Liberal MP Wajid Khan is going to try and sell Harpers Middle East policy to those in the Middle East and to Canadians. Good thing he has experience. Middle East advisor has experience in sales
Like the PM's Emerson deal this one has the Liberals all in a tither . Interestingly neither the Blogging Tories nor the Liberalbloggers have made much of a fuss over this.
Perhaps because, as at least one Liberalblogger admits , it is a very smooth move by Harper. While gaining Jewish Liberals with his unconditional support for Israel, Harper mollifies Arab and Muslim Canadians with a special envoy who is a Liberal.
Khan of course is espousing a Lieberman type of bi-partisanship. And why shouldn't a Liberal promote Harpers foreign adventurism, it originated with them in the first place.
For Liberal MP's to criticize the Harpocrites over Afghanistan or heck the evacutation of Lebanon, is the hieght of hypocrisy.
They would like us to forget that the Liberals voted with the government to support the Harpocrites. And to forget the two week waiting period before the dithering Liberals launched DART to help the survivors of the the Indonesian Tusanami.
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Khan, Harper, Canada, Middle-East, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Iran, Politics, Governement, Liberal, MP, Conservative, foreign-policy
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Friday, August 11, 2006
Circumsion Reduces AIDS
Circumcision promoted
Removing the foreskin is thought to harden the glans (head) of the penis, making it less permeable to viruses. Research carried out in 2005 showed the transmission of HIV from women to men during sex was reduced by 60 per cent if the men were circumcised.
There you see circumcision is good for something. Now just lay back and take it like a man.
This is something the Vatican could get behind, and never have to mention AIDS and condoms together again. They could preach circumcision is good for your soul and your health. Oh they do that already don't they, well no they don't.
Historically it was Jews who were circumcised the church only tolerated the practice.
And some 'old' catholics still don't. Just ask Mel.
Gibson "needs to be welcomed into the Jewish community with a public circumcision". ..
I tried, I tried. Really, I did. But I just couldn't resist just one cheap shot at Mel's expense. Heck everyone else is doing it.....and if they jumped off a cliff....yeah I know but I could'nt resist this one.
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Mel, Gibson, AIDS, circumcision, Jews, gentiles, Catholic, condom, health,
Removing the foreskin is thought to harden the glans (head) of the penis, making it less permeable to viruses. Research carried out in 2005 showed the transmission of HIV from women to men during sex was reduced by 60 per cent if the men were circumcised.
There you see circumcision is good for something. Now just lay back and take it like a man.
This is something the Vatican could get behind, and never have to mention AIDS and condoms together again. They could preach circumcision is good for your soul and your health. Oh they do that already don't they, well no they don't.
Historically it was Jews who were circumcised the church only tolerated the practice.
And some 'old' catholics still don't. Just ask Mel.
Gibson "needs to be welcomed into the Jewish community with a public circumcision". ..
I tried, I tried. Really, I did. But I just couldn't resist just one cheap shot at Mel's expense. Heck everyone else is doing it.....and if they jumped off a cliff....yeah I know but I could'nt resist this one.
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Mel, Gibson, AIDS, circumcision, Jews, gentiles, Catholic, condom, health,
Coming of Age
Arising out of pulp fiction for the masses Science Fiction is now fully out of the literary ghetto.
It has now been claimed by the U.S. Government as a cultural artifact of America. Society, Science Enriched by Science Fiction
Does this then make SciFi an official State Literature?
If so there might be some competition in that regard. The St. Sputnik Project: Modern Russian Sci-Fi - Online Resources ...
Also See:
LEM RIP
Heinlein
Andre Norton RIP
Octavia Butler RIP
Lagrange 5
And Then They Built An Ark
Another Character Generator
Good Morning Dave
New Age Libertarian Manifesto
Gothic Capitalism Redux
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
science-fiction, culture, america, writing, books, sf, sci-fi, USgov,
Oriental Origins of Post-modernism
What is post-modernism? Well it orginates in Modernist art of the decadence; in the Fin de Siecle of the 19th century.
