http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/44690

the governemtn bailout is mentioned in the last paragraph in that blog

Dear diary.. Jackpot!

"Anybody's Son Will Do

By Bill Willers

20 April, 2010
Opednews.com

In 1983, the National Film Board of Canada produced a 57-minute film, "Anybody's Son Will Do". Arguably the best anti-war film ever made, and tailored for public television, it scared the hell out of the U.S. military machine, which has done its best to "disappear" it. For years it has been nearly impossible to find a copy, but some kind soul has posted it on YouTube where it can be seen in six segments.

The film shows the process by which young men become psychologically engineered to kill or die on command. While the model used is the U.S. Marine Corps, it's made clear that the modern techniques for creating soldiers are refined, dehumanizing and universal.

Military forces will take boys as young as the law allows, as witness African militias that, unrestrained by regulation, recruit children as young as ten. People into their twenties, having begun to think for themselves to too great a degree, tend not to be sufficiently malleable. In the U.S., recruitment below age 17 is not legal. However, as war has become ever more computerized, need is growing for tech-savvy recruits who can kill coolly and indiscriminately from great distances, as if playing video games. The military has become very good at video games.

What this leads to in the real world is exemplified by this recently publicized footage of the slaughter by U.S. military of 12 civilians. The video has been a much-needed awakening for many. But as distressing as the carnage itself is the callousness with which the people go about their work: "Alright, hahaha, I hit 'em... Nice, good shooting.... Thanks"

http://www.collateralmurder.com/

AsGlenn Greenwald has correctly declared, the tragedy of this is that it's not aberration but commonplace. What is unusual is that this particular episode was made public.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/39266

What is also tragic is that it represents precisely what the U.S. military wants to make of recruits who will be

reeducated -- brainwashed -- to see it as manly, patriotic, heroic. And what youngsterwith percolating hormones, negligible life experience and no basis for critical thought doesn't want to be like that?

Go to http://www.americasarmy.com/ and click on "America's Army Graphic Novel" to see what age group and level of education the Pentagon is aiming for. The "novels" are 28-page comics with text bubbles over GI Joe action figures and brightly colored noise representations: "KRR-AKK", "BLAM", "RATATATAT, CHAKA CHACKA CHAK...".

And now with their arcades open to the public, the military has its foot in the door of the minds of younger children who, if asked, would likely insist they can tell the difference between video games and reality.

click here

As for "Anyone's Son Will Do", DVDs of it should be in every junior high and high school in the country. Parent-teacher associations should have screenings. With any luck, it might get us headed toward a day when a common sight will be bumper stickers "Support Our Peace Makers".
Bill Willers is emeritus professor of biology, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh now living in Middleton, WI. He is founder of Superior Wilderness Action Network (SWAN) and editor of Learning to Listen to the Land and Unmanaged Landscapes, both from Island Press. He posts occasionally online at OpEdNews, Common Dreams, Counterpunch and Dissident Voice."
http://www.countercurrents.org/willers200410.htm

Any time something is written by a Democrat to define a Republican or written by a Republican to define a Democrat, it never rings with a tone of truth. To be honest, I couldn't tell you who made up the tea partiers, because that group went from secessionists to Republican nearly overnight.

In reply to this comment by marinara:
do you think this is fair?
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/41285

do you think this is fair?
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/41285

Wasn't a very long workout. :-/

I actually just read in A.J. Jacobs "Guinea Pig Diaries" that multi-tasking is bad for your brain. I can't remember the specifics and I'm too lazy to go get the book but, interesting notion.

"Audio recorded in 2003 before a live theater audience at MORTIFIED, a comedy show that allows everyday adults to read their most embarrassing and real childhood writings. This concert recording was later animated by Bill Barminski. Will Nolan reads from his childhood diary. "

This was read by the author, later in life. To those that don't think it's funny, he does.

>> ^spoco2:
Yeah, it was funny, and indeed also sad. Very sad when parent's who have no clue as to handle their own feelings push onto their children what they've been told they should do, even though it has no baring at all on what the best action is for a small child.
So boo for his mum, and boo for people who go to therapy every week with no real reason and no real outcome other than their dwindling money supplies.


You think therapy is bad?

You should date a girl who's going to a woman's group.

It's like having ten girlfriends and not in the good sense.

>> ^NetRunner:
>> ^chilaxe:
I could get behind liberalism if there was a movement within it to hold accountable those fellow liberals who sabotage the cause.
Liberals have plenty of sites like 'Crooks and Liars" or Mediawatch to keep an eye on the excesses of conservatives... why can't they do the same to keep an eye on the excesses of fellow liberals?
Such a movement is certainly under way. I think Chris Dodd would have been primaried if he didn't resign (incidentally, you should rent Michael Moore's Capitalism -- he trashes Dodd pretty nicely in there and raises more than a few doubts about Democratic resolve). Charlie Rangel is a popular target too. Tim Geithner and Larry Summers, etc.
If you want a liberal taking Democrats to task with no holds barred, try Glenn Greenwald's blog. I read it occasionally, but most of the time I find him far too depressing.
I don't read Firedoglake anymore, because they've, IMO, gone off the deep end (Jane Hamsher was pushing people to work together with the tea parties to kill HCR once the public option got stripped), but if you're looking for progressives critical of Democrats, they're another good resource.
Personally, I'm a big fan of DailyKos. It's probably the biggest progressive community on the net, so often it's the battleground upon which most left vs. left fights are played out. The main content is geared towards organizing activism and electoral strategy, and commentary on the day's political events, but the Diaries are usually a grab-bag of all kinds of interesting topics, not all of which are political.
They're starting to shift from a focus on "more Democrats" to "better Democrats", but I'm not sure how many opportunities we'll have for that in 2010. Most of those that they've talked about are House races, or Arlen Specter's ongoing primary.


