:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Saturday, January 03, 2004 ::

Meaning and Metaphysics by Susan Neiman

I just saw her do an interview on NOW. It was very interesting, and helped to remind me why i'm majoring in philosophy. I want to learn to be able to think in such ways; to grasp the world with far more insight and knowledge than I have right now. I'm going to have to get her book.

:: Jim Nichols 1/03/2004 02:07:00 PM [+] ::
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I don't have the greatest of people skills

You know what I was thinking today; the world is one giant counter argument to the competence of God. Granted some people may retort that God might not have intended humans to be the measure of his power and skill; maybe he made the world for Goldfish, and that Goldfish are just as happy as can be. Well i'm not a goldfish so fuck them and fuck God too. This post really had no point. I feel embarrassed that you had to read it. Hopefully I lost one or two of you before you had to finish reading. Right here is where I lose the rest of you...

:: Jim Nichols 1/03/2004 01:46:00 PM [+] ::
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It's all about the money

Texas Rep. Ralph Hall switches to Republican party:

"'I think I can get re-elected much easier if I run as a Republican,' Hall said.

He told The Associated Press that he's always said that if being a Democrat hurt his district, he would switch or resign. He said GOP leaders had recently refused to place money for his district in a spending bill and 'the only reason I was given was I was a Democrat.' "

You'd think Republicans would be embarssed. Its not the philosophy its the spoils...

:: Jim Nichols 1/03/2004 11:16:00 AM [+] ::
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Britain Says U.S. Planned to Seize Oil in ’73 Crisis:

"The United States government seriously contemplated using military force to seize oil fields in the Middle East during the Arab oil embargo 30 years ago, according to a declassified British government document made public on Thursday. "

:: Jim Nichols 1/02/2004 12:03:00 PM [+] ::
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Guardian | If Libya can do it, why not Israel?:

"There's a logic to these things. Muammar Gadafy, growing older, and his isolated Libya, growing poorer, were getting nothing worthwhile from the atomic bomb they hadn't built yet or chemicals they had scant residual use for. Logic - and common sense - meant changing tack. Good for logic. But logic doesn't stop there.

What next? If weapons of mass destruction are a menace in unstable regions such as the Middle East, if their availability must be reduced, then logic begins to move us closer to the confrontation we never seek with the nuclear power we - let alone Messrs Bush and Blair - seldom mention: Israel.

Nobody, including the Knesset, quite knows what happens inside the Dimona complex, but if you put together a compote of usually reliable sources (the Federation of American Scientists, Jane's Intelligence Review, the Stockholm Institute), a tolerably clear picture emerges. Ariel Sharon probably has more than 200 nuclear warheads this morning - more if the 17 years since Mordechai Vanunu's kidnapping have been devoted to building stockpiles.

That makes Israel the world's fifth largest nuclear power, boasting more bangs from Washington's bucks than Blair's Britain. And over in the other WMD basket, nobody much dissents when a report by the office of technology assessment for the US Congress concludes that Israel has 'undeclared offensive chemical warfare capabilities' and is 'generally reported as having an undeclared offensive biological warfare programme'. Bombs, missiles, delivery systems, gases, germs? Tel Aviv has the lot. We only forget to remember because it's not a suitable subject for polite diplomatic conversation. "

:: Jim Nichols 1/02/2004 11:45:00 AM [+] ::
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Introduction and Summary: Religious Beliefs Underpin Opposition to Homosexuality:

"Opposition to gay marriage has increased since the summer and a narrow majority of Americans also oppose allowing gays and lesbians to enter legal agreements that fall short of marriage. Moreover, despite the overall rise in tolerance toward gays since the 1980s, many Americans remain highly critical of homosexuals ­ and religious belief is a major factor in these attitudes."

Goes to show you that stupidity breeds stupidity.

:: Jim Nichols 1/02/2004 11:41:00 AM [+] ::
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Amusing definitions

From the International Dictionary of Psychology:

Consciousness: The having of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings; awareness. The term is impossible to define except in terms that are unintelligible without a grasp of what consciousness means....Consciousness is a fascinating but elusive phenomenon: it is impossible to specify what it is, what it does, or why it evolved. Nothing worth reading has been written about it.

