[ a fully caused & embodied blog ] [ Good Sense Without God ]
It is in the prosecution of some single object, and in striving to reach its accomplishment by the combined application of his moral and physical energies, that the true happiness of man, in his full vigour and development, consists. Possession, it is true, crowns exertion with repose; but it is only in the illusions of fancy that it has power to charm our eyes. If we consider the position of man in the universe,—if we remember the constant tendency of his energies towards some definite activity, and recognize the influence of surrounding nature, which is ever provoking him to exertion, we shall be ready to acknowledge that repose and possession do not indeed exist but in imagination. - Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government (The Limits of State Action) (1854 ed.)

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Duh!!!

http://chris-floyd.com/articles/1-latest-news/2052-grand-delusions-the-regressive-results-of-progressive-markets.html

But the flaw in this noble scheme is readily apparent: seeking to "make money while filling a social need." These are two entirely separate endeavors, with two entirely separate goals. Once a market is created, with whatever benign intentions, it is inevitable that it will be used, and eventually dominated, by those seeking to maximize their profits, regardless of social needs. There is no great scandal in this fact; that's what markets are for. And this inevitable heedless maximization is now happening in India, as the Times reports:

Follow the link to continue the duh . . .

Obama's great good war

Start here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/18/AR2010111806856.html

"We've taken the gloves off, and it has had huge impact," one of the senior officials said.

Continue here: http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2010/11/murderous-us-government-explained.html

Monday, November 29, 2010

We need a reckoning

http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2274412

Eric Holder and Barack Obama have taken pains to tell the American people that water-boarding is illegal torture. So what? That's just their opinion. President Bush disagrees. The persistent failure to hold anyone accountable at any level for years of state-sanctioned abuse speaks louder than their words. It has taken this issue from a legal question to a matter of personal taste. What we choose to define as torture is now just another policy disagreement, like extending the Bush tax cuts or picking a caterer. This is precisely the kind of sliding-scale ethical guesswork the rule of law should preclude.

Uggh! She is repellent.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/clinton-calls-leaked-documents-attack-world/

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the leak of hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic documents is an attack not only on the United States but also the international community.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Yay! The system rocks!

http://mobile.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2010/11/17/gates/index.html

"The Obama administration continues to shield Bush-era torturers from accountability in civil proceedings by blocking judicial review of their illegal behavior," said Steven Watt, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. "To date, not a single victim of the Bush administration's torture program has had his day in a U.S. court. The U.S. can no longer stand silently by as other nations reckon with their own agents' complicity in the torture program" . . . .

Read about immediate reaction to the wikileaks: http://m.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/nov/28/wikileaks-us-embassy-cables-live-blog?cat=news&type=article

a future

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2010/11/nassim-taleb-predicts-what-will-break-and-what-wont-by-2036.html

The great top-down nation-state will be only cosmetically alive, weakened by deficits, politicians’ misalignment of interests and the magnification of errors by centralised systems. The pre-modernist robust model of city-states and statelings will prevail, with obsessive fiscal prudence. Currencies might still exist, but, after the disastrous experience of America’s Federal Reserve, they will peg to some currency without a government, such as gold. BlogBooster-The most productive way for mobile blogging. BlogBooster is a multi-service blog editor for iPhone, Android, WebOs and your desktop

Monday, November 22, 2010