| A new Enlightenment versus a new Confucianism? |
[Dec. 11th, 2007|01:19 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | china, east v west, memewar, politics, us | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | tired but perky | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
Brin on the possible memewar once the People of the Book have got all that macho shit out of their systems. Long, smart, worth considering.
A quote:
"How will Earthlings, who are eager to get on with planetary -- and interplanetary -- life, settle their issues, allocate resources, and generally handle the problems of running a complex civilization?
The crux: with the fading of both the empires of paranoia and male frenzy, we’ll be left with an East-West dichotomy ... one that ought to be settled peacefully, since both of these final “sides” recognize the inefficiency and cost and inherent uncertainty of violence.
Non-violence sounds great, for a change. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a struggle. Because a whole lot will be at stake. In fact, just about everything....
...if the Chinese leadership clade does succeed at translating Lee Kwan Yew’s method into a successfully stable mode for a billion and a half Chinese, then humanity will be offered a genuinely interesting choice, by mid-century. On the one hand, the very best version of oldstyle, oligarchy-led governance possible.
On the other hand, Earth citizens will be offered an updated version of the Western Enlightenment. One that has weathered the trials of a Cold War, a Machismo Meme War, and (we can hope) a successful self renewal, after years of despoliation by the recent Neoconservative Putsch." |
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| Olbermann kicks Bush in the balls - hard |
[Dec. 7th, 2007|11:52 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, war | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sore | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
Take it away, Keith:
" We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War Three about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole — or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked — at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so — whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed, were still even remotely plausible.
A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency: an unapologetic war-monger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself."
Then he gets nasty...
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| Authoritarianism - the check-list |
[Dec. 6th, 2007|10:19 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | censorship, politics | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | sore | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM] | ] |
Fred Clark provides a pithy look at 'democracy' today - derived from this article by Jonathan A. Becker, 'Putin and the Dawn of the New Authoritarians'. In it Becker provides a DSM-like check-list of traits of the modern authoritarian state, thus:
• Asserts substantial control over the media
• Uses television as a blunt instrument to prop up the regime and discredit its opponents
• Ensures that television stations are in the hands of the state or state sympathizers
• Subjects journalists to defamation suits for even minor criticism of the regime
• Restricts journalists' access to government officials
• Arrests journalists
• Bans or limits opposition protests or rallies
• Detains and beats opposition leaders
• Maintains power through electoral fraud
• Invokes threats to national security as a part of their general press crackdowns
• Censors the Internet
As Fred put it, "The DSM might say that a regime that presents seven of these 11 symptoms could be diagnosed as suffering from a severe case of authoritarian disorder. Presenting only five symptoms might be a case of moderate authoritarianism. In either case, the resulting clinically significant distress or impairment of democratic liberties would require immediate treatment."
See how many *your* country scores! I think the UK currently presents as a mild-but-worsening condition, the US as severe. |
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| Xtianfuckwitwatch - parliamentary debate Xtianity and it's discontents. |
[Dec. 6th, 2007|12:27 am] |
Feòrag at Pagan Prattle gives us our new word for the day: Christianophobia. Which was the subject of a full debate of the House of Commons today.
Here's Aunty Beeb on the subject:
' The UK should "celebrate" the role of Christianity in the country's heritage and culture, the government has said.
Community cohesion minister Parmjit Dhanda told MPs the religion had had a "significant impact" in securing people's rights and freedoms.
He was speaking in a Westminster debate over whether there was widespread "Christianophobia" in the UK.
Conservative MP Mark Pritchard (CatNote - the xtianfuckwith who caused the debate to occur) warned the government not to "surrender" the UK's Christian heritage.
Mr Pritchard called the Westminster Hall debate, claiming that the importance of the faith was being undermined by the "politically correct brigade".
He argued that "parties of hate" could step in to fill the gap left by "mainstream" politicians, and "hijack" Christianity to get their messages across. '
(CatNote - 'cos it's not like they've already done that is it?)
' ...Speaking earlier in the debate, Mr Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, in Shropshire, said Christians should get "full minority rights".