:: Jim Nichols 1/02/2004 11:10:00 AM [+] ::
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This is +1

I'm fooling around with an html tutorial so don't mind me... i'm playing

:: Jim Nichols 1/02/2004 09:58:00 AM [+] ::
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"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to
the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds."
-Edward Abbey

:: Jim Nichols 1/02/2004 08:08:00 AM [+] ::
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Juan Cole * Informed Comment *:

"That a small number of Palestinians has replied to the Israeli assault on them with violence against Israeli civilians is both morally wrong and bad political strategy. It does not change the fact that the Israelis are the ones who are gaining territory at the Palestinians' expense. It also does not excuse a series of Israeli war crimes in the Occupied Territories, which include using US-supplied F-16s to fire missiles into a civilian, occupied apartment building in order to assassinate a Hamas leader (both the pilot and Ariel Sharon should be tried for this heinous act and others like it, which killed many civilians, including a baby).

Americans all know how much US citizens identified with the little band at the Alamo back in the 1830s, and how much they despised Mexico for opposing them. For the Muslim world, Palestine is the Alamo, and the Israelis and the US together play Santa Ana. Would it have done any good for the president of the Mexican Republic to have sent performers across the border to explain how well Americans were treated in Mexico, or to point to Mexico's progressive laws? A Public Relations campaign could never have made Santa Ana popular after he abolished states' rights and attacked San Antonio."

:: Jim Nichols 1/02/2004 07:54:00 AM [+] ::
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Dynamist Blog: LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK What did the past really look like?

:: Jim Nichols 1/02/2004 07:22:00 AM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Elliott Smith Case Not Closed:

"A statement issued this week by the Los Angeles County coroner has clouded the case, saying officials have been unable to determine whether Smith was the one who initiated the two 'penetrating stab wounds' in his chest.

Therefore, an official cause of death has not yet been filed. "

:: Jim Nichols 1/01/2004 03:58:00 PM [+] ::
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Happy New Year to me...

Its fitting that I get the most hits on my blog ever on the last day of the year. Could this be a sign of things to come?

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 05:18:00 PM [+] ::
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Found a new blog...

one girl's life | v. Oops! Gum!

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 04:16:00 PM [+] ::
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Chuck D on Eminem (by way of American Black)
PUBLIC ENEMY | Chuck D's Terrordome :

"This moves me to the last point answering to the EMINEM debacle. In this game ain’t nobody an angel, however in any situation the rites of passage or the trail that got you there must be of some public record. This is beyond anything personal and it could be fair to accept it as such. In the past I’ve accepted EMINEM for skating over the crutch of ‘nigga-ism’ that so many young black folks are given like dog food to fuel their bites. Niggism was EMINEM’S kryptonite and he’s smart enough to know it. Always knew it, and in his quest to make it on the mike sniffed and licked the dog food. He might’ve spit it out, but never admitted going to the bowl. Thus a trust was based, but within a whole entirely different generation of hip hop cat early to mid nineties. It’s the ‘try anything goes for profit mentality’ that pardons EMINEM in the present generation and amerikkkan time. It’s the chaotic collective powerlessness of black folk 2003 that pardons EMINEM at this time. Although, from afar, I have liked EMINEM meeting him once in ATLANTA my evaluation is reversed to many of these cats. I know better to say I like somebody based on their art, movie, TV show or record. Saying I like somebody doesn’t mean I respect them, and this is beyond their skill or how much money they’ve got. I can’t say I respect EMINEM at all, I like DRE I can’t say I’ve respected him as much. Same with SNOOP, MASTER P, LUDA, R KELLY,THE SOURCE and many others. I happen to like them more than respect them, whereas they may feel more respect than like for me or my beliefs on things. And that’s fine I guess but like and respect are two different things. Respect only comes with integrity, and that’s not necessary to exist in today’s amerikkkan cultural world. I’ve always liked RUSSELL SIMMONS but my respect has never been there really fully. You either stand up for something or fall for anything and too often he’s stood four foot on kneepads. Doesn’t mean he’s not a nice guy. So this ain’t a thing of losing respect for EMINEM because I never had much of it anyway, and I’m not into a witch hunt thing of burying him, this rather is a test for black people in amerikkka."

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 04:04:00 PM [+] ::
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Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Very High
Schizoid:	Moderate
Schizotypal:	Very High
Antisocial:	Moderate
Borderline:	Very High
Histrionic:	High
Narcissistic:	High
Avoidant:	Very High
Dependent:	Very High
Obsessive-Compulsive:	High
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! --

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 03:02:00 PM [+] ::
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Self-Reliance

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 02:54:00 PM [+] ::
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News Analysis: Bush Embraces Some Regulations as Election Approaches:

"The Bush administration's twin moves on Tuesday to ban the dietary supplement ephedra and the sale of meat from cows that appear to be sick on the way to the slaughterhouse underscores a simple White House maxim these days: with an election approaching, even a president who came to office assailing government regulation cannot do too much to protect consumers."

