Author Archives: Lila

Solzhenitsyn on the censorship of fashion…

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“Without any censorship, in the West fashionable trends of thought and ideas are carefully separated from those which are not fashionable; nothing is forbidden, but what is not fashionable will hardly ever find its way into periodicals or books or be heard in colleges. Legally your researchers are free, but they are conditioned by the fashion of the day. There is no open violence such as in the East; however, a selection dictated by fashion and the need to match mass standards frequently prevent independent-minded people giving their contribution to public life. There is a dangerous tendency to flock together and shut off successful development. I have received letters in America from highly intelligent persons, maybe a teacher in a faraway small college who could do much for the renewal and salvation of his country, but his country cannot hear him because the media are not interested in him. This gives birth to strong mass prejudices, to blindness, which is most dangerous in our dynamic era. There is, for instance, a self-deluding interpretation of the contemporary world situation. It works as a sort of a petrified armor around people’s minds. Human voices from 17 countries of Eastern Europe and Eastern Asia cannot pierce it. It will only be broken by the pitiless crowbar of events….”

More from Solzhenitsyn’s commencement speech at Harvard in June 1978.

John le Carre on domestic fowl…

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Ashe, the homosexual communist agent, approaching Alex Leamas, the ex- British intelligence officer, who is sitting on a bench:

“Do you like birds? The ones with the white collars are wild. The others are domesticated. With people it’s the other way around.”

The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, John le Carre (1965)

Horowitz Awareness Week at Columbia…

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“Why, then, are we at war with Iraq? Because we’ve always been at war with Iraq. The Gulf War, he says, ended with a treaty. Part of the treaty involved Saddam not gassing Kurds any more, and the other part of the treaty involved Saddam allowing weapons inspectors into Iraq to search for weapons. Saddam violated both parts of this treaty and thus asked us to attack him. So that’s the reason, then. Nothing about yellowcake uranium or cooperation with al-Qaeda or anything else.

Now that we “know our enemy” and have a justification for fighting him, what would happen if we left Iraq? Hundreds of thousands of moderate Muslims would die. You know, “everyone who voted in the election that George Bush made possible”? Yeah, them. All dead. Iran would become the “major power” in Iraq and would invade all of its neighbors for “not being Muslim enough.” That having been done, Ahmadinejad would “wipe America off the map” just like he said in his Colu… wait. I seem to remember having watched that speech in person, but what I don’t remember is Ahmadinejad saying that he wants to wipe America off the map. Or Israel, for that matter. But Horowitz said he “watched the speech” and heard Ahmadinejad threaten to kill us all (“because if they detonate a dirty bomb in New York, it won’t distinguish between liberal and conservative”), so maybe my memory is failing. “That’s a gun to your head,” he kept reminding us. I suppose that questions about the morality of Osama’s guns versus Bush’s guns are better left to philosophers.”
More by A.C. Bowen at Lew Rockwell.

Mobs: Reader Response –

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Hi,

I requested your book as a Fathers day present (now that is that tragic or what). I’m now half way through on the second reading, I’ll need a third as my lips keep moving as I’m reading. I’ll re-iterate what your review by Marc Faber stated, “If you only ever want to read one finance book, make this the one”.

I’ve found it to be a highly entertaining and exceptionally well researched series of top yarns. Brilliant.

Best Regards,
IJ
IFE, Connectivity & Cabin Electronics.
Qantas Supply Chain, SDC/1

Thanks very much to IJ! Just what an author likes to hear.

I noticed some patterns in our reader responses and drew the following conclusions:

1. The anything-goes-free traders (that is, the people who confuse freedom with license) criticize us for deviating from the party line. The party line is that all so-called free trade is always wonderful and really is free (which it isn’t – it’s mostly managed).

