news media | Existential Ennui

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Al-Jazeera, Books, Dalai Lama, Entertainment, freedom of press, Individual Rights, Libya, memory, news media, no-fly zone, pensions, religion, spirituality, Steven King, Tibet, unions, Wisconsin

Well, a no-fly zone has been instituted over Libya. It may be too little, too late. I guess there is no way to know at this point.

I don’t know if it was the right thing to do or not, but I do know that doing nothing was unacceptable. Somehow we have to make it clear to petty dictators that murdering your massive opposition is not acceptable, no matter how many paid henchmen you can pay.

There is nothing clear about whether it will succeed or not–the no-fly zone I mean. Andrew Sullivan directs us to Marc Lynch and his views which I think are well worth reading. All depends, in his view, as to whether or not we can succeed and do so quickly. The stakes are high. Bahrain and Yemen are both now engaged in severe crackdowns against rebels in their nations. A quick success in Libya could give them pause. Otherwise, the cries for freedom may be muffled once again.

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Some good news in Wisconsin. A judge there has placed a temporary restraining order against the Govenator’s new union busting bill. A full hearing will be held, to determine the legality of the sleazy trick the GOP attempted by violating the “open records” law. There is some reason apparently to think that the judge might be inclined to the union side of the equation.

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Lest we forget, the GOP of course is claiming that union benefit packages, including pensions are grossly unfair and bloated. All the while they claim this, not a one of them refuses their own pension plans gifted to them by taxpayers. Steven King (R-IA), oinker from Iowa, claims his is “slim pickins”, while the FACTS seem to suggest just the opposite. Like health care, which they are also again, and which they also receive from the taxpayers. Me thinks King, et.al. speak with forked tongues.

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Did you know that in the three areas of the US that carry the english version of Al-Jazeera, it gets quite high ratings? Did you know that every time cable networks start to talk about putting them on the regular cable news lineup, the conservatives go bat shit crazy? Political Irony suggests, I guess we don’t have freedom of speech here unless it agrees with what corporate-owned media likes.

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As many of you know, the Dalai Lama has been the political and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people for many years. He has been in exile since 1959. Recently he signaled his intent to step down as political leader, feeling that the Tibetan people should be able to rule themselves. They don’t like the idea, and apparently do not intend to amend their constitution to make that possible. I guess it means that the Dalai Lama is doing something right. It’s hard to think of any leader that the people wish to remain in office in this world today. Maybe we should take a look.

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A book you might want to take a look at, called the Sufi’s Garden.

The Sufi’s Garland
by Manav Sachdeva Maasoom
Published by: ROMAN Books
Publication date: 25th March 2011
Price: $24.95 (Hardcover)
104 pp, 6-1/8 x 9-1/4″
ISBN: 978-93-80040-02-8

A small excerpt:

I went outside to see
if God’s voice
was disturbing anybody

I think I’m going to inquire about getting it for review. It looks simply divine. [h/t 3quarksdaily]

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I bet you forgot, that you used to memorize things. If you are old as me anyway, which is older than most trees, but not quite as old as the Jurassic. See, we used to memorize things like phone numbers and addresses. And we don’t have to do that any more, so we are beginning to lose our abilities to remember stuff. I can tell you that is true because I dare not send the Contrarian to the store to pick up five things without writing them down. Actually, make that three things.

Anyway, there is a new book out that helps you remember what you never knew, or something like that. How to remember stuff. Moonwalking with Einstein: the Art and Science of Remembering Everything. Read a review of it here.

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Okay, you got enough information to make you the hit of the party tonight. Have at it.