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POPSCentury Of Death For a better look at the graph, go directly to the blogpost at http://warnewsupdates.blogspot.com/2008/09/century-of-death.html and click on the picture
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POPSWar is a Racket Wars are really a continuous stream of coordinated acts of terrorism, related to money and power instigated by the people who will benefit from the war and its expected end result. War is an instrument to expand economic power by destroying the national institutions and intelligent people of the victimized nation.
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POPSThe Wrong Question “Natural capital” (minerals, croplands, etc.) and “produced capital” (factories, roads, and so on) account for less than a quarter of the planet’s wealth. In America, intangible capital — the stuff in our heads, our hearts, and our books — accounts for 82 percent of our wealth. In large measure our wealth isn’t the product of capitalism, it is capitalism.
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POPSPalin For Vice President: Palin on the Issues
SMALL BUSINESS – “As Mayor and CEO of the booming city of Wasilla, my team invited investment and encouraged business growth by eliminating small business inventory taxes, eliminated personal property taxes, reduced real property tax mill levies every year I was in office, reduced fees, and built the infrastructure our businesses needed to grow and prosper.” MILITARY - “I respect our military personnel and understand the importance of Alaska's National Guard. As I watched our military men and women being deployed I recognized how important it is for their families to know how much Alaska and America support them.” HEALTH CARE – “I support flexibility in government regulations that allow competition in health care that is needed, and is proven to be good for the consumer, which will drive down health care costs and reduce the need for government subsidies. I also support patients in their rightful demands to have access to full medical billing information.”
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POPSWhy won't hipsters admit to being hipsters? Discussion about the Adbusters article, "Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization". Specifically, the part where the author is told by a couple of hipsters that it's not cool to call hipsters hipsters.
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POPSSuspicion of Capitalism What ideas and ideals are needed for freedom to flourish? History offers no better answer than the American story. Two centuries ago, the Founding Fathers blazed the path to a capitalist future by creating a nation based on the individual's right to life, liberty, property and the selfish pursuit of his own personal happiness. For the first time, a nation's social system embodied approval of profit-seeking, the lifeblood of capitalism. America's founding principles, all but forgotten today, facilitated the explosive economic globalization of the 19th century and remain our only hope for freedom in the 21st century.
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POPSGeorgia/Russia - The story behind the story
"No sooner was BTC completed, however, than Western officials began exploring the possibility of other pipelines that could reach beyond Georgia and Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan, which was thought to have some of the world's largest gas reserves. Their interest was not only in "energy security" and the prospect of oil riches for Western energy companies, but also in promoting Western-style democracy and free-market capitalism in the former Soviet republics. " "Putin understands better than anyone that oil and gas are the source of Russia's resurgence as a military and economic power and his own control over the Russian government and key sectors of its economy. It is oil and gas that provide the money to maintain Russia's powerful military, along with a vast internal security apparatus and network of government-controlled enterprises that allow the president-turned-premier to maintain his iron grip on the levers of political and economic power. "
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POPSBeyond Web 2.0: How Tech will Change the World (video)
The video (1h40m) can't be clipped, but you can watch it online at the source. Dr. Hiroshi Tasaka discusses Beyond Web 2.0: How the Next Tech Revolution will Change the World. Dr. Hiroshi Tasaka, Professor at Tama University in Tokyo, and President of Thinktank SophiaBank, has authored numerous books on the philosophy of working, management theory, business strategy, the Internet revolution and knowledge society, as well as paradigm shifts in human society. A specialist in complexity systems, Dr. Tasaka will explore how next technology revolution will further empower the individual, blending the monetary and voluntary economies to create a new system of Capitalism. Dr. Tasaka will also discuss ways in which technology will help build bridges between the U.S. and Japan, as well as among countries in Asia in the emerging post-knowledge society - Imagining Global Asia He talks about Dialectic Philosophy, Complexity Sciences & Collective Psychology among other th
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POPSAmerica: State of the Nayshun
the real cost of America's hate-affair with knowledge is paid by children, for whom words like "learning" and "wisdom" sound biblical and words like "intelligence" elitist and judgmental. Those of us old enough to remember the sixties well remember that every classroom had at least one kid (usually an immigrant from Canada or Pakistan) whose father (usually an academic or ACLU attorney) had turned the television set into a planter. But those of us who have survived The Love Boat, Three's Company and Charlie's Angels to enter the world of Rap and shows about whinnying wannabe Britneys celebrating million dollar Sweet Sixteen parties have survived to witness the reversal of culture—a new barbarism and a vulgarity that, unlike the old vulgarity, incoherently accepts political correctness while exploiting and expanding every stereotype, every dumb opinion, every rude form of discourse. It's a barbarism fueled by technologies made available to the know-nothings by the know-hows, free speech
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POPS The Left vs Free Speech The truly outrageous aspect of such comparisons is that the American left, with its Stalin-redux willingness to rearrange history, neglects to mention that, outside of Japan, all of the 20th century's great totalitarian regimes had roots on the political left. It wasn't just Lenin and Stalin whose propaganda machine prefigured MoveOn. Nazi is an acronym for "National Socialist." Read Mein Kampf. It isn't a tribute to free-market capitalism, folks. Mussolini was a populist. Mao was a leftist, as was Pol Pot. The last century's worst censors and book burners all emerged from leftist ideologies. As this column recently pointed out, Support Our Troops, Bring Them Home! disappeared from the political scene the instant Obama called for sending those troops to Afghanistan and Pakistan, instead of back to Fort Hood. For the hardcore left, the party line always trumps conscience. MoveOn isn't new - it's just Pravda with poor punctuation.
