Opinion

How to make sure noise complaints are NOT taken seriously

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:49:35 -0400

Here is why someone who (legitimately) complains about noise from Media Island's house late at night is REALLY afraid of 'retaliation.'

Global Warming to Heat Up

Thu, 29 May 2008 18:04:48 -0400

GLOBAL WARMING TO HEAT UP
Thomas Riggins

Well we have learned lately that we have a global warming crisis and we must do something about carbon emissions (CO2 and other greenhouse gases) or else the earth is doomed.

But we also know that capitalism exists to make profits and that given the choice of making money now and killing off the planet in a hundred years or so, profit now wins.

Environmentalists who had hoped the high coast of oil and gas would limit consumption and help reduce pollution will be disappointed. All over the world governments and companies are turning to coal for new power plants. Coal is the worse of all the carbon based pollution sources-- much worse than oil and gas. read more »

"Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran"

Wed, 28 May 2008 11:08:32 -0400

"Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran" McCain's Chant Becomes Closer to Fruition Thomas Riggins I remember a few months back seeing McCain on TV doing this little chant for his fellow moral defectives at a rally. Our intelligence agencies seemingly put the kibosh on this when they announced it looked like Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program, if it ever had one, several years ago. Then the International Atomic Energy Agency said they had no evidence of an arms program and that Iran was cooperating. Israel continued to insist the Iranians were trying to make the bomb and so did the Bushites here at home. The fact there is no evidence of the bomb is itself evidence of the bomb and the cleverness of the deceitful Iranians. So goes the logic of imperialism. read more »

TERROR AND CONSENT

Mon, 19 May 2008 12:29:44 -0400

PHILIP BOBBITT’S “TERROR AND CONSENT: THE WARS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY”
Thomas Riggins

Bobbitt is a distinguished professor of constitutional law holding degrees from Princeton, Yale and Oxford. He has served in important government positions under Presidents Carter, Bush 1 and Clinton. He is now at both the University of Texas and Columbia University. His theories on history and the origins of terrorism are widely respected and his books are used as college texts. His views have influenced not only Hillary Clinton but also John Howard the former Prime Minister of Australia. There is an informative article about his career and ideas in Wikopedia and also about his earlier work “The Shield of Achilles" (900 pages). read more »

Steven Pinker's "The Stuff of Thought"

Sat, 10 May 2008 16:30:09 -0400

STEVEN PINKER'S "THE STUFF OF THOUGHT"

Thomas Riggins

This is a reflection on a review by Barbara King, a biological anthropologist at the College of William and Mary of Steven Pinker’s new book, “The Stuff of Thought” in the April 11, 2008 issue of TLS. Pinker is a very influential cognitive scientist who made a name for himself with his 1994 book “The Language Instinct.” read more »

Iraqi Women Quietly Endure Horrors of War

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 12:57:47 -0500

By Cyril Mychalejko

March 8 marks the 99th celebration of International Women's Day, a day to commemorate the political, social, and economic struggles and achievements of women globally.

This year we should use the holiday to observe and reflect on the suffering of Iraqi women, who have become invisible "collateral damage" in our country's war in this now defenseless Middle Eastern nation. A good place to start would be by picking up and reading Haifa Zangana's book, "City of Windows: An Iraqi Woman's Account of War and Resistance." Zangana is an Iraqi woman, journalist and activist, who was also a former prisoner of Saddam Hussein's regime. She dedicated her book to A'beer Quassim Hamza al-Janaby. read more »

JOHN BOLTON: BOISTEROUS BULLY OF BLOVIATION

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:01:39 -0500

by Thomas Riggins

There is an excellent review of John Bolton's new book, "Surrender is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad" by Brian Urquhart (a former UN under-secretary general) in the March 6, 2008 issue of The New York Review of Books ("One Angry Man").

Urquhart points out that Bolton was unhappy with the Bush administration's change of course in its second term (from gung ho go it alone militarism to some limited recognition that cooperation with US allies and the broader international community
was in order). read more »

BREAKING ISLAMIC STEREOTYPES

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:36:57 -0500

THE FATWAS OF GRAND AYATOLLAH MOHAMMED HUSSEIN FADLALLAH

Thomas Riggins

The LA Times had an interesting article in its 2-06-08 issue by Borzou Daraghai (“Lebanon Cleric Advises ‘Modern Shiites’”). It’s a good tonic against the rising tide of Islamophobia engulfing the West in general and the US in particular. Just think of the hysterical reactions we have read about when a Muslim was elected to Congress and a high school dedicated to Arabic studies and language was opened in New York City. read more »

BILL GATES AND A KINDER CAPITALISM

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:25:23 -0500

by Thomas Riggins

Bill Gates is giving (by now gave) a speech at Davos in which he is calling upon the capitalists of the world to be kinder and to help the poor. But only if they can make a buck. So reports the Wall Street Journal in an article by Robert A. Guth (1-24-2008) from which all the direct quotes by Gates and others have been taken.

Gates says that "We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well." Those aspects are the exploitation of human labor power and the extraction of surplus value from workers. It will be a nice trick to see how this will happen. read more »

The Spirit of Democracy

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:14:24 -0500

BOOK NOTES: Larry Diamond’s THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY
Noted by Thomas Riggins

This new work by one of the directors of the NED [National Endowment for Democracy] has the subtitle “The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World.” A better subtitle would have been “The Struggle to Help the CIA Overthrow Governments Adverse to American Domination.” read more »