opit's Blog

opit Commented on The Media, Failed States, Dogfights, The Beatles, and an Acid Trip. by miguelitoh2o

2009-07-23T21:08:25Z

Hadn't checked controls here for a while - though I do tend to roam widely.
The shot of whale and dolphin is on a backup I made before my computer died...but it's in Windows and I'm running Ubuntu 'cause I was p.o.'d over my 'puter being made a spambot right through mechanical trap on e-mail to Thunderbird.
The pic was accompanied by a story that one of a pair of dolphins went over to the whale where they jacked around doing a circus act...in the wild!
And I've rearranged many of my links because I was having 404 returns on Opera. Collections Forwarded to Opit's LinkFest! on Blogger contains the section I was referring to but renamed
http://opitslinkfest.blogspot.com/2009/07/perception-alteration.html

opit Commented on A Dangerous Game: Playing Politics with Iran by Orlando

2009-07-23T20:54:24Z

tpmgary
There's always questioning the results. Did you see the bit from sign of the Times where they had a story on a CIA Twitter Revolution ( Green ) that cost $400 million ?
What do you think of partisan shots from the USA when Iranians know their government is being prevented from a rational ongoing domestic energy program because the USA found it convenient to paint horns on their heads....though why anybody would still believe Cheney over the CIA.

opit Commented on Foreignews (Updated) by Donal

2009-07-08T19:55:14Z

BTW I have a cache of news-finding tools. I'm in the process of migrating some from Opera to Blogger, so it is a bit of a pain to find...like my blog here!
Google has translation tools that mount in the browser. If you've never clicked on a site in some strange tongue to get translation of a webpage bing-bing you're missing a treat!
Google Tools
Also http://my.opera/com/oldephartte/links/
See Utilities - though the list is partially exported already to opitslinkfest.blogspot.com

opit Commented on Foreignews (Updated) by Donal

2009-07-08T19:47:24Z

artappraiser
Anyone talking about American media giving Gaza/Palestine genocide ongoing for decades the attention it deserves - despite the outrage of Israeli citizens - needs to think for a moment about who defends Palestinians most assertively. That'd be Dr. Ahmadinejad.
He made the invidious comparison of the victims of one Holocaust inflicting another on Palestinians.
Whatever politics and repression are engaged in in Iran...they can't hold a candle to the outrageous ongoing bullshit against him...or ignoring the implications of a totally unaffordable $30 billion annual gift to Israel of American-made weaponry.
You do know about the cluster bombs in Lebanon, I trust.
Global phenomenon ? Well, the Brits have the longest history of media manipulation that I am aware of - but I certainly know who owns Hollywood. Give the UK credit - Fox News is a fine b.s. factory.
But 'Media' ? When the Celebrity Circus loses a fine distraction, I find no inconsistency in noting the loss.
The Han ? The VOA never sleeps.

opit Commented on WHERE THE HELL IS THE NEWS? by dickday

2009-07-08T19:33:48Z

'Going on for a long time.' Hahahaha.
I was brought up in the so-called Christian church.
Apologies to the atheists - I'm not pumping brain control : who remembers the bit where the Sanhedrin - Temple - high mucky-mucks hire professional coached shills to goad the crowd into shouting 'Crucify Him!'
Then they free the crook.
Rather sounds like trolls and politicians today.

opit Commented on The Kind of Conversation That Needs to Take Place by Rinku Sen

2009-07-08T19:16:33Z

One of the biggest obstacles to achieving rational discussion is a policy of labeling others POV according to relative perceived bias...instead of considering the argument.
I don't exempt any grounds - sexual, racial, age, location, sexual, religious - from being used as a tool of prejudice over logic.
That is the nail in the coffin of Neo-Con credibility.

opit Commented on BlogNews by opit

2009-06-22T01:26:29Z

Blast. Guess this method of posting is more deceptive than I allowed for. Usually I can get link previews on the tooltip to verify links. Guess I'll have to remember to do that.

opit Commented on Too Thin to Illuminate by Todd Gitlin

2009-06-21T23:56:25Z

I like the way Sort of Buddhist thinks.
Let's go back to the 'what's wrong with small' part first.
Nothing. Microfinance is the lifeblood of local transactions. Any time the state controlled money monopoly fails, people are forced to adopt other solutions. The problem with that is lack of convertability across localities causes outsourcing problems for thing not available locally.
That is, of course, the problem with big states. They impoversh profit centers defenseless before their rapacity. Nor has much changed since Marie Antoinette and her 'let them eat cake' ; bureaucracy has no limits to growth save starvation. That includes transnationals : now hitting the wall of monopoly and a situation where the old rules no longer work.
The how or when we're about to find out, as state and country governments no longer can pay for services.Water monopolies are well placed here,although poisoning the supply means the potential user base will drop sharply. What's that about ? End of an Era on my Links page under Water - wealth and power : if the damn thing doesn't show a 404 error. Then it's scroll through and I doubt the patience for that.
Nothing that isn't in the file there anyway : just not separated out.
Hydraulic Empire : Wikipedia just in case nothing else works.
Best I get back to work transferring information.
Opit's LinkFest! http://my.opera.com/oldephartte/blog/ going to opitslinkfest.blogspot

opit Commented on Dick Cheney, and....torture, the CIA docs, the New Yorker, and Valerie Plame by chthonic