Mr Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, Shropshire, said Christianity in the UK was being undermined "mostly by stealth", even though 3.2 million people attended church every Sunday.
He added: "Most Christians feel they are not getting a fair hearing
"Many shoppers find it increasingly difficult to buy greeting cards with references to Christ... Advent calendars are extremely hard to find."
He added: "Christ always has been and always will be at the very heart of Christmas. Taking Christ out of Christmas is like serving the Christmas turkey without the stuffing."
Mr Pritchard said the British National Party in Staffordshire was sending out cards showing "the holy family on the front cover", bearing "the words 'heritage, tradition and culture'."
He added: "Is the government prepared to stand by and surrender the nation's Christian traditions to parties of hate?"
Mr Pritchard said it was "time for the dragon of political correctness to be slain". '
So, who's he worried about more - the BNP, the Politically Correct (read Correct as Left...) or the actual threat of Dominionism, which has been steeplejacking churches in the UK since at least the Alpha Course?
Plus, though I can't be bothered to go through Hansard for the full details, I suspect few dissenting voices were heard.
Besides, it's not a phobia of Christianity - for many, it's pure disgust. |
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| In this week's round of 'Pot versus Kettle'... |
[Nov. 9th, 2007|12:21 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, war | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | whiskey tango foxtrot | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM] | ] |
' Bush told Pakistan's president on Wednesday that he must hold parliamentary elections and step down as army leader.
"You can't be the president and the head of the military at the same time," Bush said, describing a telephone call with Gen. Pervez Musharraf. "I had a very frank discussion with him." '
Yep. The President and Commander in Chief of the United States Military actually said that. Not exactly a shock that he's so clueless and arrogant, but still worth a macabre chuckle. |
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| Righteous... Olbermann on waterboarding |
[Nov. 6th, 2007|11:06 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, us | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | snuffly | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
Ten minutes. Pure focussed rage. Worth your time.
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| Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment of Cheney pass first hurdle! |
[Nov. 6th, 2007|10:43 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, us | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | insanely optimistic | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
Explained by Kos:
' So Dennis Kucinich offered a privileged resolution to impeach Dick Cheney. His motion entitled him to read his articles of impeachment into the record and on C-SPAN.
That gave the House leadership two days to figure out what to do, and when to schedule consideration of the motion. But they decided to act almost right away, by moving to table (kill) the resolution. In order to move to kill it, it had to be read by the clerk first. So the articles of impeachment got read into the record and on C-SPAN again.
Then Steny Hoyer, in his capacity as Majority Leader, moved to table the resolution. Everyone expected this to pass easily, as the Democratic leadership remains opposed to considering impeachment, and Republicans... well, they're Republicans.
So they held the vote on tabling the resolution, and the vote was held open past the 15 minutes allotted for it, which is not that unusual. Only it stayed open longer, and longer, and longer. And then Republicans got mischievous. They started switching their votes from yes to no, figuring on embarrassing Democrats by forcing them to debate impeaching Dick Cheney, right on national TV in front of everyone.
Republicans believe everything is good for Republicans.
But for some unknown reason, the House leadership kept this vote open longer and longer and longer. Over an hour, in fact. During which time, more and more Republican votes migrated into the no column, until in the end, the motion to table was defeated by a vote of 170-242. '
It doesn't end here of course... but maybe, just maybe, it has begun.
(Kos points out that this is the second attempt - Kucinich put one through other channels in April - and the first is still languishing in Judiciary Committee... but this one was much louder.) |
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| Those Ron Paul spam? |
[Nov. 2nd, 2007|01:25 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, spam | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | shocked, simply shocked... | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
Spambot.
' The University of Alabama-Birmingham's computer forensics research department, which collects spam messages as part of its Spam Data Mining for Law Enforcement Applications project, analyzes hundreds of thousands of e-mail messages per month. When it began getting bombarded with e-mails about Ron Paul immediately following a Republican debate on TV, the lab began to examine their origin and saw consistent patterns that it described as "disturbing."
