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Catholic Reverend Blames 14-16 year old Boys For Seducing Catholic Priests
Is it not time for Vatican to take this on their chin – and stop blaming anyone? After all during the Middle Ages, the Vatican rule was termed as pornocracy.
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Blaming boys in their teens as seducers takes the cake!
Across Europe and USA, hundreds of thousands of these sexual abuse have come to light in the last 50 years. What started as a trickle in the 60s, has now turned to a flood.
More than this, it is now getting replicated in non-Church NGOs also. In India, many of these NGO do-gooders have been implicated in sexual abuse cases. The Joe Paterno-Jerry Sandusky scandal in USA continues to haunt America. The suicide of Peter Roebuck was related to sexual advances he made to boys in his coaching camps.
A prominent Roman Catholic spiritual leader who has spent decades counseling wayward priests for the archdiocese provoked shock and outrage on Thursday as word spread of a recent interview he did with a Catholic newspaper during which he said that “youngsters” were often to blame when priests sexually abused them and that priests should not be jailed for such abuse on their first offense. The Rev. Benedict Groeschel, who made the remarks, is a beloved figure among many Catholics and a founder of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a conservative priestly order based in New York. He hosts a weekly show on the Eternal Word Television Network and has written 45 books.
The comments were published on Monday by The National Catholic Register, which is owned by EWTN, a religious broadcaster based in Alabama.
“Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him,” Father Groeschel, now 79, said in the interview. “A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.”
He added that he was “inclined to think” that priests who were first-time abusers should not be jailed because “their intention was not committing a crime.”
On Thursday, the comments were taken off the publication’s Web site after the controversy erupted, and the editors, Father Groeschel and his religious order apologized.
“I did not intend to blame the victim,” Father Groeschel wrote in a statement published on The Catholic Register’s site. “A priest (or anyone else) who abuses a minor is always wrong and is always responsible. My mind and my way of expressing myself are not as clear as they used to be.”
Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, denounced the comments as “terribly wrong.” But he said the church was unlikely to discipline Father Groeschel, in part because as a member of a religious order, he was not officially a priest of the diocese.
via In Interview, the Rev. Benedict Groeschel Says Abuse Victims Can Be Seducers – NYTimes.com.
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- In Yumm-Rika There is no Corruption or How IAC Completely Gets The Story Wrong! (quicktake.wordpress.com)
Scenes From An Exhibition: 2012 Republican National Convention
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In the two-horse race, that is the US Presidential election, the second horse has been chosen. Mitt Romney is the Republican candidate. A look at some race-related incidents in the Republican National convention that selected Romney as the Republican candidate.
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The Party Has Spoken | Aug 28 2012 cartoon titled The Tampa Bucks by Martin Kozlowski; cartoon source & courtesy – cagle.com
Seemingly
A few months ago, Lydia Polgreen compared, in NY Times, the changes in the lives of Indian Dalits versus American Blacks. Using studies by Western universities, Polgreen suggested that Indian Dalits have indeed moved closer to the Indian averages than American Blacks have.
Dalits still lag behind the rest of India, but they have experienced gains as the country’s economy has expanded. A recent analysis of government survey data by economists at the University of British Columbia found that the wage gap between other castes and Dalits has decreased to 21 percent, down from 36 percent in 1983, less than the gap between white male and black male workers in the United States. The education gap has been halved.
Another survey conducted by Indian researchers along with professors from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard showed that the social status of Dalits has risen as well — they are more likely to be invited to non-Dalit weddings, to eat the same foods and wear the same clothes as upper-caste people, and use grooming products like shampoo and bottled hair oil.
via India’s Boom Creates Openings for Untouchables – NYTimes.com.
Is the American Right Going in the Right Direction? | Cartoon on Aug 26 2012 titled Right Direction by Gary Varvel; image source & courtesy – cagle.com
There, Here – and Now
Here are some snapshots from the Republican National Convention (RNC) held at Tampa Bay, in USA.
A few notes before that. It would be interesting to see how readers can compare India’s treatment of two less-powerful sections of Indian society.
One is the Indian Muslim minority, which has seen a massive comedown, from being the most-powerful elites in the past, to the new, plebian hoi-polloi.
Second is the vast mass of Dalits, who are actually not a minority, but close to a majority – and out-number their ‘oppressors’ by a significant margin. Unlike American Blacks who are in a minority – and have a past of oppression, Indian Dalits are a majority.
The origins of Dalit economic and social powerlessness are credited to the Indian caste system – as per the narrative crafted by the British Raj, in the last 100 years. Post-colonial India has not made any serious attempt to trace the changes in the economic status of the Dalits in the last 1000 years to validate or reject the colonial narrative.
Now on to the RNC.
Mitt Romney – The Wooden Candidate is the Republican Choice | Cartoon on Aug 27 2012 titled Republican Convention by Jimmy Margulies; image source & courtesy – cagle.com
Peanuts & Monkeys
There are tensions just below the surface at the Republican convention.
The GOP ejected two people from last night’s session for allegedly throwing nuts at a black CNN camerawoman, and saying, “This is how we feed animals.”
“Yesterday two attendees exhibited deplorable behavior,” said a Republican statement. “Their conduct was inexcusable and unacceptable. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated.”
The nut-throwing incident was first reported on Twitter by Take Action News and reporter David Shuster.
Tweeted Shuster: “GOP attendee ejected for throwing nuts at African American CNN camera woman saying ‘This is how we feed animals’.”
Some Twitter users are casting it as a racial issue. But it should be noted that some Republicans dislike many media members, regardless of color.
Using a real incident of an escaped chimpanzee shot dead by police, cartoonist Sean Delonas in NY Post in February 2009 uses the chimp as a proxy for Obama.
One sentence is all it takes
To ruin a Black sympathizer!
Compared to the simple expulsion, of the Nut-Chuckers, a private, anti-Romney comment, sympathizing with Blacks, can get you promptly fired from your job.