Post modernism supercedes modernism with the invasion of the dialectical concisouness of Imperialism/Anti-Imperialism when the post WWII colonial/colonized world enters the space of capitalist decadence and speaks.
It is the dialectical result of the West's fascination with and creation of Orientalism which results in modernism and thus post-modernism;
the authentic Oriental voice's revenge.
POSTMODERNISM / FIN DE SIECLE
It is interesting to reread Ihab Hassan in this regard. Hassan's first book, after all, was called The Literature of Silence (1967), and made the case for a "new literature" written in the wake of Dachau and Hiroshima, a literature whose "total rejection of Western history and civilization" leads either to the apocalyptic violence and obscenity of a Henry Miller or a Norman Mailer or the silence, randomness, and indeterminacy of Samuel Beckett or John Cage. By 1971, Hassan referred to this "change in Modernism" as Postmodernism and drew up the first of his famous lists or tables, a table made up of binary oppositions :
Postmodernism, Etc.: An Interview with Ihab Hassan
Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Preface to Orientalism
Orientalism
A website devoted to the controversies surrounding Orientalism and Western representations of Islam and the Arabs. Located at www.orientalism.org.
A symphony of civilizations
China's re-emergence - there is no "China rise", but only China's restoration to its historical position - is already having considerable impact on the global village. Understandably, observers and analysts discuss the nature of Beijing's behavior on the international scene. Will China behave like an empire trying to dominate and extend a pax Sinica, or act as a cooperative force working for a foedus pacificum, a league of peace, to use Immanuel Kant's expression (Perpetual Peace, 1795)?
Lolita and Beyond
Epistemically I am trying to see how this mutation of Orientalism to Area Studies to active privatization of knowledge production (pretty much on the model of the privatization of certain aspects of the US military, such as intelligence gathering and torturing people) actually works. Meanwhile, I am also trying to keep a record of who is saying and doing what in these terrible times—for these criminal comprador intellectuals will have to be held historically accountable for what they now say and do.
What lies beneath
The legacy of Edward Said's 1978 book Orientalism, in which he argued that the west possesses a monopoly on how "Arabo-Islamic peoples and their culture" are viewed, was the subject of debate at the British Museum. Historian and novelist Robert Irwin kicked off by attacking what he decribed as Said's falsification of the past and poor understanding of Arabic, and argued that his "revolutionary" assertions were in fact part of longstanding Muslim and Marxist critiques.
A Marxist Critique of 'Third World
. [We] could start with a radically different premise: namely the proposition that we live not in three [or more] worlds but in one; that this world includes the experiences of colonialism and imperialism on both sides of [the] global divide; that societies in formations of backward capitalism are as much constituted by the division of classes as are societies in the advanced capitalist countries; that socialism . . . is simply the name of a resistance that saturates the globe today, as capitalism itself does; that the different parts of the capitalist system are to be known not in terms of a binary opposition but as a contradictory unity-with differences, yes, but also with profound overlaps.
Initiated under the patronage of the young General Napoleon Bonaparte as he invaded Egypt in 1798, and completed in 1829 during the reign of King Charles X, the Description was among the most significant, and certainly the most tangible, consequences of the French military’s occupation of Egypt (1798-1801). Not only did it form the foundation for the modern discipline of Egyptology, but its large and magnificent plate illustrations influenced the course of "Egyptomania" and “Orientalism” in western fine and decorative arts for two centuries.
Collection of Orientalist Imagery Reveals Roots of American Views ...
The imagery has long been appropriated for use in American film posters, cigarette packs, pulp fiction and popular music: scantily clad harem girls, tyrannical despots and turbaned mystics have personified an imagined Middle East in the popular culture.
