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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
John Galsworthy: Selections on war
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John Galsworthy
From The Burning Spear (1919)

Back in December I stumbled across an article on Forbes.com called Josh Kaufman: It Takes 20 Hours Not 10,000 Hours To Learn A Skill. It sound like a gimmick, but I decided to take a closer look.

Back in December I stumbled across an article on Forbes.com called Josh Kaufman: It Takes 20 Hours Not 10,000 Hours To Learn A Skill. It sound like a gimmick, but I decided to take a closer look.

Many may find some of the suggestions obvious, but there are opportunities here to examine David Allen's Getting Things Done method, ideas about learning, and why we sometimes fail at new pursuits.

Back in December I stumbled across an article on Forbes.com called Josh Kaufman: It Takes 20 Hours Not 10,000 Hours To Learn A Skill. It sound like a gimmick, but I decided to take a closer look.

Many may find some of the suggestions obvious, but there are opportunities here to examine David Allen's Getting Things Done method, ideas about learning, and why we sometimes fail at new pursuits.

 
By Dr. Elias Akleh                  Intifada Palestine
 

The Russians pulled their Treasury bonds out of New York. And Russian corporations are pulling their money out of US banks. These are key signs that the dollar and the current US puppet government could collapse long before the 2016 elections. The dollar could never survive the sanctions Obama and Kerry are threatening. If we are lucky, President Putin of Russia and President XI Jinping of China, are too busy laughing at John Kerry to pay attention. It is not in China’s interest to force America into bankruptcy before China has squeezed every last gold bar out of US and London vaults.

The Russians pulled their Treasury bonds out of New York. And Russian corporations are pulling their money out of US banks. These are key signs that the dollar and the current US puppet government could collapse long before the 2016 elections. The dollar could never survive the sanctions Obama and Kerry are threatening. If we are lucky, President Putin of Russia and President XI Jinping of China, are too busy laughing at John Kerry to pay attention. It is not in China’s interest to force America into bankruptcy before China has squeezed every last gold bar out of US and London vaults.

The Western media's myth mill is working overtime to gain ground lost to Russia. March 17, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - The Western press has been deceiving readers, listeners, and viewers since the beginning of the so-called "Euromaidan" protests - from covering up the ultra-right wing ideology and literal Neo-Nazi flag wavers leading the mobs, to the role

Eleven years ago this week the United States invaded Iraq – an event the late General William E. Odom rightly called the biggest strategic disaster in US military history. The decade since that catastrophe proves one thing about US policymakers: they’ve changed their tactics without learning a thing. Iraq today is a seething cauldron of […]

In pursuit of a comprehensive and permanent agreement over Iran’s nuclear program, the next round of negotiations between Iran and P5+1 – the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany – will begin on Monday March 17 in Vienna, Austria. Despite strong pessimism before the start of the negotiations expressed by […]

The reaction of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to last week’s revelations that the CIA secretly searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers reveals much about what the elites in government think about the rest of us. “Spy on thee, but not on me!” The hypocrisy of Sen. Feinstein is astounding. She is the biggest backer of the […]

On this installment of Themes and Memes Adam and Aaron review the movie Her. By far the best movie reviewed on this podcast so far, Her is a film that addresses many complex issues. This film is set in the near future, but is quite obviously a commentary on our current situation. Specifically, the relationship between humans and their machines.

On this installment of Themes and Memes Adam and Aaron review the movie Her. By far the best movie reviewed on this podcast so far, Her is a film that addresses many complex issues. This film is set in the near future, but is quite obviously a commentary on our current situation. Specifically, the relationship between humans and their machines.

"♫Makin' a soundtrack for another planet to hear♫ on Episode102 - Secret Message which features brand new sounds from Liv Warfield, Eagulls,

DOONESBURY -- Monday, Februay 4, 2013[Click on any of today's strips to enlarge -- significantly!]by KenA couple of weeks ago, in presenting that Sunday's Doonesbury comparison of "Banskter Life in the U.S. vs.

At least 42 people were killed and 31 more were wounded in mostly scattered violence. The most gruesome attack was a home invasion in Samarra.