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 12:31:00 PM [+] ::
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That place was cool...
The Observer | International | End is nigh for the commune that kept hippie dream alive:

"But the people of Christiania, a 30-year-old self-governing commune in central Copenhagen, are far from jolly. There is a sense of unease in the chill, damp air that drifts in off the Baltic and the North Sea. For the 1,000 strong 'alternative community' knows this Christmas may be its last.

Ever since local hippies, performance artists and homeless people seized a complex of old military barracks and refused to co-operate with the state 32 years ago, conservative politicians have sought to close Christiania down. Now, for the first time in Denmark's recent political history, an alliance of the commune's harshest political opponents has a majority in parliament. A law will be passed within months in effect ending the commune's de facto autonomy. Eviction notices will be issued shortly afterwards. "

When I was in Copenhagen, I went with a friend. We wandered around, it seemed kind of drab to be honest. We watched a soccer--errr scuse--football match a bunch of people had worked up.

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 12:19:00 PM [+] ::
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Monthly Review December 2003 Richard B. Du Boff:

"“Global hegemony” might be defined as a situation in which one nation-state plays a predominant role in organizing, regulating, and stabilizing the world political economy. The use of armed force has always been an inseparable part of hegemony, but military power depends upon the economic resources at the disposal of the state. It cannot be deployed to answer every threat to geopolitical and economic interests, and it raises the danger of imperial overreach, as was the case for Britain in South Africa (1899–1902) and the United States in Vietnam (1962–1975). "

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 11:22:00 AM [+] ::
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GLOBAL CAPITALISM AND AMERICAN EMPIRE:

"The American empire is no longer concealed. In March 1999, the cover of the New York Times Magazine displayed a giant clenched fist painted in the stars and stripes of the US flag above the words: ‘What The World Needs Now: For globalization to work, America can’t be afraid to act like the almighty superpower that it is’. Thus was featured Thomas Friedman’s ‘Manifesto for a Fast World’, which urged the United States to embrace its role as enforcer of the capitalist global order: ‘…the hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist.... The hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley’s technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.’ Four years later, in January 2003, when there was no longer any point in pretending the fist was hidden, the Magazine featured an essay by Michael Ignatieff entitled ‘The Burden’: ‘…[W]hat word but “empire” describes the awesome thing that America is becoming? …Being an imperial power… means enforcing such order as there is in the world and doing so in the American interest.’[2] The words, ‘The American Empire: (Get Used To It)’, took up the whole cover of the Magazine. "

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 11:17:00 AM [+] ::
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INT. DOCTOR'S OFFICE-DAY

(Alvy as young boy sits on a sofa with his mother in an old-fashioned,
cluttered doctor's office. The doctor stands near the sofa, holding a
cigarette and listening.)

MOTHER
(To the doctor)
He's been depressed. All of a sudden,
he can't do anything.

DOCTOR
(Nodding)
Why are you depressed, Alvy?

MOTHER
(Nudging Alvy)
Tell Dr. Flicker.
(Young Alvy sits, his head down. His
mother answers for him)
It's something he read.

DOCTOR
(Puffing on his cigarette and
nodding)
Something he read, huh?

ALVY
(His head still down)
The universe is expanding.

DOCTOR
The universe is expanding?

ALVY
(Looking up at the doctor)
Well, the universe is everything, and if
it's expanding, someday it will break apart
and that would be the end of everything!

(Disgusted, his mother looks at him.)

MOTHER
(shouting)
What is that your business?
(she turns back to the doctor)
He stopped doing his homework.

ALVY
What's the point?

MOTHER
(Excited, gesturing with her hands)
What has the universe got to do with it?
You're here in Brooklyn! Brooklyn is not
expanding!

DOCTOR
(Heartily, looking down at Alvy)
It won't be expanding for billions of years
yet, Alvy. And we've gotta try to enjoy
ourselves while we're here. Uh?

