Article

Festival Cinematográfico Internacional El ojo cojo

400 películas de 72 países

Éxito absoluto de convocatoria para un festival cinematográfico que ha crecido en prestigio y calidad.

Este año el Comité de preselección que debió visionar los 400 títulos propuestos al festival estuvo integrado por:

Sergio Hernández (México) Licenciado en Psicología Social por la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana en México, Master en Estudios Superiores Iberoamericanos, Doctorado en Historia de la Comunicación Social. En el Ayuntamiento de la Ciudad de México fue responsable del área de Cultura zonas de escasos recursos, organizando festivales, exposiciones y talleres.  read more »

LeGrand Jones, a National Lawyer's Guild attorney from Olympia, was arrested for refusing an illegal demand by police to see his ID at the Port of Tacoma recently. The police have been using demands for ID as one of several harassment tactics towards anti-war demonstrators at the port. LeGrand will use his hearing tomorrow to creatively demonstrate against these tactics by police. Supporters and press are advised to attend.

What: LeGrand's Arraignment

Where: Tacoma Pierce County Courthouse, Tacoma Municipal Building

When: 1:30 pm, Wednesday, August 6th

Media Contact: Wes Hamilton 360-791-7484

"The Persistent Power of Socialist Feminism" is the theme of Radical Women's 41st anniversary conference to be held at San Francisco's historic Women's Building, October 3-6, 2008. The major goal of the three-day public event is to produce a concrete education and action plan to focus and strengthen the U.S. feminist movement--one that can win survival issues, such as 24 hour childcare, nationalized healthcare and full reproductive rights.  read more »

Olympia Port Militarization Resistance (OlyPMR) is organized to end our community's participation in the illegal occupation of Iraq by stopping the U.S. Military's use of the Port of Olympia.
Port Militarization Resistance Actions

Thursday, July 31 2008:

* 11 AM: Shut Down the War-machine in Downtown Tacoma, Tollefson Plaza, 1701 Pacific Ave
* 4-6 PM: Port Militarization Resistance Rally and Protest (Family friendly event. Come & hook-in for later actions) Federal Courthouse, 1713 Pacific Ave in Tacoma
* 5 PM: Solidarity Rally in Olympia, 4th Avenue Bridge
* 8 PM: Port Action Meeting Point, Puyallup Avenue and East D Street in Tacoma

Friday, August 1 2008:

* 11 AM: Shut Down the War-machine in Downtown Tacoma, Tollefson Plaza, 1701 Pacific Ave  read more »

* Study finds long benefit in illegal mushroom drug By David Edwards NEW YORK (AP) — In 2002, at a Johns Hopkins University laboratory, a business consultant named Dede Osborn took a psychedelic drug as part of a research project. She felt like she was taking off. She saw colors. Then it felt like her heart was ripping open. But she called the experience joyful as well as painful, and says that it has helped her to this day. “I feel more centered in who I am and what I’m doing,” said Osborn, now 66, of Providence, R.I. “I don’t seem to have those self-doubts like I used to have.  read more »

The 19th Annual Caravan for Cuba, sponsored and organized by the Pastors for Peace (http://pastorsforpeace.org), is passing through Washington and Oregon and is in Olympia Washington tonight, June 19th. They're on their way to deliver humanitarian aid to Cuba, in defiance of the 47 year blockade against the island nation.

David Rovics (http://davidrovics.com), activist musician extraordinaire, will be performing at both events.

June 19th, 6 pm (with a film festival this afternoon)
Media Island, Olympia
816 Adams St.

June 20th, 6 pm
Liberty Hall, Portland
311 N. Ivy

Free, Donations Welcome (501C3 tax exempt)

ALL WELCOME!!!

HEY YOU!!! LIKE TO EAT??? LIKE DRUMS?...ARE YOU A PERFORMANCE ARTIST???..DO YOU BELIEVE IN BEING GREEN???? WELL THEN... JOIN US..FOR OUR..

"NEW SHAMBALLAH TRIBAL COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AND INNER PEACE POT LUCK."

WHERE? Coopers Glenn apartments Walking distance from Evergreen State College. (3138 Overhulse Road N.W. Olympia Washington 98502..walking distance north from the dorms).

Time: 4pm to 10 pm

Cost: any one of these; a rock or stone, incense, or a candle.

