Neural Gourmet Archives | Feed Your Brain
Neural Gourmet Archives | Feed Your Brain
Larry has posted the latest edition of Carnival of the Liberals over at A Revolution Of One, this time with a new media theme. A very nice mix of contemplative posts in this one. Oh, and while you're checking Edition #62 out, do give the post a Digg if you can. It not only helps Larry, but it helps increase the visibility of Carnival of the Liberals which helps everyone out with more readers. Thanks everyone for being patient while Larry put together this biweek's carnival.
Edition #63 will be on April 23rd at Vagabond Scholar's place courtesy of Batocchio. The theme for this edition is "human rights". You'll want to give the call-for-submissions post a read to see exactly what Batocchio has in mind. read more »
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Manila Ryce posted Carnival of the Liberals #59 early this morning over at The Largest Minority and boy did we have a bunch of contentious submissions this time around. Fitting as it should be for the liberal opposition to the conservative status quo. Won't it be grand when we can get somebody, anybody back into the White House and steer the conversation back to talking about ideas and progress rather than just how much everybody in power sucks? Even if that somebody isn't our personal somebody? Anyhow, go give this fine batch of liberal blogging a read.
Next up is Tangled Up In Blue Guy on March 12th, but before I let you get back to your dinners let me give a couple of shoutouts. First, big thanks to Hans at Free World Radio Network for helping support Carnival of the Liberals. Secondly, props to everyone at Freethought Fort Wayne, the finest bunch of atheists and agnostics you're likely to meet in Fort Wayne, Indiana aka The City Of Churches. Freethought Fort Wayne is organized under Center For Inquiry Indiana.
Well, we may have had that little tiff a couple of hundred years or so back but that little thing wouldn't stop Carnival of the Liberals. And so the 58th edition and second Anglo-American edition of Carnival of the Liberals is up at Liberal England. 10 posts from us Yanks, and 10 posts from our British friends. Would have been up sooner, but Jonathan had to have his tea before he finished.
The Largest Minority is up next time on February 27th but Carnival of the Liberals needs hosts. In fact, we pretty much need to fill every slot from April 9th onward. If you'd like to host, check the schedule and then hit the volunteer form or shoot me an e-mail. While the wonderful submissions we continue to get, almost unbidden, are the heart and soul of Carnival of the Liberals we wouldn't exist if it weren't for our hosts. So if you've contributed to CotL before but have never hosted, why not give it a shot? It's fun!
Karl over at World Wide Webers posted the latest installment of Carnival of the Liberals earlier today. There's something for everyone from iPods to porn (sort of), so don't forget to catch up on this biweek's best liberal blogging.
Next up is Liberal England in two weeks on February 13th. Just like the last time, this will be an Anglo-American edition of Carnival of the Liberals with posts from both sides of the Atlantic. Keep on sending that great liberal blogging!
Also, Carnival of the Liberals needs you! In particular we need a February 27th host but the schedule is wide open from March through the end of the year. So head on over to the CotL site and volunteer today.
Fran at Blue Gal posted the latest edition of Carnival of the Liberals earlier today. Carnival of the Liberals has resumed its normal bi-weekly schedule with the next edition on January 30th at the World Wide Webers. Keep on sending that great liberal blogging!
Karen at The Greenbelt posted the latest edition of Carnival of the Liberals earlier today. Despite it being an odd week for CotL due to the scheduling change we still had a good number of excellent posts sent in.
Carnival of the Liberals #56 is next week, Wednesday, January 16th over at Blue Gal's place after which CotL resumes its normal schedule on January 30th at the World Wide Webers. Keep on sending that great liberal blogging!
Ron Paul won’t win the presidential election, or come anywhere near it. He will continue to be a Texas Congressman. I will continue to live in England, thousands of miles away from him. So why should I worry about him?
Some quotations from his own website indicate some of the serious problems with his views, from a progressive perspective:read more »
Our scheduled host for this edition went MIA and I had a bout where I wasn't feeling well so this edition is very much delayed. What we're going to do is have CotL 54 today, CotL 55 next week, Jan. 9th, at The Greenbelt and then CotL 56 will be the following week, Jan. 16th, at Blue Gal's place. Then Carnival of the Liberals will pick up it's normal schedule with CotL 57 on Jan. 30th at World Wide Webers.
