December 17, 2010 archive

Women’s Work

Baluchi rug from Nimruz Province
A Baluchi rug from Nimruz Province, Afghanistan

“But the longer I stayed, the less consistent the answers became. Yesterday’s Aimaq could be today’s Taimani. I mention all this as a way of explaining how very difficult it is to get a clear understanding of rug weaving in Afghanistan. There are still plenty of real Turkoman and Baluch to talk to – and real work to be done, perhaps by Western women with language skills. Weaving is part of the womens’ world and men will always be outsiders.”

-Jerry Anderson

 

Random Japan

ALL NIPPON SCAREWAYS

It was revealed that an ANA flight was about 30 seconds from crashing into a Hokkaido mountain before a warning went off, spurring pilots into quick action to avoid catastrophe. An air-traffic controller was blamed for the near mishap.

In another near-miss, an ANA flight taxied onto a runway where a JAL Express plane was about to land at Osaka airport in 2009 because a pilot misheard a flight number.

The Japan Coast Guard officer who made public controversial video footage of a collision with a Chinese fishing boat through YouTube, said he first sent the clip to CNN but they tossed the SD card in the trash because they didn’t know what was on it.

Now here’s a switch. Japan’s defense ministry apparently received notice from the Nagasaki government saying they’d be delighted to host some new submarines at the Sasebo base.

Open Lindy

Photobucket

Julian Assange 1st Presser After Release On Bail

RT | 17 December 2010 | The founder of the whistleblowing website Wikileaks released on bail by a British court says he will continue his work. An appeal by prosecutors to keep Julian Assange behind bars was rejected. But he’ll have to stay in Britain under house arrest until a decision is made on whether he should be extradited to Sweden over sexual assault allegations. That case was dropped in August, but later reopened, in a move widely seen as politically motivated.  

WWL Radio #92 Assange: McCarthying WikiLeaks (w/ special guest Jeff Huber)

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My Topics This Week:

Special Guest Cmdr Jeff Huber !

The rich got their big fat, you-funded welfare checks this week, handed to them by the Sitting Interns for their next position as Banking Interest Lobbyists, aka our Representatives in the Hallowed Halls of Korporatedom, I mean Congress, in the La-La land of Budget Directors turned Citibankers.

The false-flag terrorist threat again raises its puppet head for the Holiday Travel Season, bend over and cough for the nice TSA fondlers! Another soldier goes whack at Pope Air Force base, and the FBI stooge planted to create terrorism in a California Mosque turns on his handlers.

Truth is the enemy, and you are its enemy combatants! You see, with all the crazy news flowing out of the land of the treed? We are supposed to fear Assange!

“Are you now, or have you ever been affiliated with the subversive group called “Wikileaks?”

Ask Michael Moore or Naomi Klein…. in her words, “…. on the receiving end it feels like a mob.”

Cmd Jeff Huber will be joining us tonight to shred the illusions, and discuss the effort to McCarthyize Julian Assange and the transparency for which his group stands.

Be there!

WWL bringing you “out there where the buses don’t run” LEFT perspective with interviews, op/eds and straight talk since January of 2009!

Controversy? We face it. Cutting Edge? We step over it. Revolutions start with information, and The Wild Wild Left Radio brings you the best in information and op/eds from a position that others on the Left fear to tread…. all with a grain shaker of irreverent humor.

1st Amendment, 5th Estate

PhotobucketThere is no revolution without winning the hearts and minds of the very people who must fight it for you.

It not only matters that the information travels, but in how it travels. There are those whose job is in the painstaking research, often resulting in books, if only the footnotes in the same. There are those whose job is in straight, “unbiased” reporting for mainstream publications, local papers or scholastic journals. I think it is important to continue to support 4th estate. Without your subscriptions, how can entities like “The Nation” survive?

What is just as important to remember? Most of these very institutions have been pressed, in the name of “objectivity” to abdicate their duty to report without actual bias. Facts seem to have a penchant for a “liberal bias” by undermining the propaganda arm of the Right’s agenda.

