About Parrots and Show Ponies

Rebel Newsflash: About Parrots and Show Ponies (plus 28 more items)

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• About Parrots and Show Ponies
• Leadership and the Vital Order: Selected Aphorisms by Hans Prinzhorn, Ph.D., M.D.
• A tale of two women: Helen Thomas and Elena Kagan
• "Mongrel": Historically, and from Obama's Mouth
• Out of Sight, Out of Mind (Even when it's not out of sight)
• Eight Palestinian youths and the crime they didn't commit
• The Fuss Over Birthright Citizenship Isn't Going Away
• Panda-Hugger Hangover
• Can the First Lady Take the Secret Service Wherever She Wants?
• Resetting Georgia
• Monday: 6 Iraqis Killed, 26 Wounded
• "Scientific Cold Blooded Killers"
• This Week at War: Uncle Sam Wants You … Whoever You Are
• Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity: Israel may attack Iran in August
• Going organic: The siege on Gaza
• Jewish students learn art of destruction from their elders
• Political Prisoners in America
• Norman Finkelstein: It Wasn't a War
• Lancing the Boil
• The Valley of the Shadow of WikiLeaks
• The Information War
• Try Assange Under the Espionage Act
• Sunday: 40 Iraqis, 1 US Soldier Killed; 109 Iraqis Wounded
• Zardari's Katrina
• September 11: planes that hit WTC were not Boeing 767s
• Saturday: 66 Iraqis Killed, 237 Wounded
• Medvedev is No Liberal
• The Geopolitics of Google Earth
• Want to Fix Immigration? Give Noncitizens the Vote

About Parrots and Show Ponies Posted: 11 Aug 2010 06:59 AM PDT The latest Rebel News editorial Human Stupidity: The Biggest Conspiracy Of Them All shortly touched on the question whether it was stupidity or greed which contributed more to human suffering. This author made the point that greed could do no way near as much harm if it wasn't for human stupidity. To a large extent that stupidity is not inborn. We have been conditioned to act that way.

Leadership and the Vital Order: Selected Aphorisms by Hans Prinzhorn, Ph.D., M.D. Posted: 09 Aug 2010 04:08 PM PDT The enduring fame of German psychotherapist Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933) is based almost entirely upon one book, Bildnerei der Geisteskranken (Artistry of the mentally ill), that brilliant and quite unprecedented monograph on the artistic productions of the mentally ill, which appeared in 1922. Sadly, it is too often forgotten that Hans Prinzhorn was the most brilliant and independent disciple of Germany's greatest 20th-Century philosopher, Ludwig Klages (1872-1956).

A tale of two women: Helen Thomas and Elena Kagan Posted: 09 Aug 2010 02:13 PM PDT This is the story of two women. One told the truth and her life was destroyed. The other one lied and was rewarded with the highest honor of her so-called profession. For an astonishing 67 years, Helen Thomas set the standard for consistency and honesty among journalists covering the White House, so much so that after many years she was always given the privilege of asking the first question at all presidential press conferences. Regard for her work was so high that a plaque with her name on it was attached the front row seat she always occupied.

"Mongrel": Historically, and from Obama's Mouth Posted: 09 Aug 2010 12:46 PM PDT I did not learn of President Obama's reference to Black people as "mongrels" on ABC's "The View" until two days after the fact, and could not initially believe it had happened. Surely, such an occurrence should have provoked a scream heard in every corner of Black America. Yet, it did happen, last Thursday, and there was no general outcry. The crime unfolded casually. Asked about his racial background, the president replied, "We," meaning African Americans, "are sort of a mongrel people."

