Easy Text Message Donation: Give Just $5 to Red Cross for Disaster Relief
Subscribers of participating wireless carriers can donate $5 to American Red Cross disaster relief efforts simply by text messaging the keyword “GIVE” to “2HELP” (24357). Donations will appear on customers’ monthly bills or be debited from a prepaid account balance.
Participating Carriers:
Alltel
AT&T
Sprint-Nextel
T-Mobile
U.S. Cellular
Verizon Wireless
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http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_nolnav_text2help
Please make the following your facebook status:
Donate $5 to American Red Cross disaster relief efforts simply by text messaging the keyword “GIVE” to “2HELP” (24357). MAKE THIS YOUR STATUS MESSAGE PLEASE.
“Up” in the air with Clooney & Max Weber
The pursuit of efficiency and scientific progress was supposed to further the goal of maximizing profit, for Max Weber, but it was also meant to maximize leisure time and a feeling of self-fulfillment. The drive we feel toward scientific and technological progress is firmly based in our psychological need for self-affirmation and cannot be fought, ultimately. So we have two goals, broadly construed: One personal and one that lies in the social, political and scientific spheres. The latter involves a pursuit of “rationalization”, by which he means to include the pursuit of a world that functions much like a machine– it is a world in which “one can, in principle, master all things by calculation” (Weber 1919/1946, 139). This reflects, par excellence, the video executive in our film. The talking head is part of a machine meant to maximize profit and efficiency.
But Weber points out an irony that is represented beautifully by the talking head. Our video executive manipulates the most fragile of human emotions remotely, in two dimensions, and yet very efficiently, in a superficial sense. This process reflects the pursuit of efficiency and the extreme bureaucratization of modern society. The irony is that this pursuit was meant to maximize not only efficiency in the well-oiled machine of modern society but also self-fulfillment. Yet the founder of the talking head herself not only fails to reach self-fulfillment but also develops a feeling of disgust for the process. As she eventually turns away from her own invention, she highlights what Weber calls the “iron cage” of technology. What results from the new technology is not progress, properly speaking, but instead a process of “maximized efficiency” that has made us less human.
The film affirms and validates the Weberian thesis of moral decline and the new trend of “antisocial virtues” through a cheating wife and a lonely man. Society falls victim to its own success, as Weber described when he grieved “old human ideals” (Weber 1895/1994, 19). Those seemed to be dying in direct proportion with the advent of an indiscriminate and less-than-human bureaucracy that systematically undermines empathy. In a word, modern society.
Clooney’s character was a victim not only to his lying partner but also to modern society. Yet they were all victims of the greater machine—all but one, perhaps. Weber asks, “[h]ow is it at all possible to salvage any remnants of ‘individual’ freedom of movement in any sense given this all-powerful trend” (1918/1994, 159)? Well, the hope of humanity and morality reflected in the unfolding of this story was the change of heart experienced by the female founder of the talking head. It was an excellent decision to have made this character much younger than the other characters: Who better to serve the purpose of transcending the paradigm than a younger mind? A younger heart? Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm-breaker comes to mind; s/he is often younger and less ‘schooled’ in the modern framework. Excellent casting decision.
In terms of the climax, I don’t think the ending would have been nearly as radical a twist if the married woman had not delivered that very practical speech about finding the ‘right man’ earlier on. If I remember correctly, “even hair isn’t a deal-breaker”. This clearly implies that her standards are loosening, which in turn implies a continuing search for the ‘right man’. Yet she wasn’t in pursuit of the right man, was she? Her family life was not on the table for dispute and she was clearly ‘content’ with her life choices. That fact, by far, was the most pessimistic moral choice made in this film. ‘Depressing’, if you will. But if Weber is right, it wasn’t a free choice; she’s a victim too. Yet she is much too ‘schooled’ in the modern framework to doubt her role in society. She will never be self-fulfilled as a non-autonomous piece of the well-oiled machine that kills off its own when they’re no longer needed.