Given the unusual lateness of this edition I'm going to simply list my choices for the best among the submissions. Once again I had to throw out a number of submissions that were either from Libertarians promoting either Libertarianism or Ron Paul. And once again I have to say that I am not interested in this blog carnival becoming a vehicle for promotion of Libertarian foolishness or right-wing populist, facist-wannabe political candidates. I also discarded a couple of posts from people voicing their support of individual Democratic candidates. I really would like for Carnival of the Liberals to stay focused on issues, philosophy, activism and almost anything than endorsemens of individual candidates. Personally the horserace mentality is one of the things I most despise about American politics and I just don't want that here. It's nothing personal. A couple of the endorsements were really well written.
So without any further delay, here's my choice for the ten best liberal blog posts for this edition:read more »
Apologies to all, this edition is much delayed. Finally though, here is the the "Best of the Best of 2007" as selected by Carnival of the Liberals own participants and myself. All the submissions for this edition can be found on the Carnival of the Liberals home page.
First up I have to admit being a little puzzled when I received a couple of submissions from Libertarians. While Libertarians aren't prohibited from participating in CotL, as long as their posts are generally supportive of liberalism, these submissions were in fact the same old tired defenses of Libertarian thinking that can be found in Libertarian propaganda everywhere. I'm none too happy spreading Libertarian ideas which I generally find to be foolish and so one won't find such here but happily, Richard from Philosophy, etc. also sent in his critique of one of those Libertarian workhorses, the idea that the minimum wage is a form of coercion. Criticisms of Libertarian ideas I am quite willing to propagate.read more »
Just when I thought that our respective congress critters couldn't get any more absurd they went ahead and jumped the shark. From CBS News:
Freedom wafers, anyone?This is one straight from the headlines of the Onion. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has introduced a resolution (H.Res. 847) saying, and I am not making this up, that Christmas and Christians are important. The House is scheduled to vote on this groundbreaking resolution on Tuesday.
As someone with a Christian background, I can safely say this may be the silliest resolution ever introduced by, or voted upon, by Congress, although I am a little curious to see if anyone will vote against it.
Do we really need Congress to say Christmas and the Christian faith are important? Isn't that pretty self evident by now? Don't Christians already pretty much run everything in this country, except for the mainstream media, which is of course controlled by a Jewish-Illuminati-Bill Gates cabal? Don't we already get Dec. 25 off? Wasn't I forced to shell out $65 for a scrawny Christmas tree this weekend? Won't I have to go to Pentagon City or some other godforsaken place and spend more money in the next couple weeks as part of this strange ritual? What about the terrible songs that get endlessly recycled year after stinking year? And the useless catalogs that clog my mailbox, despite my efforts to get off mailing lists? Where will the horror end?
When I first heard that Democratic Candidate Dennis Kucinich wanted GOP Candidate Ron Paul as his running mate, I expected an out-of-context quote to be given undue prominence. However this is not the case. Cleveland Plain Dealer has recent audio of Kucinich clearly expressing his wish to an audience of seventy people for Ron Paul to be his running mate.
This may not be of great consequence, since either candidate has little chance of winning. But it does indicate a severe error of judgement on the part of Kucinich. Ron Paul is one of the most socially conservative members of Congress, as well as a darling of the far-right, from conspiracy theory entrepreneur Alex Jones to the white supremacist Stormfront website.
Kucinich's like of the "good doctor" is emblematic of a wider misinformed attitude on the left. Ron Paul has been lauded by many on the US left as the "good Republican" who is anti-war and anti-PATRIOT Act. These two platform positions mask a frightening agenda of far-right lunacy, as mentioned in a June 2007 article at Daily Kos.
This story also illustrates that Dennis Kucinich may be not what he is cracked-up to be. Kucinich's infatuation with new age woo, and pseudoscientific nonsense like "chemtrails" make it difficult for a sceptic to take him seriously as as an administrator or a legislator. It can be argued that Ron Paul is the woo "yang" is Kucinich's "yin", given Ron Paul's own wooish reputation for global warming denial and creationism.
