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Nothing like lawless mercenaries to brighten your international image and foreground your commitment to transparency, justice and the American Way.
Despite US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign promise to no longer award military contracts to Blackwater – the now renamed notorious security contractor – the US state department has recently awarded the company another lucrative contract.
“Blackwater was renamed Xe after a string of legal cases against the company in the US and in Iraq.
Wired.com reports that while neither Xe nor Blackwater appear on the list of eight firms hired for the Worldwide Protective Services contract (a group of contracts combined into one), one of the company’s fronts, International Development Solutions LLC (IDS) is on the list.
In total, the contract for all eight companies is worth up to $10bn.”
Well, nothing wrong with a share of 10 billion dollars. Wow, I bet a lot of schools could be build for 10 billion dollars. But we cannot go around letting the evildoers win, so sorry little bobby, no schooling for you after all recruits are needed for the Army.
“A press officer from the state department returned Al Jazeera’s call, but was unable to say what specific services IDS could provide and why, given Blackwater’s tarnished reputation, (which lead to the company’s name change in 2009) it was still eligible for such a contract.
She did, however, read out a prepared statement, indicating that while the state department is aware of IDS’s ties to Blackwater, that that fact was not prohibitive in accepting its bid.
“The contract was competed in accordance with the Federal Acquisitions Regulations (FAR),” read the statement.
“The FAR allows any company that is not been debarred or suspended to submit a proposal in response to an acquisition process based on full and open competition.”
Oh hey, we certainly cannot infringe on the market. That would be unseemly and more to the point, unethical. Everyone needs a fair chance to get paid by Uncle Sam and deal death in foreign lands. Nothing could go wrong with hiring out mercenaries to do your bidding…
“Two former Blackwater employees are currently on trial in the US on charges of murdering Afghan civilians and keeping human remains as trophies. The charges stem from a 2009 incident in Kabul.
In 2008, five Blackwater guards were charged in the deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians, who were shot in Baghdad’s al-Nisoor Square in 2007. Those charges were ultimately dismissed.
Another employee of Triple Canopy – another contractor included in the new Worldwide Protective Services contract – was charged with killing at least one Iraqi after he fired into a civilian vehicle for “sport.”
Whoops! I guess things can go wrong, unless I’m getting the wrong “spin” on things but killing people for sport seems to be actions we like to attribute to official enemies as opposed to our own highly ethical and clean foreign slate.
The Naturalistic fallacy is yet another argument put forth by the religiously deluded that holds no water. Eequalsfb puts together a nice little video on how silly this particular argument is.
Way to go Alberta!
With the amount of imprudent tampering that is going on with the publishing of scientific results in Canada as of late it is quaintly surprising to see that Alberta will be leading the way with free flu vaccinations this year.
“EDMONTON – Alberta will offer seasonal and H1N1 flu protection in one shot when the province’s immunization program begins after Thanksgiving.
The shot will be free.
Health officials say the province has already received large shipments of influenza vaccine and will receive more throughout the flu season.”
We are acting on evidence based ideas and carrying them out. Alberta politics has way of surprising people, in this case, with a brief instance of lucidity.
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Oh as a related bonus, the anti-vaxxer bingo card I found at ratbags.com. See if you can complete yours today!
We’ll add this story to the heading ‘corporations that miss the point‘.
“Electronic Arts has given in to protests and pulled the ability to play as Taliban fighters from its upcoming Medal of Honor video game.
These are the ones you shoot.
It was to allow gamers to fight as Taliban against U.S. and allied troops in its online multiplayer mode, a feature that sparked criticism from some military officials and families of soldiers who have died in Afghanistan. Critics said allowing people to play as the enemies in a current conflict would be insensitive to the families of soldiers who have died.
The cultural assumptions enfolded into this statement bely the skewed view of the world we are fed and has ironic crunchy bits mashed in as well considering that the families of fallen Taliban fighters probably have similar feelings and have more of them considering the technological advantage we possess. But of course, being Official Enemies they do not have feelings or families, or heck, even human status when it comes to our point of view.
“Because the heartbeat of Medal of Honor has always resided in the reverence for American and allied soldiers, we have decided to rename the opposing team in Medal of Honor multiplayer from Taliban to Opposing Force,” executive producer Greg Goodrich said in a statement on the game’s website.”
Exactly, so you can get your righteous fill of filling people ragheads full of holes and terminating them with prejudice. This is okay. We show our reverence for families torn asunder by war by making products that glorify war and the destruction which results from it.
