Saturday, March 27, 2010

Open Thread

The Budget of War site has some interesting statistics about what we spend on killing machines.

One and one half million children (1,500,000) are homeless in the United States, and even more adults are homeless.

Another Atlantis sinks under the waves; like a huge area of Antarctica seems to have done long ago.

Speaking of waves, why does a tiny moon of Jupiter, named Europa, have twice as much water on it than all of earth's oceans have?

What is up with the mystery hexagon on Saturn, or with its moon Enceladus, which is spewing water into space so as to make Saturn's outer ring?

When "hard science" is mysterious, "political science" is bound to be beyond the pale, so rebel science weekend anyone?

6 comments:

  1. Regarding budget, the good news is that the "Global War on Terror" is actually proving to be a resounding success, as the world's main terrorist threat - U.S. global imperialism - is slowly but surely spending itself into bankruptcy. I've been optimistically projecting 2020, but with recent events, I don't think we have nearly that long. Financial insolvency is and will continue to open up fissures in the rest of our public life as well, as various constituencies get kicked overboard in its wake. Americans have become spoiled, bloated, and corrupt over the past 50 years or so, as we've taken ours and a good share of everyone else's too from the global pie. It was a good run - albeit quite brief as global empires go - while it lasted.

    I see that Eric Cantor's (R-VA) back in the news. He too is claiming shots fired at his Richmond VA campaign office and receiving threatening emails. All this by way of taking the sting off Dem congressional members' accusations against GOP followers, which he claims "it is reckless to use these incidents as media vehicles for political gain." Ahh, the loveable GOP. Just when you think that accusations that they might be the 21st century version of Hitler's SS are a little over the top, they go and stoke the fire of that belief once again.

    I think the 2010 midterms are gonna be especially interesting now, all the more so if the GOP suffers a major meltdown as it now appears they might. In that case, it might be wise to batten down the hatches, as armed conflict might go from virtual to real here in the good ol' USA. We might finally get a feel for how much all that video gaming pays off for our future civil warrior generation. If nothing else, I'll bet the graphic violence will hardly give them pause whatsoever.

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  2. disaffected,

    RE Cantor: the Richmond police say that the building hit (not in his district), which was not his office window but the outside window, was hit when a random bullet was fired straight up in the air and was carried randomly to that building.

    He is a liar.

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  3. Dredd,

    I read that too, but of course Cantor knows that that fact will get lost in the hysteria. Propaganda is a very effective tool, as it highlights the facts that reinforce the true believers' beliefs, and conveniently ignores those that don't.

    Once again, it's all the more effective because the GOP marches in lockstep on the matter. This came one day after John McCain appeared on Today spouting the same shit, and you can be sure there will be more of the same should they deem it necessary.

    Once you lower yourself to fabricating facts and entire events all bets are off. We are already well into that phase. My first questions when I read any MSM account of a news "event" are, is this even remotely "true" as stated, if its being "spun," who is doing the spinning and why, and what grander strategy(s) is the event a part of? We're living in house of mirrors now, where nothing is as it appears.

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  4. disaffected,

    They will not have to resort to violence since, as propaganda would have it as you say, MOMCOM has the media trained to tell folks that voting machine fraud (election control) is a conspiracy theory.

    The post Election Conspiracy Theory Confirmed? is more to the point.

    They will resort to fraudulent elections well before they resort to a shooting war.

    They are quite well versed in that aspect of elections, plus, the controlling democrats like dogs salivating at the sound of a Pavlovian bell, will not consider such a thing (electronic voting fraud) to even exist.

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  5. No,"they" will not have to resort to violence, as their virulent followers will do it for them. That's the beauty about creating a lunatic hysterical fan base; "you" the creator don't have to actually "do" anything. You just stir up your idiot supporters to do it for you.

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  6. I think the tea baggers are a creation of the astroturfing neoCon elements, and since it is astroturf it will wear out because it cannot grow naturally.

    It is simply a hate sink that will rot with the rest of the garbage.

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