2. The traditionalist/conservative, pro-war crowd hates our Bush/Iraq War-bashing (especially what they think is mine, but is mostly Bill’s, but how dare I, a brown foreigner, and female to boot, be part of it). But it likes (sneakingly) the part about the financialization of the US economy, because it sounds nativist, or at least, protectionist (which it isn’t).

3. The liberal-to-left crowd likes the book generally, until it comes to the gold-bug part – which it thinks is pure la-la land. When it comes to the individualist pro-capitalist part, it thinks it’s pure drivel.

4. Everyone likes the Friedman bashing, and is happy to admit it.. Everyone likes the Greenspan bashing, but is afraid to admit it.
5. The right thinks you should bash Mao and communism and avoid bringing up the American empire. The left thinks exactly the opposite.

Westerners, left or right, don’t really want any British empire-bashing, unless they are Irish or German. Easterners can’t have enough of it, but want to stir in Christianity and Caucasians into the mix.

6. The only evil empires are other people’s.

7. The left likes the most- CEOs- are-not-worth-their salaries angle and the let-them-eat-cake stories about hedge fund managers. But it hates any criticism of the unwashed (and washed) masses.

8. You can criticize Malcolm Gladwell. You can’t touch James Surowiecki.

9. Ron Paul is not crazy. Even the New York Times says so, but that doesn’t mean anyone should let him win.

10. If you use literate language, you are pompous. A big word in Bush-land is anything involving more than two syllables. French phrases should be translated into English. Latin phrases should be translated into English. English phrases should be translated into American.

Mazin Qumsiyeh on the New Crusade…

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“My visit to England reminded me of the role of English royalty and elites in pushing for a conflict starting with the leadership of the first Crusade and on to the Sykes-Picot agreement (1916, dividing Western Asia into British and French interests) the Balfour Declaration (1917 promising a homeland for Jews to get support for the war effort) to the first British occupation of Iraq and Palestine (1919-1920 and beyond) and to the latest British occupation (with the US) of Iraq and its support of the continued occupation and colonization of Palestine (so far 7 of the 10 million Palestinians were made refugees or displaced people).

But on the other hand, now as then many individual citizens and groups were doing such a fantastic job for human rights and justice. Believing indeed that silence is complicity these groups are making a huge difference (e.g. at the University of London and this excellent group that does twinning with Palestine: http://www.twinningwithpalestine.net/ )

The intensified media and educational campaign to vilify Muslims and Islam reached a new low with the David Horowitz blitzkrieg on campuses to promote Islamophobia and titled “Islamofascist awareness week.” Imagine the outrage if we had a Christofascist or Judeofascist awareness weeks on campuses!!. A good summary of this campaign is found on the Black Agenda Report

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=404&Itemid=36

(My own guess is that this will help further awaken the sleeping giant, which is the Arab and Islamic world) The intensified efforts and plans to attack Iran (thinking of it as a supposed preempting of a potential/supposed liberator of the Holy Land). On this front, the attack on Iran is playing a significant factor in choice of president: de jure by the US public but de facto by the Israel lobby. In fact, Israel has the Chutzpa to even rate them on their allegiance: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerPage.jhtml

Giuliani and Clinton are top in subsuming US interests to serve Israeli interests. And here is the Israel positions of these presidential candidates taken from the Zionist think tank “Council of foreign Relations: which claims the conflict goes thousands of years: http://www.cfr.org/publication/13579/

There is now a malicious campaign of vilification and attacks on any one who dares discuss Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights. It was interesting to note the hysterical reactions of Zionist establishment to publications of books like Paul Findley’s “They Dare to Speak Out”, Jimmy Carter’s “Palestine: Peace not apartheid” and Profs. Mearsheimer and Walt “The Israel Lobby: influence on US Foreign Policy.” It is interesting to note that at every talk I give, the requisite quorum of at least three Zionists show up (a bad cop, good cop, and a supposed psychological commentator). This weekend, they are going full force against the Sabeel Conference (Sabeel is a Palestinian Christian liberation theology group with friends around the world). See Friends of Sabeel Website at http://fosna.org and the article promoting the racist demonstration at http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/this_weeks_issue/news/?content_id=3885 In all cases and failing to really address the substance, the attackers resort/ed to name calling the most common of which that was used over the years to silence people are calling them “anti-semite” and/or “self-hating Jews”. For apologists of an apartheid regime to claim victimization is not unusual (white rulers in Apartheid South Africa and their elite supporters in the West for decades claimed victimhood of ANC Terrorism and being trapped on the tip of a black and backward continent. The white rulers literally looked at themselves as a beacon of democracy in the barbarity of those who burn people alive (called neck lacing).

