"Forgiveness is not an occasional act,
it is a permanent attitude."
Monday, January 16, 2012
Ustad Allah Rakha | Tabla
Ustad Allah Rakha
Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha - Tabla Solo in Jhaptal
"Alla Rakha is the Einstein, the Picasso; he is the highest form of rhythmic development on this planet."
Once in a great while, there emerges a musician who, through his genius, injects that certain spark necessary to elevate an instrument to another level of expression and appreciation.
For tabla, Ustad Allarakha was such an artist, having brought his instrument a stature and respect never before enjoyed. A disciple of Mian Kader Baksh, the great guru of the Punjab gharana, Ustad Allarakha was, in his lifetime, the most celebrated exponent of this style.
Sandeep Sagar: Abbaji - Ustad Allah Rakha
Leading American percussionists in Rock n' Roll, such as the Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart, admired him and studied his technique, benefiting greatly even from single meetings. Hart, a published authority on percussion in world music, said "Alla Rakha is the Einstein, the Picasso; he is the highest form of rhythmic development on this planet." Alla Rakha also collaborated with jazz drummer Buddy Rich, on their 1968 album Rich à la Rakha. Ustad Alla Rakha Khan was awarded the Padma Shri in 1977 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1982.
Alla Rakha - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
more > what next: Ustad Allah Rakha & Zakir Hussain | Tabla
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Occupy Wall Street | Unity Day | Occupy Courts
Unity Day
Members of the African-American faith community have joined forces with Occupy Wall Street to launch a new campaign for economic justice inspired by the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Faithful to its philosophical origin, the "Occupy the Dream" coalition has called for a National Day of Action to Occupy the Federal Reserve tomorrow to focus attention on the gross injustice visited upon the 99% by the financial elite. Clergy members and Occupiers in over 16 cities will come together in Austin, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, DC, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Richmond, San Francisco, St. Louis, Wilmington, and beyond. In Manhattan, we will gather tomorrow (Jan. 16th) from 10am to 1pm at 33 Liberty Street (NY, NY 10045)...
more > Occupy Wall Street | NYC Protest for World Revolution
#J20: Occupy The Courts Nationwide, San Francisco to Occupy Wall Street West
via Occupy Portland:
This is a national day of action (January 20,2011) just one day before the second anniversary of the infamous Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which held that corporations (as people entitled to the rights of the U.S. Constitution) can spend unregulated and undisclosed sums of money in order to influence elections. [There are] over 80 rallies at federal courthouses around the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
Occupy Wall Street | NYC Protest for World Revolution
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Friday, January 13, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Doublespeak Lives
Doublespeak does live. It is vibrant and alive. It permeates every conceivable level ofsociety. Much is spoken about theprosperity of our society. This is voicedagainst a backdrop of cities where thousands roam the asphalt and concrete landscapehomeless and desperate and the hungry queue up at food banks for the basiccommodities. Prosperity is alluded towith a deep and abiding reverence. Thecondominium and estate dwellers carry this notion with them like anall-embracing mantra. Yet, they are buta small minority, while the overwhelming majority struggle to either survive ormaintain a level of economic well-being that is ever at the brink of bankruptcyand destitution.
The spokesman for superiority of this society refer toa nation with the greatest health care system in the world, while fifty millionindividuals lack basic health insurance a realtiy that translates into the factthat they are denied adequate access to health care of any kind. This reality is dutifully ignored though itis a very substantial fact. These numbersare simply subtracted from consideration or concern. Those whose health is exquisitely cared for arethe affluent, exactly the ones who vociferously applaud the quality of thesystem as it exists. The rest stand tolose any financial stability they may enjoy if they should get seriouslyill. For them the health care system isfine, if they remain healthy. Gettingill is another matter entirely. And yet,we hold up this marvelously inequitable system as a model for the entire worldto emulate.
We are a people that love our children so well and socompletely that one-quarter of all children in the country live inpoverty. We claim to care for thewell-being of our future generations, yet we ignore their plight, provide themwith little if any relief from their misery and yet condone their free accessto and use of all manner of deadly firearms. When those adolescents who happen to be disturbed (which is not terriblyunusual for that stage of life) and use weapons that are so readily available,the society shows its concern about the welfare of children, by demandingretribution and, would, if allowed, place ten year olds on death row. No connection is made between the level ofdeadly violence in the society and the accessibility of firearms. Children who are raised deprived of thosebasic amenities we speak so highly about, and who live lives of desperationare, of course, expected to behave both wisely and well. If they, however, behave badly, then thewrath of society falls heavily upon them. The nation takes no responsibility for these outcomes. This is not merely hypocrisy, for hypocrisyis a disguise and obfuscation of truth. It is, in fact, a purposeful distortion of reality. Doublespeak is far more insidious for itproudly proclaims harmony when all around there is imbalance.
