I am proud of the company I was in of fellow Sam Adams winners; but also because in the circumstances I think this was the best speech I have ever made. If you listen from 15 minutes, the enthusiastic and sustained interruption of applause I received from the Oxford Union for my attack on those demonstrating against Julian Assange is remarkable.
It particularly explodes the appalling lies of the Guardian’s shrill hate campaign against Julian Assange, which you will recall covered this event under the headline Julian Assange finds no allies and tough queries in Oxford University talk . It has taken the Oxford Union two months to post this video, and then unlike other newly posted videos it does not appear on the front page of their youtube site.
The students no longer have any autonomy in the the Oxford Union where speakers and videos have to be approved in advance by a solidly and uniformly right wing board of trustees which includes William Hague and Louise Mensch.
It is, however, even at this belated time, a great pleasure to be able again to state and to demonstrate what a vicious little liar Amelia Hill is.
After my point on the Assange demonstration, you could have heard a pin drop for the rest of my talk and I was unsure how the audience were reacting. Unfortunately the video cuts off the peroration, so you will have to take my word for it that the applause was very big and after resuming my seat I had to half stand and acknowledge again. But I had concluded by introducing Julian Assange, so that may have been for him not me – I would be just as pleased.
Let me post this one again so you have the pair of me on consecutive nights in very different moods.
@ Crab (23h10) :
“But it doesnt to take long to find out sperm can last for days in a sterile environment. hbk was just being characteristically obtuse and doubtful”
” sterile environment” – that’s the point, isn’t it. Surely glass jars or cups wouldn’t provide a sterile environment?
But this is O/T, so I think I’ll leave it at that.
Yes, good idea, stick to your job……blowing Babble.
If anyone fancies a change from bickering, I would really appreciate some help developing ideas about how to make intelligence agencies serve the greater good; how to harness secrecy like markets can harness greed and competition if they’re well regulated…
In an ideal world, no secrecy would be needed; everyone could just trust everyone else by default. The problem is getting there from where we are now. Those with good intentions need to keep their operational details secret from those less enlightened parties who would sabotage or exploit such information. But in the dark corners created by secrecy, corruption and deception can flourish. Conundrum.
We’re lacking a tool, or maybe even a tool-kit.
Thanks Clark for that exposition and for the links.
I see that in the night the comments reached a new low. One of the commenters probably found typing out the word ‘vagina’ exciting. Others joined in and there was even someone casting aspersions on the marital fidelity of the prisoners’ wives. Quite disgusting.
There are many interesting articles on Dissident Voice concerning Syria including this one. There is a good search box on the site.
U.S. Policy Shift on Syria: Edging Closer to Direct Military Intervention
by Ben Schreiner / February 28th, 2013
Though President Obama last year rejected a proposal from the State Department, Pentagon, and CIA to directly arm Syrian rebel fighters, his administration is once again edging closer to directly intervening in the Syrian war.
As the Washington Post reported Tuesday, “The Obama administration is moving toward a major policy shift on Syria that could provide the rebels with equipment such as body armor, armored vehicles and possible military training and could send humanitarian assistance directly to Syria’s opposition political coalition.”
/..
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/02/u-s-policy-shift-on-syria-edging-closer-to-direct-military-intervention/
Obama visits Israel next week. Netanyahu has now formed a coalition with Livni, the Cast Lead war criminal, and a new party Yesh Atid that supports settlement building and a compulsory draft into the military for the ultra Orthodox Israelis.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-15/netanyahu-s-party-signs-deals-for-new-israeli-government.html
Peres has lined up the first black Miss Israel to be a dinner guest with Obama. She is Ethiopian. Wonder what she thinks about the revelation that Ethiopian women have been dosed with Depo Provera contraceptives by injection.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/israel-admits-forcibly-injecting-ethiopian-jews-with-depo-provera/
Clark, i propose we solve the other type of (rather more profound) intelligence and the problem will be solved.