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 11:13:00 AM [+] ::
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Got Pain.... too bad

My dad couldn't get any pain medication from his Doctor after having a biopsy because he wasn't in any pain yet. His reasoning was it was the begining of the holidays and with me being the only driver in the family now that he was knocked off his feet for a day or two he wanted to go ahead and get something just in case. He couldn't figure out why they wouldn't prescribe anything. Here's your answer:

Worried Pain Doctors Decry Prosecutions (washingtonpost.com):

"Drug Enforcement Administration agents had placed the doctor and some of her patients under surveillance and had sent in undercover patients complaining of pain. "

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 10:53:00 AM [+] ::
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Whoa there....
Instapundit.com::

"THE UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT TRY to play a 'neutral arbiter' in the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. We should, in fact, be doing our best to make the Palestinians suffer, because, to put it bluntly, they are our enemies. "

You'd almost think the Palestinians had some kind of threatening political power.

"These folks are our enemies, and deserve to be treated as such. They don't deserve a state of their own. It's not clear that they even deserve to keep what they've got."

As Nietzsche said: "Distrust all men in whom the impulse to punish is powerful." Anyone who states that a human being doesn't deserve citizenship has questionable motives and/or leanings in my book. (Yes I know Nietzsche's feelings on the rights of citizenship)

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 10:40:00 AM [+] ::
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Any ideas?

As if my newly acquired cognitive science fetish isn't gonna get me in enough trouble. Anybody have any books they would recommend in the economics area? I've decided I need to spend this next year getting me an education in Economics. Next thing you know i'll be wanting to learn me some grammar...

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 10:31:00 AM [+] ::
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United for Peace and Justice: MARCH 20th: The World Still Says No to War:

"Momentum is building across the globe for the Global Day of Action against War and Occupation on March 20, the one-year anniversary of the U.S. bombing "

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 10:13:00 AM [+] ::
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For Vietnam Vet Anthony Zinni, Another War on Shaky Territory (washingtonpost.com)

Though retired for nearly two years, Zinni says, he remained current on the intelligence through his consulting with the CIA and the military. "I did consulting work for the agency, right up to the beginning of the war. I never saw anything. I'd say to analysts, 'Where's the threat?' " Their response, he recalls, was, "Silence."

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 08:13:00 AM [+] ::
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Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Israel announces Golan expansion:

"Israel announced plans today to double the number of Jewish settlers living in the Golan Heights, a disputed region captured from Syria in 1967."

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 07:18:00 AM [+] ::
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Hold on a second...
AlterNet: Uncensored Gore Vidal:

"It's lucky for George W. Bush that he wasn't born in an earlier time and somehow stumbled into America's Constitutional Convention. A man with his views, so deprecative of democratic rule, would have certainly been quickly exiled from the freshly liberated United States by the gaggle of incensed Founders. So muses one of our most controversial social critics and prolific writers, Gore Vidal."

Give me a break..names like Alexander Hamilton come to mind rather quickly... I'm pretty sure Bush would have had no problem finding some blue-blooded buddies back in the day.

update: See you have to read the whole article before you blog... i'm trigger happy I guess...

"So you'd find Hamilton pretty much on the Bush side."

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 07:01:00 AM [+] ::
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The "Why now?" question that I too have been wondering
DNC: Kicking Ass - Why now?:

"While Ashcroft's announcement is a good decision, the timing is curious. Why did it take so long for the Attorney General to make this decision? What has changed in the case? America deserves a lot of answers, and we're not getting any."

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 06:48:00 AM [+] ::
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THE ECONOMIC COSTS OF FUEL ECONOMY STANDARDS VERSUS A GASOLINE TAX from the CBO

The gasoline tax would achieve the 10 percent reduction
at the lowest cost of the three policy alternatives examined.
Under the demand and supply responses that CBO
assumed, a 46-cent-per-gallon tax increase would achieve
the targeted reduction and would impose a welfare cost of
$2.9 billion per year—3 percent less than the cost of
CAFE standards with trading and 19 percent less than
the cost of the standards without trading.

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 05:46:00 AM [+] ::
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It's already 2004?
Its new years eve. I don't really know what to write. I'd like to say this has been a banner year--cause that always seems like a positive-outlook-kind-of-thing to say; but seeing as how I have neither a positive outlook nor any banners with catchy phrases on them I don't think i'm gonna lie. I did successfully weasel my way out of the community college ghetto. Got me an Associates. I guess in perspective thats kind of fancy for most high school dropouts; but I'm holding off on the pride thing at least until I have something substantial like my Masters or something. I think i'm glad i'm at Davis. I've been playing second guesses lately. I'd probably be a better student if I had gone to UC San Diego; i'd probably be sleeping on a floor in East LA if I had accepted the offer from UCLA. But i'm glad I stuck around. My step brother was born this past august and its been a unique experience to watch him go from blank stare to the more cognitive kicking and screaming machine he's become.

