sound, affect & the ecology of fear
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
johannhari101/Twitter
Kissinger in London today to collect a Margaret Thatcher 'Medal of Freedom'. Will he use it to beat some Chilean dissidents to death?
Accept the facts – and end this futile 'war on drugs'
We are handing one of our biggest industries over to armed, criminal gangs
The proponents of the "war on drugs" are well-intentioned people who believe they are saving people from the nightmare of drug addiction and making the world safer. But this self-image has turned into a faith – and like all faiths, it can only be maintained by cultivating a deliberate blindness to the evidence.The recent furore about the British government's decision to fire its chief scientific advisor on drugs, Professor David Nutt, missed the point. Yes, it is shocking that he was ditched for pointing out the mathematical truth that taking ecstasy is less dangerous than horse-riding, and that smoking cannabis is less harmful than drinking alcohol. But this is how the war on drugs has to be fought. The unofficial slogan of the prohibitionists for decades has been: The facts will only undermine the war, so invent some that show how successful we are, fast.
Look at the United States, the country that pioneered the drug war, and still uses its military and diplomatic might to demand the rest of the world cracks down. In 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy was ordered by Congress to stop funding any scientific research that might give the impression that we should redirect funding from anti-trafficking busts into medical treatment of addicts, or that there is any argument to legalise, regulate or medicalise drug use.
It's Nutt cubed: only tell us what we want to hear. So, to give a small example, the ONDCP spent $14bn on anti-cannabis adverts aimed at teenagers, and $43m to find out if the ads worked. They discovered that kids who saw the ads were more likely afterwards to get stoned, so the evidence was suppressed, and the ad campaign marched on...
Johann Hari
@'The Independent'
(RePost) The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month
In Memory of
Private ARTHUR JOHN HADDOCK
2766529, 6th Bn., Black Watch (Royal Highlanders)
who died age 20
on 24 April 1944
Son of Robert Arthur and Catherine Haddock,
of Orrell, Bootle, Lancashire.
Remembered with honour
CASSINO WAR CEMETERY
Radiohead - Harry Patch (In memory of)
Henry John "Harry" Patch (17 June 1898 25 July 2009)—known as "the Last Tommy"—was a British supercentenarian, briefly the oldest man in Europe and the last surviving soldier to have fought in the trenches of the First World War.Patch was, with Claude Choules, one of the last two surviving British veterans of the First World War, and along with Frank Buckles and John Babcock, one of the last four worldwide. He was, at the age of 111 years, 38 days, the verified third-oldest man in the world, the oldest man in Europe and one of the 70 oldest men ever.
Blackwater Approved Iraqi Payments After Shootings
Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.Blackwater approved the cash payments in December 2007, the officials said, as protests over the deadly shootings in Nisour Square stoked long-simmering anger inside Iraq about reckless practices by the security company’s employees. American and Iraqi investigators had already concluded that the shootings were unjustified, top Iraqi officials were calling for Blackwater’s ouster from the country and company officials feared that Blackwater might be refused an operating license it would need to retain its contracts with the State Department and private clients, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Four former Blackwater executives said in interviews that Gary Jackson, who was then the company’s president, had approved the bribes, and the money was sent from Amman, Jordan, where Blackwater maintains an operations hub, to a top manager in Iraq. The executives, though, said they did not know whether the cash was delivered to Iraqi officials or the identities of the potential recipients.
Blackwater’s strategy of buying off the government officials, which would have been illegal under American law, created a deep rift inside the company, according to the former executives. They said that Cofer Black, who was then the company’s vice chairman and a former top C.I.A. and State Department official, learned of the plan from another Blackwater manager while he was in Baghdad discussing compensation for families of the shooting victims with United States Embassy officials...
Scotland's Secret Shame
A BBC Panorama Documentary which looks at the sectarian problem's in Scotland (Glasgow in particular) and how the problems are associated with two of the biggest football clubs in the world - Rangers and Celtic.
Produced by Murdoch Rodgers.
Transcript:
HERE
(Painful, painful reading!)
Produced by Murdoch Rodgers.
Transcript:
HERE
(Painful, painful reading!)
Congrats Murdoch!!!
An investigation into the quality of home care for older people - which led to the brief arrest of its journalist, who went undercover to report the story - was among the winners at a celebration of Scottish TV and film.
At the BAFTA Scotland awards last Saturday night, the News and Current Affairs title went to 'Panorama - Britain's Homecare Scandal', whose reporter, Arifa Farooq was arrested for giving false information about her identity while applying for a job that gave her access to the standards of domiciliary care.
The programme was made by the BBC Scotland Investigations Unit. In the end, the Procurator Fiscal chose not to pursue Farooq, whose efforts led to inquiry being held by the Scottish Parliament into home care contracts.
The producer was Murdoch Rodgers and the assistant producer was ex-Sunday Herald reporter, Liam McDougall.
This is the third year in a row that BBC Scotland has won the News and Current Affairs title at the Scottish BAFTAs.
Disclaimer: Murdoch is my 'brother-in-law'
"Gie him a big kiss frae me sis!"
Morrisey should just have taken Josh Homme's advice and "buttfuck 12 year old dickless boys"!
No one fugn knows indeed!
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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