Racism is an area where Doublespeak truly shines. In a country that only one hundred and fiftyyears ago condoned the outright ownership of other human beings and totalexploitation of their labor, and only forty years ago denied black people equalaccess to restaurants, restrooms, housing, employment, and every conceivablebasic amenity, today speaks of itself as color blind. This is the very same culture that condonedthe lynching of black men for the innocuous act of merely looking at whitewomen. Somehow, we have magically curedourselves of this barbarism. Yetstrangely enough, most of the menial labor in the society, most of theunskilled menial jobs are performed by people of color. An inordinate proportion of the population ofprisons is represented by black males. Theinner cities are segregated and the schools and social services that serveminorities are abysmal. In spite ofthese obvious realities, affirmative action is ridiculed and blacks are expectedto compete on an equal basis with the more privileged sectors of whitesociety. It is a pretend game of suchstaggering proportions as to be almost comic, if the ramifications were not so horrific.
The War on Drugs continues. There is apparently no end to the police,weapons and prison resources available to interdict the flow of drugs andpunish users, mostly represented by the poor. This strategy is carried out in spite of the obvious awareness that theproblem lies with demand. These drugsessentially serve as an escape mechanism for those who live in conditions thatare deplorable and seemingly hopeless. Yet the beat goes on.
Doublespeak lives. The media are intimately involved in the “art” of Doublespeak. They are its champions, admirers and ultimatepractitioners. They report and emphasizesensational stories as so-called newsworthy events being sure to exaggeratetheir emotional content without making any reference to their context orhistorical perspective. They play the deviousgame of political distraction with consummate skill. The media, essentially owned and controlled bycorporate conglomerates, for the most part parrot the views and interests ofthe powerful, for, that is the group, after all, that controls the directionand actions of the society at large. Itis no surprise that this group would benefit immensely from molding the viewsand aspirations of the general population.
Doublespeak lives on in the area of armaments. It is quite interesting that the UnitedStates - the nation that holds the greatest nuclear arsenal and the onlysovereignty that unleashed nuclear weapons on human beings - is the samecountry that always appears so appalled and outraged when less powerful statesmove to arm themselves in the same way. This nation also happens to be the greatest arms seller in the communityof nations. For that reason, it profitsmaterially from the violent conflicts that erupt in much of the impoverishedworld. It is the distinct quality of Doublespeakthat remarkable contradictions between pronouncements and reality are neveracknowledged and vociferously denied when referred to. It is the hallmark of Doublespeak that povertybecomes prosperity, empty becomes full and night becomes day.
The greatest masters of Doublespeak and all itsexquisite nuances are not so much the politicians as the foreign policyexperts, for they can make ignorance seem like enlightenment, can make a tyrantseem like a prince of democracy and most importantly make evil seem somehowmagically good. There are many splendidexamples of this. The State of Israel thathas forces of occupation throughout its neighboring region and rules the“territories” by shear brute force and state terror calls itself a democracyand is even referred to as a democracy by other nations. Of course the question may come to mind,“Democracy for whom?” The Palestinianrefugees whose squalid camps are surrounded by armed troops certainly do notlive under a democratic umbrella.
Israel is a nation that uses the same tactics thatapartheid South Africa once used to deny the basic civil rights and freedoms ofthe majority black population by herding them into so-called “homelands.” This is a nation that blows up and demolisheshomes of Arabs to make way for Jewish settlers and shoots young boys who havethe audacity to throw rocks at the forces of occupation that constantly harassand contain them. This is a nation thatuses fascist methods to maintain so-called order. Ironically, the Israelis emulate thestrategies and policies of those whose demonic behavior they insist the worldmust never forget. Yet, somehow, miraculouslyIsrael is a democracy to be admired and celebrated. Doublespeak lives.
There are many past examples of leaders of nations whohave received lavish praise for their industry and labors in spite of theiractual behavior towards the populations that were subjected to their rule. The Shah of Iran, Batista of Cuba, Samoza ofNicaragua, The French in Indochina, Suharto of Indonesia, Marcos of thePhilippines are the names of just a few. These were the agents who served both themselves and Western Capitalistsexceedingly well at the expense of their own people. Nonetheless, they were to be praised for theirleadership and statecraft. Their evilpropensities were forged into good works and farsighted and enlightened policies.