Hundreds of objects reflecting that imagined realm has just wrapped up its first run at the University of California at Los Angeles. "Seducing America: Selling the Middle Eastern Mystique," an exhibit of Middle Eastern-inspired ephemera, is about to be launched as an extensive on-line data base complete with music samples, selected film clips and a comprehensive assortment of "Middle Eastern Americana". There are artifacts such as sheet music, souvenirs, book jackets and consumer goods, many bearing Middle Eastern insignias, and the accompanying advertisements which range from the crass to the cartoonish.
Objects included comic books from the 1930s, pulp fiction book covers with titles such as "Desert Madness" and "Spicy Adventures," video games such as "The Prince of Persia," vintage sheet music for songs including "The Sheik of Araby" and "Rebecca Came Back from Mecca," photos of topless women on the covers of CDs, fierce warriors on the covers of DVDs, "Turkish" tobacco products, Egyptomania films, and various and sundry consumer items such as Palmolive beauty products, Ben Hur flour, Sheik condoms - and a couple of Shriner fezzes.
Noble Dreams Wicked Pleasures Orientalism in America, 1870-1930
Also See:
modernism, literature, art, fin-de-sciecle, 19thcentury, symbolism, post-modernism
Post modernism supercedes modernism with the invasion of the dialectical concisouness of Imperialism/Anti-Imperialism when the post WWII colonial/colonized world enters the space of capitalist decadence and speaks.
It is the dialectical result of the West's fascination with and creation of Orientalism which results in modernism and thus post-modernism;
the authentic Oriental voice's revenge.
POSTMODERNISM / FIN DE SIECLE
It is interesting to reread Ihab Hassan in this regard. Hassan's first book, after all, was called The Literature of Silence (1967), and made the case for a "new literature" written in the wake of Dachau and Hiroshima, a literature whose "total rejection of Western history and civilization" leads either to the apocalyptic violence and obscenity of a Henry Miller or a Norman Mailer or the silence, randomness, and indeterminacy of Samuel Beckett or John Cage. By 1971, Hassan referred to this "change in Modernism" as Postmodernism and drew up the first of his famous lists or tables, a table made up of binary oppositions :
Modernism | Postmodernism | |
| 1. Urbanism | 1. The Global Village (McLuhan), Spaceship Earth (Fuller), the City as Cosmos--Science Fiction. Anarchy and fragmentation. | |
| 2. Technologism | 2. Runaway technology. New media, art forms. Boundless dispersal by media. The computer as substitute consciousness or extension of consciousness. | |
| 3. Elitism | 3. Antielitism, antiauthoritarianism. Diffusion of the ego. Participation. Community. Anarchy. | |
| 4. Irony | 4. Radical play. Entropy of meaning. Comedy of the absurd. Black Humor. Camp. | |
| 5. Abstraction | 5. New Concreteness. Found Object. Conceptual Art. | |
| 6. Primitivism | 6. Beat and Hip. Rock Culture. Dionysian Ego. | |
| 7. Eroticism | 7. The New Sexuality. Homosexuality , Feminism, Lesbianism. Comic pornography. Repeal of Censorship | |
| 8. Antinomianism | 8. Antinomianism. 8. Counterculture. Beyond alienation. Counter. Beyond Law. Non Serviam. Western "ways." Zen, Buddhism, Hinduism the occult, apocalypticism. | |
| 9. Experimentalism | 9. Open form, discontinuity, improvisation, Formal innovation. New language. Antiformalism. Indeterminacy. Aleatory Structure. Minimalism. Intermedia. |
Postmodernism, Etc.: An Interview with Ihab Hassan
Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Preface to Orientalism
Orientalism
A website devoted to the controversies surrounding Orientalism and Western representations of Islam and the Arabs. Located at www.orientalism.org.
A symphony of civilizations
China's re-emergence - there is no "China rise", but only China's restoration to its historical position - is already having considerable impact on the global village. Understandably, observers and analysts discuss the nature of Beijing's behavior on the international scene. Will China behave like an empire trying to dominate and extend a pax Sinica, or act as a cooperative force working for a foedus pacificum, a league of peace, to use Immanuel Kant's expression (Perpetual Peace, 1795)?
