[Marxism] Fake Elections Won’t Bring Peace to Afghanistan

[Nasir Khan]

By Eric Margolis | Information Clearing House, Aug 18, 2009

This week’s presidential election in Afghanistan will be an elaborate
piece of political theater designed to show increasingly uneasy
Western voters that progress is being made in the war-torn nation
after seven years of US-led occupation.

Most Afghans already believe they know who will win the vote: the
candidate chosen by the United States and its NATO allies.

Voting will mostly be held in urban areas, under the guns of US and
NATO troops. The countryside, ruled by Taliban, who are often local
farmers moonlighting as fighters, is too dangerous for this electoral
charade. Over half of Afghanistan is under Taliban influence by day,
75% at night.

 Continues >> 
http://nasir-khan.blogspot.com/2009/08/fake-elections-wont-bring-peace-to.html


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Re: [Marxism] District 9

[Mark Lause]

Personally, I'm afraid I'll never see another medieval battle scene
without waiting to see Peter Cook as Richard III wandering around like
he did in Black Adder.

ML


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Re: [Marxism] District 9

[Les Schaffer]

David McDonald wrote:
> Behold, you anti-shaky camera fucks, and weep:
>
> http://www.strimoo.com/video/15601236/Chimes-at-Midnight-1965-by-Orson-Welles-Veoh.html
>   


big deal, so Orson Welles watched Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky one day 
and decided to try a battle scene himself (a guess)...

"Best sequence ever" as if 

Les, who watched The Third Man today and who's hair stands on end 
watching Citizen Kane


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[Marxism] District 9

[David McDonald]

Behold, you anti-shaky camera fucks, and weep:

http://www.strimoo.com/video/15601236/Chimes-at-Midnight-1965-by-Orson-Welles-Veoh.html

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Re: [Marxism] Woodstock, or how art lasts longer than politics

[Nestor Gorojovsky]

Les Schaffer escribió:
> Néstor Gorojovsky wrote:
>> Well, there are some 5.7 billion people outside USofAm. Maybe a few
>> won´t remember that Nixon ruled in 1969, or a few may even ignore who
>> was Nixon. But more than you can guess will find Santana´s solos a
>> masterpiece, etc.
> 
> 
> i know i do how did his collaboration with John McLaughlin  and The 
> Mahavishnu Orchestra get received down your way?
> 

Dear Les, I am afraid I´m too partial to give a sound answer. I was so 
stunned by his "Mira cómo va" that I could never accept that his further 
experiments were, as most people (at least most people that I know) 
believed here, bad music.


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[Marxism] Iceland: what ugly secrets are waiting to be exposed in the meltdown?

[Dennis Brasky]

>
> Almost a year since the collapse of the Icelandic banks, the rotten nature
> of these financial corpses is slowly beginning to emerge.
>
> <
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/6034654/Iceland-what-ugly-secrets-are-waiting-to-be-exposed-in-the-meltdown.html
> >
>
>
> "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire*
>
>
>

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Re: [Marxism] Alexander Cockburn RIP

[Tom Cod]

No surprise to us out here on the North Coast of CA where Cockburn lives and 
where his home print rag, the Anderson Valley Advertiser (AVA), is published.  
Cockburn has shown his true colors as a 5th Columnist to us in his weekly 
column for years on both national and local issues.  His recent column in the 
AVA is psuedo ultra-left posturing baiting Henry Louis Gates as a shuffling 
phony.   I wonder if he would say that about ML King, I wouldn't put it past 
him.  For us locally, his real character became clear in his role in the Judi 
Bari case where he and his buddy, AVA tabloid publisher Bruce Anderson, loudly 
circulated the story that Earth First activist Bari, who was critically injured 
by a car bomb in 1990 was not the victim of the government, lumber companies or 
even irate renegade loggers, but rather a domestic violence conspiracy by her 
former Maoist ex-husband, an assertion for which there is absolutely no 
evidence.  This, of course, plays the role of rodeo clowns, shifting the focus 
from the real political issues to personal gossip, outrageous personal attacks 
and completely obscuring and covering over the inflammed political atmosphere 
that existed here around "Redwood Summer".  It would be one thing to 
politically disagree with Earth First as an amateurish petty bourgois carnival 
with anti-working class attitudes with references to the traditions of the Old 
Left etc which had a long and deep history here before WW2.  It's another thing 
to use that to conciously cover up for boss terrorism.  It is interesting to 
note that a book that promoted this bullshit that Bruce and Cockburn promoted 
was written by Kate Coleman, former baiter of the Black Panthers, whose book 
was published by Horowitz' outfit.
I really think Cockburn and Anderson are doing this consciously.  Certainly the 
level of their personal attacks are such that one questions if they have any 
scruples at all.  As the masses become more radicalized and politically 
literate, the utility of boorish clowns like Bill O, Hannity and Beck to the 
ruling class will diminish resulting in a turn to more seasoned and 
sophisticated liberal baiting left bashers from among former radical leftists.  
It was exactly this kind of individual that the ruling class turned to in 
Mussolini, a former editor of a left wing socialist newspaper, for the kind of 
"new" thinking and leadership they needed in combatting the working class and 
Marxism.  In this regard, several years ago Bruce Anderson assaulted a liberal 
Ukiah, CA city councilman after he called him "a tenth rate McCarthyite hack" 
and served 60 days in jail for it.  Later he laughingly commented, "I'm at 
least a 9th rate McCarthyite" hack.  True and he gets an award for taking 
psuedo trotskyist sectarian politics and rhetoric to a completely "higher 
level." 




