Lefty Blogs
williampfaff ++ ++
Russian News ++
seaton-newslinks. USA expat in Europe ++
bilegrip Asu spleen ++
us-rockstroh a rant, not a blog ++
aboutmyplanet eco ++
sfgate ++
crookedtimber ++
onthecommons ++
sjlendman ++
....
abutamam freeiraq ++
airamericaradio +
amygdalagf +
angryarab ++
annezook +
antiwar ++
norwegianity
terrorism-news
blogspot
ourtomorrow
politickybitch
welcome-to-pottersville
aviraqi
billmon ++ whiskeyB
consortiumnews ++
dahrjamailiraq
dailywarnews ++
drforbush +
english +
fallujahinpictures
freespeechradio
halcyondays ++
healingiraq
hereticalideas ++
icasualties
maru
om
boxspinning boxes

jamaicaobserver newspaper
jameswolcott +
lefarkins +
liberalgirlnextdoor ++
lonehighlander Libya, not lefty
mahablog +++ solid
maruthecrankpot +
indymedia melbourne
messopotamian +7Apr06
monkey ++
motherjones ++
fisk
nocapital +
norightturn +NZ
peakoil ++
pilger +
politicalhumor +
raedinthemiddle
rafahtoday Feb05?
rense w= wacko conspiracies
rigorousintuition x
hegemon ++
ruckus ++
rudepundit ++
satiricalpolitical +
scaramoucheblog ++
secretsinbaghdad ++15Ap06
Energring
aliveinbaghdad ++
riverbendblog ++
sideshow +++
signs-of-the-times +++
slashdot ++techy
talkleft ++
thinkprogress ++
thismodernworld +++
uncapitalist ++
velorution ++ bicycles
org ++Brazil peasants
warandpiece +
warfare.ru +russia military
greenpeace
allhatnocattle
alternet ++
americanpolitics
antiwar
gbruno ++YT
axisoflogic ++
blackcommentator
bobharris +
bradblog +
buckfush +funnies
buggery +
buzzflash ++
changeforamerica
countercurrents
counterpunch +++
crisispapers
crooksandliars ++?
csmonitor
dahrjamailiraqhref="http://www.dailykos.com/
davidcorn
democracynow
democracyuprising
dissidentvoice
earthfirstjournal
earthstation5
empirenotes
foodfirst
fpif
fromthewilderness
geocities
granta
grist ??
gristmagazine
guerrillanews
gulf
hizbollah
huffingtonpost ++
informationclearinghouse
infoshop +
inthesetimes x
iranmania x
ivaw
jihadunspun
juancole ++
kuro5hin ++ notlefty
kurtnimmo ++
lrb ++ Iraqi?
mahablog
lewrockwell ++
marklynas climate change
mnftiu get your war on comics
motherjones
nilemedia
nybooks
occupationwatch
oriononline
palestine
prisonplanet
rall ++ Ted Rall cartonist
ratical
redpepper
rense
robert
rollingstone
scoop
selvesandothers ++
smirkingchimp
snappingturtle
socialistworker
spiked
tblog
theiraqiroulette
theleftcoaster +
thepoorman +
tnr ++ magazine
tompaine ++ mag
traprockpeace ++
truthout +
boondocks ++
crowning3
. . . helix
Base
rain radar
Weather
worldtribunal +
worldwatch ++ $ required
zaman + Turkish news
youcantmakeitup + ?
youngfox ????????????
bareknucklepolitics videos?
popdrain videos??
discovery videos??
cs videos??
aegisIraq video??
mariyaguchi video??
iwilltryit video..
baghdadtreasure
ahram cairo newspaper
felbers
thepartyline
jfaughnan 28/04/2006 10:25AM
shrillblog +
thinkprogress +
marchforjustice + pictures
messopotamian + Iraqi not so radical, but scared (also see IraqTheModel which was a USA front, but is now also scared)
scaramoucheblog +
counterpunch
.............
blogads liberal blogs by CPM $ per view
malakandsky ++ stolid?
republicoft + black gay parent??
dailykos ++
rawstory ++
democraticunderground ++
atrios ++
workingforchange +
leftinthewest +
dembloggers +
talkingpointsmemo +
firedoglake ++
vastleft ++
pamspaulding +
americablog +
washingtonmonthly ++
mydd +
politics1 +
bartcop ++
politicalwire +
sisterstalk black lesbian?
culturekitchen ++
alternet
wonkette +++
billstclair +
freefreedomtoldhere ++ pipe bomb

