S. oil spill topped $3 billion.
Over the weekend, while U.S. Independence Day holidaymakers shunned Gulf of Mexico beaches tarred by the leaking well, media reports said BP was looking for a strategic investor among the sovereign wealth funds of the Middle East and Asia. An investor would help ward off a takeover and raise funds for the liabilities racking up behind the worst oil spill in U.S. history, the reports said. |
Jul 05 2010
Muse in the Morning
 Muse in the Morning |
things of no good
and of no use to yourself.
What is truly useful and good
is truly harder than hard to do.
Phenomena VIII: accepting
 Becalmed
|
Jul 05 2010
Pique the Geek 20100704: The Science of Fireworks
This has been sort of a recurring theme for me the past few years for the installment nearest Independence Day. You can hit my profile and find the earlier entries in this series.
This time, I intend to focus on the single greatest improvement in technology (other than the development of black powder) that has made modern, highly colored fireworks possible. Until relatively recently the only colors available were white, yellow, and a dull red, with very faded out, compared to today, other colors.
First some theory, then some facts. Please follow.
Jul 05 2010
George Orwell and Howard Zinn on Nationalism
Crossposted at Daily Kos
Writing in 1945 in his remarkable essay Notes on Nationalism, author George Orwell noted the following distinction between patriotism and nationalism
Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By “patriotism” I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality.
— Author and journalist George Orwell