The Enlightenment of Charles Manson I was listening to the clip Matt Staggs posted on here the other day of Alan Watts expounding on the Buddhist concept of “No Self” so I clicked on it in YouTube to see what else came up, and there I found this little clip of Charles Manson answering the question of “Who are you?” After listening to Watts, Manson’s answer struck me as profound. “I am nobody”, was his answer, basically. I had seen other Manson interviews. I particularly like the one with Geraldo Rivera. I clicked on some more links and discovered an interview of Manson being interviewed by Charlie Rose, one I hadn’t seen before. I am struck by how confidently Manson, who appears to be just over 5 feet tall, walks into the room in comparison to the three enormous correctional officers who accompany him, all ow home appear to be slightly nervous to be on TV. Rose: Do you have friends you can talk to? Rose seems to establish early on a pattern of steering the conversation continually from the interesting to the banal:
LASER PHYSICIST F. J. Duarte , Laser Physicist (Optics Journal, Rochester, New York, 2012) © ISBN: 978-0-9760383-1-3 (printed version) ISBN: 978-0-9760383-2-0 (electronic version) Date of publication: May, 2012. Politics in academia.. lasers in the Cold War... the decline of an industrial icon (Eastman Kodak) towards oblivion... ethics in research... perspectives on quantum mechanics and reality... perspectives on morality, mortality, and the big question Laser Physicist provides a first hand account of academic politics at Australia's Macquarie University during the "revolt of the sciences" that led to the reform of its degree structure. Chapter 2: Sydney Soon after I began my presentation, the male Aussies started to smile nervously and then began to laugh… and laugh. Chapter 3: Macquarie In his memoirs, John Ward makes reference to my political contacts (Ward, 2004). Chapter 4: John Clive Ward 4.2 Reminiscences His directness and frankness often got him at odds with managers and administrators. 6.3 Moscow
The State, the Deep State, and the Wall Street Overworld In the last decade it has become more and more obvious that we have in America today what the journalists Dana Priest and William Arkin have called two governments: the one its citizens were familiar with, operated more or less in the open: the other a parallel top secret government whose parts had mushroomed in less than a decade into a gigantic, sprawling universe of its own, visible to only a carefully vetted cadre – and its entirety…visible only to God.1 And in 2013, particularly after the military return to power in Egypt, more and more authors referred to this second level as America’s “deep state.”2 Here for example is the Republican analyst Mike Lofgren: There is the visible government situated around the Mall in Washington, and then there is another, more shadowy, more indefinable government that is not explained in Civics 101 or observable to tourists at the White House or the Capitol. DEEP STATE n. The Deep State, The Shadow Government and the Wall Street Overworld Thereafter
Jeremy Scahill and Noam Chomsky: The Truth About America's Secret, Dirty Wars May 16, 2013 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. The following is taken from a transcript of a special event featuring Jeremy Scahill and Noam Chomsky with Amy Goodman hosted by the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, the ACLU of Massachusetts, the American Friends Service Committee of Massachusetts, the Cambridge Peace Commission and the Community Church of Boston that was broadcast by Democracy Now!. The event covered the subjects explored in Scahill's new book, Dirty Wars. Jeremy Scahill: I’m really honored to be here with both Amy Goodman and Noam Chomsky. And I like to think of the footnotes in my book as a tribute to Professor Chomsky, because one of the first things I do when I look at a book is to check out the notes in the index to see how serious the book is, how serious the author was about citing every fact that he states in the book.
New App Lets You Boycott Koch Brothers, Monsanto And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart In her keynote speech at last year's annual Netroots Nation gathering, Darcy Burner pitched a seemingly simple idea to the thousands of bloggers and web developers in the audience. The former programmer and congressional candidate proposed a smartphone app allowing shoppers to swipe barcodes to check whether conservative billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch were behind a product on the shelves. Burner figured the average supermarket shopper had no idea that buying Brawny paper towels, Angel Soft toilet paper or Dixie cups meant contributing cash to through its subsidiary Georgia-Pacific. Similarly, purchasing a pair of yoga pants containing Lycra or a Stainmaster carpet meant indirectly handing the Kochs your money (Koch Industries bought Invista, one of the world’s largest fiber and textiles companies, in 2004 from DuPont). At the time, Burner created a mock interface for her app, but that's as far as she got. Follow @Clare_OC
The Rise of Anti-Capitalism Photo WE are beginning to witness a paradox at the heart of capitalism, one that has propelled it to greatness but is now threatening its future: The inherent dynamism of competitive markets is bringing costs so far down that many goods and services are becoming nearly free, abundant, and no longer subject to market forces. While economists have always welcomed a reduction in marginal cost, they never anticipated the possibility of a technological revolution that might bring those costs to near zero. The first inkling of the paradox came in 1999 when Napster, the music service, developed a network enabling millions of people to share music without paying the producers and artists, wreaking havoc on the music industry. The huge reduction in marginal cost shook those industries and is now beginning to reshape energy, manufacturing and education. Now the phenomenon is about to affect the whole economy.
Cornel West: “You can get killed out here trying to tell the truth!” This article originally appeared on AlterNet . As big banks and corporations grab more power and government heightens control and surveillance, confronting those at the top is getting to be a dangerous proposition. As Cornel West put it bluntly, “You can get killed out here trying to tell the truth.” For the last year, a partnership between the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), a New York–based think tank, and Union Theological Seminary (UTS) has produced a series of rich conversations about economics, society and the human spirit. Johnson, who had recently led a meeting of major financial executives in London, noted that the Big Boys are aware that they are no longer gods in the public view, but demons. West cited the need for a “democratic counterweight” against what he described as three dominant tendencies on the globe: “financializing, privatizing and militarizing.” West sent a powerful message about governments harassing and exerting control over citizens.
Privacy on the Line: Security lapse exposes some Lifeline phone customers to ID theft risk Last fall, when Linda Mendez was offered discount phone service through a federal program for the poor, the San Antonio mom thought it was too good to be true. She signed up anyway. (PRIVACY ON THE LINE: Get additional information on investigation - Mendez, 51, works the graveyard shift at a university gym, where she keeps the building clean and stocked with towels. Did you do your homework? Mendez's phone also comes in handy during the day. "I'm always telling my husband, ‘where's my phone?'" "I need it because something's usually happening." For all the convenience afforded by Lifeline, the federal program that subsidizes phone service for qualified low-income households, Mendez now says her initial doubts were justified. Her nine-digit Social Security number, her birth date, home address and the most sensitive details about her family's finances were available to anyone doing an online search this spring . The commission and TerraCom have had previous dealings.
Stop Currency Manipulation and Create Millions of Jobs: With Gains across States and Congressional Districts Six years after the start of the Great Recession nearly 8 million jobs are still needed to return to prerecession labor market health (EPI 2013). Job creation should still be goal number one. Yet prospects for any fiscal policy action to boost jobs have disappeared under the weight of congressional dysfunction, and the Federal Reserve has begun to wind down monetary stimulus (Wall Street Journal 2013). Many of the new jobs would be in manufacturing, a sector devastated by rising trade deficits over the past 15 years. Currency manipulation, which distorts trade flows by artificially lowering the cost of U.S. imports and raising the cost of U.S. exports, is the primary cause of these growing trade deficits. This paper describes the positive effects of ending currency manipulation in three years by estimating the effects of reducing trade deficits on GDP, jobs, the federal budget deficit, and state and local budget deficits in 2015. Exchange rates Effects of exchange rates on trade