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Re: [Marxism] Woodstock, or how art lasts longer than politics

[RicardoStarkey]

In a message dated 8/18/2009 6:01:03 P.M. Pacific Daylight  Time, 
ricardostar...@aol.com writes:
 
 
only two members of the Mahavishnu 
Orchestra are  on  it.


Of course it's 3, counting  McLaughlin.  Only Jerry Goodman and Rick Laird 
were missing.  






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Re: [Marxism] Woodstock, or how art lasts longer than politics

[RicardoStarkey]

In a message dated 8/18/2009 5:21:06 P.M. Pacific Daylight  Time, 
schaf...@optonline.net writes:
 
 
"how did [Carlos Santana's] collaboration with John  McLaughlin  and The 
Mahavishnu Orchestra get received down your  way?"


 
Wasn't there just one  album done between Santana and McLaughlin?  The one 
I have is _Love  Devotion Surrender_, and only two members of the Mahavishnu 
Orchestra are  on it.
 
It came out in '73, and  here are the performers:
 
CS:   guitar
JM:  guitar,  piano
 
Khalid Yasin (Larry  Young):  Organ
Armando Peraza:   Congas
Billy Cobham (from  Mahavishnu):  Drums
Don Alias:   Drums
Jan Hammer (from  Mahavishnu):  Drums
Doug Rauch:   Bass
Mike Shrieve:   Drums
 
Fine album!







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[Marxism] Appeal for support for Honduran resistance

[Stuart Munckton]

Intro note from Felipe S Couronyer

I am forwarding you a fund appeal for the Honduran fight for restoration of
democracy being waged by the grassroots social, indigenous, student, and
labor movements of that besieged country.

The appeal is from Rights Action, a longstanding human rights organization
whose main focus is on Central America. Rights Action is rooted both in
Canada and the United States. At this time it has two representatives in
Honduras who are aiding the process of getting rapid, vital information out
to the world-wide solidarity movements. They also working closely with human
rights organizations and with the National Front Against the Coup.

The Director of Rights Action is Graham Russell. Graham is a human rights
lawyer. I first me him in 1991 when he came through Managua as part of his
work as the lawyer for the Central American Human Rights network. When he
returned to Canada he launched, together with others concerned about human
rights in Latin America, an organization that took the name of Rights
Action. I have followed RA's work over the years since then, and can vouch
for the high degree of commitment and effectiveness of its work.

Many of the reports I have sent out on the Honduran coup have leaned heavily
on information coming from Rights Action. So I want to heartily endorse
their fund appeal. If those receiving this message give their "grano de
mais" (kernel of corn) in response, the many responses will make for a large
sum to be transferred to grassroots groups in Honduras.

Below, Rights Action provides a statement of funds (US $35,000) already
sent, a good chunk of it to the National Front against the Coup.

The goal for the next period is to raise US $135,000. There is a Table below
that sets forth where that sum will be distributed in Honduras by category.

Yours in solidarity

Felipe Stuart
Managua, Nicaragua / Delta, Canada



FUND-RAISING APPEAL - August 18, 2009
RESISTING & ROLLING BACK THE COUP-REGIME IN HONDURAS:
IN DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACY & THE RULE OF LAW
BELOW: A summary of funds Rights Action has distributed thus far and an
appeal for more funds
* * *
The people of Honduras enter their 8th week of resistance to the repressive
military coup regime in Honduras, since the June 28th coup.