Worse yet? Disgusted by the right-wing bloviating as “reporting” by dubious “news” channels like Fox, the Left has become unwilling to OPINE. Edward R Murrow would be spinning in his grave. There was a time, ladies and gentlemen, to do as he did and call McCarthyism what it was, and there is a time, and that time is now, to call Assangism what it is. Both things are an attempt to prevent the dissemination of ideas, cover up wrongs and demonize truth tellers to protect predatory capitalism. There are now constraints in place, constraints created by the very entities that benefit from the status quo that are put upon journalists who wish to make a living writing.

That is where we ground-level writers must do our duty, and fill the void. We have nothing to lose, and must speak the things the muzzled cannot…. speak them until it becomes impossible for the MSM to not address.

Where Is The Great Writ For Brad Manning?

Julian Assange is the big media story, but the unsung hero is probably Brad Manning.  Unfortunately, while Manning suffers in solitary confinement, as he has for the past 7 months, and we scour the leaked material for which he might be responsible, the subject of Manning’s torturous, stringent, long term confinement are noted with horror and contempt, but is anything being done to challenge them?  Put another way, where is the Great Writ, the writ of habeas corpus, for Brad Manning?

Docudharma Times Friday December 17




Friday’s Headlines:

Is Twitter really worth $3.7bn?

USA

Congress passes extension of Bush-era tax cuts

Wealth gap becomes chasm at Christmas

Europe

Tuberculosis thriving in ‘Victorian’ London, says expert

Ireland’s abortion law ‘violated woman’s rights’

Middle East

Tehran downplays Arab Wiki-dness

Asia

WikiLeaks cables: India accused of systematic use of torture in Kashmir

Australian asylum debate intensifies as Gillard feels pressure

Africa

Let there be justice, says Kenyan press

Troops kill Ouattara loyalists

Latin America

Haiti cholera death toll starts to rise again

Japan defence review warns of China’s military might

Japan has unveiled sweeping changes to its national defence polices, boosting its southern forces in response to neighbouring China’s military rise.

The BBC 17 December 2010  

Japan, which shares a maritime border with China, said Beijing’s military build-up was of global concern.

Japan will also strengthen its missile defences against the threat from a nuclear-armed North Korea.

The policy document has been approved by the cabinet and will shape Japan’s defence policy for the next 10 years.

Japan is changing its defence policy in response to the shifting balance of power in Asia, analysts say.

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Muse in the Morning

Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.

Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening.

–Mignon McLaughlin



Glyph 7

Late Night Karaoke

Jedi Mind Fuck

(Cross-posted from The Free Speech Zone)

From the beginning of his detention, Manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement.  For 23 out of 24 hours every day — for seven straight months and counting — he sits completely alone in his cell.  Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he’s barred even from exercising and is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions.  For reasons that appear completely punitive, he’s being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he is not and never has been on suicide watch).  For the one hour per day when he is freed from this isolation, he is barred from accessing any news or current events programs.  Lt. Villiard protested that the conditions are not “like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole,” but confirmed that he is in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he is taken out.

http://www.salon.com/news/opin…

My thoughts below the fold…

Ponies Needed

Over Thanksgiving before I even realized what had happened I became a pony for my two nephews.  All I remember was that one moment I was kneeling on the floor and the next there was a five year old scampering up my back and I was on all fours.  As soon as I made peace with this development, his three year old brother was invited up and he began climbing across my calves trying to hoist himself up onto my butt.  The pony was forced to draw the line at one rider at a time.  After jostling them both around my father’s, my knees braving the hard wood floors, I was rewarded with carrots which they nicely washed at the pony’s request.  

With Christmas coming, I am thinking that my young riders might enjoy each enjoy a collection of ponies (and save me from becoming their pony of choice again). Ideally I’d like to make each of them a little book – different ponies in each.  If it is not too cheeky to be asking, I and my aging knees will be eternally grateful if you would consider sharing your favorite ponies for these young tykes.  If they exist high resolution versions can also be sent to sharon dot lynch at verizon dot net.  Thanks very much in advance to anyone who can help me out.

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