I guess I should do a top ten of stuff for the year. Why? Cause everyone else does... and i'm not very original....

ten best albums (I bought this year) in no particular order:
1. Rancid Indestructible
2. Nofx War on Errorism
3. The Weakerthans Reconstruction Site
4. Anti-Flag Terror State
5. Miles Davis Kind of Blue
6. Outkast Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
7. Paul Westerberg Come feel me tremble
8. Dashboard Confessional A mark, a mission, a brand, a scar
9. Subhumans 29 29 Split vision
10. Rise Against Revolutions per minute

Some of the other highlights: A new Manson album; the underground rap cd I got from these guys--I was drugged on sleeping pills and didn't know who I was they were probably pretty amused; new Courtney Love stuff via The Distillers.

Lessons learned:
Ambien is not the drug for me
I hate psychiatrists
Sleeping on a park bench in front of the capital is one of those things you do once in life... once...
the human experience is quite baffling
I need to improve my understanding of economics to better refute people
I need to improve my grasp of philosophy to better refute myself
I need to learn to write....

Best movie this year: Mona Lisa Smile

Highlights:
I put an RSS feed on my blog; so that I can now have regular readers... where you at people?

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 05:26:00 AM [+] ::
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Democrats face a hard-to-hit Bush | csmonitor.com:

"'Things are going better than they were a few months ago, but it's not morning in America,' says Bruce Reed, a former top Clinton aide and president of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. 'It's also not midnight in America. We shouldn't try to argue that either. Voters won't hear us if we say the sky is falling, and they look outside and see it's not.'"

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 05:20:00 AM [+] ::
...

tonypierce.com + busblog: "anna kournikova taught me three things:

you will never be as bad as people try to make you out as being
you will never be as cool as people swear that are
the worst thing that people can do is ignore you."

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 04:48:00 AM [+] ::
...

Amen...
AnalPhilosopher:

"What offends me is not slant (bias), but pretending not to be slanted or not knowing that one is slanted. The former is duplicitous and the latter delusional. "

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 03:36:00 AM [+] ::
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Eeeegads look who I am.
Honestly i've never read any Heidegger, but this guy in my Nietzsche Zarathustra seminar said I should read him. Also it kind of sucks that i'm already dead--but that does help to explain a few hunches i've had.


You are Martin Heidegger! Your reputation is
stained a bit by the fact that you were a
member of the Nazi party, but your
groundbreaking Being and Time is still
read by a whole lot of people. You overuse the
hyphen, and make up a lot of words. You died in
1976.


What 20th Century Theorist are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

update: I felt frisky and had to change one thing. Now i'm:
You are Jacques Derrida! You founded
Deconstructionism in 1966, and have been a
thorn in people's sides ever since. You argue
that texts cannot be reduced to a single
meaning, among other things. You are dense,
impenetrable, and not dead.


What 20th Century Theorist are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
But i'm going to have to tell you not to believe it. (If you get it please smile; if you don't, don't worry it wasn't funny at all)

:: Jim Nichols 12/31/2003 03:29:00 AM [+] ::
...

Well Jesus that sounds like a fucking good time...
Protesters wary of new tactic by feds / Obscure 1872 law cited in case against Greenpeace:

"'It's always a concern when there's a concerted effort by the government to curb peaceful political protest,' said Troy Newman, president of the anti- abortion group Operation Rescue West, which has not filed a friend of the court brief. 'Greenpeace and Operation Rescue may not be on the same page philosophically, but we use some of the same tactics. . . . I plan on following Howard Dean or whoever the Democratic (presidential) nominee is around the country (in a truck featuring photos of aborted fetuses), and I don't want to be inhibited.' "

Hell I think I want to follow the Democratic nominee around the county in a truck featuring photos of aborted fetuses... think he'll let me on board?

That quote had me on the floor this morning... this administrations tactics have me nauseated.

:: Jim Nichols 12/30/2003 12:40:00 PM [+] ::
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Okay you sold me, now where do I sign up?
asymptote: Curtis White and Contemporary Art Discourse:

"It is easy for readers, students, artists, etc. to pick up on the nomenclature used by philosophers and cultural critics. With relatively little exposure, one can begin using terms such as "essentialism", "metaphysics of presence", "deconstruction", and "transcendental signifier", just to name a few of the more obvious examples. One encounters them in college classrooms, galleries, and art journals all the time. But the ratio of understanding to use is low. Why is that the case?

