...actual distinct voices speaking in my mind? Or is it just the weblog of James Lindenschmidt? Here you can see me wrestle with this and other questions, while spewing forth my writings, opinions, and hallucinations.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

 

A reason for optimism? or: Further evidence that one be an optimist and an activist at the same time

I had an insight tonight. It is related to the problem I've now had for quite some time, in that I have found it challenging to reconcile activism--or even political awareness--with optimism. The insight runs thusly: let's take the sum total of Bad Things That Are Happening Now, and simplify/condense it. Generalize it into one coherent entity that can be talked about, similarly to the way it is possible to discuss a "class" which is actually a highly complex web of mostly sovereign individuals. Now, let's consider the set of individuals who are orchestrating these Bad Things. There are a certain set of people who are profiting from them, and who want them to come to be. Call this theoretical construct whatever you like; for now, I'll call it The Conspiracy (he said satirically).

There is another set of individuals who are directly fighting The Conspiracy. Here I include many Iraqis, Afghanis, people who are dying in the wars of neoliberalism, people whose oppression is so severe that their very survival is in question.

Both of these sets of people have a limited population, though I suspect the latter are already much more numerous than the former. Several hundred million total, I would guesstimate. Perhaps a billion.

The rest of the world is largely indifferent. These are the vast majority of people today.

That said, my insight is this: when this set of people, by far the most numerous in the world, begin to care about the deeds of The Conspiracy, the compassionate, ethical, rational, logical, just, and good thing to do is so obvious, that these untold masses will come in "on our side." That is, The Conspiracy is now at its maximum population, while our numbers are always and steadily increasing. This increase is exponential and will one day reach critical mass. At that time, from a metaphysical perspective, the tide will turn. The Conspiracy will be undone.

So as far as I'm concerned, the only remaining question is how much damage will be inflicted between now and then. We will need healers.

^ posted at 9:24 PM

 

The best analysis yet of the SCO lawsuit

For those of you following the Intellectual Property story, a good understanding of the SCO lawsuit is essential. Basically, SCO is one of the old Unix companies, and they are pretty much obsolete with the onset of Linux, which improves upon and replaces Unix. Their response to these conditions has been to sue IBM for contributing "intellectual property" source code to the Linux kernel. In short, they are claiming that Linux contains some of SCO's IP, and that IBM is responsible for it being there.

By most accounts, the suit is quite bogus. But one of my favorite IP lawyers, Lawrence Lessig, has finally written an analysis of the situation. It's a great summary. Go read it, if you find such things interesting.

^ posted at 12:23 AM

 

9/11 Victim's widow sues George W. Bush

I wish her well. She seems to actually have a case. I hope the courts take it seriously.

^ posted at 12:06 AM

 

Review of StarOffice/OpenOffice

There is a really complimentary review of StarOffice and OpenOffice up. StarOffice is basically Sun's version of OpenOffice with some extra proprietary goodies added (spellchecker, templates, etc.) and tech support. But essentially they are the same codebase.

I've been saying it in this space for a while now, but anyone needing basic office functionality should check out OpenOffice. It does everything I need, and many of those better than MS Office. At this point, I really hate working with MS Word.

^ posted at 12:02 AM

 

Writer's Bloc

A new Writer's Bloc article, The Capital of Violence and the Violence of Capital is out.

^ posted at 1:30 AM

 

New Chomsky Article

I want to bookmark Dominance and Its Dilemmas so I can come back and read it when it's not 1:30am. :-)

^ posted at 1:28 AM

 

From Seattle to Miami

Here is another good piece, From Seattle to Miami, about the upcoming FTAA negotiations in Miami.

^ posted at 12:10 PM

 

FTAA Countdown in Miami

I'm starting to keep a close eye on what's happening in Miami. I haven't really begun to understand what the story is there, or what the FTAA is trying to do there. This article should help. I'm blogging it here so I can refer back to it.

^ posted at 11:48 AM

 

More Wechterage

Still been introducing myself to my new guitar. She told me her name today, it's Annabelle. Annabelle Wechter.

This guitar is solid. Where my old guitar feels fragile in my hands, Annabelle feels like I could smack something with it and break it. It's more massive than you'd expect, and the weight is shifted to the neck. Definitely a different feel, that I love.

But she's already wearing me out. The action is definitely too high. This guitar clearly needs a good setup. The truss rod in the neck might need a little bit of a tug, but I'm switching to a lighter gauge string (Elixir Polyweb Custom Lights), so the neck could shift on its own. The nut looks great. It was hand-carved. The saddle is also shaped beautifully, it is simply too high. The underside of the saddle needs to be sanded down, probably by as much as 1/8". I want the action to be as low as possible without fret buzz. It's a precise operation. I would have to get a flat piece of plywood, my staplegun, and some sandpaper (what gauge?), and run the saddle in my hand across that. Plus, the neck is wider than what I'm used to, but once I get used to that it'll be fine. The neck width is actually very close to my Ibanez electric.

I'm thinking of taking Annabelle on a little trip into the White Mountains in New Hampshire to get tutored. There's a really amazing little shop in Ashland called the Vintage Fret Shop. It is situated alongside a river in an old blacksmith's shop. It's where I played a Wechter for the first time. The guy has a little shop set up right in the front of the store, and oh yeah, he sells guitars too. Very cool. They have very reasonable rates (I was quoted $10 to set up my guitar with low action), and their shop just exudes competence. Plus, their repair guy has a degree in philosophy. Too cool. I think I'll have them work their magic on Annabelle as soon as I can get out there. Then perhaps my new mistress will be gentler with my poor fingers. :-)

^ posted at 10:29 PM

 

plucking my wechter

I got a new guitar today. It's a Wechter Pathmaker Model 3120. I like it a lot so far. The strings that came with it were horrible. I took them off and replaced them with some cheapo strings I had laying around, until I can get to the music store to pick up some Elixirs. Much better.

The acoustic tone has a lot of potential. It's a small-body guitar, so it's not going to have the punch of a Dreadnaught acoustically. But it has some sparkle to it, a very even, balanced (if a bit boxy) midrange, and I should be able to dial in the bass setting I need electrically. Acoustically, the low end is a bit better than my 15-year-old Alvarez WY-1. In all, I expect the guitar to sound better with age. It definitely has that "new guitar" sound. Slightly boxy in the midrange. But I look forward to recording it with some nice condenser microphones.

I haven't plugged it in yet, but that looks to be the most interesting part about the Wechter. It has a 3-pickup system: a piezo pickup under the saddle, a magnetic pickup across the soundhole, and a condenser microphone on a little gooseneck inside the guitar. It will certainly give me a much wider tonal range than what my Alvarez provided.

The construction on the guitar is very, very solid. I expect this guitar to be much more durable than my last guitar, which I played pretty hard. To me, acoustic guitar is a percussion instrument, and while always respectful, I am not always gentle with my instruments. The neck joint is the most solid I've ever seen. The cutaways are actually a single, curved piece of solid wood. The assembly is very strong and vaguely shaped like a crossbow. The acoustic body is then attached to the cutaways, resulting in a very solid guitar from the neck joint up.

There was no strap button installed. I got a new drill bit and a new strap button from the store and installed it myself, according to instructions provided on Wechter's website. Now that the strap is in, it hangs nicely and comfortably. Because the neck is so solid, and the wood in the cutaways is substantial, the guitar is very balanced in weight. If anything, it's a little too heavy toward the neck. I look forward to playing this thing live.

There were a few small blemishes in the finish. Nothing I'm too worried about. One small annoyance is the placement of the fret markers. For most of the markers, they are placed closed to the fret itself, rather than halfway between 2 frets as on most guitars. However, the 17th fret marker is off; it is placed exactly between the 16th and 17th fret. Someone's measurements were off slightly.

The current action is a bit too high for my tastes. I need to lower it, which will entail sanding down the bottom of my saddle. I may take it to a luthier to have it done for me.

I've been looking forward to having this guitar in my possession, and so far it hasn't disappointed. It sounds good acoustically, should sound great electrically, and is durable. For the money, I don't think there is a guitar that more closely fits my needs at present. I am grateful to be playing it.

^ posted at 1:04 AM

 

Limbaugh Now Liberal

This article, Limbaugh Now Liberal, is really funny. Read it:

Former conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh shook the world of conservative talk radio today, announcing that he has converted to liberalism. The statement was made at a press conference following his 30-day treatment to overcome addiction to painkillers. "I don't know what the hell I was on for the past few years, but it must have been some really serious dope," said Limbaugh. "I mean, I must have been drinking some serious bongwater." Limbaugh said that he spent the first three to five days of treatment practically unaware of his surroundings, facing painkiller withdrawal after stopping the drugs for the first time since before beginning his popular national talk show. "Then -- at about day ten -- it was like a veil was lifted. I started thinking clearly for the first time in years."

Really funny stuff.... I like the juxtaposition between right-wing extremism and the stupid assumptions of the effects of drug use.

^ posted at 3:11 PM

 

Corporatocracy - Wikipedia

I ran across the term Corporatocracy at the Wikipedia (online Free encyclopedia) site. Pretty cool word.

^ posted at 2:00 PM

 

OpenOffice 1.1 is out

OK, the release candidate is now officially a release. OpenOffice.org 1.1 has been released. You can get it from a reasonably fast server, Windows version or Linux version. I've downloaded them, but I haven't yet installed them. They shouldn't be much different from the one I've been using the past few days.