......
almuajaha defunct
whynot defunct
winstonsmith defunct
samadams dormant
mquinn02 defunct
iraqblogcount ++14Apr06 suspended
iraqicomments most recent: jan2005
iraqidoctor most recent: Aug2005
georgemustgo + moved?
vialls ++Dormant (joe is dead)
warblogging Defunct
hammeroftruth quiescant?
mediastorm quiescant? +
bushwhackedusa defunct
hamasonline defunct
4Jul06

02 May 2003

The influential book:
Robert Jungk, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns (Penguin 1958).
This book, read as a 14 year old, made me a Communist and a Scientist. Although I never joined a party, or got a Ph.D.

Robert Oppenheimer became a hero to me.

One recent reviewer says Fuchs couldnt have become a spy because of the Hiroshima targeting, because he started years before the drop. This seems reasonable, but maybe a straw target. Fuchs became a spy, I seem to recall Jungk saying, because he felt the CCCP were USA allies & doing most of the anti-Hitler work, and deserved to share the knowledge.


I remember being very impressed by the discovery of the Omega minus particle in 1964, which Murray Gell-Man had predicted in 1962 based on group theory. (I had a sub to Scientific American). Sadly I never got the hang of Group Theory. Anyway Gell-Man never became a hero to me, maybe Richard P. Feynman did, later on.

Other Heros:
Linguists: Ivan Illich & Noam Chomsky
Theoretical Biologists: Bill Hamilton & Steven J Gould
Engineers: Bucky Fuller

All except Nim Chimpsky are dead, and all except Bucky are Left wingers I suppose...



_________________________________________________________________________
US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Elizabeth Jones
"What Gingrich says does not interest me. He is an idiot and you can publish that,"
aotearoa.indymedia


"It has never been this bad before," said Nada Ali.."It just seems to get worse every day. I used to have hope, but I can no longer believe we will be saved. No one cares for us.
"I have four people at home and my husband was killed during fighting in Basra. I have no money and I no longer know what to do," she said.

"We ought to be beating our chests every day...and say: 'Damn, we're Americans!'," Jay Garner told reporters
truthout

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

01 May 2003

Email to Andrew Brown,

An idea on the Nature-Nurture duality: There needs to be a third element, call it Chaos.

I believe that a complex biological system such as a mind/brain is formed by a process that is chaotic, ie: it cannot be completely explained by genetics or environment. A complex system is such that major results come from a multitude of "causes" so minor that they are unrepeatable, and beyond complete analysis. Obviously the connections on each neuron are not completely determined by genes. The best picture I have seen is Gerald Edelmans "Neural Darwinism".

In terms of "blame" I would not blame a persons behaviour on his ancestry, nor on her environment. The formation of a mind is like the formation of a hurricane. A butterfly flapping its wings before my eyes may have brought me to this state.
Better parents or better parenting may have been powerless to prevent my misdemeanors.
=======================================================================
Another thought: Its odd that Darwin's "Origin of Species" explains evolution adequately but actually fails to explain species.
I like Bill Hamilton's ideas on species and sexuality. Consider a species as a club, where members recognise each other by plumage, shape, behaviour etc.
The "chaotic attractor" here is then to remain the same, so as to be recognised. So there is a strong Anti-change force at work, which may explain Punc-Eq.
A species stays the same indefinitely. Biology is driving things Not to change. Change away from an "attractor" must be large, else it will flow back to the original attractor.

These ideas surfaced in me as a young boy sitting on the wharf. I wondered why there were two distinct forms of seagull, not a gradation between their forms. I was never convinced by the "environmental niche" theory. I reckon that the small red-bill and the large black back maintain discrete forms because of the "club" recognition requirements. There may not be a particular advantage in looking like a black-back, merely a "random" arrangement of colouration, like a club blazer. In another place, such as where I now live, the large scavenger may be a crow, which looks quite dissimilar to a black-back, but very much like other crows.