When a policeman-in-a-cartoon shoots dead a chimpanzee, an Obama-proxy, First Amendment is invoked. But, the First Amendment didn’t seem to apply to David Chalian.
In an economy with nearly 10% unemployment rate, when David Chalian, the Head-Washington News Bureau for Yahoo, made a private anti-Romney comment, he paid with his job.
This private comment was recorded by an open microphone, and made its way into the cyber-sphere. A comment not in the best taste – but during a Presidential campaign in USA, what are limits to bad taste? Candidates routinely make the most distasteful comments, allegations.
David Chalian’s private comment seems high-culture, in contrast.
While candidates have been having field day in lowering public debate, one sentence is all it takes to ruin a man’s career? | Cartoon on Aug 25 2012 titled Political Convention Checklist by Bruce Plante; image source & courtesy – cagle.com
Yahoo abruptly fired its Washington bureau chief on Wednesday after he was caught on a hot mic taking a racially charged swipe at Mitt Romney and his wife.
David Chalian lost his job after he was overheard saying that the Romneys are “happy to have a party with black people drowning.”
Chalian’s comment, a reference to the tropical storm battering Louisiana, was made during a webcast at the Republican convention that is part of a partnership between Yahoo and ABC News. On Tuesday, Chalian and ABC’s Jonathan Karl jointly interviewed members of the Romney brain trust.
Yahoo said in a statement: “David Chalian’s statement was inappropriate and does not represent the views of Yahoo!. He has been terminated effective immediately. We have already reached out to the Romney campaign, and we apologize to Mitt Romney, his staff, their supporters and anyone who was offended.”
It is unfortunate that a journalist’s career can implode so quickly over one ill-considered comment. At the same time, Chalian’s words were so biased against Romney, and racially inflammatory, that Yahoo management undoubtedly felt it had no choice. That kind of unguarded remark also feeds perceptions that the mainstream media is biased against Romney.
Late in the day, Chalian posted (an) apology on Facebook.
via Yahoo Cans Staffer for Anti-Romney Slam – The Daily Beast.
While the Presidential candidates are lowering public debate, one wrong sentence by lesser ‘mortals’ can ruin their career? | Adam Zyglis of Buffalo News, in August 2012, source & courtesy – Politicalcartoons.com
Black is not Back
The Republican Party has decided that Obama will get all the Black votes – and has ignored its own Black constituents.
Black members of the Republican Party, were themselves disappointed by the lack of Black faces, absence of Black people in the power corridors of the RNC.
This is the fourth Republican convention that I have attended, and it is by far the least diverse. I now know what America would look like if all blacks and other people of color mysteriously disappeared. Reporters have been calling me, practically begging me to find them some blacks to interview for their various media outlets. Is this really the 21st century? I have not been showered with this much attention since I was a little baby!
But even more alarming than the lack of blacks as convention attendees, delegates or Mitt Romney staff members is the lack of blacks in the pipeline to be future party operatives.
When I came into the party with George H.W. Bush, there was a pipeline of other African Americans who worked for the Republican National Committee in the headquarters, staffers who worked for Reagan, etc. We are now some of the most experienced operatives in the game; many of us have our own firms or work for corporate America. Unfortunately, we are never consulted on party issues unless there is an overtly black angle or, more typically, someone in the party leadership has done something stupid and they expect us to go on camera to provide cover. Those of us with integrity have never allowed ourselves to be used in such a manner, though, some blacks have.
Today, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus doesn’t appear to have any African Americans in significant decision making positions on his staff. The same can be said for the Senate and House campaign committees.
If there are no blacks in these pipelines, then the party has made the decision that there will be no blacks in the party’s future. Imagine there were no college football programs; where would the NFL get its players from? Who would provide players for their future?
The Republican line is that the overwhelming majority of blacks will vote for Obama because he is African American. I find this thinking extremely insulting as a black Republican. The reason the majority of blacks will vote for Obama is because Republicans have not given African Americans a reason to vote for Republicans or Romney.
I am embarrassed at the lack of diversity at this convention.The sad thing is that many of the party leaders agree with me in private conversations, but over the years, they have done absolutely nothing to address this issue. When all is said and done, there has been more said than done when it comes to changing the whiteness of the party.
Todd Akin, a Republican of the Legitimate Rape Fame is in the forefront of Women’s Agenda by the Republican’s | Cartoon by David Fitzsimmons of Arizona Daily Star in August 2012, source & courtesy – Politicalcartoons.com
Poster-Child At The Altar
However, anyone banging their head at the altar of the American Dream, is an instant poster-child.
One such poster-child is Mia Love, a Republican Mayor. While there is considerable (anecdotal) evidence that talented Blacks can get their breaks to the American Dream, the important are the average Blacks.
Does the American System work for them – or against them.
Love, who is Mayor of Saratoga Springs, a small town in Utah meets members of the Utah National Guard at a community event in Salt Lake City Image & caption courtesy: dailymail.co.uk
She could be Mitt Romney’s best hope of capturing the African American vote – the dynamic, young immigrant’s daughter hoping to become the first-ever black Republican woman to win a seat in congress.
Mia Love is a 36-year-old, first-generation Haitian-American. She’s a Mormon and already mayor of Saratoga Springs, a small town in mostly white Utah.
The speech, which drew sustained applause, combined her family’s journey to the U.S. with references to civil-rights icons Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
‘Our story has been told over 200 years,’ she told the adoring crowd. ‘With small steps and giant leaps, from a woman on a bus to a man with a dream.’
Love, who is up against Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, a six-term incumbent, is a staunch conservative championing small government and fiscal responsibility.
She said: ‘My parents immigrated to the U.S. with $10 in their pocket, believing that the America they had heard about really did exist.
‘When times got tough they didn’t look to Washington, they looked within.
‘His policies have failed,’ she continued. ‘We are not better off than we were four years ago, and no rhetoric, bumper sticker or Hollywood campaign ad can change that.