The e-mails originated from IPs all over the world, but researchers' suspicions were aroused when they found that the e-mails purported to come from different countries than their IPs indicated. Messages claiming to come from the US were actually coming from Korea, for example, and messages claiming to come from Italy were actually coming from the US. The pattern showed that the messages were clearly not coming from Ron Paul's official campaign, but rather illegitimate spam operations and botnets.
"We've seen many previous e-mails reported as spam from other campaigns or parties, but when we've investigated them, they all were sent from the legitimate parties," department director Gary Warner said in a statement. In contrast, the Ron Paul messages clearly came from a number of other parties attempting to spoof where they came from. Paul's campaign may run afoul of the authorities as a result of these e-mails. Warner believes that the messages may violate the CAN-SPAM Act due to their deceptive sending practices.
The Ron Paul camp, however, wants to make sure the world knows it's not involved in the spam. "This is the first I've heard about this situation," Ron Paul spokesman Jesse Benton told Wired. ' |
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| Ron Paul spam |
[Oct. 30th, 2007|01:47 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, spam | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  cynical | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications. [SomaFM] | ] |
Four pieces today. Basic rant/pitch for the guy - emphasising his opposition to the war and support of the Constitution and so on (but failing to mention his documented connection to extreme far-right white supremecy groups, oddly).
First - you'd think the .co.uk bit at the end of my address might've been a hint that I don't vote in US elections.
(Granted, Malabar also has a co.uk address... and I do have to co-sign her 1040, which leads to my inevitable muttering about 'no taxation without representation' every time... Darling, you got any of these spam yet?)
But far more importantly...
Who the flying fuck ever buys a product from a spam mail? I guess the answer is the sort of people who'd vote for Paul.
How encouraging. |
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| Mark Thomas is criminally overconfident |
[Sep. 16th, 2007|12:22 am] |
While taking part in the protests outside the recent Docklands-based arms fair, this occurred:
' I had been asked along by Campaign Against Arms Trade as a speaker, which entailed being backed up against a brick wall and addressing a crowd penned in by metal barriers, via a megaphone held above the phalanx of the Met's fluorescent jackets. Everything went swimmingly: local residents' speeches were met with particular appreciation, news teams scribbled notes, and peace songs were faintly sung. I thanked the organisers and headed for the Docklands light railway to go home.
As I walked up the entrance ramp I was stopped by police. "I am afraid I can't let you past me until I have searched you, as I have reason to believe that you could have articles intended for criminal damage," said an officer.
"What good reason?" I asked.
"We watched you address the crowd."
"I am being stopped for what I said in a speech?" I spluttered.
"Oh no. Not because of what you said. It is because you look overconfident."
That was the official reason, I was "overconfident"; bless them, they even wrote it on the stop-and-search slip the police have to provide. Under the title "Grounds for Search", the officer wrote: "overconfident attitude of Mr Thomas". ' |
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| Your sexually explicit but profound simile of the day is... |
[Sep. 14th, 2007|11:33 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, smut | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | possibly too easily amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM] | ] |
... from, of course, Rude Pundit:
"Let us say, and why not, that you're a straight guy or a lesbian. You're in bed with the woman you're in a long-term relationship with and you're going down on her, pearl diving like your village in Japan depends on it. And you're trying so goddamn hard to get her to come, but you've tried all your tricks. You've been through alphabets in fuckin' Cyrillic. You've been eating her out for a good two hours, more, and, frankly, you're just bored and pissy and more than a little thirsty. Occasionally you look up at her face, and she's long past being into this, really more indulging you than anything else. Sure, sure, at the beginning she was totally hot and juicy, pinching her nipples, moaning, shifting her legs, fucking your tongue. Yeah, you thought you had her there about five minutes in, but, no, something distracted her - a cell phone ring, a staring cat - and it was back to square one. You don't know what else to do. You've exercised her clit so much it could probably lift a small suitcase. You've probed deeply, stretching to hit that g-spot; you've used your fingers next to your tongue, hoping volume would succeed where manipulation hasn't. But, at least in the last half-hour or so, nothing. Nada.
