6 February 2009
6 February 2009
41 YEARS AFTER PUBERTY, NOW THEY TELL ME…
1747 by Jeff Hess
In my senior year of high school, I actually had a sociology professor ask, in class, for students to describe what the base system meant. We were, of course, tongue-tied.
6 February 2009
5 February 2009
WHAT THEY SAY…
0851 by Jeff HessPresident Barack Hussein Obama writes:
By now, it’s clear to everyone that we have inherited an economic crisis as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression. Millions of jobs that Americans relied on just a year ago are gone; millions more of the nest eggs families worked so hard to build have vanished. People everywhere are worried about what tomorrow will bring.
This StoryWhat Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives — action that’s swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis.
Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.
5 February 2009
CHANNELING HOWARD METZENBAUM…
0832 by Jeff HessChannel Howard, Sherrod. You couldn”t pick a better Ohio legacy to live by.
5 February 2009
4 February 2009
WAL-MART WEDNESDAY…
1030 by Jeff Hess
It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees, Robert Feinman and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.
[Note, it has been since 22 July 2008 that I last posted a Walmart Wednesday round-up. Much continues to make news at The Writing On The Wal. Life happens while you’re blogging.]
ARE FREE-TRADE AGREEMENTS HISTORY…? Truth be told, I don”t think so, but as the economy continues in its death spiral, people are starting to think that maybe the whole global economy/cheap plastic crap from China concept is not really working. And CEOs are starting to think like locavores. Keep reading…
THE BIGGER PICTURE… Readers sometimes ask why we pick on Walmart. My standard response is because Walmart is the biggest gorilla on the planet. But that may not be satisfying to some and I do have an agenda that is larger than simply exposing Walmart”s crimes. Keep reading…
REMEMBER LITTLE ADOLPH…? Back on 17 December, I posted the story of a grocery chain in New Jersey denying litte Adoph Hitler Campbell his personalized birthday cake. As a result the Campbell family received national attention. More, perhaps, than they might have liked. Keep reading…
EMPHASIS ON THE WORD BOX… When I was in high school I thought I might become an engineer; I was a serious space nut and had dreams of becoming part of the post-Apollo world at NASA. That didn”t happen, but I still retain a bit of my engineer”s mind. Keep reading…
TOO BIG TO FAIL…? Jonathan first brought this graphic to our attention back in July of last year (I particularly like it because it allows you to zoom in on your community) but I want to use it this morning to high-light what is rapidly becoming an economic mantra: It”s too big to fail. Keep reading…
RING AROUND THE COLLAR… When I was a budding environmentalist in my teens, my father told me of a chemical engineer working on the problem of phosphates in laundry detergent. As he told it, the engineer developed a detergent that did a good job of generally getting clothes clean. Keep reading…
PHISHERS TARGET WALMART CUSTOMERS… Phishers are shifting their attention from bank customers to retailers and if you”re going to play the odds, you go after the single largest customer base in the world: Walmart shoppers. Walmart is not the bad actor here. Keep reading…
30 January 2009
WHAT THEY SAY…
0934 by Jeff HessThis is why our problem is not just economic; it’s
spiritualpsychological. We have mistaken consuming for living.
(The change is mine. JH)
22 January 2009
20 January 2009
20 January 2009
19 January 2009
18 January 2009
18 January 2009
E.B WHITE WOULD NOT BE HAPPY…
0809 by Jeff HessFrom The University College of London’s Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women’s Health:
The first baby tested preconceptionally for a genetic form of breast cancer (BRCA1) has been born.
The use of the word preconceptionally struck me. (Hint, the word is not used to mean before fertilization) William Saletan is concerned as well.
18 January 2009
18 January 2009
WHAT THEY SAY…
0750 by Jeff HessI don”t believe Taliban are a social force with an agenda and connected with locality, instead I think Taliban are the harshest form of a resistance movement which is created when the country is in a political vacuum.