^ posted at 3:23 PM

 

Writers, get OpenOffice now

If you are a writer of any sort, whether you are working on a novel or writing a 3-page paper for a class or something, you should go get OpenOffice immediately. It's a really good tool for writing, better than Word. I even like it better than LyX, which is saying a lot. The cool thing about LyX is that it is a document processor, not a word processor, which means the writer doesn't have to think about formatting the document. S/he just writes. LyX takes care of formatting automatically. Though you do sacrifice some flexibility, you more than make up for it in workflow. When I'm writing, I write faster in LyX, because formatting isn't an issue. And if you are really determined, and if you really, really hate the default formats, you can learn to hack the underlying LaTeX code to modify the document. But this is (for the average user) heady, geeky stuff.

OpenOffice has taken a page from LyX (or more specifically, from LaTeX, which is the markup language underlying LyX). It has a stylist, which allows you to do the same thing as LyX. You type, and tell the program what each part of the text is. For the title, you select the title and select "title" in the stylist. For a section heading, select "heading". Etc. Once you do this, OpenOffice takes care of formatting for you. The coolest part is that this automatic formatting is MUCH easier to modify than in LyX.

For shorter documents, this isn't such a big deal, but once your document is longer than a few pages, a stylist is indispensable. The best part is, once you have a template you like, you gain the ease-of-use and quickness offered by LyX, while retaining the layout flexibility of a wordprocessor.

In addition to the above, OpenOffice can publish to HTML. Unlike MS Word, the HTML it generates is actually pretty clean, and surprisingly representative of your formatting. In other words, the generated webpage looks surprisingly like the original document, even in terms of details such as line spacing.

Anyway, I'm really impressed with OpenOffice 1.1. There is absolutely no reason for a writer to use anything else. The best feature of OpenOffice is that it is free, and that the data it generates is stored in a free data format (.sxw files are basically zipped XML files). That way, you don't have the most profitable corporation in history standing between you and your data.

^ posted at 2:07 AM

 

Look! The Emperor Has No Clothes!

This is a follow-up to the post from the other day. Apparently, Dan Geer, who was one of the authors of a report criticizing the dangers of a computer monoculture in the form of Microsoft dominance, was fired from his job at @Stake.

I guess intelligent, undocumented criticism of Microsoft is no longer a part of the corporate reality.

^ posted at 11:12 AM

 

New version of OpenOffice

There is a new version of OpenOffice.org available, version 1.1RC5 (release candidate 5). I just downloaded it and installed. It's light years beyond the previous version (1.0.2) I had installed. The coolest new feature is that there is a button right next to the print icon to export your file to pdf. And it's all Free, in the best senses of that word.

It's available for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.

^ posted at 3:51 PM

 

Implications of Cancun

There is an article on ZNet called Implications of Cancun that I want to read, so I'm bookmarking it here.

I haven't really studied what happened in Cancun yet. I'm sure there are more articles about it.

^ posted at 10:57 AM

 

Microsoft Reliance Threatens National Security

This story, to me, states the obvious. But it's only obvious because I've been thinking about the dangers of proprietary software for several years now. Go read it.

UPDATE: I just found another study (pdf file), called CyberInsecurity: The Cost of Monopoly. I haven't read it yet, but it looks interesting. I'll report back when I've had a chance to read it.

^ posted at 12:21 PM

 

Caffentzis and The Commoner

I was talking to my friend and teacher George Caffentzis the other day, and he recommended The Commoner: a web journal for other values. It's a nice site with some really good articles on it. In particular, I'd like to link to two of George's articles that are very very good. They do a good job of analysis of the political situation in Iraq:

• No Blood For Oil: The Political Economy of the War on Iraq
• From Stealing to Robbing: A Post-Script to "No Blood For Oil"
• In The US, Dreaming of Iraq

There are many other articles there, too. But start with the Caffentzis pieces listed above.

^ posted at 12:19 AM

 

The War On Terror: a British Perspective

I want to put this into my blog, essentially to bookmark it so I can read it later. At first glance, t r u t h o u t - British MP: Attacks U.S. on 9/11 and War looks like a very enlightening article. And now Bush wants something like $87 Billion to continue his crusade. Sigh.

^ posted at 9:25 AM

 

Guitar strings, and Linux for business

There is an interview with Sterling Ball, who is the head of the Ernie Ball guitar string manufacturer. After getting audited by Microsoft and having to pay up $60,000, they switched to Linux and Free software. According to Ball, "One of the analysts said it costs $1,250 per person to change over to open source. It wasn't anywhere near that for us. I'm reluctant to give actual numbers. I can give any number I want to support my position, and so can the other guy. But I'll tell you, I'm not paying any per-seat license. I'm not buying any new computers. When we need something, we have white box systems we put together ourselves." It seems to me that this is the way IT should be.

A little background on the raid and the subsequent switch, from the article:

In 2000, the Business Software Alliance conducted a raid and subsequent audit at the San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based company that turned up a few dozen unlicensed copies of programs. Ball settled for $65,000, plus $35,000 in legal fees. But by then, the BSA, a trade group that helps enforce copyrights and licensing provisions for major business software makers, had put the company on the evening news and featured it in regional ads warning other businesses to monitor their software licenses.

Humiliated by the experience, Ball told his IT department he wanted Microsoft products out of his business within six months. "I said, 'I don't care if we have to buy 10,000 abacuses,'" recalled Ball, who recently addressed the LinuxWorld trade show. "We won't do business with someone who treats us poorly."

But my favorite part of the article is this passage, that reflects a wonderfully pragmatic view of the function of computers in a business. Computers are a tool, and either they do their job or they don't. The question is, how much hassle is their attached to using the tool? Look at what Ball says, in regard to Free software, and the fact that he's gotten so much press simply by switching to Free software:

I think it's great for me to be a technology influence. It shows how ridiculous it is that I can get press because I switched to OpenOffice. And the reason why is because the myth has been built so big that you can't survive without Microsoft, so that somebody who does get by without Microsoft is a story.

It's just software. You have to figure out what you need to do within your organization and then get the right stuff for that. And we're not a backwards organization. We're progressive; we've won communications and design awards...The fact that I'm not sending my e-mail through Outlook doesn't hinder us. It's just kind of funny. I'm speaking to a standing-room-only audience at a major technology show because I use a different piece of software--that's hysterical.

Good stuff...

^ posted at 12:48 PM

 

Kucinich vs. Dean

Needless to say, I've been very interested in upcoming primaries and the election of 2004. The two candidates who have commanded my attention in the Democratic party are Dennis Kucinich and Howard Dean. I haven't really begun to do much research on the differences between these two candidates. I knew that Kucinich was probably closer to my progressive political ideals, but I had heard that Dean probably had a better chance of winning. So I wasn't really sure.

Until now.

Bob Harris has compiled a side-by-side comparison of the two candidates, Why I'm voting for Kucinich over Dean. It's very interesting. After giving it a read, I have to agree. As of now, I am a Kucinich supporter. I may even have to register as a Democrat so I can vote in the primary.

^ posted at 7:48 PM

 

It's a power thing, as in, who has the power?

The recent power outages in the northeast, combined with the power/energy issues in California over the past few years, have gotten me thinking about effective ways to distribute electricity.

Far and away the best model I know of is by R. Buckminster Fuller. I've written about him before. Go read this article.

^ posted at 5:37 PM

 

Iraqis' top 10 tips for enduring blackout in the heat

It's true. This story is from cnn.com. Unbelievable.

^ posted at 5:52 PM

 

contagious yawns and empathy

According to this story, Kind people catch yawns: Self-awareness makes some yawn-susceptible, those who are susceptible to contagious yawns are more likely to be empaths. Interesting....yawn

^ posted at 8:55 PM

 

I may also retire this blog

JWL: random head noise or...? may actually be retired soon. That way I can archive it here, and point people to the new blog.

^ posted at 12:47 AM

 

this blog may be moving soon

The title says it all. I have new webspace now available at jwl.freakwitch.net. I'll probably put this blog there soon, when I get some time. Busy now, though, working on Freakwitch.net.

^ posted at 4:06 PM

 

warning: new title format on page

As the title suggests, this is a new title format for my blog. The new Blogger software allows it. So I'll use it.

Been busy working on Freakwitch.net. Had a gig. Life is good.

^ posted at 2:10 AM

 

and now, a word about optical illusions

Go check out Akiyoshi's illusion pages. Fun stuff.

^ posted at 1:04 AM

 

The L-Curve

There is a very interesting visual depiction of the great divide between rich and poor at The L-Curve. Check it out. There is also a condensed, one-page summary in PDF form available here.

UPDATE: Well, funnily enough, we got a $400 check from the IRS today. I consider this bribe money. It's a joke, really, sending $400 to poor families, as if that will provide any sort of lasting relief from the economic stratification in our society. My wife and I are talking about how to spend this money in a way that will enact social change most effectively. Hmmm, $400 worth of photocopies of the above flyers? Who knows ...

^ posted at 2:23 PM

 

Scientific Materialism, Capitalist Economy, and ...

I was reading some Alfread North Whitehead and I came across this passage (warning: dense and academic philosophical writing alert):

In regard to the aesthetic needs of civilised society the reactions of science have so far been unfortunate. Its materialistic basis has directed attention to things as opposed to values. The antithesis is false one, if taken in the concrete sense. But it is valid at the abstract level of ordinary thought. This misplaced emphasis coalesced with the abstractions of political economy, which are in fact the abstractions in terms of which commercial affairs are carried on. Thus all thought concerned with social organisation expressed itself in terms of material things and of capital. Ultimate values were excluded. They were politely bowed to, andt hen handed over to the clergy to be kept for Sundays. A creed of competitive business morality was evolved, in some respects curiously high; but entirely devoid of consideration for the value of human life. The workmen were conceived as mere hands, drawn from the pool of labour. To God's question, men gave the answer of Cain--'Am I my brother's keeper?'; and they incurred Cain's guilt. This was the atmosphere in which the industrial revolution was accomplished. (emphasis added).

