Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Thursday 28 March 2013


Daily Headlines

Many Americans can (a) say that they oppose the targeted killings of Americans on foreign soil while simultaneously (b) supporting the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen because, for them, the term "Americans" doesn't include people like Anwar al-Awlaki.

By Chris Hedges
The Day That TV News Died
he celebrity trolls who currently reign on commercial television, who bill themselves as liberal or conservative, read from the same corporate script. They spin the same court gossip. They ignore what the corporate state wants ignored. They champion what the corporate state wants championed.

By Eric Zuesse
State Department's Keystone XL "Study' Now Exposed as a Triple Hoax
No climatologist was involved in the report, the report was sub-contracted by TransCanada (the firm seeking approval for the pipeline), and the report ignores the pipeline's impact on climate change.
A new report from the United Nations accuses past and current US officials of withholding details regarding which specific individuals were responsible for the nation's policy of enhanced interrogation, known throughout the rest of the world as torture. While the illegal acts were approved at the highest level of the US government, the UN insists those responsible still must be tried for war crimes, and if convicted, imprisoned.

By Richard (RJ) Eskow
147 People
The circle of right-wing Republicans and corporatist Clintonite Democrats is still intact. That means Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders will keep on promoting the right-wing agenda known as Simpson Bowles until their party loses all its political power at the polls.

Whistleblower Bradley Manning has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and he should receive it.

By William Boardman
Fraud at State?
Why would the State Dept have the oil industry write the report on the Keystone Pipeline?

By Kate Michelman
Why women chose Gosnell: Pa. politicians continue to make it harder for women to get safe abortions
Politicians continue to make it harder for women to get safe abortions. Pennsylvania lawmakers are not alone in developing strategies to regulate abortion care right out of existence. In fact, state legislatures have enacted 135 abortion restrictions in just the last two years, according to the Guttmacher Institute. It's important that women know that abortion is a legal, safe medical procedure.
Organized irresponsibility is destroying our planet while we insist on maximizing shareholder value.

In the US, citizens can be detained indefinitely and even executed without due process of law. There is no basis in the US Constitution for these asserted powers. The unconstitutional powers exist only because Congress, the judiciary and the American people have accepted the lie that the loss of civil liberty is the price paid for protection against terrorists.

By John Steinsvold
An Alternative to Capitalism (since we cannot legislate morality)
Perhaps for the first time in history, we, as a nation and as a people, have the ability to conduct our internal economic affairs without the need to use money. We have the necessary democratic government, we have the abundant resources, we have the educational facilities and also the technical knowledge to do so. In light of what is happening in our economy today, should we not, at least, explore this possibility?
It's been said that Americans have the most expensive urine in the world because of all the unneeded vitamins they take. But there is another unneeded substance that Americans ingest, thanks to all the drug ads on TV, that is much more serious: unneeded prescription drugs.

A new age of space exploration has begun. One of the most notable things we will likely see is a permanent colony on Mars. This could happen within 30 to 60 years, about a generation's time, when there would be an "irreversible migration" of humans from Earth to permanent space colonies. "This Mars colony will start off with a few thousand people, and then it may grow over 100 years to a few million people, but it will be there permanently. That should be really exciting, to be alive during that stage of humanity's history," Anderson told The Atlantic. Just like the European explorers had to first build their fleets to conquer the world, and the American settlers forged their own tools and laid railroads to conquer the Continent, the first phase the first phase of conquering space is one of preparation and self-sufficiency. "We're really not talking about if; we're talking about when."

Medical ethicist Harvey Fineberg says that three are paths forward for the ever-evolving human species: (1) to stop evolving completely, (2) to evolve naturally, or (3) to control the next steps of human evolution, using genetic modification, in order to make ourselves smarter, faster and better. This last, self-directed concept is known as "neo-evolution,' and it is within our grasp, he says. "What will come in the future?" the doctor asks. "As a species, are we destined to become something different?" He says that not only will people be able to change the cells in their own bodies, but will be able change the genes in their offspring so the next generation will have super capacities such as higher intelligence, more speed and strength, and longer lifespans. These developments might occur in the next 100 years, he says. The impacts on society are unknown but need to be based on wisdom.

By Cynthia Piano
A Spiritual Salute To Spring
The spiritual Creators/Warriors Gather and Rise with the Coming of a Fresh Live Spring.

By Thomas Farrell
In Memoriam: Chinua Achebe (1930-2013)
Chinua Achebe (1930-2013), the Nigerian novelist, was the author of the widely read novel THINGS FALL APART (1958) and its sequel NO LONGER AT EASE (1960), which deserves to be more widely read. Achebe was also the author of a controversial essay about Joseph Conrad's novel HEART OF DARKNESS. Even though I came to disagree with Achebe about Conrad's novel, Achebe's essay prompted me to think through exactly why I disagreed.
By Rachel Sierz
The Future Freaks Me Out
This opinion piece references pop culture to talk about the future of mankind and the potential ramifications (both negative and positive) of our on-going thrusts towards "progress." This blog post is on my Tumblr, but I will take it down if you need those 48 hours of exclusivity. Please let me know via email. Thanks, Rachel

"William McGinley, a partner at Patton Boggs, a Washington law firm, released a statement to CNN on Monday confirming a story that first appeared in the Daily Beast that the Office of Congressional Ethics is looking into the Minnesota congresswoman's presidential campaign."

and Paul's marathon 13-hour filibuster was not the end of the conversation on drones. Suddenly, drones are everywhere, and so is the backlash. Efforts to counter drones at home and abroad are growing in the courts, at places of worship, outside air force bases, inside the UN, at state legislatures, inside Congress--and having an effect on policy.

