Humanitarian Texts

• 2008-10-01: Definitions: The Intelligentsia;
• 2008-10-02: There Is an Alternative to Corporate Rule;
• 2008-10-03: In the Time of the Right – Reflections on Liberation;
• 2008-10-04: Grand Theft America;
• 2008-10-05: October is Domestice Violence Awareness Month;
• 2008-10-06: Inventing peace;
• 2008-10-07: Hunter Better Than Nanavati;
• 2008-10-08: Social gap between Moscow and the rest of Russia becomes immense;
• 2008-10-09: 3 videos for change;
• 2008-10-10: Amnesty International Looks to the Future;
• 2008-10-11: Rosenberg Grand Jury Files Released;
• 2008-10-11: Si les robots font tout le boulot, que va faire l’homme;
• 2008-10-12: NOW and Abortion Rights /Reproductive Issues;
• 2008-10-13: Humanitarian Imperialism;
• 2008-10-14: Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery;
• 2008-10-15: The Enemy Without and Within;
• 2008-10-16: Meditation May Increase Empathy;
• 2008-10-17: Haiti: In Solidarity with its Five Freedoms;
• 2008-10-18: A Little Bit Pregnant: Freedom of Speech in America;
• 2008-10-19: Notes from the Asylum;
• 2008-10-20: The Shock Doctrine;
• 2008-10-21: World Future Council – Newsletter 05/2008;
• 2008-10-22: UK charity worker killed in Kabul;
• 2008-10-23: Roberto Saviano: an Italian dissident;
• 2008-10-24: HRW enjoins U.S. gov to improve workers rights in trade accords;
• 2008-10-25: Sign for Roberto Saviano – Firma per Roberto Saviano;
• 2008-10-25: TRADITION EMBRACING THE FUTURE;
• 2008-10-26: The Theft Component;
• 2008-10-27: Pardon Me, Congress;
• 2008-10-27: THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE;
• 2008-10-28: Their Jihad … not my Jihad;
• 2008-10-29: Seyed Mousavi: Guilty Of Being Muslim In Police State America;
• 2008-10-30: Soul Wound: The Legacy of Native American Schools;
• 2008-10-31: National human rights institutions play a key role.

… in the administration of justice

Linked with The National Human Rights Institutions Forum.

Received by mail:

From: HREA – Human Rights Education Associates and its Newsletter
Date: 27/10/2008

Source: Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights OHCHR and its publication page.

27 October 2008 – Over 150 representatives of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) worldwide gathered at the 9th International Conference of NHRIs in Nairobi, Kenya, from 22 to 24 October, to strengthen cooperation and discuss their important role in advancing the rule of law, especially in relation to the administration of justice.

NHRIs, statutory bodies set up to promote and protect human rights, are increasingly recognized by the international community as essential mechanisms to ensure the effective implementation of international human rights standards at the national level. By virtue of their central position within society – especially because many work with the Government, Parliament, the judiciary, police and prison administrations, academic community, NGOs and the media – NHRIs are strategic partners in the work of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

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Linked with Andrea Smith – USA, and with INCITE – Women of Color Against Violence.

Published on Amnesty Magazine USA, by ANDREA SMITH, not dated (copyright 2007).

U.S. and Canadian authorities took Native children from their homes and tried to school, and sometimes beat, the Indian out them. Now Native Americans are fighting the theft of language, of culture, and of childhood itself …

… Dolphus is one of more than 100,000 Native Americans forced by the U.S. government to attend Christian schools. The system, which began with President Ulysses Grant’s 1869 “Peace Policy,” continued well into the 20th century. Church officials, missionaries, and local authorities took children as young as five from their parents and shipped them off to Christian boarding schools; they forced others to enroll in Christian day schools on reservations. Those sent to boarding school were separated from their families for most of the year, sometimes without a single family visit. Parents caught trying to hide their children lost food rations …

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Linked with Stephen Lendman – USA.