DP
References
Weber, Max. 1919/1946. “Science as a Vocation” in From Max Weber.
–––. 1918/1994. “Parliament and Government in Germany Under a New Political Order” in Max Weber: Political Writings.
–––. 1895/1994. “The Nations State and Economic Policy (Freiburg Address)” in Weber: Political Writings. ed./trans. P. Lassman and R. Speirs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lawyer Arrested for Talking about Twitter in Public
Reporters Without Borders condemns China’s latest act of censorship against Twitter, consisting of the arrest of a lawyer while he was giving a class about the popular social-networking tool. Despite the government’s censorship attempts, Twitter still provides access to independent news and information in what is one of the world’s most repressive countries towards the Internet.
“After blocking access to Twitter, the Chinese authorities are now targeting the university circles in which this social-networking service is very popular,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We voice our support for Tang Jingling, the lawyer who had the courage to publicly raise the sensitive but crucial subject of the free flow of information on Twitter.”
Reporters Without Borders added: “This incident is indicative of the growing irritation of the authorities with Twitter, which is harder to control than the other social-networking services because of the different ways users can access it, not to speak of the online censorship circumvention tools that many Chinese use.
Twitter is the new bugbear of the regime’s censors.” According to Radio Free Asia, Chinese Internet users joke that “the day Twitter is shut down, pigs will climb trees.” Tang was arrested while giving a class on online censorship and the use of Twitter to students at the College of Vocational Technology in the southern city of Guangzhou on 27 November.
He was interrupted by a member of the campus security force and then taken away by police, who released him a few hours later.
Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world. It has nine national sections (Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). It has representatives in Bangkok, New York, Tokyo and Washington. And it has more than 120 correspondents worldwide.
Refusing Swine Flu Vaccine On Safety Grounds
| Steve Watson Infowars.net Monday, August 10, 2009 |
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Government health officials in the Czech Republic have refused to buy H1N1 flu vaccines from US pharmaceutical firm Baxter International, citing safety concerns.
According to a report by the Czech News Agency CTK, one of the largest English language news outlets in the country, the Czech Health Ministry has halted talks with Baxter citing “the firm’s inability to guarantee that the vaccine is safe and who will bear the risks for possible side-effects.”
The country plans to buy vaccines to cover 25 percent of its population of ten million, but has said it will not buy swine flu vaccine from Baxter before it has acquired a European registration.
“It is a pity, but, unfortunately, at the moment when we accepted the bids, Baxter was unable to confirm that it will deliver a registered vaccine,” Health Minister Dana Juraskova said.
Instead, the country will likely buy its supplies from Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline, but only after the vaccines have undergone regular clinical tests and gained European Medicines Agency registration.
In another CTK report, Deputy Health minister Marek Snajdr was quoted as saying the vaccine “may have side effects and it may even cause death if used”.
Confirmed cases of H1N1 flu in the country remain below 150, according to all estimates, and no one has died from the virus.
(Article continues below)
As we have previously noted, Baxter has a very recent and most disturbing connection to flu vaccines and the Czech Republic.
As reported by multiple sources last March, including the Times of India, vaccines contaminated with deadly live H5N1 avian flu virus were distributed to 18 countries in December 2008 by a lab at an Austrian branch of Baxter.
It was only by providence that the batch was first tested on ferrets in the Czech Republic, before being shipped out for injection into humans. The ferrets all died and the shocking discovery was made.
Czech newspapers immediately questioned whether the events were part of a conspiracy to deliberately provoke a pandemic, following up on accusations already made by health officials in other countries.
Initially, Baxter attempted to stonewall questions by invoking “trade secrets” and refused to reveal how the vaccines were contaminated with H5N1. After increased pressure they then claimed that pure H5N1 batches were sent by accident.
Since the probability of mixing a live virus biological weapon with vaccine material by accident is virtually impossible, this leaves no other explanation than that the contamination was a deliberate attempt to weaponize the H5N1 virus to its most potent extreme and distribute it via conventional flu vaccines to the population who would then infect others to a devastating degree as the disease went airborne.
