Robert Scoble, who blogs for Microsoft, has been blogging about his mother recently dying from a stroke, and how that’s changed him. In addition to being a superb post, he touches on the unfortunate amount of hostility sometimes found in blog comments.
I’m glad I went through this personal time after my mom’s stroke. It helped [...]
Posts from ‘May, 2006’
The lynch mob in blog comments
Israel and AIPAC
Joe Hartley emails:
“You may want to take a look at the NY Review of Books this week. It has an interesting article by Michael Massing on the controversy that has arisen as a result of the Mearshimer-Walt article challenging the Israeli lobby. Look in particular who AIPAC contributes to, and you may understand why the [...]
East Timor
Statement by the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) on the current violence in Timor-Leste
We have watched the unfolding situation in Timor-Leste this past week with deep concern. We do not believe that events had to escalate to this point. Like others, we do not have complete information about the current situation and its [...]
Yikes
Global warming may lead to more, and nastier, poison ivy
See ya ZoneAlarm, Goodbye Norton…
And hello Panda Platinum Internet Security Suite.
This intelligent, unintrusive security suite does it all easily and quickly, and without popping up endless, pointless alerts or being a resource hog. What a pleasant change.
Full details on my tech blog.
Haditha massacre haunts Marine
Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones says he is tormented by two memories of Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha, Iraq.
The first is of the body of his best friend and fellow Marine blown apart just after dawn by a roadside bomb. The second is of the lifeless form of a small Iraqi girl, one of two [...]
Kabul riot: more Pentagon evasion
Witnesses said American soldiers fired on Afghans throwing stones at them after the crash, though the United States military said only that warning shots had been fired in the air.
…
It became clear the American military and the Afghan police and army had used their weapons to try to disperse the crowds. Scores of people were [...]
Why privatizing water is a bad idea
When cities hire firms to run utilities, they seek quality at lower cost. They may get ethics scandals, violations and irate consumers.
In some places, private-sector management helped trim bureaucracies and replace decaying infrastructure, local officials say. But in Indianapolis, New Orleans, Atlanta and other cities, privatization has been accompanied by corruption scandals, environmental violations and [...]
It didn’t start with Haditha
U.S. policy was to shoot Korean refugees
More than a half-century after hostilities ended in Korea, a document from the war’s chaotic early days has come to light  a letter from the U.S. ambassador to Seoul, informing the State Department that American soldiers would shoot refugees approaching their lines.
The letter  dated the day of [...]
Murtha: Haditha massacre was covered up
The shootings last November at Haditha, a city in the Anbar province of western Iraq that has been plagued by insurgents, were covered up, said Rep. John Murtha.
“Who covered it up, why did they cover it up, why did they wait so long?” Murtha said on “This Week” on ABC. “We don’t know how far [...]
Wedge workers needed
Senate Republicans were divided Thursday voting on the immigration bill — 23 voted for and 32 voted against it.
Until now, the GOP has been united between the corporate wing and the social conservatives, said Ross K. Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist. Now, Republicans are divided between the group that wants the cheap labor and [...]
Pulling the lever or pulling our leg?…
From the Rock & Rap Confidential listserv quoting their May issue. They said, feel free to forward or re-post, so I am.
Rock the Vote is in shambles. According to a February 7 LA Times article by Charles Duhigg, the organization is $700,000 in debt and has cut its staff from twenty people in 2004 to [...]
Podcast. Ian Thompson. PSL accomplishments and outlook
The Party for Socialism and Liberation: Recent accomplishments and outlook
PSL is a coalition partner of the ANSWER Coalition, both nationally and in Los Angeles. Thompson discusses the political and organizational goals of the party, recent events such as mass antiwar demonstrations and immigrant right marches where the party played an important role, as well as [...]
…And the horse you rode in on, Democrats!
This is not exactly news, but the national Democratic Party is one big stinking dead horse. If they could muster only 15 votes against a man who has overseen the most extensive and intrusive violation of privacy in American history (although “outright rape” is a better term for what the Bush gang has done to [...]
