A Popourri of Links Gathered from 2003 - 2008
War is no longer working. What we once projected "over there, far away" now repercusses with nearly instantaneous blowback. There is "something new under the sun." From now on, every military victory will be, at best, pyrrhic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhic_victory
FCC Media Consolidation. A recent meeting in Seattle spotlights public rancor. (Watch the FCC official at this meeting - a classic glimpse of a person sellinig his soul in homage to America's newest false god - "Career")
Saudi Rape Case:
Intelligent Design on trial – Frontline
In real life, Stephen Colbert is a Catholic Sunday school teacher. On television, he is "Master of The Neo-Conservative Rant," casting kleig light on McLuhan's dictum - "The medium is the message." In Colbert's world, the ranting "context" vitiates the few feeble principles that provide "content". http://www.crooksandliars.com/index.php?s=Stephen+Colbert
U.S. Generals Against Torture
(It is an interesting exercise trying to locate American Generals who support torture. If there are any, there are not many.)
Wittenburg Door - a Christian site that falls outside any limits you might have in mind. Very thoughtful, provocative and soulful. Created in 1972 by Dallas' Trinity Foundation, a non-profit "collective" whose members live with the poor. (Recommended by friend Jamie Stewart.) http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/
President Bush vs. Pope Benedict. The line is clearly drawn.
Modern American Monastic Life
British Parliamentarian and senior stateman Tony Benn on compassion and the founding of the British National Health Service as a reaction to the barbarism of WWII - http://youtube.com/watch?v=37wkX2gklzo
Health Insurance Rescinded after Treatment Started -
Dying Languages –
Jon Stewart on Torture and Old Testament morality (Dana Perino)
White House Spokesperson Scott McClellan says the White House made him lie to cover up the White House's central role in outing CIA operative Valerie Plame
Jon Stewart targeting Iraq, Finland and then, the Sun!
Ann Coulter song (Proof positive that the American right is inspired by hatred. Although Ms. Coulter can spew diabolism with "the best of him" it bears mention that Michael Savage, the third most popular right wing talk-show host said that if he were put in charge of American troop training, he 'would fill them with so much hatred that they would win the Iraq War in weeks.')http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/26/open-thread-613/
Man boy love in Afghanistan – Diane Rehm Show
Health care comparisons across developed world
Meeting Resistance – Best Iraq Documentary to date
Old carbon dioxide global warming ads. (How silly the political Right looks in hindsight. Nobody's laughing at Social Security or Medicare.)
Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill says Bush was determined to invade Iraq from the time Bush entered office. He called Bush’s cabinet meetings like “a blind man in a roomful of deaf people.”
The Shepherd who Saved the Navy Seal (a heart-wrenching story of Islamic integrity):
(Note the Yale Taliban link)
Information Clearing House (Sign up for their daily email and - whether you agree with them or not -- you will start your day with several exceptionally well-chosen quotations.) www.InformationClearingHouse.info
Does Iran President Ahmadinejad actually say Israel should be “wiped off the map?” - http://www.antiwar.com/orig/norouzi.php?articleid=11025 (My sister Janet new a Russian translator at the United Nations who said that Krushchov’s assertion “We will bury you!” would have been more accurately translated: “We will leave you in the dust.”
Fraud in Iraq – Bill Moyers - (No matter what one thinks about Iraq, it is a fact that large petroleum reserves almost always have a profoundly corrupting influence on government. Due to Bush's grotesque mismangement of Mess-o'-potomia, Iraq's government is now so corrupt it will take many decades - if not centuries - to restore a semblance of integrity.)
Prof. Randy Pausch's Last Lecture while dying of pancreatic cancer:
Diane Sawyer's follow-up to questions concerning Randy's Last Lecture:
(Sawyer's "spot" is entitled "Professor's Lessons of a Lifetime" and is located in the upper right video insert.)
Catholic historian Garry Wills clarifies the "separation of church and state".
By: bluegal
Well, one can hope. Garry Wills and I are both believing Christians, though certain fundamentalists would argue that, since Wills is Catholic and I’m Quaker, we don’t count. His interview on Fresh Air (NPR) Thursday was the strongest and most lucid argument FOR the separation of Church and State I’ve ever heard: separation of Church and State ENCOURAGES religious practice among individuals, rather than stymies it. In a new book about the constitutional separation of church and state, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Garry Wills insists that that separation was meant as “the great protector of religion, not its enemy.”
The entire interview is about twenty-five minutes long and well worth the listen.
Cardinal George implicated in priest sex scandal
Hi Alan: Sorry I didn't have the issue with me when I wrote last: rather than JAMA, it's from the NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine) (www.NEJM.ORG) September 20, 2007 issue, page 1221 entitled: We Can Do Better -- Improving the Health of the American People, by Steven A. Schroeder, M. D. Note: the first $1,000 vs. last $10,000 of medical-care-cost is the most evident way to understand why we have such an expensive (and dysfunctional) medical system. Those with bucks INSIST on every possible bit of technology to find a cause or cure (even with the dramatically diminishing returns), while those w/o bucks are panicked by the dollar signs such that they don't even pay attention to getting the (excellent) return of the first $1,000. (And most people think the medical system should fix their problem, rather than taking personal responsibility for the life-style changes that actually WOULD benefit them most). Cheers? Ed Myer M.D.