Published on Countercurrents.org, by Stephen Lendman, 24 October, 2008.

Seyed Mousavi is a US citizen of Iranian decent. A “family man, and a tireless servant” of the Southern California Muslim community where he lives and helped found the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California (ISCSC). It states its mission as follows: “to promote communications, understanding, cooperation, and coordination among the Muslim communities in Southern California at all levels (and) to help in the practice and propagation of Islam in the United States of America” …

… Mousavi’s Trial:

It was classic police state justice. A common DOJ practice against “war on terror” targets. Figures like Sami Al-Arian, Rafil Dhafir, Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad, Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, and Lynne Stewart. Known for their prominence, leadership positions, charitable efforts, affiliations with Islamic organizations, or in the case of Lynne Stewart for being a notable civil rights lawyer. Devoting 30 years of her life championing the rights of the poor and underprivileged. Defending society’s unwanted and controversial figures never afforded due process without an advocate like her.

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Linked with Raheel Raza – Pakistan and Canada., and with Raheel Raza Diversity Inc.

Published on Raheel Raza.com, by Bhaskar Dasgupta, January 7, 2006.

Being a reformer in Islam is to flirt with ridicule, danger, vituperation and anger. It is not an easy job. It becomes doubly difficult when one goes public. It becomes even more problematic when one tries to overturn centuries old traditions.

It could even become dangerous when it is a woman who is trying to enter a male dominated patriarchal arena. It is frankly amazing when all this is happening in the “hot-house” atmosphere of immigrant societies.

This is a story of a Canadian lady Raheel Raza and her journey over the past five years as expressed in her recently published book …

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Published on Axis of Logic, by Fidel Castro Ruiz, oct. 17, 2008.

Trade, within a society and between countries, is the exchange of goods and services produced by human beings. The owners of the means of production appropriate the profits. As a class, they are the leaders of the capitalist state and they boast of fostering development and social wellbeing through market. This they worship as an infallible God.

In every country there is competition between the strongest and the weakest; the ones with more physical energy and better fed, those who learned how to read and write, who attended school and have more experience accumulated; the ones with more extensive social relations and more resources, and those within society who fail to have these advantages.

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Published on Afterdowningstreet.org, by David Swanson, 24 October, 2008.

Jerry Seib, executive Washington editor of The Wall Street Journal said on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR last week that he expects Bush, Cheney, and their subordinates to be prosecuted for torture. This expectation is spreading.

As we approach W’s last day in office, on which I’m willing to bet you he issues some sweeping pardons of crimes he himself authorized, an act already recommended to him by various voices in the corporate media, we also approach, of course, the dates before and/or after those pardons on which congressional committees may hold hearings to whine about the matter.

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Published on Countercurrents.org, by Jeff Berg, 22 October, 2008.

A representative look at the polls that break down the U.S. vote state by state shows the following:

• Obama has a lead of 7% or more in state’s worth 282 electoral votes.
• McCain is leading or tied in states worth 212 electoral votes.
• This leaves only four states and 44 electoral college votes. Maine (4), Nevada (5), North Carolina (15), Ohio (20). Obama is leading in each of these races as well albeit by less than 7%.

As it takes only 270 electoral college votes to be President this race is well and truly over. In fact it is not even close. Were it taking place in a fully functioning democracy there would be ZERO doubt at this point. Also, if the U.S. had a vigorously independent fourth estate this statistical reality would be everywhere in the media. In fact it would be the lead in story after story and the talk everywhere would have turned at this point to Obama’s coming win excepting of course for Republican “dead-enders”. The Republican guard so to speak.

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Interest in the Humanities Still Keen – Qualifying in Germany: Study and Research Opportunities

Linked with Daniel Goeudevert – France.

Published on Qualifying in Germany, this article is not authored nor dated.

