Archive for August, 2007

Aug 12 2007

THE GREAT AHMEDABAD TRIAL OF MAHATMA GANDHI

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gand

By Bal Patil

8/12/07

I think it would be most appropriate to recall the great Ahmedabad trial at this juncture when the centennial of the Gandhian Satyagraha in South Africa is commemorated worldwide. When Mahatma Gandhi entered the Central Hall of the Government Circuit House at Ahmedabad on the 18th of March, 1922 to face a trial on a charge of sedition under section 124A of the Indian Penal Code about two hundred spectators inside the improvised courtroom stood up as a mark of respect to the frail figure in loincloth.

The spectators included Kasturaba, Sarojini Naidu, Pandit Malaviya, N.C. Kelkar, Smt. J.B. Petit and Ansuyaben Sarabhai.. Sarojini Naidu has described how the entire court rose in an act of spontaneous homage to a “frail, serene, indomitable figure in a coarse and scanty loin cloth.” who joked in a characteristic manner looking at them saying: “This is like family gathering and not a law court.”

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Aug 12 2007

Xenophobia: a brief analysis

Published by cyrano2 under Reactionaries, Racism, Xenophobia

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

dobbs

Lou Dobbs and Senator Jeff Sessions are two of the leading xenophobes in the United States.

By Dr. Habib Siddiqui

8/12/07

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Xenophobia as - fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. As can be seen, for xenophobia there are two main objects of the phobia (fear). The first is a population group present within a society, which is not considered part of that society. Often they are recent immigrants, but xenophobia may be directed against a group which has been present for centuries. This form of xenophobia can draw out or facilitate hostile and violent reactions, such as mass expulsion of immigrants, or in the worst case, genocide. The second form of xenophobia is primarily cultural, and the objects of the phobia are cultural elements which are considered alien or foreign.

However, as is often the case, the two forms of xenophobia go together, with the second form used as a pretext by chauvinist, racist demagogues to justify their first kind of phobia, which invariably turns into acts of violence against the target group - the “foreigners” and “strangers”. In recent years, xenophobia has become a powerful political factor in many parts of Europe, especially France and Denmark. The fact that many of the immigrants and refugees are non-Christians is an important factor in shaping the thrust of the xenophobia in Europe.

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Aug 12 2007

Idiocy of Paper

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

dollars%20pic

By ADAM ENGEL 

8/12/07

Some brave soul might lead us beyond frightened Sentinels, bootsteps deep to real; Judges; land “Lords;” those who would be taken, suckered, ushered to Love’s ideal, pink codicils to freedom, spared bitter betrayal of arbitrary fruit,
as if:

my kingdom,
“my kingdom for”
a hearse,
or Paradise
for obscene visions of
barren buildings,
sealed deposit boxes
centuries to come.

Phantom sandals echo through long, cold, shadow halls. No vocabulary to describe the waste, the idiocy, of paper.

Adam Engel can be reached at

donttrust

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Aug 11 2007

Can’t Possibly Get Any Better

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

mitt

“Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney avoided Vietnam with his Mormon missionary work, and high draft lottery number. Last week, after delivering a speech in Bettendorf, Iowa, calling for a “surge of support” for our forces in Iraq, Romney was asked why none of his 5 sons had joined the military. “They are showing support for their nation,” said Romney, “by helping me get elected because they think I’d be a great president.” Romney’s net worth exceeds two hundred million dollars.”

By Rand Clifford

8/11/07

A CorpoMedia masterpiece has recently been published by Michael Barone, senior writer for U.S. News and World Report. The title: New global study points to hope. [1] The study in reference is the Pew Global Attitudes Project’s poll of 47 nations. The Pew Resource Center, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, likes to call itself a Washington Fact Tank. [2]

Could it be that Barone is satisfied with his ad-hominem attacks on Al Gore having minimized the threat of global warming, so in this article at least, Barone felt compelled to feed Americans highly-pure CorpoMedia pap? “Most striking” is how he described the fact that only 1 out of 4 Americans are positive about the direction of the nation. An ensuing flourish of CorpoMedia bait-and-switch seasoned with indirection and omission assigns blame to the low job ratings of W, and congress. Partisanship is trotted out—Democrats are spoiling the party. Then The People get spanked with: “But when one considers that America has not suffered another Sept. 11 and that is has enjoyed a surging and prosperous economy, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that citizens of this most blessed country are registering a verdict that is in tension with reality.”

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Aug 11 2007

A Perspective on Global Warming

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

george w

“If we can’t see a little of George Bush looking back at our reflection, we should look again…”

By Jean-Louis Robert Turcot and Emily Spence

8/11/07

The attempt to stop and possibly reverse Global Warming reminds of the aims of Helen Caldicott with respect to the dangers of a nuclear war. As much her goals were admirable with her tireless effort to inform, and to warn us about the possibility of a nuclear holocaust, we have not been able to change one single iota from that possibility.

At the same time, the Beyond War group used the bucket-of-shotgun-pellets method to demonstrate that one single pellet represented all of the firepower of the entire Second World War, while the entire bucket represented the nuclear weapon potential to make war… Again, even though the representation was graphic and dramatic, it did not change anything whatsoever relative to the nuclear menace. Indeed, our nuclear capacity is only becoming more pronounced over time.