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- Camerawoman pelted with nuts in ‘racial abuse’ at Republican convention (thesun.co.uk)
- US election 2012: Republican National Convention – August 29 as it happened – Telegraph.co.uk (telegraph.co.uk)
- BREAKING: Entire Republican National Convention Stunned As Ann Romney Asks For Divorce (theonion.com)
- Elephants everywhere at the GOP convention (photoblog.nbcnews.com)
- Yahoo! fires Washington news chief over Republican joke (reuters.com)
- Republican National Convention — Stripper Business BOOMING in Tampa (tmz.com)
NYT Takes CIA Pre-Clearance Before Criticizing POTUS
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US media knickers in a twist: Does the Free Media of the Free World need CIA clearance, before criticizing the GOTUS?
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For 2ndlook readers. Not surprising!
This has happened for decades – if not longer.
Newly available CIA records obtained by Judicial Watch, the conservative watchdog group, reveal that New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti forwarded an advance copy of a Maureen Dowd column to a CIA spokesperson — a practice that is widely frowned upon within the industry.
Mazzetti’s correspondence with CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf, on Aug. 5, 2011, pertained to the Kathryn Bigelow-Mark Boal film “Zero Dark Thirty,” about the killing of Osama bin Laden, and a Times op-ed column by Dowd set to be published two days later that criticized the White House for having “outsourced the job of manning up the president’s image to Hollywood.”
According to Judicial Watch, Mazzetti sent Harf an advance copy of Dowd’s column, and wrote: “this didn’t come from me… and please delete after you read. See, nothing to worry about!”
POLITICO has just reached out to the Times for comment, as it was unable to do so prior to Judicial Watch’s decision to lift the embargo on the files. (See update).
Judicial Watch obtained the files through a formal Freedom of Information Act request. The full email can be viewed here.
New York Times Managing Editor Dean Baquet called POLITICO to explain the situation, but provided little clarity, saying he could not go into detail on the issue because it was an intelligence matter.
“The optics aren’t what they look like,” he went on. “I’ve talked to Mark, I know the cirucmstance, and given what I know, it’s much ado about nothing.”
Baquet would not provide further details, which means his statements amount to a plea to readers to take it on faith that Mazzetti’s leak was ethically sound.
via NYT reporter leaked advance copy of Maureen Dowd column to CIA – POLITICO.com; wikipedia links supplied.
It is fashionable in the US to moan over how powerful ‘secret police’ has become of late.
But remember! This is nothing new.
For 48 years, Edgar Hoover headed FBI. No POTUS (President of the US), no GOTUS (Government of the US), no SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the US) could touch him. He had a file on everyone. Starting with someone like John Lennon to many Hollywood starlets.
The modern USA has the largest secret police in the world has ever seen. An estimated 3 million strong. Civilian police which is the largest in the world – at one million. The GOTUS at any time has more than 2 crore (20 million) people under prosecution, parole, probation or in prison.
No State has taken so much offence against its own citizens as the GOTUS.
Related Articles
- NYT reporter leaked advance copy of Maureen Dowd column to CIA (politico.com)
- New York Times Reporter Gave CIA Flack a Sneak Peak at Maureen Dowd’s Column [Journalismism] (gawker.com)
- Judicial Watch Obtains Stack of ‘Overlooked’ CIA Records Detailing Meetings with bin Laden Filmmakers (judicialwatch.org)
- Times Reporter Leaked Dowd Column to CIA (newser.com)
Tips & Tricks: No-gyan Dhume Baba Trips Again!
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While busy teaching
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Your gyan, you keep
The US Government made more requests to Twitter to reveal confidential information, than all other Governments in the world put together. So …
If our Indian Government wants to foolishly follow the Yumm-Rikan example, we will take care of it. Our Government! Our problem. Our solution. Don’t need no silly mindless, hectoring from you.
No-Gyan Dhume Baba, don’t need no gyan from you Yumm-Rikans!
You take your gyan and … I could suggest a few things, you may not like.
But I will limit it to one simple, suggestion. Give your gyan to your YummRikan Government.
Land of the Free, Home Of The Brave
Remember Bradley Manning. Dare I remind you of the another marine Brandon Raub. Probably you don’t have the courage to advise your Government after Obama has signed the NDAA Bill. So, no bail, only jail, if Daddy does not like you.
No-Gyan Dhume Baba …
You got problems at home. Save your ideas and lectures where it is needed most.
In YummRika
Where more than 2 crore people (20 million) are either in prison, on parole, probation or facing prosecution. More people being prosecuted by the YummRikan State than the Rest of The World put together.
You want to feed stories about coolie-BPOs, code-coolies, snakes, snake-charmers, elephants, millions of gods, go ahead. Give your countrymen the trash they expect (most of the time) from their media.
Not here in India.
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- Twitter agrees to block six ‘fake’ PM accounts (ndtv.com)
Why Pakistan Never Became Democratic
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For every beneficial outcome, modern India’s commentariat, is in a motivated hurry to credit British (and the West in general) and blame Indian leadership for every injurious development.
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Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | Muhammad Zahoor’s CARTOON | via Daily Times | Click for image.
Bad Sector
From August 15th, 1947, till January 26th, 1950, India had no constitution, laws, or an elected government. Thus for a brief period, short of 30 months, India Government ruled by decree.
Consensus prevailed.
Going by contemporary narratives, Nehru drove the pace of constitution building. Known detractors of the Indian nation, like Homi Mody were invited into the Constituent Assembly – itself headed by a leader of the dispossessed, Dr.Ambedkar.
RK Laxman’s cartoon celebrating India’s Constitution writing and implementaion, while the world was busy writing off India …
Talking heads of the Y2K generation claim that the Indian nation, constitution, parliamentary notions, democratic mechanisms were all a gift of the British.
Merits of the British Raj
First, if the British were so good, why have they not been able to save their home economy?
Care to remember that British ideas of democracy, freedom, were all for show to the subject races? Indian subjects had no representation, redress, were inveigled into sham consultations, as the Indian economy sank into a morass of debt, stagnation, poverty, disease and famines.
This was the true inheritance from the British.