Global interest in humanities studies continues to be very high. Learning about one’s own culture or taking a closer look at the way other people live is the goal of a great many students. This includes, of course, the study of foreign languages, music, literature, art and an evaluation of the media. The study of historical contexts and their continuity helps give us a sense of all these different cultural identities. Young people all over the world are keenly interested in knowing more about the cultures they live in, to better understand them and to find their way in them …

… The major changes now occurring around the globe require both a broad and basic knowledge of our diverse cultural heritage. Without an understanding of other cultures many economic or political processes would be doomed to failure. A knowledge and understanding of culture contributes to peaceful and productive global development. Understanding cultures different from our own also helps promote an understanding for our own culture. This is why it is only natural for Europe to cooperate closely in subject areas like German studies, Romance languages, English, Slavic studies and numerous smaller language, literature and cultural studies, such as Scandinavian or Finno-Ugric. The comprehension of languages and knowledge of literature and the media, which focuses these cultural experiences, form the basis for cultural understanding. More recently, the new media, such as the Internet and digital storage capabilities, have strongly influenced how our cultures are received and perceived …

… Currently, the humanities are going through major changes. With their attention focused on the societies for which they are training people, more and more emphasis is being placed on methodologies, while maintaining their central task: the preservation and renewal of cultural knowledge. (full long text).

Linked with Roberto Saviano – Italy.

Sign for Roberto Saviano: Roberto Saviano is under death threats for denouncing the criminal deeds of the Camorra in his book Gomorra, translated and read all over the world. His freedom is under threat as well as his autonomy as a writer, his chances to meet his family, to enjoy a social life, to have part in the public life, to travel in his own country.

A young writer, guilty to have investigated the organized crime revealing its methods and its structure is forced to live an hidden, underground life, while the Camorra bosses send him death threats from their jails ordering him to stop writing for La Repubblica, his newspaper, and to keep silent. The State must do every effort to protect Saviano and to defeat the Camorra. But this is not a mere police case. It’s a problem of democracy. Saviano’s safe freedom concerns everyone of us as citizens.

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Received by mail:

From: HREA – Human Rights Education Associates and its Newsletter
Date: 23/10/2008

Human Rights Watch Press release

(Washington, DC, October 22, 2008) – Labor provisions in US free trade accords are weak and are not effectively enforced, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Major reforms are needed.

The 36-page report, “A Way Forward for Workers’ Rights in US Free Trade Accords”, provides a roadmap for a new US administration to strengthen the requirements for workers’ rights in these agreements and to improve their enforcement.

“The US approach to labor rights in its free trade agreements, beginning with NAFTA, has failed,” said Carol Pier, senior researcher on labor rights and trade at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to make dramatic changes in its strategy.”

The Human Rights Watch report outlines in detail elements needed to effectively guarantee labor rights, including recommendations that US free trade agreements:

• Unambiguously require all parties to uphold core labor rights in their domestic laws;
• Require all parties to effectively enforce their labor laws in all cases involving trade or investment between the parties;
• Penalize corporations implicated in labor abuses; and
• Depoliticize enforcement mechanisms by significantly reducing state discretion throughout the labor complaint and dispute settlement processes.
• The report also includes specific proposals for a new US administration to make compliance with trade accords’ labor requirements a priority, including to:
• Raise the subject of labor rights from the beginning of free trade talks and require that potential US trading partners remedy deficiencies before negotiations conclude;
• Create and finance mechanisms to assist private parties seeking to file labor complaints and to make local groups in US trading partners aware that the mechanisms exist; and
• Actively monitor agreements’ labor requirements, including by conducting on-site inspections in countries that are US trading partners.
• US politicians have told workers for years that respect for their rights and open markets go hand in hand,” said Pier. “Only bold changes can make this promise a reality.”

Linked with Roberto Saviano – Italy.

Published on openDemocracy, by Geoff Andrews, oct. 22, 2008.

The phenomenon of the Italian mafia has been depicted by many writers and filmmakers. Roberto Saviano’s book Gomorrah – a gripping, unsentimental expose of the mafia in the southern city of Napoli, first published in May 2006 – is one of the very best. Its literary success, and the great acclaim which the film based on it has received, is also a measure of the Italian public’s serious concern about the corrosion of much of the country’s public life in bleak political times.