All must bring something to share:
food and water
Love, cups and eating utensils
respect and peace

ALL must leave:
hatred, alcohol, and smoking green

There will be provided seperate tables for...  read more »

HEY YOU!!! LIKE TO EAT??? LIKE DRUMS?...ARE YOU A PERFORMANCE ARTIST???..DO YOU BELIEVE IN BEING GREEN???? WELL THEN... JOIN US..FOR OUR..

"NEW SHAMBALLAH TRIBAL COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS AND INNER PEACE POT LUCK."

WHERE? Coopers Glenn apartments Walking distance from Evergreen State College. (3138 Overhulse Road N.W. Olympia Washington 98502..walking distance north from the dorms).

Time: 4pm to 10 pm

Cost: any one of these; a rock or stone, incense, or a candle.

All must bring something to share:
food and water
Love, cups and eating utensils
respect and peace

ALL must leave:
hatred, alcohol, and smoking green

There will be provided seperate tables for...  read more »

In preparation for the Republican National Convention, the FBI is soliciting informants to keep tabs on local protest groups
Moles Wanted

By Matt Snyders
They were looking for an informant to show up at
They were looking for an informant to show up at "vegan potlucks" throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors.

Paul Carroll was riding his bike when his cell phone vibrated.  read more »

GLOBAL WARMING TO HEAT UP
Thomas Riggins

Well we have learned lately that we have a global warming crisis and we must do something about carbon emissions (CO2 and other greenhouse gases) or else the earth is doomed.

But we also know that capitalism exists to make profits and that given the choice of making money now and killing off the planet in a hundred years or so, profit now wins.

Environmentalists who had hoped the high coast of oil and gas would limit consumption and help reduce pollution will be disappointed. All over the world governments and companies are turning to coal for new power plants. Coal is the worse of all the carbon based pollution sources-- much worse than oil and gas.  read more »

"Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran" McCain's Chant Becomes Closer to Fruition Thomas Riggins I remember a few months back seeing McCain on TV doing this little chant for his fellow moral defectives at a rally. Our intelligence agencies seemingly put the kibosh on this when they announced it looked like Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program, if it ever had one, several years ago. Then the International Atomic Energy Agency said they had no evidence of an arms program and that Iran was cooperating. Israel continued to insist the Iranians were trying to make the bomb and so did the Bushites here at home. The fact there is no evidence of the bomb is itself evidence of the bomb and the cleverness of the deceitful Iranians. So goes the logic of imperialism.  read more »

PHILIP BOBBITT’S “TERROR AND CONSENT: THE WARS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY”
Thomas Riggins

Bobbitt is a distinguished professor of constitutional law holding degrees from Princeton, Yale and Oxford. He has served in important government positions under Presidents Carter, Bush 1 and Clinton. He is now at both the University of Texas and Columbia University. His theories on history and the origins of terrorism are widely respected and his books are used as college texts. His views have influenced not only Hillary Clinton but also John Howard the former Prime Minister of Australia. There is an informative article about his career and ideas in Wikopedia and also about his earlier work “The Shield of Achilles" (900 pages).  read more »

http://friendsofthewaterfront.org/

Friends of the Waterfront is a group of Olympia Area residents and businesspeople who see the Olympia waterfront as a community treasure -- a central feature that is vital to the health of the whole community.

We advocate managing the waterfront area, the land within 600 feet of the water, wisely. It should be developed for the benefit of the entire community, not for the benefit of limited interests.

Doing that well requires managing it according to the community's vision, as determined by a process that includes all elements of the community.
What we think most people would want...  read more »

BLACKWATER MAKES COMEBACK
More tax money for Murder Inc.

Thomas Riggins

This news, as reported on the front page of the NYT for 5-10-08, should not be a big surprise. This one article encapsulates the whole insanity of Bush's adventure in Iraq. It also exposes the sharade of a "sovereign" Iraqi government. We all know about the infamous Blackwater mercenaries, hired killers used by the US government to protect the State Department workers and others in Iraqi and to also spread death and terror to Iraqis who get in their way. If any group should be on the government's list of terrorist organizations it is Blackwater, Inc.  read more »

STEVEN PINKER'S "THE STUFF OF THOUGHT"

Thomas Riggins

This is a reflection on a review by Barbara King, a biological anthropologist at the College of William and Mary of Steven Pinker’s new book, “The Stuff of Thought” in the April 11, 2008 issue of TLS. Pinker is a very influential cognitive scientist who made a name for himself with his 1994 book “The Language Instinct.”  read more »

Cindy Sheehan, the well-known anti-war activist and Bush antagonist, who is running as an Independent for the House of Representatives in Nancy Pelosi's district in California, will be the featured speaker at Town Hall, 8th and Seneca, on Friday evening, June 6. The event is sponsored by the Progressive Action Committee PAC (PAC2).