Their arbitrary and cruel methods of compelling order is imposed when the society fails to find any workable agenda. Taliban are not a unique creation, political history is full of movements which emerged after the ascribed socio-political systems constantly failed, these movements such as Wahabis in early twenty century Arabia are cruel and despotic.
Taliban emerged in 1994 after Mujahideen tyranny and failure of half a dozen governments before them. Taliban offered no better life than Mujaheeden, but they were more arbitrary and cruel while Mujahideen were simply corrupt and this is why I think Taliban managed to rule.
Taliban are returning again; this time people know what they are expecting, there is no dream and no hope, nobody expect Taliban to be anything else than Taliban.
18 January 2009
18 January 2009
17 January 2009
THE FINAL SOLUTION…
0831 by Jeff HessShe who Writes Like She Talks emailed me to ask what I thought of Eric Alterman’s piece in The Nation: Gaza Agonistes.
I replied to her:
I think Alterman does a good job of describing the debate (or lack there of, it really is a bathroom shouting match) over the most recent invasion of Gaza.
But we don’t need more analysis of the debate — which is easy — but rather analysis and out-of-the-box thinking about what role the United States ought to play in a Final Solution: which is hard.
I use that infamous term advisedly because just as the Third Reich’s Final Solution for all of us was unthinkable and horrible beyond perception, I think that a Final Solution for all the people’s in this conflict must be the polar opposite: wondrous, pure genius, Solomonic in it breadth and scope; and, most importantly, dynamic.
Any answer will depend upon continuous interaction and dialogue because people are not static mathematical equations subject to a final answer. There is no y=mx+b when it comes to peoples.
I personally am tired of the “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” mentality that dominates these discussions in the media (and I’m sure, the foyers of mosques and synagogues).
That is where Alterman went with his final graph.
What Ruth Wisse encouraged was for the young journalists to ignore their own consciences and become public relations/marketing flacks for Israel. It is one attitude to take a side in any debate — any journalist who says they don’t is lying — as a matter of conscience, but it is quite another to do so as a matter of doctrine: paid or unpaid.
Now, before you suggest that you (or I) or the Jews on J Street, have not taken sides, we have. But the sides here are not Palestinian vs. Israeli; the sides are Freedom vs. Oppression. I think that we are all on the side of Freedom for all people. Discovering an answer to this conflict requires that all parties lose (I’ve never believed in the psychobabble of win-win solutions) some tangible or ideological aspect of their current state.
Finding that Final Solution requires an honest broker.
I have reasonable expectations that President-elect Barack Hussein Obama can be that broker. The United State’s history in the Middle East severally tips the pans of justice toward Israel. President-Elect Obama must put his weight in the opposite pan to bring Justice back into balance before we can proceed to a Final Solution. The United States must not continue to play the roll of the attorney for the defendant (or, plaintiff depending upon your bent), but rather the mediator.
And President-elect Obama must act and be that mediator; one that all parties fully understand is not, in any sense, in their corner; but in the center, working toward the Final Solution.
Which is where I want to be.
14 January 2009
BITCHSLAP, NO BITCHSLAP…?
1444 by Jeff HessIn the context of real people being blown apart by real rockets, bombs and missiles, the political ménage à trois among President George Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is beyond insignificant. But the tale just keeps getting weirder and weirder, with much posturing and denials from all parties involved.
From Haaretz:
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reiterated Washington’s contention on Wednesday that its abstention in a key UN Security Council vote on a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip had not left her “embarrassed,” as was claimed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Olmert’s bureau maintained on Wednesday that the outgoing prime minister had correctly described moves that led to a United Nations resolution on a truce in Gaza, despite a United States rejection of his account, Israel Radio reported.
So did Olmert make it all up? Does anybody have the video of Bush actually leaving the podium? Is Rice terrified that this incident will become a centerpiece in her legacy? Did the president who taunted the terrorists to bring it on reveal his inner lap dog?
Is it 20 January yet?