Even though some reports suggest that this was a 1950’s cartoon, it was probably before January 26th 1950, when the Indian Constitution was adopted by the Indian Constituent Assembly. ToI suggests that this was a 1948 cartoon. | Copyright – Children’s Book Trust; source and courtesy – outlookindia.com | Click for source image.
KM Munshi, India’s food minister travelled the world over, seeking food aid. In New York, he described India’s precarious situation as ‘ship-to-mouth.’ Indian Railway infrastructure was in tatters. Ghastly accidents occurred with numbing regularity. India built the entire system of Railways that we see today, over the next 40 years.
MN Roy (founder of Indian Communism), Homi Mody (industrialist) represented realism of the time.
At that time in history, it seemed pragmatic to support the Raj.
A little further
While on the subject of British legacies and inheritances, next door Pakistan had exactly the same inheritance as India.
The Pakistani experience on constitution writing is illustrates the ‘value’ of the British legacy.
There will be many commentaries, to explain Pakistan’s lurch from crisis to crisis, dictatorship-to-dictatorship.
A recent article in Pakistan’s The Dawn makes for interesting reading.
Cartoon by Zahoor
Prime Minister Liaqat Ali is accredited with a number of ground breaking contributions. He decided to ally with the US in the Cold War divide; quashed a coup attempt by communists; promoted General Ayub to the highest rank and fought a war with India over Kashmir to name just a select few. His government ruled on ad hoc basis under temporary laws as it could not formulate and build a consensus on a constitution for the country
They could not dig out a monarchy to rule the country nor could they install a Caliph. The constitution has to be based on democracy. But the problem was that Meerut was now in India. The most powerful Prime Minister serving for one of the longest periods in the history of Pakistan had no constituency in the country to contest elections from. A committed democrat and an active parliamentarian, he knew well that he and his political class had no, or at best a very shaky, future under a democracy. In contrast, Bacha Khan’s was a completely secure political position. It was impossible to democratically uproot him from his constituency. He had voters, volunteers and diehard loyalists.
The ad hoc powers were thus used to change the rules of the game.
Six months after the death of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan moved the Objective Resolution in the Constituent Assembly that introduced Islam as the raison d’être of the new country. Religion was pitched against ones linguistic and cultural identity and faith was made to rival political interests. Those loving their culture, defending their language and demanding their democratic and political rights on these bases became heretics conspiring against the last citadel of Islam in the Subcontinent. Ideological boundaries of the country became more important than the limits of electoral constituencies and principles of democracy were contrasted to injunctions of Islam as defined by the select ulema.
Bacha Khan who enjoyed a hard earned and unflinching popular support in a vast constituency went down in our official gazettes as an anti-Pakistan traitor. Red Shirts were hounded and hunted. Politicians were jailed and elections were rigged.
By declaring the entire country as one constituency and setting ones perceived Islamic credentials as the only qualification, Liaqat Ali Khan tried to create a constituency for his class – the politically insecure Muslim elite that had migrated from the Muslim minority provinces of India. But ironically, they could not sustain their hold on this constituency for long. Within a decade they were outdone by the Army in the game they had pioneered. They were declared incapable of defending the citadel of Islam. The army took over the ‘responsibility’ of keeping the country united in the name of Islam and secure from the conspirators who had strong democratic constituencies in the country.
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US Marine detained for Facebook posts
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Every 11th person of working age in the US is either in prison, parole, probation or being prosecuted for some offence caused to the State.
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Working-age Population in the United States (USAWFPNA) 2011: 239,618 Thousands of Persons Updated: 2012-06-08 9:01 AM CDT | FRED® Economic Data | Source: U.S. Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics | Short URL – http://goo.gl/xZf1l
Vikram Buddhi is still in jail.
So, is Bradley Manning.
A US Marine nearly suffered a similar fate. For pasting silly messages on Facebook.
On the basis that there was zero reason to detain a retired Marine and commit him to a medical facility for psychiatric evaluation, a Virginia judge has demanded that Brandon Raub be released from custody immediately.
Raub, 26, had his home visited one week earlier by FBI, Secret Service and local law enforcement agents who expressed concern over a series of Facebook posts he had made on his public social networking profile. They detained him without charge and admitted him to a local hospital for evaluation.
“The petition is so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy,” reads a signed statement by Circuit Judge W. Allan Sharrett, which was provided to the Richmond Times-Dispatch Thursday afternoon.
Judge Sharrett adds that he was shocked to find that a magistrate did not include any grounds at all for holding Raub, who was placed in custody for a full week without any charges being pressed.
Earlier in the week, attorneys representing Raub from the Rutherford Institute attacked the mishandling of the case by suggesting that the entire ordeal was a war on their client’s constitutional rights.
“This is not how justice in America is supposed to work — with Americans being arrested for doing nothing more than exercising their First Amendment rights, forced to undergo psychological evaluations, detained against their will and isolated from their family, friends and attorneys. This is a scary new chapter in our history,” Rutherford Institute President John W. Whitehead says in a statement released on Tuesday this week. “Brandon Raub is no different from the majority of Americans who use their private Facebook pages to post a variety of content, ranging from song lyrics and political hyperbole to trash talking their neighbors, friends and government leaders.”
Days before he was detained, Raub had made a series of posts that reportedly worried the authorities. His most recent postings included critique of the investigation of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and other messages, such as, “The Revolution will come for me. Men will be at my door soon to pick me up to lead it” and “Sharpen up my axe; I’m here to sever heads.
“The bottom line is his freedom of speech has been violated,” Raub’s mother, Cathleen Thomas, told the Associated Press after her son was detained. On Thursday, she told the Times-Dispatch that the entire ordeal has been “phenomenal” and that others could be considered because, “This could have happened to anyone.”
“This has never been about anything but freedom of speech…. We’re going to continue to post on Facebook,” Thomas continued, adding that she considered her son a “true patriot.”
Raub served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and says he had been considering reenlisting before last week’s events.
via Judge orders release of US Marine detained for Facebook posts — RT.