There are several interesting things in this passage, which was written in 1925. First of all, it describes very succinctly the central argument of Carolyn Merchant's book, The Death of Nature. Many of the problems we face today come from a historical coalescence of several factors: the rise of industrial capitalism, the mechanistic way in which science abstracts the universe in order to understand it, and the loss of organic, holistic views of the cosmos. Synergy was lost; the world was enclosed into small ideas to be understood and owned apart from the whole. Larger questions of value, most importantly the question of how society should be organized, were ignored; their answers were presupposed in terms of self-benefit, greed, and preservation of property.

It is interesting that this was written nearly 80 years ago. The problems Whitehead was seeing have only been made worse as industrial capitalism transitioned to Keynesianism and now, since the 1970s, to neoliberalism.

^ posted at 2:26 PM

 

Greg Palast on Liberia

Has the story in Liberia sort of hovered at the periphery of your attention lately? I know it has mine. Yeah, civil war in Liberia. OK, what does that mean? Not much to me...

This is of course blatant and utter ignorance on my part. On a personal note, it always surprises me the extent to which news from Africa tends to stay in my peripheral vision, if it enters my consciousness at all. And this despite the fact that I've studied Africa seriously in the past. Gotta love those 5 centuries of cultural conditioning ...

Anyway, Greg Palast wrote an article called Liberia: Corpses at our Doorstep that provides a good overview of the current situation and the political environment in which it exists. Check it out.

^ posted at 10:34 AM

 

Ego and forward momentum

It's been a hell of a week. I haven't felt at all like writing; indeed, I'm forcing myself to sit down and write this. The exuberance and exhilaration I had been feeling has definitely waned. I'm tired and drained. Everything seems like a chore. Not coincidentally, I haven't been exercising as often or as passionately as I had been up until last week (NOTE: I wrote this in my notebook yesterday. Much of this has now changed. Today was much better, perhaps as a result of writing this last night).

Last week I was extremely careless, and two friends of mine took the brunt of the shrapnel from my carelessness. I feel bad about the situation, though our friendships will recover and emerge stronger for it, methinks. I think we're all sort of feeling our way around at the moment. I know I am. The energies at work in our relationships have definitely and understandably shifted.

A week from tonight is the first Freakwitch gig. We also have the beginnings of a website up. I believe in this project more than I've believed in any musical project I've ever been involved with. I hung some flyers today around Portland, which was fun. There was an outdoor concert with Martin Sexton in Monument Square, so a lot of people were milling around. It's a good time for music in Portland, and I can definitely feel the steady progress of Freakwitch. We are building slowly and surely. Though with my present state of mind, it's hard to get excited about much of anything.

A psychologist once diagnosed me with anhedonia, which is the opposite of hedonism. It is basically the inability to feel much of anything with any sort of intensity. I remember once feeling the way I do now for months on end. Nowadays I'm much more attuned to the ebbs and flows of my energy levels. Over the next several days I need to take care of myself. I must stay grounded, keep my energy systems clear, and take care of my body. This of course means resuming my good exercise and eating habits. Today was better. I must will myself to continue this, as there is no doubt in my mind that I feel better -- on a daily basis -- when I'm exercising and eating well.

I've also been thinking quite a bit about ego, and how some of the suffering/anhedonia I've been feeling recently can be traced to ego. The Buddhist in me is laughing, a warm, gentle laugh, and he points out to me that if my ego wasn't driving my consciousness, I wouldn't have the unpleasantness I have been feeling.

Some background: after my carelessness of last week, I would occasionally think about what happened and just cringe. This cringing is my ego through and through. And its concerns are misplaced. For one thing, no real or lasting harm seems to have come from the situation -- a fact that is a testament to the exceptional character of my friends, as well as the strength of our friendships. If anything, dealing with that crisis seems to have released some serious energy blockage in me. This is surely why I feel drained; I've released a ton of energy this week. And I'm leaning on Nietzsche's maxim: what does not destroy me makes me stronger. And our relationships should indeed become stronger as a result of all this. So if anything, despite the short-term pain and damage-control, my carelessness may actually benefit our relationships in the long run.

So why cringe? Again, I think it's ego. To do something with such exuberance, perfect love and perfect trust itself requires some suspension of the ego. But when such actions get you into trouble, and cause pain and embarrassment, the ego tends to reassert itself with a relentless chorus of "I told you so! Move over and let me drive, dammit!"

But I cannot. Keep breathing. There is no ego. All are one. Keep breathing. Keep laughing. Forward momentum...

^ posted at 10:30 PM

 

Attention all Mac OSX users...

OpenOffice.org 1.0.3 for Mac OSX is ready, and is out of beta. This is a really good office suite available for Linux (and other forms of Unix), Windows, and now Mac OSX. Good stuff. There is no reason to pay hundreds of dollars for a good word processor anymore.

^ posted at 3:49 PM

 

Mars shines brightly

The planet Mars is shining brightly these days. Apparently, on August 26, Mars will be closer to Earth than at any time in 60,000 years.

I had the privilege of watching Mars last night from the beach in South Portland. It was beautiful. Not coincidentally, I also had a chance to bond with a fiery friend of mine.

^ posted at 11:41 PM

 

Harry Potter, Tanya Grotter, Porri Gatter, and international copyrights

There is an article (on MSN, funnily enough) that explores some issues about international copyright as applied to the Harry Potter empire. Let me say first of all that I think HP is great. I've enjoyed all five books greatly; my daughter loves it. It's a great story, with great writing. It's amazing that the hottest thing you can currently get for a kid is a big, thick, hardcover book. How cool is that?

But this article points out some interesting facts. Apparently there are number of Harry Potter take-offs around the world, and Rowling and her publishers are trying to stop "unauthorized" publication of these books. The article explains a bit about how the process works:

Rowling's ability to stop the Potter pretenders is largely a function of the new regime of international copyright. Until recently, countries varied considerably in how they protected literary works, especially works from abroad. The United States, for instance, has a long history of providing less protection than the Europeans. Benjamin Franklin was a kind of pirate: He did good business as a printer of unlicensed English writing. In the 19th century, the United States generally refused to recognize foreign copyrights, allowing American readers to get the latest Dickens and Doyle cheaply. And the borrowing of characters itself has a longer tradition. For example, the princess we know as Cinderella originally hails from China, where she goes by the name Yeh-Shen and relies for help on a magic fish who gives her golden slippers.

Unfortunately, the WTO has brought a homogeneity to this system, where every nation in the WTO must comply with the property rules of the WTO. But what about rip-offs, parodies, or derivative works? The author makes a persuasive argument showing that rip-offs do not tarnish the reputation of the original character or author:

It is also true that these rip-off works make authors angry and may tarnish the reputation of the character. But what makes authors angry is precisely what they are least likely to write, and therefore often what copyright needs to permit.

In other words, if the works tarnish the reputation of the character, then the rip-off is putting the character into a situation he/she would never be in. It is precisely because it is NOT the original character that means it is offensive. This argument, in other words, is circular: because the ripoff is clearly NOT the character, it is damaging the original character.

Anyway, it's a very good read. Check it out.

^ posted at 12:18 PM

 

The Guantanamo Bay story is still going

That's right. The US government is still illegally holding "detainees" at its military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. According to this story, "Afghans and Pakistanis who were detained for many months by the American military at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba before being released without charges are describing the conditions as so desperate that some captives tried to kill themselves."

Among the "detainees" are "three teenagers under 16." Not good.

Furthermore, this story claims that "The US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber. Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal."

The legal groundwork has been set for complete and utter repression of anyone opposed to the Bush administration's imperialism.

A friend of mine wrote me this:

We're told these people are "the worst of the worst" and that they are so dangerous to us that they must be held in this camp far away from anyone and without due process or other rights provided to prisoners of war by international law. But they've released 41 of these guys without charges. Whoops, our bad! And now we're getting ready to kill them. Great. This country makes me sick sometimes!

Well said, Pam. Hope you don't mind me cutting and pasting your comments. :-)

^ posted at 4:00 PM

 

Perish the thought

Hmmm. I wonder. What if this WMD in Iraq controversy becomes a major scandal, and is truly an impeachable offense and bigger than Watergate? Well, in Watergate, the president resigned rather than face impeachment. What if the same thing happens here?

President Cheney? Naahhhhh...

On another note, it seems to me that there are 2 possibilities on the WMD story in Iraq. Either: (1) there were no WMDs at all, the the Bush administration was lying; or (2) there were WMDs, but they have disappeared and are no longer in Iraq. If this is so, who knows where they are, or in whose hands they are in now. In this scenario, the world has been significantly destabilized and the world is at a much higher risk of a WMD being used in a terrorist attack. Therefore, the waging of the "war on terror" is ineffective and contrary to the stated goals of reducing the capability of terrorism worldwide.

So, either way, the Bush administration is either lying or making the threat of terrorism worse through its actions.

^ posted at 1:32 AM

 

Did you FLOSS today?

Well, I found a new acronym for Free or OpenSource software. It's FLOSS, which stands for Free/Libre/OpenSource Software. I saw the term in a new article: "Liberation Technology" on the Linux Journal website, which "looks at the impact of FLOSS in specific countries, and he also views the implications of what it means for a cash-strapped economy." A short an interesting read.