The Intelligence Which Brings Order and Peace
3rd Public Talk, September 4th, 1982
“I do not know if one has asked such a question, surrounded by total disorder. I think one must be very clear about that: there is total disorder outwardly. Every morning you read a newspaper it is something terrible. Aeroplanes that can travel at such astonishing speed from one corner of the earth to the other without having refuelled, carrying great weight of bombs, gasses that can destroy man in a few seconds. To observe all this and to realise what man has come to, and in asking this question you may say that is impossible, it is not at all possible to live in this world utterly, inwardly undisturbed, to have no problems, to live a life utterly not self- centred. How shall we talk about this? Talking, using words, has very little meaning but to find out through the words, through communicating with each other, to find or discover, or come upon a state that is utterly still. That requires intelligence, not a fantasy, not some peculiar daydreaming called meditation, not some form of self-hypnosis, but to come upon it as we said requires intelligence.
So we have to ask what is intelligence? As we said the other day, to perceive that which is illusory, that which is false, not actual, and to discard it, not merely assert that is false and continue in the same way, but to discard it completely. That is part of intelligence. To see, for example, nationalism, with all its peculiar patriotism, isolation, narrowness, is very destructive in this world, it is a poison in the world, and seeing the truth of it is to discard that which is false. That is intelligence. But to keep on with it, acknowledging it is stupid but keep on, that is essentially part of stupidity and disorder. It creates disorder. So intelligence is, is it not – we are talking over together, I am not saying it is, or it is not, we are investigating very seriously into this question: what is intelligence which alone can bring about in one’s life complete order and peace. And we said that can come about only when there is this extraordinary quality of intelligence. And intelligence is not the clever pursuit of argument, of opposing knowledge, contradictory opinions and through opinions find truth, which is impossible, but to realise that the activity of thought, with all its capacities, with all its subtleties, its extraordinary width of thought, is not intelligence. Intelligence is beyond thought. Please, don’t agree with the speaker. We are looking at it, going into it.”
For all the time people spend on this board, it is well worth taking out an hour to go into this:
http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-video/the-intelligence-which-brings-order-and-peace-full-version.php
“One of the commenters probably found typing out the word ‘vagina’ exciting.”
For heaven’s sake grow up, Mary.
**********
La vita è bella, life is good! ( Immaculate Conception for all )
Mary,
He was trying to distract me from asking his friend the CE some awkward questions. Rather than rise to the bait, I sent him and Kempe some uplifting quotes about Palestine. You might try the same when he gets too obnoxious. Then the more horrible he gets, the more he will be helping combat injustice 🙂
Hilarious stuff. Agent Cameron is speaking to a Conservative conference except Sky News had no sound for a long time. Someone has now put the plug in. Shame.
Interesting to see the neurolinguistic skills without the sound. The clenched mouth, the hand gestures, the exaggerated emphases. However much he tries to imitate Bliar though, he still cannot speak without notes or with the autocue.
absolutely awesome speeches. If i had been in that room i think my head would have exploded with excitement. 4 of my absolute heroes in one room.. Murray, Machon, Drake & McGoven.. legends each and every one of them.
Grow up?? Et tu!
I was reminded of a car journey years ago with my niece and her friend, both of primary school age in the back seat. They had just discovered the word and the meaning and were giggling away while singing a song about it.
Villager, I agree entirely that we benefit when we develop our personal internal understanding and agreement, such that we can see ourselves and the world for what they are without imposing illusions and distortions upon the models thereof which we maintain in our minds. I agree that when groups of people engage in this together, it is beneficial to themselves and, to a lesser extent, to those they interact with.
However, it cannot be forced upon people, and thus there will continue to be some who act on the basis of their illusions and error. Their actions create disorder and conflict, which detracts from the progression towards understanding and peace. In particular, many are drawn towards governing others because of their internal illusions, such that the people who harbour the most destructive thoughts end up in the most powerful positions, from where their illusions are most susceptible to distribution, and their destructive actions become hugely amplified by the power structures over which they have so much influence. I think that this is how such understandings can have been known for thousands of years, and yet still strife and illusion remain widespread.