Gomorrah is groundbreaking in five respects:

• it is written by someone brought up in the Casal di Principe neighbourhood of the Casalesi, one of the most violent of the clans making up the Camorra – the mafia in this region of Italy;
• it is uncompromising in its denunciation of the Camorra’s brutality;
• it makes clear the global reach of the Camorra, an organisation with business interests now extend across many industries and several continents;
• it provides a cutting, critical insight into deep-rooted problems in Naples (Napoli) and the inability of the Italian state to address them;
• it is the most significant  of a growing number of examples in modern Italy of an artist leading the way in challenging power and exposing corruption – by an author still under 30, now facing threats to his life and under twenty-four-hour police protection.

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( First my comment: these Taliban are childish enough to believe they can change our world through “callous and cowardly acts” , but let us not forget: they were brought up by western warlords to combate the Russians in Afghanistan … thus they are also the product of OUR wars).

Published on BBC, by news channel, 20 October 2008.

..

Gayle Williams, 34, was a UK and South African national. She was killed by two men on a motorbike, witnesses told the BBC.

The Taleban are reported to have said they killed her because she was working for a Christian organisation called Serve Afghanistan.

In August the Taleban killed three foreign women near Kabul …

… “She was walking to the office. She had to pick up some papers because she had to give training to the Afghan staff about how to work with people with disabilities.”

Her Kabul-based colleagues also released a joint statement, calling Ms Williams an “inspiring” person who “put others before herself”.

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Linked with The World Future Council on my NGO blog, with their HOMEPAGE, and with their Newsletter – subscribe down in the right column).

Published on World Future Council/Newsletter Archive, by Jakob von Uexküll, October 6, 2008.

Dear Friends, The current global financial crisis highlights both the fundamental weaknesses of the ruling economic order and the challenges faced in repairing them. In a world of growing insecurity and injustice, facing climate chaos and peak oil, we need an economy based on cooperation and sharing, not competitive greed. But, as Councillor Stephen Marglin points out in his latest book, “Thinking like an economist destroys community!”

The alternative to building a global community is growing conflicts and wars over scarcer resources. Therefore, the current crisis shows that we can no longer afford to leave the economy to the economists! Financial “experts” who do not understand the products they design and sell are only the most visible part of the problem. Even more dangerous are the economic fundamentalists who have justified pillaging our natural wealth and the health of the planet because of their belief that “the market” will always find a solution.

This is nonsense. Most economists are ideologues in the service of power. “Free markets” do not exist and have never existed. They depend on the state to enforce contracts without which no investor would invest. If the “global players” could not be sure of state-guaranteed “limited liability” (a modern invention), they would be more careful with other people’s money.

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an excerpt from the Introduction

Published on Naomi Klein.org, by Naomi Klein, not dated.

… In scale, the disaster capitalism complex is on a par with the “emerging market” and IT booms of the 90s. It is dominated by US firms, but is global, with British companies bringing their experience in security cameras, Israeli firms their expertise in building hi-tech fences and walls. Combined with soaring insurance industry profits as well as super profits for the oil industry, the disaster economy may well have saved the world market from the full-blown recession it was facing on the eve of 9/11.

In the torrent of words written in eulogy to Milton Friedman, the role of shocks and crises to advance his world view received barely a mention. Instead, the economist’s passing, in November 2006, provided an occasion for a retelling of the official story of how his brand of radical capitalism became government orthodoxy in almost every corner of the globe. It is a fairytale history, scrubbed clean of the violence so intimately entwined with this crusade.

It is time for this to change. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been a powerful reckoning with the crimes committed in the name of communism. But what of the crusade to liberate world markets?

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Published on Cyrano.org, by Ed Duvin, June 12th, 2008.