^ posted at 3:38 PM

 

Weapons of Mass Distraction

The Weapons of Mass Destruction issue is getting lots of progressive press recently. John Dean, Derrick Jackson, John R. MacArthur, Ruth Rosen, Robert Jensen and Rahul Majahan, Jason Leopold, Paul Krugman, Jim Lobe, Helen Thomas, Pierre Tristam, and Sean Gonsalves all have pieces archived on Common Dreams about the subject, all published in the past few days alone.

But my new hero (sort of) has to be Sen. Robert Byrd. He recently spoke on the Senate floor. Some excerpts:

The fundamental question that is nagging at many is this: How reliable were the claims of this President and key members of his Administration that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction posed a clear and imminent threat to the United States, such a grave threat that immediate war was the only recourse?

What amazes me is that the President himself is not clamoring for an investigation. It is his integrity that is on the line. It is his truthfulness that is being questioned. It is his leadership that has come under scrutiny. And yet he has raised no question, expressed no curiosity about the strange turn of events in Iraq, expressed no anger at the possibility that he might have been misled. How is it that the President, who was so adamant about the dangers of WMD, has expressed no concern over the where-abouts of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

And yet...and yet...the questions continue to grow, and the doubts are beginning to drown out the assurances. For every insistence from Washington that the weapons of mass destruction case against Iraq is sound comes a counterpoint from the field - another dry hole, another dead end. As the top Marine general in Iraq was recently quoted as saying, "It was a surprise to me then, it remains a surprise to me now, that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Again, believe me, it's not for lack of trying. We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there."

Such weapons may eventually turn up. But my greater fear is that the belligerent stance of the United States may have convinced Saddam Hussein to sell or disperse his weapons to dark forces outside of Iraq. Shouldn't this Administration be equally alarmed if they really believed that Saddam had such dangerous capabilities?

Saddam Hussein is missing. Osama bin Laden is missing. Iraq's weapons of mass destruction are missing. And the President's mild claims that we are "on the look" do not comfort me. There ought to be an army of UN inspectors combing the countryside in Iraq or searching for evidence of disbursement of these weapons right now. Why are we waiting? Is there fear of the unknown? Or fear of the truth?

Iraq's weapons of mass destruction remain a mystery and a conundrum. What are they, where are they, how dangerous are they? Or were they a manufactured excuse by an Administration eager to seize a country? It is time to answer these questions. It is time- past time - for the Administration to level with the American people, and it is time for the President to demand an accounting from his own Administration as to exactly how our nation was led down such a twisted path to war.

Frankly, I'm stunned that this is even being said in the Senate. I wonder how many Senators applauded. This story is just going to get bigger, as many people saw months ago. There never were WMDs in Iraq, at least none that endanger the US. This war is about the "sea of oil" under the Iraqi desert, and the profits that can be made exploiting it.

^ posted at 8:43 PM

 

It's been a year...

...since I began to blog. My first post, interestingly enough, was about wasting time. A prelude to the blogging ethos, perhaps? :-)

^ posted at 3:28 PM

 

Effecting Positive Change

Well, my consciousness has returned to this most central question: if effecting positive change is my goal, what is the best way to attain it? I've spent a lot of time ranting against the establishment power structures and its associated violence and repression lately. This is Nietzsche's lion mode, where the lion utters the "sacred no" in rejecting harmful mores and customs that are culturally transmitted. But the lion is not yet the child, which creates according to its own inherent set of innocent creation, unaffected by outside expectations. But does Nietzsche's model imply that progress toward the child is good? that the camel and the lion are to be avoided once transcended? Or is it more desirable to cultivate a balance of the three (camel, lion, child)? Or does each energy pattern presencing in the person go through these distinct phases?

These questions are relevant to my creative activities. Is ranting so much a good thing? In some ways I feel like I'm in lion mode, whereas when I was in school (graduated last year) I was in camel mode. The child, then is presumably forthcoming. That'd be nice. The argument that I should just pursue what's in my head at the time is good (attending the present, in other words), but then where do I choose to put my attention? Do I surrender my will and just become passive, pursuing whatever pops into my head?

The other argument is that following your muse will impact the world most forcefully in a positive way, as opposed to feeding the establishment, even feeding it negatively. But the problem with this argument is that the establishment will eventually impose itself upon me. Some measure of defense or counterattack is necessary, if the establishment (or an unacceptable part of the establishment) is undesirable.

The biggest problem seems to be in terms of my writing. My music, funnily enough, is going remarkably well. I should have some recordings within a few months. But I never know what to write. I was talking to a friend yesterday, a fellow writer. And she said I need, basically, to stop worrying and to just write. So I'm back to that. I have the capability to choose what to write about, but at this stage I'm probably better served to Just Write and save the analytical stuff for the editing phase.

^ posted at 3:26 PM

 

will missing WMDs lead to a Bush impeachment?

this article, written by John Dean, analyzes the possibility that Bush could be impeached because of inaccurate statements about WMDs are a justification for the Iraqi invasion. The fact is that there still is no evidence of Iraqi WMDs. This invasion, which confused generic industrial capacity with the possibility of WMD manufacture, is arguably the biggest political blunder in US history.

Furthermore, one of Bush's lines about Iraqi oil comes to mind. According to Bush, Iraq's oil "belongs to the Iraqi people." This is socialism, where the means of production belong to the people. Also, I find it interesting that Bush seems to be preaching the gospel of economic prosperity, universal healthcare, and well-being for all Iraqis. As Barbara Ehrenreich points out, these are socialist concerns through and through. Why are they good for the Iraqi people, but evil for the American people?

^ posted at 3:13 PM

 

OpenOffice.org Writer

Here are three reasons I prefer OpenOffice.org Writer 1.0.3 to LyX 1.3.1qt as a writing tool:

1. OOoW allows me to customize the appearance of my documents. Though LyX output is neat and clean, it is also boring. Even getting TrueType fonts to work requires some LaTeX wizardry.
2. OOoW saves to all the file formats I need, which are native (.sdw), PDF for wide distribution (this will be even better in 1.1), HTML, .txt. It also will open ms file formats for when some yahoo sends me a word attachment.
3. The OOoW stylist works very well, approximating many benefits of LyX/LaTeX. I learned to think of documents in terms of structure using LyX. Now I can implement that same way of thinking in OOoW using the stylist. But in OOoW, each style is much more easily customizable. Therefore: if you like to pay attention to the aesthetics of document formatting and you take steps to be creative and interesting, OOoW is the way to go. However, if you don't care about formatting, and want the computer to intelligently take care of formatting for you, then definitely go with LyX. It's stock output is as clean as you can get.

^ posted at 11:08 PM

 

A History of the Music Industry

I'm putting this link here now so I can find it again when I have time to read it. Supposedly it's a detailed history of the music industry's control over reproduced music and its attempts to control new technologies that render the past monopolies obsolete. I sense a theme here...

^ posted at 11:13 AM

 

In touch, and out of touch

It's been a strange 21 hours. I've spent most of today in re-entry from the trip. I've slept about 5 hours, and spent at least that much processing information. I had 857 emails waiting for me (I'm lucky, fewer than 40 were spam). I've also been reading up on some websites I'd lost track of over the past 2 weeks.

It's strange how I feel unqualified to comment on much right now. I'm not really on top of anything story-wise. I guess it's been a vivid realization as to how much time I have been spending lately on seeing what's happening in the world and commenting. I'm not sure what this means in terms of my continuing to do so, or even in terms of this blog.

I haven't been writing much the past month or so, since I finished the first draft of the article. I'm feeling called to write in new styles or media. The political ranting is good, but I view it as more of a necessary chore in the current political climate than as following my muse.

^ posted at 12:44 AM

 

Ocean Air

We just pulled in a while ago to Portland, only to find a misty haze and a strong scent of fresh ocean air--one of my favorite smells in the world. As I type this, I just heard a seagull screeching. Ahh, home.

It's quite late just now. I'm exhausted, but still too wired from the road to sleep. Soon.

It was a great 2-week vacation. Stories forthcoming. Must sleeeep.

^ posted at 4:00 AM

 

On neoliberalism

Admittedly, I use the term "neoliberalism" a lot. And I assume that most people know what it means. Unfortunately, this word is rarely used in the US, so some people reading my rants against neoliberalism may not know what I mean.

As such, I've included a few good, introductory discussions about neoliberalism:

• What Is Neoliberalism?
• A Primer On Neoliberalism
• A Short History of Neoliberalism
• Backing up Globalization with Military Might
• Structural Adjustment: A Major Cause of Poverty

So there you go. There's some good reading there: I haven't read all of the above yet, but after a quick glance they look good.

^ posted at 11:20 PM

 

Latest Howard Zinn article

"My Country: The World" is available here. As always, it's worth a read.

^ posted at 11:13 AM

 

The Middle East is now safe for neoliberalism

Now that Iraq has fallen, the Bush administration are being good neoliberalists and are pushing for "free" trade in the middle east. If past "free trade agreements" and other strange conceptions of "freedom" are any indication, it's no wonder that most of the world "hates our freedom."

^ posted at 2:17 PM

 

Go read this. Now.

Apparently, the State Dept. has reported that terrorism is at its lowest level in 30 years. Ummm, OK. Why the "war on terrorism," then?

^ posted at 3:07 AM

 

Where is Raed?

The ever-popular Where is Raed? blog has been updated again. This is from someone inside Iraq, who was blogging right up until the war began. Obviously, during the war he wasn't able to keep doing so, but he kept writing and has posted many entries now, all at once. Here are some excerpts:

Let me tell you one thing first. War sucks big time. Don't let yourself ever be talked into having one waged in the name of your freedom. Somehow when the bombs start dropping or you hear the sound of machine guns at the end of your street you don't think about your "imminent liberation" anymore.