This is why I look for ways to structure systems such that the quality of the system can improve independently of the quality of the individuals from which it is composed. Many systems have achieved varying degrees of success in this regard. To take a trivially physical example, all electronic circuits have to be designed to tolerate a broad range of quality in the components (sometimes as broad as 100 to 1), and the gizmos we’re surrounded by would be hopelessly unreliable had electronic engineers not developed such techniques for dealing with variable quality of components.
Governments and organisations are going to continue to keep secrets. We need some standard method of preventing secrecy from breeding corruption and deception. Wikileaks and the like are a start, but high-risk for their maintainers and worryingly random regarding what gets through and what doesn’t; we have no idea of what hasn’t been leaked. We need a system that will be accepted as a “standard model”, such that any organisation that doesn’t implement it becomes regarded as irresponsible and disreputable.
Thanks for the smile you raised, A Node, the video from the NSWales rep will end up on my FB site, he comes over like a determined termite of truth attacking the liars flagpole.
It is also a poignant British problem, because many of our own politicians, newbie’s such as Ms. Chloe Smith MP, did go on just such a one-sided trip to Israel, though she failed to make much publicity of it in her local EDP, her seats on a knife edge, too many ex labour voters trusted her young and innocent face and that will change, would not be surprised if she gets moved into a safe seat.
Clark, thanks for your excellent and factual resume of a powder keg. The Syrian opposition has been flat lined in the media because we are promoting our own type of Syrian opposition, those who agree with an armed uprising and who are in bed with Quatari and Saudi backers. Many of us must feel a mixture of sorrow and anger as to the reality in Iraq, the fear that is played off as normalcy, it is a disaster.
Clark your intelligence conundrum can be solved with much greater openness, call it Wikiglobal for all its worth. Only when the so called secrets are made public will the need for intelligence services diminish, for that Governments have to loose the ability to shut down and control the internet. Likely? not in our lifetime I guess.
Chances are that one day people will find a way around these walls and then these regimes will fall with it. That will be the day our secret services should look for other jobs.
meanwhile they are trying desperately to control the wider public, who are more and more inclined to use dead easy encryption for their emails now, taken up much time discovering coffee morning dates and times. Unless they ask for reform and wider public insight into their work, and now is a good time for accountable sense, their multicultural approach will fail.
Industrial spying is big business, all spying is big business and to divorce the two would take 70% of impetus out of the need to have secrets. You are asking the swords of Damocles to be turned into toothpicks, Clark, wonders will take a little longer, but you brought it up and it is a great worthwhile exercise.
But, I have to say this, there is a need to balance my mental with the physical, its easier to chew over ideas and reflect during the physical phase, it somehow helps to clarify and reflect, hence I shall retract for some exaltation involving muck and a fork.
I yet have to read Sami Ramadani’s piece, he writes well.
Nevermind (when you’ve returned from your muckraking), yes, governments can shut down the Internet within their own country, but they can only partially control it while it is working, and they don’t like shutting it down for long because commerce, and hence their economies, benefit so much from it. We’ve seen this several times now; a popular protest or uprising occurs and the government “pulls the plug”, but their economy plummets and a few days later they switch their patch of Internet back on again. It’s almost amusing to see power defeat itself in this way.
Only large countries with highly centralised economies like China can afford to permanently and thoroughly fire-wall their entire patch of Internet, and the commercial pressure to keep the information highways open is continuing to increase as commerce finds the Internet increasingly useful.
Yes, that’s just how I feel about Iraq, and Syria too.
Mary :
Where else do you think nature intended sperm to be deposited if not in a vagina, Mary?
Unless you have some good suggestions, I would have to conclude that although you might not like Habbabkuk you’ve definitely got the hots for Onan.
************
La vita è bella, life is good!