Part of the masterful agenda of Doublespeak is the creationof an almost continual need for enemies. As both a distraction from societal ills and as a means of finding acohesive focus for the entire culture, an enemy or enemies of the State seem tobe required. If they do not truly exist,which is often the case, they can be readily fabricated thanks in large measureto the genius of the media. Whenever thetrue economic interests of the powerful corporate interests are threatened orthe rise of a popular movement questions the supremacy of the capitalistphilosophy, it is then that enemies are called upon . The propaganda machinery of governmenttogether with their cohorts in the media focus their attention on moldingpublic opinion in the direction of that newest enemy or enemies of theState. The newest term in the formidablevocabulary of Doublespeak is the so-called “Terrorist State.” At such times, the overweening priorities ofnational interest is invoked, although it is rather inconceivable to imaginehow a third world power can pose a significant threat against the world’s onlysuperpower. Doublespeak lives.
Since Doublespeak calls upon and relies upon theimmense resources of the State, it is an essential tool for the implementationof the agenda of the powerful. It isonly through education and organized resistance that this practice can beexposed, undermined and defeated. Doublespeaklives because the people feed upon it. Doublespeakthrives on ignorance and apathy. Doublespeaklives because the truth is not demanded. Sick is not well, empty is not full, evil is not goodness.
James Forrestal
James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 – May 22, 1949) was the last Cabinet-level United States Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense.
Forrestal was a supporter of naval battle groups centered on aircraft carriers. In 1954, the world's first supercarrier was named USS Forrestal in his honor, as is the headquarters of the United States Department of Energy. He is also the namesake of the Forrestal Lecture Series at the United States Naval Academy, which brings prominent military and civilian leaders to speak to the Brigade of Midshipmen, and of the James Forrestal Campus of Princeton University in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey.
Forrestal observed a famously punishing work schedule in the last years of his life, and rumors had circulated in the press as to his health. President Truman's decision to dismiss him as Secretary of Defense on March 31, 1949 is said to have caused him to suffer a "nervous breakdown", a charge denied by Forrestal's brother. Forrestal was hospitalized on April 2, 1949. On May 22, 1949 he was found dead on the roof of a covered walkway below the window of a kitchen across the hall from his 16th floor room at the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC, commonly known as the Bethesda Naval Hospital), a bathrobe sash knotted tightly around his neck. This happened on the day Forrestal was to be discharged from the hospital. The news media reported that he had committed suicide, and the local coroner and U.S. Navy officials agreed. The circumstances of the death were reviewed, however, by a committee convened by Rear Admiral Morton D. Willcutts, the head of NNMC (1948–1951). The committee released only a brief list of conclusions several months after it had completed its work. The conclusions noted only that Forrestal "died following a fall" and that the fall caused his death. The board did not speculate as to what might have caused the fall.
The committee's full report was not released until 2004. In a review of the board's evidence and findings—solicited by the Navy and kept secret with the report until 2004—Chairman of the American Psychiatric Association Dr. Winfred Overholser concluded that Forrestal "came to his death by suicide while in a state of mental depression," but the report's own conclusions were seen to have been accurately reported 55 years earlier, that is simply that Forrestal died from the fall. Debate over the exact circumstances of Forrestal's unusual death continues today, with some critics citing the U.S. government's withholding of the official report and autopsy results as well as possible signs of struggle in evidence photos as indicating foul play.
There were unsubstantiated reports in the press of paranoia and of involuntary commitment to the hospital, as well as suspicions about the detailed circumstances of his death, which have fed a variety of conspiracy theories as well as legitimate questions. For example, among the discrepancies between the report and the accounts given in the principal Forrestal biographies are that the transcription of the poem by Sophocles appears to David Martin, author of the six-part series Who Killed James Forrestal? to have been written in a hand other than Forrestal's. If Forrestal's, according to some intelligence sources, then he could not scribble the word "nightingale" in the poem because it was the code name of the Ukrainian Nazi elite unit Nachtigall Brigade which Forrestal had helped to smuggle to the United States to supplant Kim Philby's failed ABN (Anti Bolshevik Nationals), an MI6 Soviet émigré fascist group. There was also broken glass found on Forrestal's bed, a fact that had not been previously reported. Theories as to who might have murdered Forrestal range from Soviet agents, to U.S. government operatives sent to silence him for his knowledge of UFOs. (read more)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
V
"People should not be afraid of their governments.
Governments should be afraid of their people."
(dominoes)
Monday, January 9, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
prisoner
War, it's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt.
Decapitation of prisoner in Korean War.
Margaret Bourke-White
descent into madness
If you don't already know, there is a controversial bill President Obama signed into law on New Year's Eve. Provisions within the NDAA allow for the indefinite detention of American citizens on US soil, without access to a trial or attorney. It's a disgrace to the founding fathers, to our nation's rule of law, and to every soldier who has given his or her life to protect our way of life. Many, even liberal Democrats, are now calling for Obama's impeachment, and the recall of Congressional leaders who crammed this bill through.
