October 31, 2011
The Skeleton Dance
October 22, 2011
RIP Col. Gaddafi
In the West Col. Gaddafi won't be missed. And to the extent he's remembered at all probably it will be for the Lockerbie bombing, despite the fact that Libyan guilt was far from proven. Indeed, there were many reasonable doubts... What's next remains a mystery, but skepticism is in order: Can oil money buy peace among the Libyan tribes or will their natural fractiousness assert itself regardless? Time will tell. But one thing is certain: so far as the militants are concerned there was no honor in the death of Col. Gaddafi. If western governments wish to maintain minimal credibility they must now insist upon a thorough and independent international investigation of what was, most likely, his murder, and of the subsequent desecration of his body, with appropriate sanctions as necessary.
Just fyi, last week Russian Television asked me to comment on Col. Gaddafi's death. For the n-th time I reminded them that I am not an expert on Libya and for the first time they let me off the hook. Normally I'd have been quite pleased to be on RT but, given the grisly subject, I was glad of the reprieve.
He died while valiantly fighting in defence of Libya against the combined forces of NATO and Wahhabi reactionism
By Professor Idris Samawi Hamid*
Bismi Rabbi al-Husayn (S)
Assalaamu3alaykum wr wb.
The Qurʾān says:
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا۟ كُونُوا۟ قَوَّامِينَ بِالۡقِسۡطِ شُهَدَاء لِلّهِ وَلَوۡ عَلَي أَنفُسِكُمۡ أَوِ الۡوَالِدَيۡنِ وَالأَقۡرَبِينَ إِن يَكُنۡ غَنِيًّا أَوۡ فَقَيرًا فَاللّهُ أَوۡلَي بِهِمَا فَلاَ تَتَّبِعُوا۟ الۡهَوَي أَن تَعۡدِلُوا۟ وَإِن تَلۡوُوا۟ أَوۡ تُعۡرِضُوا۟ فَإِنَّ اللّهَ كَانَ بِمَا تَعۡمَلُونَ خَبِيرًا
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا۟ كُونُوا۟ قَوَّامِينَ لِلّهِ شُهَدَاء بِالۡقِسۡطِ وَلاَ يَجۡرِمَنَّكُمۡ شَنَآنُ قَوۡمٍ عَلَي أَلاَّ تَعۡدِلُوا۟ اعۡدِلُوا۟ هُوَ أَقۡرَبُ لِلتَّقۡوَي وَاتَّقُوا۟ اللّهَ إِنَّ اللّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعۡمَلُونَ
O you who have dynamically believed! Be those who stand for manifest justice, witnesses to Allāh, even if it be against your yourselves, your parents, or those who are close to you; even if it be against someone poor or rich, for Allāh has more walayah [than anyone else] with both of them. And do not follow your personal whims and desires and let them prevent you from being just. And if you deviate or turn away from justice, then surely Allāh is well-informed of all that you do. [Nisāʾ: 135]
O you who have dynamically believed! Be those who stand for Allāh, witnesses to manifest justice. And do not allow some hatred of a people to afflict you so that you do not act justly. Be just! It is closer to awareness. And be aware of Allāh! Surely Allāh is well-informed of all that you do. [Māʾidah: 9]
October 20, 2011
Enough!
So now it seems that Bank of America gets to dump $75 trillion dollars — trillion with a "t" — of derivatives exposure onto the FDIC. Enough! Send all these miserable little fuckers to jail, nationalize B of A and other dicey banks, and restore laws that prevent banks (so-called) from playing games with the public's money.
October 15, 2011
Dropping the Veil on Iran
What can one say about the Obama administration's latest gambit towards Iran? That it's stupid? Yes, but how stupid? In a universe of stupid is it more plain vanilla stupid — to be routinely ignored — or is it a 105° fever stupid, so stupid that people are going to die from it (as in a war), unless something's done to chill it down? Probably the former, but I'm not entirely sure.
Related to all this, I had lunch with an old friend last week, who had happened to be visiting the State Department a day or so earlier. What he told me shocked me. Visitor screening is hyper-paranoid, three layers deep. Visitors must always be accompanied. Visitors cannot even use the bathrooms. This fellow, who had had extensive experience working behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, also said that nobody in the building was smiling. Totally reminiscent of the old Soviet Union. And I guess, really, that that report shouldn't be surprising, because foreign service officers are smart enough to understand that the imperial project they're obliged to defend is mostly a cascade of lies.
Fie Upon Rome
In a world where so much is going wrong, where so many people desperately need help, it's just too much to have a major religion endlessly embroiled in pedophilia scandals. But the fundamental problem isn't that the Catholic Church is full of pedophiles, including among its leadership. It's that Rome will not set foot into the modern world. As the brilliant theologian Hans Küng says, "the Church is sick, and it's the sickness of the Roman system." Küng points out — correctly, in my view — that under Rome the Church is dying. Without radical reform the Catholic Church may well become, so far as the West is concerned, merely a cultural sideshow.
October 12, 2011
EP Podcast Schedule for October
This Friday my guest will be Dr. Xiaolong Qiu, author of the internationally best-selling Inspector Chen mystery novels, set in Shanghai. Don't miss it! The Friday following, October 21st, my guest will be the results oriented UK environmental activist John Stewart, who was recently denied entry into the U.S. at New York's JFK airport. What kind of timid country have we become?! And on Friday, October 28th, my guest will be Robin McRoskey Azevedo, President and owner of the McRoskey Mattress Company of San Francisco (in business since 1899) and a member of the board of SFMade. We need to get serious about making things in America again. Enjoy!