International Labor Comparisons | International Comparisons of Annual Labor Force Statistics, Adjusted to U.S. Concepts, 16 Countries, 1970-2011 | Working-age population, 2011 | Source: U.S. Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics | Short URL – http://goo.gl/WqW5h
Oh, by the way, Your Judgeship, how is the US justice system supposed to work?
My silly, backward Indian mind tells me the US justice system seeks to maximize imprisonment and extraction of fines. More than 2 crore people (20 million) face the American Justice system each year.
With more than 2 crore people (20 million) in either prison, on parole, probation or facing prosecution. Nearly a 100 countries in the world have a population that is lesser than the number of US citizens in prison, on parole or probation, or under prosecution by the State.
Of course! It clicks now.
After all, Britain the mother-country of Anglo-Saxon Bloc, first annihilated the native populations and then populated the entire continent of Australia with such people.
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- Marine detained for Facebook posts moved hundreds of miles away from family (rt.com)
- Why is Ex-Marine Brandon J. Raub Being Held in a Psych Ward and What Does It Say About Today’s America? (reason.com)
So you think it wont happen to you? It just did …
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There are three-ways in which you can respond when TSA put their hand up your crotch.
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TSA Pat Downs on December 5, 2010 Posted in: Beartoons
There are three-ways in which you can respond when TSA put their hand up your crotch.
- Detest it. (Grimace, contort your face. Go into controlled twitching. TSA guys love it, when you choose this option. Choose this option, if you want to make the day for your friendly TSA man).
- Enjoy the hand up your crotch. Imagine it is Playboy’s latest bunny doing that – or anyone else (of any gender, oldsters also allowed, but no kids huh!) who turns you on. (TSA guys don’t particularly like this. They do believe that you are pervert – who seeks thrills while they are busy with their hands up your crotch.).
- Make fun of TSA.
One week after the 2ndlook post on police-hands-go-up-American-crotches, it was the turn of an Indian-origin man to go through the joys of hands-up-your-crotch.
Instead of taking the sensible option 1 or 2, he chose the Option-3. Wearing a Red T-Shirt, with blood written on it, would freeze the bejeezus out of any TSA guy. Instead of commiserating with the TSA officer, this passenger of Indian-origin started arguing.
Which self-respecting TSA officer will tolerate back-chat from a Dirty Indian? I don’t find fault with the TSA guy. Indians have this attitude problem that needs straightening out.
Janet Napollitano gives the Thanksgiving turkey the TSA treatment – after she had undergone the same | Scott Stantis cartoon from Thanksgiving 2010
While trying to board a flight out of Buffalo, New York recently, a PhD student at Arizona State found out the hard way that being on a no-fly list isn’t the only way to attract the attention of the TSA — wearing a funny shirt will do the trick, too.
In a post published to his personal blog on Tuesday, a 31-year old doctoral candidate named Arijit recounts the horrors he experienced while attempting to fly from Buffalo-Niagara International Airport to Phoenix over the weekend after attending a funeral. In around 3,000 words he goes into great detail about being booted from a domestic flight, getting stuck renting a car and scrounging for overnight accommodations — something he argues most likely wouldn’t have happened if authorities didn’t make such a big fuss over his t-shirt.
The article of clothing that caused such a concern was a red t-shirt that featured a mock-up of the US Department of Homeland Security’s seal, surrounded with phrases such as “Bombs ZOMG,” “ZOMG Terrorists” and “Alert level bloodred — run, run take off your shoes.”
After being vigorously screened and questioned multiple times, Arijit says he was finally given permission, once more, to board his plane. The pilot of the aircraft, however, had had enough of the whole ordeal and asked the Delta supervisor to relay the message that, due to the discomfort the shirt had caused, neither Arijit nor his wife would be allowed to board the aircraft.
“Passengers on the plane supposedly felt uncomfortable with my very presence on the flight,” Arijit writes, “And the Delta manager went out of his way to point out that he wholeheartedly agreed with the pilot’s decision.”
“You’re f—— kidding me,” Arijit says he responded. “Why can’t I board? What’s the concern?”
“Just use your imagination,” the Delta supervisor informed him.
On his blog, Arijit says his reaction is still the same a few days later: “Wow.”
via Man booted from airplane for wearing anti-TSA shirt — RT.
A 2010 cartoon by Gary Varvel; source & courtesy – newsblaze.com
Arijit, the blogger who wrote about this incident, does not know that Vikram Buddhi is in jail for 5-years now, for saying, ‘Death to George Bush’. Actually, he wrote George Bush, Murdabad. How can POTUS, the world’s most powerful man, tolerate this behaviour. (Trust me, Indians have an attitude problem).
Arijit continues with his silly attitude. He questions,
“If that’s the case,” he continues, “why even bother with the bloated security apparatus — since Delta pilots have discretion to kick off passengers who’ve passed multiple checks, after all?”
Indians, take my advice.
Have a properly, humble and submissive attitude, when you go to Yumm-Rika. After all, you are going to a superior country.
PS
In case, you didn’t notice, my post on police-hands-go-up-American-crotches, was dated August 15th, 2012. Go figger. (No, I didn’t mean finger).
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Social Media Bodo-Muslim Breakdown in Assam: Reportage and Reactions
Flashpoint
Mass media is largely reinforcing the official narrative.
In India, however, if there is a large strong oral and social narrative.
If dissonance between the official narrative and the oral, social narrative, is big, mass media and the Government stand compromised.
Both in terms of credibility and effectiveness.