Yuk. Just keep repeating it why don’t you.
You are a very unpleasant individual.
The points you raise Clark on the intelligence services are certainly more valid than kindergarten parturiency befuddlement.
In the dirty business of armed conflict, intelligence can mean victory or failure. Investigative journalism is key and the WWW is a tool, a conduit to disseminate the truth.
Whistle-blowing is an art and adroitness can be taught as part of the toolkit you mention in your comment.
So essential is conscience, I propose a WB seminar as a bolt-on to the skill of reporting. Bradley Manning perceived misconduct, crime and violation. That skill requires insight, awareness and a love for all life.
The perpetrators have had their day; Iraq sanctions, displacement, holocaust and the murder of innocent children in huge numbers must be the final curtain on a dark era; sine qua non.
It is time to build another path, a new way; I believe it is our duty, our task – giving something back for that gift of awareness and knowledge most here possess.
Listen, if Syria falls to these freaks of war WE HAVE LOST our transit to a new direction.
It cannot be any clearer than your post Clark – “we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”
We are but a small band of Craig followers – yet we are crucial, essential and vital.
That is why ‘it’ is attending, here present. Trying your best for a different way will, without any doubt summon honor and benefit.
link:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/16/cia-may-target-syrian-extremists-with-drones-la-times/
“This is why I look for ways to structure systems such that the quality of the system can improve independently of the quality of the individuals from which it is composed.”
And this is why I keep telling you that the answer is sortition – the permanent elimination of the oligarchic political class. Here’s a good video from Etienne Chouard, encouraging everyone to seek ‘the cause of causes’. You can get English subtitles from the leftmost icon at the bottom right of the screen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN5tdMSXWV8
There is a documentary on RT today regarding the conflict in Syria.This is in three parts,and as usual with RT, I’m unable to work out whether all three are being shown today. The part I saw this morning was rather graphic and quite harrowing to watch, but it needs to be viewed to see exactly what these soulless bastards are doing.Rebel rabble is far too kind!
Thanks Polly. Was it this?
Syria conflict may spin out of control, 2 years on
Published time: March 15, 2013 17:16
Edited time: March 16, 2013 08:32
http://rt.com/news/syria-anniversary-conflict-intensify-316/
I’m not sure Mary as I didn’t catch the title earlier, but I would assume so. One part of the doc has literally just finished on RT(filmed in 2012). I think it was a different part to the one I saw earlier from the end snippet I just caught.It is saying in the TV listings that a documentary is on again at both 5.30pm and 10.30pm, so I am assuming that these will be parts of the same programme. The TV guide lists these documentaries as being about Russia. Which I wish they wouldn’t, as they rarely are!
“Unless you have some good suggestions, I would have to conclude that although you might not like Habbabkuk you’ve definitely got the hots for Onan.”
May God save you Habbakuk
@Clark
To the foremost I concur wholeheartedly, in regard to the latter I believe it will always be so to one degree or another, even if our different cultures were to harmonize completly, due to the inherent biological variation that nature throws up with each new generation.
I would say that what we can do is to try and improve the enviroment, conditions and context where our societies and political institutions are allowed to improve in an open ended combinatorial system, through repeated trial and errors. Which I think harmonize well with your perspective,
But this requires real accountablity, which in turn is dependent upon openness, public knowledge, interest and transperancy, in stark contrast to the direction in many societies today.
Another aspect I think is critical to that context as visioned above, is a much better public knowledge and understanding of our human nature. Both our remarkable ability for adaptation, but equally important, that this ability has true hardcoded limitations, and that our brain is riddled with inherent “design” flaws as well as burdened with optimizations for a lifestyle most of us left behind thousands of years ago.
One interesting line of thought in this aspect I think can be extracted from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s concept of antifragility.
http://www.amazon.com/Antifragile-Things-That-Gain-Disorder/dp/1400067820
There will always exist uncertainty, and highly improbable event will occur, the intelligent way to face this, might very well be to construct systems that are inherently good at handling failures, change and the unexpected. And I think we both have some ideas how you solve this in technical systems and organisations today, i.e. open communications, redundancy, modularisation, decentralisation etc. It is much better to have many smaller simpler dedicated systems, then one huge, highly interconnected and complex system.
