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POPSReviewReviewReviewReview The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in PRAISE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY OF WAR. "Throughout our history' the impetus to using force sometimes has seemed as inevitable as water circling an open drain, but war is not always the best way to defend our security interests. Eugene Jarecki examines the evolution of America's views about war,up through the invasion of Iraq.He knows how to ask the important questions, and he keeps asking until he gets the answers. This is the kind of insightful dialogue that can help ensure that when we act, we act not of fear, but are grounded in confidence in our ideals" - Senator Patric Leahy -
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POPSThe Democrats have lost the source of their passion This point by Paul Krugman is so true. Many people who voted for Obama, including myself, did so primarily out of hope that his spirit and belief in change deserved a chance to succeed. My candid perspective is that his spirit began to diminish during his swearing in and has continued to dissipate ever since. It's hard to understand and very frustrating...but i think my feelings of disappointment are shared by many in this country.
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POPSAfghanistan - another view
who, according to British media, are not present in this war torn country. Not controlling the high ground is a certain recipe for disaster. In a modern age where logistics are so essential it is amazing that a semi literate almost primitive foe can have access to modern telephone technology but the Nato troops are ham-strung with their heavy and useless radio networks and equipment. All Nato troops now carry weapons that share 55.6 ammunition in a country where the average contact starts at massive distances. This means that you are dependent on support weapons which are totally alien to the mobility of troops trained for speed and action. The Italians, masters at Alpine terrains and warfare would never acquiesce to allowing their soldiers to be more than shooting ducks in a theatre they practice in their own back yard, or would they? Read this piece for yourself and then speak with you MP. Or better still continue accepting the lies fostered by this illegal and immoral governme
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POPSIf You Can't Beat Em, Don't Count Them They hope to not only push the undocumented further into the shadows, but erase from the rolls a whole community of people, immigrant or otherwise, who are shaping the largest population shift this country has ever seen. The Republicans are not seeing past the idea that these people are "other" or that they are "foreigners" because if they did, they would realize they have the potential for attracting scores of first generation immigrants, who typically have conservative, Christian ideals and come from center-right countries.
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POPSCheering Over Obama's Failure and the Censorious Head-Shaking Over The Cheering Nearly one year ago, on a clear November night, people from every corner of the world gathered in the city of Chicago or in front of their televisions to watch the results of the U.S. Presidential election. Their interest wasn't about me as an individual. Can't you just see the eyes rolling? Somehow he's President of the whole world. And he's bigger than himself as an individual. Rather, it was rooted in the belief that America's experiment in democracy still speaks to a set of universal aspirations and ideals.... Actually, it's kind of cool to hear him reciting the ideology of "American exceptionalism" he's usually accused of not believing in. But isn't this exactly the wrong place to do it? Is he about Chicago or America or the whole world or does he somehow think it all becomes one... in him?
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POPSDay in the Life of Joe Six-Pack Republican One thing I enjoy most about people is our ability to poke fun at each other. Political humor especially intrigues me because despite the fact that we are all striving for what’s best for our families we each have our own ideals on how to best do it. ColoradoRight clipped a list of 21 Ways to Be A Good Liberal http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/26BD1DF0-B8CF-4F7A-A2CE-E9704D0719D7/ In the interest of equal opportunity, here’s one for the other side. Enjoy as we hear a few final words of ‘wisdom’ from Joe Six-Pack Republican. “Joe turns on a radio talk show. The host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn't tell Joe that his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day) Joe agrees. "We don't need those big government liberals ruining our lives; after all, I'm a self made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have."
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POPSAnother killed in Afghanistan I have not ignored the fact that another British soldier from the 2nd Lancs was killed. This is to remind all those Labour suporters that those dying in their war are all from British stock, be they American, Canadian or Australian. There supporters who wave hate banners at reeturning sol;diers and harbour sedition against our greed - DO NOT. TUC blinded delegates, get into the real world. Your debate today has been an insult to those injured and killed for your corrupt ideals.
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POPSFive Biggest Lies in the Health Care Debate
I am tired of wading through the inflammatory claims designed to scare people into thinking the government is out to rob us blind and turn us all into socialist puppets. These manipulative tactics are not conducive to debate and are designed to hijack the legislative process to fulfill the needs of selfish interests. If any politician cannot debate this issue with truth and honesty and with respect for their opponents and the democratic process then they need to be identified and removed from their positions. Those participating in this despicable charade dare not claim themselves to be American for it besmirches the spirit of our founding fathers and denigrates their intended ideals for this nation. Lies are the tools of desperation and should be brought out into the open along with their underhanded perpetrators. There are valid fears of socialism when the government begins taking over the means of production but valid meaningful debate needs to take place to prevent it.
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POPSThe CIA interrogation investigation: I am ashamed of my country More: I guess what especially turns my stomach here is that the idea wasn’t just to inflict mental anguish on a presumably odious man in order to extract information. It was to inflict that pain by exploiting, as a weakness, whatever flicker of nobility or love remained in an otherwise wretched soul. It was a method of torture that would have been effective only because and to the extent there was something human left in him. Maybe I’m being overly sentimental, but every cell in my body is telling me this is sick and wrong.
