The Largest Minority

February 18th, 2009 by Manila Ryce

Produced by Democracy Now!, Noam Chomsky addresses the international press at the United Nations on June 5th, 2006 while taking the liberty to slap the shit out of a few of the dolts.

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January 8th, 2009 by Sam

The rest below.

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October 25th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Chris Hedges moderates the Third Party Presidential Debate in which independent candidate and consumer rights advocate Ralph Nader squared off against The Constitution Party’s candidate Chuck Baldwin, who’s been endorsed by Ron Paul (and various snake handlers throughout the confederacy who also sport two first names). Barr and McKinney did not participate for unknown reasons. I say “unknown” because the real reasons they gave are frankly bullshit.

I’ve heard that Baldwin is actually very nice, so I’d hate to critique him too harshly, but watching someone like Ralph Nader debate Chuck Baldwin was like watching a talking encyclopedia debate… well, Chuck Baldwin. Seriously dude, there’s only so many times you can repeat your empty mantra about Jesus being a free market recluse before even your evangelical base starts to question your qualifications for the highest job in the land.

Still, the debate did provide a real dialogue between a genuine leftist and right-wing candidate, and Chris Hedges did an excellent job in asking pointed questions and making candidates defend their positions. Kudos to C-SPAN not only for broadcasting this debate, but for making the entire thing available online. Spread this one like the Good Word of Baldwin kids.

May 16th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

American hero Ralph Nader speaks at Google’s Mountain View, CA headquarters on May 12th as part of the Policy Talks@Google series.

May 3rd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

With each election cycle, it’s become increasingly clear to me that the United States must make an immediate transition from representative democracy to participatory democracy if our species hopes to be around another 50 years. Understanding how nations like Venezuela are making this transition is essential to building our own “utopia”.

“Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century” is a Left Forum Panel, hosted by Z Communications which took place at Cooper Union, NYC, on 3/15/2008. It was filmed by Charngchi Way (Chomskyan) and David Buccola (Buddhagem). Much props to them.

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April 10th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Chris Hedges hits the nail right on the head in this interview with Thom Hartmann while promoting his new book, “I Don’t Believe in Atheists”. In Hedge’s previous book, “American Fascists”, he railed against the new breed of Fundamentalist Christians monopolizing the poor of America. Now Hedges explains why learning about people like Jerry Falwell prepared him for the equally dim mindset of Fundamentalist Atheists like Christopher Hitchens.

Christopher Hitchens is a narcissistic pro-war bigot whose God is his own ego. He attempts to deny human nature by externalizing evil as a byproduct of religious philosophies. Hitchens drives such a hypocritical wedge of superiority between his philosophy and those of theists that he ends up arguing for the infallibility of his own group.

It is important to recognize that history’s worst persons were just as human as you and I. Failing to accept the commonalities of human kind has allowed freedom-loving Americans to stand behind a fascist government and Israelis to defend Nazi-style tactics against Palestinians. Likewise, it’s the same mental dichotomy of “me versus everyone else” which prevents Hitchens from realizing the similarities between him and the religious fanatics he condemns.

Hitchens’ fascist quest to forcibly bring Muslims into “reason” is identical in all respects to the most radical fundamentalist preachers who call for a new Christian crusade in the Holy Land. The most striking difference, however, is that Hitchens is actually taken seriously on shows like Real Time, as if his agenda had more merit than Pat Robertson’s.

Just as Fundamentalist Christianity uses religion to achieve the most un-Christian ends, so too does Fundamentalist Atheism use the spirit of agnosticism to foster intolerance and justify dominance over non-converts. Hitchens’ followers worship the personality of their jingoist god just as much as he worships himself. In my opinion, anyone who confuses Hitchens’ condescending wisecracks for honest intellectual inquiry would do well to read more than just Vanity Fair.

The role of philosophy, religious or otherwise, is to provide assistance in a person’s ongoing quest for truth, not to allow a suspension of rational thought by providing you with a final and absolute answer.

Then again, I could be wrong.

February 22nd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Ever since the Democratic Party’s corporate masters decided they needed to exclude Dennis Kucinich from the debates, I stopped posting the events. However, since one of these two remaining windbags is likely to be our next president, I figured that posting this “debate” might actually be useful to the remaining few of us who actually are liberals. If nothing else, we should at least be familiar with our future enemies and their rhetoric.

Let me just sum it up for those of you who’d rather not waste such a significant portion of your Friday. Obama admits that there’s no difference between him and Clinton, as if it’s a good thing, and Hillary continues to campaign against George W. Bush and all the horrible things he’s done with her help. To top it all off, the crowd apparently loved everything they said, including the idea of an American Separation Wall cutting through our southern border and mandated health insurance over a not-for-profit system. Way to go Democrats. I can’t wait for all that “change”.

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February 10th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Democracy Now! looks at the slight differences between Clinton and Obama on domestic issues such as the economy, the housing crisis, social security, health care, and nuclear power. Discussing their stances are Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect, Max Fraser of The Nation, and Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear.

Notice the disgusting grin on Clinton’s face when she acknowledges that single-payer health care is a system “a lot of people favor, but for many reasons, is difficult to achieve.” Um, the only ones making it difficult is fuckers like you. Out of all the Democratic candidates, it’s simply disgusting that Dennis Kucinich was the only one who endorsed a universal single-payer not-for-profit system.

Parts 2 and 3 and available below the fold
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