My local leading newspaper, pretty much fascist, writes that "George W. Bush is like king Lear, if he falls, he falls because of his own mistakes" and then John Kerry is described as "indecisive Hamlet". This kind of things happen when rightwing piece of sh*ts have gotten themself little education.
Oh yeah, certainly George W. Bush is like king Lear, who abdicated and divided his kingdom between his two elder daughters. He got angry with the youngest and left her landless and she married the king of France. Elder daughters behaved badly against the father, who went mad because of his sorrow. Youngest daughter invaded the country with her husband and in the ensuing fight all daughters perished. King Lear regained his sanity just before he died. Just like George W. Bush. (This may not be totally accurate description of the work of the overrated English playwright, William Shakespeare(1564-1616), as there´s been something like a dozen years since I read "King Lear" for the first and the last time.)
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Three articles about the Homo floresiensis from the british The Observer:
Strange world of island species
The Flores remains could have been lost to science
Big little man
Strange world of island species
The Flores remains could have been lost to science
Big little man
I just went and ordered Neal Stephenson´s entire acclaimed The Baroque Cycle trilogy, even if it´s stained by the sin of alternate history. There were huge differences between different bookshops, the highest price for the three of them wase 95€, the lowest one - from the bookshop chain from which I ordered them - was 59€. I also ordered Alastair Reynolds The Century Rain; even if his massive space operas seem sometimes like some slumbering giant animals of old, not getting anywhere fast, they got this atmosphere and style that I like of. His Chasm City was just translated and chopped in two parts(900 pages total, compared to the 528 pages of my english copy of the book), so that the publisher could get more money(both parts cost 18€, so 36€ total, I bought my english copy at something like 13€). This has become a bad habit for our publishers, Tad Williams Memory, Sorrow and Thorn -series was published as 12 books(each hardcover cost about 30€,) and in Robert Jordan´s The Wheel -series each book is chopped to form about three books...
Great apes face extinction.
After possibly killing - we had the motive, the ability to do the crimes and each time the evidence show that we were at the scene of the crime - our closest relatives in the primate family, our siblings, we are going for our cousins. And very succesfully.
That´s always troubled me in those Predator and Alien(s) -movies. The humans as the scared and hunted, running for their lives, when the evidence is that we have, even when we have had very primitive culture, brought extinction to wherever we have gone on this globe. Now a mass enxtinction is going on, and in the hominid family three, there´s about two dozen dead species and only one lives still and multiplies like monsters in some scifi horror movie. When it comes to the top predators in this galaxy, I think that we humans could be surprisingly near the top, if not at the top.
One could imagine that 50 000 years ago representatives of some galactic civilization would have visited Earth, found four human species living here, possibility of civilization open for all of them, and if they would now return, finding only one species remaining here, and a mass extinction ongoing, the culprit clear, well then we could face some interstellar justice...
After possibly killing - we had the motive, the ability to do the crimes and each time the evidence show that we were at the scene of the crime - our closest relatives in the primate family, our siblings, we are going for our cousins. And very succesfully.
That´s always troubled me in those Predator and Alien(s) -movies. The humans as the scared and hunted, running for their lives, when the evidence is that we have, even when we have had very primitive culture, brought extinction to wherever we have gone on this globe. Now a mass enxtinction is going on, and in the hominid family three, there´s about two dozen dead species and only one lives still and multiplies like monsters in some scifi horror movie. When it comes to the top predators in this galaxy, I think that we humans could be surprisingly near the top, if not at the top.
One could imagine that 50 000 years ago representatives of some galactic civilization would have visited Earth, found four human species living here, possibility of civilization open for all of them, and if they would now return, finding only one species remaining here, and a mass extinction ongoing, the culprit clear, well then we could face some interstellar justice...
Bin Laden, master of propaganda.
Quote:
The truth is that Osama bin Laden is very good at what he does. He is one of the great propagandists - up there with Himmler, Lenin, Napoleon and Louis XIV. He has an awesome understanding of the holy triumvirate of political communication: the power of the image, the message and the deed. And he understands how they work together.
Quote:
The truth is that Osama bin Laden is very good at what he does. He is one of the great propagandists - up there with Himmler, Lenin, Napoleon and Louis XIV. He has an awesome understanding of the holy triumvirate of political communication: the power of the image, the message and the deed. And he understands how they work together.
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Experts: Bin Laden Courts Backers in Tape.
Quote:
Analysts warn he's not a changed man, just changing with circumstances.
Seems that we´re speaking about American "analysts" here. "Oh no, he´s not a changed man, he´s just changing!"
"Adapting to circumstances" wouldn´t make it sound so... American.
Quote:
Analysts warn he's not a changed man, just changing with circumstances.
Seems that we´re speaking about American "analysts" here. "Oh no, he´s not a changed man, he´s just changing!"
"Adapting to circumstances" wouldn´t make it sound so... American.
Mideast Braces for Life After Arafat.
How the Palestinian icon's health crisis changes a region's political outlook.
These folks don´t seem to get it:Jasser Arafat´s staying in power is just an excuse for the support US government is giving for the destruction of peace negoatiations and the creation of a Greater Israel and dividing of West Bank between this Greater Israel and small bantustans.
