Where’s the Outrage?

The violence in Pakistan is a huge problem. Pervez Musharraf is trying to keep a lid on things by clamping down. One of the many things that don’t make sense is the fact that Musharraf allowed Benazir Bhutto to return to Pakistan. Why? Unless he was behind the bombing, the assassination attempt. She is clearly a threat to his power. So, he puts her under house arrest for less than a day then lets her out. Was there too much blow back? Did he beleive that she would calmly sit in her house and not say or do anything? I don’t get it.

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From MSNBC:

Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto described Pakistan on Saturday as a pressure cooker about to explode, as President Pervez Musharraf’s government tightened screws on media by ordering out three British journalists.

Having invoked emergency powers a week ago, Gen. Musharraf has sacked most of the country’s judges, put senior ones under house arrest, and ordered police to round up most of the opposition leadership and anyone else deemed troublesome.

He has also placed curbs on media. Private news channels are off the air and transmissions by the BBC and CNN have been blocked, though newspapers are publishing freely. (more…)

 

 Bhutto under house arrest [3:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Pakistan by ecthompson
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I read but I don’t really read novels.  I read mostly non-fiction.  I know of Norman Mailer just as I know of Gore Vidal.  Great writers.  Mailer gained my respect not from his writing but from his appearance in a documentary - When We Were Kings.  The film is about the Ali - Foreman fight.  Muhammad Ali was past his prime.  George Foreman was in his prime.  He was at the top of his game.  He destroyed Joe Frazier.  I mean destroyed him.  Frazier was a great boxer.  Anyway, Mailer’s descriptions of George Foreman and Muhammad Ali were invaluable to the film.  As a matter of fact, the film would have been just okay without him.  With him and his prose, it was a great film.

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From AP:

Norman Mailer, the macho prince of American letters who for decades reigned as the country’s literary conscience and provocateur with such books as “The Naked and the Dead,” died Saturday, his literary executor said. He was 84.

Mailer died of acute renal failure at Mount Sinai Hospital, said J. Michael Lennon, who is also the author’s biographer.  (more…)

 

 Norman Mailer dies [1:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Books by ecthompson
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I know. I know. The neocons are going to say that because of the “surge” more Americans are in harm’s way. Yep. That is correct. My question is why are they over there in the first place. What is our goal? A Jeffersonian Democracy? Iraq able to defend itself from whom? Iran? If that’s our goal, then we should have left Saddam in place.

So many lives lost for no clear reason. Very troubling. Very sad.

(BTW, when did the spelling of Al Qaeda change?)

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From MSNBC:

Six U.S. troops were killed when insurgents ambushed their foot patrol in the high mountains of eastern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday. The attack, the most lethal against American forces this year, made this year the deadliest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.

The six deaths brings the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan in 2007 to at least 101, according to a count by The Associated Press — the highest annual death toll for the American military here since it invaded to oust Taliban and al-Qaida fighters after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The war has evolved into an increasingly bloody counterinsurgency campaign.   (more…)

Tags: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Iraq by ecthompson
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The National Audubon Society Guide To Marine Mammals Of The World uses the word “aggregation” to describe dolphins that come together only for purposes of feeding. These dolphins are linked in this case by a practical purpose and will break back down into more stable and normal social groupings once they eat enough fish.

In Jean-Jacques Rosseau’s The Social Contract, Rosseau uses the word “association” to describe people in political union or unified in some way transcendent of immediate needs.

I was reading both books around the same time. Seeing both words used in these ways got me to thinking about why we spend time with the people we spend time with.

For example, on a city bus you have an aggregation. The people are on the bus only until they reach the right stop.

At work, you might have of mix. At core it’s an aggregation because you are the there to get a job done and earn a living. But with time, as relationships form and the common purpose, possibly, takes on more meaning, an association may exist.

When I hung out at punk rock bars, I always felt that many of us had something in common—If only various types and degrees of alienation. That would be an association.

At a hotel bar you would have more of an aggregation. People just passing through.

How about school? For some it is an association with real meaning and substance. For others it is an aggregation as the days are counted down to summer vacation, graduation or dropping out.

[Read more →]

Tags: General by Texas Liberal
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John Lee Hooker maybe one of the greatest blues men of all-time. He was “rediscovered” by the Rolling Stones. He also got some publicity by an appearance in one of the Blues Brothers movies. This is a great tune with the ageless Carlos Santana.

 

 John Lee Hooker - Healer [4:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Music by ecthompson
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Oh, cool. Nothing is safe unless you can afford to pay for your own tester. Toys aren’t safe. You can’t read the label because what’s in the dye of the toy isn’t on the label. Beef has been recalled. Spinach has been recalled. The air that we breath is toxic. So, if I don’t eat or breath I’ll be fine.

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From CNN.com:

China has suspended exports of the Aqua Dots toys contaminated with a chemical that can convert to a powerful “date rape” drug, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Saturday. The toys have caused some children who swallowed the craft toys to vomit and lose consciousness.

The agency said that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has ordered an investigation by quality control agencies and will release results as soon as they are available.

The AQSIQ did not reveal the name of the toys’ producer, Xinhua said. (more…)

Tags: Bush Administration by ecthompson
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The Rolling Stones have made everything from hard rock to disco in pop culture. Here’s their disco hit - Emotional Rescue.

 

 Rolling Stones [4:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Music by ecthompson
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Did you see this video?  We have all seen video of guys trying to get away from the Cops.  Well, this video goes one step further.  These guys are on the wrong side of a concrete divider.  They lose control of the SUV and somehow they survive.  God is good and these guys are stupid.

 

 Stupid crash [1:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Fun by ecthompson
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