So, dissonance, if any, has to be minimal and credible.
https://twitter.com/PrabhjotSK/status/238179769273946112
https://twitter.com/VoiceofIndia365/status/238749348412936192
https://twitter.com/kao1306/status/236644403341586433
https://twitter.com/kooolkaran/status/238201422074769409
https://twitter.com/BeingHindu/status/238156597698887680
https://twitter.com/i2076/status/237842806272573441
Aftermath
Handling by the Government
Mood
Media
https://twitter.com/sundaram222/status/238797590529970179
Censorship
https://twitter.com/ScamSutra/status/238685597168967680
https://twitter.com/sahalhemant/status/238189400079601664
The Players
https://twitter.com/kashifbangalore/status/236058175625887744
https://twitter.com/MiteshSevani/status/238182756704735232
Voices in the dark
https://twitter.com/sariasheikh/status/236100448023633920
Comedy Central
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- India Shaken as Region’s Ethnic Strife Reverberates (nytimes.com)
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- India focuses on Pakistan after panic (edition.cnn.com)
- India asks Pakistan to explain warnings (cnn.com)
- India Continues to Grapple with Fallout from Assam Violence (world.time.com)
Arab Spring: Will Egypt Surprise the US By Getting Closer to BRICS & Iran?
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Egypt’s new President will first visit China and Iran – and not Yumm-Rika. US officials worried?
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John Bull’s dreams were rudely shattered by Nasser. John Tenniel cartoon in Punch, after the Fashoda (1898) Incident between France & Britain, which was resolved diplomatically. France agreed to British supremacy over Egypt. Nasser blew away British dreams of continued imperialism.
Election Time
After tumultuous elections, coloured by scandals of imported pens from India, a new government is finally in place in Egypt.
But not before US NGOs, behind the Arab Spring protests, and subsequently trying to influence elections were exposed, disgraced and sent back home.
Post Nasser Egypt had neither the respect of the Islamic world or the Emerging Economies countries. Mubarak’s Egypt was fully paid-up member of US Kowtowing Club | Cartoon by Bryant Arnold Published: 10-Feb-11 by cartoonaday.com
The new government headed by Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsy is probably deriving some lessons from Egypt’s Nasserite past.
Up the Nile
After all, it was under Nasser that Egypt threw the British, French and Israeli invaders back into the sea – and the desert.
Nasser, with Nehru, Tito and Sukarno were also significant forces in global diplomacy which challenged the Western grip on global power equations – a first in 200 years.
Any new regime’s first visit is usually a diplomatic signal of direction – and Morsy’s forthcoming visits are ominous signs for the US.
Will Egypt’s future be an amalgam of Iranian Independent Islamism and China’s aggressive economic growth model? | Cartoon title Egypt’s Future by Mike Keefe on 02/03/2011; courtesy – intoon.com
Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsy is heading for China and Iran — a path-breaking visit that is unlikely to please the United States, which has gone overboard to cultivate relationship with the new leadership in Cairo.
Mr. Morsy will land in Beijing on Monday, before heading for Tehran to attend the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) there. This will be the first visit by an Egyptian President to Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The importance of the visit has not been lost on the Iranians.
“Since long time ago, Egypt and Iran as two big Muslim countries have had close ties and played key roles in the Islamic civilisation,” observed Ali Larijani, the Speaker of Majlis, Iran’s Parliament.
Iran-Egypt relationship had greatly soured during the regime of the former President, Hosni Mubarak — evident from the absence of embassies in their respective capitals.
Analysts point out that the region’s geopolitical map may fundamentally realign if the Egyptian President’s visit to Tehran leads to a robust re-engagement between the two heavyweights. Prior to Mr. Mubarak’s exit, Iran, Syria and Lebanese Hizbollah had been facing-off with a pro-West alliance of Egypt and the Gulf monarchies led by Saudi Arabia. The sharp antagonistic divisions among the Arab and Muslim countries of the region had also well suited Israel, which, since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, has not been threatened by a united front of regional countries.
Behind the scenes
There has been considerable behind-the-scenes preparation for Mr. Morsy’s visit. Last week, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mr. Morsy confabulated effusively in Makkah on the sidelines of the emergency summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
Breaking ranks
While still in Makkah, Mr. Morsy broke ranks with host Saudi Arabia and Qatar by proposing a “contact group” on Syria, formed by a coalition of Tehran, Cairo, Ankara and Riyadh. Iran immediately welcomed the Egyptian proposal, with Iranian foreign policy spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast praising the initiative as the means “to review and follow up on [regional] issues so that peace would be established in the region as soon as possible and tensions would ease”.
New ties
A senior official from the Muslim Brotherhood said on condition of anonymity that the new Egyptian leadership was seeking a deeper engagement with the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) grouping, and Mr. Morsy’s visit to Beijing at the invitation of his counterpart, Hu Jintao, was a step in that direction. The Syrian situation as well as the Palestinian question is likely to feature prominently during Mr. Morsy’s stay. Commercial exchanges as well as opening the floodgates for Chinese investments in post-Mubarak Egypt would be another possible focal area of discussions.
U.S. efforts
Observers point out that the two visits follow a feverish effort by the Obama administration to woo the Muslim Brothers. Within the space of one month since Mr. Morsy was elected President, three top Obama administration officials have called on the new Egyptian President in Cairo.
These include Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, whose visit was followed by a trip to Cairo by his boss, Hillary Clinton. Also in the queue shortly afterwards was Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, who was well positioned to engage Egypt’s civilian as well as military leadership. However, Mr. Morsy surprised all when he purged the Mubarak era military top brass, headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the Defence Minister.
via The Hindu : News / International : Morsy on path-breaking visit to China, Iran.
Mohammed Morsy. Photo date: August 21, 2012; courtesy: thehindu.com; source: AP
Big Cheese
For Morsy, the important issue will be to have a more substantive foreign and economic policy – beyond making futile, anti-US gestures.
Nasser’s biggest failing – and Nehru’s biggest success, was precisely this. While Egypt floundered, the direction in India was clear.
Egypt and India were in roughly the same boat after WWII. Poor, unstable, recently decolonized, without an industrial base, a backward military force, an antagonistic neighbour funded and controlled by the West, low literacy levels, food insecurity – the entire gamut.
Has Egypt found direction? Again! | Cartoon by by Clay Bennett on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011; source & courtesy – timesfreepress.com
For a Few Billions More
Post-Sadat Egypt has mortgaged its independence to US policy for a few billion dollars in aid. Mubarak’s wealth was estimated in billions between US$10 billion to US$60 billion.