If Jasser Arafat dies, another excuse will be invented. It´s not hard to imagine that Bush or Kerry will then claim that the other PLO leaders are also stained and that US is not ready to talk with them either and that US demands somebody totally fresh, who has never raised a hand in anger against Israel or not even said a nasty word against the Chosen People Number One.
Another possibility is that US will claim that as a preliminary to any negotiations future Palestinian leadership must accept the terms of Bush´s gif to Sharon:No right of return to the Palestinian refugees, no return to the pre-1967 borders, the Green line.
The thing is that US supports now unconditionally Israel, whatever the policy of it´s leaders, and like one commentator put it, "When a US president has promised something for Israel, no president of the US can deny it from Israel." And in this case, Bush has promised to Israel half of West Bank (but not the hand of one of his daughters, at least at the moment).
How the Palestinian icon's health crisis changes a region's political outlook.
These folks don´t seem to get it:Jasser Arafat´s staying in power is just an excuse for the support US government is giving for the destruction of peace negoatiations and the creation of a Greater Israel and dividing of West Bank between this Greater Israel and small bantustans.
If Jasser Arafat dies, another excuse will be invented. It´s not hard to imagine that Bush or Kerry will then claim that the other PLO leaders are also stained and that US is not ready to talk with them either and that US demands somebody totally fresh, who has never raised a hand in anger against Israel or not even said a nasty word against the Chosen People Number One.
Another possibility is that US will claim that as a preliminary to any negotiations future Palestinian leadership must accept the terms of Bush´s gif to Sharon:No right of return to the Palestinian refugees, no return to the pre-1967 borders, the Green line.
The thing is that US supports now unconditionally Israel, whatever the policy of it´s leaders, and like one commentator put it, "When a US president has promised something for Israel, no president of the US can deny it from Israel." And in this case, Bush has promised to Israel half of West Bank (but not the hand of one of his daughters, at least at the moment).
US graffiti on ancient Babylon's walls.
Hammurabi the law-giver was here. So were Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, Saddam Hussein and now, apparently, Sergeant Woods.
Hammurabi the law-giver was here. So were Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, Saddam Hussein and now, apparently, Sergeant Woods.
Controlled explosions threaten World Heritage site in Iraq
Quote:
Controlled explosions at an ammunition dump at Hatra, south of Mosul, are threatening to seriously damage an important ancient site that is on Unesco’s World Heritage list. Colonel Paul Woerner, the senior civil affairs officer in the US embassy in Baghdad responsible for Iraq’s northern cities, has been trying to control what he calls a “dismaying situation”.
Colonel Woerner described the task in an email to the University of Chicago’s Iraq crisis newslist: “The basic problem is exploding ordnance near the site, which is causing a deteriorating situation to the structure [of the ancient buildings]. A contractor is finishing off stockpiles of ordnance from an ammo dump left over from the former Iraqi Army. It is no easy task to relocate an ammo dump.”
Quote:
Controlled explosions at an ammunition dump at Hatra, south of Mosul, are threatening to seriously damage an important ancient site that is on Unesco’s World Heritage list. Colonel Paul Woerner, the senior civil affairs officer in the US embassy in Baghdad responsible for Iraq’s northern cities, has been trying to control what he calls a “dismaying situation”.
Colonel Woerner described the task in an email to the University of Chicago’s Iraq crisis newslist: “The basic problem is exploding ordnance near the site, which is causing a deteriorating situation to the structure [of the ancient buildings]. A contractor is finishing off stockpiles of ordnance from an ammo dump left over from the former Iraqi Army. It is no easy task to relocate an ammo dump.”
The second battle of Algiers.
Fifty years on, Israelis and Palestinians must learn from the Algerian war.
Fifty years on, Israelis and Palestinians must learn from the Algerian war.
Bin Laden's October surprise
Quotes:
Osama bin Laden did not put forward a detailed political programme - but he did outline his strategy. He is a not an irrational fanatic. ...he revealed himself to be a thoughtful operator as well as a dedicated fighter.
That´s the thing which seem to be hard to swallow to many people. They want to see bin Laden either as a raving madman or as a comical character. Pretty much like I want to see Bush. But the fact is that where Bush is a comical character - which doesn´t make him any less dangerous, like it wouldn´t make bin Laden either - Osama bin Laden isn´t. But anyone who knows something about the human history will know that you don´t have to be nutcase to kill huge numbers of human beings, for a greater cause. Osama bin Laden does it, Ariel Sharon does it, Saddam Hussein did it, and George W. Bush and Tony Blair do it. And John Kerry will do it if he gets elected.
Quotes:
Osama bin Laden did not put forward a detailed political programme - but he did outline his strategy. He is a not an irrational fanatic. ...he revealed himself to be a thoughtful operator as well as a dedicated fighter.
That´s the thing which seem to be hard to swallow to many people. They want to see bin Laden either as a raving madman or as a comical character. Pretty much like I want to see Bush. But the fact is that where Bush is a comical character - which doesn´t make him any less dangerous, like it wouldn´t make bin Laden either - Osama bin Laden isn´t. But anyone who knows something about the human history will know that you don´t have to be nutcase to kill huge numbers of human beings, for a greater cause. Osama bin Laden does it, Ariel Sharon does it, Saddam Hussein did it, and George W. Bush and Tony Blair do it. And John Kerry will do it if he gets elected.
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