Lolita and Beyond
Epistemically I am trying to see how this mutation of Orientalism to Area Studies to active privatization of knowledge production (pretty much on the model of the privatization of certain aspects of the US military, such as intelligence gathering and torturing people) actually works. Meanwhile, I am also trying to keep a record of who is saying and doing what in these terrible times—for these criminal comprador intellectuals will have to be held historically accountable for what they now say and do.
What lies beneath
The legacy of Edward Said's 1978 book Orientalism, in which he argued that the west possesses a monopoly on how "Arabo-Islamic peoples and their culture" are viewed, was the subject of debate at the British Museum. Historian and novelist Robert Irwin kicked off by attacking what he decribed as Said's falsification of the past and poor understanding of Arabic, and argued that his "revolutionary" assertions were in fact part of longstanding Muslim and Marxist critiques.
A Marxist Critique of 'Third World
. [We] could start with a radically different premise: namely the proposition that we live not in three [or more] worlds but in one; that this world includes the experiences of colonialism and imperialism on both sides of [the] global divide; that societies in formations of backward capitalism are as much constituted by the division of classes as are societies in the advanced capitalist countries; that socialism . . . is simply the name of a resistance that saturates the globe today, as capitalism itself does; that the different parts of the capitalist system are to be known not in terms of a binary opposition but as a contradictory unity-with differences, yes, but also with profound overlaps.
The world [is] united not by liberalist ideology [or humanistic universalism] but by the global operation of a single mode of production, namely the capitalist one, and the global resistance to this mode, a resistance which is itself unevenly developed in different parts of the globe.
Tribute to India in world’s oldest caves
There is an Indian chamber in the Jenolan caves, which are said to be the world's oldest discovered open caves, according to cave-dating research published by Australian geologists.“In the early 20th century, orientalism was a big theme in western societies, especially in the British Empire. Early cave explorers called it the Orient cave because of the red colour. It contains the Indian Chamber, Persian Chamber and the Egyptian Colllanade.
It was discovered in 1904,” explains Dr Armstrong Osborne, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney.
A five-year study has shown that the limestone caves, which each year attract thousands of tourists, including Indian visitors, date back more than 340 million years.
Napoleon on the Nile at the Dahesh Museum of ArtInitiated under the patronage of the young General Napoleon Bonaparte as he invaded Egypt in 1798, and completed in 1829 during the reign of King Charles X, the Description was among the most significant, and certainly the most tangible, consequences of the French military’s occupation of Egypt (1798-1801). Not only did it form the foundation for the modern discipline of Egyptology, but its large and magnificent plate illustrations influenced the course of "Egyptomania" and “Orientalism” in western fine and decorative arts for two centuries.
Collection of Orientalist Imagery Reveals Roots of American Views ...
The imagery has long been appropriated for use in American film posters, cigarette packs, pulp fiction and popular music: scantily clad harem girls, tyrannical despots and turbaned mystics have personified an imagined Middle East in the popular culture.
Hundreds of objects reflecting that imagined realm has just wrapped up its first run at the University of California at Los Angeles. "Seducing America: Selling the Middle Eastern Mystique," an exhibit of Middle Eastern-inspired ephemera, is about to be launched as an extensive on-line data base complete with music samples, selected film clips and a comprehensive assortment of "Middle Eastern Americana". There are artifacts such as sheet music, souvenirs, book jackets and consumer goods, many bearing Middle Eastern insignias, and the accompanying advertisements which range from the crass to the cartoonish.
Objects included comic books from the 1930s, pulp fiction book covers with titles such as "Desert Madness" and "Spicy Adventures," video games such as "The Prince of Persia," vintage sheet music for songs including "The Sheik of Araby" and "Rebecca Came Back from Mecca," photos of topless women on the covers of CDs, fierce warriors on the covers of DVDs, "Turkish" tobacco products, Egyptomania films, and various and sundry consumer items such as Palmolive beauty products, Ben Hur flour, Sheik condoms - and a couple of Shriner fezzes.
