Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
9/11 movies, anti-war protests, and "illegal" humans
Fine article MZ—like how you synthesized your recent “stream of conscious” ideas.
And to answer your question, no, it’s never “too soon” for such an idea: everyone just needs to call a spade a spade. Then maybe the bovine citizens of this country will wake up and learn how to confront the truth of it all, and then do something about it. But that will no doubt be “illegal” as well…
captcha = doing
Posted by RT on from The Buyou City 05/03 at 06:23 AMGood morning RT...That is a great article Mickey. You say it like it is. I would only add that the proof the the USA does not care about the lives or safety of anyone, including its own citizens, lies in the fact the 18,000 in the US die every year from lack of health care. That is like having a 9/11 every 60 days - but worse, because we are doing it to ourselves. It is hypocrisy to mourn for the 3000 and then ignore the 18,000 that could be saved. Maybe it boils down to a matter of social class. Those who were wealthy enough to buy a plane ticket should be mourned but those without health care don’t count. What a country this is!!! Predatory Capitalism exists in every nook and cranny of this country. It has infected the health care delivery system and kills 18,000 every year.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/03 at 08:32 AMGood morning to you too, RMJ. You bring up an excellent point regarding the U.S. healthcare system (sic). Thanks to privatization and the “invisible hand” of the market, plus cuts in social spending etc., it barely even exists…
But I guess the most striking thing is the fact that the U.S. government agreed that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.” That’s taken from the UN’s Universal Declcaration of Human Rights, to which our government signed…
To all: Barsamian interviews Zinn in the new issue of Z: http://tinyurl.com/ru6hq
Posted by RT on from The Buyou City 05/03 at 09:16 AMDead on in your article, Mick. Great quote from Lou Reed.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 05/03 at 09:23 AMa flight 93 movie? well I spose if studios can make believe Tom Cruise is more than three feet tall then having cellphones function at 30,000 feet won´t be any big deal in the public-credibility stakes.
Posted by Owen on from barcelona 05/03 at 09:41 AMHi RT...good comment you make. Too bad that the Declaration of Human Rights is just a joke in the USA. I don’t blame the government as much as I blame the citizens. Those who have health care have turned their backs on those who don’t. Recently I have attended many meetings on Health Care. Too many of those who have health care blame those who don’t and say that it is their fault for not being more “responsible”. There is a spirit of meanness in this country. It is a taboo topic. We are allowed to criticize the government but not allowed to criticize the CEO of the hospital who is laughing all the way to the bank.//////////This morning on one of the morning programs the CEO of an oil company was interviewed. He was very clear in his justification for the outrageous profits of the oil companies. He said that his loyalty and responsibility was to the stock holders. It is the same issue with the health care industry that is killing 18,000. Until we start having massive protests against Predatory Capitalism nothing will improve. Damn the CEO’s, Damn the stock holders, Damn Wall Street. How many people will die, not only in this country, because of Wall Street today?
Hi JOS...thanks for your kind words yesterday.
My captcha word is “love”Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/03 at 09:57 AMHi Owen. We were simultyping.
About Wall Street....the quote from the movie says it all, “Greed is good.” As long as that mind-set prevails in the US we are doomed. We need an EXPOSE WALL STREET DAY.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/03 at 10:11 AMRMJ : I agree. And it’s not as if we lack the technology to provide adequate healthcare either. We have perhaps the best medical tech in the world… but again, the problem is nobody can afford it…
Similarly, we have superior emergency care when compared to other advanced countries, but that doesn’t properly account for the lack of focus on prevention: treatments, medicine, etc. which might reduce the need for emergency care in the first place. What’s more, our tax dollars go towards all kinds of research for cures for things which would otherwise be preventable if it weren’t for the toxification of our planet (thanks in large part to giant corporations who try to shove their poisonous products down our throats). Not to mention the advertising dollars spent in trying to do so. Just goes to show that there is a bias against public goods and services in our “free market” system; private profit is all that matters.Oh yeah, and I agree: Wall Street is indeed an excellent film.
Posted by RT on from The Buyou City 05/03 at 10:59 AMYou’re welcome, RMJ.
Something from Amnesty International and it’s recent report on the US Government creating a climate of torture:
“The heaviest sentence imposed on anyone to date for a torture-related death while in US custody is five months—the same sentence that you might receive in the US for stealing a bicycle. In this case, the five-month sentence was for assaulting a 22-year-old taxi-driver who was hooded and chained to a ceiling while being kicked and beaten until he died,” said Curt Goering.
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR510702006
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 05/03 at 01:12 PMDamn, five months is way too little for stealing a bicycle.
I say as a lifelong NYC cyclist…
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 05/03 at 01:48 PM‘Forty people died on the doomed United Flight 93. With all due respect, that’s a typical Wednesday in Iraq.’ Thanks for putting things in perspective, Mickey, and thanks for not going along with all that flag-waving and jingoism (captcha = along)!
And a warm welcome to RT, Owen, Rosemarie, JOS and RT. Oh, and I think Lou Reed’s quote is a great one, too.
A dry day coming up in Daylesford if one believes the weather forecasts. Let’s see whether they have made the right predictions.
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 05/03 at 01:52 PMAnd Rosemarie, there is a ‘spirit of meanness’ in Australia as well - encouraged by our current government who love stoking those flames ..
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 05/03 at 02:10 PM“Depopulation should be the highest priority of foreign policy towards the third world, because the US economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries.”— H.K.Nat. Sec. Study Memo. 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests”, 04/24/74— Henry Kissinger
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/03 at 03:47 PMHello Expendables. Sorry I’ve missed all the fun but I love the comments above. As captcha sez: You’re the “best.”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 05/03 at 04:44 PMP.S. A very busy Mudge sends along this message:
Tell the Expendables that I love them all and want to come home soon.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 05/03 at 04:51 PMhey Rosemarie, I mentioned that Memo 200 last month, I´ll post again what I found about Kissinger, that he recommended that the populations of the 14 “least developed” countries be reduced by 50%. He said a nuclear bomb was too obvious so he had a more subtle solution. In the seventies the WHO vaccinated 100 million Africans based out of a lab in the middle of the Rwandan jungle, ostensibly to protect against a smallpox epidemic that nobody had been complaining about funnily enough, and what do you know, up pops an AIDS epidemic. In New York and San Franciso in the seventies thousands of gay men were vaccinated for hepatitus...for a government to take an interest in gay health in the 70s was out of this world remarkable - but less so when the AIDS virus made its presence as it did among gay men in NY and SF. The 14 countries Kissinger named in Memo 200 are the 14 countries with the highest rate of AIDS sufferers.
Posted by owen on from barcelona 05/03 at 06:20 PMOwen....thanks for expanding on the Kissinger topic. Too bad that the Press never reports things like that.
Hi Helga, Mickey, and James. If Mudge doesn’t come home soon we will have go and get him.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 05/03 at 06:43 PMI agree, RMJ...not to mention: Hawk, Jeremy, Chris, Empress, Youngfox, and so many other Expendables.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 05/03 at 07:57 PM
Next entry: Penises, pesticides, prayers, & petroleum prices
Previous entry: Albert Camus analyzes Dubya, Iraq, and "a world in despair"
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