Occasionally she asks you if you want to stop. You say, of course, no, you don't, you really want her to have the orgasm you had right at the start, your jaw pain be damned. She keeps allowing you, well past what's reasonable, but, you know, her labia's getting raw, her hips a little tired, her mind wandering to what she's gonna wear to work tomorrow. At some point, she's gonna tell you to stop, but until then, you're not lover enough to admit failure and say you'll try again another day. If she'll even let you.
Last night, when President Bush spoke, he had the sad demeanor of the failing carpet muncher..." |
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| Post-Mortem America |
[Sep. 4th, 2007|11:53 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, us | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | weary of monkey politics | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Doomed: Dark music for tortured souls [SomaFM] | ] |
This long piece by Chris Floyd is the most bitter and pessimistic look at BushCo (and the spectacular failure of the Democrats to restrict them) I've yet seen.
Trouble is, I can't disagree with him.
"The annus horribilis of 2007 has turned out to be a year of triumph for the Bush Faction -- the hit men who delivered the coup de grâce to the long-moribund Republic. Bush was written off as a lame duck after the Democrat's November 2006 election "triumph" (in fact, the narrowest of victories eked out despite an orgy of cheating and fixing by the losers), and the subsequent salvo of Establishment consensus from the Iraq Study Group, advocating a de-escalation of the war in Iraq. Then came a series of scandals, investigations, high-profile resignations, even the criminal conviction of a top White House official. But despite all this -- and abysmal poll ratings as well -- over the past eight months Bush and his coupsters have seen every single element of their violent tyranny confirmed, countenanced and extended.
The war which we were told the Democrats and ISG consensus would end or wind down has of course been escalated to its greatest level yet -- more troops, more airstrikes, more mercenaries, more Iraqi captives swelling the mammoth prison camps of the occupying power, more instability destroying the very fabric of Iraqi society. The patently illegal surveillance programs of the authoritarian regime have now been codified into law by the Democratic Congress, which has also let stand the evisceration of habeas corpus in the Military Commissions Act, and a raft of other liberty-stripping laws, rules, regulations and executive orders. Bush's self-proclaimed arbitrary power to seize American citizens (and others) without charge and hold them indefinitely -- even kill them -- has likewise been unchallenged by the legislators. Bush has brazenly defied Congressional subpoenas -- and even arbitrarily stripped the Justice Department of the power to enforce them -- to no other reaction than a stern promise from Democratic leaders to "look further into this matter." His spokesmen -- and his "signing statements" -- now openly proclaim his utter disdain for representative government, and assert at every turn his sovereign right to "interpret" -- or ignore -- legislation as he wishes. He retains the right to "interpret" just which interrogation techniques are classified as torture and which are not, while his concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay and his secret CIA prisons -- where those "strenuous" techniques are practiced -- remain open. His increasingly brazen drive to war with Iran has already been endorsed unanimously by the Senate and overwhelmingly by the House, both of which have embraced the specious casus belli concocted by the Bush Regime. And to come full circle, Democratic leaders like Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin are now praising the "military success" of the Iraq escalation -- despite the evident failure of its stated goals by every single measure, including troop deaths, civilian deaths, security, infrastructure, political cohesion and regional stability. This emerging "bipartisan consensus" on the military situation in Iraq (or rather, this utter fantasy concealing a rapidly deteriorating reality) makes it certain that the September "progress report" will be greeted as a justification for continuing the "surge" in one form or another.
It is, by any measure, a remarkable achievement, one of the greatest political feats ever. Despite Bush's standing as one of the most despised presidents in American history, despite a Congress in control of the opposition party, despite a solid majority opposed to his policies and his war, despite an Administration riddled with scandal and crime, despite the glaring rot in the nation's infrastructure and the callous abandonment of one of the nation's major cities to natural disaster and crony greed -- despite all of this, and much more that would have brought down or mortally wounded any government in a democratic country, the Bush Administration is now in a far stronger position than it was a year ago.
