Friday, November 2, 2007
Excerpt from the intro to Naomi Wolf's 'The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot'
"...A breather is unearned; we can't simply relax now. The laws that drive these pressures are still on the books. The people who have a vested interest in a less open society may be in a moment of formal political regrouping; but their funds are just as massive as before, their strategic thinking unchanged, and their strategy now is to regroup so that next time their majority will be permanent.
All of us -- Republicans, Democrats, Independents, American citizens -- have little time to repeal the laws and roll back the forces that can bring about the end of the American system we have inherited from the Founders -- a system that has protected our freedom for over 200 years.
I have written this warning because our country -- the democracy our young patriots expect to inherit -- is in the process of being altered forever. History has a great deal to teach us about what is happening right now -- what has happened since 2001 and what could well unfold after the 2008 election. But fewer and fewer of us have read much about the history of the mid-twentieth century -- or about the ways the Founders set up our freedoms to save us from the kinds of tyranny they knew could emerge in the future. High school students, college students, recent graduates, activists from all walks of life, have a sense that something overwhelming has been going on. But they have lacked a primer to brief them on these themes and put the pieces together, so it is hard for them to know how urgent the situation is, let alone what they need to do.
Americans expect to have freedom around us just as we expect to have air to breathe, so we have only limited understanding of the furnaces of repression that the Founders knew intimately. Few of us spend much time thinking about how "the system" they put in place protects our liberties. We spend even less time, considering how dictators in the past have broken down democracies or quelled pro-democracy uprisings. We take our American liberty for granted the way we take our natural resources for granted, seeing both, rather casually, as being magically self-replenishing. We have not noticed how vulnerable either resource is until very late in the game, when systems start to falter. We have been slow to learn that liberty, like nature, demands a relationship with us in order for it to continue to sustain us..."
~ Link ~
airbase being prepped for Iran attack
"...The US is secretly upgrading special stealth bomber hangars on the British island protectorate of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, according to military sources.
The improvement of the B1 Spirit jet infrastructure coincides with an "urgent operational need" request for £44m to fit racks to the long-range aircraft.
That would allow them to carry experimental 15-ton Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs designed to smash underground bunkers buried as much as 200ft beneath the surface through reinforced concrete.
One MOP - known as Big Blu - has already been tested successfully at the US Air Force proving ground at White Sands in New Mexico. Tenders have now gone out for a production model to be ready for use in the next nine months..." ~ continue reading ~
Ancient sea travellers had heads in the clouds
told through folklore - that their ancestors were among the most
skilled navigators in history.
Archaeologists and historians have likened their ability to find new
islands in the vastness of the Pacific as akin to sending a rocket
into space and hoping it will hit a planet.
Dr Marshall Weisler, of the University of Queensland, said the journey
between Hawaii and Tahiti "now stands as the longest uninterrupted
maritime voyage in human prehistory".
He said it was "mind-boggling" how Polynesian settlers found their way
from one speck of land to another and back again, colonising the last
uninhabited parts of the planet.
They are believed to have used signs such as tides, the presence of
driftwood and the flight of seabirds, which return to roost on land at
night.
They also closely observed the underside of clouds, which reflect
whatever lies beneath them - a darker tinge indicates the presence of
land..."
the "Do Not Track" list proposal
Plan Would Limit Tracking of Web Surfing - New York Times:
called for creation of a "Do Not Track List," that would
prohibit advertisers from tracking online movements of
consumers.
Similar to the popular Do Not Call telephone lists, the
Internet proposal comes as online advertising revenues are
growing rapidly, providing critical revenue to startups and
Web giants such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.
Online ad revenue is forecast to more than double to $44
billion in 2011 from $17 billion in 2006, according to
eMarketer.com.
Computer users should be notified when their Web surfing is
tracked by online advertisers and Web publishers, argue the
Consumer Federation of America, the World Privacy Forum and
the Center for Democracy and Technology, among other groups in
a coalition promoting the idea.
Rather than burying privacy policies in fine print, companies
should also disclose them more fully and provide easier ways
to opt out, the groups said.
The organizations submitted the proposals to the Federal Trade
Commission, ahead of the consumer watchdog agency's workshop
on Nov. 1-2 to study the increasing use of tracking technology
to target online ads...
image from http://www.spitting-image.net
