Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Sunday, December 20, 2009
It was 20 years ago today
Hi Mickey...I voted. Also when at the mall check out the war toys. Then find someone to complain to about them.
Thanks for the Panama reminder. Maybe someday they will teach about it in schools - or maybe not. Being in denial is so much less stressful.
Health care update - looks like the insurance companies are going to have 31 million new customers. They are doing a happy dance on Wall Street as their stocks soar.
Posted by RMJ from Ward Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 12/20 at 11:50 AMHi RMJ. Every year, when I post about the Panama invasion, I think of you.
How much snow did you get in Vermont? We got close to a foot in NYC.
Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 12/20 at 12:01 PMHere’s what I remember about 1989: it was the year that Tim Burton’s Batman movie came out and everyone was wearing Batman t-shirts (myself included). I remember hearing about the Panama invasion but didn’t know much about it. In fact, I didn’t know much about any of America’s foreign interventions until I picked up a copy of The Seven Deadly Spins. And here I am today.
Posted by Charles from Jersey City on 12/20 at 12:03 PMI’m still annoyed about the treatment of activists at that ridiculous summit meeting and in general.
Then I got thinking, activists go out on largely peaceful meetings. At worse some militants smash a window of a Starbucks. They are trying to change society for peace and greater freedoms.
They must be arrested immediately, the law cannot be broken, they must go down and be made an example of.
But what are the law makers doing? Let’s take Iraq.
Over one million deaths and millions injured or displaced. Cities bombed to pieces with literally trillions of dollars worth of damage to city infrastructure and the personal property of innocent civilians.
Why are we they doing it again? Oh, that’s right ... to bring peace and greater freedoms.
So what’s the lesson? The more damage you do, and the more people you maim and kill, the more legal it becomes?
Posted by Andy from Shanghai on 12/20 at 12:06 PMFurther proof that reading can be dangerous.
Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 12/20 at 12:06 PMI was replying to Charles. Hi Andy.
Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 12/20 at 12:06 PMHi Charles and Andy...Yes to your comments. Those who are the most willing to kill have the power to control everything.
Mickey...This time we were spared. No snow. Just very cold and a lot of ice from previous storms. One of the ongoing problems up here is that car doors freeze and you can’t open them. I have tried a lot of things but am still searching for the real solution. Seeing all of the snow that you got was very interesting. Even the Jersey shore got it this time. That’s unusual. All the years that I lived there, I did not even own a real snow shovel - just a little kid’s one. Now every year I wear out a few big ones.
Posted by RMJ from Ward Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts on 12/20 at 01:03 PMHi All from overcast hell-A,
@Andy - what about the interesting fiction that corporations are a “legal person”, but one that has certain advantages in that they cannot be locked up for their crimes and is immortal (as long as they don’t go bankrupt - but if they do, they cease to exist with no comeback on the “owners")? And of course the law works in the corporation’s favor...but then, they have a lot of $$$ so I shouldn’t be shocked by that, I guess.
As for protesting, I was surprised when I stumbled across Jensen’s take on Gandhi’s protest methods, the only time I have ever found anybody agree with my take on it.
Posted by subgenius from hell-A on 12/20 at 04:21 PMOh, and a strange and generally unknown little piece of the history of warfare:
Do you know when the last invasion of British soil occurred and who staged the attack?
It was John Paul Jones, father of the American Navy, who invaded the port of Whitehaven in April 1778 as part of the American Revolutionary War!
http://www.jpj.demon.co.uk/whitehaven.pdf
Posted by subgenius from hell-A on 12/20 at 04:28 PMhi all
and for andy in particular, with regard to your comments about the violence…
how on earth do you think all those people got lordships and baronetcies all those years ago that were subsequently passed from generation to generation?
a hereditary title in britain mostly means “One of my ancestors was a butcher for the crown or state”
Posted by michael from not scotland on 12/20 at 06:03 PMThanks for reminding us of Panama, Mickey - and of all sorts of other things, to say nothing about your alerts.
Hi, Rosemarie, Charles, Andy, subgenius and Michael. I hope you won’t have to shovel too much snow in the months to come, Rosemarie - still remember your accounts of past years.
Here in Daylesford we expect about 80F today - quite pleasant. We’re off to Melbourne tomorrow (Tuesday 22 December) to celebrate Christmas with most member of the Fremlin ‘clan’. Back on Saturday and off to Melbourne again next Monday 28 Dec, but only for one day as it is my mother-in-law’s birthday.
Take care, all of you!
Posted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia on 12/20 at 06:45 PMHi Everyone
Michael + Sub ..yeah, I know, I’m posing the point rhetorically, of course.
Sub, yes that is another legendary double standard. The corporation is deemed a person legally so they can defend it’s ‘rights’ ..but it seemingly cannot be prosecuted as a normal person.
If I personally went around and dispersed 100 tonnes of chemical waste into rivers and lakes, out of barrels that I put in my truck or whatever, I’d rightly be arrested immediately and label one of the world’s worst nutters ever. The media would jump on it and label me something like The Liverpool Poisoner. It would go down in history and no time or expense would be spared to put my away for life and fill the books with stories of how bad it was.
Now, didn’t we just remember that corporations are legally ‘people’.
Posted by Andy from Shanghai on 12/21 at 02:26 AMI just may go with your “double standard” concept for a post soon, Andy.
In the meantime, there’s a fun new post up now.
Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria on 12/21 at 08:27 AM
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