Speaking on the subject, "A Revolution of Values: Moving from a War Economy to a Peace Economy," Sheehan will address Seattle audiences about the need to challenge our current leaders in Congress and to move the country away from its militaristic response to international problems.  read more »

Media Island needs to work on being a better neighbor to their immediate neighbors. Setting off fireworks and having drunken rants and parties and loud music does not foster a positive neighborhood atmosphere. Rather, it results in a new type of tyranny - the tyranny of disrespect. People can agree with your politics and aims, but if the totality of your actions do not create a better world then you have made the world a worse place.

Stop loud noise at all hours. Stop drunken disrespect. Stop being a detriment when you could be good....

Please Post Widely

Tacoma Wobblyfest 2008: A Poor and Working People's Gathering

A Public Gathering of Education and Music

When the union's inspiration through the workers blood shall run There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun Solidarity Forever

May 24, 2008

9 AM to 5 PM at: Evergreen State College-Tacoma Campus: 1210 6th Ave, Tacoma, WA

6 PM to 9 PM at: Pitchpipe Infoshop, 621 Martin Luther King Jr Way, Tacoma, WA

ALL PEOPLE ARE WELCOMED!

Workshops 9 AM to 12 Noon: Everegreen State College-Tacoma Campus 1. Immigrant Workers: Mary Smith 2. Working Class Environmentalism: Leah Coakley 3. Joe Hill and IWW Music: Patrick Edelbacher  read more »

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR., R.I.P. AVE ATQUE VALE!
Thomas Riggins

There is no doubt, from reading the New York Times obituary (2-28-2008), that Buckley was a talented and bright person. But his legacy, I fear, is mostly negative and his existence was a not a boon to humanity. A few quotes from the Times reveals why.  read more »

by Thomas Riggins

There is an excellent review of John Bolton's new book, "Surrender is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad" by Brian Urquhart (a former UN under-secretary general) in the March 6, 2008 issue of The New York Review of Books ("One Angry Man").

Urquhart points out that Bolton was unhappy with the Bush administration's change of course in its second term (from gung ho go it alone militarism to some limited recognition that cooperation with US allies and the broader international community
was in order).  read more »

SAVE THE DATE

An evening of musical

ACOUSTIC INSURGENCY

MARCH 7TH, 8 PM
EVERGREEN STATE COLLEGE
LONGHOUSE

0-10$ SLIDING SCALE
BENEFIT FOR CARLOS ARREDONDO

With David Rovics

and

Danny Kelly with Mark Eckert  read more »

Attack on Pensions by Right Wing Government Resisted
Thomas Riggins

“Options in favor of the European Union are incompatible with any concept of measures in favor of the popular strata”—A.Papariga, General Secretary, KKE

Two days ago the Greek working class closed down Greece for 24 hours to protest another attempt by the right wing capitalist state, run by Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, to mess with the pension system.

Karamanlis wants to reduce benefits and extend the working age past 65 (men) and 60 (women) despite the fact that he won re-election last year after pledging to do neither.

The typical politicians ploy of promising one thing to get elected and then reneging.  read more »

THE FATWAS OF GRAND AYATOLLAH MOHAMMED HUSSEIN FADLALLAH

Thomas Riggins

The LA Times had an interesting article in its 2-06-08 issue by Borzou Daraghai (“Lebanon Cleric Advises ‘Modern Shiites’”). It’s a good tonic against the rising tide of Islamophobia engulfing the West in general and the US in particular. Just think of the hysterical reactions we have read about when a Muslim was elected to Congress and a high school dedicated to Arabic studies and language was opened in New York City.  read more »

by Thomas Riggins

Bill Gates is giving (by now gave) a speech at Davos in which he is calling upon the capitalists of the world to be kinder and to help the poor. But only if they can make a buck. So reports the Wall Street Journal in an article by Robert A. Guth (1-24-2008) from which all the direct quotes by Gates and others have been taken.