How can this be? The answer is simple: the United States is no longer a democratic country, or even a degraded semblance of one." |
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| The right to apostacy |
[Sep. 4th, 2007|10:40 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, religion, un | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  hopeful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM] | ] |
From Religion News Blog:
THE HAGUE, 05/09/07 - "The Netherlands is to make a case for the freedom of religion and ideology during the sixth session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this month. Partly initiated by the Netherlands, the EU will hand in a resolution that emphasises the right to apostasy.
As Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen writes to the Lower House, it is through the efforts of the Netherlands - the vice president of the council - that the topic of freedom of religion is on the agenda. The EU is to hand in a resolution aimed to re-emphasise this freedom, which also means that everybody has the right to change religions and to practise alone or communally their religion or ideology without state intervention, as the minister stated. "
A basic human right, IMHO. Now if only they could connect that with the UN Rights of the Child (and making it a crime against humanity to force a child into the religion of their parent) I'll be happy. |
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| 22 Things we know six years after 9/11 |
[Sep. 4th, 2007|09:51 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, war | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | cynical | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Doomed: Dark music for tortured souls [SomaFM] | ] |
It's that time of year again... Bernard Weiner gives us his annual update on the deep background of the Forever War world:
"Each year around the anniversary of 9/11, I summarize what we ordinary citizens have learned since that awful day in 2001. This is the sixth annual look backwards, an update based on new information about those horrific events and what followed.
What we now more fully understand is how the CheneyBush Administration utilized the murderous terrorism of 9/11 as the one-size-fits-all justification for their unfolding domestic and foreign agenda.
By and large, one can sum up that overall agenda as: Amass and control power in the U.S. and much of the world, and, in cahoots with their corporate supporters, loot the treasury. All this was to be carried out secretly, with no accountability..."
Plus, as lagniappe... Slacktivist on PNAC's hubris (and theme song). |
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| An ecumenical matter... or two |
[Sep. 4th, 2007|12:25 am] |
' A progressive group of U.S. nuns has called on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney because of their roles in the war in Iraq.
“The National Coalition of American Nuns is impelled by conscience to call you to act promptly to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for ... high crimes and misdemeanors,” the group wrote in a letter written on behalf of its board members.
The letter says that impeachment is warranted for their “deceiving the public under the false pretense that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction” and “destroying” the reputation of the United States and the good will of other nations.
“The time for impeachment is now — before the example of George W. Bush’s regime is set in stone,” they wrote. “Future generations will thank you for preserving the freedom of our nation and its relation to the entire human community.” '
And Pole Palpatine goes Green:
' During an open-air Mass on the final day of a weekend religious youth rally that drew about 500,000 people to the town of Loreto, Italy’s most important shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Benedict said the world’s water supply particularly needed to be preserved and shared equitably to avoid conflicts. Benedict told the crowd, camped out under umbrellas and tents on a vast, dusty field on the Adriatic coast, that it was up to them to save the planet from development that had often ignored “nature’s delicate equilibrium.”
“Before it’s too late, we need to make courageous choices that will recreate a strong alliance between man and Earth,” Benedict said in his homily. “We need a decisive ‘yes’ to care for creation and a strong commitment to reverse those trends that risk making the situation of decay irreversible.” He said water needed to be preserved since “it unfortunately becomes a source of strong tensions and conflicts if it isn’t shared in an equitable and peaceful manner.” '
(The Inquisitor isn't daft. Water wars will make the oil wars look trivial when they start to become more common - and they're already here in many parts of the world.) |
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| The Forever War, part 57 |
[Sep. 3rd, 2007|11:27 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, war | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | bitter | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Doomed: Dark music for tortured souls [SomaFM] | ] |
Also from John Robb's Global Guerrillas, three reasons why the War on Terror won't end with the Bush presidency.