Noble Dreams Wicked Pleasures Orientalism in America, 1870-1930
Indeed, one of the fascinations with Orientalism is how nicely it blends into other artistic styles of the 19th Century such as Pre-Raphaelism and Art Nouveau as well as the Aesthetic Movement. Orientalism, Pre-Raphaelism and Art Nouveau are various manifestations of lush, richly embued, symbolic decorative aesthetics, often tinged if not overwhelmed by a sense of history and prior historic periods. The Aesthetic Movement, of course, emerged from these influences to produce a "modern" style based on them.
In his excellent essay, Oleg Grabar finds the "roots" of American Orientalism in "the Protestant search for the space of the biblical revelations," European aristocratic taste, popular culture in freemasonry and other fraternal organizations, and "the spirit of skeptical curiosity and adventure.Also See:
Bureaucratic Collectivist Capitalism
Ibn Khaldun 14th Century Arab Libertarian
My Favorite Muslim
The Need for Arab Anarchism
Peter Drucker RIP
Breaking Out Of The Cultural Burka
Muslims Discovered America
Anti Islamism Manifesto
Two Excellent Sources For Islamic Studies
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:modernism, literature, art, fin-de-sciecle, 19thcentury, symbolism, post-modernism
Compassionate Capitalism
It seems some Blogging Tories just don't understand compasionate capitalism. To them generousity and business don't go hand in hand or else they would understand the following axioms;
a) rock & roll is a business
b) rock & roll musicians are businessmen
c) business is capitalism
d) rock stars are capitalists.
Since the time of the Beatles Apple Corp. and the Moody Blues Inc., this has been the case.
Bono gets richer still
Bono buys piece of capitalist rag
So why all the fuss, if Bono buys into Forbes magazine, while lobbying to end poverty. What? Did you forget Kellog, Hershey, Owen, and yes Engels. They were compasionate capitalists, social reformers. Heck what Bono is doing is no different than Gates.
AIDS Funding: Gates Steps Up as Rich Countries Step Back
In fact the intelligent business man recognizes philanthropy is good for business and social stature. Which is why the robber barons of the fin de siecle during the Guilded Age in America invented it. To give back to the community some of their ill gotten gain. Oh and it's good for a tax break.
As the old adage goes one needs to make money to spend money, or was it visa versa. Bono is spending and investing his money well, and putting it where his mouth is. He is using his capital for social good. Ironic he should be criticized for doing the right thing as a hip capitalist by the right.
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Bono, Gates, compasonate, capitalism, hip-capitalism, rock&roll, business, donations, poverty, AIDS,
Cap't Crunch
Before there were hackers there were technology gurrellias like Cap't Crunch (aka John Draper)who invented the Blue Box, which was follwed by the black box and red box. Simple electronic beepers that when sent through the primitive switching technology of the seventies Tele Coms allowed you free long distance calls. It was promoted by the Yippies and by TAP .
The Youth International Party Line (YIPL; later, the name was changed to TAP for Technological American Party or Technological Assistance Program), started by Hoffman and Al Bell in June 1971 was the pioneer phreak magazine.
We were known as phone phreaks. Every time Tel Com security found a way to block the tones, a new box was invented. Thus hacking was born. Pre-PC pre-Internet.
Why Cap'n Crunch?
John Draper once gained fame (and prison sentences) from his skills in manipulating the telephone system. His "handle" came from the inclusion of a plastic whistle in Captain Crunch cereal in the 1960's which could, with proper manipulation, send out a control tone that would affect telephone systems of the time.