Today it seems unusual to speak about blacks in Africa in denigrating terms (although it is still done in the elite think tanks of Washington and behind the scenes in academic and other elite circles). The attack on Arabs and Muslims is now full fledged and is out in the open. The list is long from the PATRIOT act to warrantless surveillance, to profiling, to verbal abuse, to denial of the right to speak, to denial of employment and promotion, to Guantanamou and Abu Ghrieb, to “rendering” and secret CIA prisons, and on and on. One looks to history to understand the period we are in. The closest I could come-up with is the eleventh century when the Crusades were the norm. For the first 100 years of the crusader onslaught, the Arab and Muslim masses were divided and leaderless. The Crusaders were pragmatic and even established treaties and trades. Then they got greedy and expanded and broke treaties (see Karen Armstrong’s book “Holy War”) and aroused anger and aroused the sleeping giant of Islam.

We see the signs of a similar thing today (as posted above). Here is one more: “Extremist Jews Burn a Church in a Jerusalem” http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/916567.html

(Of course hundreds of religious sites were destroyed by Israel when they depopulated 530 Palestinian Towns and Villages between 1947-1950 and later in 1967 and beyond) Bizarre news: Israel to purchase Chinese fighter jets that have US technology (the article claims Israel technology when everyone knows that the Israeli Lavi was based on US F-16 technologies and that is the reason it was canceled but Israel profited handsomely). http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380641058&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

One good news, in a win for freedom of expression (and against Zionist attempted censorship) the University of Michigan Press will continue the distribution agreement with Pluto Press (the publisher of my book Sharing the Land of Canaan). And in a vuisually impressive action: Condoleeza Rice was confronted by Code Pink activist Desiree Firoos calling her a war criminal (in the opening of the hearings in Congress presided over by AIPAC stooge Tom Lantos, Lantos was visibly shaken).: see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9GytISiHzw

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” — Wendell Phillips

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD http://qumsiyeh.org

Subroto Roy: India should be neutral between the West and the Islamic world

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“Neutrality:

India should be a friendly neutral in the conflict between the West and Muslim world, doing whatever we can to bring better understanding between the two sides. Both have been invaders in Indian history, bringing both evil and good in their wake. India’s culture absorbed and assimilated their influences and became more resilient as a consequence. India also was a haven for Jews and Zoroastrians fleeing persecution. India as a country must condemn fanatical terrorist attacks on the West and bizarre reactionary attempts to return to a caliphate in the world of modern science.

Equally, India must condemn vicious racist bombing and warfare unleashed by technologically advanced countries upon ancient societies and cultures struggling to enter the modern world in their own way.

As for the central issue of Israel in Palestine, Martin Buber (1878-1965), the eminent Zionist scholar and philosopher of Judaism, wrote to Rabindranath Tagore in 1926 that the Jewish purpose should be
one of “pursuing the settlement effort in Palestine in agreement, nay, alliance with the peoples of the East, so as to erect with them together a great federative structure, which might learn and receive
from the West whatever positive aims and means might be learnt and received from it, without, however, succumbing to the influence of its
inner disarray and aimlessness.

” If India could guide the region towards such a “great federative structure” of reason and tranquillity, while encouraging democracy in China and Pakistan, theaim of our “natural alliance” with the United States half way acrossthe globe would have been fulfilled.”