The "Common Sense" explanation for "why sex" is something like "Sex provides more change for evolution to work on"
This common sense idea is quite wrong. Evolution wants things to stay as they are. However, big slow organisms need to be in a club to exchange ideas (Immunology genes) on small fast parasites. Hence Sex & species. It is dangerous to exchange genes with just anyone, Hence Species.

Unexplained: Why not just exchange Immunology genes? Why have males? It may not be possible to evolve anything less than a full sized gene swapper (a male). I can imagine an animal which is just female, where small "sperm" containing just Immunology genes are exchanged but this may not be Evolutionarily stable. Chromosomes themselves may tend towards equality.

Also Unexplained: Dandelions. They have no males, dont seem to feel the need. Why dont they drift into different forms? Maybe the dandelion is perfect. Certainly the dandelion seed head is beautiful, perhaps it is perfectly beautiful.

=====================================================================

Religion: considered as a club where impossible things are believed before breakfast. Transubstantiation, for example, is so impossible that to believe it requires the mind to "snap" out of the rational. Maybe we need to "snap" out of the rational to be in communion.

One reason I am so upset by the April 2003 US war on Iraq is the "reasons" given were so absurd. They seemed to me to be an attempt to use a religious-like mind snap. The vocabulary of reason is essential in this technique. In religion we were taught that the bread "really, actually" becomes the body of Christ, not just "symbolically". This use of language is designed drive you briefly beyond reason, ie mad. Not so problematic for a weekly communion. Similarly maddening pseudo-reasons eg. "The enemy has attacked us" when he patently hasn't, cause me not just to disagree, but to feel pained by the use of rational language forms to produce a lasting anti-rational state in a population, leading to high-explosives on the heads of thousands.

=====================================================================

Gloria feels the heat
Her Father was dumped by the USA despite doing everything they demanded
Mindanao next target of US oil imperialism?


Where there's blood there's oil.
Look at Aceh, North Sumatra, thats where Jakarta gets its oil.
In 1980, when I was playing at being a capitalist on Liberty Plaza (sic) opposite WTC tower2, I was constantly bemused by USAnians complaining that "we shouldn't give those 3rd world people so much aid, they're so ungrateful"
I tried to tell people that the USA took in far more than it gave. As old Walt Wriston, City Bank boss, said, "Around here, Jakarta pays the bills". Walt was known for his bluntness. At a conference on the social responsibility of Banks he got up and said "we dont have a social responsibility, we have a responsibility to our shareholders".

Some "Iraq" pictures, including the fake Saddam statue toppling
and a nostalgic shot from WTC plaza of my old work-place in the BT (Black Tower, Bankers Trust, or Wankers Truss as we called it)
Pictures

Sydney Morning Herald, another good column on Imperialism.
smh Pushed to the left by Murdoch's "Australian" lurch to slimy racism and USAnian toadying?
Imperialists without the right stuff

82nd Airborne, scared shitless in Falluja, still shooting children
islamonline

Blame it on Revelations. Which was certainly not written by St. John.
Without Revelations, Christianity would be a different fish. And the Blood-Cultists now controlling the USA would need a different apocalyptic delusion to impose on us.

"Ahmed Chalabi: The Janos Kadar of Iraq" by B. Raman,
Chalabi, who was allegedly helping the Mossad,... used to visit Israel secretly. ..he became close to the late Albert Wohlstetter.. "a godfather of the neoconservative movement in the US,"
rumormillnews

Genghis Khan's grandson burnt the city in the 13th century and, so it was said, the Tigris river ran black with the ink of books. Yesterday, the black ashes of thousands of ancient documents filled the skies of Iraq.
Year Zero in Iraq

The war is not over; it has not even begun. Iraq has been betrayed from within, the regime having cut a deal with the invaders. The resistance now remains deferred. ......a veritable Palestine writ large
Aijaz Ahmad

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

30 April 2003


Australian Govt computer game prize awarded to "Escape from Woomera"
refugee rescue from prison camp simulation
received the money from the Australia Council
Escape from Woomera



NY Times has a picture of Saraiha Behzadi, a member of a combat unit of the People's Mujahedeen, performing maintenance on her tank
USA has signed a cease fire with this "terrorist" group in Iraq, I suppose that means that they are "our terrorists"
Saraiha maintains her tank

82nd Airborne withdraw from school after 5 days occupation, leaving 15 unarmed people dead.
Falluja liberates school from occupiers

Cargill guy appointed to supervise Iraq agriculture (Cargill, the worlds biggest private company, wants to control all the worlds grain. Theyre not there yet.]