1776 – American Revolution: British forces evacuate Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city.
1805 – The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, becomes the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King.
1919 – Nat King Cole, American singer, pianist, and television host (d. 1965) was born.
1941 – In Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Over 95 percent of voters in the Crimean referendum have answered ‘yes’ to the autonomous republic joining Russia and less than 4 percent of the vote participants want the region to remain part of Ukraine, according to preliminary results.
With over 75 percent of the votes already counted, preliminary result show that 95.7 percent of voters said ‘yes’ to the reunion of the republic with Russia as a constituent unit of the Russian Federation.

(Read entire article)
The post Assessing the Costs and Benefits of “Punishing Russia” appeared first on .

Rick and RoundsThe Rapid City Journal is arguably the most conservative newspaper in South Dakota. And they are certainly more conservative than the Beltway operative who seems hellbent on handing control of the Senate over to the Republicans, DSCC executive director Guy Cecil.

Viral Internet memes have taken many forms  over the last several years. Be it ‘planking,’ Tebowing’ or ‘owling,’ the  arbitrary, bizarre Internet meme is here to stay – and the latest means of  entertainment for the web’s geekiest contributors is about as weird as they  come: ‘Unicorn Army.’

It wasn’t just people, animals and trees that were affected by radiation exposure at Chernobyl, but also the decomposers: insects, microbes, and fungi

TEDx Talks | March 3, 2014

William Black is an associate professor of economics and law at UMKC. He has held many prestigious positions, including executive director for Fraud Prevention. He recently helped the World Bank develop anti-corruption initiatives and served as an expert for OFHEO in its enforcement action against Fannie Mae’s former senior management. He is a criminologist and former financial regulator.
KPFA interviews:

Despite all the lofty standards of law and rights articulated by Western states, what we are witnessing with regard to the Ukraine and Crimea are the real Western “standards” in practice – of hypocrisy and resort to violence when it suits their aims.
Angela Merkel is half-right. The “law of the jungle” is being practiced. It’s standard Western practice all down through history and presently over Ukraine.

On September 11, 2001, a man that Americans by enlarge had never heard of, ordered 4 planes to be hijacked, and then flown into several buildings, including the Pentagon, and the World Trade Centers in New York. Thrusting America into a state of disbelief and rage, a long and arduous manhunt for the perpetrator began, and would not come to a close for the next 10 years.

With a turnout the western governments could only dream of. The turn out does indeed make legitimate the decision.I believe the last election in Canada saw about 50 percent turn out?Unsure of the US? Making the government, at least in Canada, quite illegitimate in their claims of representing the people of Canada.Early Count Shows 95 Percent of Crimea Voters Want to Be Russian

  Here is evidence concerning the mob violence in Ukraine which President Obama and the European Union have legitimated. Watch and learn of the extent to which we have been deceived by “our” government and media concerning the overthrow of an elected president by a mob of brutal thugs — footage the “free” American media will not broadcast:

Ferruccio Furlanetto (at the Met last year) as the sleepless King Philip in his study -- with the fateful jewel box

Police State USA | March 15, 2014

ROCKVILLE, MD — Thousands of motorists were brought to a standstill when police conducted a massive roadblock to find three crime suspects. Twelve lanes of traffic were shut down and swarms of armed government agents combed through a giant traffic jam performing warrantless vehicle-to-vehicle searches.

Yes, the world is still indeed focused squarely on the nation of Ukraine that of course saw a US led coup against its democratically elected government earlier this year.  And there is of course the very important referendum today where the results of the vote have just come in and the proud people of Crimea have voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.   Things may go from bad to worse this coming week as the US criminal regime has stated that they will not honor the rights of the Crimean people and will reject this legal referendum results...

The Boycott Israel movement is developing a smart-phone application that will allow followers to avoid Israeli products. The campaign for Palestinian rights continues to gather momentum, despite Israeli accusations of anti-Semitism.
The BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement is working on the Beta version of an app for its supporters. Drawing on a comprehensive database of warehousing product names and descriptions, the app will allow users to scan products to find out immediately whether they fall within the boycott’s guidelines.