Ron Paul Revolution – The Christian Right and Ron….

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“In contrast to the presently leading candidates, Ron has had one and the same wife for some 50 years. When the Christian right discovers him, he’ll get a big boost. They agree on guns, abortion and immigration (on the latter two I happen to disagree with Ron). The mainstream media try to paint Ron as a Libertarian, not a Republican. Nonsense; he is both. Of course, he is a libertarian, but he is ALSO a Republican; a Taft Republican. Happily, one of the early elections will take place in New Hampshire, chock full of Free State Project libertarians.

Further, and TERRIBLY important, Ron is the ONLY Republican who can beat Hillary. He’ll “steal” many antiwar democrats from her. As a doctor, he’ll kick her butt on socialized medicine. The reason Ron is now so low in the polls is that most people simply haven’t yet HEARD of him. When they do, WATCH OUT! When Republicans come to realize that only Ron can beat Hillary, there will be no stopping the publicity for the free society.

But none of this is entirely relevant to your Institute’s non-support for Ron. Let us stipulate that you are right, I am wrong, and that Ron’s candidacy will not succeed. But, still, he’s got almost $6 million in the bank. Soon, he’ll start an advertising campaign. This will have the effect of massively promoting liberty, even more than so far. In fact, I would say that Ron has ALREADY promoted liberty to the average person better than anyone in history. Ayn Rand only comes in second, in my opinion. Ron will next week be on the Jay Leno show for goodness sake. Even the NY Times now writes about him without calling him a wierdo. And this is only the tip of the veritable iceberg. I tell you B, when his campaign first started, I used to hungrily search for mention of Ron. I can no longer do that. To keep up with the publicity he is now garnering, I’d have to devote my full-time efforts to this one task. Ron is a one-man band of publicity for liberty. I am appalled that (your Institute) takes the stance on him that it does. In my view, Ron is a sort of litmus test for libertarianism. So far, (your think tank) is failing this test. Can you not talk Ron up with X and Y and your other colleagues?”

Walter Block (writing in LRC) is absolutely right on this. The constituency that needs to hook up with Dr. Paul is the Christian evangelical, yes, even the prowar crowd.

I slanted “Mobs, Messiahs and Markets” as best I could, toward traditionalists – no easy task, considering some of our positions.

I think it worked. If so, it was – at least, on my side – a contribution toward the campaign of the most honest man in Washington – Ron Paul.

(I should add that I also think Kucinich is a principled politician – on the Iraq war especially)

GO RON!

Unfairy tales for aspiring authors: Li’l Brown-Riding-Hood and the Hucksters of Oz…

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One upto a time under the evil tyranny called USGov. Inc. (successor to the fair but forgotten Republic of America), there lived an aspiring authoress, Brown Riding-hood.

Brown Riding-hood loved to whip up nutritious (and delicious) literary goodies for the fair folk of US Gov. Inc. who were suffering from intellectual and political malnutrition caused by an incessant diet of MSM preservatives, PC syrup, and imperial transfat. Determined to take her gourmet, organic brownies to the grandmas and grandkids and regular folks who needed them, Little Brown Riding-hood spent all her time baking them with love and care in a little oven far from the beastly jungle of commercial publishing.

But alas, she found that because they had been put a little too far on the left of the rack, the cookies turned out just a bit too dark and were ignored by the good people of the land, who prefered white chocolate to dark. And then, some got stolen by not-so-good people, who mixed them up with their own wares and shut the door on her.

While Brown-Riding-hood was sitting forlorn, weeping that no one would buy her delicious, nutritious literary (and investigative) cookies, who should come along but a pair of lambs. One began to cheer her up with promises that he would help her feed the fair folk of US Govt. Inc..if only he would bake her cookies along with his.

Who could help trusting two such helpful friends? They looked so respectable, she thought, except that maybe, they did seem a bit fleec-y.