“While this change should not directly affect gamers, as it does not fundamentally alter the gameplay, we are making this change for the men and women serving in the military and for the families of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice — this franchise will never wilfully disrespect, intentionally or otherwise, your memory and service.”
I’m not sure EA could go any deeper as they are using quantum bore tunnelling technology to dig the hole are in. All this PR spin is about their bottom line. They could care less about the men and women making the ultimate sacrifice during times of war. This wrinkle about changing the human targets from Taliban to OpFor is a callous move to protect their profit margins, nothing more.
Steven Harper, the megalomaniac that he is, gets included just because of the monolithic way he has decided to run his government, therefore the decision to bar former British Mp George Galloway from entering Canada is as much his responsibility as it is the foppishly addled Mr.Kenney’s.
Evil Doer, Terrorist, and Satan - According to the Harper Government.
Fortunately now, our supreme court has reversed the previous nut buttery decision and Mr.Galloway will be allowed into Canada.
“Former British MP George Galloway, who was told he was not welcome in Canada last year over accusations by the government that he supported terrorism, was allowed into the country on Saturday. Galloway, who arrived at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport late Saturday afternoon, was greeted by supporters after he cleared customs.”
His crime? From the Guardian –
Earlier today the Sun said border security officials had declared Galloway, 54, “inadmissible” because of his views on Afghanistan and the presence of Canadian troops there and would be turned away if he attempted to enter the country.
Well disagreeing in Canada has always been one of those things we try to encourage, at least when deluded rightwing parties are not in power. But hey, perhaps our Reform party conservatives are not stark raving mad paranoid super patriots, zealously protecting their ideological directives from god Harper. A representative for Mr.Kenney says:
Protecting Canadians from evil British MP's 24/7!
Alykhan Velshi, Kenney’s spokesman, said that the act was designed to protect Canadians from people who fund, support or engage in terrorism.
“We’re going to uphold the law, not give special treatment to this infandous street-corner Cromwell who actually brags about giving ‘financial support’ to Hamas, a terrorist organisation banned in Canada,” he said. “I’m sure Galloway has a large Rolodex of friends in regimes elsewhere in the world willing to roll out the red carpet for him. Canada, however, won’t be one of them.”
Ahh, check. Guilty as charged.
“The MP said: “This decision, gazetted in Rupert Murdoch’s Sun, is a very sad day for the Canada we have known and loved – a bastion of the freedoms that supporters of the occupation of Afghanistan claim to be defending.
“This has further vindicated the anti-war movement’s contention that unjust wars abroad will end up consuming the very liberties that make us who we are.”
Back in Canada the judicial arm of our country is busy ripping Kennedy and the government a new one for their inanely brutish propaganda designed to “protect Canadians from people who fund, support or engage in terrorism.”
“Justice Richard Mosley called the move “a flawed and overreaching interpretation of the standards under Canadian law for labelling someone as engaging in terrorism or being a member of a terrorist organization.”
Galloway had planned a Canadian speaking tour to voice opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but cancelled when he learned he would be denied entry.”
What? Labelling people with anti-war sentiments terrorists is a bad thing? Who would of thunk that? This is the level of tolerance we get when we elect ideologues into power that have a strong anti-reality bias.
“[Justice] Mosley said he agreed with Galloway’s Canadian supporters that the main reason border agency officials said he would be barred entry was that “they disagreed with his political views.”
Stay away heathen! How dare you express dissent! Did Galloway not read the memo that dissent is most certainly 
not allowed in the Harperland Canada? One would hope that the Canadian people will remember the loopy-crazy decisions such as not allowing Mr.Galloway into Canada because of the views he holds, come election time. I, for one, am getting tired of the secrecy and paranoia fostered by the current government. Not to mention the embarrassment I feel when yet another wacky conservative policy (find any of that unreported crime yet Mr.Day?) is exposed for being based on wingnuttery as opposed to rational ideas.
not allowed in the Harperland Canada? One would hope that the Canadian people will remember the loopy-crazy decisions such as not allowing Mr.Galloway into Canada because of the views he holds, come election time. I, for one, am getting tired of the secrecy and paranoia fostered by the current government. Not to mention the embarrassment I feel when yet another wacky conservative policy (find any of that unreported crime yet Mr.Day?) is exposed for being based on wingnuttery as opposed to rational ideas.
I am going to use the discussion points found on RichardDawkins.net as the basis of this feature.
