Eh, Jacques! Let’s cut off the King’s head!
Archive for the ‘History’ Category
Thought for the Day
Monday, August 9th, 2010Freedom of Speech II
Sunday, August 8th, 201011. God blesses the sexed, not the nice.
12. History exists in the silence.
13. The People are invisible.
14. Predator drones have nothing to do with war or warfare.
15. Only cowards use them.
16. The Truth is on the outside.
17. George Will pimps McDonalds for cold coffee and spare change.
18. Security institutionalizes fear.
19. To understand today, study yesterday. (after Pearl S. Buck)
20. The United States has choices, too.
Why We Are Losing and Will Continue To
Monday, July 5th, 2010
We have learned above all that, in campaigns such as those in Iraq or Afghanistan, the human terrain is the decisive terrain. We have to understand the people, their culture, their social structures and how systems to support them are supposed to work — and how they do work. And our most important tasks have to be to secure and to serve the people, as well as to respect them and to facilitate the provision of basic services, the establishment of local governance and the revival of local economics.
How to Become White
Saturday, June 5th, 20101) Steal some land.
2) Murder as much of the indigenous population as possible.
3) Make racist laws that oppress the remainder.
4) Kill some from time to time, to let them know who’s boss.
5) And be sure to mock them, the living and the dead, with crude, even brutal, racist humor!
Just a little white humor from Caroline Glick, deputy managing editor of the (white) Jerusalem Post.
Freedom of Speech
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010Some things you’re not supposed to say . . .
This post is for Anne Ostrenko, A. C. Lambeth, Dan Denoon, and Erick Dittus.
How Revolutions Really Begin
Sunday, February 21st, 2010Of course, if President Obama takes the radical actions necessary to spare this country from revolution — such as issuing an Executive Order or Signing Statement abrogating AGI’s contractual agreements with its criminal employees, in the name of National Security and Domestic Tranquillity, of course — then revolution will not occur. Franklin Roosevelt took such steps in the 1930s, and thus prevented revolution in his time.
Barring this, here’s a likely scenario, involving white middle-class businesspeople.
John Q. Taxpayer — that’s his self-description, and not what I call citizens — finds himself unemployed and unable to find re-employment.
He exhausts his meagre unemployment “benefits,” and, unable to pay his many overdue bills, finds his home under foreclosure. His home is also home to his wife and children, and none of them have any place to go. The grandparents all live in those “retirement” places to which Americans consign the elderly, paid for by Social Security [sic] and not an option for John Q. and the Taxpayer family.
The Taxpayers, in fact, have now become, in the words of American business, the Losers.
Desperate and without help, the Loser family stays in their home, hoping for a miracle. Instead of this miracle, they find deputy sheriffs on their doorstep, come to evict them and seize their belongings for auction to recompense the mortgage company, that is, the Winner “family of businesses.”
Then, Catch-22 rears its absurd and gruesome head: John Q. is a Real American who has voted Republican since Reagan at least, and maybe since Richard Nixon. Maybe since 1960. His bona fides as a Real American includes an assortment of guns. Seeing armed men in forbidding sunglasses that prohibit any human eye contact, John Q. panics and, armed with, say, his Glock 9 or a 12-gauge shotgun, or his AK-47 hobbyist knockoff, he blows away the lead Deputy Dawg.
Deputy Dawg’s pack lays seige to John Q.’s house and calls for reinforcements.
But the Pack has misjudged the situation. John Q. has neighbors. His neighbors dont know him, actually, but they know they’re unemployed and facing eviction themselves, with consequent homelessness and even foodlessness
The neighbors are also Real Americans, that is, armed and desperate people; in some cases, heavily armed.
So the Pack, for the first time, finds itself caught in a crossfire, and the forces [n.b.] of Law [sic] and Order [sic] have a bad day at black rock. A totally bad day, as the young would say.
This incident alone would be only, as corporate television likes to say, “a random act of senseless violence” perpetrated by “disgruntled individuals.” You know, “loners” who didn’t “talk much” and didn’t have many “friends.”
But multiplication transforms loners into an army and senseless violence into armed insurrection; in other words, revolution.
Sooner or later, after all, John Q. Loser and the Neighbors will seize — that is, liberate and restore to their rightful owners, We the People — television and radio stations of their own, and begin broadcasting stuff you’ve never heard on the airwaves before. At that point, when the meaning of words changes, revolution will have truly begun in the United States of America — originally, the home of the Revolution to End All Revolution.
