Zionism and the US MSM

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Dissident Voice : Corporate American Media and Israel’s 2008-09 Gaza Invasion
The following piece is an excerpt from a talk Salaita gave at the School of Oriental and African Studies on December 7, 2009.

I’m starting on the assumption that we’re all aware of Israel’s brutality in the Gaza Strip and that we all find it unconscionable, as does the vast majority of the world. I assume as well that we’re aware of the brutality preceding and following Israel’s military assault nearly a year ago. I’d like to examine how corporate media in the United States presented coverage of Israel’s invasion, and how discourses of justification for Israel are built into the foundation of that coverage.

"On the 'moderate' wing"

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Wanabee Labour MP, Luke Akehurst, licks Blair's arse:
I know it's not politically fashionable to say so, but I still think it was the right thing to do for the UK's security and the safety of the public here. The problem with the preemptive removal of a future threat is that you can never prove what would have happened if you had not done it. But I am very glad we have not had to find out the hard way, and nor have nearer neighbouring countries, what Saddam could have done to us if left in power.
The only people who DID find out the hard way were the Iraqis, you horrible little carrot-topped cunt!

PS: The gas that Saddam is alleged to have used on the Kurds does NOT constitute a weapon of mass destruction. Nor do battlefield chemical weapons. And, of course, the western invaders of Iraq have managed 'mass destruction' perfectly well with good old fashioned conventional weapons.

PPS: This is the man who changed his mind about Afghanistan...after...wait for it...a NATO briefing. I almost fell off my chair.

Ban(d) Aid?

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Chris Blattman on why aid seems to fail
If aid saves the lives of millions of poor infants, or mothers in childbirth, at roughly the same rate a country can industrialize, then we’ll see an increase in the number of poor people at about the same rate that we increase GDP per person. Unless aid is also spurring faster industrial growth, the growth figures essentially won’t change. The things that aid does well–increasing primary education, saving lives, and leading to a demographic transition (essentially lower population growth–may reasonably take a generation or two to impact industry.
Interesting, if rather simplistic, analysis. It leaves out some rather important factors though,such as- war, despotism, corruption and general political ineptitude. Factors which have been well documented eg: here, here, here and here.  Although not everyone agrees.

Charge Milliband with contempt of court

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Judges acted 'irresponsibly' over Binyam Mohammed, says Foreign Office
David Miliband accused the two senior judges of irresponsibly ''charging in'' to a diplomatically sensitive area over what happened to former terror detainee Binyam Mohamed while held by the Americans in Pakistan.
This litle twerp (seriously touted by many on the left as a credible replacement to Gordon Brown as PM) should be hauled before the court and sent down for three months. Once again we see that the Blair/Brown policy of having our head shoved right up the arse of the USA is more important than discovering the truth about this country's complicity in torture. The concern of ths government is that the US might not share it's 'intelligence' with us. A good thing, if you ask me. Fuck the USA. Look where cooperation with America has got us now.

...fight!

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Copenhagen climate conference: ocean acidification could leave one billion hungry
More than one billion people could suffer food shortages because of ocean acidification unless climate change is tackled, Hilary Benn has warned.
Prepare for the tidal wave of 'ocean acidification' bores. But surely the ocean is going to be covered in a film of oil isn't it? That was the fashionable scare story a few years ago. Which is it then? Oil or acidification? There's only one way to find out...

Just shoot the scumbags

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Family man who fought off armed thugs after they took his family hostage is jailed

I've said it many times. If you are going to tackle a nasty armed intruder you've got to go the whole hog- and then bury the body somewhere. You do NOT hit him over the head and then call the police. Armed, masked men breaking into my house with the intention of robbing - or worse - and you think I'm going to worry about using "reasonable force" or try and work out, Belgrano style, whether they are actually running away and are no longer a threat? The intruder had FIFTY previous convictions. FIFTY! And that is just the number of convictions, not the total number of crimes committed which may have run into the hundreds. Why was this low-life even out on the streets?

Now, because these scumbags decided to break into a house, tie up the occupants and try and rob them, a decent, hard working, law-abiding citizen has been sent to prison for two and a half years because, according to the judge,  what he did might lead to a situation where the -  "rule of law and our system of criminal justice, which are the hallmarks of a civilised society, would collapse.' 

Is that the 'civilised' society where violent, armed, masked men with criminal records as long as your arm invade your home and try to rob you. Civilised? Stuff it!

Hey! Commission a report

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Theft inquiry launched as NHS seen as 'easy target'
The NHS has launched an investigation into thefts, amid reports criminals see the service as an "easy target". Among the items snatched have been ambulance satellite navigation systems, patients' belongings and hospital equipment and laptops.
An easy target? Tell me something I don't know. In fact, tell me something I didn't know 35 years ago.
The NHS Security Management Service believes the health service is vulnerable because large parts of its estate have to be open to the public. It wants to see if extra measures need to be put in place to improve security.
Mmmm, let me think about that, for a nanosecond... YES, you idiots, of course they do! Jeez.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

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Psychiatry's civil war
When doctors disagree with each other, they usually couch their
criticisms in careful, measured language. In the past few months,
however, open conflict has broken out among the upper echelons of US
psychiatry. The focus of discord is a volume called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM,
which psychiatrists turn to when diagnosing the distressed individuals
who turn up at their offices seeking help. Regularly referred to as the
profession's bible, the DSM is in the midst of a major rewrite, and feelings are running high...

The wording used in the DSM has a significance that goes far beyond questions of semantics. The diagnoses it enshrines affect what treatments people receive, and whether health insurers will fund them. They can also exacerbate social stigmas and may even be used to deem an individual such a grave danger to society that they are locked up.
Some of the most acrimonious arguments stem from worries about the pharmaceutical industry's influence over psychiatry. This has led to the spotlight being turned on the financial ties of those in charge of revising the manual, and has made any diagnostic changes that could expand the use of drugs especially controversial...