(read more) (aclu blog) (NDAA)
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
whats up: Nukespeak is a classic! | Karl Grossman
Nukespeak is a classic!
Award-winning investigative journalist Karl Grossman interviews Nukespeak co-author Rory O’Connor on Grossman’s nationally-aired TV program, Enviro-Close-Up. Grossman has been a journalist for more than 40 years, and is a professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury. He is also the chief investigative reporter for WVVH-TV.
Grossman said he was happy to be talking about the 30th anniversary updated edition of Nukespeak: “Of the books written about nuclear technology through the years, Nukespeak is a classic. The new edition of Nukespeak has been updated — with four new chapters — and added to its title is: The Selling of Nuclear Technology from the Manhattan Project to Fukushima. It tells how nuclear promoters have been — and continue — using Orwellian language to try to hide the truth about the deadly dangers of nuclear technology.”
more > whats up: Nukespeak is a classic! | Karl Grossman
EnviroVideo presents Enviro Close-UP with Karl Grossman on blip.tv
A EnviroVideo produces environmental and social justice programs for television - including interview and news shows, specials, and documentaries. The underlying premise of EnviroVideo is that there are critical environmental issues at hand that can best be communicated to large numbers of people through the media most favored for news and information - television and the Internet. And if there is broad public awareness, pressing environmental matters can be dealt with and action taken to truly resolve them.
NO NUKES | RE-TOOL NOW
whats up: RC'S NUCLEAR BLOG
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
The End of the Iraq War
The Iraq War is officially at an end – the troops have come
home. Is there any intention on the part
of government and its people to seriously assess the significance of this
prolonged conflict and to ascertain whether the enormous cost inflicted both on
ourselves and our alleged enemies was worth it? I think not; similar to the aftermath of the
Vietnam War, it will quickly be forgotten by those who did not directly
participate in it. Political pundits and
those running for office will, of course, distort the reality of this war in
whatever way necessary to achieve personal satisfaction and gain.
In fact, nothing of lasting importance has been achieved in
spite of the one trillion dollar drain on the national treasury; the more than
four thousand American lives lost and the tens of thousands grievously injured
Americans and the death of what well may be one million Iraqis. Quite to the contrary, sectarian rivalries
have been greatly exacerbated and the physical infrastructure of the country
has still not been restored to the state they were in prior to the First Gulf
War – electricity and reliably clean drinking water are still not readily
available to the Iraqi population, for example.
The Iraq War represents, in my mind, a reprehensible and
failed attempt to establish economic hegemony in the region. It is true that the energy and weapons
industries may have profited immensely from the conflict, but these are
ephemeral gains. The depraved
indifference to human life that this unprovoked and brutal war on the people of
Iraq represents has not only diminished the financial and human resources of
the United States, but also, has wrecked havoc on the moral character of the
nation. It is another senseless war
along with the wretched litany of past conflicts perpetrated against
essentially defenseless peoples around the globe.
Is there no end to what the American people will tolerate in
regards to the militaristic behavior of our nation towards other governments
and their citizens? There is now about
one and one-half million men and women who have served in Iraq and
Afghanistan. They have been badly used
and exploited by those in power who remain remote from any possibility of harm. What kind of treatment should they expect to
find on their return home? The evidence
is clear in regards to the answer to this question – they can expect little
help or understanding. They are, in
fact, expected to suffer in silence.
If we, as a people, do not look honestly and with
unflinching clarity at our own behavior, we are doomed to repeat it.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
end time
2012 (MMXII) is a leap year that started on a Sunday in the Gregorian calendar, and it is the current year. It is the 2012th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 12th year of the 3rd millennium and of the 21st century, and the 3rd of the 2010s.
The United Nations General Assembly designated 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, highlighting the contribution of cooperatives to socio-economic development, in particular recognizing their impact on poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration; it is also designated as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All.
It has also been designated Alan Turing Year, commemorating the mathematician, computer pioneer, and code-breaker on the centennial of Turing's birth.
There are a variety of popular beliefs about the year 2012. These beliefs range from the spiritually transformative to the apocalyptic, and center upon various interpretations of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Contemporary scientists have disputed the apocalyptic versions.
The 2012 phenomenon comprises a range of eschatological beliefs according to which cataclysmic or transformative events will occur on December 21, 2012. This date is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae have been proposed as pertaining to this date, though none have been accepted by mainstream scholarship.
A New Age interpretation of this transition is that this date marks the start of time in which Earth and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era. Others suggest that the 2012 date marks the end of the world or a similar catastrophe. Scenarios suggested for the end of the world include the arrival of the next solar maximum, or Earth's collision with a black hole, passing asteroid or a planet called "Nibiru". (read more)
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