Theirs is a struggle to restore the government of President Zelaya and
continue on their path to bring about real democratic reforms.
This is a struggle of Hondurans for Honduras, and it is a struggle of the
Americas.  Across the continent, there are struggles going on between poor
majorities and wealthy and powerful elites who resist change to the status
quos in their countries and in the Americas.
With global support and activism, there is a chance that the Honduran people
can turn back the coup!  It is very difficult, the repression, rights
violations and destruction of democracy are happening now, but the need and
desire are there, in the Honduran people.
We write to ask for donations that we will used by Rights Action and
channeled to our groups in Honduras, for their work in defense of democracy
and the rule of law.
To date, Rights Action has channeled $35,000 to:
National Front Against the Coup: flights, Hond – Costa Rica, negotiations
mediated by Oscar Arias: 1,710
National Front Against the Coup: flights & costs, Hond - Washington DC:
3,543
National Front Against the Coup: flight, Hond – Costa Rica, negotiations
mediated by Oscar Arias: 607
National Front Against the Coup: communications & mobilizations committees:
1,675
COFADEH (Committee of Family Members of Disappeared): human rights
investigations and legal defense work: 3,500
OFRANEH (Fraternal Organization of Garifuna and Black Peoples): community
work in defense of democracy: 3,785
COPINH (Counsel of Indigenous and Popular Organizations of Honduras):
community work in defense of democracy: 11,481
Environmental Defense Committee del Valle de Siria: community work in
defense of democracy: 167
TheNetwork: computer: 470
Emergency support: families – victims of repression: 388
Emergency support: people/ journalists threatened: 370
Human rights accompaniment / reporting: 7,140
Guatemala / Rigoberta Menchu human rights emergency delegation: 1,208
Independent journalism: 1,062

BACKGROUND
Since 1998, in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch, RA has supported and worked
with indigenous, campesino and human rights groups in Honduras, including:
COPINH (Civic Counsel of Indigenous & Popular Organizations), OFRANEH
(Fraternal Organization of Garifuna People) COFADEH (Committee of Family
Members of the Disappeared).

Since 2002, we have supported and worked with a number of groups that are
denouncing and opposing the environmental and health harms, and human rights
violations, caused by Goldcorp Inc’s open pit, cyanide leech gold mine in
central Honduras: Siria Valley Enviro-Defense Committee and CPRPT (Center
for Torture Prevention).

We supported these groups in their emergency response work to Hurricane
Mitch, their community and 

[Marxism] Alexander Cockburn RIP

[Louis Proyect]

This is not an easy post for me to write. I have been reading Alexander 
Cockburn for over two decades. He was unlike most "progressive" writers 
in that he took the time to critique American liberalism, although 
always with a tint of a European leftover from the '68 siege on Paris. 
And like in the US, upon losing their revolution many of these white 
leftists across the pond devolved into skepticism, self-hatred, and over 
time admitted their defeat by slouching themselves to the right. 
Christopher Hitchens, David Horowitz, John Dos Passos, Dennis Miller, 
Joshua Muravchik, et al. The list of white ex-lefties over 50 is long as 
it is instructive to the inquisitive mind in what happens to people when 
they begin to lose their values and beliefs.

full: http://the-discourses.blogspot.com/2009/08/alexander-cockburn-rip.html


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Re: [Marxism] Woodstock, or how art lasts longer than politics

[Les Schaffer]

Néstor Gorojovsky wrote:
> Well, there are some 5.7 billion people outside USofAm. Maybe a few
> won´t remember that Nixon ruled in 1969, or a few may even ignore who
> was Nixon. But more than you can guess will find Santana´s solos a
> masterpiece, etc.


i know i do how did his collaboration with John McLaughlin  and The 
Mahavishnu Orchestra get received down your way?

Les



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Re: [Marxism] Woodstock, or how art lasts longer than politics

[Einde O'Callaghan]

Tom Cod wrote:
> and you've got to be a devotee of 'post-modern' dime novels to use CIA like 
> lingolike POTUS.
> 
No, I'm just copying the abbreviation used by several other posters here 
because I didn't want to waste time writing it out in full. If the CIA 
use such terms it's news to me!

My point is that outside the US not that many people are aware of the 
names of most US presidents other than the present one and perhaps his 
two predecessors.

Einde O'Callaghan


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Re: [Marxism] The Health Insurers Have Already Won

[Intense Red]

 > The Health Insurers Have Already Won

   As much as I'd like to think this is just PsyOps by BusinessWeek, I can't 
be that naive. The "battle" was over before it began. Obama caved without 
even beginning to fight.

   But hey, we can still "keep hope alive!"

-- 
"Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real 
suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the 
oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless 
conditions. It is the opium of the people." -- Karl Marx


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Re: [Marxism] Woodstock, or how art lasts longer than politics

[Tom Cod]

and you've got to be a devotee of 'post-modern' dime novels to use CIA like 
lingolike POTUS.



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[Marxism] The Health Insurers Have Already Won

[sandia]

The Health Insurers Have Already Won

How UnitedHealth and rival carriers, maneuvering behind the scenes in
Washington, shaped health-care reform for their own benefit

By Chad Terhune and Keith Epstein

As the health reform fight shifts this month from a vacationing
Washington to congressional districts and local airwaves around the
country, much more of the battle than most people realize is already
over. The likely victors are insurance giants such as UnitedHealth
Group (UNH), Aetna (AET), and WellPoint (WLP). The carriers have
succeeded in redefining the terms of the reform debate to such a
degree that no matter what specifics emerge in the voluminous bill
Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the insurance industry
will emerge more profitable. Health reform could come with a $1
trillion price tag over the next decade, and it may complicate matters
for some large employers. But insurance CEOs ought to be smiling.