All things must pass.
Criticism of Israel Is an Exercise of Free Speech
Sunday, February 21st, 2010Apparently both the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star refused to publish the following statement. Along with many other blogs, it is published here.
Over 150 Jewish Canadians signed a statement expressing their concerns about the campaign to suppress criticism of Israel that is being carried on within Canada. The signatories include many prominent Canadians, including Ursula Franklin O.C., Anton Kuerti O.C., Naomi Klein, Dr. Gabor Mate, and professors Meyer Brownstone (recipient of Pearson Peace Medal), Natalie Zemon Davis, Michael Neumann, and Judy Rebick.
The signatories are particularly concerned that unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism deflect attention from Israel’s accountability for what many have called war crimes in Gaza. They state that B’nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have led campaigns to silence criticism of Israel on university campuses, in labor unions and in other groups. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff unquestioningly echo the views of these particular Jewish organizations.
They strongly state that they are against all expressions of racism. While firmly committed to resisting any form of prejudice against Jewish people, their statement explicitly states that these spurious allegations of anti-Semitism bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind. The statement underlines the immeasurable suffering and injustice to the Palestinian people due to the severe poverty, daily humiliations, and military invasions inflicted by the State of Israel.
Statement: Jewish Canadians Concerned about Suppression of Criticism of Israel
We are Jewish Canadians concerned about all expressions of racism, anti-Semitism, and social injustice. We believe that the Holocaust legacy “Never again” means never again for all peoples. It is a tragic turn of history that the State of Israel, with its ideals of democracy and its dream of being a safe haven for Jewish people, causes immeasurable suffering and injustice to the Palestinian people.
We are appalled by recent attempts of prominent Jewish organizations and leading Canadian politicians to silence protest against the State of Israel. We are alarmed by the escalation of fear tactics. Charges that those organizing Israel Apartheid Week or supporting an academic boycott of Israel are anti-Semites promoting hatred bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind. We believe this serves to deflect attention from Israel’s flagrant violations of international humanitarian law.
B’nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have pressured university presidents and administrations to silence debate and discussion specifically regarding Palestine/Israel. In a full-page ad in a national newspaper, B’nai Brith urged donors to withhold funds from universities because “anti-Semitic hate fests” were being allowed on campuses. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff have echoed these arguments. While university administrators have resisted demands to shut down Israel Apartheid week, some Ontario university presidents have bowed to this disinformation campaign by suspending and fining students, confiscating posters, and infringing on free speech.
We do not believe that Israel acts in self-defense. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid, receiving $3 million/day. It has the fourth strongest army in the world. Before the invasion of Gaza on 27 December 2008, Israel’s siege had already created a humanitarian catastrophe there, with severe impoverishment, malnutrition, and destroyed infrastructure. It is crucial that forums for discussion of Israel’s accountability to the international community for what many have called war crimes be allowed to proceed unrestricted by specious claims of anti-Semitism.
We recognize that anti-Semitism is a reality in Canada as elsewhere, and we are fully committed to resisting any act of hatred against Jews. At the same time, we condemn false charges of anti-Semitism against student organizations, unions, and other groups and people exercising their democratic right to freedom of speech and association regarding legitimate criticism of the State of Israel.
