Saturday, August 1, 2009

Good article by Johann Hari



Johann Hari a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-weve-forgotten-the-force-which-really-drives-political-change-1763947.html" has a good article up on the Independent's website /a. He makes the case for political engagement and involvement. He quotes Martha Gellhorn as saying span style="font-style: italic;""People will often say, with pride: 'I'm not interested in politics.' They might as well say, 'I'm not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.'"br //spanbr /Political questions are of vital importance to people's living standards, their freedoms and to many other areas of their lives. As such, apathy does seem a very foolish approach to take.span style="font-style: italic;"br //spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/38622711-7173773849821626524?l=vinospoliticalblog.blogspot.com'//div

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Television Termination: Lesson #98



Here is another good reason to get rid of your TV. a href="http://carrollspaper.1upsoftware.com/print.asp?SectionID=1amp;SubSectionID=1amp;ArticleID=8449"Obama is always on it./adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/14410967-7911697463317520363?l=theconstructivecurmudgeon.blogspot.com'//div

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Nuts in a Nutshell : Krugman Edition



div style="text-align: center;"br //divdiv style="text-align: center;"object width="427" height="354" class="BLOG_video_class" id="BLOG_video-10f9f28d260e9409" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"param name="movie" value="http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAAJRKzAPfu3a7ks9WIkYJqTGcbD0ke8eVF1vFHsnTirGSCnGP18X_tRtcx1sTR6DLZ1dw_n3ykl7efvqzhqdFYjMVHywdr-aiuKBgpFmmJoFFx8eklJrGSB3k_pdWN3CEYeA6dw4BcFr64ND49rGdzPQDP4zJ4R6rz6r5AzOPr50pSXh43JDttpTXJC2-_MXOl_xEUfG0Cq5QnuI-IYftj3jxEl03bituKnBWuw-qVzjr%26sigh%3DKwt66i_-1iuMDvgPOnIfRxUYnS0%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0amp;nogvlm=1amp;thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D10f9f28d260e9409%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3DN-E9mt_UqZW8Nj9lUwzxhPfn25Qamp;messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den"param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"embed width="427" height="354" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAAJRKzAPfu3a7ks9WIkYJqTGcbD0ke8eVF1vFHsnTirGSCnGP18X_tRtcx1sTR6DLZ1dw_n3ykl7efvqzhqdFYjMVHywdr-aiuKBgpFmmJoFFx8eklJrGSB3k_pdWN3CEYeA6dw4BcFr64ND49rGdzPQDP4zJ4R6rz6r5AzOPr50pSXh43JDttpTXJC2-_MXOl_xEUfG0Cq5QnuI-IYftj3jxEl03bituKnBWuw-qVzjr%26sigh%3DKwt66i_-1iuMDvgPOnIfRxUYnS0%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0amp;nogvlm=1amp;thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D10f9f28d260e9409%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3DN-E9mt_UqZW8Nj9lUwzxhPfn25Qamp;messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/embed/objectbr /br /div style="text-align: left;"Money quote :span style="font-weight: bold;" "Maybe stuff will turn up. Maybe there'll be anotherrrrrrrr.....stimulus package...uh, ya know...there'll be more stuff...."/spanbr /br /(Is that the technical term for whatever you're talking about, Perfesser? "$tuff"?)br //div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7893272060787897238-4217751652022103249?l=delawarelibertarian.blogspot.com'//div

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Regressive indirect taxes



This a href="http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/2009/07/our-regressive-tax-system/" article /a on the TUC's Touchstone blog makes dismal reading. Indirect taxes seem to be quite regressive. The poorest quintile pay 27.9% of their income on such taxes compared to just 10% for the richest quintile. It does seem to me that there needs to be a shift in the tax system from indirect to direct taxation. The rise in VAT from 8% to 15% in 1979 set a very bad precedent, as it marked the start of an era when progressive direct taxes were cut and public spending instead became more funded by regressive indirect taxes.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/38622711-8627553442006439530?l=vinospoliticalblog.blogspot.com'//div