Executives from UnitedHealth certainly showed no signs of worry on the
mid-July day that Senate Democrats proposed to help pay for reform
with a new tax on the insurance industry. Instead, UnitedHealth parked
a shiny 18-wheeler outfitted with high-tech medical gear near the
Capitol and invited members of Congress aboard. Inside the mobile
diagnostic center, which enables doctors to examine distant patients
via satellite television, Representative Jim Matheson didn't disguise
his wonderment. "Fascinating, fascinating," said the Democrat from
Utah. "Amazing."

Impressing fiscally conservative Democrats like Matheson, a leader of
the House of Representatives' Blue Dog Coalition, is at the heart of
UnitedHealth's strategy. It boils down to ensuring that whatever
overhaul Congress passes this year will help rather than hurt huge
insurance companies.

full: 
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/09_33/b4143034820260.htm

--
sandia


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[Marxism] New publishers on Reading from the Left

[Ian Angus]

READING FROM THE LEFT
http://www.readingfromtheleft.com

A non-commercial project to promote socialist pamphlets and books from
a wide range of publishers. We make available full texts of pamphlets,
and chapters of socialist books, as free PDF downloads.

August 18, 2009: We are very pleased to announce that two more
publishers have agreed to make their pamphlets available on the the
Reading from the Left website.

* * * * * * * *

KASAMA PROJECT is a "communist project" that seeks "to find the forms
of organization and action for the people most dispossessed by this
system to free themselves and all humanity."

12 Kasama pamphlets, including "Ambush at Keystone No.1: Inside the
Coal Miners' Great Gas Project" and "Two Lines Over Maoist Revolution
In Nepal: Five Letters" are now available on Reading from the Left.

* * * * * * * *

SOCIALIST RENEWAL PUBLISHING PROJECT is an "independent,
anti-capitalist community-service initiative," which produces free
literature for "anti-racist, pro-feminist, anti-capitalist activists,
especially within the Canadian state."

"Environmentalism As If Winning Mattered," by Steve D'Arcy, is the
first SRPP pamphlet available from Reading from the Left.

* * * * * * * *

FINDING WHAT YOU WANT: Reading from the Left now has four online
catalogs to help you find what's online: all titles by publisher,
books by title, pamphlets by title, and pamphlets by subject.

* * * * * * * *

OTHER RECENT ADDITIONS

** Two chapters from THE GLOBAL FIGHT FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE, by Ian Angus

** A chapter from THE ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION: MAKING PEACE WITH THE
PLANET by John Bellamy Foster

** ANTI-SEMITISM, ZIONISM, AND THE DEFENSE OF PALESTINIAN RIGHTS by
Suzanne Weiss

** THE FIGHT FOR INDIGENOUS RIGHTS IN THE ANDES TODAY by Hugo Blanco

** AN INTRODUCTION TO MARXIST ECONOMIC THEORY by Ernest Mandel

... and there's more, at http://readingfromtheleft.com








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Re: [Marxism] District 9

[Bhaskar Sunkara]

The Bourne Supremacy drove me insane with it, but it didn't too bother me
during District 9.

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 3:02 PM, Louis Proyect  wrote:

> gregoryabut...@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > Apparently, I saw a different "District 9" than Prarie Miller and Armond
> White did!
>
> After seeing Simon Abrams's reference
> (http://extendedcut.blogspot.com/2009/08/255-district-9-2009.html)to the
> "faux-doc style shaky cam" in this  film, I decided to pass on it.
> Furthermore, the directors responsible for foisting this horrible
> technique on the world should all be taken out and horsewhipped. It is
> the most annoying thing in movies next to product placements. It seems
> to be much more egregious in action movies but who knows.

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Re: [Marxism] District 9

[Louis Proyect]

gregoryabut...@aol.com wrote:
>  
> Apparently, I saw a different "District 9" than Prarie Miller and Armond 
> White did!

After seeing Simon Abrams's reference 
(http://extendedcut.blogspot.com/2009/08/255-district-9-2009.html)to the 
"faux-doc style shaky cam" in this  film, I decided to pass on it. 
Furthermore, the directors responsible for foisting this horrible 
technique on the world should all be taken out and horsewhipped. It is 
the most annoying thing in movies next to product placements. It seems 
to be much more egregious in action movies but who knows. Maybe it will 
begin showing up in Merchant-Ivory movies. Can't you see a costume drama 
with people sipping tea in a Venice palazzo while the shaking camera 
makes them look like one of those scenes in the old Star Trek TV show 
when the starship Enterprise is being attacked by Romulans?


