Fordism In Korea

The Fordist economy of South Korea has now reached the level where that country is officially a modern capitalist economy, the workers there now have a five day work week, but it is causing them some stress as they were brought up in the command economy of a militarist based State Capitalism.

More play, less toil creates stress for some Korean families

The shorter week has come as a particular shock to older members of Korea's predominantly male work force. Mr. Kim, for instance, grew up listening to official nation-building propaganda songs with lyrics like "Let's wake up early in the morning, work hard and make a good town." School books of the day hammered home such lessons as: "I was born for reviving and rehabilitating our nation." For Koreans in their mid-forties and older, "feeling guilty, staying long hours, and not knowing how to rest is part of the legacy of Gen. Park Chung Hee," says Park Tae Gyun, a Korean-studies professor at Seoul National University. The dictator ran South Korea during nearly two decades of rapid industrialization until his assassination in 1979.

Also See

Take Time From the Boss


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Plundering Tax Payers

The Edmonton Journal reported yesterday that Big Oil in Alberta and other Alberta corporations like Telus and West Jet made increased record profits. Thanks to you and I.

That's right they would have made profits anyways, but thanks to Martin/Harper/Klein tax cuts you and I paid them out of our pockets to increase their bottom line.

Tax cuts and public private partnerships are a form of State Capitalism, the public pays for private profit.

Any trickle down effects as espoused by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation are a myth, these guys take the cash and run. They do not reinvest the money, but use it for playing the stock market.

BY THE NUMBERS

WestJet Airlines made a profit of $22.4 million after tax cuts of $11.2 million, while a $107-million tax reduction helped Telus Corp. to a $356.6-million profit.

Here's what five of the largest energy companies saved on taxes in the latest quarter:

- At Husky Energy Inc., tax cuts saved $328 million, helping earnings more than double to $978 million.

- Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. made a profit of more than $1 billion after a $438-million tax gain.

- Suncor Energy Inc.'s taxes dropped $419 million, helping the company make a profit of $1.2 billion.

- Imperial Oil, Canada's largest energy company, saved a $110 million in taxes on the way to a $837 million profit.

And if they didn't get tax cuts these guys would find other ways of avoiding paying taxes ( such as setting up income trusts), unlike you and I who have no choice.How the US super-rich 'dodge' taxes

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Sexually Transmitted Cancer

This is scary; a transmittable form of cancer that is genetic and acts as a parasite. It originated in an ancient wolf and now is being passed from dog to dog.

There is a type of cancer, called CTVT (canine transmissible venereal tumor) which is transmitted mainly through sexual contacts, but may also be passed on as a dog bites, sniffs or licks the tumor-affected areas, say scientists and vets from University College London (UCL). The cancer is rarely fatal and goes away after three to nine months - however, it is present in the dog long enough for it to pass it on to other dogs.Cancer Spreads From Dog To Dog


Currently it is only occuring in dogs, however considering that STD's (sexually transmitted diseases) are common amongst humans such as genital herpes, gives us pause. If a STC was to occur in humans it would be a an epidemic like AIDs.

Prevention is simple but remains controversial because of moralists. First the
need for use of condoms, which moralists countinue to condemn because its use along with other forms of contraception allow for us to have sex for pleasure (which is the real reason they oppose it, claiming sex is only for procreation). Second failure to teach sex education/sexuality awareness in public schools starting at a young age.

With dogs its understandable that sexually transmitted cancer would spread its not like you can teach an old dog new tricks, with humans and diseases such as AIDS and other STD's this is not the case. Use of condoms as well as effective public sex education decrease the spread of disease.

However as long as conservative moralists oppose any teachings that sex is fun, sex is healthy and sex is not just for procreation we can expect that STDs and possibly a STC will continue to spread because abstinence does NOT work, never has, and because abstience based sex education is a failure.


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Zionist Fascism

This appeal to authoritarianism and censorship smacks of fascism;

Frank Dimant, the Vice President of B’nai Brith Canada has called on the police and the federal government to ban, or crack down on pro-Hezbollah demonstrations. “The streets of Canada will not be taken over by radical Islamic forces supporting terrorist activities,” he said Wednesday. “B’nai Brith Canada will do its utmost to ensure that Canadians will not be intimidated by these terrorist sympathizers.”

Yep criticism of Israel will NOT be tolerated in tolerant Canada.

Label your political opponents as terrorists and demand the State lock them away.

Zionism once again shows its rotten roots in right wing nationalism.

Jewish libertarians, anarchists, and socialists need to denounce B'nai Brith for the fascists they are.

Thanks to Joseph Lavoie for this.



Also See:

Israel

Lebanon

Zionism

Anarchism


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Kinsella Is Demented

Blogs are a vanity press for the demented, some say.
Warren Kinsella blogs. Therefore he is demented. Hey he said it. Since he did not attribute the source of this made up quote, it must be from his-self, since his favorite comment is to call bloggers he disagrees with 'morons' and 'demented'. Vanity thy name is Kinsella.



Thanks to the three headed dog for this.

Also See:

Kinsella



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Van Allen Belt

RIP Rocketman. Before there were rocket jockeys, astronauts, there were the rocketeers, who were space scientists. Van Allen was one of them. And like Goddard and Parsons was central in the development of space rocketry. He was an inspiration when I was young and reading about space exploration.

James A. Van Allen, the physicist who made the first major scientific discovery of the early space age, the Earth-circling radiation belts that bear his name, and sent spacecraft instruments to observe the outer reaches of the solar system, died Wednesday in Iowa City. He was 91.

