Capitalism Proves Socialism Inevitable

As Marx points out the two major contributions of Capitalism to the development of Socialism is the centralization of capital which demands efficiencies of planning.

In other words capitalism creates the need for a planned economy, or economic planning to maximize profits. Thus the preconditions for a socialist economy are born in the breast of capitalism as it evolves.

After years of cowboy drilling and production the Oil and Gas industry are now using centralized planning. Canadian Natural Resources CNRL, has dropped the use of contracting out of its operations, and has seen savings from cost over-runs that companies like Bechtel, KBR, Fluor, Halliburton rely on for making profits. Instead of using these companies CNRL is doing all its oil sands construction and operations in house.

Another company that is using planning, Encana still contracts out its construction and drilling operations. However it does so under direct oversight of the corporation. The contractors work according to a plan Encana has created to maximize its profits.

Welcome to the new planned economy that Thorsten Veblen wrote about a hundred years ago, and Technocracy has adovcated ever since.
Big Don' needs light touch with next-generation rig

Veteran gas industry workers say they've never seen anything resemble the speed and efficiency that EnCana is bringing to bear at its Cutbank Ridge property near Dawson Creek, close to the Alberta border.

The Cutbank Ridge project is being carried out almost entirely by independent companies working under contract to EnCana.

The contractors outnumber EnCana employees 35 to one in the field, but it is Encana's vision of managing gas development that keeps the whole thing running at peak efficiency.

There are crews running the drill, crews delivering sections of pipe, lubricating fluids, water and concrete in support of drilling operations, crews opening up roads and clearing the next drill sites in the exploration sequence, crews hauling equipment from site to site. A few kilometres away, 250 contractors are swarming each day over a former forestry cut block where a new $50-million gas processing plant is nearing completion to handle all the new gas that will come as Cutbank Ridge proceeds to full production.

Chuck Keown, a construction superintendent for Core Pipelines, started in the industry at 18 and now, 20 years later, says he's seeing something unprecedented.

"The way they have set things up, I've never seen it like this, to be honest with you," Keown says. Nobody has to wait for a truck to arrive or is idled by some overlooked logistical detail.

"There is no area where things lag, right through to production. To do things in sequence like that is an amazing thing to see -- organization is an art," Keown adds.

See:

Oil

Gas

Marx




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Space Vampires

Is a novel by my favorite angry young man of modern philosophy; Colin Wilson. It was made into the Sci-Fi movie Lifeforce, by Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper. Great book, great film. The novel is a pastiche of H.P.Lovecraft's Cuthulu Mythos, with the usual dash of Wilsons Faculty X, magick by any other name. And lo and behold if one day in the far distance of cold space a real space vampire appears. One that cannot be countered with crosses and garlic.


Astronomers have found possible proofs of stellar vampirism in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae.

Blue stragglers are unexpectedly young-looking stars found in stellar aggregates, such as globular clusters, which are known to be made up of old stars. These enigmatic objects are thought to be created in either direct stellar collisions or through the evolution and coalescence of a binary star system in which one star 'sucks' material off the other, rejuvenating itself. As such, they provide interesting constraints on both binary stellar evolution and star cluster dynamics. To date, the unambiguous signatures of either stellar traffic accidents or stellar vampirism have not been observed, and the formation mechanisms of Blue stragglers are still a mystery.

See:

Space

Portrait of the Artist As Jack the Ripper

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Gosh Shucks

"I also shared in that letter with (Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff) that as we had taken that particular step, I would sure appreciate if they would do the same." Day: US asked to clear Arar as security threat He forgot to add the giggle, and hayseed 'Gosh Shucks',and oh yes the pretty please. The Americans of course have no idea what he is talking about.

But what did you expect from Stockwell Day who also owes Arar an apology for having labeled him a terrorist. Still waiting for the Conservatives to apologize for believing and promoting the RCMP lies that he was a terrorist. Not just an apology as the New Government of Canada but as the Conservative Party who when in opposition smeared Arar as a terrorist.

When the then-Liberal government began belatedly, timidly asking for Arar's release from his Syrian torture chamber in the fall of 2002, opposition leader Stephen Harper was dismissive. The Liberals, he claimed, were "hitting the snooze button on security matters." His colleague, Stockwell Day, even argued the government's "lack of vigilance" had allowed a notorious terrorist like Arar to avoid detection and detention in the first place.The Arar case is not the end

And how about firing some of them RCMP bad guys. Nope not this Law and Order government. Instead they allow the RCMP commissioner to hold on to his job, and they accept that those who broke the law regarding domestic spying, a law in place years prior to 9/11, should get meritous service awards.

RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli testified at the Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on Thursday of last week. Mr. Zaccardelli said after Mr. Arar's extraordinary rendition from New York to Syria in 2002, he was alerted to Mr. Arar's case and that he attempted to correction false information about Mr. Arar that the RCMP sent to U.S. authorities.

"I learned about it when I reviewed the information. We tried to correct it with the Americans. We let Canadian officials know about that," Mr. Zaccardelli said of the false information.

But opposition MPs said Mr. Zaccardelli's testimony was incomplete and asked if he had known that the RCMP's information was false, why he did not correct the record in Canada. It remains unclear why the RCMP and CSIS together resisted–as Justice O'Connor documents–the attempt by the minister of foreign affairs to send a letter to Syria saying that there was "no evidence" that Mr. Arar was linked to al-Qaeda. CSIS didn't want Arar returned to Canada

Yep the New Government is a Police State in the waiting. Waiting for a Majority.

See

Arar

CIA



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Foley Hides Behind Booze

Disgraced U.S. Congressman Mark Foley is now hiding his homosexuality behind the classic closet excuse, he is not gay he is an alcoholic with emotional problems. Yep just like the Boys in the Band.

It has been a long held belief that one of the reasons for alcoholism and drug addiction amongst homosexuals is the result of being in the closet.

Foley's Behavior No Secret on Capitol Hill and they are not refering to his drinking. Of course the scandal is that the Republicans and Foley continue to hide behind family values.

Foley Built Career as Protector of Children It would not have been so reprehensible if he had not been a self hating gay man who denied himself a real adult relationship. This is the real sickness of right wing politically correct homophobia.

See:

Catholics and Republicans

Child Abuse

Catholic Abuse

Pedophiles


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Mutual Aid In Space

Kropotkins principle of mutual aid appears even in the creation of stars and galaxies.

Large and small stars in harmonious coexistence ,

Photo from the Hubble Space Telescope, presented at the 2006 General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Prague, shows a star forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This sharp image reveals a large number of low-mass infant stars coexisting with young massive stars.


See:

Space

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Tanning A Drug

So says Psychology Today. Tanning: More Than Skin Deep I guess we had better add this to the list for the war on drugs.

Those deprived of a UV fix experienced nausea and jitteriness—symptoms that are an awful lot like narcotic withdrawal. UV light causes the body to release endorphins, the body's natural painkiller. Baking twice a week—in the sun or in a tanning bed—is enough UV exposure to cause dependence.

Or perhaps as Dr. Andrew Weil has long proclaimed getting high is natural for human beings. And the so called dependency is the result of feeling good. Anything wrong with that?








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US Productivity Down

Sure the U.S. has a low tax regime in place for its manufacturing businesses. Lots of tax credits too at the municipal and state level, corporate welfare. Still their productivity is down. And why is that you ask. Because unlike Canada, the State does not pay for benefits.

U.S. manufacturers have become less competitive in the global marketplace in recent years because of rising energy and other "structural" costs, according to a report issued Sept. 27 by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). The study by economist Jeremy A. Leonard of the Manufacturers Alliance concludes that nonproduction costs for U.S. manufacturers are 32% higher than those of nine of the nation's major economic competitors—Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan. Domestic manufacturers faced a 22% disadvantage in 2003, the last time NAM studied structural costs, which include corporate taxes, employee health and pension benefits, and legal expenses.

Whereas in Canada with our public healthcare, public pensions, public education, public post secondary education, etc. we have a benefit advantage. Think if we had a real universal childcare program and a real pharmacare program what a business advantage that would be.

Our productivity is of course up this year again.

So why would we want to integrate with a basket case economy like the U.S.?


See:

Productivity


Basket Case Economy



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Dion King Maker

Over the Super Weekend for Liberal Delegates Stephane Dion is the only leadership hopeful who has not gained more delegates over the last 24 hours. His numbers remained static in fourth place. Kennedy, Rae and Ignatieff have gained more delegates over the same period. In fact Rae and Kennedy have increased at Ignatieffs expense. This is a three way race, not a four way one. Dion is the Kingmaker, his delegates become crucial for a win by Rae or Kennedy. Dion will stick it out to the Convention, but on the second ballot his delegates get released to the guy who can beat Ignatieff.

Also See

Liberal Leadership Race

Ignatieff

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Pro Life?

The Canadian blogosphere has been inundated by the anti-abortion, anti-choice, anti-women rantings of Christian Conservative moralists. Using the same old offensive assaults on those who disagree with them. As I have posted here.