Now, Li’l Hood really should have followed the voice inside her heart telling her to be careful, but she was an impulsive soul. Had she only looked past the fluff, she would have seen that under the sheepskin lurked an odd couple: a coyote called Wile E. and a wealthy Road-Runner, Don Dollar-oso, with a soft smile and a sharp sword…. with two edges.

“Come with us,” they said to Li’l Hood, we’ll take you to our own special market where you can sell your cookies….”

So Little Brown- hood trotted after them…to one far away country after the next…slaving away at the cookies.

Meanwhile, Don Dollar-oso, who had a heart set on gold and very like it in weight and temperature, also had a not-so-trusty right arm, who was secretly stirring up discontent among his generals and plotting to turn the realm of Oz against the Don during his absences abroad.

And it was then that the gates of Oz were shut against Little Hood and a campaign begun against her….

Her loyalty was rewarded with banishment. Their treachery was concealed with honeyed words.

And they flashed their rapiers, for by now they had grown so powerful that even the Don himself could not control them.

So it goes under the evil tyranny of US Govt Inc. Right is wrong, black is white, traitors are patriots, and marauders are keepers of the peace.

Cold Fizzies in India: Coke headed for trouble…

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October 29, 2007

Community Protests Coca-Cola Plant in India
October 25, 2007
http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2007/1054.html
Over 600 people marched and rallied against the Coca-Cola bottling plant in the village of Sinhachawar in Ballia district in India yesterday, demanding that the plant be shut down permanently. The community has accused the bottling plant of pollution and also illegally occupying land held by the village council. “We are demanding that the Coca-Cola bottling plant cease its operations permanently because they are destroying our land and water, the very source of our livelihoods,” said Mr. Baliram Ram of the Coca-Cola Bhagao, Krishi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, the main organizer of the protest.

Norway Students Launch Campaign Against Coca-Cola
October 19, 2007
The India Resource Center has just completed a speaking tour of 5 universities in Norway – Oslo, Trondheim, Bergen, Vestfold and Ås. Organized by ATTAC Norway, the speaking tour was very successful, and now we have active and strong campaigns at all these universities. The student parliaments at Bergen and Vestfold have already passed resolutions against doing business with the Coca-Cola company. All universities have a single contract with Coca-Cola Norway that ends in December 2009, and students are mobilizing support to ensure that the contract is not renewed. Let us know if you want to join the campaign.

Criminal Charges Against Coca-Cola Likely in India
October 15, 2007
http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2007/1053.html
The state government of Kerala has initiated the process of filing criminal charges against the Coca-Cola company for pollution. In a notice to the Coca-Cola company on Friday, October 12, the Kerala State Pollution Control Board has asked the company to show cause as to why a criminal case should not be filed against it for polluting the environment. The action by the state government comes directly as a result of a longstanding demand of the campaign that the Coca-Cola company must also be held criminally liable for the damages it has caused in the community of Plachimada in India.

Campaign Expanding to Europe
Help us build a strong campaign against Coca-Cola in Europe. We would like to be in dialogue with friends in Europe to see how we can work together to challenge the abuses of Coca-Cola in India. In particular, we are interested in bringing the campaign to some of the company’s larger markets – Sweden, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the UK. Contact us if you are interested!

Coca-Cola Loses University of Illinois Contract
August 6, 2007
http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2007/1051.html
The Coca-Cola company has lost its contract with the University of Illinois, giving another boost to the international campaign against Coca-Cola. Students and faculty at the University of Illinois, a prestigious public university with over 40,000 students, have campaigned for over two years to end the 10-year, exclusive “pouring rights” agreement with Coca-Cola because of the company’s unethical practices in India and globally. “This is a tremendous victory for the campus community and sends a strong message to the Coca-Cola company that it must respect human rights and the environment,” said Shivali Tukdeo of the Coalition Against Coke Contracts, a broad coalition of campus and community groups that led the campaign to remove Coca-Cola from campus.