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Re: [Marxism] Woodstock, or how art lasts longer than politics

[Tom Cod]

well, some of us knew him as "Tricky Dick"
>BTW, asked for it, I would have answered that Lyndon B. Johnson had been 
> POTUS during the time of the Woodstock festival. I would have to research 
> papers to verify... But if it shall be Richard Nixon, so be it. It is not 
> important. 
> BTW, I could not recognize POTUS Nixon behind "Dick Nixon".  I knew him as 
> Richard. 
> 
> 
> Cheers, 
> Lüko Willms
> Frankfurt, Germany
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [Marxism] (Keep your cold and analytical hands off my orgasms please) was: Another forward from Rosa L. - Analytic Marxsim

[Dogan Gocmen]

Rosa L. makes claims and, on the contrary to any reasonable philosopher,
does not give any reason. She says dialectical philosophy is conservative.
This is fine. But expects me to prove the contrary. Why shall I do her job?
She is the one to give reason, not me to prove the contrary. So if she want
to have a debate she must show that she is engaged with the matter before
her.

Dialectic is objective law applying to nature, society (history) and
thought, though in different forms. If one does not accept this he/she can
hardly explain motion (evolution and revolution) in nature, society and
their reflection in thought. With the concept of the negation of the
negation, for example, it opens a perspective that enables us to look beyond
the present situation. Analytical philosophy, on the contrary, is
conservative just because it does not give us such a device, in best case it
leads to social democratic reformism. It is a poor thinking just because it
can hardly explain complex phenomena beyond everyday observations. Dialectic
is thoroughly rational in general and in detail. If peace was not contained
in war we could hardly aim at peace, if to be healthy was not contained in
illness we could hardly cure from our illness. So without a dialectical
outlook the nothing in the world would make any sense. To accept any system
contrary to dialectic is irrational because in the last resort it hast to
refer to supernatural forces to explain phenomena in our life.
---
Dogan Göcmen
(http://dogangocmen.wordpress.com/)
Author of The Adam Smith Problem:
Reconciling Human Nature and Society in
The Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, I. B. Tauris,
London&New York 2007

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[Marxism] Why Iceland and Latvia Won't (and Can't) Pay for the Kleptocrats' Ripoffs

[Dennis Brasky]

>
>
> http://counterpunch.org/hudson08182009.html
>
>
>
> "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- *Voltaire*
>
> --
>

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[Marxism] The persecution of Alan Turing

[Louis Proyect]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-turing-enigma-campaigners-demand-pardon-for-mathematics-genius-1773480.html
August 18, 2009

The Turing enigma: Campaigners demand pardon for mathematics genius
He should have been hailed a hero for his wartime codebreaking. Instead 
he was prosecuted for his homosexuality and took his own life. So why 
has Britain never said sorry? Jonathan Brown reports

He may have played a pivotal role in securing victory in the Second 
World War for his country six years earlier, but few outside the 
academic community would have recognised Alan Turing as he made his way 
down Manchester's Oxford Street shortly before Christmas in 1951. 
Someone who did notice the athletically-built scientist, however, was a 
young working class gay man called Arnold Murray.

Homosexuality was still illegal under the same repressive laws which had 
sent Oscar Wilde to jail half a century earlier. But regardless of the 
risk, the chance encounter was to develop into something more 
substantial and Murray spent a number of nights at the older man's 
modest home in suburban Wilmslow.

A month later, after Turing, a veteran of the then still secret 
Bletchley Park code-cracking team, had been giving a talk to the BBC on 
his pioneering work on artificial intelligence, he returned home to find 
his house burgled.

The culprit was an acquaintance of Murray's, who would prey on Murray's 
lovers, thinking they would be so afraid of being outed that they would 
not report the thefts to the police.

But Turing defied this convention and went straight to the police, where 
he admitted his affair – a "crime" for which he was spared the normal 
two-year jail term in favour of a hormonal treatment designed to beef up 
his masculine urges and suppress his homosexuality. The resulting 
publicity was to prove too much to bear and in June 1954, the 
41-year-old was found dead in bed by his housekeeper. He had eaten an 
apple he had laced with poison.

The consequences which unfolded were not only a tragedy for Turing, his 
friends and family, it also robbed the world of one of the greatest 
thinkers of the 20th century. Now campaigners are demanding an official 
apology from the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, recognising the 
"consequences of prejudice that ended his career". More than 700 people 
have signed a petition started by the leading computer scientist John 
Graham-Cumming on the Downing Street website, including gay rights 
campaigners, politicians and scientists.

"What really annoyed me about this was here was a man who died in his 
early 40s because he was a homosexual. He was a war hero but here was a 
part of our history that we were turning a blind eye to when we should 
be celebrating it. There were a lot of homosexual people during the war 
doing incredible work – if it was not for Turing we would most likely be 
having this conversation in German," Mr Graham-Cumming said.