I realize that is has been blogged about before, by bloggers much more capable than myself, but it has been a while since I visited the website for the upcoming movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed and I see that there is now a good deal more information available on it. It's coming out in February 2008, and stars everyone's favorite Nixon speech writer and former second-banana to Jimmy Kimmel, Ben Stein. Tongue firmly in cheek, Stein stars as a "rebel" student at "Big Science Academy" who, from what information I can gather, claims that "Big Science" is keeping "smart ideas" out of the classroom. Translation: scientists won't allow intelligent design to be taught in classrooms because they say it's not science, and that's just mean!read more »
Last week about a dozen other bloggers and myself attended Americans United For Separation Of Church And State's national meeting and 60th anniversary reception in Washington, DC. In addition to getting to meet and discuss issues with a large number of enthusiastic, committed activists, chapter leaders and bloggers there were sessions designed to hone our organizing, fund-raising and lobbying skills. Personally, it's sometimes disheartening observing the casual abuse and disregard of our first freedom in this time when religious extremism holds such sway. However the opportunity to join together with both believers and non-believers alike was a great reminder that very many people do take separation of church and state seriously and went a long way toward giving me renewed hope that this freedom that so many take for granted won't be thrown aside because AU will be there fighting for as long as it takes.
So when Beth Corbin, AU's National Field Director and proprietrix of Yikes! volunteered to host this edition of Carnival of the Liberals it was only natural to make church-state separation the theme and dedicate it to AU. Beth's edition is up now. Go read and enjoy.read more »
Loose Change, a 9/11 conspiracy theory film made by Dylan Avery and Jason Bermas has been through three incarnations already: the first edition, second edition, an unfinished final cut, before the release of their proclaimed 'Final Cut.'
The film through its various incarnations has made its name through accusing the US Government of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks itself via an "inside job." The information the film creators used to support its arguments included utilising sources from the Far-Right American Free Press, as well as heavy-use of quote-mining and confirmation bias.
Much of the worst-offending disinformation has been dropped in the process, and the Loose Change film has backed away from many of its earlier more outlandish claims (but not all). Loose Change has quietly dropped much of the information sourced from anti-Semitic organisations, due to an outcry by sceptics groups and critics.
Loose Change and its creators are not entirely clear of the links with hate groups. Jason Bermas is promoting LCFC at the "2007 Texas Justice, Peace, and Freedom Conference" (16-18 Nov) run by the 'Freedom Law School' which is anti-tax far-right group with links to anti-Semitic organisations. The 'Freedom Law School' is on the ADL's and Southern Poverty Law Center's watchlist. The conference is sponsored by the fascist American Free Press. The 'Freedom Law School' is supporting the Ron Paul campaign, as are other right-wing and far-right organisations.read more »
Blue Steel over at Pollyticks.com has your bi-weekly fix of the all that's good in the liberal blogosphere. As always it's great to see some new faces amidst all our old friends.
I also wanted to mention that I'll be headed to DC this weekend. Americans United for Separation of Church and State has invited myself and several other bloggers down to participate in organizing, fund raising and lobbying training, not to mention help AU celebrate it's 60th anniversary. I'm not sure who all is coming but I'm told that among those attending will be Blue Gal, DCup, Phil Plait, and PZ Myers. Wonder if I can finally convince DCup and Phil to host Carnival of the Liberals? In any event it'll be great to meet so many of my bloggy friends in real life.read more »
In the past the Bush administration has favorably compared itself to Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. They may be more alike than even the President's speech writers might think. Historian William Loren Katz has an essay on HNN drawing from his own book The Cruel Years and Stuart Creighton Miller's, Benevolent Assimilation: The American Conquest of the Philippines, 1899-1903 in which he outlines the use of the use of waterboarding in history. In particular, he discusses the use of waterboarding by the U.S. military during the invasion of the Philippines with the approval of President Teddy Roosevelt. In the past the Bush Administration has tried to compare itself and President Bush to Teddy Roosevelt. At least in torture the two are quite similar even down to the euphemisms. At the turn of the 20th C. waterboarding was then termed, "the water cure". Highly recommended reading.
The “water cure” was probably first instituted when U.S. forces encountered local resistance. Professor Miller states that General Frederick Funston in 1901 may have used it to capture the Filipino General Emilio Aguinaldo. A New York World article described the “water cure” as forcing “water with handfuls of salt thrown in to make it more efficacious, is forced down the throats of patients until their bodies become distended to the point of bursting . . ..” This may have been only one on the versions used.