I confess to the sin of being an escapist. When reality hurts I block it out, unless it comes right up to me and knocks me cold. My mother, after going out once after Baghdad was taken by the US Army, decided she is not going out again, not until I promise it looks kind of normal and OK. So I guess the Ostrich maneuver runs in the family.

Things are looking kind of OK, these days. Life has a way of moving on. Your senses are numbed, things stop shocking you. If there is one thing you should believe in, it is that life will find a way to push on, humans are adaptable, that is the only way to explain how such a foolish species has kept itself on this planet without wiping itself out. Humans are very adaptable, physically and emotionally.

One more word by Americans on TV about "humanitarian aid" will make me kill my television. They have the audacity to turn us to beggars while we will have to pay for the research and development of the weapons they are field-testing on us and they do as if they are helping us with their "humanitarian aid". Excuse me, but it would help much more if you would stop dropping those million dollars per bomb on us, in is cheaper for us in the long run.

Actually too tired, scared and burnt out to write anything. Yes we did go out again to see what was hit. Yes everything just hurts. Conversations invariably use the sentence "what's wrong with them? Have they gone mad?". I can't stand the TV or the lies on the news any more. No good news wherever you look. Baghdad is looking scarier by the minute. There are now army people everywhere. My uncle will have to move out of his house because there is going to be an anti aircraft battery installed too close to it, the area where we live does not look too good either, we are surrounded by every sort of military outfit there is. Every school in the area is now an army or party center.

We had an amazing couple of days, 4/4 the Americans in the Airport, 7/4 they move into Baghdad, 9/4 troops are in Firdaws square (Firdaws means heaven) with no Iraqi military presence in the streets whatsoever. They just disappeared, Puff, into thin air. The big disappearing act. Army shoes and uniforms are thrown about in every street, army cars abandoned in the middle of the road. An act of the almighty made every army member disappear at exactly the same time, fairy-tale-like "……and the golden carriage was turned back to a pumpkin at the strike of 12".

Yesterday I almost died of thirst in front of 30 bottles of pure water. I had 30,000 Dinars in my pockets but couldn't buy a 2,000 Dinar bottle. (2000 in itself is a crime you used to get 4 bottles for that price, but what to do, the war and all). 30k Dinars in 10,000 bills which now have the stigma of being stolen on them. There is no way to plead and swear on all that is holy that these are pre-invasion 10k bills. The story goes as follows: The money printing works have been looted just as everything else. Al-Jazeera showed the 10k bill press wrecked and showed an Iraqi who was not identified, he could be one of the looters for all we knew, that guy said that printed but unnumbered 10k bills were stolen and the printing templates (or whatever they are called, we call them 'kalisha') as well. Paper and the shiny stripes too. Al Jazeera said that what is on the market now are the printed bills with counterfeit numbers on them. Havoc rules the street. Your 10k bills are not accepted at stores. and there are people who buy your 10,000 for 8,000 Dinar.

^ posted at 2:52 AM

 

9-11 conspiracy theory redux

In general, I'm not a believer in conspiracy theories. Though I must confess I regard them with interest. I perhaps most admire Robert Anton Wilson's attitude about conspiracy theories: they are impossible because power is just not so finely concentrated. At best, there are multiple conspiracies competing for power.

However, this site caught my eye. It's called "Debunking conspiracy theorists' paranoid fantasies about Sept. 11," and it's a fun read. I'm not saying I buy everything in there, but how can you not like an article that begins like this:

Astute observers of history are aware that for every notable event there will usually be at least one ,often several wild conspiracy theories which spring up around it. "The CIA killed Hendrix" " The Pope had John Lennon murdered ", "Hitler was half Werewolf", "Space aliens replaced Nixon with a clone" etc,etc. The bigger the event, the more ridiculous and more numerous are the fanciful rantings which circulate in relation to it.

So its hardly surprising that the events of Sept 11 2001 have spawned their fair share of these ludicrous fairy tales. And as always, there is - sadly - a small but gullible percentage of the population eager to lap up these tall tales, regardless of facts or rational analysis.

One of the wilder stories circulating about Sept 11, and one that has attracted something of a cult following amongst conspiracy buffs is that it was carried out by 19 fanatical Arab hijackers, masterminded by an evil genius named Osama bin Laden, with no apparent motivation other than that they "hate our freedoms."

Never a group of people to be bothered by facts, the perpetrators of this cartoon fantasy have constructed an elaborately woven web of delusions and unsubstantiated hearsay in order to promote this garbage across the internet and the media to the extent that a number of otherwise rational people have actually fallen under its spell.

A nice rhetorical device. I actually laughed out loud when I read it. Gonna go read more...

^ posted at 12:20 AM

 

A Very Interesting Quote

"We have no interest in oppressing other people. We are not moved by hatred against any other nation. We bear no grudge. I know how grave a thing war is. I wanted to spare our people such an evil. It is not so much the country of Czechoslovakia; it is rather its leader, Edward Benes. He has led a reign of terror. He has hurled countless people into the profoundest misery. Through his continuous terrorism, he has succeeded in reducing millions of his people to silence. The Czech maintenance of a tremendous military arsenal can only be regarded as a focus of danger. We have displayed a truly unexampled patience, but I am no longer willing to remain inactive while this madman ill-treats millions of human beings."

--Adolph Hitler, April 14th, 1939

^ posted at 5:32 PM

 

Putting the Progress Back in Progressive

Hooray, hooray. The war is over. The terrorists in Iraq have been vanquished, and their vast supply of chemical weapons is no longer a threat to America. A statue fell in Baghdad, and the world is once again safe for neoliberalism. We can all take a collective deep breath, and resume our regularly scheduled programming.

Or so we are told. Those of us in the progressive community know better. There has never been clear evidence of terrorism from Iraq, and as of yet, not a single weapon of mass destruction has been found. The fact that Saddam's forces could scarcely defend their own capital indicates that the “Iraqi threat” was not nearly what it was made out to be by the Bush administration. There is strong evidence that the footage of Saddam's statue falling in Baghdad was a farce, having been scripted and staged by the US military. And perhaps most importantly, careful students of neoliberalism know that the invasion of Iraq is neither the beginning nor the end of the story; it is merely the latest chapter in a very long and very unfinished story.

So where do we go from here? The peace activism by the progressive community before and during the invasion of Iraq was unprecedented in both scope and rapidity of mobilization. As the fighting in Iraq wanes, and the apparent crisis situation motivating millions of people to join the progressives in peace demonstrations has eased, it is clear that we progressives have work ahead of us. For thought he immediate crisis in Iraq has been pronounced over, the neoliberal policies of the Bush administration remain a threat to people worldwide. Sadly, the struggle is far from over.

The next target of the “war on terrorism” is far from clear; Syria, Iran, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and even France are potential targets of the US military machine. Anti-American sentiment is steadily increasing. Suspicion and distrust of America and the Bush administration has never been higher. Every American bomb that falls, every bullet fired, every destructive campaign of “shock and awe” will only destabilize the world and further the cycle of hatred of America that is the central motivation of so many people worldwide.

On the domestic front, the picture is no more optimistic. American civil liberties are under attack by our government; poverty is on the increase; healthcare is inaccessible to a huge and growing number of people; the Internet, the very mechanism by which the extraordinary mobilization of the peace movement was enabled, is being re-cast in a new mold of increasing centralized control, favoring the “intellectual property” interests over the rights to fair use and freedom of expression of the people.

The mass media is of course little or no help; the primary function of corporate media outlets seems to be to perpetuate the culture of fear in America, and to make a spectacle of the bright lights and shiny metal of the American bombing campaign du jour. The Internet, while it lasts as a free network, is a fertile source of information and infrastructure of organization. As more and more people turn off their television sets and begin discussion in their immediate communities and in cyberspace, the potential for progress grows.

Writing in 1935, the American philosopher John Dewey noted of liberalism that

its work is first of all education, in the broadest sense of that term. Schooling is a part of the work of education, but education in its full meaning includes all the influences that go to form the attitudes and dispositions (of desire as well as of belief), which constitute dominant habits of mind and character.

If Dewey is right, and I believe he is, then the first task of progressives must be the furtherance of public discourse around social and political issues. Of course, Dewey didn't have the mass corporate media to deal with, at least not to the extent that television “programming” would impact and subdue American culture in the latter half of the 20th century.

With some training and practice, anyone can learn to spot the abundant contradictions and the narrow scope of corporate media outlets. The best way I know to encourage this is to ask questions. In general, those who get information from additional sources than corporate media will have a much wider array of information to work with, so finding an appropriate question to ask shouldn't be difficult. When speaking with a media drone, asking a question they cannot answer, that exposes a lie or a contradiction in the stories being repeated so often that they are taken as truth, the shell of the shellshocked begins to crack. They, too, begin to think more broadly, their mind having been opened to the wider, richer array of human experience outside the television set.

In my own life, similar experiences to these were the dawn of progress for me, and they are the reason I became a progressive. Intelligence, relentlessly applied to social and political issues, should be the measure of progress for the progressive community. Dewey noted that liberalism “is committed to freed intelligence as the method of directing [inevitable] change.” Once again I agree with Dewey, and in particular his observation that intelligence must be freed. For in present America, for millions of people, intelligence is held captive. But as the population steers itself away from the “content delivery” model of mass media, the scope of this captivity is lessening.

Indeed, it could be argued that corporate media is a sedative for a sleeping giant. James Moore, of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, recently wrote that

There is an emerging second superpower, but it is not a nation. Instead, it is a new form of international player, constituted by the “will of the people” in a global social movement. The beautiful but deeply agitated face of this second superpower is the worldwide peace campaign, but the body of the movement is made up of millions of people concerned with a broad agenda that includes social development, environmentalism, health, and human rights.