Indian Campaign Forces Coca-Cola to Announce Ambitious Water Conservation Project
http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2007/cokewwf.html
Campaña India Obliga a Coca Cola a Anunciar un Ambicioso Proyecto de Conservación de Agua
http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2007/cokewwfespanol.html
July 30, 2007
The Coca-Cola company has recently announced, to much fanfare, a three-year, US$20 million partnership with the World Wildlife Fund on water conservation. At face value, such an announcement is obviously welcome. After all, who would object to water conservation projects in a world where over 1 billion people still lack access to clean drinking water? But the announcement by Coca-Cola deserves scrutiny – something sorely lacking from the media and even NGO’s – primarily because it is the Coca-Cola company that is announcing water conservation projects.

La compañía Coca-Cola con gran fanfarria ha anunciado recientemente una alianza de tres años por valor de US$20 millones con el World Wildlife Fund (Fondo Mundial para la Vida Silvestre) para conservación del agua. A simple vista, obviamente tal anuncio sería bienvenido. Después de todo, ¿quién se opondría a un proyecto de conservación de agua en un mundo donde más de 1 billón de personas todavía carece de agua potable? Sin embargo, el anuncio de Coca Cola merece ser escrutado a fondo – algo que los medios no hacen, ni siquiera las ONGs – principalmente porque es nada menos que la compañía Coca Cola la que anuncia estos proyectos de conservación de agua.

Factsheet on Coca-Cola in English
 http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2004/Brochure.pdf
Coca-Cola Hechos en Español
 http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2004/cokefactespanol.html
Coca-Cola Fatos no Português
 http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2005/cokefactportuguese.html
Coca-Cola Fakten auf Deutsch
 http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2006/cokefactdeutsch.html

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Financial Flings: Foreign Creditors are Fed up

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“Surplus holders dumping the $.
After the seizure of parts of the capital markets over the summer and after the Federal Reserve’s 0.5% rate cut, the U.S. yield advantage over other countries diminished and will drop further as more rate cuts are made. This has triggered serious withdrawals of capital from the U.S. and will keep doing so until growth is safe.

In August, Japan and China led a record withdrawal of foreign funds from the United States in August. Data from the U.S. Treasury showed outflows of $163 billion from all forms of U.S. investments. With the market still affected by the August crises we can expect the outflow to continue into September’s figures and October’s.

  • Asian investors dumped $52 billion worth of US Treasury bonds alone.
  • Japan ($23 billion).
  • China ($14.2 billion)
  • Taiwan ($5 billion).

Central banks in Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam have all begun to cut purchases of U.S. bonds, or signaled their intention to do so. In effect, they are giving up trying to hold down their currencies because the policy is starting to set off inflation.

It is the first time since 1998 that foreigners have, on balance, sold Treasuries. And what an impressive outflow in one month we’ve seen. It is not just foreigners who are selling U.S. assets, Americans are turning their back as well.

America has relied on “hot money” from abroad to cover 25% to 30% of the U.S. short-term credit and commercial paper market over the last two years. The U.S. requires $60 billion a month in capital inflows to cover its current account deficit alone and this inflow is slowing down, threatening the U.S. Balance of Payments over a much longer term period, something that will produce global earthquakes in exchange rates, major capital flows and see a battery of national [Exchange Control] walls spring up to protect individual nations.

From what we believed are institutions under the control of the U.S., based in the Cayman Islands capital was brought in to the extent of $60 billion from “hedge funds” based in Britain and the Caymans, which covered U. S. capital shortfall and positions at the height of the credit crunch.

Most of us are still of a mindset to believe that the Fed has full control of U.S. interest rates. If the move out of the $ is not just a reaction to the U.S. banking crisis but a long-term trend, then the sales of Treasuries will of itself lead to higher interest rates, leaving the $ surplus holders of Asia in control of U.S. interest rates. The Fed will be left to react but not control.”