That's good to hear that there are left vs. left debates. However, are these mostly just folks on the far-left of the political bell curve 'pushing harder even if it means we lose'? As long as that's the dominant liberal paradigm, they don't seem to me to be reliable societal partners who can be reasoned with.

That might sound very uninvolved, but I think any intellectuals who go into politics (i.e. not Moore, Olbermann, Huffington etc.) will find that the tail wags the dog: if intellectual figures don't tell the liberal masses what they want to hear, the masses will just find figures who will. Olbermann saying "I'm not a liberal; I'm an American" seems to be a good example of that kind of permanent intellectual simplicity.

I suppose this is an inevitable macrohistorical problem... perhaps any intelligent species on any planet would face it... the necessary legacy of human evolution is that the kind of interest in cognitive complexity that's advantageous in a complex modern society wasn't sufficiently advantageous during the last 10,000 or 100,000 years to be widespread today. In other words, any collection of social norms that must appeal to 50% of the population can only achieve a limited level of intellectual accuracy.

The take-home lesson for me is: that means an individual with a greater level of intellectual accuracy can out-predict them, and thus position themselves in the right place at the right time (for whatever opportunity is targeted).

and here is an example of the intelligence in our government.
this man conflates free lunch with test scores?
and the people listening accept this as a point of clarity?
this man does not make ONE salient point that does not drip of:
eugenics.
class differentials.
government control.
basically all he was saying is "if we keep feeding this people who cannot be good wage slaves they will continue to breed".
he complains about the problem being "political correctness".since when is mercy and compassion a political correct quandry?
this LT governor makes hypocrites blush.
ooo...lookie here.turns out mr andre bauer is a southern baptist.
well well...think jesus would speak like he does?
AND he is gay.
not that i care but he votes ANTI-gay.
thats it.this man wins the hypocrite of the century award!
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12748/south-carolina-lt-governor-andre-bauer-outed

>> ^chilaxe:
I could get behind liberalism if there was a movement within it to hold accountable those fellow liberals who sabotage the cause.
Liberals have plenty of sites like 'Crooks and Liars" or Mediawatch to keep an eye on the excesses of conservatives... why can't they do the same to keep an eye on the excesses of fellow liberals?

Such a movement is certainly under way. I think Chris Dodd would have been primaried if he didn't resign (incidentally, you should rent Michael Moore's Capitalism -- he trashes Dodd pretty nicely in there and raises more than a few doubts about Democratic resolve). Charlie Rangel is a popular target too. Tim Geithner and Larry Summers, etc.

If you want a liberal taking Democrats to task with no holds barred, try Glenn Greenwald's blog. I read it occasionally, but most of the time I find him far too depressing.

I don't read Firedoglake anymore, because they've, IMO, gone off the deep end (Jane Hamsher was pushing people to work together with the tea parties to kill HCR once the public option got stripped), but if you're looking for progressives critical of Democrats, they're another good resource.

Personally, I'm a big fan of DailyKos. It's probably the biggest progressive community on the net, so often it's the battleground upon which most left vs. left fights are played out. The main content is geared towards organizing activism and electoral strategy, and commentary on the day's political events, but the Diaries are usually a grab-bag of all kinds of interesting topics, not all of which are political.

They're starting to shift from a focus on "more Democrats" to "better Democrats", but I'm not sure how many opportunities we'll have for that in 2010. Most of those that they've talked about are House races, or Arlen Specter's ongoing primary.

Song list:
Name of song, Name of band, start and stop time

0.5 A talk about the musician and so on
1 Mr. Brightside, The Killers, 16:20 - 20:40
2 Heartbeats, The Knife, 21:55 - 27:34
2.5 Long Talk about music theory in between
3 Going Under, Evanescence, 37:29 - 44:34
4 Light and Sound, Yellow Cards, 44:40 - 47:53
5 Medicine Man, ???? , 48:12 - 50:42
6 The Diary of Jane, Breaking Benjamin, 51:20 - 55:24

If someone knows the band name of nr. 5 feel free to share

Sorry PeggedBea, notarobot beat you by almost 4 months.
His version had a single page of credits before the video starts but the music video is the exact same one. One of my favotites from the 80's so I always notice a Jim Carrol post! Sorry about that!



*dupeof=http://www.videosift.com/video/Jim-Carroll-People-Who-Died-Basketball-Diaries

This video has been declared a duplicate; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof declared by Sagemind.

Apparently a deal was reached. Here's a DKos diary running down the changes.

For people allergic to the great orange devil, it includes:

• Annual and lifetime benefit caps are banned
  
• Insurance companies will be required to spend at least 80% of their revenue on medical costs (85% for large group/corporate plans)
  
• States may opt to ban abortion coverage from their state's exchange
  
• Public option is now a framework for privately run non-profit plans which can operate across state lines (but has to comply with the regulations in all client states simultaneously)
  
• People meeting certain income/cost requirements may be able to use exchanges, even if they have an employer plan available (big improvement, IMHO)
  
• A bribe to Ben Nelson, in the form of federal money to Nebraska's Medicaid program.
  
• Penalties for not carrying insurance are increased slightly for those making more than $37,500/yr.
  
• Lots of tax breaks/extra funding for adoption and teenage pregnancy programs
  
• Dropped provisions which would have revoked health insurance companies' anti-trust exemption (not sure if that was for Nelson or Lieberman, maybe some Republicans could offer that as an amendment *guffaw*)
  
• Most everything else like subsidy levels, bans on denials for preexisting conditions and recissions are still in place.