It's business that really rules us now | George Monbiot It's the reason for the collapse of democratic choice. It's the source of our growing disillusionment with politics. It's the great unmentionable. Corporate power. The political role of business corporations is generally interpreted as that of lobbyists, seeking to influence government policy. Most of the scandals that leave people in despair about politics arise from this source. On the same day we learned that a government minister, Nick Boles, has privately assured the gambling company Ladbrokes that it needn't worry about attempts by local authorities to stop the spread of betting shops. Last week we discovered that G4S's contract to run immigration removal centres will be expanded, even though all further business with the state was supposed to be frozen while allegations of fraud were investigated. The monitoring which was meant to keep these companies honest is haphazard, the penalties almost nonexistent, the rewards can be stupendous, dizzying, corrupting.
Reality Denial: Steven Pinker’s Apologetics for Western-Imperial Violence | Public Intellectuals Project By Edward S. Herman and David Peterson Whereas in Pinker’s view there has been a “Long Peace” since the end of the Second World War,[7] in the real world there has been a series of long and devastating U.S. wars: in the Koreas (1950-1953), Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (1954-1975), Iraq (1990-), Afghanistan (2001- or, arguably, 1979-), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1996-), with the heavy direct involvement of U.S. clients from Rwanda (Paul Kagame) and Uganda (Yoweri Museveni) in large-scale Congo killings; and Israel’s outbursts in Lebanon (1982 and 2006), to name a few. In the same time frame as Pinker’s “New Peace,” alleged to have begun with the dissolution of the Soviet bloc, the Warsaw Pact, and of the Soviet Union itself (1989-1991), we have also witnessed the relentless expansion of the U.S. “Among respectable countries,” Pinker writes, “conquest is no longer a thinkable option. Pinker’s “Cold War” Consider this example: Vietnam and the Antiwar Protests
Surveillaince, and the construction of a terror state Statement by Julian Assange after One Year in Ecuadorian Embassy (on 2013-06-22) It has now been a year since I entered this embassy and sought refuge from persecution. As a result of that decision, I have been able to work in relative safety from a US espionage investigation. But today, Edward Snowden’s ordeal is just beginning. Two dangerous runaway processes have taken root in the last decade, with fatal consequences for democracy. Government secrecy has been expanding on a terrific scale. Simultaneously, human privacy has been secretly eradicated. A few weeks ago, Edward Snowden blew the whistle on an ongoing program - involving the Obama administration, the intelligence community and the internet services giants - to spy on everyone in the world. As if by clockwork, he has been charged with espionage by the Obama administration. The US government is spying on each and every one of us, but it is Edward Snowden who is charged with espionage for tipping us off. Edward Snowden is the eighth leaker to be charged with espionage under this president. Print
On Liberty: Edward Snowden and top writers on what freedom means to them Shami Chakrabarti Writers have always been a big part of Liberty. Since our very beginnings, as the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) in 1934, they've played a key role in our battle to protect civil liberties and promote human rights in Britain. HG Wells, Vera Brittain, EM Forster, AA Milne, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley are just a few of the authors who supported Liberty in the early years – and perhaps it's not surprising that those who write feel a special affinity with Liberty's values and ideals. Now on Monday we will celebrate 80 years of "the fight that is never done". Orwell's observations on the power of language "to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable" is something that Liberty has witnessed throughout its history – "extraordinary rendition" wasn't sweet singing, but a chilling euphemism for kidnap and torture during the "war on terror". Shami Chakrabarti is director of Liberty. Edward Snowden Edward Snowden is a former NSA contractor and whistleblower.