Signatories:
Abigail Bakan
Adam Balsam
Sharon Baltman
Julia Barnett
Lainie Basman
Jody Berland
Sam Blatt
Geri Blinik
Anita Block
Elizabeth Block
Sheila Block
Hannah Briemberg
Mark Brill
Stephen Brot
Meyer Brownstone
Eliza Burroughs
Smadar Carmon
Gyda Chud
Charles P. Cohen
Nathalie Cohen
David Copeland
Natalie Zemon Davis
Eliza Deutsch
James Deutsch
Judith Deutsch
Abbe Edelson
Jack Etkin
Elle Flanders
Danielle Frank
Ursula Franklin
Dan Freeman-Maloy
Miriam Garfinkle
Alisa Gayle
Jack Gegenberg
Mark Golden
Brenda Goldstein
Sue Goldstein
Cy Gonick
Marnina Gonick
Rachel Gotthilf
Amy Gottleib
Kevin A. Gould
Daina Green
Lisa Frances Greenspoon
Ricardo Grinspun
Cathy Gulkin
Rachel Gurofsky
Deboran Guterman
Yesse Gutman
Freda Guttman
Judy Haiven
Michael Hanna-Fein
Jean Hanson
Jan Heynen
Maria Heynen
Adam Hofmann
Jake Javanshir
Jeannie Kamins
Marylin Kanee
Howard S. Kaplan
Gilda Katz
Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta
Mira Khazzam
Bonnie Sher Klein
Mark Klein
Martin Klein
Naomi Klein
Joshua Katz-Rosene
Ryan Katz-Rosene
Judy Koch
Anton Kuerti
Jason Kunin
Aaron Lakoff
Michael Lambek
Natalie LaRoche
Richard Borshay Lee
Andy Lehrer
Gabriel Levin
Gabriel Levine
Joel Lexchin
Kim Linekin
Abby Lippman
Lee Lorch
Martin Lukacs
Audrey Macklin
Elise Maltin
Richard Marcuse
Wayne Mark
Gabor Mate
Arthur Milner
Anna Miransky
Dorit Naaman
Joanne Naiman
Neil Naiman
Michael Neumann
David-Marc Newman
David Noble
Clare O’Connor
Robin Ostow
Andre W. Payant
Jenny Peto
Simone Powell
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Fabienne Presentey
Yacov Rabkin
Diana Ralph
Naomi Rankin
Judy Rebick
Ester Reiter
Jillian Rogin
Richard Roman
Joseph Rosen
Herman Rosenfeld
Martha Roth
Marty Roth
Ruben Roth
E.Natalie Rothman
B. Sack
Ben Saifer
Miriam Sampaio
Jacob Scheir
Fred Schloessinger
Alan Sears
Shlomit Segal
Edward H. Shaffer
Noa Shaindlinger
Ray Shankman
Eva Sharell
Elliot Shek
Sid Shniad
Max Silverman
Samuel Singer
Elizabeth Solloway
Susan Starkman
Greg Starr
Jonathan Sterne
Jeremy Stolow
Rhonda Sussman
Vera Szoke
Joe Tannenbaum
Howard Tessler
Marion Traub-Werner
Ceyda Turan
Sandra Tychsen
Cheryl Wagner
Jon McPhedran Waitzer
David Wall
Naomi Binder Wall
Kathy Wazana
Karen Weisberg
Barry Weisleder
Paul Weinberg
Judith Weisman
Suzanne Weiss
Abraham Weizfeld
Ernie Yacub
B.H. Yael
Yedida Zalik
Melvin Zimmerman
An Old European Tradition
Sunday, February 21st, 2010Historically, whenever Europeans have entered a territory intent on colonization, we have undertaken a campaign to exterminate the native population. Always claiming to be on the defensive, the victim of the attacks of the uncivilized, we in fact were the aggressors in every single case, and, thanks to Western technology, we held the advantage of superior force. We did this in the New World when we destroyed the American Indian population. We did it in Africa, where we invented the concentration camp. We did it in India, going so far as to enlist famine as our ally, and asserting in the process that any famine in that country could only be alleviated by actions that were in keeping with laissez-faire principles.
When we invaded Eastern Europe and European Russia in Operation Barbarossa, we did it there too.
When the Zionists came to Palestine, they could have come saying, “We are Semites. So are you. You are our brothers and we have come to live on this land with you in peace.”
They did not. They said, as Europeans always do, “We are a superior people, a superior civilization representing centuries of enlightened progress. You are not. Thus, our claim to this land is greater than yours, and you must flee or die.”
None of this had anything to do with barbarism, or with weapons of mass destruction, or bolshevism, or antisemitism, or the heathen Chinee. It is simply an old European tradition. All that talk about a “threat” is propaganda tailored for consumption by the rubes, the naive, the bourgeoisie which must be reinforced in its childish belief that everything its class does is not only good — it is goody goody.
The results may be viewed below.
If the video doesn’t play, click here.
On American Empire
Sunday, February 21st, 2010The use of force alone is temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.
Second Speech on Conciliation with America
The Thirteen Resolutions [22 March 1775]
Democracy in Action
Sunday, February 21st, 2010I know that Republicants say it too, but young people really are the hope of the future . . .
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