The fact that Baxter mixed the deadly H5N1 virus with a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses is the smoking gun. The H5N1 virus on its own has killed hundreds of people, but it is less airborne and more restricted in the ease with which it can spread. However, when combined with seasonal flu viruses, which as everyone knows are super-airborne and easily spread, the effect is a potent, super-airbone, super deadly biological weapon.
Indeed, some have already suggested that the current swine flu scare could represent the use of such a weapon.
In a separate case, an ongoing lawsuit has charged that Baxter intentionally used untested and dangerous ingredients in some of its vaccines in order to increase profits.
WHO officials are reportedly still closely monitoring ongoing investigations into Baxter’s contaminated vaccines, despite this the company is leading the way in the production of swine flu vaccines that could become mandatory. Indeed, in an well timed act of clairvoyancy, Baxter filed its swine flu vaccine patent exactly one year ahead of the outbreak.
The company announced last week that it had completed its first commercial batches of H1N1 vaccine in late July and is now in talks with national health authorities worldwide. The company has initiated a European Medicines Agency license application for the vaccine, but it has not yet been approved.
Baxter says it will provide a total of 80 million doses for 40 million people in five countries including the UK, Ireland and New Zealand.
The US will not take the Baxter-made vaccine as it has not received Food and Drug Administration approval.
In addition to regulators in Europe and the US planning to fast-track the approval of swine flu vaccines, new regulations have been put in place to provide pharmaceutical companies with blanket immunity from lawsuits.
“Vaccine makers and federal officials will be immune from lawsuits that result from any new swine flu vaccine, under a document signed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius,” reported the Associated Press last month.
Mass vaccination will probably start at the end of November and in early December. Early reports indicate that health officials in the UK and the US are planning to set up clinics within every school in both countries.
Cops Called About Reporter Committing Journalism on Congressional Candidate
October 20, 2009 – 08:44 ET
“Hello, 911? This is the Dede Scozzafava campaign. Could you send a police car over to the Elks Lodge? There is a reporter here asking our candidate uncomfortable questions. Thank you.”
Something like this call went out last night when a reporter committed the “high crime” of asking Republican congressional candidate, Dede Scozzafava (endorsed by the Daily Kos), questions that she obviously felt very uneasy about answering. Scozzafava, who was recently the subject of an Open Thread here on NewsBusters, is running in the special election for the open seat in the NY 23rd congressional district. She was being questioned last night by John McCormack of the Weekly Standard when the police were called with a complaint about him for making Scozzafava uncomfortable with his probing questions. Here is how McCormack describes the scene:
Lowville, N.Y.
Tonight, Dede Scozzafava, the Republican candidate for the November 3 special election in the 23rd congressional district, spoke to about 100 Republicans at the Lewis County GOP dinner at the Elks Lodge 1605. After a dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing, Scozzafava fended off criticism that she wasn’t as conservative as third-party candidate Doug Hoffman and urged her supporters to vote for her in order to keep her Democratic opponent Bill Owens from serving as a rubber stamp for Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama’s agenda in Washington. It was a fairly typical evening–until the speech ended and someone with Scozzafava’s campaign called the police. On me.
<a href=”http://harvest.AdGardener.com/noscript.aspx?s=16&c=fa99ab07-42c2-43e0-abfb-b47f96e4b9b9″ target=”_blank”><img src=”http://harvest.AdGardener.com/noscript.aspx?s=16&w=336&h=280&c=fa99ab07-42c2-43e0-abfb-b47f96e4b9b9″ width=”336″ height=”280″ border=”0″ /></a>
Uh-oh! McCormack continues to regale us with his “criminal” activity:
Earlier today Lindsay Beyerstein reported that Scozzafava responded to an AFL-CIO questionnaire by saying she would support card-check legislation that eliminates the secret ballot requirement for organizing unions. As Beyerstein notes, this contradict statements made by a Scozzafava spokesman in September.