THE PROGRESSIVE COMMUNITY has long resisted a profound commitment to other beings, holding this would be a distortion of priority and proportion.  I find myself captivated by their contorted defense of the indefensible, but then entertainment is at a premium here at the asylum.  There is a touch of Ionesco at play, as humans engage in nonsensical debates while nonhumans continue to perish by the billions.  It is a telling depiction of our species, celebrating our self-importance from the labyrinth.

I migrated to the animal rights cause in the 1970s, drawn by the belief that never had so many been exploited for so long.  No matter how ingrained the cultural denial, a slaughter by any other name is still a slaughter.  Many of us who heard the call were veterans of other social justice struggles, but we were unprepared for the vexing path ahead.   Yes, there has been progress at the margins, but systemic relief remains elusive.

As with all forms of oppression, the underlying dynamics are many and varied.  What distinguishes this front, however, is crossing the species line.  This unleashes a stream of baseless assumptions, flowing from the human propensity to confuse myopia with wisdom …

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Published on Cyrano.org, by Maryscott O’Connor, June 19, 2008.

… “The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market,” Justice Holmes wrote.

And therein lies the proof that, while it may take an agonisingly long time, American society eventually places its own social strictures against hate speech. Not so long ago, most of this country thought nothing of referring to African Americans as “niggers.” Politicians used the word in their respective houses, employers used it while interviewing blacks for jobs… Such behaviour today is not only frowned upon — it results in the wholesale societal shunning of its perpetrators. The word hasn’t disappeared; far more people use it as an epithet than polite society would like to know. But the fact remains that it has become speech that is unacceptable to most Americans — and it didn’t take a law to make it so.

So, too, should be our approach to all hate speech. We know it when we hear it or read it; and the fear of universal reprisal from one’s fellows is a far more effective bar against uttering the words of intolerance, hatred and ignorance than what would of necessity be a set of frighteningly mutable laws leaving it to whichever government happens to be in power at any given moment. The righteousness motivating the creation of such laws would not only fail to mitigate the infringement of the individual’s right to freedom of speech; it would provide the sort of loophole in our Constitution we more often than not come to abhor, like those created by similarly ill-considered precepts validated by the Supreme Court over this nation’s history (Plessy v. Ferguson, Whitney v. California, Dennis v. United States, et al.).

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Linked with James Petras – USA.

Publised on Dissident Voice, by James Petras, October 4th, 2008.

Today, the acid test for all democrats in North and South America is the issue of the military occupation of Haiti ,the economic pillage and denial of elementary political and human rights of the Haitian people.

In 2004, a US-led invasion force overthrew the democratically elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide and subsequently promoted and organized an occupation army. This colonial military force has repeatedly violently repressed popular demonstrations, violently raided the neighborhoods of the poor and killed, wounded and arrested Haitians who were affirming their rights of self-determination and an end to foreign occupation.

Since the United States bears major responsibility for the invasion, occupation and subsequent pillage and privatization of essential public services, we have a special responsibility to speak out clearly and forcefully to the United Nations (UN) in support of Haiti’s Five Freedoms: … (full text).

(James Petras, a former Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York, owns a 50-year membership in the class struggle, is an adviser to the landless and jobless in Brazil and Argentina, and is co-author of Globalization Unmasked (Zed Books). Petras’ forthcoming book, Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power, is due from Clarity Press, Atlanta, in August 2008. He can be reached by mail. Read other articles by James, or visit James’s website).

Linked with Tania Singer, and with the University Research Priority Programm URPP.

Published on Contemplative Mind in Life, by dvango, Aug. 21, 2008.

A Conference on Mindfulness and its practical applications will be held in Warsaw, Poland November 26-28th, 2008. The Conference is meant to be the platform of inspiration for scientific research, workshops, and training programmes on mindfulness and other Buddhist techniques. That is why the term practical application has been used instead of theoretical and philosophical concepts of psychology and Buddhism … (more … ):

We are honoured to invite professionals from all over the world to participate in the 1st Conference on Practical Application of Buddhism in Western Psychology. This year’s conference is titled Mindfulness: Theory and Practice.

