Morning No: Not Really

by: Natasha Chart

Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 06:00

Ten Dollars an Hour from Ben Guest on Vimeo. (Via)

- Police used sonic cannons, tear gas and stun grenades against demonstrators at the G20 in Pittsburgh. Police departments everywhere are apparently keen to see how that went over. Coming to a town near you? Jon Stewart didn't seem to think it was a big deal last night, but I don't like the idea of peaceful protesters and bystanders being treated like criminals.

- A post busting the myth that there was ever a global cooling consensus seems like the right introduction to the news that catastrophic climate change could happen in 50 years.

- Health care issues aside, Sen. Harry Reid has done something impressively farsighted by introducing a bill to develop biochar technology for improved carbon cycle and water management. No snark, I'm blown away. It's possible that biochar could be done unwisely, but this article discusses how it could be used to benefit ailing forests and denuded soils in the US, while reducing invasive plants and fire risks in managed forests. And wow, just unreserved, holy frakkin' wow.

- The downturn has been particularly hard on the poor, and has thrown more children into poverty. If only the government was as solicitous of ordinary people as it is of the preservation of banks.

- Greenery isn't just pretty, it saves lives.

- The UK government will extend their popular car scrappage program, which has encouraged 200,000 Britons to trade in cars that were more than 10 years old, stimulating sales and saving manufacturing jobs.

- Scientists may have taken some key steps towards reducing degenerative diseases of aging.

- Venezuela's Hugo Chavez no longer thinks the US is run by the Devil, even if he doesn't think its policies towards Latin America have improved all that much.

- Sustainable food advocate Michael Pollan met some angry farmers and turned away their rage with mild answers.

- The leaders of Iran's air force and nuclear energy programs have pledged that Iran won't make a first strike and that the enrichment facility at Qom will be opened to IAEA inspections.

- Lastly, I didn't really expect to find any Leslie Fish on YouTube and I didn't find much, but find some, I did. Hope this one cheers you up in spite of the political environment.

Natasha Chart :: Morning No: Not Really

Tags: blogging news roundup, morning no, biochar, (All Tags)

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Morning No: Not Really | 7 comments

Sonic weapons are potentially deadly. (0.00 / 0)

As the nation becomes ever more the fascist police state, expect such brutal demonstrations of power against the citizenry to increase both in number and intensity.

by: Michael Kwiatkowski @ Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 07:54:39 AM CDT

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Sonic Cannon (4.00 / 1)

Great name for a punk band, BTW.

I wonder what happens if one tries to create a feed-back effect with one of those things? Any way to reflect the sound waves back on the source?

"It sounds wrong...
...but its right."

by: SpitBall @ Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 08:55:42 AM CDT

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"Jon Stewart didn't seem to think it was a big deal last night" (4.00 / 2)

Brotip: Jon Stewart is just a shade left of DLC...total centrist hack

by: TravisDisaster @ Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 09:54:23 AM CDT

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For all that he relies on exposing false equivalencies (0.00 / 0)

and laughing at them, he's susceptible to the same fault as ALL corpoRat functionaries exhibit, and upon which his own humor uncomfortably reposes...

by: konopelli @ Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 10:54:13 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Thanks for the post on wages and work and poverty. (4.00 / 1)

I am sick to death of the phrase "helping the poor" it's implications of charity, like a gift, allowing anything better, even a rotted piece of fruit, is "helping the poor." If you have been robbed, getting a note with a nickel from the gang that rolled you isn't "helping."

Charity is an exception that proves the rule. The rule is we dont do squat about poverty, but we have charity, which is supposed to end our discussion.

They aren't "poor people," they are underpaid workers, or they are unemployed people. They are unwaged workers or they are unsupported disabled.

The video helped. The frame that poor people are poor because they are unworthy is basic to 'status quo,' the Versailles world view and it is a constantly reinforced assumption of news announcers and political operatives.

People are poor because groups of people conspired with their wealth and power to make them poor.

Change
"We must break up the banks and never again let them get so big that they distort our politics and take down the economy.

by: HousesofProgress @ Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 10:17:38 AM CDT

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"If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, (0.00 / 0)

but by our institutions, great is our sin." -- C. Darwin

Quoted to devastating effect by SJ Gould as epigraph in "The Mismeasure of Man."

Nothing is more likely to turn-off Middull Murka than the appeal of 'altruism.' Two reasons: 1) "What's in it fer me?" 2) "Mah taxes ain'na gonna support no lazy, shif'less (___fill in the blank___)..."

by: konopelli @ Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 10:51:54 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I've Always Known The "Global Cooling" Myth Was A Crock (4.00 / 3)

mostly propped up by some bad M$M science reporting. And I knew of the scientists even then being concerned about global warming. But the article linked to in the diary you point to gives a much more thorough account than anything I've ever seen before. It's good to see this sort really thorough treatment.

"Senate passes expanded GI bill despite Bush, McCain opposition"

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 11:53:41 AM CDT

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Morning No: Not Really | 7 comments