Moore is describing the global progressive community, and he is correct to refer to it as a second superpower. With the broad application of freed intelligence, the progressive community will continue its progress. Moore's closing advice to the reader is salient:

We must work on ourselves and our community. We will dialogue with our neighbors, knowing that the collective wisdom of the second superpower is grounded in the individual wisdom within each of us. We must remind ourselves that daily we make personal choices about the world we create for ourselves and our descendants. We do not have to create a world where differences are resolved by war. It is not our destiny to live in a world of destruction, tedium, and tragedy. We will create a world of peace.

The future of the progressive community—and the measure of its progress—depends on its ability to collectively employ the use of freed intelligence by as many people as possible. We must speak our truths to whoever will listen, and we must hone and revise our truths with an attitude of fallibility. Persuasion will always trump force. And with the use of freed intelligence, the ideals of progressives will become more and more persuasive.

^ posted at 12:40 AM

 

Virtual Enclosed

I finished the first draft of The Virtual Enclosures today. I can email a pdf of it if anyone wants to read it. email me (double-check the address) for a copy. I'm glad to be finished with it.

^ posted at 1:19 AM

 

Time Traveller inside trading

Hmmm. I wonder if this guy is lying? Who knows...

^ posted at 3:55 PM

 

Two more good articles

Both of the following articles are quite good.

The first, Report card Afghanistan: Heroin production soars, women remain in danger, violence abounds by Bill Berkowitz questions what will happen in Iraq now that the war is "over," based on comparisons with what happened last year in Afghanistan. The bottom line is that Afghanistan has been more or less abandoned in terms of aid.

The second, What have we really won in Iraq? by Geoffrey Neale, national chair of the Washington, DC-based Libertarian Party, provides a Libertarian's view of the Iraqi invasion. He points out several effects of the invasion, arguing that we have no real cause to celebrate. The Bush doctrine of preemptive war is a dangerous precedent. I am in full agreement with the Libertarians on this one...

^ posted at 11:45 AM

 

Tim Robbins: 'A Chill Wind is Blowing in This Nation...'

There is now a transcript of Tim Robbins' speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2003. It's a good speech, though he seems to be more optimistic about the state of US mass media than I am. He makes several good points:

For all of the ugliness and tragedy of 9-11, there was a brief period afterward where I held a great hope, in the midst of the tears and shocked faces of New Yorkers, in the midst of the lethal air we breathed as we worked at Ground Zero, in the midst of my children's terror at being so close to this crime against humanity, in the midst of all this, I held on to a glimmer of hope in the naive assumption that something good could come out of it.

I imagined our leaders seizing upon this moment of unity in America, this moment when no one wanted to talk about Democrat versus Republican, white versus black, or any of the other ridiculous divisions that dominate our public discourse. I imagined our leaders going on television telling the citizens that although we all want to be at Ground Zero, we can't, but there is work that is needed to be done all over America. Our help is needed at community centers to tutor children, to teach them to read. Our work is needed at old-age homes to visit the lonely and infirmed; in gutted neighborhoods to rebuild housing and clean up parks, and convert abandoned lots to baseball fields. I imagined leadership that would take this incredible energy, this generosity of spirit and create a new unity in America born out of the chaos and tragedy of 9/11, a new unity that would send a message to terrorists everywhere: If you attack us, we will become stronger, cleaner, better educated, and more unified. You will strengthen our commitment to justice and democracy by your inhumane attacks on us. Like a Phoenix out of the fire, we will be reborn.

And then came the speech: You are either with us or against us. And the bombing began. And the old paradigm was restored as our leader encouraged us to show our patriotism by shopping and by volunteering to join groups that would turn in their neighbor for any suspicious behavior.

In the 19 months since 9-11, we have seen our democracy compromised by fear and hatred. Basic inalienable rights, due process, the sanctity of the home have been quickly compromised in a climate of fear. A unified American public has grown bitterly divided, and a world population that had profound sympathy and support for us has grown contemptuous and distrustful, viewing us as we once viewed the Soviet Union, as a rogue state.

Today, prominent politicians who have decried violence in movies -- the "Blame Hollywooders," if you will -- recently voted to give our current president the power to unleash real violence in our current war. They want us to stop the fictional violence but are okay with the real kind.

And these same people that tolerate the real violence of war don't want to see the result of it on the nightly news. Unlike the rest of the world, our news coverage of this war remains sanitized, without a glimpse of the blood and gore inflicted upon our soldiers or the women and children in Iraq. Violence as a concept, an abstraction -- it's very strange.

As we applaud the hard-edged realism of the opening battle scene of "Saving Private Ryan," we cringe at the thought of seeing the same on the nightly news. We are told it would be pornographic. We want no part of reality in real life. We demand that war be painstakingly realized on the screen, but that war remain imagined and conceptualized in real life.

^ posted at 11:24 AM

 

Zinn: 'A Kinder, Gentler Patriotism'

A new Howard Zinn article is up. Some excerpts:

The distinction between dying for our country and dying for your government is crucial in understanding what I believe to be the definition of patriotism in a democracy. According to the Declaration of Independence - the fundamental document of democracy - governments are artificial creations, established by the people, "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed", and charged by the people to ensure the equal right of all to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Furthermore, as the Declaration says, "Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it."

When a government recklessly expends the lives of its young for crass motives of profit and power (always claiming that its motives are pure and moral ("Operation Just Cause" was the invasion of Panama and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in the present instance) it is violating its promise to the country. It is the country that is primary - the people, the ideals of the sanctity of human life and the promotion of liberty. War is almost always (one might find rare instances of true self defense) a breaking of those promises. It does not enable the pursuit of happiness but brings despair and grief.

The American record does not justify confidence in its boast that it will bring democracy to Iraq. It will be painful to acknowledge that our GIs in Iraq were fighting not for democracy but for the expansion of the American empire, for the greed of the oil cartels, for the political ambitions of the president. And when they come home, they will find that their veterans' benefits have been cut to pay for the machines of war. They will find the military budget growing at the expense of health, education and the needs of children. The Bush budget even proposes cutting the number of free school lunches.

I suggest that patriotic Americans who care for their country might act on behalf of a different vision. Do we want to be feared for our military might or respected for our dedication to human rights? With the war in Iraq over, if indeed it is really over, we need to ask what kind of a country will we be. Is it important that we be a military superpower? Is it not exactly that that makes us a target for terrorism? Perhaps we could become instead a humanitarian superpower.

Nice insight, as always.

^ posted at 11:02 AM

 

Found, one (1) Smoking Gun

This has to be seen to be believed.

^ posted at 2:25 PM

 

crazy weather

I didn't write yesterday because I spent most of the day outside. It was gorgeous here, we went over 80 degrees for the first time in months. The wind was warm; it was strange for this climate. Usually the ocean breezes are quite cool.

This morning around 10am it was 75 degrees. But the temperature has dropped to 55 in the past hour or so. Now the 20 mph wind is quite cool. Apparently, the temperature is going to continue to drop dramatically, going down into the 20s tonight. Sigh. How cruel. Just when we got a taste of summer, it plunges instantly back down.

But spring is here, the warm weather (though presently a bit schizophrenic) is on the way. I'll take it as I can get it.

^ posted at 1:03 PM

 

Dreaming of The Enemy

I had a dream last night. I was with my family on a large boat just off the coast of Portland. Well, I knew it was Portland, although it didn't look like any part of Portland I'd seen before. It was a stunning day, much like it's been here the past couple of days, except 20 degrees warmer. The sky was clear and that wonderful, deep shade of blue that I love about Maine skies. I was standing on the deck of the ship, admiring the view of the city, looking at large, human-made objects: buildings, stadiums, other boats.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a plane flying abnormally low. It was a small, streamlined private plane painted red-white-and-blue. I watched as it flew closer to a building, and I then saw something drop from the plane, moving toward the building. I soon realized the object was a bomb, and to everyone's horror the building soon exploded in a fiery mushroom cloud that completely engulfed it. Seconds alter, we heard and felt the blast. We were confused en masse, much as I imagine stunned New Yorkers must have felt on 9/11. What happened? Whodunnit?

Through the sadness and chaos, I watched the red-white-and-blue plane circle around heading back toward the city, and, persumably, toward another target. Again, we gasped in collective horror, helpless, as a second building exploded, and then a third, as the plane kamikazed into its smoky, crimson doom.

Eventually in the dream, the boat we were on was hit by an unknown assailant, and it started to sink. The dream ended as someone shouted "It's Cuba! That was a Cuban plane!" I was frantically searching for my daughter as I woke up.

Throughout the dream, I never felt terrified. It was as if I was watching a movie; somehow what I was witnessing wasn't real.

Much like America's perception of its "enemies."

Who are America's enemies? Or if America is too broad a term, who are the enemies of the Bush administration? Afghanistan? Iraq? North Korea? Pakistan? Iran? France? Germany? Russia? Colombia? Panama? Sudan? Al Qaeda?

It occured to me in thinking about this dream that America's enemies are, in terms of nation-states, ghosts. None of the above are imminent threats to attack America, despite the paranoia sown by the Bush administration.

The enemies of America are, put simply, the people of the world, united. I've been reading The Second Superpower more closely, and it rings true. The basic argument in that piece is that the people of the world, combined with the communication infrastructures of the Information Age, are the second superpower, and the only one that will eventually challenge the political and economic hegemony of the US.

And many of these people are in America itself. The way things are going, when the crisis of neoliberalism becomes more imminent in the lives of Americans, it will not be simply North vs. South; the country will not be evenly divided by some imaginary line on a map. Neighbors will oppose one another; families will disagree; and these disagreements will become more and more intense as time passes and the crisis of neoliberalism worsens.

