Formal declaration of what should already be obvious, after 12 weeks (LJ has a handy "it's been X since you last updated" feature; not sad enough to actually go count). I don't think I'll be posting to this anymore. All I use it for is cut-and-paste political pointing and yelling, or crying in my beer where no-one can see it. As I'd swear less than ( Read more... )

It hadn't come to my attention before that there's a journalist in Guantánamo. Sami Mohy El Din Muhammed Al Hajj, a Sudanese, was a cameraman for Al-Jazeera. He was pulled by Pakistani authorities when re-entering Afghanistan in December 2001. Handed over to the American military in January, he passed through several bases, arriving in Guantánamo ( Read more... )

I think we're allowed to feel a little smug:
three members of the Irish Defence Forces have been convicted - and fined - for pointing loaded weapons at civilians. Not firing, just pointing.
Compare with this.
The Irish army. Can't even do atrocities right! (",)

(* only recently, I know; we're at least as good as they are, usually...)

Regards the "Pay It Forward" meme; bollocks off. (",)
While I always enjoy free stuffs, it seems a strange way to try bring about a gift economy. Which would be the only point, the way it's presented. ",

( More Truthout. Don't read it if the word 'Iraq' causes hives. )

Ohsweetmotherofshit. ANYONE with the slightest tendency to be conspiracy-theorish about why governments the world are such shits, or who wonders at a developing world that, in places, seems to be getting worse, let the man who was behind it tell you why.

(this is the stuff he talks about as being important in the Congo - anybody with any interest ( Read more... )

Cuba is a conundrum. It doesn't fit in our heads too well. A Marxist dictatorship that tries to take care of its citizens. Don't believe it? There is evidence below.
( Now read on... )

"Al Hurra television, the U.S. government's $63 million-a-year effort at public diplomacy broadcasting in the Middle East, is run by executives and officials who cannot speak Arabic, according to a senior official who oversees the program ( Read more... )

Bit of background first: in my younger days, I read everything I could find in the way of parapsychology, UFOlogy, and other para-sciences. I've let my interest lapse, but I still have a shitload of case studies, dissections of events, critical analyses etc. half-remembered in this skull. Combine what facts I can remember with a big fuckoff ( Read more... )

"In a war where the enemy could be around every corner and support on the home front is weakening, officials are starting to see menace everywhere. In April, military officials placed new restrictions on soldiers' blogging that define attempts to solicit "critical or sensitive information" as acts of espionage. In an operational security slide ( Read more... )