October, 2014 archive
Legacy, Bushie Style, ISIS Dept. 0
In a long and tightly-reasoned article at Asia Times, Ramzy Baroud explores how the propaganda machine for the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq prepared the ground for ISIS. A snippet:
That “design” was not put in place arbitrarily. The conventional wisdom was that the US army is better seen as a “liberator” than an invader, where the Shiites community was supposedly being liberated from an oppressive Sunni minority. By doing so, those in their name Iraq was “liberated” were armed and empowered to fight the “Sunni insurgency” throughout the country. The “Sunni” discourse, laden with such terminology as the “Sunni Triangle” and “Sunni insurgents” and such, was a defining component of the American media and government perception of the war. In fact, there was no insurgency per se, but an organic Iraqi resistance to the US-led invasion.
The design had in fact served its purposes, but not for long. Iraqis turned against one another, as US troops mostly watched the chaotic scene from behind the well-fortified Green Zone. When it turned out that the US public still found the price of occupation too costly to bear, the US redeployed out of Iraq, leaving behind a broken society.
Do read the rest.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Play with your toys, politely.
Authorities say he didn’t know the gun was loaded. No word on whether he was.
And, in more news of the heeled . . . .
And the Winner Is . . . 0
John Winfrey bestows the 2014 Squander Award on Teabaggery. Here’s a bit of the ceremony (emphasis in the original):
2. Squandering the opportunity for long-term investment in technology and human capital.
By sabotaging our recovery and making further cuts in funds for infrastructure, education, and basic research, we have already squandered seven percent of our growth potential for years to come (over one trillion a year).
Follow the link for the remaining counts in the indictment reasons for the award.
Don’t Go There 2
The innerwebs tell me that panicked pols are touting banning travel to west Africa, even though portions of west Africa have struggled with ebola for years, and the rest of the world, for all practical purposes, has done little or nothing to help, because (to be blunt) it was Africa and nobody outside of Africa cared much if at all.
Methinks, as regards the US right now, a ban on travel to Texas would be more to the point.
After all, Texas is the US epi(demic)center for the disease and, unlike, say, for example, just to mention one, Nigeria, has proven itself incapable of dealing with the contagion.
Stray Thought 0
The “tablet-fication” of websites is a plague and a curse.
Dumbed down becomes SOP, the lowest common denominator rules, and Buzzfeeders rule the world.
Pah!
“The Boy from New York City” 0
RIP Tim Hauser, founding member of Manhattan Transfer.
Vocal jazz at its best.
No, he wasn’t actually from New York City, but he might as well have been.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Football uber Alles 0
Daniel Ruth considers Florida State University’s hold over Tallahassee:
Read the rest, then do something useful with your Saturday, like not watch NCAA football.
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