A simple question for these moral simpletons, since you claim to be Pro-Life I take it you are opposed to Capital Punishment and War, both the very essence of anti-life . I look forward to your vociferous pontifications on these anti-life topics. Especially from the Catholic bloggers. But I suspect that war and capital punsihment can be justified. However many moral twists and turns that takes.

Of course those who are protestant evangelical fundamentalists face no such moral predicament. They simply justify their anti-choice positon by appealing to mythical family values, the ultimate defense of patriarchy.

Instead of saying abortion is murder and the worst crime in the history of mankind (of course for womankind it is not a crime but a historic neccisity of birth control), lets get real and deal with real crimes against humanity, war and capital punishment.

Oh and while we are on the topic of abortion and birth control I hope you support a girls/womans right to know, by providing alternatives to the neccisity of abortion, or worse infanticide, by supporting access to birth control and public sex / human relationships education K-12. Why of course you do.







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Five Things Feminism Has Done For Me

I got tagged in the Five Things Feminism Has Done For Me meme by John Murney, thanks John. You can read here to find out what its about.

Also Today the Progressive bloggers will be doing a pro feminist blog burst...october is women's history month, a call to post or re-post "5 things feminism did for me" anytime on the 2nd

I won't blog about five things rather I will blog about feminists I consider historically important. Feminism has been essential in the development of my libertarian and pagan perspective.

I will blog about those who did not take State funding to fight for womens rights and against patriarchical society. In fact their autonomous activity showed that women had to organize despite the State, academia, capitalism, and Christianity. I am not here to support the Status of Women or the State. It is reformism pure and simple. That being said I donot support the attempts by the vile rightwhing to get rid of the Status of Women. This is political correctness from the right, attempting to impose their Christian fundamentalist values on secular society.

I think Status of Women is a liberal sop and it is irrelevant to historically authentic feminism and to women organizing for themselves as the proletariat.

Since it is womens history Month I thought I would post my selection of Greatest Feminists Not Supported By the State in historic waves of Feminism. And my waves fit historic periods. While mainstream Feminism says there are three waves of Feminism historically there are actually six. And those who claim we are in some sort of post-feminist period are deluded as are the post-modernists.

I look at when these women were active or published. When dealing with their ideas and influence it is interesting to note when they actually published. Margaret Mead for instance published her works on Samoa back in the late 1920's while her influence continues right through till today.

And yes I have included liberated women who embrace sexuality as a positive affirmation of themselves. "Yes, I am a revolutionist. All true artists are revolutionists." Isadora Duncan.

And in keeping with this meme I tag the following five:

Larry Gambone

CathiefromCanada

RustyIdols

Daveberta

DearKitty



Feminist Wave 1 1790-1899

1. Mary Wollstencroft

2. Sojourner Truth

3.Victoria Woodhull

4. Anne Besant

5. Lucy Parsons

6. Eleanor Marx

7. Mother Jones

8. Voltairine de Cleyre

9. Florence Farr

10. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

11. Sophia: British Feminism in the Mid Eighteenth Century


Feminist Wave 2 1900-1950

1. Jane Ellen Harrison

2. Emma Goldman

3. Margaret Sanger

4. Alexandra Kollanti

5. Dr. Margret Murray

6. Sylvia Pankhurst

6. Mary Beard

7. Helen Keller

8. Mujeres Libres

9. Simone de Beauvoir

10. Margaret Mead

11. Dion Fortune

12. Isadora Duncan

13. Gypsy Rose Lee

14. Bettie Page

15. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn


Feminist Wave 3 1960-1970

1. Gloria Steinem

2. Betty Friedan

3. Evelyn Reed

4. Raya Dunesevkeya

5. Madalyn Murray O'Hair

6. Clara Fraser

7. Rachel Carson

8. Jayne Mansfield




Feminist Wave 4 1970-1980

1. Jane Godall

2. Shulamith Firestone

3. Selma James

4. Maria Della Costa

5. Kate Millet

6. Sheila Rowbotham

7. Angela Davis

8. Barbara Ehrenreich

9. Sharon Presley

10. Robin Morgan

11. Ti-Grace Atkinson

12. Betty Dodson

13. Jo Freeman

14. CWLU

15. Marge Piercy


Feminist Wave 5 1980-1999

1. Maria Gimbutas

2. Wendy McElory

3. Camilia Paglia

4. Stephanie Coontz

5. StarHawk

6. Annie Sprinkle

7. Nina Hartley

8. Dawn Passer


Feminist Wave 6- 2000-200?

1. Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards

2. Kathy Pollitt



For more lists of women see:

Women in Science.

WOMEN WRITERS

Literary Resources -- Feminism and Women's Literature (Lynch)



For my blog articles see:

Feminism


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