Morsy’s Egypt is a difficult place. Will Morsy’s independence take Egypt out of a fundamentalist orbit of Saudi Wahabbism into a Indo-Chinese politico-economic development idiom?
God knows, Egypt needs that.
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- Egypt president to visit Iran, a first in decades (timesofisrael.com)
- How should the west react to Mohamed Morsi’s power grab in Egypt? | Simon Tisdall (guardian.co.uk)
- Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood accused of paying gangs to rape women (foxnews.com)
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India’s Economic Growth Slows: Whys, Where-to and How-to questions
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The policy paralysis is symptomatic of a deeper mental paralysis in Indian polity. How can the system start thinking small again.
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It is no longer clear who is more out of touch with the Indian Voter. | Ajit Ninan on Aug 06, 2012, in The Times Of India Ahmedabad
Facts? Hard To Come By
If readers want biased reporting, are media-owners fools, to give them the ‘truth’?
Leftist readers want a leftist slant.
Now that the Left has been proved to be wrong the Right is always Right. So rightly, Right-Wing readers want ‘balanced’ coverage. Like many readers, media owners, producers and creators also have their own ‘agendas’.
Indian commentariat, within and outside India, like in global media, are afflicted by partisan logic and laziness.
Forget solutions.
Sensible analysis either by the Left or Right of the slowdown in the Indian economy has been hard to come by. Two timely analyses extracted here.
Growth in the developing world is currently running at just above 4%, about half the pace of the boom years from 2003 to 2007. But in all the ups and downs of the global economic cycle, India’s ranking among the world’s fastest growing economies has been remarkably stable since 1980. Of the 180 economies tracked by the IMF, India ranked 29th in terms of its average growth rate in the 1980s, 27th in the 1990s and 26th during the last decade.
Even during the strongest boom years from 2003 to 2007, India’s ranking was barely budged (at 24) because all emerging markets were surging, lifted by a tide of easy money. Now, as global growth slows, so does India’s, which is likely to grow at 6% this year. That would leave it right where it was in the global rankings, somewhere between 25 and 30. Just as the boom of the last decade did not deserve a Made in India label, at least so far neither does the present downturn.
India’s growth has followed a steady pattern for three decades. The economy tends to grow 1.5 to 2 percentage points faster than the global emerging market average, come what may.
Here comes the nub.
With the Great Recession in full swing, across, US, EU, Japan, can the Indian economy be unaffected? Many have also rightly pointed out to a policy paralysis.
Will the Opposition collude, collaborate or confront? | Ajit Ninan cartoon on Aug 08 2012 from The Times Of India, Ahmedabad
So, where is the problem?
If not a solution, the Left seems to have, for a change, at least got the diagnosis right.
But more than two years after 2ndlook pointed out the danger – and the solution.
Dark clouds are enveloping our economy threatening the livelihood of millions. The growth rate has dipped to the lowest in a decade. Inflation and price rise continues relentlessly. The index of industrial production, manufacturing in particular, has dipped to its lowest level in recent times and the Sensex has now registered a 24% fall from its highest level.
This has inevitably impacted on the growth of unemployment in the country. It’s now reported that at least 123 cotton and fibre textile mills in the organised sector have closed down resulting in the layoff of 44,681 workers. The Apparel Export Promotion Council estimates that over 45 lakh people have lost their jobs in the textile sector, the largest employer after agriculture in our country. About 65% of our textile exports are to the US and the European Union (EU). With both of them on the brink of a severe recession, the situation in India can only worsen.
Reflecting a typical ostrich mentality, the commerce ministry has announced several sops, estimated at over Rs. 1,200 crore, to promote India’s tumbling exports. While India’s exports grew by 21% in 2011-12, to touch $303.7 billion, they crashed to a mere 3.2% this year, despite the severe depreciation of the rupee. Depreciation would make our goods cheaper in foreign lands, which should normally increase their sales. This, however, is not happening because of the deepening global economic crisis and recession. Yet, UPA 2 has adopted a seven-point strategy to increase India’s exports, despite the recent sharp decline to $360 billion.
The world has seen a sharp deceleration in global trade from a 13.8% growth in 2010 to 5% in 2011 and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) forecasts a mere 3.7% in 2012. This can well lead to a slew of restrictive trade practices in many countries, in pursuit of protecting their economies, which will have an adverse impact on our exports. In this context, the Rs. 1,200 crore package to promote exports will end up helping exporters and won’t increase the volume of exports. The latter requires a growing demand for our products in foreign lands. This cannot be created by granting fiscal concessions at home. Further, export growth requires Indian manufacturing to face severe competition from countries like China and even Bangladesh (in apparel exports, which is our largest net export earner). These concessions, therefore, will only protect the profit margins of Indian exporters at the expense of a mounting fiscal deficit.
Rather than working towards reversing our economic slowdown, UPA 2 seems to be concentrating on the revival of larger profits to India Inc and international finance capital. This has found expression with the calls for GenNext reforms from the recent Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting. The privatisation, with sizeable foreign financial participation, of pension funds is in the offing. Likewise, reforms seeking to increase foreign financial participation in the insurance sector and granting foreign banks the right to take over private Indian banks appear to be in the pipeline.
These reforms were on the agenda of the neo-liberal trajectory since 2004. However, they were prevented by the Left parties during UPA 1. This resulted in the relative insulation of the Indian economy from the devastating impact of the global financial meltdown of 2008. This shield, so to speak, is now sought to be ripped apart.
So, is there a solution?
The ‘Capitalist’ and the Leftist solutions outlined by the authors of the above two extracts (read complete post at source) miss out vital elements of Indian economic story.
For instance the corporate sector. Between Bombay High in 1975, when India’s liberalization made a cautious start, to now, in the middle of the Y2K generation.
Well represented by the Sensex. The 30-most actively traded stocks, with big market-capitalization, in leadership positions. Of these 30 companies, 13 companies were too small to count in 1975, or some did not even exist. Or from the Nifty-50, 25 companies did not exist or were too small to count. Some of the big groups then, like Alembic-Sarabhai, DCM, Khataus, Mafatlals, Modis, Ruias, Singhanias, Walchand are tottering with token presence – or do not even exist.
