Dump the dollar!

An interesting article by Paul Craig Roberts here forecasting the knock-on effects of global loss of confidence in the dollar as a reserve currency and the implications for the USA's future as a world power.

During the Reform Bill crisis of 1831-2, when the Duke of Wellington's minority government vainly tried to block the measure, his opponents used the slogan "To stop the Duke, go for gold!"

Today's slogan should be "To stop the warmongers, dump the dollar!"

"One hell of a business"

An eye-opening 1936 US Congressional Report here on the influence of what President Eisenhower later called 'the military-industrial complex', both American and European, in fomenting global wars and civil strife to promote armaments sales.

It would seem that US Congressmen had more moral sense and greater bottle in those days; it is difficult to imagine such a report coming from the Congress now.

The whole report is compelling reading. These are just a few highlights:

"The statement of a Federal Laboratories salesman that 'the unsettled condition in South America has been a great thing for me' is the key, and also, 'We are certainly in one hell of a business where a fellow has to wish for trouble to make a living.'

"The Committee finds, under the head of sales methods of the munitions companies, that almost without exception, the American munitions companies investigated have at times resorted to such unusual approaches, questionable favors and commissions, and methods of 'doing the needful' as to constitute, in effect, a form of bribery of foreign governmental officials or of their close friends in order to secure business...

"The committee finds such practices on the part of any munitions company, domestic or foreign, to be highly unethical, a discredit to American business, and an unavoidable reflection upon those American governmental agencies which have unwittingly aided in the transactions so contaminated...

"The committee finds, further, that not only are such transactions highly unethical, but that they carry within themselves the seeds of disturbance to the peace and stability of those nations in which they take place...

"The committee finds, further, that the intense competition among European and American munitions companies with the attendant bribery of governmental officials tends to create a corrupt officialdom, and thereby weaken the remaining democracies of the world at their head...

"It will remain for commissions with full powers in the large European nations to report on the provocative activities of their companies, particularly to investigate the statements made in the French Chamber of Deputies, that Skoda in Czechoslovakia, a subsidiary of Schneider-Creusot, financed the Hitler movement to power, which, more than any one other event, can be credited with causing the present huge rearmament race in Europe, so profitable to the European steel, airplane, and munitions companies...

"Americans prefer tyranny"

"The Democratic and Republican parties both know, through careful research, that the American people prefer tyranny over liberty."

An interesting analysis of the present state of US politics by Atheist Ethicist.

Sauce for the goose......

A bit odd, isn't it, that the Americans are wagging their finger at President Musharraf, telling him he can't be both president and commander-in-chief.

It seems to have escaped their notice that another president, much nearer home, occupies a precisely similar dual role. But I've not yet seen any calls for Dubya to step down in order to 'save democracy'.

The same old humbug of "do as I say, and not as I do".

Missing Nukes

An alarming article here from Information Clearing House.

Nothing to add

On a day when we roll out the red carpet for the head-of-state of a country that Amnesty International duly describes as . . . “fear and secrecy permeate every aspect of life. Every day the most fundamental human rights of people in Saudi Arabia are being violated . . . “ , I can’t help thinking that it really is a crazy, fooked up world in which we live.

On a day when it took six planes to fly King Abdullah and his entourage into Heathrow and held a convoy of 84 limousines to drive the Royal Pains into London at a time when we desperately need to cut emissions, I can’t help thinking we’re well and truly goosed.

In a week when we will provide lavish state banquets at the tax-payers expense to a gluttonous royal family who won’t hesitate to chop off the hands of a man who steals a chicken to feed his hungry family, I can’t helping giving up.

Posted by Earthpal on 30 October.

Award for Anticant

Amid the architectural and artistic splendours of South Kensington’s Victoria and Albert Museum, Anticant’s public persona, Antony Grey, was last night acclaimed ‘Hero of the Year’ in Stonewall’s prestigious 2007 Awards ceremony held to celebrate the social progress and achievements of gay people.

Sponsored by Barclays Bank, the event was attended by several hundred guests who enjoyed a champagne reception followed by the awards ceremony hosted by TV presenter Anthony Crank in the Raphael Gallery.

The awards and winners [chosen by the votes of several thousand Stonewall supporters] were:

Publication of the Year – The Guardian.

Politician of the Year – Alan Johnson MP and Angela Eagle MP.

Writer of the Year – Val McDiarmid, for her novel Beneath the Bleeding.

Entertainer of the Year - Dan Gillespie-Sells, lead singer of The Feeling [most played band of 2006 on UK radio].

Sportsperson of the Year – Nigel Owens, international rugby referee.

Bigot of the Year – the Bishop of Hereford [who was not present to receive his award!].

Journalist of the Year – Philip Hensher.

Community Group of the Year – Gay Switchboard, who were presented with a £5,000 cheque by Barclays Bank.

Broadcaster of the Year – Channel 4’s Hollyoaks.

Hero of the Year – Antony Grey.

In his acceptance speech, Antony Grey – who, to his surprise, received two standing ovations – said that the significant thing about the award was not winning it, but being honoured by the nomination, and he thanked all concerned on behalf of himself and his co-nominees.

One of these, Lisa Power, the policy director of the AIDS charity Terrence Higgins Trust, had said that “history is for interfering in”, and he preferred to think of himself as a modest interferer in history rather than as a hero.

Fifty years ago, gay people were not merely criminalized; they were looked down upon as sick, degenerate perverts.

He recalled that during one of the law reform debates of the 1960s, Viscount Montgomery, the Victor of Alamein, had tabled an amendment proposing that the age of consent should be 80, on the ground that by that age, it didn’t really matter what you did. “Well”, Antony said amid laughter, “ I am delighted to say that I recently had my 80^th birthday, so that I would now be ‘legal’ even under Lord Montgomery’s proposed law, and it still matters very much indeed to me what I do!”

“The road to homosexual emancipation which I and a few others embarked upon following the Wolfenden Report has been a long and arduous one.

“But now here we are, and we can be thankful for what has been achieved.

“At least, we are able to celebrate our identities in this magnificent building, instead of being thrown off the top of it for being who we are – as some of our enemies would like to happen.

“But the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and ours is a never-ending struggle not just for our own rights, but for human rights.

“Stonewall is at the cutting edge of this ongoing fight, and I urge you all to give it your unstinted support.”

As this was the first occasion that Anticant has been out in the evening for more than two years, it has been quite an eventful week, with this rather special event following hard on the heels of a colonoscopy!