So after the dinner, I asked Assemblywoman Scozzafava if she supports card check. “Yes, yes I do,” she replied.
Eek! How dare McCormack ask questions of a candidate! An attempt was made to stop this criminal activity but it seems to have failed:
At that point someone from her campaign placed himself between Scozzafava and me and told me I should direct all my inquires to the campaign’s spokesman. I nonetheless asked Scozzafava if her signing of the Americans for Tax Reform pledge not to vote to raise taxes means she would oppose any health care bill that raises taxes. “What kind of taxes?” she replied. Then another couple of gentlemen interposed themselves between Scozzafava and me as Scozzafava headed for the door.
McCormack later continued his criminal assault outside:
I spotted Scozzafava later as she was walking to the parking lot, and asked her: “Assemblywoman, do you believe that the health-care bill should exclude coverage for abortion?” She didn’t reply. I asked her twice more. Silence.
Finally the police ride to the rescue:
Minutes later a police car drove into the parking lot with its lights flashing. Officer Grolman informed me that she was called because “there was a little bit of an uncomfortable situation” and then took down my name, date of birth, and address.
“Maybe we do things a little differently here, but you know, persisistence in that area, you scared the candidate a little bit,” Officer Grolman told me.
“[Scozzafava] got startled, that’s all,” Officer Grolman added. “It’s not like you’re in any trouble.”
Having escaped the long arm of the law, the alleged perpetrator ponders the situation:
But I do wonder if it’s the Scozzafava campaign that’s in trouble–with a candidate who supports card check, who is unwilling to say she’d oppose a health care bill that raises taxes or includes abortion coverage, and who is so reluctant to answer questions that she has someone with her campaign call the cops when she’s questioned by a reporter who is (if I may say so) polite–if a bit persistent.
You can find out more about Dede Scozzafava and the New York 23rd CD campaign at Michele Malkin where she has been blogging extensively about it or by watching this Neil Cavuto report.
And as for the suspect in this case, John McCormack, here is a serenade for you if you are ever again caught in the act of committing journalism.
—P.J. Gladnick is a freelance writer and creator of the DUmmie FUnnies blog.
Women Have The Most To Lose if Health Reform Fails
by Julie Menin
Host of “Give and Take,” seen on NBC In New York and juliemenin.com.
Read more here.
Imagine that you recently had a baby through a cesarean section and had planned on taking off a few years to stay at home to care for your new baby. Now with the economic recession forcing many women back into the workforce, you find that you too need to re-enter the workforce to help your family make ends meet.
The problem? Good luck finding health insurance.
Insurers in most states are permitted to consider gender when determining both individual and group rates and therefore women are frequently charged much more than men for premiums. www.nwlc.org Moreover, a C-section can be viewed as a “pre-existing condition” and insurers can now refuse to pay for future C-sections or deny a women who has had a prior C-section from health coverage entirely. Equally abhorrent, in eight states and in the District of Columbia, insurers can legally deny a woman’s health insurance application if she has been the victim of domestic violence.
In actuality, the impact on women from our current health care system is even worse than just the odious discriminatory practices mentioned above. Skyrocketing health care costs and a lack of access to affordable health care have had a greater impact on women than men according to a Commonwealth Fund study that examines how our current health care system affects women in this country.
The statistics cited in the study are staggering: seven in ten women have no insurance or are underinsured, face medical debt or are facing a cost-related issue affecting their access to health care. More than half of all women in the Unites States have had to refuse necessary care due to cost. Many women are simply not able to find coverage for maternity care at all.
One of the main problems facing women in obtaining health care is that women still earn 78 cents for every dollar that men earn. Yet women use more health care than men, in large part because of women’s reproductive care needs. Exacerbating the situation are the higher premiums many insurers charge women and thus the impact is that women have more trouble than men obtaining the critical health care that they need and therefore more women than men end up being underinsured.