Gates says that "We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well." Those aspects are the exploitation of human labor power and the extraction of surplus value from workers. It will be a nice trick to see how this will happen.  read more »

Listen to a free audio sample of Odyssey of the 8th Fire

January 20th, 2008

I have begun to create a digital audio version of the true story, Odyssey of the 8th Fire. If you would like to listen to or to download this free, 6-minute theatrical audio production, click here: http://www.8thfire.net  read more »

BOOK NOTES: Larry Diamond’s THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY
Noted by Thomas Riggins

This new work by one of the directors of the NED [National Endowment for Democracy] has the subtitle “The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World.” A better subtitle would have been “The Struggle to Help the CIA Overthrow Governments Adverse to American Domination.”  read more »

Thomas Riggins

Juan Gonzalez (Amy Goodman's co-anchor on Democracy Now) has broadsided the Obama campaign in a Daily News column: "I smell Obama baloney: Behind his smooth talk & giant 'Change' banners there lies a lot of the same old political nonsense" (1-11-08).

Gonzalez's problems with Obama boil down to this: While he proclaims "change" and leads youth as the Pied Piper of a new order, he is financially tied to the same old plutocrats who control the present system.  read more »

Thomas Riggins

Here is all we need to know about the latest fabricated "incident" from the Persian Gulf. If you remember the Tonkin Bay "incident" you may want to sing a few lines of when will they ever learn.

The New York Times reported yesterday that the film we all saw on TV of the Iranian speed boats "confronting" the US Navy and threatening to "blow you up" was fake. That is the Navy and the Pentagon admitted "that the video and audio were recorded separately and then combined." That means all the major media broadcast a fake film.  read more »

by Thomas Riggins

People making a New Year's resolution to consume less should bolster their resolve by reading Jared Diamond's "What's Your Consumption Factor?" in Wednesday's New York Times [op-ed 1-2-2008]. However, your or my individual consumption may not make a big difference. Diamond, the author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and "Collapse", is addressing a civilizational problem regarding the difference in consumption levels between First World countries and the developing world.  read more »

Thomas Riggins

There is an interesting article in the 12-21-07 issue of SCIENCE ("The Ethics of International Research with Abandoned Children" by Joseph Millum and Ezekiel J. Emanuel). I'm not going to review the whole article. I'm just going to give a little background to show what is going on and make a few remarks. The article's main thrust is about the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (the effects of moving children to foster care from institutions) but the following experiment with HIV prevention was mentioned. I think it illustrates a real problem with capitalist science.  read more »

by Thomas Riggins

Princeton University has reissued, as a "classic" Barry Goldwater's 1960 book "The Conscience of a Conservative." This book was BG's ideological basis for his 1964 run for president-- one of the biggest crushes ever for the Republican Party. But it laid the basis for the new ultra-right Republican Party that gave us Bush in 2000 (without the benefit of actually having to win an election.)

Here are a few quotes from the book. "Conservatism, we are told, is out of date. The charge is preposterous and we ought boldly to say so. The laws of God, and of nature, have no dateline." Not only is God a conservative, but nature herself has a soft spot for the Republicans.  read more »

Thomas Riggins

Was is just seven years ago that the new millennium dawned? I remember all the talk about how this new era would give us a chance to escape from all the follies of the 20th century. Well, it didn't take long to realize that all the old follies were still with us, waiting to be repeated.

World hunger is one of them. The last century was dotted with mass famines, all of them man made. Surely the UN and the leading nations of the world would not let that sorry record repeat itself?  read more »

FOUNTAINHEAD® TANZ THEATRE e LETTER, Berlin/Germany November 2007 http://members.aol.com/bicdance www.fountainhead-tanz-theatre.de www.black-international-cinema.com Please send replies to / Bitte senden Sie Antworten an bicdance@aol.com CALL FOR ENTRIES "Diverse & Together" in co-operation with Foundation Diversity Forum, Warsaw/Poland in association with Classic In Black Production & Direction: Fountainhead® Tanz Theatre XXIII. Black International Cinema Berlin/Germany, Warsaw/Poland & U.S.A.  read more »

I want to share this information and links for the music & films 6 books by Montecrossa:  read more »

Dec 11, 07 10:59am

PKR secretary-general Khalid Ibrahim, PAS election director Mustapha Ali and a teenager were among nine people released by police as at 4pm.