Turing had already made major contributions to mathematics and the 
embryonic computing sciences before the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. 
But it was for his work among the wartime Enigma code crackers at 
Bletchley Park for which he will be best remembered. "Turing realised 
that we had to turn what was then a cottage industry of code breaking 
into a full scale industry. He was probably the most important person 
there," said Simon Greenish, director of Bletchley Park Trust.

His "bombe" machine was able to rapidly de-code the 158 million, 
million, million variations used by the Nazis in their commands with the 
creation of a prototype high speed processor. It saved tens of thousands 
of lives and variations on the original helped both the British and the 
US to eventual victory.

But although he was, by any measure, a genius, Turing was an 
idiosyncratic figure bordering on the strange. A runner and rower of 
Olympic ability, he used to occasionally run the 40 miles between London 
and Bletchley to attend meetings. His behaviour and high-pitched voice 
drew furtive smiles from colleagues who tolerated his eccentricities 
such as chaining his tea mug to the radiator or riding his bicycle 
wearing a gas mask to avoid hay fever.

After the war, and having been awarded an OBE, Turing moved to the US to 
work at the National Physical laboratory where he began work on creating 
the stored-program computer but returned to Manchester in 1948, where he 
continued his pioneering work in the field of mathematical biology. But 
the arrest and conviction in 1952 for gross indecency shattered him. The 
chemical castration caused his breasts to enlarge and bloated his 
athletic physique. He was also banned from travelling to America. What 
followed was described by his biographer David Leavitt as a "slow, sad 
descent into grief and madness" and Turing began travelling abroad in 
search of sex safe beyond the reach of the British law.

Professor Richard Gill, Professor of mathematical statistics at Leiden 
University, is 

[Marxism] What's Wrong With American Medicine

[Greg McDonald]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/whats-wrong-with-american_b_261365.html



http://tinyurl.com/pqefor


What's Wrong With American Medicine?

Dr. Andrew Weil


The latest development appears to be that government-run health
insurance programs are, if not off the table, at least sliding toward
the edge. Meanwhile, town hall debates rage, Washington lobbyists
(outnumbering senators and congressmen by an astounding six to one)
hector Congress and the signal-to-noise ratio in the health-care
debate steadily deteriorates.
In this shifting and parlous fray, we must carefully delineate the
problems that we are trying to fix. Only once this is done should we
try to fix them.

I gave my general take on what's amiss in "The Wrong Diagnosis." Now,
it's time for more specifics. Here's my assessment of the three main
negative trends in American medicine. I discuss each in detail, and
propose solutions, in my next book, Why Our Health Matters: A Vision
of Medicine that can Transform Our Future, which will be published
September 8th, 2009.

Trend #1: Deterioration of Medical Philosophy and Practice
Technology has a shadow side. It accounts for real progress in
medicine, but has also hurt it in many ways, making it more
impersonal, expensive and dangerous. The false belief that a safety
net of sophisticated drugs and machines stretches below us, permitting
risky or lazy lifestyle choices, has undermined our spirit of
self-reliance. The cold fact is that while Americans live more than 30
years longer than they did at the turn of the last century, public
health measures such as better sanitation, immunizations, better food
and water, and safer and less polluted workplaces account for 25 years
of that increase; medical intervention, only five years. A recent
study showed that in the 1990s, only about one in 16,000 Americans had
his or her life saved or significantly extended by improvements in
health-care technology. "Let's Take the Stomachache Out of Health Care
Reform" provides a real-world example of a different approach.

Trend #2: Failure to Provide Health Care for All
Virtually every other developed country has a national health care
program. They are not perfect and never will be, but they generally
work better than ours. Studies in places such as Germany, France,
Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and Canada show that citizens in those
countries are happier with their systems than we are, and are
healthier as well, with lower rates of obesity and chronic disease. I
fully support a national health care program for the U.S.

Trend #3: The Growing Influence of Money
This is the darkest cloud over American medicine. The profit motive,
once only a part of health care, now drives the whole system. If
current trends hold, a family of four will spend about $64,000
annually for health care in the next seven to nine years (except that
they obviously can't and won't - so the system, without reform, will
collapse before then).

Virtually all of the incentives run in the wrong direction - that is,
toward high-tech interventions to make money rather than toward
modest, simple protocols that (in at least 80 percent of cases) make
or preserve health. Yet there are pockets of efficiency and
effectiveness in America. The nonprofit Mayo Clinic in Rochester,
Minnesota, is among the highest quality and lowest cost health-care
systems in the country, largely because its salaried doctors have no
incentive to drive up costs by over-testing and over-treating.
Similarly, at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, we train
health care professionals to use only the appropriate level of
technology for the condition at hand.