Out of Sight, Out of Mind (Even when it's not out of sight) Posted: 09 Aug 2010 12:36 PM PDT Since BP announced that CEO Tony Hayward would receive a multi-million dollar golden parachute and be replaced by Bob Dudley, we have witnessed an incredibly broad, and powerful, propaganda campaign. A campaign that peaked this week with the US government, clearly acting in BP's best interests, itself announcing, via outlets willing to allow themselves to be used to transfer the propaganda, like the New York Times, this message: "The government is expected to announce on Wednesday that three-quarters of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak has already evaporated, dispersed, been captured or otherwise eliminated — and that much of the rest is so diluted that it does not seem to pose much additional risk of harm."

Eight Palestinian youths and the crime they didn't commit Posted: 09 Aug 2010 10:17 AM PDT Eight Palestinian teenagers were tried in the court of military judge Lt. Col. Menashe Vahnish on November 11, 2008. Referring to a soldier from the Kfir Brigade, Vahnish said, "at this stage, there is no reason to cast any doubt on the witness." According to his police testimony, on October 30, 2008 the soldier, T.M., and some of his comrades apprehended stone-throwing Palestinian 16-year-olds on a road that runs between the al-Aroub refugee camp south of Bethlehem and an agricultural school across the way. Vahnish also saw no reason to doubt the accounts given by two other soldiers from the Kfir Brigade company, L.G. and G.D., whose statements to the Etzion police formed the basis of indictments submitted by the army prosecutor against the Palestinians. Under the indictment, the eight teenagers hurled rocks "from a distance of about 20 meters at Israeli cars traveling on Route 60, with the intention of harming the vehicles or their passengers."

The Fuss Over Birthright Citizenship Isn't Going Away Posted: 09 Aug 2010 08:50 AM PDT Hours after a federal judge blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona's hard-line immigration law on July 28, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham had an idea. That evening, Graham, a South Carolina Republican, announced that he was thinking of introducing a bill to change the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to the children of immigrants born in the United States.

Panda-Hugger Hangover Posted: 09 Aug 2010 07:50 AM PDT It's a showdown at the South China Sea Corral -- or so you might think if you've been listening to China's state-run news media. On July 23, speaking at an ASEAN regional forum in Hanoi, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that her government "supports a collaborative diplomatic process for resolving the various disputes" over the South China Sea. She also made a point of noting that the U.S. would be happy to offer its services as a mediator and that Washington opposes "the use or threat of force by any claimant."

Can the First Lady Take the Secret Service Wherever She Wants? Posted: 09 Aug 2010 07:47 AM PDT First lady Michelle Obama has generated some controversy for taking a four-day trip to Spain with her daughter Sasha and several friends. While the White House says Obama paid for her own plane trip and hotel room, the security costs, which included accommodation for dozens of Secret Service agents and an Air Force jet to carry the entire entourage, likely ran into the hundreds of thousands. Given the enormous expense of what was, in effect, a weekend getaway, could the Secret Service have said no to the first lady's trip?

Resetting Georgia Posted: 09 Aug 2010 07:36 AM PDT TBILISI — Young couples sip wine in sidewalk cafes and children play in fountains, seeking relief from the searing heat. Elsewhere, elderly men play chess on park benches and traders hawk their wares from makeshift kiosks. It's another summer in Georgia's scruffy, chaotic, but charming capital. But there's one change this season: For the first time in years, there are no rumors of war.

Monday: 6 Iraqis Killed, 26 Wounded Posted: 09 Aug 2010 05:09 AM PDT After a bloody couple of days, violence subsided somewhat, but at least six Iraqis were killed and 26 were wounded in the latest attacks. Ramadan will likely begin for Sunnis tomorrow night and on Wednesday night for Shi'ite Muslims, depending on the sighting of the moon. The holiday should prompt tightening of security across the country. In Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed three people and wounded 10 others at a police station in the Ghazaliya neighborhood. The bombing appears to have been another in a series of attacks against traffic police. Interior Minister Jawad al-Boulani has promised to capture those behind the attacks. In the meantime, arms were issued to some policemen.

"Scientific Cold Blooded Killers" Posted: 09 Aug 2010 03:33 AM PDT Short little rant about the scientific cold blooded killers.