Also just run past this, and found it fascinating in a wider context to the topic as well,
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/03/michael-hoexter-without-an-effective-macroethics-our-civilization-is-doomed.html
MSM CENSORED My Fav Music YouTube – ‘Pink’ live at Wembley
**All versions showing backdrop video clips have been censored**
After searching around I managed to find this amateur recording which I’m sure will ‘disappear’ in a bit.
For your enjoyment – ‘Dear Mr. President’- ‘Pink’ Live at Wembley
(with back-drop)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuCK2mqTjkE
If anyone can find a better recording with back-drop I would be most grateful.
Thank-you
A psychopath and with defective parenting especially lacking in maternal nurture I would say Mark.
But he loves dogs and paints pictures of them!
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/old-dog-learns-new-tricks-george-w-bush-turns-his-hand-to-painting-pets-8530077.html
And the Wikileaks beat goes on …… http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2013/03/16/national_security_letters_banned/#c_1763633 …. and gets ever louder and more strident in the ever stealthier disguised and SMARTR IntelAIgent Services which have a 5 and a 6 all at sixes and sevens in novel fields of Intellectual Property Supply and Future AIDelivery …… Universal Presentation?
OT: The shit has hit the fan in Cyprus.
From Ed Harrison at Naked Capitalism
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/03/cyprus-bank-deposit-bail-in.html
“Europe has hammered out a 10bn euro “bailout” of Cyprus. I put the term bailout in quotes because the key feature of this deal is the bail-in of Cypriot depositors to the tune of 5.8bn euros, about a third of Cyprus’ GDP. This means that depositors went to sleep on Friday night and woke up Saturday to find that their money, deposited safely in Cypriot banks, had been seized and used to “bail out” the country.”
“Cypriot bank account holders with funds over 100,000 euros will have 9.9% of their account holdings deducted from their accounts when banks open on Tuesday. However, importantly, an additional 6.75% levy is going to hit deposits below that 100,000 euro level. As a bank depositor, given a one-day national holiday to decide what to do with your now shrunken savings, what would you do?”
In theory this is a one time action but the precedent is set. Any money anyone now has in EU banks is now susceptible to confiscation.
Libya post ‘intervention’…..
Libya’s militarized youth feed into economic woes
MAGGIE MICHAEL
Published: Mar 13, 2013
FILE – In this Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013 file photo, Libyan gunmen celebrate on the early morning of the second anniversary of the revolution that ousted Moammar Gadhafi, in Benghazi, Libya. More than 18 months since the end of Libya’s civil war, the most attractive job for many of the young is still to join a militia. In fact, just under a tenth of Libya’s labor force may be working as gunmen. State coffers are full of cash from rapidly reviving oil production, but rather than funding reconstruction, much of the money goes to buying off a restive population with state salaries, including to militias, effectively feeding a cycle of lawlessness. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon, File)
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) – More than 18 months since the end of Libya’s civil war, the most attractive job for many of the young is still to join a militia. In fact, just under a tenth of Libya’s labor force may be working as gunmen.
Libya’s government coffers are rapidly filling with cash as oil exports return to near pre-war levels, powering a 100 per cent increase in GDP in 2012, according to a report this month by the International Monetary Fund.
But the economy of this North African oil giant remains in disarray. Unemployment, officially at 15 per cent, is estimated by some as high as 50 per cent. The private sector, decimated under ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi, still barely functions. Reconstruction investment is largely on hold, and the weak central government is funneling much of its oil wealth into public handouts to quiet discontent, as Gadhafi often did. Other money is lost down the drain of corruption.
And still other funds end up fueling the growth of militias.
/..
http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268778/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=6anxKo2E