Jean Podrasky, 48, a lesbian who wants to marry her partner, will be at Tuesday's U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Proposition 8 in seating reserved for family members and guests of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Roberts is mostly a blank slate when it comes to gay marriage. So while Roberts' guest list may be nothing more than an example of a son trying to keep his mother happy, given how much of a question mark he represents, it's one that's sure to be analyzed by those on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate as everyone awaits this week's long-awaited action.

By Robert Weiner
Congress Voting Rights Act Power Is In The Constitution; Ginsburg and Gingrich Agree
In the oral debate over cutting down the power of the Voting Rights Act -- the law designed to assure enforcement of no discrimination against minorities' right to vote -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia stated last month, "This is not the kind of a question you can leave to Congress." He called the bill, "perpetuation of racial entitlement." He added, "It is very difficult to get out."
Obama's endless years of "negotiating" with the Republicans are his substitute for using the bully pulpit to make his case against them to the people -- his substitute for leadership.

By tariq al-maeena
Two letters, a decade apart
No matter how you look at it, the Iraq invasion engineered by the Bush administration ruined a country and spilled the blood of innocents, all to satisfy a megalomaniac US president who had lost touch with reality
Fifty years after "The Feminine Mystique", we've decided to shift the blame largely to women, per Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Her "Lean In" movement is at best highly ineffectual but more likely a distraction from the urgent priorities for change that would benefit all workers.

By Stephen Lendman
Expanding Guantanamo
In 2008, candidate Obama promised to close Guantanamo. Straightaway as president, he issued Executive Order titled "Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities."
As for Olivia saying she is "apolitical," I don't think so. She voted to rig the election for Fitz because she thought he would be the better president. She liked what he would do for the country. Sounds political to me. Certainly her vagina was also part of that decision! So in answer to your question, Cyrus, Olivia's vagina is political. For a definitive answer, best to ask Olivia again - although she has already said

Guardians of the Washington foreign policy consensus fear Rand Paul, not least for his allegedly isolationist foreign policy. Steve Breyman looks closely at the Rand's policy and fights it mostly moderate and non-threatening to foreign policy elites.

It's one thing to punish someone for calling attention to Israel's rank behavior. It is something else to insist that foul is actually fair -- to say the sewage smells like roses. Who would be reckless enough to imply such a nauseating thing and do so with a straight face before cameras with the whole world watching? How about the President of the United States?

Mike Malloy has been raising Cain his entire professional career. His voice and commentary have helped to keep truth in our political discussions of today. This past weekend he reflected a bit on hope for the future.



Latest Articles
Obama Spurns Palestinian Rights
He frankly doesn't give a damn. He spent three days in Israel. He showed one-sided support. He gave Palestinians short shrift. He spent token time in Ramallah.
THE ROYALTY/LOYALTY TRAP: Why Freedom of Speech is Affected
The Royalty/Loyalty trap: why the UK is stuck with the yolk of Monarchy.

Best News Links from the Web
Keep Guns Out of Criminal Hands - NYTimes.com
..Already, the gun lobby has exerted so much pressure on Republicans and red-state Democrats that the Democrats have dropped an assault weapons ban. The ban will be brought up as an amendment to the bills endorsed by the Senate leadership, dooming its chances.The Senate will take up a package of gun-control measures when it returns from recess . Poll after poll has shown that the vast majority of Americans support closing the loophole for private sales...No Republican has signed on as a co-sponsor. So talks are under way to water it down a bit, to attract enough Republicans to beat a filibuster and pressure the House to go along...Negotiators say the most likely compromise would require background checks for all commercial and advertised sales, including those on the Internet, along with sales at gun shows... but it would leave out unadvertised, person-to-person sales of guns."
The research shows that it is possible for bacteria to lie directly on the surface of a metal or mineral and transfer electrical charge through their cell membranes. This means that it is possible to 'tether' bacteria directly to electrodes -- bringing scientists a step closer to creating efficient microbial fuel cells or 'bio-batteries'.

Ari Emanuel is not pleased with Brian Williams. After sitting down for an interview for Rock Center alongside his brothers -- Rahm, the mayor of Chicago, and Ezekiel, a bioethicist -- Ari took issue with Williams' style of of questioning. So much so, that Ari sent a legal letter to NBC. Specifically, Ari took issue with Williams' apparently aggressive interviewing -- "asking the brothers about their connection to Israel and Ari's reputation as an ultra-aggressive Hollywood agent, among other things" -- when they were expecting a more lighthearted chat.