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POPSMore on Obamanomics Obama's economic plan also calls for mandating a "living wage." He plans to saddle retailers with a $10 minimum wage indexed to inflation, along with a mandate to provide seven days of paid sick leave to workers. Obama assumes business owners will just eat the added costs.
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POPSThe Audacity Hustle Exposed It's all part of the Audacity Hustle. Obama is running the most audacious campaign in American history. But the Hustle only works for the real suckers. His German Tiergarten speech with "Citizens of the world!" -- a direct echo of "Workers of the world!" from the Communist Manifesto of 1848. "We are the change we've been waiting for!" It's repeated in The Obama Hustle over and over again. But it's just Fidel Castro's slogan, "La Revolucion Somos Nosotros!" --- "We are the Revolution!" Most Americans don't know that Obama's Soviet Realism pics are just imitation Lenin posters. The same thing for The Decembrist rock band to echo the Russian Decemberist rebellion. That's why the Decembrist rockers play the Soviet National Anthem to start their concerts. Get it? The whole idea that Obama is a devout Christian is another fraud; he's a militant atheist, just like Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright.
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POPSWhy cultural transformation is possible "If we are to move beyond the current destructive phase of capitalism, we will do so because we tap the spiritual energy that progressives have yet to tap in any coherent way. Values hold the key. The hungers of the heart can be the bedrock on which we build a new social order."
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POPSSpoiled by what we value "And yet we hate it. Leaving out religion, no idea has given more to humanity. The working-class person today is richer.. than the average prince or potentate of 300 years ago. His food is better, his life longer, his health better, his entertainments vastly more diverse. And yet we constantly hear how cruel capitalism is while this collectivism or that is more loving because, unlike capitalism, collectivism is about the group, not the individual. These complaints grow loudest at times like this: when the loom of capitalism momentarily stutters. Suddenly, the people ask: What have you done for me lately? Politicians croon about how we need to give in to Causes Larger than Ourselves and peck about like hungry chickens for a New Way to replace capitalism. This is the patient leaping to embrace the disease and reject the cure. Recessions are fewer and weaker thanks in part to trade, yet whenever recessions appear on the horizon, politicians dive into their protectionist bunkers."
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POPSPetty Capitalism in the Centre of a Post-socialist Capital Transformations in the political and economic spheres after the collapse of communism determined rather localized responses to these forces. It was not a linear development to reach the Western societal models, as “transition” assumed. Even if there was a growing internal and external pressure to rationalize and formalize economy in the capitalist logic, the mechanisms they fostered functioned after a period of uncertainty. Opposite to transitology, it is argued that the formalization of economy is coexistent with informal practices of economy - that sometimes have lasted since the Communist Era. In this sense, I find extremely poignant the resultant blend of formal and informal economy that characterizes most of these countries. Therefore, I will further focus on a seasonal market held in a central square of Bucharest.
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POPSCultural Dubai Friday is the holy day in Islam, but it’s the day of drunk partying and sexual debauchery for Westerners. And there is almost no cultural integration between the locals and the foreigners. Compounded by all this is the fact that Dubai is a hereditary monarchy with no parliament. Ordinary people have no way for their voice to be heard except in the streets and mosques were fury is reportedly growing. A terrorist attack could be carried out by a disgruntled local—but not necessarily. Dubai’s high regional profile makes it a likely target for Al Qaeda, which now seems incapable of launching an attack in the West, and who could see Dubai as an easy chance to kill some infidels. Moreover, since Dubai is the Middle East’s cosmopolitan melting pot, and its experiment with Islamic capitalism could become the blueprint for surrounding Arab states, its failure would have dire consequences for the entire region.
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POPSMichael Yon on the Iraq War If you don't follow Michael Yon you should. He goes to the rough areas and reports as HE sees it. No agenda, no adherence to any party.
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POPSWhat Should Uncle Sam Do? I like the sound of the phrase "socialized capitalism"..... Every time someone mentions that there should be more regulation of the greedy corporations, some ditto-head conservative yells "Socialism!". I gues they would rather have "Socialized Capitalism" in which the CEO's of these large corporations get to go home each year with millions of dallars in income, while the rest of us bail out their failed businesses.....nothing but greed and corruption!
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POPSThe Long March "much of the wacky, upside-down, right-is-wrong, black-is-white stuff we see in the news these days is directly or indirectly inspired by Gramsci: the attacks on Christianity, the family, individual freedom, morality and moral judgements; multiculturalism; the cult of victimhood, "tolerance," political correctness, the replacement of the roles of family, religion, individual responsibility and choice with government rules, laws, and regs; the expansion of the State and the Welfare State and the Nanny State; anti-tradition, anti-capitalism, anti-success, anti-nationalism, anti-Americanism and anti-Westernism, etc - all the stuff that makes me echo Bob Grant with "It's sick out there, and getting sicker." I am sure Antonio never anticipated that a Green movement would emerge to become an ally of the slow, incrementalist and thus less-alarming Gramscian revolution."
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