Two Announcements
First, I've belatedly — very belatedly — gotten around to updating/revising the EP FAQ page. It had hardly changed since I started the site almost six years ago and was no longer in sync with everything as it should have been. So I almost entirely redid it, most notably including a section of blurbs. Thanks, very much, to Larry Wilkerson, to Marshall Auerback, and to Rich Greener for their kind and generous words, which are much appreciated! More blurbs will be added as they fly over the transom.
Second, the final phase of voting is now underway at the Annual Podcast Awards competition. In this phase audience participation is everything: category winners are determined by who gets the most audience votes. The kicker is, listeners can vote once per day for a two week period. In the past five years I haven't encouraged listeners to go through this ordeal because the EP audience is so small compared with the other category finalists that there hardly seemed any point to it. But this year I have a feeling that if the entire EP audience voted each and every day for two weeks that we might have an outside chance of winning the category, which would be oh-so-cool. Please understand, I'm not strongly encouraging you to do this — I regard the process as a major inconvenience even in voting for myself — but I am pointing out the possibility. Thanks in advance for whatever you do!!
October 10, 2011
It's What They Try To Do
We learned over the weekend that the DC demonstrators' conflict at the Boeing museum came about, in large part, thanks to a right wing provocateur who made the mistake of bragging about it later. (The DC contingent of #occupy, by the way, should try harder to avoid stepping on their own message — here in DC it's a problem, I think, that has to do with over-planning...) And right wing provocations, it should be understood, are par for the course. Not only to get pepper-sprayed but on a much larger scale, too. So one must pay serious attention to this report in today's New York Times about a peer review article in the Journal of Bioterrorism & Biodefense, which argues that the FBI got the anthrax investigation wrong.
October 8, 2011
The EP Podcast a Podcast Awards Finalist, Again!
For the fifth year in a row the EP podcast is a finalist in the political category of the Annual Podcast Awards competition. Thanks, very, very much to all of you listeners and, especially, to all of you who voted to nominate the show. Without you this success wouldn't have been possible. And thanks also to the anonymous judges of the Awards for kindly donating their time. It's a very strong field and a real honor to be part of it.
Continue reading "The EP Podcast a Podcast Awards Finalist, Again!"...
Leave It To the Drones
Some little while ago — I don't remember exactly when it was and I'm too lazy to look it up — there was an interesting news report to the effect that, for a few bucks worth of parts from Radio Shack, command and control communications from military drones could be intercepted. "No worries," said the Pentagon. "It only means someone could tap into our system but that is just a theoretical exploit and, besides, actual control over the drone is completely secure." Right. Of course. So now there's this news, that an unknown key-logging virus has infected drone computer operations and that the military can't get rid of it. "No worries," says the Pentagon. "We think it's benign." What geniuses. Now, I'm not a computer guy but it seems to me there's at least one obvious possibility to explore: Having patched into drone communications someone has figured out how to hack the system. Sure, the military removes the virus, but the hacker(s) just put it right back again. Logically, the next exploit would be to take over control of a drone and send it, well, wherever... My advice? When senior U.S. leadership travels to areas of drone operations those operations should be suspended.
RIP Steve Jobs
To honor Steve Jobs' passing I went out Friday afternoon and bought an iPad. I think he'd have approved. And I think I know now what I want for Christmas: a St. Croix mock turtleneck ($175 !!!), except in Communist Red instead of black. No question Jobs was a genius. But is life just about high tech design? No. The experts figure Jobs was worth upwards of eight billion dollars — what I'd really like to know is what happens to his fortune? Did he arrange for a charitable trust to do good work? Or something else... Because that, in the longer run, is how he'll be measured.
October 4, 2011
It's All About the Pain
"Truth," said Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "is almost invariably bitter." Speaking truth to power, then, is almost by definition not a recreational activity. And therein lies the remarkably widespread failure to understand or interpret our American Autumn. People are not demonstrating to express their "point of view," or to "fulfill themselves," or to "get" something. They're out on the streets because they're hurting, they're angry, they're confused and they don't know what else to do.
October 3, 2011
Getting It Backwards
Paul Krugman has a Nobel Prize in Economics. I don't. He's also a columnist at the New York Times. I'm not. But when he writes that one important solution to our trade problems is to correct China's undervalued currency I have to scratch my head. Because, what does Krugman think will happen if China's currency appreciates? That the rest of the world will stay the same except that the U.S. balance of trade with China will improve? I wish. More likely, it seems to me, is that American companies who produce cheaply in China will start looking for the next cheapest place to produce — whether that's North Korea, India, or Vanuatu. Wherever, it's not as if the options are severely limited. The only explanation I can imagine for Krugman's mistake is that his belief in "free trade" at any cost so inhibits his willingness to consider the virtues of tariffs or industrial policy that he gets turned around to the point of seeing the liberated movement of capital as the solution instead of the problem. But the reality is that making the liberation of capital our top economic priority has, in fact, been our main economic problem for decades...
October 1, 2011
Murder, Inc.
To me, what's most troubling about the assassination of Anwar al-Aulaqi is not so much that it happened — a miscarriage of justice, to be sure — but that the decision process leading to the assassination was, and remains, secret. If the administration said 'here are the reasons why we think we should kill Aulaqi, and here are the reasons why we think we have the authority to do so,' then Americans outside the government could argue with what happened, take the matter to court (again), and try in various ways to hold the administration politically accountable. But by invoking secrecy the administration has implicitly claimed that it is not accountable.