The Enemy of America is transparent in terms of nation-states. I am tempted to conclude that nation-states in general are outmoded; perhaps we truly are on the cusp of cosmopolitanism. I'll have to think about this some more.

^ posted at 6:12 PM

 

Turning Inward

Haven't had much time to write the past couple of days. It's been busy, and my attention has largely been commanded by family. This is a very good thing. It's been a beautiful weekend here. We went to the beach for the first time in a while yesterday. It actually hit 60 degrees, thought the ocean winds made it much cooler than that. It was quite nice. Today, I actually think I'm going to go fly a kite with my daughter. I feel like the father in Mary Poppins or something. :-)

^ posted at 11:32 AM

 

Did anyone else notice...REDUX

There is apparently more to the story about the overblown "jubilant Iraqis" bringing down the statues of Saddam. See the picture on the link for more details. According to that page,

The up close action video of the statue being destroyed is broadcast around the world as proof of a massive uprising. Still photos grabbed off of Reuters show a long-shot view of Fardus Square... it's empty save for the U.S. Marines, the International Press, and a small handful of Iraqis. There are no more than 200 people in the square at best. The Marines have the square sealed off and guarded by tanks. A U.S. mechanized vehicle is used to pull the statue of Saddam from it's base. The entire event is being hailed as an equivalent of the Berlin Wall falling... but even a quick glance of the long-shot photo shows something more akin to a carefully constructed media event tailored for the television cameras.

^ posted at 3:51 PM

 

First priority: turn Iraqi TVs back on

After my last post, I thought this story was interesting:

At Thursday's U.S. Central Command briefing, Air Force Maj. Gen. Gene Renuart said U.S. forces have been working hard to get broadcast capability into Baghdad, and are "working aggressively to find the context within the city and the country who would like to begin an Iraqi broadcast network."

In other words, being able to get American-ized information to the Iraqi people takes precedence over getting them food, water, medicine, painkillers, anaesthetics.

Truly, Iraq has been liberated. We now return to your regularly-scheduled programming...

^ posted at 1:22 PM

 

Did anyone else notice...

In the footage of people "dancing in the streets" in Baghdad that there were only a few thousand of them? I mean, that's cool and all, but Baghdad is a city of 5 million people. Even if there were 50,000 people, that's only 1 percent of the population.

Methinks the story of the "jubilant Iraqis" is being oversold just a bit. Let's see if people are still hugging American soldiers in a few weeks, after American soldiers have managed to turn the electricity back on, get clean water flowing again, properly equip the "overwhelmed" hospitals with medicines and supplies, etc.

Because the American soldiers are going to do all these things, right? RIGHT? I mean, what's the use of being "liberated" if you don't have the basic needs of life...

^ posted at 12:50 PM

 

Keep paying MS for licenses, AFTER you've sold your computer...

According to this article, Microsoft's new licensing 6.0 scheme says that if you sell your computer before the end of the licensing term, you STILL have to pay Microsoft for the software that you no longer are using.

God, I love proprietary software. Thank goodness we have companies like Microsoft around to keep the economy alive. Except, of course, for those terrorist commies who run Free software like Linux.

^ posted at 11:58 AM

 

P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act to become permanent?

According to this NYTimes story (reg. required), "Congressional Republicans are maneuvering to make permanent the sweeping antiterrorism powers granted to federal law enforcement agents after the attacks of Sept. 11." If you don't know why the PATRIOT act is a bad thing (not to mention the fact that it's unconsitutional), I highly suggest reading this analysis by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Quick, pass this law while the American people are watching statues of Saddam Hussein fall in Baghdad...

^ posted at 9:38 PM

 

"Australian for .. Peace Activism"

This is a great story: "An Australian warship set sail for the Gulf with a "No War" banner attached to its bow after two daring peace activists clambered up the hull in a spectacular anti-war protest here." Photos of the event are on the story. It's surprising just how freakin' large ships like that are.

^ posted at 3:16 PM

 

IraqBodyCount.net

It's a dirty job, but someone has to keep track of it. Given the poor information being released into the US media, it is impossible to know how many people are being killed in Iraq. And as the US media keeps repeating over and over, it's becoming increasingly difficult to tell the Iraqi civilians from the soldiers. I wonder how more many Iraqis, soldier or civilian, will end up dead as a result of US foreign policy?

^ posted at 2:01 AM

 

An Iraqi War Quiz

Everyone, get your pencils out, especially if you support the current invasion of Iraq, and take this quiz. If you want, you can even send me the answers (see my email address to the left).

^ posted at 1:14 AM

 

Apparently, it's Peace Activist Season in Oakland

The police opened fire on peace activists today in Oakland, using "non-lethal bullets, sandbags and concussion grenades". As you will see by the pictures, it's not as if these do no damage.

I wonder when the next Kent State will happen?

^ posted at 11:38 PM

 

spring is in the air? Smells like oil to me...

Spring is in the air. This morning, I went outside my apartment door, and the cold blast of sub-30 degree air hit me in the face. I took a few cautious steps through the 4 inches of freshly-fallen snow, only to have my olfactory senses overwhelmed by the scent of oil.

Apparently, a truck on the Casco Bay Bridge, which is just a block from my home, tipped over today and spilled 10,000 gallons of jet fuel into the storm sewers on the bridge. Yuck. I hope the environmental impact is minimal. Yeah, right.

^ posted at 9:32 PM

 

The Virtual Enclosures: Introduction

I write this 36 hours into the invasion of Iraq by the US military machine under the command of George W. Bush. It has been declared “A-day,” and it will be characterized by the “shock and awe” bombing campaign of “strategic targets” in Iraq. It is the latest chapter in the story of neoliberalism's struggle to maintain control of the world economic climate. The corporate media outlets are, predictably, in the throes of their wargasms, showing the bright lights of explosions and tracer fire over Baghdad and the shiny metal of American warplanes, ships, and missiles. All of these media outlets are interchangeable; there is a very small set of stories being aired as Iraq is decimated. When one channel picks up an approved story by one of the “embedded” reporters with the military, many other channels pick it up too. Corporate media has full control over traditional media outlets; the corporate radio and television stations look all-too-similar to one another.

On the other hand, as I write this, I am using my computer. My computer runs Free software1, with a high-speed Internet connection provided by Time Warner. I am listening to Amy Goodman's radio show, Democracy Now!, via streaming mp3 over the Internet. I am monitoring several alternative news websites to get what I view as better information about the ongoing invasion. I am monitoring hundreds of incoming emails from several listservs that provide first-hand accounts of the situation in Iraq and all over the world. I visit several weblogs of those who want to get their stories out to the world. In short, all of my information independent of corporate control, both incoming and outgoing, is mediated through my computer and the Internet.

The Internet represents perhaps the single most revolutionary element of the Information Age. At present, it allows anyone to communicate with anyone else, without being mediated by a corporate media outlet. Stories can be told, and heard, without interference by centralized control. It allows organization of countless different struggles around the world; as an example, the peace movement is mobilizing against this invasion of Iraq faster than any other peace movement in history. This unprecedented mobilization of peace activists is possible because of computers and the Internet.

Yet the free exchange of ideas as mediated by computers and the Internet is in danger. Every revolution has a counter-revolution, and the counter-revolution upon the Internet and computers is well underway. The Information Counter-Revolution is an attempt by corporate interests to re-assert control over the Internet, with the end goal of re-architecting it in terms of pre-Information Revolution media outlets, which treat information infrastructure as “content delivery systems” controlling what passive viewers may see. The counter-revolution seeks to accomplish these ends through two primary means: expansion of “intellectual property” laws and a re-architecting of the Internet to unilaterally enforce these laws through an infrastructure of centralized control. The goal of this essay is to trace both the ongoing revolution in information technology that have produced unprecedented gains in the struggles against neoliberalism and the counter-revolution that threatens the gains made. The Information Revolution has proven to be a boon for the struggles against neoliberalism. The medium of the Internet has allowed people to communicate, organize, and mobilize more quickly and efficiently than ever before; this phenomenon is demonstrated by struggles in Chiapas, Seattle, Genoa, and the unprecedented mobilization of the worldwide peace movement against the current invasion of Iraq. The open, end-to-end architecture of the Internet—the virtual commons—allows it to be used for virtually any purpose, an enormous benefit to those who resist neoliberalism.

But the virtual commons of the Internet is being enclosed. The virtual enclosures consist of increasingly centralized control of information through intellectual property laws and the infrastructures of control being engineered to enforce them. The virtual enclosures threaten the very existence of the Internet as we know it, along with a person's ability to access his or her data on his or her computer. This re-architecting of the Internet and of personal computers will have dire consequences for activists struggling against neoliberalism. I aim to provide a detailed analysis of the threat posed by the Information Counter-Revolution, and to show what can be done to minimize the damage of the counter-revolution.

^ posted at 10:42 PM

 

The Virtual Enclosures

The Virtual Enclosures is the title of the piece I'm working on for an upcoming anthology. It's basically about intellectual property, but also about the nature of a commons vs. an enclosure situation. I've been working on it for quite a while. I've decided to post bits and pieces of it. It's getting pretty long (about 7500 words at present--equivalent to about 30 pages typed, double-spaced). I'll start with the Introduction. Next post.

^ posted at 10:40 PM

 

Thin Ice

This is a fun piece, if you can put up with allegory. Don't worry, it's for a good cause.