Assange Statement on the First Day of Manning Trial (on 2013-06-04) Statement by Julian Assange As I type these lines, on June 3, 2013, Private First Class Bradley Edward Manning is being tried in a sequestered room at Fort Meade, Maryland, for the alleged crime of telling the truth. The court martial of the most prominent political prisoner in modern US history has now, finally, begun. It has been three years. Bradley Manning, then 22 years old, was arrested in Baghdad on May 26, 2010. "For me, I stopped keeping track," he told the court last November. After protests from his lawyers, Bradley Manning was then transferred to a brig at a US Marine Corps Base in Quantico, VA, where - infamously - he was subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment at the hands of his captors - a formal finding by the UN. "Brad’s treatment at Quantico will forever be etched, I believe, in our nation’s history, as a disgraceful moment in time" said his lawyer, David Coombs. The United States was, in theory, a nation of laws. But of course. Print
Whiteness and the 99% | Bring the Ruckus This piece was written by Joel Olson, a member of BtR-Arizona, as a contribution to ongoing debates about the occupations taking place in the U.S. A printable PDF of this piece is available for download here, and a readable PDF is available here. Whiteness and the 99% By Joel Olson Occupy Wall Street and the hundreds of occupations it has sparked nationwide are among the most inspiring events in the U.S. in the 21st century. The occupations have brought together people to talk, occupy, and organize in new and exciting ways. Left colorblindess is the enemy Left colorblindness is the belief that race is a “divisive” issue among the 99%, so we should instead focus on problems that “everyone” shares. Left colorblindness claims to be inclusive, but it is actually just another way to keep whites’ interests at the forefront. As long as left colorblindness dominates our movement, there will be no 99%. The white democracy Biologically speaking, there’s no such thing as race.
An Interview with Computing Pioneer Alan Kay Born in 1940, computer scientist Alan Curtis Kay is one of a handful of visionaries most responsible for the concepts which have propelled personal computing forward over the past thirty years — and surely the most quotable one. He’s the man who said that “The best way to predict the future is to invent it” and that “Technology is anything that wasn’t around when you were born” and that “If you don’t fail at least 90 percent of the time, you’re not aiming high enough.” And when I first saw Microsoft’s Surface tablet last June, a Kay maxim helped me understand it: “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” Viewpoints Research Institute Above all, however, Kay is known for the Dynabook — his decades-old vision of a portable suite of hardware, software, programming tools and services which would add up to the ultimate creative environment for kids of all ages. –Harry McCracken Alan Kay A Dynabook, as depicted in Kay’s 1972 paper Courtesy Lonnie Mimms
Why Don’t I Criticize Israel? AUDIO TRANSCRIPT [Note: This is a verbatim transcript of a spoken podcast. However, I have added notes like this one to clarify controversial points.—SH] I was going to do a podcast on a series of questions, but I got so many questions on the same topic that I think I’m just going to do a single response here, and we’ll do the #AskMeAnything next time. The question I’ve now received in many forms goes something like this: Why is it that you never criticize Israel? Now, this is an incredibly boring and depressing question for a variety of reasons. So, when we’re talking about the consequences of irrational beliefs based on scripture, the Jews are the least of the least offenders. Of course, there are some who are. For those of you who worry that I never say anything critical about Israel: My position on Israel is somewhat paradoxical. I don’t think Israel should exist as a Jewish state. It is clear that Israel is losing the PR war and has been for years now.
Why I Am Not A Christian, by Bertrand Russell Introductory note: Russell delivered this lecture on March 6, 1927 to the National Secular Society, South London Branch, at Battersea Town Hall. Published in pamphlet form in that same year, the essay subsequently achieved new fame with Paul Edwards' edition of Russell's book, Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays ... (1957). As your Chairman has told you, the subject about which I am going to speak to you tonight is "Why I Am Not a Christian." Perhaps it would be as well, first of all, to try to make out what one means by the word Christian. It is used these days in a very loose sense by a great many people. What Is a Christian? Nowadays it is not quite that. But for the successful efforts of unbelievers in the past, I could not take so elastic a definition of Christianity as that. The Existence of God The First-cause Argument Perhaps the simplest and easiest to understand is the argument of the First Cause. The Natural-law Argument The Argument from Design The Moral Arguments for Deity