James A. Van Allen; Discovered Earth's Radiation Belts

Remembering James Van Allen
With Van Allen as scientist, Werner Von Braun as rocket builder, and William Pickering as spacecraft builder, Explorer 1 became the U.S. first successful space mission, and that simple spacecraft’s detection of the Van Allen Belts is remembered as the first major scientific discovery in space. At that dawn of the Space Age, the nature of space exploration was already apparent: It always leads to unexpected discoveries about our universe and the processes that shape our environment.

Nurture Iowa's future Van Allens
He was part of a remarkable generation of American scientists and engineers who are passing from the scene, amid evidence too-few replacements are in the pipeline.Van Allen was admired not only as a pioneer of space exploration but also as a dedicated professor who maintained contact with undergraduates long after his prestige would have allowed him to concentrate solely on research. And he chose to do his life's work at a university in his home state, just 50 miles from his hometown.

Click to enlarge >

Celebrating Success
From left, William H. Pickering, James Van Allen, and Wernher von Braun -- the three men responsible for the success of Explorer 1, America's first satellite, launched January 31, 1958. Credit: NASA

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Republican Mullahs

Following in the footsteps of its pals in Afghanistan and Iraq the Republican dominated Senate passed a fundamentalist fatwa forbidding interstate transportation of young women to get an abortion.

Next will be a ban on contraception. Forward to the past. This stupid law condemns young women to the backstreet clinics of yesteryear.

If there are any libertarians left supporting the Republican party they should be forced to wear burkas.

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Where Are The Women?

All this talk about how our troops are fighting in Afghanistan for 'women and girls' rights is laudable however there doesn't appear to be any women or girls in Afhganistan when you look at news photos of the 'public'. The public is 'men only'.






Yep really liberated country.

It is common and mostly heard and seen through the media such as a school set on fire, teachers killed or guards of schools beaten to death. Such activities that mostly are carry out at midnights are a day to day business in Afghanistan. But the latest deadly attack of 3rd of July, 2006 on Hirat University, has crossed all the limits killing a girl and wounding 9 others seriously in the bright day. Explosion of bomb by placing the bomb in water jug in a class room is an inimitable example of brutality.

Malalai Joys Concludes Successful US Tour

Afghan parliamentarian, Malalai Joya toured the United States in March 2006, addressing thousands of Americans in community forums, panels, college campuses, and local churches. Malalai Joya first gained media attention when she spoke out against warlords in the 2003 Constitutional Loya Jirga. Since then she ran for election and won a seat with the second highest number of votes in her native Farah Province

Some of the slogans on the banners carried by the participants were: "Parliament full of drug kingpins, criminals and traitors can’t represent our people!", "Collaboration with any of the fundamentalists is equivalent to treachery", "The Northern Alliance should be brought to justice", "April 28 odious than April 27", "New cabinet: the same donkey with a new saddle!" Through the installation of Mr. Karzai government, our people had hoped to see the slightest positive changes in their life, but today the anti-nation policies of authorities and their foreign masters exhibit the real and anti-nation face of the government that converted this hope into disappointment and abhorrence. Mr. Karzai and his Afghan and foreign advisers have shown conspicuously that they are ready to shake hands in friendship with the filthiest individuals and parties, who now wear the bogus mask of democracy on their nasty faces. They have gone even further by giving a share of the authority to the Taliban and the terrorist and misogynist party of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Thus, for all practical purposes, they have not left any cruel and traitorous person or group out of the government mechanism. Mr. Karzai calls this kind of traitor-fondling “National Unity” but for our people it doesn’t have any other meaning other than dirtying the “Unity”.

Also See:

Afghanistan

Feminism

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Friendly Fire

Lets see the Americans kill us in Aghanistan, the Israelis kill us in Lebanon, not to be left out our own troops are now killing each other.

War is hell.

Accidents happen.

Wonder what other excuses the brass will come up with?

It wouldn't have happened if we weren't involved in Harpers Big Adventure. Another corpse for Harpers misplaced priorities.

And as usual we get the pro-military propaganda from the parents.
Walsh's parents, Ben and Margie Walsh, released a statement saying they were proud of their son."Jeff believed in his job and felt he could make a change in Afghanistan," the statement said. "We, his parents, support Jeff and all the Forces members in Afghanistan and all our peacekeepers."

Uh, huh well what did you expect them to say. Perhaps that this war is wrong. But that wouldn't get past the military censors or the PMO.

Unfortunately Jeff wasn't expecting to get killed by his comardes.

After all our troops are helping all those nice Afghani's to stop growing opium.

And they aren't peacekeepers they are war makers; Harpers toy soldiers.

Time to bring the troops home.



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Criminalization of Canadian Workers

So much for the Harpocrites claims for sovereignty regarding the longest undefended border in the world. While US Canada security passports come into effect in 2008, for Canadians working in the U.S. we are being treated to being just like any other suspected terrorist.

Last time I checked being fingerprinted was done when you commited a crime.

US proposes fingerprinting Canadian workers

Under new rules proposed by the Bush administration, Canadians who work in the United States are set to be fingerprinted and photographed every time they enter the country by air or sea.

The rule, proposed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, expands on the so-called US-VISIT program, which has been in effect since 2004.

It will affect any Canadian working in the U.S., including nurses, agricultural workers, those travelling through the States, as well as students and their dependents.

Of course this is also part and parcel of the expansion of NAFTA into the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter."


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