When women make the majority of health care decisions for families (which they do) and when women are more likely than men to visit the doctor more frequently and be proactive about their health (which they are), we as a society are making a grave mistake in not putting quality, affordable health care for women at the top of the agenda in the health care debate.
Women are a majority of the country’s population (52 percent) and constitute more of the overall vote nationwide than men (in every Presidential election since 1980 more women than men proportionately have voted-8million more in the 2000 election and 9 million more in the 2004 election.) Yet where are the advertising campaigns in the health care debate targeted to women or the grass roots mobilization of women’s groups? I have never seen such a blizzard of ads in a non-Presidential election year as we have seen in this current health care debate, yet I have yet to see an ad geared to women.
Women have the most to gain by a passage of a health care bill (a prohibition against insurance companies charging more for premiums for women than for men as many currently do, a reversal of the policy allowing insurers to deny coverage based on a prior C section or domestic violence incident, universal coverage of maternity care, premium subsidies which will make health care more affordable for women and families.)
Women also have the most to lose if heath care reform fails yet you wouldn’t know it from the paucity of dialogue on this issue.
The messaging from the Obama Administration on what women stand to gain and lose in the health care debate has been terrible. We are the only industrialized nation in the West that does not provide universal health care, and yet, the dialogue out of Washington has focused on everything but the impact to women. The President should stand up and say how can we as a society tolerate a system that so blatantly discriminates against a group that comprises over half of our country and that clearly is not putting women’s health on equal footing.
If the Administration fails to pass a strong plan for universal health care, our nation’s chance at ever doing so will be severely comprised for years to come. We are overlooking one of our best assets to get the message out–women–who will raise their voices loudly as they have for generations to protest the perpetuation of a system that does not properly treat women equally and that blatantly does not put proper value on maternity and a women’s overall health.
Israel’s ‘Exceptionalism’
Source
Regarding Roger Cohen’s “An ordinary Israel” (Globalist, Oct. 16): Mr. Cohen suggests that Israel should aim to be a normal state, which sounds logical until we examine what he means by “normal.”
I agree that Israel overplays the memory of the Holocaust and uses it to justify the unjustified in the name of survival. But for the sake of “normality” can Israel really afford to ignore the rhetoric of Iran’s president? Can Iran be trusted to make rational decisions?
Israel is only 61 years old and is still grappling with questions of identity, which are complex because they are intertwined with conflicting interpretations of history. That open and free discussions about identity take place in Israel is “normal,” and in comparison to our neighbors (I’m Israeli), something to be admired.
Harvey Hames, Barcelona, Spain
Israel will cease feeling exceptional when the international community stops treating it as such. It’s notable that Roger Cohen’s column appears the same day that the U.N. Human Rights Council endorses Judge Richard Goldstone’s profoundly slanted report on Israel’s Gaza war.
Mr. Cohen writes that Mr. Goldstone “is a measured man.” Maybe, maybe not. But the report he authored criminalizes Israel for tactics that lie at the heart of the Western counterinsurgency toolkit. U.S. drone strikes are one of the many examples that comes to mind.
If Mr. Cohen wants to see Israel step away from its “exceptionalism” he can help by requesting that international law be applied consistently.
Daniel Balson, Washington
I agree that Israel should not be held to a different standard. But Roger Cohen’s claim that Israel is trying to get away with everything it wants is ridiculous. Mr. Cohen is ignoring certain realities in order to justify his (flawed) view of the Middle East situation.
Israel has continuously stated that its weapons and military actions are defensive measures. From the war in Gaza last winter (a response to incessant rockets launched into the nation) to its possession of nuclear weapons (which it has never threatened to use offensively), Israel is still fighting for its survival. I’m not sure how Mr. Cohen can call a country ordinary when it’s threatened to be wiped off the map and its people are told that the greatest tragedy to happen to them is fiction.
Emily Loubaton, New York
