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{ Monthly Archives } August 2005

Interesting reading

Freedom is not having to ask permission by Dave Neary.

2005 08 29 J.B. Nicholson-Owens Free Software Comments Off

Getting it? Yes, he gets it.

Jeff Waugh asks if RMS “gets it”—presumably, that Waugh believes asking for GNU to receive a share of the credit “seems rather to distract attention from freedom”, as RMS said about the Linux trademark naming issues being dealt with now. I can only presume what Waugh is referring to since Waugh doesn’t describe his exact [...]

2005 08 27 J.B. Nicholson-Owens Free Software Comments Off

Is the kind of punishment important?

On Democracy Now! today (33 minutes 12 seconds into the show), Kathy Kelley, founder of the anti-war group Voices in the Wilderness, spoke on why her organization won’t pay the US$20,000 fine they have been ordered to pay by Judge John Bates in a Washington, D.C. Federal Court (transcript). But any member of the organization [...]

2005 08 16 J.B. Nicholson-Owens Politicos Comments (1)

Peter Jennings on the Iraq War & Why we need national health care in the US

Two articles to read: Peter Jennings on the Iraq War—summaries of articles written by his detractors (supporters of the invasion and occupation of Iraq). Why we need universal health care in the US—”The argument over a national health program is no longer whether it amounts to “socialized” medicine in the capitalist U.S. It’s now whether [...]

2005 08 09 J.B. Nicholson-Owens Politicos Comments Off

Corporate parties won’t help political minorities on these issues.

Two issues of importance to large groups of Americans with little political power—Blacks and Latinos—have come up in the Leftist press lately and for good reason: The Death Penalty—Justice Stevens condems the Death Penalty. I’ve written about this before, including the racial bias in who is executed by the state, and the situation is only [...]

2005 08 08 J.B. Nicholson-Owens Politicos Comments Off

Jimmy Carter plays the anti-war side now.

During the 2004 US Presidential election, former US President Jimmy Carter was happy to wail about Ralph Nader’s campaign and endorse a pro-war Sen. Kerry. But now, according to the AP, former US President Jimmy Carter claims the war in Iraq is “unnecessary and unjust”: “I thought then, and I think now, that the invasion [...]

2005 08 03 J.B. Nicholson-Owens Politicos Comments Off

And the beat goes on…

With no apologies to Sonny & Cher (the ever-persistent defenders of an infinite term of copyright, damn the public domain and all that they have gained from an unrewarded commons of African-Americans who seeded what is now known as rock music), we get another dose of Democratic party wisdom: pro-war candidate Paul “Hack” Hackett. Update: [...]

2005 08 03 J.B. Nicholson-Owens Politicos Comments Off

How easy it is to delude: GNN on Al Gore’s new TV channel.

Al Gore is starting a new TV channel called “Current”. Anthony Lappé of the Guerilla News Network wrote about what he saw on Current. Right now, Current’s format is a series of shows (called “pods”) which are, ostensibly, what young people shot and edited. “I’m looking forward to watching more “pods” from young people about [...]

2005 08 03 J.B. Nicholson-Owens Politicos Comments Off

This should not get lost in the shuffle of Fahrenheit 9/11 Bush criticism.

From today’s Democracy Now!, a point worth hearing because it gets lost when people see Fahrenheit 9/11 which exclusively focuses on Bush family ties to Saudi Arabia. The following passage is from the transcript of the third segment, 29 minutes 31 seconds into the show. AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to As’ad AbuKhalil, Professor at California [...]

2005 08 02 J.B. Nicholson-Owens Politicos Comments Off

The cost of our war.

IraqBodyCount.net has an important analysis of civilian deaths in Iraq which is very much worth reading. Of course, be sure to keep up with the death count itself. Unfortunately, there is no fallback in place if you visit the site without Javascript turned on. As I write this, IraqBodyCount.net says there are between 23,140 and [...]

2005 08 01 J.B. Nicholson-Owens Politicos Comments Off