The water cure became front-page news when William Howard Taft, appointed U.S. Governor of the Philippines, testified under oath before Congress and let the cat out of the bag. The “so called water cure,” he admitted, was used “on some occasions to extract information.” The Arena, an opposition paper, called his words “a most humiliating admission that should strike horror in the mind of every American.” Around the same time as Taft's admission a soldier boasted in a letter made public that he had used the water cure on 160 people and only 26 had survived. The man was compelled by the War Department to retract his damaging confession. But then another officer stated the “water cure” was being widely used when he reported, “the problem of the 'water cure' is in knowing how to apply it.” Such statements leave unclear how often the form of torture was used for interrogation and how often it became a way to exhibit racial animosity or display contempt. ...
President Theodore Roosevelt reprimanded Funston and ordered him to cease his inflammatory rhetoric. Facing a political challenge from General Nelson Miles based in the Philippines, TR, who rode into the White House on his heroic exploits at San Juan Hill, did not intend to nourish more competition. The President privately assured a friend the water cure was “an old Filipino method of mild torture” and claimed when Americans administered it “no body was seriously damaged.” But publicly TR was silent about the “water cure.”
The relative success of Trutherism has peaked and is now on the decline. Its genesis lies in right-wing populist conspiracism that was repackaged post-9/11 to appeal to left-of-centre consumers who felt traumatised and disenfranchised as a result of GOP dominance of US politics to 2006. An explanation of 9/11 as a plot masterminded by Bush or his associates appealed to some on the left, as another example of the illegitimacy of the Bush Administration and an example of their evil.
One of the greatest blows to the Troof Movement was when the Democratic Party took Congress in the 2006 Mid-terms. It destroyed the notion of "BushCo" as an all-powerful clique that controlled space-time, controlled all media, and could steal any elections it wanted. As Katrina, Iraq, and Afghanistan have unfolded, the capability of the Bush Administration to orchestrate the greatest deception of all time has been severely dented.
Since 2006, Trooferism is returning to the right-wing populism from which it was originally-derived. Trooferism's love affair with Ron Paul(1) is rather indicative of this, as well as Trooferism's bolder assertions that the Democratic Party was also "in on it". On the progressive messageboard DemocraticUnderground, resident Troofers are becoming bolder in smearing leading Democrats such as Bill Clinton and John Kerry.read more »
Sorry everyone, I'm a little late getting this out but you've got to read this bi-week's Carnival of the Liberals. Faith at That Is So Queer... has what can only be described as the best rhyming edition of Carnival of the Liberals to date! And that's not even mentioning all the fine liberal writing linked therein. So go give Faith some liberal lovin' and don't forget that kind of lovin' all bloggers want -- links. Next up on November 7 is Pollyticks.com.
Tangled Up In Blue Guy brings us the fortnight's best grumpy liberal blogging for this 49th edition of Carnival of the Liberals. Join us October 24th for our anger management seminar Carnival of the Liberals #50 at That Is So Queer.
Double standards: Right wing talking head John Gibson wonders why the Democrats can get away with religious metaphors when Republicans would be castigated for similar remarks. Cartoon courtesy of Pollyticks.On Monday John Gibson questioned why there was no outrage about Barack Obama's recent "Kingdom on Earth" statement while addressing an evangelical church in South Carolina. Apparently Gibson feels there's some double standards at play here. Well, I have to admit that all this god talk by Democrats makes me more than a little nervous, especially considering both Obama and Clinton's ties to evangelical Christianity. But evangelical Christianity is not fundamentalist Christianity and I have no true concerns that any Democratic candidate would want to condemn and tear down the wall of separation between church and state that has grown ever more shaky under Republican leadership. Therein lies the difference. One party uses religious metaphor in an attempt to relate to its constituents among the faithful while the other shamelessly panders to fundamentalist Christians who would be quite happy seeing theocracy on Earth. Just like John Gibson does when he talks about double standards. Of course I wouldn't exactly expect cogent political analysis from someone who thought, out of all the pressing issues of the day, that Obama's nicotine addiction was newsworthy.