The others freed comprise six members of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih), who had gone to Parliament House to hand over a memorandum to Opposition parliamentarians, to submit to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

In all, 24 members of Bersih had been arrested this morning in the vicinity of Parliament House, while attempting to deliver the memorandum on the extension of the Election Commission chief's retirement age via constitutional amendment.  read more »

By Thomas Riggins

There are the people's interests and there are the interests of the military industrial complex [MIC] and those who benefit from US imperialism or think they do. With respect to the war in Iraq, the majority of the American people are on record as wanting to end it and they do not support the military industrial complex and its imperial designs. The Republican party (with the exception of Ron Paul) is firmly in the hands of the MIC and can only be described as made up of pro war jingoists and sub rosa racists. The American people gave the Congress to the Democrats to end the the war. So, are the Democratic leaders working for the American people, or for the MIC?  read more »

Thomas Riggins

The Millennium Development Agency set up by Congress three years ago to help poor countries around the world has been slow to develop programs and invest the money provided for it ( $4.8 Billion). It has spent only $155 million!

So now the Senate wants to cut the foreign aid budget (to make "savings"). It wants to slash by 50% the available funds. The problem is this. The MDA works out a 5 year development plan with a country and if the plan is approved, funds it. The country involved often spends millions of its own money to make the reforms and infrastructure necessary to get the US grant. Its like a little test of the sincerity of the applicant.  read more »

Thomas Riggins

The New York Times headlines today show that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. "Bush Insists Iran Remains a Threat Despite Arms Data."

What has he learned from his own intelligence agencies (16 of them!) after they told him the best intelligence they have is that Iran abandoned a bomb program four years ago [if they had one in the first place].

The Times reports that by not having a bomb program Bush thinks "the new assessment underscored the need to intensify international efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon." Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.  read more »

"SHUTTING UP VENEZUELA'S CHAVEZ " by Roger Cohen: A Critique
by Thomas Riggins

Roger Cohen is an editor at The New York Times and columnist for its op ed page and for The International Herald Tribune. The above column appeared in the Times on 11-29-07. It is tendentious in the extreme, poorly argued and factually incorrect.

Cohen is in Caracas, presumedly to observe Sunday's constitutional referendum,
and this column reveals the thoughts of a man who has no sympathy at all for the interests of the people of Venezuela but every sympathy for the interests of US imperialism and its supporters.  read more »

Thomas Riggins

"GREECE : STRIKES AGAINST PENSION CHANGE BEGIN" so begins a World Briefing entry by Anthee Carassava in today's New York Times International section (11/27/07).

The capitalist neoliberal assault on worker's rights in the EU is not confined to France. There is a general trend, since the fall of the USSR and the Eastern European worker's states, to roll back the gains of the European working class since the end of WW2.

The reasons are the same in Greece as in France. "Striking teachers marched through Athens streets, part of a planned wave of strikes against what unions describe as government plans to raise retirement ages and cut benefits to millions of future retirees."  read more »

Thomas Riggins

These comments are based on Adam Tooze's review of the Davies book [Europe at War] in the TLS of 11-16-2007. Tooze has a low opinion of both the book and of Davies' scholarship. This is why.

Davies has a right wing revisionist view of the history of WW2 and uses his book as the basis for an attack on the USSR wherein he argues for the moral equivalency of the USSR and Nazi Germany. "The war in Europe was dominated by two evil monsters, not by one. Each of the monsters consumed the best people in its territory before embarking on a fight to the death for supremacy."  read more »

MARX'S REVENGE

Marx’s Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism by Meghnad Desai, Verso, pp. 372.

Reviewed by Thomas Riggins

Meghnad Desai is the Director of the Centre for the study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics, and Marx’s Revenge is his screed to the glories of globalization, free trade, and the everlastingness of capitalism. This is the on-line version of the review, slightly revised, from the print version.  read more »

by Thomas Riggins

Slavoj Zizek begins his new article in the London Review of Books (11-15-07) with the words, “One of the clearest lessons of the last few decades is that capitalism is indestructible.” He thus joins a crowd of commentators who confuse historically temporary configurations of power with permanent, almost metaphysically substantive economic relations of necessity.