One of the reasons is that there's not enough attention paid to making these concepts clear to one's readers or students. For example, in classrooms across the country, students are often thrown into deep conceptual and linguistic waters before learning how to swim. Too many teachers assume that sloshing around in the writings of Derrida, Foucault, Baudrillard, Lyotard, Adorno, and others will provide a sufficient starting point for the novice reader. By immersing themselves in primary texts, students will learn how to forge their own understandings and critical responses.

I claim this approach is misguided and irresponsible. Without both a larger frame of reference and familiarity with an ongoing discourse, including the philosophical background that has shaped the discourse and made certain problems salient, the curious but relatively naive reader of such texts will, at best, acquire a superficial grasp of only the most basic concerns and, at worst, simply add a few more items to their collection of fashionable linguistic accessories. If intellectuals and educators took a bit more time to define concepts and to review, if only briefly, the central arguments in support of, and in opposition to, the theoretical positions encountered in contemporary criticism, readers and students would be much better informed and prepared to use the conceptual and theoretical tools necessary for critical engagement with the cultural world around them.

This is only one of the factors contributing to the impoverishment of criticality in the contemporary art discourse and beyond.

:: Jim Nichols 12/30/2003 12:07:00 PM [+] ::
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KANT AND HUME JUXTAPOSED

Morality's 'grip' on us is unconditional, and its authority over us is, he is sure, absolute. But, he concludes in the last sentence (from which I have just quoted) of his Foundations, we cannot understand these things about morality. We can understand only that they are beyond understanding. We cannot explain, though we can believe that we have an "interested obligation" (Hume, E257 [278]) to morality.2 He cannot prove it, but he is sure that for our own good we had better believe it, and be moral. We cannot say why we should be moral, though we can, and Kant himself is, be sure that for our own greatest good we should be moral. We can, and Kant himself does, make this a matter of rational faith that solidifies the character it recommends.

I'm coming to see signs of my idea about the 'myth of the individual' and its necessity for humans in the writings of a lot of people. I still can't pinpoint exactly what strikes me about this concept--where it comes from, what it means, what i'm actually looking at and for--but its almost like this gut feeling that i'm onto something. It boils down to the fact that there is a certain delusion that humans must not only hold but feed.

:: Jim Nichols 12/30/2003 09:07:00 AM [+] ::
...

Superpowers act out of self-interest, not morality. by George Monbiot:

"It is no use telling the hawks that bombing a country in which Al Qaeda was not operating was unlikely to rid the world of Al Qaeda. It is no use arguing that had the billions spent on the war with Iraq been used instead for intelligence and security, atrocities such as last week's attacks in Istanbul may have been prevented. As soon as one argument for the invasion and occupation of Iraq collapses, they switch to another. Over the past month, almost all the warriors - Bush, Blair and the belligerents in both the conservative and the liberal press - have fallen back on the last line of defence, the argument we know as 'the moral case for war'. "

:: Jim Nichols 12/30/2003 08:39:00 AM [+] ::
...

Rumbling on the hard-line right - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics:

"President Bush is beginning to anger certain hard-line conservatives, particularly over fiscal issues, the way his father did in the year before he lost to Bill Clinton in 1992. "

Mr. Buchanan's $ 0.02:

'his spending is making his father look like Barry Goldwater, and my view is that domestic social spending is exploding. He's not vetoed a single bill, he has gone south on affirmative action. And I think he's gone AWOL on social and cultural issues.' "

:: Jim Nichols 12/30/2003 08:25:00 AM [+] ::
...

Juan Cole * Informed Comment *:

"Saddam's trial is unlikely to be public, according to Iyad Alawi, member of the Interim Governing Council and head of the Iraqi National Accord (mainly ex-Baathist officers who cooperated in 1990s CIA plots against Saddam). Alawi made the remarks in an interview with the London-based al-Hayat newspaper. He said there would probably be no public trial because 'it is possible that he will mention names of states or persons to whom he gave money . . .' Asked if Saddam had admitted to smuggling money abroad, Alawi replied, 'He has begun to admit it. He has confessed to important things.' [Saddam is thought to have squirreled $30 bn. or more away in secret accounts overseas.]"