2009-06-21T04:22:45Z

Back again. I'm going over to Bluebloggin because I gave them what for re: jumping to conclusions that the U.S. should be 'supporting' Iranians : this from people who can't help themselves.
Anyway, I just noticed this on an online newsdesk
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22875.htm

opit Commented on Dick Cheney, and....torture, the CIA docs, the New Yorker, and Valerie Plame by chthonic

2009-06-21T04:01:49Z

Thanks for the tip. Novak. I think I'll pretend I don't know who he was.
Saw a summary I haven't dug into yet - movie and website both. http://www.leadingtowar.com/?gclid=CJal0bj67JkCFR0Sagodg1tzRw

opit Commented on ALLAH AKBAR by nemokc

2009-06-20T23:59:08Z

I 'get it'. I recall stories about Ahmadinejad that were exposed as complete mistranslations by an organization dedicated to perverting foreign language speeches. Spiegel in Germany were awake on that one.
The election is about the president : a guy without supreme power. Every time someone is reported winning who the U.S. hasn't yet subverted..."It's a fix!"
It's a fix alright. It's a fix that an election about some joker nobody would ordinarily care about is suddenly a cause celebre. Bullshit.
The mullahs were and are in charge. The rest is window dressing : sometimes called...wait for it...Kool Aid!

opit Commented on A Progressive Fundraiser for the CIA by Rutabaga Ridgepole

2009-06-20T23:42:08Z

Telling a story and having nobody believe it because it flies in the face of everything they are told by a 'Free Press' owned by just a few companies...or isn't reported...that works.
Didn't you listen to Eisenhower or JFK ? Bad boyz, bad boyz...
Maybe you watched Nick Cage's movie about gun-running. Money makes the world go round. Following it is standard police procedure : reality fiction ?

opit Commented on Dick Cheney, and....torture, the CIA docs, the New Yorker, and Valerie Plame by chthonic

2009-06-20T23:27:17Z

I'm not sure I get your point : though I noticed NIEs defusing the 'threat' of Iran surfacing at inconvenient times for the continuation of the narrative.
Who do you think is running 'false flag' ops there right now, BTW? The PNAC gameplan does call for constant harassment of Russia and proxy states while killing off competent governments in oil states. Not that the election would change anything regardless. The mullahs are no more running for office than is the Fed.
That Val Plame operation sure was a corker. Out a CIA NOC ; the penalty for which is death ; sacrifice Libby after jailing Judy Miller for not revealing source information...Brewster Jennings network blown and who knows how many undercover contacts terminated 'with extreme prejudice'...Val's husband sent on a cuckoo mission to provide disinformation about nuclear purchases of garbage materiel...all while Cheney sets people to work providing bogus 'intel' and suppressing rational reporting and spinning yellowcake into WMD.
Just like reactor fuel today.
I'm sure the Russians are going to set up a nuke threat on their doorstep with the one country which has worked towards nuclear nonproliferation !
I love Noam Chomsky on this : he rips off the sheet and reveals the b.s. bare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTGf4X_Qjew

opit recommended Beyond Paradox: Painting With A Broader Palette by synchronicity

2009-06-18T02:01:05Z

opit Commented on Arizona border zealots, white supremacists, and Janet Napolitano by wendy davis

2009-06-20T22:57:24Z

Dug this one. Nice catch.
This reminds me of the rotten stories about Bush that I didn't want to believe when Texas bloggers gave a 'character reference' little shy of horns and pitchfork in days gone by.

opit Commented on Iran: where is the United Nations? by Joseph Chez

2009-06-20T20:14:56Z

The point about the United Nations is well taken : I hadn't seen it elsewhere.
My general impression of United States attitudes to other peoples are unfortunately negative : candid commentary would violate TPM etiquette!
One should not think of Iran's election as an event happening in isolation perhaps : but what is the sudden international concern for an event not even touching the power structure of the country ?
I recall years of demonizing Ahmadinejad. Whatever he is really like I don't know : but I promise you I am quite convinced popular conception badly needs to have a 'mis' prefix. This is not accidental. The 'press' might as well be 'press gang' for all the independence of view left.

opit Commented on A Dangerous Game: Playing Politics with Iran by Orlando

2009-06-20T07:57:56Z

Another of those blasted Canucks chiming in. Of course, I actually do use the net to get opinions from all over. I really don't care if the person at the other end is purple with yellow polka dots - as long as a brain is in evidence.
That's the silliness here. 99.44% of the time the U.S. doesn't give a flying f**k how anybody else's election goes. Nor is this one about power : the mullahs have that.
No, it's part of the game to make s**t up and put on airs about something for which the 'reporting' is straight out of Rove's playbook.
Some can see it. I liked this piece
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/iranian-elections-the-%E2%80%98stolen-elections%E2%80%99-hoax-by-prof-james-petra/