Can it be anymore clear that the 'opposition' is not Syrian? Not that I need to remind regular readers here.Can it be anymore clear that the so called opposition has been supported by, cooperated with and continues to collude with Israel. Israel is not afraid of Islamists for the simple reason they are on the same team.That fact is abundantly clear! Haaretz- Syrian Opposition willing to trade Golan claims for Israeli Military support

RT | March 16, 2014

Canadian police surrounded an annual protest against police brutality in Montreal, arresting 288 people before the demonstration had barely started.
The police claim the protest was illegal as the participants did not warn the authorities of their itinerary.

Thanks to the internet, the concept of a government secret base has been rendered little more than a quaint James Bond plot. For example, in decades past, the public only had conjecture and hearsay to feed its curiosity about the inner workings of the US government’s shadowy military base on the southern shore of Nevada’s Groom Lake, a site better known as “Area 51.”

Couched in a non-controversial endorsement of Illinois progressive, George Gollin, Alan Grayson touched on a painful-- and dangerous-- trend regarding the quality of American political candidates. "One of the dirty little secrets of Congress," he wrote, "is that many of us legislate in areas in which we are utterly bereft of knowledge. If ignorance is bliss, then some of our Members must be deliriously happy."

Illuminati, which is Latin for illuminatus, or “enlightened”, is a name originally refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded in 1776 to oppose superstition, religious influence over public life and abuses of state power which was outlawed by the Bavarian ruler, with the encouragement of the Catholic Church, and permanently disbanded in 1785.

By Mark Weisbrot | CEPR Americas Blog | March 15, 2014

RT | March 16, 2014

The official website of the Crimean referendum is down due to a cyber-attack that originated from the US, Crimean authorities say.
The exact location from which the website’s servers were attacked was Illinois University, Crimean minister of information and mass communications Dmitry Polonsky told Itar-Tass news agency.

I am back... This sinus infection/cold combination definitely took longer than I had anticipated to clear up.  I decided that I was not going to push myself the last few days and just do the right thing by getting plenty of rest, liquids, etc.  That also meant not spending much time on the computer.  I know that I missed a lot of things going on in the world and I spent much of last night catching up....

by Judith Curry Biomass pellets transported from North Carolina, U.S. are shipped 3800 miles to the UK and burned in Drax power station.  Drax is switching to pellets as it is deemed ‘carbon neutral’,  even though it belches out more … Continue reading →

Al-Akhbar | March 16, 2014

Syrian troops on Sunday seized full control of the rebel bastion Yabrud in the strategic Qalamoun region near the Lebanese border, Syrian state media reported.

Press TV
March 16, 2014
Video
Press TV has interviewed Rick Rozoff, manager at Stop NATO from Chicago, to discuss the US role in Ukraine’s crisis.
What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: How do you see, first of all, Russia’s reaction after this referendum?

By Ralph Nader | March 14, 2014

State Information Service (Egypt)
March 14, 2014
NATO attaches importance to Egypt’s role in region: Official
“The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) attaches importance to Egypt’s strategic role in the Middle East region,” a senior NATO official said.
NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said that the NATO is aware that its security is intertwined with the security of the Middle East and North Africa.

Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky
From Intermezzo (1908)
Translated by Jacob Guralsky

When the report of Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 was released in December 2002, it was met with considerable skepticism. That skepticism grew for a period of time but then was reduced to speculation about what was contained in the 28 pages that had been redacted by the Bush White House. Various U.S. government leaders have since suggested that the missing 28 pages point to Saudi Arabia’s complicity in the 9/11 crimes.

Friday, Alan Grayson endorsed particle physicist George Gollin for Congress from Illinois' 13th congressional district. He began his endorsement with a simple statement you can hear all too often from the more educated members of Congress-- Grayson has three graduate degrees from Harvard: "I’m really getting tired of listening to people who don’t know what they’re talking about.

Here is a summary I prepared of Simon Shack’s February 27, 2014 epic 4-hour appearance on the Dustban. Thanks to a reader, Negentropic, for bringing this to my attention, and for Ab of Fakeologist Radio for hosting the audio. 10m – Simon said the audio they gave us of 9/11 was completely contrived 11m – […]

Feinstein and the CIA

With growing interest in my summaries of Simon Shack’s appearances, here is a summary I had prepared during the summer of 2013 about his appearance on December 16, 2012 on Fakeologist Radio. 17m – Dick Oliver, a veteran New York reporter, falsely claimed that the South Tower had just been hit, when it was the […]