I saw a striking piece on the AP wire today on PTSD and how it affected the life of one vet and wanted to share it with ya’ll. I think it can be really hard for people who don’t have loved ones who’ve gone through this kind of thing to understand how serious it is. The press, by insisting on only counting bodies of those actually killed and presenting that as the whole human “cost” of the war has done us all a massive disservice. PTSD, as well as other forms of disability, are some of the biggest hidden costs of war and they affect both soldiers and civilians caught in a battlefield.

“Joseph Dwyer who had left to Iraq one of the nicest, kindest, caring, self-sacrificing and patriotic people I have ever known,” she wrote, “was forced to witness and commit acts completely contrary to his nature and returned a tormented, confused disillusioned shadow of his former self that was not being given the help he needed.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080720/ap_on_re_us/military_the_enemy_within

If we insist on making war, honoring our veterans means more then just wrapping the coffins of those who don’t make it home alive in flags. It means making sure that our friends, family members, and neighbors aren’t forced to violate their own core principles by making them occupiers in someone else’s country and by giving them the support they need when they get back. It’s not a coincidence that close to a quarter of homeless men in America are veterans and that joining the military is the only occupation that’s been statistically proven to increase a persons risk of homelessness. War destroys people. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. And if we’re going to ask people to put themselves in harms way the least we can do is help them cope with the damage.

For all the people who claim to ’support our troops’, if you’re not involved in the struggle for veterans rights you’re just spewing empty rhetoric. And that goes for both left and right.

**July 29 edit - I’ve just read an interesting article suggesting that john mccain quite likely suffers from ptsd, something that would completely fail to surprise me.   if accurate, it’d put an interesting twist on the discussion.  especially considering johnny’s pathetic record on veterans rights.

Posted: July 20th, 2008 under culture war.
Comments: none

2 more videos from Pat Condell on faith and religion.  These 2 are a bit more intense then he usually gets, but he’s still dead on when you strip away all the polite bullshit and look at thing the way they really are.

Posted: July 17th, 2008 under gods & religion, video.
Comments: none

A new article from the Washington Post explores why it is that “American” corporations are rushing to invest in Vietnam.

According to a report by Keith Bradsher in the New York Times last
month, such multinational companies as Canon (the printer and copier
maker) and Hanesbrands (the North Carolina-based underwear empire) are
expanding or building factories in Hanoi, where they churn out products
for Wal-Mart and other American retailers. Foreign direct investment in
Vietnam increased 136 percent between 2006 and 2007, while it increased
just 14 percent in China.

The reason for the move south is straightforward: Vietnamese factory
workers make about a quarter of what their Chinese counterparts earn.

But why Vietnam and not, say, Thailand, where labor is similarly cheap?

Vietnam’s edge, it seems, is political. “Communism means more
stability,”

Why Were We in Vietnam? By Harold Meyerson

Check out the full article on their website, and while you read it keep in mind that Anarchists like Bakunin predicted from the very start that in practice Marxism could only create tyranny and then think about all the dictators our government has sponsored around the world.  Capitalism and Communism aren’t ideological opposites, they’re two sides of the same coin - and they go together just fine.

Posted: July 15th, 2008 under Uncategorized, economics, politrix.
Comments: none

I suddenly find myself with a new respect for Courtney Love:

Today I want to talk about piracy and music. What is piracy? Piracy is the act of stealing an artist’s work without any intention of paying for it.

I’m not talking about Napster-type software.

I’m talking about major label recording contracts.

Courtney Love Redefines Music Piracy, Salon.com

It’s the text from a speech she gave a while back, i don’t know how i missed this at the time.  Some of her info is a bit dated - high quality mp3’s actually sound pretty good and nobody uses napster any more - but the basic points she makes about the music industry and the people who run it are solid.

Posted: July 14th, 2008 under music, open-source & coprights.
Comments: 1

Welcome to America, where protesters are “terrorists” and indiscriminate violence by cops against citizens is keeping the peace.  Shit is double-plus un-good, if you ask me.

This country was founded on the principle that WE THE PEOPLE have the right to protest or OVERTHROW a government that violates our rights - all these fake “patriots” need to go read the declaration of independence.  It’s a state state of affairs when politicians and police treat protesters as criminals and terrorists and spend millions of dollars on weapons to attack and control the public. Fascism is alive and well in America, justified in the name of “security”. And we all know what Benjamin Franklin said about people who trade freedom for security.

Read more »

Posted: July 11th, 2008 under culture war, politrix, video.
Comments: 1