This Week at War: Uncle Sam Wants You … Whoever You Are Posted: 09 Aug 2010 02:34 AM PDT Writing in Small Wars Journal, Gregory Conti and Jen Easterly, both U.S. Army lieutenant colonels, discussed the problems the military faces recruiting "cyber warriors" into the newly created Cyber Command, which aims to "conduct full-spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to ... ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries."

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity: Israel may attack Iran in August Posted: 09 Aug 2010 01:20 AM PDT MEMORANDUM FOR: The President FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

Going organic: The siege on Gaza Posted: 08 Aug 2010 11:22 PM PDT In February 2006, following Hamas' electoral victory, a top advisor to Ehud Olmert, the then Israeli prime minister, Dov Weisglass, described the essence of Israel's Gaza policy. "It's like a meeting with a dietitian," Weisglass said. "We need to make the Palestinians lose weight, but not to starve to death."

Jewish students learn art of destruction from their elders Posted: 08 Aug 2010 10:24 PM PDT Whether you are interested in Middle East affairs or find the subject totally irrelevant to your day to day life, you need to recognise, that Jewish juvenile behaviour is the same the world over for the sole reason that they have been indoctrinated for millenia with the warped Jewish values of their elders.

Political Prisoners in America Posted: 08 Aug 2010 09:58 PM PDT Noted journalist HL Menchen described "The most dangerous man to any government (as someone) who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable," yet resisting, he faces recrimination - political imprisonment for his beliefs and activism, officials tolerating no opposition to their authority, no matter how extreme or lawless.

Norman Finkelstein: It Wasn't a War Posted: 08 Aug 2010 06:36 PM PDT The career of radical political scholar Norman Finkelstein might be described as a sort of heroic painting-into-a-corner. The son of Holocaust survivors, his life's work has been dedicated to exposing the hypocrisy, ideology, and violence that sustains the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The dimensions of his emphatic anti-Zionism, expounded over the course of six meticulously researched and often polemical books on Israel, Palestine, and the legacy of the Holocaust, have made him a pariah in the mainstream and a hero amongst supporters of Palestinian liberation.

Lancing the Boil Posted: 08 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT We are living in a liminal time, that is to say we live on the threshold. So much that we have taken for granted is passing. In times like this we must be careful to keep our bearings, lest we come to love the chaos that passes for reality.

The Valley of the Shadow of WikiLeaks Posted: 08 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT Leave it to the U.S. Department of "Defense" to continue fighting a war it's already irretrievably lost. On Friday, the Pentagon "asked" online whistleblowing facilitator WikiLeaks to "do the right thing" by erasing all classified U.S. government documents from its servers and handing over any copies. I put the "asked" in scare quotes because although that's how CNN headlined it, the actual story used the far more accurate "demanded."

The Information War Posted: 08 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT It's almost funny – if your sense of humor runs to the dark side – to watch the Washington power elite go bonkers over the WikiLeaks revelations. We have Pentagon officials stamping their feet and demanding that WikiLeaks "return" the "stolen" documents it has posted online, and refrain from posting any more – as if this material, having gone viral worldwide, could possibly be reclaimed and made inaccessible. Here's Marc Thiessen – neocon flack and advocate of torture – calling for WikiLeaks' Julian Assange to be kidnapped, detained, and presumably waterboarded. And it's not just the neocons: Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein have drafted a special amendment to legislation protecting journalistic sources specifically designed to exclude WikiLeaks.

Try Assange Under the Espionage Act Posted: 08 Aug 2010 06:00 PM PDT The outrage over the WikiLeaks release of 90,000 classified operational reports from Afghanistan is slowly congealing into calls for action. Adm. Mike Mullen and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates charged that the leaker and publisher "have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family." Former CIA Director Michael Hayden asserted that "this is the kind of stuff that gets people killed," while Jane Harman, the subcommittee chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said leaked classified information is not an "acceptable" contribution to the debate about U.S. policy in Afghanistan. Julian Assange claimed the U.S. Department of Justice considered charging him as "a co-conspirator for espionage."