In coming blog posts, I'll propose some detailed solutions to each of
these problems. In the meantime, I urge you to read the New Yorker
article "The Cost Conundrum: What a Texas town can teach us about
health care" by Atul Gawande, M.D. It's an extraordinarily clear-eyed
assessment of how and why American medicine has lost its way, and how
it might return to its healing roots.

Andrew Weil, M.D., is the founder and director of the Arizona Center
for Integrative Medicine and the editorial director of www.DrWeil.com.
Become a fan on Facebook.

Follow Dr. Andrew Weil on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DrWeil



The Cost Conundrum

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande



http://tinyurl.com/ptevdk



Ten Great Public Health Achievements



http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00056796.htm



http://tinyurl.com/oktvgb



Health Insurance Costs



http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml


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[Marxism] European recovery explained

[Louis Proyect]

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/What-Does-Europe-Have-That-We/7705/
August 17, 2009, 10:00 AM ET
What Does Europe Have That We Don't?
By Teresa Ghilarducci

France, Germany, and most European nations are pulling out of the global 
recession faster than the U.S. Euro-zone GDP is down 0.4 percent: French 
and German GDP measures are up 1.3 percent and 1.4 percent, 
respectively. Sadly, it looks as if the U.S. economy is flagging: U.S. 
GDP is down a full one percent and leading indicators -- like consumer 
confidence -- are showing weakness.

What does Europe have that we don’t have? Aggregate demand.

The first reason Europe is doing better: Unemployed Europeans have more 
buying power.

Although unemployment rates are still high in Europe (like in the U.S., 
they have the highest levels in decades), their unemployment insurance 
-- and other forms of social support -- are more generous and help boost 
consumer spending when consumer spending needs the most boosting.

It's shocking that only about a third of people unemployed in the United 
States are eligible for Unemployment Index benefits. And the average 
weekly unemployment benefit in the U.S. is around $300. The 2009 
stimulus bill temporarily increases payments by $25. But that doesn't go 
very far when the average weekly wage is over $800.

The second reason is that European government spending was bolder and 
quicker. Cash-for-clunkers programs were adopted early in Germany and 
France. Looks like the US Cash for Clunkers boosted auto sales by 2.4 
percent last month.

But the mother of all reasons the Europeans are doing better is that 
they don’t use voluntary, individual financial accounts to pay for 
retirement and college education like we Americans do. They use 
mandatory universal programs. What is the unintended result? The 
recession wiped out many American's retirement and college funds so 
Americans, unlike the Europeans, are curbing spending now to build up 
that savings.

Because the micro isn’t the macro, this private virtue turns into a 
public vice: High savings rates hurt aggregate demand and prolong the 
recession.


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Re: [Marxism] (Keep your cold and analytical hands off my orgasms please) was: Another forward from Rosa L. - Analytic Marxsim

[Greg McDonald]

Carroll Cox wrote:


Orgasms are (or are close to being) totalities, and to that extent
subject to dialectical understanding.

You can say whatever you want about your orgasms Carroll, but please
keep your dialectics away from mine.

Greg McD


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[Marxism] (fwd) Iceland government plans 30% cuts in public spending as thousands protest

[Les Schaffer]

[forwarded for Joonas Laine]

Icelanders are angry but will make sacrifices
By Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Published: August 13 2009 18:53 | Last updated: August 13 2009 18:53


[..]

My government, which took over in February and gained a majority in
general elections in May, has to deal with the aftermath of the fall of
nearly all of Iceland's privatised banking sector.

We plan a 30 per cent contraction in government finances over the next
three years, with extensive cuts to infrastructure spending and wages -
a heavy burden for our population of 300,000. We have, in co-operation
with the International Monetary Fund, formulated an economic strategy
that is being fully adhered to. Indeed, we have already reached
agreements on a recapitalisation of the banking sector, a stability pact
with social partners and a strategy for lifting current account
restrictions. [..]

Icelanders, who do not feel responsible for the global banking crisis,
are willing to make sacrifices to secure normal relations and trade with
the world. But they are angry at having to take on the burden of
compensation for the Icesave savings accounts of Landsbanki - failed,
privately owned, commercial bank, which attracted hundreds of thousands
of UK and Dutch savers with high interest rates. The amount to be
shouldered by Iceland is huge - bout 50 per cent of our gross domestic
product. Assets against this debt will substantially lower the net
amount, but there is much uncertainty about the valuations and forecasts
underpinning such calculations.

.

Thousands Protest Icesave Deal at Iceland's Parliament
14/08/2009 | 11:15


An estimated number of 3,000 people [of a population of 320 000 -JL]
gathered in front of the Althingi parliament at Austurvöllur square in
central Reykjavík yesterday to protest the Icesave agreement in its
current form, urging MPs not to approve it.

The demonstration was organized by the Indefence group, which earlier
ran the campaign 'Icelanders are not terrorists,' n response to the UK
government's use of the anti-terrorism legislation to freeze Icelandic
assets in the UK.