Nevertheless, the name of his article, “Resistance Is Surrender,” is an indication that he does not agree, as we shall see from his musings, with the new ideas on how to invigorate the Left based on this assumption-- yet his recommendations turn out to be a species of that pauper's broth both Marx and Engels said was served up by their erstwhile critics  read more »

We saw seven Stryker vehicles move out Friday on flatbed trucks over road, all down Marine Drive to Interstate 5, to go back to Ft Lewis. The eighth stryker on a flatbed was stopped by people crossing in the crosswalk. The driver of the Semi truck then drove INTO the group of people, slowly trying to push through the crowd (vehicular assault). He was told that he was under citizens arrest at that time, and he was ordered to get out of the vehicle. He refused to comply. The truck driver then drove forward again, committing the same offense. The local police who arrived were told of the arrest, and simply said "nope" and got back into their cars to regroup and decide how to handle the situation.  read more »

KRUGMAN ON THE DEMOCRATS
by Thomas Riggins

The liberal economist and New York Times op ed columnist Paul Krugman has just published a new book, THE CONSCIENCE OF A LIBERAL. It got a big write-up in The New York Review of Books by Michael Tomasky (11-22-07). Some of Krugman’s ideas will appeal to most reality based progressives. Here is a quote from his book, cited by Tomasky.  read more »

"HELL NO WE WON'T GO": FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICERS TO RICE

Thomas Riggins

Recent press reports have highlighted a growing resistance movement by employees at the US State Department. It seems that the Dept. is having trouble finding enough red blooded pork chop eating real American patriots to serve their country by working out of the super sized new American Embassy in Baghdad. It seems like the diplomatic corps is turning down assignments to Iraq in droves, so the Dept. has issued a ukase to serve in Iraq or be fired.

The State Department insiders know what's what in Iraq, not to be at all fooled by the testimony of Tin Pot generals lying to Congress, and they would rather stay safe and sound then go there.  read more »

by Thomas Riggins

Philip Zimbardo is the psychologist who carried out the Stanford Prison Experiment [SPE] in 1971. He has published a book about the lessons to be learned from that experiment and others. The book is “The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil”. This article is a review of the American philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s discussion of the book in the October 19, 2007 issue of the TLS.

The purpose of the experiment was to study the psychological ramifications of isolation on prisoners. One group of college students would spend two weeks 24 hours a day as prisoners while another group played the role of prison guards alternating in eight hour shifts.  read more »

CHINA AND THE MYANMAR [BURMA] SANCTIONS
Thomas Riggins

Recently I have heard and read a lot of criticism of China for not supporting the sanctions against the military dictatorship in Myanmar that the US tried to get the UN to impose. However, the real purpose of the sanctions was not to target Myanmar but to get at China.

The Chinese want a pipeline across Myanmar to bring oil overland to China so that they can bypass the Straits of Malacca which is presently the route for much of the oil on its way by ship to China. If the US should close the straits it could cripple the Chinese economy. The trans Myanmar pipeline is China's answer.  read more »

Marxism, Darwin, and Jerry Fodor's Flying Pigs: In Defense of Natural Selection
By Thomas Riggins

The philosopher Jerry Fodor is rightfully upset with some of the nonsense coming out of Academia disguised as science and dressed up in arguments purportedly derived from Darwin’s theory of evolution. Lots of nonsense put forth under the guise of “evolutionary psychology” is a good example. Here complex behavioral patterns of humans today are explained as inherited traits from our animal past or traits that we evolved when we were hunter gathers on the African savannah.  read more »

Thomas Riggins

Some reflections on the current Turkey/PKK standoff in Northern Iraq. If Turkey wants to end PKK attacks it might try, as a first measure, extending full citizen and human rights to the Kurdish population of Turkey. The Kurds are not allowed to freely use their language. A people's culture and traditions can not be preserved and respected if the state persecutes them with regard to the use of their national language.

Turkey should end efforts at forced assimilation of Kurdish children to "Turkishness" and other efforts at cultural genocide. Turkey should also end policies of violent repression of peaceful manifestations of Kurdish nationalism.  read more »