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Zelaya threatens insurgency



a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090801/wl_afp/honduraspoliticsmilitarycoup_20090801092824"AFP:/abr /br /blockquote Ousted span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1249119079_0"President Manuel Zelaya/span has threatened the interim government of Honduras with "generalized violence" if he is not restored to power. p "Either the coup is reversed or generalized violence is coming," Zelaya warned the interim government headed by Roberto Micheletti in an interview Friday with span style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1249119079_1"Nicaragua/span's state-owned Channel 4 TV./p p "The people have the right to protest, to insurrection. This is the case of the Honduran people, which is being brutally repressed," he said./p p Soon after, around 100 Honduran men belonging to Zelaya's "popular army" began training exercises in a camp on the span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1249119079_2"Nicaraguan/span side of the border with Honduras, an AFP journalist witnessed./p p The recruits -- mostly young men and all unarmed -- exercised, marched, and carried out maneuvers under the direction of leaders who said they were Honduran army veterans./p p According to the leaders, other similar camps had been set up along the border./p p Zelaya announced on Wednesday that -- with permission from leftist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega -- he would organize his own army based on the more than 300 Honduran supporters that gathered at his base at the border town of Ocotal, 226 kilometers (140 miles) north of the Nicaraguan capital span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1249119079_3"Managua/span./p p This will be "the popular militia that will guard the president upon his return," Zelaya said./pp...br //p/blockquoteZelaya continues to embarrass himself and his followers with foolish pronouncements. He is running out of time as the election that will replace him will be held in a few months and his cause will fizzle out, or he will live down to the allegations against him of trying to act unconstitutionally. br /br /Only the leftist seem to think he has some cause worth supporting and that includes whomever in the State Department who still thinks he has a case. It should be noted that the administration has yet to make the case for their support of this fruit cake who clearly violated the Honduran constitution. How they can claim to be on the side of the rule of law is never explained. They just keep ignoring the obvious. We need to ask why they have chosen to be on the side of the bad guys?div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5051247-4389688543541700307?l=prairiepundit.blogspot.com'//div

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Green Teens?



a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PddQ8xLinAc/SmU6c1Jm2pI/AAAAAAAAHAk/QdikJb5SKTs/s1600-h/swordbird.jpg"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 129px; height: 200px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PddQ8xLinAc/SmU6c1Jm2pI/AAAAAAAAHAk/QdikJb5SKTs/s400/swordbird.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360755198432565906" border="0" //aShould teen writers be rushed into print? Imogen Russell Williams on span style="font-style: italic;"The Guardian/span blog a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/jul/20/teenage-authors-encouraged-published"reckons that although/a :br /span style="font-style: italic;"/spanblockquotespan style="font-style: italic;"...the best writing by children and teenagers can be astonishingly poignant, hilarious, and indeed helpful. /span /blockquoteand they should certainly be enouraged, :br /span style="font-style: italic;"/spanblockquotespan style="font-style: italic;"In your early teens, you're not necessarily aware of how derivative your literary outpourings are, and the extent to which your reading shapes your writing; and you may not yet be sufficiently master of your own voice .../span/blockquoteOne young writer she holds up as an example is a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Yi_Fan"Nancy Yi Fan/a, author of the a href="http://www.swordbird.googlepages.com/"span style="font-style: italic;"Swordbird/span/a series (with 2 novels under her belt at 15) :br /span style="font-style: italic;"/spanblockquotespan style="font-style: italic;"... obviously a very talented teenage writer, but her often infelicitous phrasing ... and the heavy-handedness of her good v evil take on her avian universe suggests that the publisher would have done better to wait for her to mature a little more before rushing her into print. /span/blockquoteShe also mentions a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Ashford"Daisy Ashford/a wrote a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Young-Visiters-Daisy-Ashford/dp/0701127252"span style="font-style: italic;"The Young Visiters/span/a when she was just 9 years old in 1919 (when the novel was published many years later, it went through 18 times in its first year alone) and span style="font-style: italic;""the most famous piece of published writing by a young author"/span, Anne Frank's a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl"span style="font-style: italic;"Diary of a Young Girl/span/a.br /br /(She might also have included Christopher Paolini, a href="http://thebookaholic.blogspot.com/2008/06/brisingr-cometh.html"author of the Brisingr series/a who is enjoying a great deal of commercial success.)br /br /But with all these younger writers, you find yourself wondering just how they will judge their earlier work when they do reach maturity. Will it be with great pride or toe-curling embarrassment?br /br /Anyway, if you are a teen who wants to write, you might find a href="http://www.aaronshep.com/youngauthor/bookshelf.html"this list of books/a compiled Aaron Shepard useful.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7912730-2174832899108583771?l=thebookaholic.blogspot.com'//div

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Dah 3 tahun, Yang Ariff!



span style="font-size:180%;"/spandiv style="text-align: justify;"blockquotespan style="font-size:180%;"Justice Delayed./span The day Dr M was attacked with tear gas in Kota Bahru, I was in Damansara with a couple of ex-NST editors putting to bed a new magazine we had just started. That incident took place exactly 3 years ago yesterday. Pak Lah, who was the PM then, has long been replaced and that magazine discontinued, but we are still waiting for the court to decide if span style="font-weight: bold;"Nik Sepiea should be/span span style="font-weight: bold;"jailed, fined and whipped/span for causing hurt to the Statesman!br /br /a href="http://ahmadatalib.blogspot.com/2009/07/keadilan-untuk-mirza-dr-m-bila-pula.html"span style="font-style: italic;"Pahit Manis/span/a and a href="http://bigdogdotcom.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/it-has-been-three-years-now/"span style="font-style: italic;"Big Dog/span/a posted reminders. /blockquote/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/28452020-6838851796793805987?l=rockybru.com.my'//div

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