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Aug 10 2007

Hiroshima Maidens and Gandhi’s Admonition

Published by cyrano2 under Anti-War, Peace, Nuclear Weapons

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to  

hirosh

By Emily Spence

8/10/07

It is easy to be discouraged with the peace movement. It is easy to want to walk or run away, especially so when progress seems so slow to stop war activities anywhere in the world.

Ironically, the first day that I joined the peace moment was the same one that I most desperately wanted to run away. I, literally, wanted to flee with every part of my being, but somehow managed to sit still instead.

At the time, I was five years old. I was sitting on a bench at a Quaker Meeting. I remember the drop dead silence surrounding the deeply inward-dwelling people all around me. I remember the contrast that the occasional trilling bird in the shrubbery outside the window made and the merry splash of intermittent sunshine on the floor opposed to the overall dimness of the room. Then I heard the room’s door open followed by a muted shuffle of feet.

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Aug 10 2007

THE JOYRIDE THAT WAS THE AMERICAN EMPIRE

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

indebtwetrust

By Carolyn Baker

8/10/07

Originally published at Speaking Truth to Power

Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.

–Robert Louis Stevenson–

A few days ago a friend called me just after hearing Michael Panzner on the Thom Hartmann show on Air America. My friend wanted me to read Panzer’s book, Financial Armageddon and see what I thought. Apparently, Panzer’s radio interview remarks were filled with passion and a sense of urgency, and upon reading the book, I experienced the same intensity in the author’s writing which pleasantly surprised me. Here was a financial guru with 25 years’ experience in the stock, bond, and currency markets and a faculty member of the New York Institute of Finance, who unlike Ben Bernanke and the silver-lining pundits of the financial pages, was not telling us that everything is going to be fine or that things will “bounce back in 2010″.

Anyone familiar with my writings knows that I have never claimed to be a fiduciary wizard, but in recent years I have written more on topics related to economics than at any time in my life. I do not believe that all social issues can be resolved if only we change how money works in the United States or the world, but I am profoundly aware of the role of economic issues-perhaps more than militarism, healthcare, education, politics, or any other institution, in the dead-ahead demise of empire. I also notice that few in the left-liberal end of the political spectrum have a firm grasp on economic issues which I suspect comes from a fundamental polarization between activism and financial intelligence-a reality which motivated me a few years ago to write an article entitled “Activists And Accountants: Absolute Allies.”

Michael Panzner is definitely not from the left end of the political spectrum, which makes the contents of Financial Armageddon all the more fascinating and momentous. I came away from the book with both remarkable reinforcement of my position that the United States has entered economic collapse, but also perplexed regarding the myriad blind spots that the author seemed to have regarding the causes of the current economic meltdown. I am not aware of how Panzner may have altered his views since the publication of his book earlier this year, but at the time of writing, Panzner did not mention or was not aware of a number of glaring realities regarding the gluttonous greed-fest that has characterized the United States since the end of World War II. I will address those inconsistencies first, then highlight the places where I think Financial Armageddon is absolutely on-target.

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Aug 09 2007

Serial Killers

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

cattle-beef-13

“The industrial way of life leads to the industrial way of death.”

- Edward Abbey

By Vi Ransel

8/9/07

Elise ran,
wild-eyed and wildly,
through the green field, pursued
by an angry man wielding a weapon.
He beat her when he caught her
and threw her
into the back of his van.

He babbled on
about her supple flesh
as Elise’s brown soft eyes
wept terror. And when
the kidnap van suddenly
stopped, he drove her
toward his leering partner,
waiting impatiently to begin
his diligent ministrations.
And then he hit her
- hard -
but not enough
to completely stun her.

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Aug 09 2007

Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to  

nagasaki-verbrannter-bub

By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor

Originally published at Online Journal

Aug 9, 2007

I was a little boy on August 6, 1945, when President Harry Truman decided to drop the first nuclear weapon ever on the ill-fated Hiroshima.

The weapon in fact was nicknamed “Little Boy,” a cruel irony. More so was the dropping three days later of the “Fat Man” nuclear bomb over Nagasaki, which unlike Hiroshima had no military installations. To make matters worse, on my seventh birthday, September 17, 1945, Hiroshima was hit by the Makurazaki Typhoon (Ida), which added 3,000 deaths and injuries to the first two disasters, the dark magic of three’s.

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Aug 09 2007

Democracy Lives!

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to  

chimpster

by Adam Engel

8/9/07

Maybe we’ve never been lied to at all. It’s in the constitution’s
deceptively democratic language and supporting literature such as the
Federalist papers and “oppositional” writings by Madison and Jefferson
and the gang. They all wanted to keep their property, they just couldn’t
agree on the most subtle, persuasive, game plan.

The country IS and has always been a democracy for Our Masters — rich,
propertied, white men. It is a democracy for THEM to this day,
regardless of what BuschCo, hired out by the real owners of America,
does to the rest of us. Our Masters will vote democratically on
corporate boards. Our Masters’ “public” servants will vote
democratically in Congress, each representative voting in accordance
with his/her affiliated corporate interest whose board democratically
selected him or her for office.

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