Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Stop Doing Violence

A fantastic post over at HU-Islam on the violence that advertising does to the psyche, by way of bodies.

In an "oops, I didn't mean that, either" moment, the Bush Administration's budget allocation for the National Institutes of Health will not change which means that basic research on health related issues will not keep pace with inflation, rising costs, competition for personnel from commercial sources, not to mention known, serious health risks both endemic and epidemic.

Deja vu, all over again: Mr. Jones ressurects a response to the Rushdie fatwa, and the Mutual Offense Offensive continues. I have more to say about this (the juxtaposition of this and this could endanger the structural integrity of your head, but it's important to remember that life is complicated so it's entirely possible that there are lots of "right" answers) but I'm not ready yet and not sure if this is the venue....
Anne Zook sums up some of what I'm thinking:
Bottom line? No matter how you slice it, killing people over a cartoon, no matter how it offends you, is uncivilized. Anything up to and including non-violent demonstrations would have been acceptable.

Bottomer bottom line? Hate speech is unacceptable, no matter what group it's aimed at. But is it actually "hate speech" to take a group to task for how they implement their beliefs?

But this is definitely the place to talk trash [via] about the structural and economic and environmental issues involved in consumerist waste handling. I think the article is a bit pessimistic: a little restructuring of costs could put recycling and environmental friendliness near the top of corporate cost-cutting/revenue-producing options, but it'll take some serious political will to end subsidies, etc. One thing I'll say about companies: the adapt to changing economic environments, and that's why the government spends so much time on the economy....

Thought I was done? Me too. But Dave Neiwert is making me nervous with the possibility that preparations are being made for large scale violence and civil liberties violations. Think I'm overreacting? Prove it.

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