Catch-22 Explained, By Your Government

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Tuesday June 21, 2005 · 5:33 PM PDT

2005/06/21 · 17:33

Are you a student having trouble understanding what the concept called "Catch-22" means?

It's at the core of the novel "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller, which is today considered a classic and is widely assigned, in areas where it is not yet banned.

Your ever-helpful government is here with a demonstration of Catch-22 in action, and it's no farther away than your local library, in areas that still have them!

For the answer, read on!
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Fear and Decadence in Washington

dashbro

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Monday June 20, 2005 · 5:15 PM PDT

2005/06/20 · 17:15

No doubt the hip kos readership is aware of the latest example of press decadence in the Washington Post report of the Conyers Downing Street Minutes hearings, skewered by Rep. Conyers himself. If you missed it, the letter is reproduced in full in a report by the Nation's John Nichols:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2281&ncid=2281&e=3&u=/thenation/20050619/c m_thenation/13617

As someone who once reported in Washington, this disgusting story inspires some brief (very brief) thoughts of wider scope, about fear and decadence in Washington.
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Save Frontline and Public Broadcasting from the GOPer deathsquad

dashbro

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Thursday June 16, 2005 · 2:00 PM PDT

2005/06/16 · 14:00

The reactionary rabid right Republicans controlling the House appropriations subcommittee have voted to defund PBS and NPR. The counter-campaign has begun, with an ongoing petition at Move On (http://www.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/).

But while saving Sesame Street is a worthy goal and perhaps a broadly effective way to pitch this petition, there are other major reasons for making sure this latest brick isn't placed in the Orwellian wall of total media control. Like for instance, save Frontline. Save what remains of NPR. They are pretty much all we have left. Fight to get back control of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting before they destroy it.

And this year, the GOPer fanatics are counting on public apathy, because we've cried wolf on these subcommittee moves so many times before, and the cutbacks got cut back. But they didn't get eliminated and they didn't go away. The wolf took big bites out of public broadcasting every time, and this time they want to finish the kill.
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Bush, Disassembling and the Way the World Works

dashbro

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Monday June 06, 2005 · 4:47 PM PDT

2005/06/06 · 16:47

I was party to a conversation about whether Bush actually believes what he says when he insists charges that abuse is going on at Guantanamo are "absurd," or whether he is really disassembling.

I think it's yes and no: he thinks he doesn't believe it, but he knows it's true, because that's how the world works. It's a belief that links upper class guys like him to working class guys like the saps who voted for him.

The upper class gets it as part of their birthright. It reminded me specifically of a story that Buckminster Fuller told Hugh Kenner.
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Brit Industry Ready to Deal with Climate Crisis

dashbro

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Friday May 27, 2005 · 4:34 PM PDT

2005/05/27 · 16:34

The dinosaurs of American politics and business, hopelessly addicted to fossil fuel money, may soon be extinct. British industry is waking up to a major reality of the future: the climate crisis.

A report by Roger Harrabin for the BBC:

A group of Britain's leading industrialists has written to the prime minister urgently demanding long-term policies to combat climate change.

The heads of the 12 leading firms say climate change is a huge challenge that needs serious investment by business. But they say they cannot invest because they are not sure what future government policies on climate will be.

The letter is signed off by the heads of BP, Shell, HSBC Bank, BAA, John Lewis, Scottish Power and more.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4585229.stm

But that's not even the most important part of the letter.
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The Politics of "Sith": Birth of an Empire

dashbro

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Tuesday May 24, 2005 · 3:04 PM PDT

2005/05/24 · 15:04

The political dimensions of "Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith," currently still breaking box office records, seemed to take many people by surprise.

However, if anyone had paid attention to what Lucas had been saying for several years now, the theme of this film and the prequel trilogy it completes is meant to be "...how a democratic society turns into a dictatorship, and how a good person turns into a bad person."

A pop culture phenomenon like "Star Wars" has an inevitable relationship to other cultural currents in the society of its time. This has been especially true of the Lucas films, since the story within their space opera adventure is partly political: the rise and fall of an Empire.
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Your Death Sentences-A Sunday Book Review

dashbro

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Sunday May 22, 2005 · 4:31 PM PDT

2005/05/22 · 16:31

"Words can be like notes, like expressions of the soul," Don Watson writes in his new book, DEATH SENTENCES: How Cliches, Weasel Words, and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language (Gotham Books, 208 pages, $20.)