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POPSBold and Honest Questions • What will be the definition of "public interest"? • Who defines "public interest"? • Why should it be balanced? Because it's public airwaves? (Well, there are public roads that go by my house and I don't count how many Republicans and Democrats are driving on them) Day 2 • Who is "surrounding" the president in the White House? • Do any of the president's advisers have criminal records? • Are the president's advisers working to better the country or their own ideals? • Who are the anti-capitalists in Washington? • What role do they have in crafting bills? • What was "STORM"? What happened to the founders; where are they now? • What qualifications must one have to be a presidential adviser? • What is the difference between a community organizer and a community activist? • Do the "czars" have power? • Should a communist have the ear of the president of the United States? • What role did the Apollo Alliance play i
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POPSWhat do I want in a health care system? More (the footnotes):† Barring sudden death at a young age, we are all, at best, currently healthy rather than healthy. ‡ I am deeply ashamed of how many of my fellow countrymen have a problem with this, even if the risk pool is wide enough to make it a relatively low amount of subsidy per person. It also ignores the realities of childhood poverty and contagious disease, both of which have impacts that cross the "I've got mine" line.
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POPSSouth India: the world's suicide capital The average suicide rate for women is as high as 148 per 100,000, and 58 per 100,000 for men. Worldwide, this rate is 14.5 per 100,000. Also, in the West, men are three times more likely to commit suicide than women. The suicide rate in Kerala was about 32 per 100,000 persons in 2002, thrice the rate in India as a whole.
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POPSDoris "Granny D" Haddock A tale of doggedness versus dollars, grit against greenbacks, RUN GRANNY RUN is an unlikely portrait of a remarkable activist and an exploration of our fragile democracy in the corporate age.
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POPSChris Hedges: "We owe Nader an apology" According to Chris Hedges, progressives were sold a bill of goods with the Obama campaign -- empty slogans and no real pressure for change. I don't entirely agree, but I'm getting there. Clipped mainly for this: " he question not how do we get good people to rule -- those attracted to power tend to be venal mediocrities -- but how do we limit the damage the powerful do to us." Archived at Iterasi: sqrl.it/?jre18.
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POPSRational Disagreement or Rabid Hatred? Click the link to read this entire article; it makes some very good points. Drawing equivalences between right-wingers and left-wingers is not a valid exercise. The Democrats (and Liberals) see their differences from the Republicans (and Conservatives) as a nuanced disagreement of ideals, while Republicans see it as an absolute battle of Good vs. Evil. They aren't opposing Obama because they disagree with his platform; they are against him because they think he's evil. He's been called the Anti-Christ (critical study of Revelations will reveal that he's too old). At rallies, people are screaming to kill him, and cut off his head. It's come to the point where you can't even take it for granted that Republicans accept the fact that Obama is human, just like McCain. This Republican base is acting on a very primitive level, like a lizard-brain, with no critical thought about what they're doing or why they oppose him.
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POPSAre Gender Roles Socially Constructed? Most of our perceptions come from a common world of social practices and institutions so embedded in our shared reality of power, language, and identity that they are invisible to us. These shared perceptions, that is, these perceptions about which many people agree, are social constructions. Social constructions may seem to be reality, but what they truly are is a shared way of seeing something that some people have agreed upon. People who are not aware that they are determined by the specific cultural meanings, the social constructions, of their culture will not be free to be fully who they are. They will not be free to explore the many ways one can live and experience life.
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POPSUnkindness and Kindness on the Internet # What Is Good and Why: The Ethics of Well-Being by Richard Kraut. 304 pages. Harvard. $35.00. # On Kindness by Adam Phillips and Barbara Taylor. 128 pages. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. $20.00 If you wonder why people are silenced and disappear, it is an old story. Perhaps, though, it is some sort of refraction of the real world where you have to work hard to find the good and the true, the kind and the wholesome.
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POPSBNP is at the heart of web of Nazi filth But he admits that this does not mean the party’s Nazi ideals have been “sold out”. He set out the party’s strategy at a meeting organised by the Ku Klux Klan in the US in 2000. He told the gathering that, “there’s a difference between selling out your ideas, and selling your ideas. “And the British National Party isn’t about selling out its ideas…but we are determined now to sell them. And that means basically to use the saleable words. “Instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about identity.” This involves wrapping themselves in the British flag and attempting to give voice to a “white identity”.
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POPSSay Something "The more courageous among us say “Let's try something different. Let's organize ourselves based upon those things which we hold in common reverence. The first of these is our nation's basic ideals, laws and traditions. We may not fully agree what these comprise, or even their meanings. Nonetheless, we can agree in principle on some of them as a more or less consistent framework for the political, economic and social interactions of individuals and groups within our society.”
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