Now there is a crack in the theory, tiny at first but opening into a fissure, that casts doubt on how science observes the universe. The fault isn't that the mathematics was wobbly ad loose. Quite the opposite. The universe is too finely tuned to fit the random model. God isn't going to leap into the breach, although religion has reason to feel better about not accepting the so-called "accidental universe." The real fascination lies in how to match reality out there" with the potentiality of the human mind. Both are up for grabs. In the modern era, Sir Arthur Eddington and especially Paul Dirac first noticed that certain "coincidences" in dimensionless ratios can be found. These ratios link microscopic with macroscopic quantities. Whether we're speaking of genes and the brain or solar systems and galaxies, self-organization is present, operating through the constant activity of feedback.

Neo-atheists keep pitting the two against each other, however. Their audiences pee in their pants with delight when the flat-earth canard gets trotted out... Dogmatists pound their drums so hard that they can't hear one another. Their audiences, on the other hand, are unaware of the traveling dog and pony shows featuring the same adversaries over and over, who simulate surprise and "gotcha" moments. The only voice of reason in Puebla was that of Dan Dennett, who spoke about religion not as something hateful but rather as a phenomenon that begs investigation as part of human society, human nature even. Clearly, religion is man-made, so the question is what good does it do for us. Are we born to believe and, if so, why? Dennett is not as sure as the neo-atheists with whom he is often lumped together that religion is irrational or that the world would be a better place if its demise were...

More prisoners have joined a hunger strike at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, officials said Monday, as defense lawyers expressed alarm about one of the most sustained protests at the base in several years. There are 28 prisoners on hunger strike, up from 21 a week earlier, including three who were hospitalized for dehydration from refusing to eat, said Navy Capt. Robert Durand, a spokesman for the prison on the U.S. base in Cuba. The military is force-feeding 10 of the prisoners to prevent dangerous weight loss.

In a breakthrough that could one day yield important clues about the nature of matter itself, a team of Harvard scientists have succeeding in measuring the magnetic charge of single particles of matter and antimatter more accurately than ever before. "That is a spectacular jump in precision for any fundamental quality," Gabrielse said, of the antiproton measurements. "That's a leap that we don't often see in physics, at least not in a single step." Such measurements, Gabrielse said, could one day help scientists answer a question that seems more suited for the philosophy classroom than the physics lab -- why are we here? Though their results still fit within the predictions made by the standard model, Gabrielse said being able to more accurately measure the characteristics of both matter and antimatter may yet help shed new light on how the universe works.

Is the nature of a vacuum really fixed? Not so, according to two forthcoming papers. Researchers have identified a quantum level mechanism for interpreting a vacuum as being filled with pairs of virtual particles with fluctuating energy values. They've also discovered that physical constraints, such as the speed of light and the so-called impedance of free space, are indications of the total number of elementary particles in nature. This finding has further repercussions, though. There's the theoretical possibility that the speed of light is, in fact, not fixed. Instead, the speed could potentially fluctuate at a level that's independent of the energy of each light quantum, or photon, and that's also greater than fluctuations induced by quantum level gravity. Instead, the speed of light would depend on variations in the vacuum properties of space or time.

Due to some unique physical light absorption properties of nanowires, the limit of how much energy we can utilize from the sun's rays is higher than previous believed.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Afghan President Hamid Karzai made a show of unity Monday, shortly after the U.S. military ceded control of its last detention facility in Afghanistan, ending a longstanding irritant in relations between the two countries. Kerry, in Afghanistan for an unannounced visit, said he and Karzai were "on the same page" when it comes to peace talks with the Taliban. Karzai had infuriated U.S. officials by accusing Washington of colluding with Taliban insurgents to keep Afghanistan weak even as the Obama administration presses ahead with plans to hand off security responsibility to Afghan forces and end NATO's combat mission by the end of next year.

"This is the direction battery research is going, not only for something with high energy density but also high power density," Ajayan said. "It's somewhere between a battery and a supercapacitor."

The Israeli Supreme Court on Sunday rejected the state's request to postpone dismantling a large, unsanctioned West Bank settler enclave until late 2015, dealing a serious blow to settler hopes to keep dozens of rogue outposts standing. The ruling could ignite a violent showdown with settlers, who have vowed not to abandon their hilltop stronghold, Migron. The state submitted the delay petition earlier this month, seeking to bypass the high court's earlier order to dismantle the Migron outpost by March 31 because it was built on privately held Palestinian land.

Eight months before President Barack Obama's health care law goes prime time, a confederation of industry and business groups is ramping up its lobbying apparatus for an 11th-hour assault on the web of new taxes and regulations. Medical device makers, health insurers, retailers and restaurants are waging what lobbyists call a coordinated effort to gain Senate Democratic support for overturning $130 billion in taxes that will be used to fund the new law, and repealing a mandate requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for full-time workers or pay a fine.

"The lesbian cousin of Chief Justice John Roberts will attend this week's historic arguments on gay marriage as his guest. Some prominent politicians have changed their stand on gay marriage because of relatives, but for a justice, the impact is unknown."
Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 22:47