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Linked with Suzanne Pharr – USA.

Published on Public Eye.com, by Suzanne Pharr, 1995.

When the decision to acquit the cops who brutally beat Rodney King was announced and people began burning their communities and attacking each other, I thought to myself, the right wing is achieving its goal to divide and conquer us as a people …

… We must begin a process of doing what we jokingly call “getting over ourselves” so that we can develop a vision and leadership that brings us together. This means that we will have to stop shouting, “Me, me!” and learn to harmonize on “Us, us.” Developing the politics of inclusion will not be easy because we have many barriers to overcome and because we have no model for it. But I am convinced that this is the only road to both survival and liberation.

The Christian Right, on the other hand, has an easier time in creating its politics of exclusion. Recognizing that most people are disturbed by the social and political chaos in the US, they offer us a vision of the past. They ask us to look in the rear view mirror to the 1940s and 1950s, when white soldiers returned from the war with the G. I. Bill to go to school, finding jobs plentiful and housing available, and there was a sense of stability and order. What they call for, of course, is a racist, sexist, and homophobic vision, for this was a time of legalized segregation, when male authority was unchallenged by women, abortion was illegal, and lesbians and gay men were invisible. They speak of this as the time of “traditional family values.”

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The Human Trafficking Project, a blog dedicated to raising awareness of human trafficking and exploring innovative solutions to combat the issue – and its videos:

• Sept. 23, 2008: Human Trafficking in Colorado;
• Sept. 20, 2008: More from the Freeze Project;

… etc., almost every day back a video on the subject.

See also:

• - The Video: published on Meta Cafe.com, 1.58 min, added June 5, 2008 – Siddharth Kara first encountered the horrors of sexual slavery in a Bosnian refugee camp in 1995. Since then, he has traveled to India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Albania, Moldova, Mexico, and the United States to learn the mechanics of this brutal business and to take stock of its devastating human toll. This book provides a rare business analysis of sex trafficking, focusing on the local drivers and global macroeconomic trends that gave rise to the industry after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Kara quantifies the size, growth, and profitability of sex trafficking and other forms of modern slavery-metrics that have not been published before-and locates the sectors that would be hardest hit by specifically designed interventions and penalties. Kara bolsters his analysis with a riveting account of this unconscionable industry, sharing the stories of victims and revealing the shocking conditions of their exploitation. He concludes with a plan for aggressive measures that would sharply increase the costs of exploiting sex slaves, thereby reducing their aggregate demand among slave owners and consumers.
• – The book: review published on Publisher’s weekly, Sept. 8, 2008, Columbia Univ., $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-0-231-13960-1 – Siddharth Kara, a former investment banker and executive, uses theoretical economics and business analysis to propose measures that could eradicate sex trafficking by undermining the profitability of the illegal activities associated with the crime. At considerable personal risk and expense – he is nearly attacked by a gang of pimps in Mumbai – the author penetrates seedy underworlds and forced labor markets to meet the women and children in the “dungeon of human disgrace” in Asia, Europe and the U.S. He highlights ubiquitous and disturbing trends – the heavy involvement of law enforcement agencies and personnel in trafficking and slavery – but this book’s intentions suffers from Kara’s self-professed “rudimentary” economic analysis, which often borders on the offensive (a theoretical calculation of the lifetime value of a sex slave) and an unscientific, ad hoc research model. While the evidence indicates the urgent need for action – a woman or child is trafficked for sexual exploitation every 60 seconds – Kara’s economic approach fails to shed new light on the human cost of sex slavery and seems at the best of times beside the point, although the detailed statistical information he compiles – on everything from the costs of running a brothel in Queens, N.Y., to massage parlor and bonded labor economics worldwide – is a resource for researchers in the field.

The New Doctrine of Imperial Right

Published on Monthly Review, by Noam Chomsky, September 2008.

