George Carlin: The End

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Nine days before his death, George Carlin spoke to Psychology Today. Sadly, the two-hour interview would be his last.

George Carlin's Finale
On his modus operandi.

Do I try to make audiences think? No, that would be the kiss of death. But what I want them to know is that I'm thinking. It's part of that showoff and dropout syndrome. I need toshow them I've brought myself to a cleverer, smarter spot than theyhave. In doing so, I'm saying, "Can't you see this? Can't you see?"

On the joy of performing.

You get 2,500 people acting as a single organism. The audience is a single organism and it's you and it. To have that feeling of mastery up there —it's an assertion of power. "Here I am, I have the microphone, you came here for this express purpose." There's nothing like it.
Via GK


The 'other' Talibans

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Anand Gopal, Making Sense of the Taliban
Who exactly are the Afghan insurgents? Every suicide attack and kidnapping is usually attributed to "the Taliban." In reality, however, the insurgency is far from monolithic. There are the shadowy, kohl-eyed mullahs and head-bobbing religious students, of course, but there are also erudite university students, poor, illiterate farmers, and veteran anti-Soviet commanders.

The movement is a mélange of nationalists, Islamists, and bandits that fall uneasily into three or four main factions. The factions themselves are made up of competing commanders with differing ideologies and strategies, who nonetheless agree on one essential goal: kicking out the foreigners.
Anand Gopal's website: Global Dispatches


So that's where my pen went...

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Radiologists uncover and label a new teen affliction
Researchers evaluating a new technique for locating and removing objects accidentally embedded in the body say they may have uncovered a new form of self-mutilating behavior in which teenagers intentionally insert objects into their flesh.

Personnel at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, report extracting 52 foreign objects that 10 teenage girls deliberately embedded in their arms, hands, feet, ankles and necks over the last three years, including needles, staples, wood, stone, glass, pencil lead and a crayon.

One patient had inserted 11 objects, including an unfolded metal paper clip more than 6 inches long.

Bombs away!

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Cluster Bomb Treaty: Signing Begins to Bring Ban on Production
Governments from around the world today began signing an international convention banning the production of cluster bombs - unexploded canisters that have killed and maimed thousands of civilians and remain scattered dozen of countries.

At the Oslo signing ceremony, Norway, which has led the efforts to ban cluster munitions, was the first country to sign. It was followed by Laos - where cluster bombs dropped by US planes more than 30 years ago are still killing civilians, and Lebanon, another country affected by the weapons.

By the end of tomorrow, around 100 of the United Nations' 192 members will have signed up. Once 30 countries have ratified the convention, it will become part of international humanitarian law.

There will, however, be a number of notable absentees, including the US, China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Israel.

Same war different country

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The Cat's Blog: Obama's Grand Chessboard and the drums of war
US President Barack Obama is working to move the mighty American war-machine from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

To do that he needs an agreement with Iran about Iraq (and it would seem that agreement has already been found) and a propaganda campaign to convince the public opinion a) that the war in Iraq is over and the US will withdraw from the country and b) that Aghanistan and Pakistan are the centre of terror.

In this frame, let's see how the British liberal media presented to their readers two major events of these past days.
(Read on...)

'Jewish pain into zionist gain'

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Jewish Mumbai attack victim's family demand - no State involvement in son's funeral
The State has decided to recognize the Israelis murdered in the Mumbai terror attacks as victims of terrorism and pay for their funerals, but not all are happy with this decision. The family of slain Hasid Aryeh Leib Teitelbaum has informed the government that it would like the State not to intervene with his funeral.

According to a family member, "Holding a Zionist funeral for Teitelbaum, who was a Satmar Hasid, would desecrate the dead man's honor." The family demanded not to have a government representative at the funeral and that the casket, which will be flown into Israel today, would not be covered with the Israeli flag.

Via JsansF


Can you imagine?

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George Galloway calls for Woolies rescue
In my view, Woolworths ought to be on Business Secretary Lord Mandelson’s list of companies which the government should intervene to save, as a matter of urgency. It’s on sale for just a £1 and, although there would be additional costs to keep it as a going concern, the government could turn it into a people’s Woolies, employing local people, buying from local producers and ensuring it provided the services and goods local people on low incomes need. The alternative is to allow the vultures to pick it apart for their own profit.
I like George, I really do, but can you imagine Woolies run by some government department? It doesn't bear thinking about. I'd rather see the old girl slip away peacefully than go through the torture of public ownership.


Diego Garcia unpeopled

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John Pilger - The corruption that makes unpeople of an entire nation
As the official files show, the Chagos conspiracy and cover-up involved three prime ministers and 13 cabinet ministers, including those who approved “the plan”. But elite corruption is unspeakable in Britain. I know of no work of serious scholarship on this crime against humanity. The honourable exception is the work of the historian Mark Curtis, who describes the Chagossians as “unpeople”.

The reason for this silence is ideological. Courtier commentators and media historians obstruct our view of the recent past, ensuring, as Harold Pinter pointed out in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, that while the “systematic brutality, the widespread atrocities, the ruthless suppression of independent thought” in Stalinist Russia were well known in the west, the great state crimes of western governments “have only been superficially recorded, let alone documented”.
Via JsansF