Excerpt, specifically reason 2:
'The threat that justifies the state and the perpetual war that codifies it. The ongoing threat of terrorism has become the primary justification for the existence of a strong nation-state (and its greatest instrument of power, the military) at the very moment it finds itself in decline due to globalization (or more accurately: irrelevance). The militarization of "the war against terrorism" reverses this process of dissipation, since it can be used to make the case for the acquisition of new powers, money, and legitimacy (regardless of party affiliation) -- for example, everything from increases in conventional military spending to the application of technical reconnaissance on domestic targets. Of course, this desire for war at the political level is complimented by the huge number of contractors (and their phalanxes of lobbyists) attracted by the potential of Midas level profits from the privatization of warfare. The current degree of corporate participation in warfare makes the old "military industrial complex" look tame in comparison.'
Seriously folks - if you want to be aware of the state of the world, you need to read Robb regularly. Ta again to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) happyuncledave for turning me onto him in the first place. |
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| On outsourcing military and intelligence work in the US |
[Aug. 29th, 2007|11:50 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics, war | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | weary, bitter | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Doomed: Dark music for tortured souls [SomaFM] | ] |
Bernard Weiner at Smirking Chimp covering one of the scarier aspects of the US version of Public-Private Partnerships:
"In short, CheneyBush have created what amounts to their own private legions -- soldiers, intelligence analysts, security guards, construction experts, supply specialists, et al. -- in effect, a "mercenary" force bought and paid for by the American taxpayer.
That's why there will probably be no draft: There is no guarantee of loyalty from those dragooned into service. Besides, many draftees have politically-connected constituencies. But when one's mercenary "volunteer" forces are totally beholden to the paymaster for their livelihood and under-the-table payoffs, they will dance with them that brung 'em.
These are no small numbers. It's estimated that in addition to the 160,000 regular troops in the field in Iraq, CheneyBush control anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 private assets ("independent contractors"). Nobody's even sure under what "rules of engagement" these guys -- many in security and reconstruction fields -- operate, or whether they are accountable to anyone other than their corporate bosses' and the financial "bottom line."
History shows us the dangers involved when leaders have large extra-institutional forces at their command, such as the Praetorian Guards and Legions of ancient Roman Caesars, Hitler's Brownshirts, Saddam's Republican Guards, the private militias of political and religious leaders today in Iraq, Blackwater forces in control of New Orleans after Katrina, etc. By and large, these mercenaries swear allegiance to their employer, not to the rule of law, not to any constitution. The catastrophic damage done to democracy by the existence, and power, of these private forces can't be over-stated.
News flash: Blackwater, the huge corporation that CheneyBush rely on for most of the non-military functions in Iraq and elsewhere, is buying combat aircraft..." |
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| Bonobos - still at it |
[Aug. 19th, 2007|09:41 pm] |
linkfrenzy found this piece about everyone's favourite primate, the pygmy chimpanzee or 'bonobo'.
It seems that a recent New Yorker article attempted to refute their reputation as relatively non-voilent (as compared to standard chimpanzees). This is due to the reporter not actually getting to see them fuck. Somehow, Right-wing mouthpieces like Dinesh D’Souza - the guy who said 9/11 was the fault of the left - to declare the bonobos reputation as co-operative and avoiding conflict by using sex as a myth.
Here we have an actual primatologist discussing the actual data. Guess what? The bonobo are pretty much as we think of them - mellow and randy.
Extract:
" How much bonobos differ from chimpanzees was highlighted by a recent experiment on cooperation. Brian Hare and co-workers presented apes with a platform that they could pull closed by working together. When food was placed on the platform, the bonobos clearly outperformed the chimpanzees in getting a hold of it. The presence of food normally induces rivalry, but the bonobos engaged in sexual contact, played together, and happily shared the food side by side. The chimpanzees, in contrast, were unable to overcome their competition. For two species to react so differently to the same experimental set-up leaves little doubt about a temperamental difference.
In another illustration, at a forested sanctuary at Kinshasa it was recently decided to merge two groups of bonobos that had lived separately, just so as to induce some activity. No one would ever dream of doing this with chimpanzees as the only possible outcome would be a blood bath. The bonobos produced an orgy instead. " |
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