^ posted at 9:42 PM

 

Enlightenment™

This is how stupid the intellectual property crisis has become. According to Salon.com, the founder of Bikram Yoga, a style involving various poses done in very hot, sweaty rooms, has copyrighted the poses and is threatening to sue anyone teaching them without permission (salon.com registration required). Here are some excerpts:

If Choudhury has his way, every Bikram Yoga studio in the world will soon be franchised and under his control. To start this process, he recently obtained a copyright for his particular sequence of yoga poses -- a 90-minute series of 26 postures and two breathing exercises done in a room heated to 105 degrees. Choudhury says that yoga studios that want to continue teaching Bikram Yoga must pay franchise and royalty fees, change their name to Bikram's Yoga College of India, stop teaching other styles of yoga, use only Bikram-approved dialogue when instructing students, refrain from playing music during classes, and a host of other stipulations.

Choudhury, 56, is a yoga guru so brash that he has been known to compare himself to Superman and Buddha, teach from a throne wearing nothing but a tiny Speedo and a headset mike, and proclaim his style as "the only yoga." When asked how he could make such drastic statements, he told Business 2.0 magazine: "Because I have balls like atom bombs, two of them, 100 megatons each. Nobody fucks with me." Perhaps because of his erratic, grandiose behavior, the hundreds of cease-and-desist letters he sent to studios across the country were remarkably effective. Most studios either met his demands, stopped teaching Bikram classes and using the Bikram name, or shuffled around the standard 26-pose sequence.

The Indian-born Choudhury has embraced the American way since 1971, when he arrived in the United States and sold Americans a sweaty workout and a spiritual practice all wrapped into one neat package. Since then he's developed a cult following and settled in Beverly Hills, where he collects Bentleys and Rolls Royces. Choudhury claims that his yoga, practiced in a mirrored room in extreme heat, cures everything from heart disease to hepatitis C. He has trained more than 2,000 teachers in his method ($5,000 per training) and says he is opening two new studios each day. Worldwide, he has 720 schools in 50 states and 220 countries. With the help of his audio, video and clothing lines, his fortune is estimated at $7 million.

To protect his assets, Choudhury says he must franchise. "I'm not happy about it," he insists. By copyrighting the poses, he says, he will protect his intellectual property and discourage copycats from teaching what he considers his invention. "When I first came here, I never charged a dime," he says. "But my students said, This is not Calcutta; this is America. You have to charge money or else nobody will believe you know something." But many feel Choudhury's actions breach the most basic of yogic teachings -- generosity, contentment, gentleness and, ultimately, self-liberation -- and that his pathological need for control and power renders him spiritually bankrupt and focused solely on the bottom line.

Even though the law seems to be in their favor, many teachers are worried that Choudhury, with his vast financial resources and outsized personality, will somehow manage to steer the law in his favor. "If he succeeds, he paves the way for another person to step forth and claim ownership of iyengar, ashtanga, power yoga, meditation and other forms of yoga-related healing arts," says studio owner Mark Morrison. The larger question is where to draw the line, both legally and ethically, in preserving an ancient tradition that is meant to be shared.

"I don't care," Choudhury says of those who oppose him. "They are pissing in the wind. There is always some idiot. So what can you do? You treat an idiot like an idiot." As divisiveness grows over who, if anybody, owns yoga in America, one thing seems clear: The essence of yoga, or "union" in Sanskrit, seems to have gotten lost in the translation.

^ posted at 2:00 PM

 

The war that may end the age of superpower

This is another fabulous piece by Henry C K Liu in Asia Times. It's amazing how quickly some very nuanced analyses of this war are coming out. The reasons for it are transparent. The Bush cabal is not fooling anyone. The most salient line in the entire piece is this: "The real enemy is neo-liberalism. The war on Iraq is part of a push to make the world safe for neo-liberalism. This war is a self-destructive cancer growing inside US neo-imperialism."

Here are some excerpts of this fairly lengthy piece:

There is no doubt the US will prevail over Iraq in the long run. It is merely a question of at what cost in lives, money and time. Thus far, a lot of pre-war estimates have had to be readjusted and a lot of pre-war myths about popular support for US "liberation" within Iraq have had to be re-evaluated. Time is not on America's side, and the cost is not merely financial. America's superpower status is at stake.

At the current rate of war expenditure at $2.5 billion a day, the war budget of $75 billion will be exhausted after 30 days, or until April 20, ten days before the projected arrival of all reinforcements to the front. Nobody has asked how a doubling of forces will win a guerilla war in Iraq. The US is having difficulty supplying 120,000 troops now, how will doubling the supply load over a 300 miles supply line help against an enemy that refuses to engage face to face? Domestic political opposition in the United Kingdom has started to demand that Prime Minister Tony Blair should pull British troops out now, based on the grounds that the US war plan has changed.

If the Iraqis manage to hold out past the summer, the war is going to be a new ball game. The other Arab governments in the region can manage to stand by if the US scores a quick victory, but Arab governments would have to come to yield to popular demand to come the aid of Iraq if the war drags on for months, even if the US makes steady military progress, but fails to bring the war to a convincing close. Syria and Iran are at risk of becoming part of the war. The prospect of Russian intervention is not totally out of the question. Bush already has had to warn Russian President Vladimir Putin about alleged Russian military aid to Iraq, which Moscow summarily dismissed.

For the US, it is not a matter of winning the war eventually, it must win a quick and decisive victory, or its image of superpower invincibility will suffer. An offensive war must conclude within a short time, while a defensive war only needs to continue. This is particularly true with a superpower. Every day that passes without a decisive victory for the invader is an incremental victory for the defender. Stalingrad did not need to destroy the German Wehrmacht. It only needed to hang on without surrendering. Despite orchestrated denial, the US has failed to deliver on its original war scenario of a quick and easy win with both military and moral superiority. Claiming that it had always anticipated a long war now only adds to the credibility gap on new assurances of the reliability of any new war plan.

The link between war expenditure and the Federal budget and the Bush tax cut is complex. The size of the invasion force was arrived at more by the constraints of logistics and the new "trasnsformational" doctrine, championed by Rumsfeld, behind the war plan. The myth upon which the war plan was based was that there would be instant domestic rebellion against Hussein, at least in the Shi'ite south - not concerted Iraqi guerilla resistance. The plan for a two-front, north-south attack on Baghdad was foiled by Turkey, the support from whom the US had been overconfident and did not secure with sufficient bribing. Washington was also unwilling to pay the political price of accommodating Turkish interests in a post-war Iraq at the expense of the Kurds. The Rumsfeld war plan was a fast moving, light forward force to enter Baghdad triumphantly with little resistance after a massive "shock and awe" air attack and wholesale surrender by the Republican Guards.

The plan was flawed from the start, a victim of Washington's own propaganda of the war being one of liberation for the Iraqi people. Instead, the invasion acted as a unifying agent for Iraqi and pan-Arabic nationalism and elevated Saddam to the role of hero and possibly martyr for the Arab cause in a defensive battle by a weak nation against the world's sole superpower.

Now the war is threatening to spill over to Syria and Iran and is creating political instability in all Arab regimes in the region. NATO is weakened and the traditional transatlantic alliance is frayed. This war has succeeded in pushing Russia, France, Germany and China closer, in contrast if not in opposition to US interests worldwide, a significant development with long term implications that are difficult to assess at present. Globalization is dealt a final blow by this war. The airlines are dead and without air travel, globalization is merely a slogan. The freezing of Iraq foreign assets is destroying the image of the US as a financial safe haven. The revival of Arab nationalism will change the dynamics in Middle East politics. The myth of US power has been punctured. The geopolitical costs of this war to the US are enormous and the benefits are hard to see.

This war will end from its own inevitable evolution, even without anti-war demonstrations. It will not be a happy end. There is yet no discernible exit strategy for the US. After this war, the world will have no superpower, albeit the US will remain strong both economically and militarily. But the US will be forced to learn to be much more cautious, and more realistic, about its ability to impose its will on other nations through the application of force. The UK will be the big loser geopolitically. The British military has already served notice to Blair that Britain cannot sustain a high level of combat for indefinite periods.

Americans, even liberals and radical leftists, cannot possibly sympathize with the natural need for violence in the political struggle of nationalists in their struggle against imperialism. They harbor a genuine sense of repugnance for political oppression unfamiliar to their own historical conditions. Be that as it may, only Iraqis are justified in trying to rid Iraq of any leader not to their liking, not a foreign power, no matter how repugnant the regime may seem to foreigners. Moral imperialism is imperialism nonetheless.

Further, this invasion is transforming Saddam into a heroic fighter in defense of Iraqi and Arab nationalism and as a brave resistance fighter against the world's sole superpower. The only people in the entire world buying the liberation propaganda are Americans, and even many Americans who supported the idea of regime change in Iraq are rethinking its need and feasability. The populations in most Arabic nations are increasingly wishing they had Saddam as their leader.

In a world order of nation-states, it is natural for all citizens to support their troops, but only on their own soil. Support for all expeditionary or invading forces is not patriotism. It is imperialism. All nations are entitled to keep defensive forces, but offensive forces of all countries must be condemned by all, socialists and right-wing libertarians alike. Some of the most rational anti-war statements and arguments in the US at this moment are coming from the libertarian right, not the left.

The real enemy is neo-liberalism. The war on Iraq is part of a push to make the world safe for neo-liberalism. This war is a self-destructive cancer growing inside US neo-imperialism. Just as the Civil War rescued Abraham Lincoln from the fate of an immoral segregationist politician and projected him in history as a liberator of slaves, this war will rescue Saddam from the fate of a petty dictator and project him in history to the ranks of a true freedom fighter. That has been Bush's gift to Saddam, paid in full by the blood of the best and bravest of Iraqi, American and British citizens.

^ posted at 9:57 PM