Calilasseia is the author of the post and deserves many rich accolades for assembling so much useful information in one spot. This constitutes an open thread of sorts, please leave your opinions and observations in the comment section.
Enjoy!
[21] “The universe is meaningless without my magic man”
To which the short answer is “so fucking what?”
Leaving aside for the moment the total failure of supernaturalists to support the assertion that their particular pet species of magic man actually exists, which also impinges upon [20] above, the idea that the universe needs this entity to impose meaning upon it is a piece of intellectual constipation that I, for one, find mind-numbingly boring, tedious and unimaginative. Douglas Adams said it best – “Isn’t it enough to realise that the garden is beautiful as it is, without having to imagine fairies at the bottom of it?”
Likewise, why should the universe be required to genuflect before supernaturalist anthropocentric conceit, and be required to be meaningful only because an invisible magic man that we have invented decrees thus?
We are beings that are capable of eliciting meaning for our own lives, and the world around us, without outside interference. Erecting an imaginary source of outside interference is nothing more than a gargantuan Little Orphan Annie complex, a wish to remain a child with a nice Daddy figure to run the world around us so that we don’t have to get off our arses and expend the effort. This is such an utterly lame stance to adopt. It’s indolent, naive, simplistic and dumb. Surely there is far more majesty in knowing that the universe, quixotic and capricious though it may seem to be at first sight, is comprehensible by diligent intellectual human effort, and that exercising that effort not only leads to a breathtaking vista of understanding that adds to the majesty, but gives us the power to work toward a better destiny for us all in a manner that produces real, substantive results? Once again, the evidence we have is that fabricated magic men are superfluous to requirements and irrelevant in this vein, and indeed, are increasingly a hindrance. “Magic man did it”, once again, is little more than a synonym for “don’t bother asking questions, don’t bother being curious, don’t bother trying to learn”. What gives meaning to the world around us is the effort we exert to understand the world and put that knowledge to constructive use.
Extra points if you can spot what is wrong with this picture.
The Globe and Mail has a stinky carcass of an article entitled “Are men being robbed of their masculinity?” Zosia Bielski the author in this homage to misogyny tackles the tough issue of Men and the Emasculating Culture they face.
“The movie [Mr.Munday] is just the latest in a string of emasculating offerings in popular culture.”
The War on Maleness is a rising crescendo of hateful messages that Men have to deal with. How can the dominant segment of culture ever survive?
“With the “mancession” hitting men hard during the economic downturn and traditional gender roles mutating, there is rabid concern that men are being robbed of their essential masculinity. The debate heated up after the Pew Research Center reported in January that women have outpaced men in education and earnings growth: 22 per cent of husbands have wives whose income now exceeds theirs, compared to 4 per cent in 1970. The rise in women’s earnings corresponds with an upsurge in their education. (The women were quickly dubbed “alpha wives.”)”
Oh my FSM! We are being robbed of our ‘essential masculinity’? What the hell is essential masculinity? The term is never defined in the article but boy, it seems like this is turning into an apologists piece for patriarchy and the male privilege it grants to men in our culture. Like the the religiously deluded christians who cry ‘persecution’ while in majority status this piece reeks of persecution of the minority with regards to the privileged status men hold in our society.
What is the best way to prove Masculinity is in decline? Mention an Asian outlier subculture:
“An extreme illustration of the slide away from masculinity may be the asexual “herbivores” of Japan, young heterosexual men who are wholly uninterested in pursuing women, material goods or careers. Multiplying after the recession, herbivores live reclusive, uncompetitive lives dominated by the Internet.”
Yes menfolk run! Beware! The World of Warcraft is coming to steal your testicles and carve an indelible mangina into your psyche. The horror!
We do need to give the author some credit as he does mention some facts that are at least loosely connected with reality.
“Boys who resist macho behaviours such as aggression and “emotional stoicism” have better mental health and social relationships, according to Carlos Santos, an Arizona State University researcher who studied 426 middle school boys and presented his findings at the American Psychological Association’s convention in August.”
You mean not acting like completely privileged douche is good for your mental health and ability to work well with others. Go Figure.
“Men have more to gain than lose from the “down with macho” movement, says Jennifer Berdahl, an associate professor of organizational behaviour at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.”
Another kernel of wisdom in this otherwise putrid article. It is amazing after so many years that people still deny the existence of the Patriarchy and Male Privilege. If people could actually be bothered to read a little about feminism we could avoid some the atrocious pap that regularly appears in the “life” section of newspaper.
bleatmop
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Dead Wild Roses 
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