Sunday: 40 Iraqis, 1 US Soldier Killed; 109 Iraqis Wounded Posted: 08 Aug 2010 08:39 AM PDT Although Anbar province took the brunt of today's attacks, Baghdad and Mosul also saw a surge in violence. At least 40 Iraqis were killed and 109 more were wounded in those and a few other attacks. An American soldier died of unknown causes in Babel province as well. Meanwhile, the death toll in yesterday's massive triple bombing in Basra rose to 43 dead; about 185 others were wounded. The son of former Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz says his father's health is deteriorating quickly and calls for his release from prison on humanitarian grounds. Aziz was handed over to the Iraqis last month but continues to proclaim his innocence. As a close associate of Saddam, he was found guilty of conducting execution and displacing Kurds.

Zardari's Katrina Posted: 08 Aug 2010 07:43 AM PDT This week, Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, boarded a private Gulfstream Jet along with his family and his hundreds-large entourage to visit the European countries included on the president's grand tour. Yesterday, Zardari -- who was married to my aunt, the late Benazir Bhutto, before her 2007 murder -- landed in London. As soon as the plane touched down, the president and his Very Important coterie were chauffeured in a dozen luxury vehicles to a five-star hotel where the president will be staying in a £7,000 ($11,160) per night Royal Suite.

September 11: planes that hit WTC were not Boeing 767s Posted: 07 Aug 2010 12:23 PM PDT The official report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) relating to the two planes that crashed into WTC on September 11, 2001 shows that they were traveling at a speed of 945 km/h and 796 km/h respectively. Pilots for 9/11 Truth , an international organization of pilots and aviation professionals, has pointed out that, according to the manufacturer, the Boeing 767 develops structural failure and dismembers at a speed surpassing 660 km/h when flying at near sea level in thick air . This has also been certified by a former senior NASA executive, Dwain Deets.

Saturday: 66 Iraqis Killed, 237 Wounded Posted: 07 Aug 2010 05:58 AM PDT Explosions of an unknown source left casualties in Basra where police were already expecting large demonstrations. At least 66 Iraqis were killed and 237 more were wounded there and elsewhere. Meanwhile, U.S. forces have officially handed over control of combat operations to their Iraqi counterparts. Also, British special forces are under investigation prisoner abuse.

Medvedev is No Liberal Posted: 06 Aug 2010 10:33 AM PDT When your country, simmering for days in record-breaking heat, suddenly bursts into flame in 831 places, destroying half a million acres of land, killing 52 people, blanketing your capital in toxic smoke, and threatening to release old Chernobyl radiation into the atmosphere, someone has to take charge. If you're the Russian president, however, you will not be that person. You will sit in your office while your prime minister, his sleeves rolled up the way men of action tend to roll them up when they mean business, goes and tours the devastation, talks to grieving villagers, and shows the country that, hey, he's on it.

The Geopolitics of Google Earth Posted: 06 Aug 2010 09:18 AM PDT It's way beyond  crop circles, blood-red lakes in Iraq, and half-hidden UFOs. Officials from Greece to New York to Switzerland are using the free satellite images to find tax cheats with undeclared swimming pools and illegal pot plantations. Armchair cartographers are also getting in on the game, uncovering -- and creating -- political minefields.

Want to Fix Immigration? Give Noncitizens the Vote Posted: 06 Aug 2010 07:09 AM PDT Arizona isn't the only place where politicians with harsh approaches to immigration issues seem to find fans. Witness the June national elections in the Netherlands, where Geert Wilders, a politician who has compared the Quran to Mein Kampf and called for a tax on Muslim headscarves, made an impressive showing. It's still possible he might end up exerting significant influence in the next Dutch coalition government.

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