You could tell off the bat that there were underlying self preserving reasons for Bush to say that he thought the Iraqi's should try Saddam. Is that why we invaded and violated international law? Is that why we continued sanctions that strengthened Hussein by forcing Iraqi's to be totally dependent on him? We've obviously never thought Iraqi's knew how to handle things best, why start now? Death Penalty and running the trial in a manner far different from anything an international tribunal would look like; thats why.

:: Jim Nichols 12/30/2003 06:41:00 AM [+] ::
...

george monbiot:

"The advisers say that a career path like this is essential if you don't want to fall into the 'trap' of specialisation: that is to say, if you want to be flexible enough to respond to the changing demands of the employment market. But the truth is that by following the path they suggest, you are becoming a specialist: a specialist in the moronic recycling of what the rich and powerful deem to be news. And after a few years of that, you are good for very little else. "

:: Jim Nichols 12/29/2003 10:36:00 AM [+] ::
...

Am I overly paranoid or are they just stupid? Or even worse: both

Army Stops Many Soldiers From Quitting (washingtonpost.com):

"According to their contracts, expectations and desires, all three soldiers should have been civilians by now. But Fontaine and Costas are currently serving in Iraq, and Eagle has just been deployed. On their Army paychecks, the expiration date of their military service is now listed sometime after 2030 -- the payroll computer's way of saying, 'Who knows?'

The three are among thousands of soldiers forbidden to leave military service under the Army's 'stop-loss' orders, intended to stanch the seepage of troops, through retirement and discharge, from a military stretched thin by its burgeoning overseas missions. "

Oh but believe us when we say we aren't even thinking about bringing back the draft...

:: Jim Nichols 12/29/2003 09:20:00 AM [+] ::
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AMNews: Sept. 15, 2003. A single-payer health care system? A flawed treatment ... American Medical News

: "The right of private contracting is the hallmark of America's free enterprise system. Americans are too diverse and selective to be satisfied with a 'one-size-fits-all system.' "

Read: rich people hate being treated as if they are the same as poor people

:: Jim Nichols 12/29/2003 09:06:00 AM [+] ::
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BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis:

"You see, for years and years, it was assumed that American TV viewers wanted really dumb sitcoms because that's all that networks fed them and that's all they watched. But when, at long last, viewers were given quality choices -- Cosby (in his early years only), Hill St. Blues, Cheers -- they watched the quality shows.

News consumers in the U.S. have been fed only attempts at impartiality or objectivity. But now they have choices; they can watch FoxNews and read the Guardian and click on weblogs -- and they do. So perhaps all along, that's what news consumers have wanted: not dull attempts at impartiality but perspective honestly revealed, bias admitted, opinion included."

:: Jim Nichols 12/29/2003 05:29:00 AM [+] ::
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So much for that whole Democracy thing
Attacks Force Retreat From Wide-Ranging Plans for Iraq (washingtonpost.com):

"The United States has backed away from several of its more ambitious initiatives to transform Iraq's economy, political system and security forces as attacks on U.S. troops have escalated and the timetable for ending the civil occupation has accelerated. "

and suprise suprise just in time for that pesky election.:

"There's no question that many of the big-picture items have been pushed down the list or erased completely," said a senior U.S. official involved in Iraq's reconstruction, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Right now, everyone's attention is focused [on] doing what we need to do to hand over sovereignty by next summer."

At the same time, the occupation authority has substantially decreased the number of new recruits it intends to put through a three-month boot camp designed to build an improved, professionally trained army. Instead, the occupation authority is increasing the ranks of police officers and civil defense troops, who can be deployed faster but receive far less training and screening than the soldiers.

Who needs training anyways!

One good thing about this new cut-and-run philosophy that has replaced the "make them just like us" aka easily exploited by us philosophy is that maybe Iraqi's will be able to make their own decisions. They are the people who should be making the decisions in the first place.

:: Jim Nichols 12/29/2003 05:23:00 AM [+] ::
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They're rounding up the troops
Since their opinion isn't being represented in their poll the American Family Association is sending emails off to get people to vote and maybe save the poll from itself. I got this email...:

Dear Jim,

Participation in America’s Poll on Homosexual Marriage at marriagepoll.com continues at a steady pace. As of noon Saturday, December 28, the results were as follows:
I oppose legalization of homosexual marriage and “civil unions” total votes: 201914


I favor legalization of homosexual marriage total votes: 378691


I favor a “civil union” with the full benefits of marriage except for the name: 52238
If you have not already voted, click here to do so. Be sure to forward the poll on to your family and friends.
Only votes that have a valid email address associated with them will be counted. We will be purging those with invalid email addresses, which may cause poll results to change somewhat.
Sincerely,

Don

Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association

P.S. Please forward this email to at least one friend.