Cisco to hardwire snooping in its routers


...Eventually, the euro would emerge as an alternative world currency, to which developing nations would flock when bullied by the United States. The Pirate's worst nightmare is that oil producing countries switch to the euro, unhitching oil prices from the dollar and causing the U.S. currency to fall to its natural, debt-burdened value.
blackcommentator


NYTimes says the lawyer who "helped U.S commandos locate and rescue ..Jessica Lynch" has been given asylum. ... What about the USAnian troops who fired on the ambulance when the Iraqi were trying to deliver Jessica days before? do they get some kind of medal?
who rescued Jessica?

"we have been burying invaders for centuries - and we have plenty of spaces next to General Maude."

bin Laden wins one?
"..the departure of American forces [from Saudi Abaria], except for a 400-member training mission that has been deployed since the Truman administration.." [those 400 guys must be getting extremely old]



Arcata, Calif., (population 16,000) is the first to pass an ordinance that outlaws voluntary compliance with the federal Patriot Act. To date, 89 cities have passed resolutions condemning the Patriot Act ... Arcata is the first to actually outlaw compliance.
americanfreepress

Privilege Revoked
The government says it can pry into the attorney-client relationship all it wants.
Attorney-clientprivilege defunct


SARS The head of the Canadian WHO lab found so few copies of the coronavirus in so many cases that he doubts it's the cause.
But Toronto police chief (correction of previous post) does seem to want to put any demonstrators in prison for one year if they commit _any_ offence at a demo.
SARS is a handy excuse to snatch anyone into indefinite solitary...
sars_for_wimps


Israelis writing numbers on Palestinians skin - who says Irony is dead?

Everything was booby trapped. Even the walls of houses. Just touch them, and they blow up. Or, they would shoot you the moment you entered. There were charges in the roads, under the floor, between the walls.....
"For me, in the D-9, it was nothing. I didn't mind. You would just hear the explosions.
Drunk in a D9 in Jenin

some leftish links
commondreams
avnery
US Fear
alternet
tompaine
whatreallyhappened
spiked-online

___________________________________________________________

28 April 2003


smirkingchimp is back, bitter as ever
For real bitter humour see
Get Your War On (thanks NYTimes for the url)

27 April 2003

27April
Whale rider the movie
Every good movie needs one astounding image.
Leon Narby (dir photography)(a buddy of Francis P. in 1969)
has Pai riding a whale underwater,
Cut seamlessly to beautiful actual whale shots.
Overheard in King St after the screening
"It was so beautiful it makes me want to go back to New Zealand right away"
Whale rider the movie
________________________________________________________________
Chopped off the Web:
www.smirkingchimp.com the best, the most foaming at the mouth, anti Dubya site
I hope the loss is technical, not political, and I hope Smirking Chimp is back soon.
Smirking Chimp

________________________________________________________________
26April
Kut today, American marines said they had convinced a Shiite cleric, Sayed Abbas,
to leave peacefully on Friday evening.

Baghdad explosions

Baghdad At least six Iraqi civilians were killed on the outskirts of Baghdad today when explosions ripped through an ammunition dump guarded by American troops in their neighborhood. Military officials said a group of attackers had fired a flare into the cache



________________________________________________________________
How to make a fortune through misfortune:

SARS will need a 2 minute test if its to be halted.
Someone in California in the next months will make a DNA chip
with a thousand chunks of SARS sequences.
There is a market of hundreds of millions.
The biotech company that makes this will boom
________________________________________________________________
AnnandaleGalleries
A new movement in NE ArnhemLand bark paintings.
If you tend to walk past bark paintings to get to the Central Desert works,
check out the exhibition at Annandale Galleries 110 Trafalgar St Annandale Sydney (until 17May?)

Conflicting essays state that the images are more abstract because:
1) the animal & human figures were intended to obscure secret clan images and now can be removed, partially
2) the market prefers abstraction to figures

Whatever, this room will stop you in your tracks, austere and rich, earth pigments shimmering.
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