In 2005, the Kenyan preacher Thomas Muthee stood on the stage of Alaska’s Wasilla Assembly of God and called on Christians to take over the world’s economic system. “The Bible says that the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. It’s high time that we have top Christian businessmen, businesswomen, bankers, you know, who are men and women of integrity running the economics of our nations,” he said, his remarks captured in recently unearthed video footage. Then he continued: “If you look at the – you know – if you look at the Israelites, that’s how they work. And that’s how they are, even today.”
It’s seems pretty clear that Muthee was alluding to Jewish control over global finance. But if Sarah Palin objected, she certainly didn’t show it when, a few minutes later, she joined him on stage. There, as she bowed her head and turned her palms toward heaven, Muthee laid hands on her and beseeched God to pump money into her gubernatorial campaign coffers.
It was Marx who had analyzed the phenomenon of capitalism when it was still nascent- foretelling its demise not so much because it was his wish, but pointing out that that the system is inherently unstable and full of contradictions. The Marxist conception of the State as an expression of class power is again vindicated by the manner in which the federal governments in leading capitalist countries- the US, UK, Japan, Australia and even the puny India- has stepped into the rescue and “buy” back sunk investments. It suits these governments to step out of business activities when it suits the latter, and step in when it suits them too, that is having the cake and eat it too! Noam Chomsky once called the US (that’s true of most capitalist countries) – socialism for the rich.
This of course, is not unprecedented. Again it was Marx (or Engels) who commented in the preface to the second edition of Das Capital, that the crisis of the capitalism system of production (not to say of distribution) is inherent because while production grows in geometrical progression, markets expand only in an arithmetic progression. Since then, the web of conflicts and contractions within the capitalist system has only grown more complex.
Things like the special Olympics, Variety Club events, The Cure-A-Crip Telethon or some other fluffy piece about someone trying to overcome their disability (has it worked, are ya not disabled anymore?) gets big press. When people with disabilities take to the streets and say that the system is broken, we don;t want to live in your shitty institutions because the sight of us bothers you or that we want our rights along with choiuces that the mainstream public takes advantage of everyday–suddenly, we’re not so cute and inspirational.
Yolanda Charley, recently won the title ofMiss. Navajo Nation. I am normally against beauty contests, as I see them as nothing more than the performance of femininity for the male gaze. The Miss Navajo Nation is like noother pageant I have ever come across.
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What I love about this contest is that it is more than women parading around with fake smiles, with their bathing suits taped to their skin, to avoid being swallowed by their asses. Miss Navajo is about celebration, and the perpetuation of culture.
Come one, come all, to the 64th Carnival of Feminists! I’m your host, Earlgreyrooibos, and I’m thrilled to be presenting this cross-section of the feminist blogosphere to you! Happy reading!
The Angry Indian blogs on Native American news outlets:
We were never meant to be a part of the colonial system and I find it embarrassing that those who are chosen to represent us do not have the courage to speak about this in real, coherent and tangible terms. Instead, we talk of what it like for Indians to be a part of the DNC and RNC conventions and who got to speak before large crowds and which “tribe” will adopt a candidate who in the end will do absolutely nothing for our people but keep us in our respective place at the bottom of the U.S. totem pole. And we ask ourselves why we get so little respect.
The most difficult contradiction to face is that even if Obama makes 1.5-2 things better for some people of color in America, we know that he is nothing but a flyer, better-dressed, younger face to the New World Order AKA the same ol’ American Empire that has been running shit for the past several hundred years.
Mexican journalist Gloria Muñoz Ramírez says that in 1997 she left her work, her family, and her friends to live in Zapatista communities. Her book The Fire and the Word: A History of the Zapatista Movement is the result of seven years of research, interviews, and—most importantly—listening in Zapatista territory.
Originally published in Spanish as 20 y 10: El Fuego y la Palabra in 2003 for the tenth anniversary of the Zapatista uprising and the twentieth anniversary of the EZLN, the book has since been translated into French, Italian, German, Turkish, Persian, and Greek. While English-speakers had to wait five long years to read it, Muñoz made The Fire and the Word worth the wait. The English translation updates the Spanish version, including new chapters and pictures of Zapatista history up through the Other Campaign in 2006.
We join with you in condemning the arrest and harassment of Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and members of her crew on the first day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. These arrests were a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists and an assault on our constitution.
Goodman was arrested for simply questioning police about the unlawful detention of producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar who were covering street demonstrations in St. Paul. All three were roughly handled.
Kimchi Mamas first blogged about this a couple of weeks ago… What kind of messed up nonsense is this? This Mother Goose and Grimm comic strip is a couple of weeks old, but dude, what the hell? Come on! Really? They really had to go there with the idiotic Korean dog-eating joke?
Radical means open: to new understandings, to new perspectives, to new awareness, and the valuing of self-examination and critique. White Men’s Conservatism and White Men’s Liberalism are closed systems of thought the boundaries of which their ideologues refuse to acknowledge, identify, or name. Radicalism, as a social-political perspective, here means not closed. It means open to learning more. Not assuming I know it all. Not assuming anyone does.
The Blog and the Bullet 