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
hackers, phone-phreaks, Draper, Captain-Crucnh, Yippies, TIP, hacking, blue-box, Telcos, Telcom, Sevneties
PC is 25 years old
The modern age of computing began 25 years ago when Time Magazine declared the personal computer "person of the year'. And as they said back then in commercials; "you've come a long way baby".
The commodore 64 is, along with the Apple II and the Atari XL computers, the most famous home computer. According to the 2001 edition of Guinness book of records, the C64 was the most "prolific computing device ever manufactured". During its production run from 1982 to... 1993, about 30 million (!) units were sold. To put this number in perspective, that's more than all the Macintoshes in the world.
And the PC did not begin as an offshoot of IBM but rather the gaming industry.
The original Atari was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and personal computers, and its dominance in those areas made it the major force in the computer entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. The brand has also been used at various times by Atari Games, a separate company split off in 1984.
To think about how far we have come in 25 years, a mere quarter of a century, let's just look back to the original Apple computer and where Steve Jobs is today; promoting IPOD technology.
And what had been a cumbersome clunker of a a computer with 64k memory was available as a hand-held Palm Pilot.
first-gen PDAs like Palm, which could also work as text readers. Heavier than a hardcover book, they were less portable and harder to read in direct light. But it was just these complaints that sparked killer app innovation.
This is literally expansion at the speed of thought, imagine the Gutenberg Press and twenty five years later you have the Xerox.
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
PC, commodore64, atari, AppleII, computer, personal-computer, computing,
Independent Lieberman
Independent Lieberman says he can be now be himself
So is that an Independent Democrat or and Independent Republican? Running against Lamont he should at least be honest and run as the latter.
Also See:
Lieberman
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Lamont, Conneticut, Lieberman, Democrats, Republicans, election, primaries, Indpendent, Senate, Senator
Mining Merger Mania
You can't tell the players without a program.
CHRONOLOGY-Key dates in Canada mining takeover wars
This is a case of globalisation of Canada's mining industry, dog eat dog captialism. Much like the current wave of steel takeovers. Canadian miners flush with cash try to buy each other out to gain a monopoly in the marketplace, leaving themselves open to hostile takeovers by foreign corporations. Ain't capitalism grand. This is more exciting than Canadian Idol. Will they won't they get the brass ring. No wagering please.
Also See:
Mining
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Canada, mining, miners, Inco, Falconbridge, Teck-Cominco, Xstara, nickel, copper, ore, commodities, stocks,
Home of International Terrorism
Pakistan.
The current raid on terrorists in London finds several arrested in Pakistan. The July 7 bombers in London were trainind in Pakistan. The Taliban fighting Canadian and NATO troops in Afghanistan are located in Pakistan. Terrorist members of Bin Laden Inc. /Al Qaeda operate out of Pakistan. Kashmir terrorists operate out of Pakistan. Pakistan ships nuclear technology to rogue states.
Hmmm what was that George Bush said about States that support terrorism....oh yeah Pakistan is America's new buddy in the war on terrorism. Instead of invading Iraq to bring democracy to the folks there, perhaps the US should have invaded the military dictatorship and home of International Terrorism; Pakistan. Oh yeah they couldn't Pakistan has nukes.
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Pakistan, London, US, Bush, terrorism, terrorist
The current raid on terrorists in London finds several arrested in Pakistan. The July 7 bombers in London were trainind in Pakistan. The Taliban fighting Canadian and NATO troops in Afghanistan are located in Pakistan. Terrorist members of Bin Laden Inc. /Al Qaeda operate out of Pakistan. Kashmir terrorists operate out of Pakistan. Pakistan ships nuclear technology to rogue states.
Hmmm what was that George Bush said about States that support terrorism....oh yeah Pakistan is America's new buddy in the war on terrorism. Instead of invading Iraq to bring democracy to the folks there, perhaps the US should have invaded the military dictatorship and home of International Terrorism; Pakistan. Oh yeah they couldn't Pakistan has nukes.
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Pakistan, London, US, Bush, terrorism, terrorist
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