"They can make our hair stand up, they can lift our understanding to a higher plane, make us see things differently. They can inspire love and hope. You can see it happen before your eyes. Words can create a magic halo."

Well, maybe. But before closure can be achieved on such product, robust parameters of total quality and competitive international best practices are key self-management and self-marketing requirements, in order to leverage vibrant pre-empowering emotional communication nodes and re-purpose functional deployment as a strategic initiative committed to an enhanced content provider environment. A personal mission statement sometimes helps.
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The Real Star Wars: U.S. Threatens Earth

dashbro

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Friday May 20, 2005 · 8:22 PM PDT

2005/05/20 · 20:22

"Space superiority is not our birthright, but it is our destiny," proclaimed General Lord. "Space superiority is our day-to-day mission. Space supremacy is our vision for the future."

No, it's not more stilted dialogue delivered by a dark figure with an unbelievable name in the new Star Wars movie. It's a straight-faced statement of purpose by the leader of the U.S. Air Force Space Command.

"We must establish and maintain space superiority," General Lance Lord told the U.S. Congress. "Simply put, it's the American way of fighting."

Moreover, as the New York Times reported, billions of dollars has already been spent on space warfare, with little public knowledge or debate. And without public outcry, it will soon become official U.S. policy. Read More

Why Iran? Your Week in Nuclear Nightmare

dashbro

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Saturday May 14, 2005 · 4:06 PM PDT

2005/05/14 · 16:06

While Bush pranced around Europe celebrating the good old pre-nuclear war war days, with his rhetoric conveniently ignoring the reality of both actual and potential nuclear weapons and what they do to all the political equations, the Non-Proliferation Treaty conference in New York plodded on, still without even an agenda in its second week.

But while the Bush celebrated the decisive U.S. efforts in securing victory in World War II by working with allies, the Bush administration was widely seen as the greatest barrier to solving problems that could lead to this generation's experience of backyard devastation. Read More

The Outrageous Skies

dashbro

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Wednesday May 11, 2005 · 10:51 PM PDT

2005/05/11 · 22:51

It's bad enough that United Airlines asked to be relieved of its pension obligations to its employees, especially after years of convincing many to take early retirement in order to preserve their pensions, and asking, or demanding, other concessions that translated into hardships for workers, while management maybe had to leave St. Bart's a day early.

But what's worse is that a Bankruptcy Court in Chicago granted their request. What this means in terms of money is still unclear---technically it's a transfer to a government agency, but it's likely the benefits will be cut, though so far no one is saying by how much.

Here are some details:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/11/BUG9NCN5QO1.DTL

Apart from the rank injustice to the rank and file, those of us who depend on United, not as a matter of choice but of monopoly or damn close to it, are not looking forward to the next flight on the "friendly skies." What motivation do these folks have now? Read More

The Nuclear Madness Update

dashbro

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Thursday May 05, 2005 · 1:28 AM PDT

2005/05/05 · 01:28

While the U.S. media ignores the non-proliferation conference in New York, many outside the U.S. and some in are castigating the Bush administration for threatening world peace and stability with their intransigence and bungling.

On Tuesday, the second day of the four week nuclear non- proliferation treaty conference in New York, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi spoke. U.S. media uniformly headlined the speech as Iran announcing it would resume nuclear related activities it suspended while in talks with European nations, asserting it had an "inalienable right" to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes.

Non-U.S. media, especially in the Third World, were more likely to report Kharrazi's strong condemnation of Washington for maintaining a huge nuclear arsenal, and demanding that the U.S. assure Iran it would not launch a nuclear strike on that country. Read More

Nuke This (The Real Nuclear Option)

dashbro

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Monday May 02, 2005 · 7:10 PM PDT

2005/05/02 · 19:10

Regarding the crucial problems of nuclear proliferation and nuclear weapons arsenals, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in his speech opening the international conference on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in New York today, "I challenge you to agree that they are all too important to be held hostage to the politics of the past."

But it is more likely that progress on ridding the world of nuclear threats is held hostage to the politics of the present.

In the midst of partisan wrangling in Congress over something called "the nuclear option," many Americans who follow politics may be surprised to learn that the real nuclear option is being discussed by representatives of 188 nations in New York City, beginning today.

The ultimate weapon has slipped from consciousness. Its immense and long-lasting destructiveness, killing and maiming for generations, doesn't seem to scare us anymore. It's just a macho name for a political maneuver.

That couldn't be better for the Bush administration and their perverse agenda. Read More

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