… The millennium ended with an extraordinary display of self-congratulation on the part of Western intellectuals, awe-struck at the sight of the “idealistic new world bent on ending inhumanity,” which had entered a “noble phase” in its foreign policy with a “saintly glow” as for the first time in history a state is dedicated to “principles and values,” acting from “altruism” and “moral fervor” alone as the leader of the “enlightened states,” hence free to use force where its leaders “believe it to be just”—only a small sample of a deluge from respected liberal voices …

… In 2002, an Amnesty International mission to protect human rights defenders worldwide began with a visit to Colombia, chosen because of its extreme record of state-backed violence against these courageous activists, as well as labor leaders, more of whom were killed in Colombia than in the rest of the world combined, not to speak of campesinos, indigenous people, and Afro-Colombians, the most tragic victims. As a member of the delegation, I was able to meet with a group of human rights activists in Vásquez Carrizosa’s heavily guarded home in Bogotá, hearing their painful reports and later taking testimonials in the field, a shattering experience …

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NOW = National Organization for Women

Linked with Aileen Clarke Hernandez – USA, with the African American Women’s Institute AAWI, with the California Women’s Agenda CAWA, and with National Organization for Women NOW.

Published on NOW, August 2008.

NOW affirms that reproductive rights are issues of life and death for women, not mere matters of choice. NOW fully supports access to safe and legal abortion, to effective birth control and emergency contraception, to reproductive health services and education for all women.

We oppose attempts to restrict these rights through legislation, regulation or Constitutional amendment:

• NOW and emergency contraception;
• NOW and the Supreme Court;
• Viewpoint: fetal personhood, not just semantics;
• Birth Control is NOT Abortion;
• Expose the Lies: Protect Birth Control;
• Freedom of Choice Act would Guarantee Roe Protections in U.S. Statutes.

für 11.10.08

Publié sur Rue89.com, par François Bugeon, Ingénieur-chercheur, le  10 août 2008.
(Y voir aussi 4 petites annimations vidéos).

… Un des scientifiques présents me confirma ce qu’un de ses collègues m’avait déjà confié deux ans auparavant: les robots humanoïdes capables de remplacer l’homme dans la majorité de ses tâches seront sur le marché d’ici vingt à trente ans.

Des robots humanoïdes aussi génériques que nos ordinateurs actuels

Pourquoi humanoïde? Parce que ces robots devront pouvoir agir dans le même environnement que le nôtre et utiliser les mêmes outils. Ils seront aussi génériques que nos ordinateurs actuels, pour que chacun les utilise sans grande préparation, et seront suffisamment polyvalents pour que le même robot soit capable d’ouvrir une porte ou bien de visser un boulon …

… Nos sociétés doivent se préparer à la raréfaction brutale du travail

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Published on the George Washington University GWU.edu, by the Natuional Security Archive, September 11, 2008.

Ruth Greenglass Testimony Directly Contradicts Central Trial Charge against Ethel Rosenberg – Grand Jury Records Describe Greenglass Handwriting, not Ethel Typing, But Prosecutors Said Ethel “struck the keys, blow by blow, against her own country”: Newly Released Grand Jury Transcripts Now Available, Update: September 11, 2008.

Washington, D.C., September 11, 2008 – The Julius and Ethel Rosenberg grand jury transcripts released today as the result of legal action by the National Security Archive and a coalition of historians directly contradict the central charge against Ethel Rosenberg in the atomic espionage prosecution that J. Edgar Hoover called “the case of the century,” according to experts who analyzed the documents today …

… The release of the previously secret transcripts resulted from a successful law suit filed by the National Security Archive and several historical groups and historians almost eight months ago. The National Archives and Records Administration today released transcripts from 41 of 45 witnesses’ appearances before the grand jury between August 1950 and March 1951, providing key insights into the early Cold War period.

A chronology of the Rosenberg case is available here.

A list of all the witnesses and a description of their identity is available here.

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