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Thursday, June 15, 2006 |
Adelphia: "The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the San Francisco Bay area and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico are competing to design the nation's first new nuclear bomb in two decades."
12:46:16 PM 
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We all know at least one instance of violence in our own neighbourhood when people went berserk and violent outbursts threatened the peace and quiet. A few days ago my neighbour stood brandishing a chopper in his garden, shouting about how in his country of origin and in the army things were 'fixed'.
Quite a lot of violence comes from ex-army men who committed acts of violence abroad, on what they call here 'missions of peace and reconstruction'. Well, the chances are these people just killed civilians. Watch out for those guys with nicknames like 'Rambo', who have blood-red cars and wash these obsessively.
Since the neocon revival, with deregulation and privatization, and the breaking down of everything 'social', the situation has worsened considerably.
Independent: "The number of soldiers diagnosed with psychiatric problems brought on by the stress of service in Iraq has dramatically escalated since the beginning of the war, according to new figures from the Ministry of Defence.
The MoD maintains 15 mental health teams in the UK and has specialised defence units in six big NHS hospitals, to replace the military hospitals closed down after Labour came to power. The MoD has also spent millions having troops treated in private clinics."
MotherJones: "The military has a domestic violence problem."
ILO: "Violence at work, ranging from bullying and mobbing, to threats by psychologically unstable co-workers, sexual harassment and homicide, is increasing worldwide and has reached epidemic levels in some countries, according to a new ILO publication."
Violence against medical staff, ambulance personnel and firemen is getting out of hand, also in countries like the Netherlands.
But depriving people of urgent health care is a form of violence too.
Guardian: "Closure of big NHS acute hospitals may be required to eliminate the NHS's £512m deficit, the health service's acting chief executive has told the Guardian."
Those in power only seem concerned with their own pay checks.
BostonChannel: "Despite record low approval ratings, House lawmakers Tuesday embraced a $3,300 pay raise that will increase their salaries to $168,500.
The 2 percent cost-of-living raise would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate."
Some people steal, other people only have to vote for their own pay raise.
ICH: "The figure of Bush is a portal which simultaneously feeds and is an expression of the collective madness that is in everyone. Bush is merely a symptom, an embodied reflection of a deeper underlying pathology that exists in the collective unconscious of humanity which is giving shape to and in-forming world events. Seen transpersonally, the figure of Bush is revealing something to us about ourselves.
It is our responsibility to deal with the fact that everyone who supports Bush in his madness: his administration, the corporate, congressional, judicial, military industrial complex, the media, the voters that allegedly put him into office, and ourselves as well if we are doing nothing about our situation, have all fallen prey to a psychic epidemic that threatens the entire planet."
George W. Bush is setting a bad example; violence is his creed, his message: 'Grab what you can get, and while getting caught red-handed, just deny everything. Tell everyone God told you to kill and rob.'
12:41:30 PM
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ArsTechnica: "To lovers of Irish literature, June 16 is better known as Bloomsday. The annual celebration of James Joyce's Ulysses takes place on the summer day when Leopold Bloom took his fictional stroll through the streets, homes, businesses, and brothels of Dublin more than a century ago. Dedicated readers often travel to Dublin in an attempt to retrace Bloom's steps (not completely possible any longer) and drink copious amounts of beer. They also like to listen to passages read aloud from the book. All good fun, right? In the last few years, though, the day has taken on an increasingly sober cast as Joyce's sole literary executor has wielded the power of copyright to shut down much public discussion of his grandfather's life and work, and even to silence public readings.
Lawrence Lessig recently got involved in the case after hearing from an academic who was threatened with legal action over a book on Joyce's daughter. He will file suit against Stephen Joyce this week, asking a judge to declare that his client (Carol Shloss, a Stanford English prof) has the right to use material under the 'fair use' exemption to copyright."
Read Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture (pdf).
So, yes, tomorrow is Bloomsday.
Bloomsday in Dublin.
Reading Ulysses.
12:00:54 PM
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George W. Bush is a performer, there is no doubt about that. With Ronald Reagan the age of the president-actors begun, the age of the simulacrum, of the lies. Keeping up appearances is what it's all about. When the war starts for real you declare your mission accomplished.
Here's bloody Bush.
Bush could learn a trick or two from Michael Jackson, who can lean forward at an angle of 45°. Soon George will be able to walk on water.
11:48:09 AM
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