• Boston Globe – Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo, dies at 87
• Howardzinn.org

Part 2

Part 3

Carl Sagan – Democritus

Carl Sagan – Pythagoras and Plato

A broadcasting Republican with a marginal sense of humor could really make gold doing this on a regular basis. If previous attempts are any indication, it might be a while until one of those come around. In the meantime, they can continue to count on liberals poking fun at fellow liberals.

All you folks think you own my life
But you never made any sacrifice
Demons they are on my trail
I’m standing at the crossroads of hell
I look to the left, I look to the right
Hands that grab me on every side

All you folks think I got my price
At which I’ll sell all that is mine
You think money rules when all else fails
Go sell your soul and keep your shell
I’m trying to protect what I keep inside
All the reasons why I live my life

Some say the devil be a mystical thing
I say the devil he a walking man
He a fool he a liar conjurer and a thief
He try to tell you what you want
Try to tell you what you need

Standing at the point
The road it cross you down
What is at your back
Which way do you turn
Who will come to find you first
Your devils or your gods

All you folks think you run my life
Say I should be willing to compromise
I say all you demons go back to hell
I’ll save my soul, save myself

• Glenn Greenwald – Obama confidant’s spine-chilling proposal
• Raw Story – Obama staffer wants ‘cognitive infiltration’ of 9/11 conspiracy groups
• Infowars – List of published Cass Sunstein papers and books

The first and most important thing to say about this is that nothing in this paper is new or radical. What he calls “cognitive infiltration” is, despite the denial in the paper, only different in available technology from COINTELPRO and other techniques used in the past to bust up wrongthink and ownlife strategies.

The main thesis of this short paper is that conspiracy thinking is caused by “crippled epistemologies”, that so-called “conspiracy theorists” carefully filter out all but a few sources and harden themselves against any orthodox or official sources of correction. He posits that conspiracy thinking is largely a product of closed, authoritarian societies, and that conspiracy thinking in an open, free society with a transparent, accountable government such as ours (I’m sure you can sense the smirk in these words) is destructive because it corrodes our ability to trust our benevolent institutions uncritically. He also suggests that laws like the Freedom of Information Act might do more harm than good, suggesting that the best way to protect our supposed open society is to close it.

My experience has taught me that, if anything, the conspiracy-minded got that way because they were more open to taboo sources of information, not that they were necessarily closed off from the mainstream. The truly “crippled epistemology” is one which does not think critically and engage skeptically any source of information, be it Alex Jones or the Department of Defense. Those people are ripe for “cognitive infiltration.”

PS: “Sunstein” translates to “Sun Stone“.

PPS: Obama should be given credit for his commitment to diversity. What other president would have an academic slinging vitriol at conspiracy theorists as well as an outspoken 9/11 truther working for him? Of course, who still has their job..?

I think this story only ran in the UK. A news search of Obama and “Native American” returned only the reactions of people to some racist horse-shit Harry Reid said. Obama is a savvy internationalist, but he has so far ignored our Indian nations, just as the succession of white presidents before him did. Popular hero Andrew Jackson is especially reviled among historically-literate natives for his monstrous acts of ethnic cleansing.

Here’s the story: UK Guardian – Obama’s Indian Problem

The US president has pledged to improve the lives of Native Americans. But he faces huge challenges, such as those on Pine Ridge Indian reservation where unemployment is more than 80%, the average wage is £4,400 – and life expectancy is 50

Native Americans suffer

• 33% of people below the poverty line (general population: 10-13%)
• 1.5 times the suicide rate of the general population
• 70% alcohol/substance abuse rates (general population: 11-30%)
• 40% unemployment rates (Pine Ridge, mentioned in the article, has an 80% unemployment rate)
• Ongoing government oppression
• Eugenics practices, forcible sterilization (Many victims of this practice are still alive)
• History of persecution and massacres by settlers, even here in Humboldt County

They were also the last ethnic group to get their voting francishe, in 1948.

A few days after our little shake-up, which caused minor damage, a 7.0 earthquake hit ten miles out of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, a city of 2.5 to 3 million people. From everything I have seen so far, it is a tragedy of a massive scale. Too sad for words.

What is our planet up to? Two large earthquakes in a few days, in different parts of the world.

UPDATE: powerful links and (graphic) photos from Haiti, found by/courtesy of Bill at HighBoldtage, follow him for more coverage, I’m sure.

• 7.0 Earthquake Hits Haiti
• Twitter Feed from Port au Prince Haiti
• Earthquake Disaster in Haiti – Pictures from Radio Tele Ginen
• Daniel Morel Haitian Earthquake Photo Feed

Humboldt Eureka 6.5 Earthquake Video Montage 1/9/2010 WOW! Ferndale HQ

Earthquake in northern California