Do these behemoth give any returns?
While alive and growing, these behemoths take the most credit and capital. When down and dead they take down large amounts of capital again – from banks, share investors, tax-payer, etc.
If you look at Indian exports – SME sector is 35%-50% of exports, agriculture is 12%-20%, gem and jewellery sector is 12%-20% of exports, software is 15%-20% of exports; mining and minerals is bout 5%-10% of exports. There are cyclical variations in each segment, so these percentages cannot be simply added up. But the broad trend is that these segments, which are new or small in size, account for close to 90% of India’s exports. In turn they get less than 40% of credit from the banking industry.
In terms of employment, these sectors (including agriculture) employs (including self-employment) close to 98% of India’s working people.
So, in exports, employment, these sectors contribute the most – more than 90%. But in terms of capital allocation, these segments get less than 40%.
This is where the story gets more complex.
Powder keg India
India is sitting on boiler – waiting to blow up.
Naxalites are running amok with Big Industry wanting more and more land. Factory workers are getting mutinous – wanting the much promised employment. Agriculturalists are making lesser money – and all the post-Independence vitality of Indian agriculture is slipping. Rivers, lakes are drying up – or getting polluted, thanks to Big Industry.
(From left) RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, former CEO of HUL M.S. Banga, Godrej & Boyce chairman Jamshyd Godrej, food processing secretary Ashok Sinha and agriculture secretary P. K. Basu in New Delhi on Friday. | Image courtesy – .telegraphindia.com; source – PTI
And the Government keeps going back to ‘captains’ of industry. In 2010, soon after 2ndlook warned of this impending crisis, there was this very representative photograph. Mukesh Ambani, MS Banga, Jamshyd Godrej in a meeting with Central Government on how to improve agricultural productivity.
What would Ambani, Banga and Godrej tell the Government? Something that will benefit a small farmer with marginal holding of 5 acres?
Assuming no mal-intentions, there is the simple point of ignorance. Can Big Industry speak for small farmer? Why assume the opposite is true?
If the Government wants to help Big Business, will they call the small farmer?
Big is always Bad
Now our West-loving media, its West-loving readers, can only think of Big Projects, Big Ideas, Big Infrastructure.
Can they think of making 1 million night shelters in the next 24 months?
Can they think of setting up 1000 pedestrian mandis for hawkers? Can the National Highway System be put on hold – and instead can we redesign our roads to create 1 crore hawker spaces on roads?
Will the State set up 1 million waste collection units – separate for glass, metals, paper, plastics, and bio-waste.
In all these cases the State is needed because the State has become the owner of the land – and controller of land use.
Now these are very boring and unglamorous ideas. All these are also unlike to boost growth in the next 1-3 years. In fact they may damp consumption, reducing demand, and hence ‘growth’. For instance, if India were to recycle 500 gm of plastic per family each month, plastic consumption will reduce by 80% – my estimate.
But these measures will create a base for labour mobility on a scale not witnessed in India for the last 800 years at least. It will mean creation of more entrepreneurs than the rest of the world put together will create. From these crucibles of enterprise, we will see a new generation of entrepreneurs, who will rival the entrepreneurs of the Bombay High generation.
Govt. cant go for any big ticket liberalization that favours Big Industry. It has no stomach for non-conventional ‘infrastructure’ that will supercharge labour opportunity and productivity. | Ninan’s World 19 Aug 2012, 1100 hrs IST; source & courtest – timesofindia.com
Paralysed Polity
The polity is understandably nervous – and cannot take many more Big Industry reforms. At the same time, these small ideas have no technology zing, no spectacle. Maybe even dull. So, no one wants to even talk of these ideas. So, instead they are toying with confetti schemes. Throw 20-30 million mobile phones in public hands. Distribute cycles to the poor.
Even the dear reader and media consumers are understandably more fired up by Big Ideas – like satellites, rockets, Mars Mission, rather than night shelters.
Not irrelevant, but Indian Ayurveda expected a man to heal himself. All knowledge of herbs and medicines was pushed down to the lowest rung in the society. No nephrologists or medulla oblongata specialists. Or Messiahs and saviours and doctors.
Similarly if Indian society wants to change, we probably should be the change that we want to see!
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- Arrest the slippage (thehindu.com)
- BREAKINGVIEWS-An alternative Independence Day message for India – Reuters (in.reuters.com)
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- Investment climate in India deteriorating, time to make difficult reforms: Barack Obama (ndtv.com)
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Intrigued? Interested!
The 2ndlook blogs group try to give its readers a 360° view of the past present and probable outcomes. These four blogs have each a different focus. The common value that runs through these blogs is an invite to readers for discussion and participation - with a proviso of no personal attacks or use of invective.
2ndlookWith a focus on history, long-term trends, economy, political and social models. A blog that works to breakdown propaganda for what it is. The first blog of the group, over the four years of its existence, it has managed a monthly traffic of more than 10,000 hits. |
Behind 2ndlookThis forum is a visual record of the times. Historical prints to current cartoons, this is the latest in 2ndlook group of blogs. |
St.PT BarnumA forum that takes a lighter or satirical view of weighty matters. Posts on this forum are rare. |
QuicktakeQuicktake focusses more on current events, recent events, reports, media buzz, matters of topical interests. Typically, Quicktakes are shorter than 2ndlook. Sometimes a few Quicktakes, morph into a 2ndlook post. |
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2ndlook on Indus Valley-Saraswati Basin
Exciting new series. From 1 Mar, 2010.
10 posts. More than 50 photographs. 100 links to the best original sources and writers. Get a 2ndlook at the 'Indus Valley Civilization' research. On military, defence, currency, travel, political systems. Cutting edge discoveries. With research from more than 200 news items, journals and books. Without the politics, with insight.
Who’s amung us
Quick Take - As It Happens 
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