What You Thought Was You're Daddy Was Nothin' But A… (or: I'm Still Alive)

Coming down off a Father’s Day induced high, it seems important to note, concerning the recent state of affairs around here, that this blog is not like the father who ‘went out for cigarettes’— twenty years ago. No. We’re more like the father who’s ‘on a business trip’— but has a whole ‘nother family secretly across town. Happy birthday, kid. Here’s fifty bucks:
1. Hartmann makes a good point: ending the occupation of Iraq is not “losing the war.” — Reclaim the Issues – “Occupation, Not War” — According to our own Pentagon estimates, at least ninety five percent of those attacking our soldiers are Iraqi civilians who view themselves as anti-occupation fighters.
2. I like this campaign from MoveOn. It tackles two of our greatest downfalls: our addiction to oil, and our politicians’ addiction to corporate money. — Make Congress “Oil-Free” (Click to join the campaign with a letter to your leaders.) — Since 1990, Big Oil has given more than $190 million to members of Congress . . . Those donations guarantee an energy policy that serves the oil industry’s interests over the public interest.
3. Amy Goodman writes in The Nation: Access of Evil — [T]he media’s adoption of Pentagon nomenclature raises the question: If this were state media, how would it be any different?
4. Alfred McCoy elaborates on the effects of sensory deprivation. — Hicks severely damaged, says CIA expert — A 1952 experiment at McGill University took student volunteers . . . put them in comfortable airconditioned cubicles and put goggles, gloves and ear muffs on them. In 24 hours the hallucinations started. In 48 hours they suffered a complete breakdown. . . . they suffered a disintegration of personality. . . . some of the original subjects . . . men now in their 70s still suffer psychological damage… — Interesting, considering even by Our new, toned-down definition of torture, “significant psychological harm of significant duration, e.g., lasting for months or even years,” is considered torture. —