We are satisfied with the meeting. It is important that the nation
stands together, Ólafur Elíasson, one of Indefences spokespersons,
told Fréttabladid. The group described yesterdays event as a meeting
for people to show solidarity.

The Indefence group is now preparing to bring its cause to the attention
of foreign media. 'We were half promised that if the meeting would be
big then we would get to write and translate articles for foreign
newspapers,' Elíasson said.

Some MPs and other well-known people attended the demonstration
yesterday, among them former Prime Minister and Central Bank governor
Davíd Oddsson.

According to Fréttabladids sources, a cross-political agreement on the
government's Icesave proposition is unlikely after the parliament's
Economic and Tax Committee's meeting ended in disagreement last night.

The proposition includes state guarantee on loans from the UK and the
Netherlands to the Icelandic Depositors' and Investors' arantee Fund so
that Iceland can compensate Landsbanki's Icesave account holders in
these countries.

The committee assembled five times yesterday and Minister of Finance
Steingrímur J. Sigfússon joined its members in a meeting after midnight
last night, Morgunbladid reports.

The opposition parties want to include a disclaimer in the agreement
that no payments are made to the UK and the Netherlands if there is no
economic growth in Iceland.

They also want to limit annual payments to 2.2 percent of gross domestic
product (GDP), while the government parties have suggested 3.5 percent.

Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir said yesterday that she hoped a
solution could be reached on disclaimers that could fit within the
current Icesave agreement, while, according to Fréttabladid, the
opposition wants a new agreement altogether.





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[Marxism] Climate and Capitalism - What's New

[Ian Angus]

What's new at
CLIMATE AND CAPITALISM
Ecosocialism or Barbarism: There is no third way

http://climateandcapitalism.com

Ten recent posts 

'GREEN' B.C. LIBERALS SUBSIDIZE GAS AND OIL EXPANSION
http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=999

CARBON OFFSETS: A DANGEROUS DISTRACTION
http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=1019

PETERLOO: YE ARE MANY - THEY ARE FEW
http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=1029

AUSTRALIAN EMISSIONS TRADING PLAN REJECTED
http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=1024

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE IRISH GREENS
http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=1000

PERU PLANS MORE AMAZON OIL AUCTIONS
http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=995

ECOLOGY AND SOCIALISM: INSEPARABLE REVOLUTIONS
http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=981

AUDIO: A SONG FOR REDS AND GREENS
http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=960

CAPITALISM OR A HABITABLE PLANET - YOU CAN'T HAVE BOTH
http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=955

RICH COUNTRIES' CARBON DEBT: $23 TRILLION
http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=945

* * * * *

CLIMATE AND CAPITALISM is an online journal focusing on capitalism, climate
change, and the ecosocialist alternative. It has three goals:

**To provide news and analysis to inform, educate and develop the green left;

**To contribute to building an international movement against
capitalist destruction of
the environment and for ecosocialism;

**To encourage and facilitate collaboration and exchanges of views
among socialists
and ecology activists.

http://climateandcapitalism.com







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[Marxism] The Democrats dirty little secret: "public option" would be run by private insurance companies

[Duane Roberts]

Kip Sullivan, member of Physicians for a National Health Program, has written 
an excellent investigative piece pointing out the so-called "health care 
reform" legislation Senate Democrats drafted in July calling for a "public 
option" in reality contains numerous provisions within it that will enable 
private insurance companies to set up entities and bid on federal government 
contracts to administer it!

See the following link:

http://pnhp.org/blog/2009/08/14/the-senate-help-committee-“public-option”-will-be-multiple-“options”-and-these-will-be-run-by-insurance-companies/

I've been of the opinion "public option" was a complete scam ever since I 
discovered several weeks ago that proponents were touting the Dirigo Health 
Agency (DHA), a health insurance program offered by the State of Maine, as 
being the model that should be adopted nationwide. Without getting into all the 
specifics about the DHA's failures, all the programs it offers are administered 
by a private health insurance company.

As reported in the Kennebec Journal in July:

   Dirigo is a public-private partnership in which the
   state works with a private insurer -- currently Harvard
   Pilgrim Health Care -- to offer coverage. Those who
   are eligible receive state subsidies on sliding
   scale. Small businesses also participate in the program.

Karynlee Harrington, Dirigo Health Agency's Executive Director, was indirectly 
quoted as saying the "Dirigo setup is similar to the current [public option] 
proposal offered by Democrats in Congress." Given Harrington's expertise in 
overseeing the "public-private partnership" that Maine's "public option" has 
with a private insurance company, she ought to know what she's talking about, 
shouldn't she?

See the article at:

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/6635588.html

Sincerely,

Duane J. Roberts
duaneroberts92...@yahoo.com


  


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