Go support gay marriage... cause maybe they can teach straight people a thing or two about it. I can't wait to see the purged numbers. I wonder how selective they're gonna be about invalid email addresses? Does the fact that I support gay marriage invalidate my email address? My hunch is yes...

:: Jim Nichols 12/29/2003 04:47:00 AM [+] ::
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Just found this... don't know if its worth a look or not...
World History Archives

Documents to support the study of world history from a working-class and non-Eurocentric perspective.

:: Jim Nichols 12/29/2003 04:29:00 AM [+] ::
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Take Action!
Don't Deport the Wal-Mart Janitors!

Raids that victimize immigrant workers do nothing to improve workplace conditions. Send a fax to the INS today asking that these workers be allowed to remain in the US.

Last month federal immigration agents raided 60 Wal-Mart stores across the country as part of “Operation Rollback”. Reports estimate that over 250 immigrant janitors were arrested in the raids, many after working on night shift cleaning crews. Many of these workers are now in “removal proceedings,” meaning that the government is seeking to deport them from the U.S., an act that will separate family members and generate greater fear in immigrant communities.

:: Jim Nichols 12/29/2003 04:02:00 AM [+] ::
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This just in...
Bush's 'spirit' cursed, tossed into Thai river - www.smh.com.au:

"The spirit of US President George W Bush has been trapped in a clay pot and tossed into a river in northern Thailand after being cursed by hundreds of farmers protesting US agriculture policy."

:: Jim Nichols 12/29/2003 03:47:00 AM [+] ::
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The Decembrist is on the ball again:

"Ah, rage. That's really what this is all about. Conservatives used to be threatened by the rage of poor people; now apparently they'd like to see more of it, as long as it can be directed exclusively toward government. Without the rage, poor and middle-income voters might continue to see government as providing economic security, a modicum of justice, and essential services that the private sector can't. They will support entitlements, without feeling any of the burden that those entitlements pose to those able to pay."

Kind of hits on something I've been thinking about lately. How can the left get voters to see social spending the way they view military spending. For as much as Democrats (and some consistent fiscally conservative republicans) huff and puff about military spending; military spending goes through pretty clean with those against outrageous levels nit-picking at the inefficiencies and failures. Why, because its easy to say "look at those marauding hordes just beyond your border." And people, right or wrong, flinch. The state has a monopoly on violence and they use neighboring monopolies as the vote getter: everyone is willing to do whatever it takes to have the biggest monopoly around. Well for the average voter, their health and well being are MORE threatened by the failures in social spending. Invading hordes or not, who cares when you have no (or can barely afford mediocre) health care. Invading hordes or not, who cares when you can't afford to go to school to be trained to function efficiently in the society you oh so dearly wanted to be protected for. Hell we might as well want Europeans to come trouncing in--maybe they could teach us a thing or two about social spending.

:: Jim Nichols 12/29/2003 03:26:00 AM [+] ::
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I don't know about you...

But I have a funny feeling Bush's aggressive international high horse won't have room to take this idea on board.

Syria pushes WMD-free Mideast | csmonitor.com:

"Libya's decision to abandon its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs has helped resurrect an Arab call for a Middle East free of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. "

Silly Arabs, we weren't serious about the global threat of WMD. Gosh darn... that was just to scare up the folks at home. You got to get elected somehow you know.

:: Jim Nichols 12/29/2003 02:59:00 AM [+] ::
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tonypierce.com + busblog:

"when warhol was asked what he thought of critics, he said they were right.

same could be said of some of mine. i can at times be quite assholish. and fuck them for bringing it up."

:: Jim Nichols 12/28/2003 01:58:00 AM [+] ::
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Not only do we get to party in '04...

But us politico junkies get '06 to grow on. Good times to be had by all... unless Hillary is VP by then.

WorldNetDaily: GOP sources: Rudy 'to run against Hillary':

"A columnist for the Los Angeles Times indicates former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will likely challenge Hillary Clinton in 2006 for her seat in the U.S. Senate."

:: Jim Nichols 12/28/2003 01:53:00 AM [+] ::
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Awesome critique of charity... (from Pacific Views)

TheStar.com - Charity can't replace caring society

:: Jim Nichols 12/28/2003 01:48:00 AM [+] ::
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