In a step toward reconciliation on the divided Korean Peninsula, North and South Korea agreed today to compete as a single nation for the first time at the 2006 Asian Games and at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a South Korean Olympic official said.

This is positive, if superficial.

The endgame for Korea is reunification, just like Germany. Sooner or later, the DPRK regime is going to fold. Just get it over with, already!

absolutely

Two Koreas to Compete as Single Nation at Olympics

It is important to note that the absence of a two-way conversation in American television also means that there is no "meritocracy of ideas" on television. To the extent that there is a "marketplace" of any kind for ideas on television, it is a rigged market, an oligopoly, with imposing barriers to entry that exclude the average citizen. The German philosopher, Jurgen Habermas, describes what has happened as "the refeudalization of the public sphere." That may sound like gobbledygook, but it's a phrase that packs a lot of meaning. The feudal system which thrived before the printing press democratized knowledge and made the idea of America thinkable, was a system in which wealth and power were intimately intertwined, and where knowledge played no mediating role whatsoever. The great mass of the people were ignorant. And their powerlessness was born of their ignorance.

Good read. Only... I wish it could be packed into a 5 second blurb, so it might actually have some effect.

You know what Google Ads put up for this article? 'Pet Cremation Services.'

Pet Cremation Services.

Al Gore tells it like it is

When people ask me why I blog, the answer is that it helps me organize my thoughts, memorialize them, work them out.

In short, to discover what I think.

The Big Picture: Why Write ?

Catonic wrote:

seriouslyuguys wrote:

Rattle wrote:
In the most recent blow against evil pornography, the feds have pointed the chilling effects laser at SuicideGirls, forcing them to take down a number of photo-sets and individual photos.

It doesn't look like the Feds actually DID anything. They are pre-emptively taking photosets down in order to stave off prosecution. But the fundies have already won. If I were running SG I'd stand my ground and fight rather then wimping out like this.

Sounds like Prior Restraint to me.

I was refered to a piece about the owner of Suicide Girls by the Sensual Liberation Army site in which although looking superficially alternative the Suicide Girls site owner is in person quite right wing so perhaps he is only out to make money rather than a member of the libertarian right.
Surely attempts to stop this sort of consensual material will continue and needs perhaps to go to court to reaffirm 1st Ammendment rights. The argument about community standards is strange. Surely the 1st ammendment is to protect minority voices against majoritarianism. The question arises, if the shape of the Supreme Court changes because liberals on the Court retire or die, will a real threat to 1st ammendment rights occur.

RE: Justice Department in War Against Porn, chilling effects hit SuicideGirls

Decius wrote:

the cry I do not have an idealogy (i was taught by my left wing teachers) is the cry of a person so immersed in what Gramsci called hegemony that their idealogy is held entirely unconsciously.

That perspective is a bit circular. I'm not talking about hegemony. I'm talking about people who conciously choose to evaluate what they think about an issue based on their favorite philosophy as opposed to considering the effect that they wish to acheive and asking how they might acheive it. An example would be Catholics opposing sexual education in Africa on purely idealogical grounds in spite of the fact that distributing condoms will in fact lead to a healthier society there and in no way limits their ability to advocate abstinance. They justify their policies based on philosophy rather then strategy.

I think we agree but are arguing at cross purposes. By idealogy I mean the consistent or not set of ideas and beliefs used to make judgements. What you refer to I would simply call dogma.

RE: Francis Fukuyama: The acceptable face of the neo-cons? | Al-Ahram Weekly | Profile

noteworthy wrote:

if there is a big opening up in the Egyptian political system and it looks like the banned Muslim Brotherhood could capitalise on such moves to come to power -- the same concerns Hamas in the Gaza Strip -- would the US be happy with the outcome, would it want, for instance, Hamas to be the dominant political force?:

this is an important point,I think, democracy in the Middle East may not conform with the United States best short term political interests however if such forces come to power democratically they will have to learn to accomdate ( a process Iran is currently going through although of course it is only partially democratic but certainly more so than Kuwait or Saudi Arabia) they must learn to live in the wider global civil community.

"America has never created democracy abroad. People who live in a society that want it have created democracy. The US can't simply decide it wants to democratise this part of the world, it has to build on internal discourse that is pushing in that direction.

"There is," Fukuyama insists, "no single global strategy that works in terms of democratic openness. Sometimes it happens from the bottom up and sometimes it happens from the up down, and to be successful it usually has to work in both ways. There has to be elite that wants change, though that desire can be supported and driven by popular participation. For example in Chile, the Philippines and Korea it required pressure on leaders on top to open up their systems and those pressures couldn't have come only from civil society. In Ukraine and Georgia on the other hand there was obviously a big push from below -- pressure in both directions is necessary. There is not one single strategy that produces democratic transition."

thats great
we need to encourage civic society
unlike Fukuyama I believe we need an International Criminal Court which by its very existance instills the values of human rights and the notion of the rule of law

Fukuyama is, after all, on record -- in an interview with this paper last year -- as arguing that the Muslim world is long overdue the kind of reformation spearheaded by Martin Luther in Europe. Is it possible a more liberal Middle East could arise from such a process, and where would that leave civil society?

i understand the argument in that medieval Catholic power models were fundamentally dictatorial and Protestantism arguably led to the English Civil War, John Locke and thence liberal political theory and over time liberal democracy but a lot of blood was spilled note the 30 years war in Germany as example 1.

noteworthy said

He holds out hope that Arab governments can improve without becoming fully democratic

surely the point is that a civic society can grow and mature
the US wasn't the democracy we know ... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

RE: Francis Fukuyama: The acceptable face of the neo-cons? | Al-Ahram Weekly | Profile

Ensure you don't become another Terry Schiavo in case some biological tragedy besets you.

I, _________________________ (fill in the blank), being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.

Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to sit up and ask for a cold beer, it should be presumed that I won't ever get better. When such a determination is reached, I hereby instruct my spouse, children and attending physicians to pull the plug, reel in the tubes and call it a day.

Under no circumstances shall the members of the Legislature enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these boneheads mind their own damn business, and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the millions of Americans who aren't in a permanent coma.

Under no circumstances shall any politician butt into this case. I don't care how many fundamentalist votes they're trying to scrounge for their run for the presidency in 2008, it is my wish that they play politics with someone else's life and leave me alone to die in peace.

I couldn't care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don't know these people, and I certainly haven't authorized them to preach and crusade on my behalf. They should mind their own business, too.

If any of my family goes against my wishes and turns my case into a political cause, I hereby promise to come back from the grave and make his or her existence a living hell.


Signed: ________________________________________

Living Will

Or have we?

The Way We Live Now: Bad Connections

I watched the debate. I could not believe how some members of congress struggled with the word AUTONOMOUS. Half looked like they were reading something - and couldn't read.

It was so very political. They were so transparent. Our country is clearly in trouble.

Congress Condemns Schiavo to Undeath!

] Apple's attorney Riley countered by saying that free
] speech protection applied only to legitimate members of
] the press and not to website publishers. Freedom of the
] press was for the press, meaning the traditional media,
] he said.

The judge ruled in favor of Apple without explanation.

Bloggers not protected by Constitution, says Apple