Among the kudos of reviewer Hunter Bear were that Val Kilmer and
others in the film were Native American, as was the point of view,
pretty much. This made it unique and historically important, and why
I sent it to you. As well as the exemplary writing.
In Sunday's LA Times Calendar 'best' selections, I noticed the film was
showing on AMC at 5:30 pm, checked the channel shortly before, where
it was announced on the remote 'guide' button, and turned it on. Lo and
behold, with no explanation, a young Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared
in Eraser, one of the most improbable, violent pieces of garbage I've ever
looked at, for 10 minutes or so, while checking to see if the Times, the
AMC guide or I were delusional. Somebody pulled the plug.
The point being that if you thought, for a nano-second, that the Arizona
or the other, burgeoning state laws were confined to immigration and
were non-racist, you're fooling yourself. I'll confess that I've expected
this
was coming for a very long time and am just as certain that it will develop
as a many headed monster if the real needs of working class whites and
now growing numbers of others worsen. Their needs are real, and the
economic elite are only too happy to divert their anger in this disastrous
direction - Including what movies are shown or censored. I mean the
mega-corporations and their tremendous influence on governmentl, the
military and media. As well, the takeover of land, water and economy of
much of Latin America, directly or installing pupper dictators, propelling
this limitless migration to the U.S. I end with an akin example of the post
WW1 Versaille agreement and Germany. Fascism slowly grew, then
exploded with the same dynamic. It did not arrive fully grown. We plainly
must fight not only the current insanity, but understand and ameliorate
the root causes, before it is too late. A large government jobs program is
desperately needed. Roosevelt had Hitler to push him. Obmama does not,
but history is staring him in the face. Pretty speeches and tokens won't
do.
Ed
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/16
The 65th Anniversary of the Nuclear Age
by David Krieger
CommonDreams.org: July 16, 2010
July 16, 1945 marked the beginning of the Nuclear Age. On that day, the
United States conducted the first explosive test of an atomic device. The
test was code-named Trinity and took place at the Alamogordo Test Range in
New Mexico's Jornada del Muerto Desert. The bomb itself was code-named "The
Gadget."
The Trinity test used a plutonium implosion device, the same type of weapon
that would be used on the city of Nagasaki just three and a half weeks
later. It had the explosive force of 20 kilotons of TNT.
The names associated with the test deserve reflection. "The Gadget,"
something so simple and innocuous, was exploded in a desert whose name in
Spanish means "Journey of Death." Plutonium, the explosive force in the
bomb, was named for Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld. The isotope of
plutonium that was used in the bomb, plutonium-239, is one of the most
deadly radioactive materials on the planet. It existed only in minute
quantities on Earth before the US began creating it for use in its bombs by
the fissioning of uranium-238.
There is no definitive explanation for why the test was named Trinity, but
it generally seems most associated with a religious concept of God. The
thoughts of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientific director of the project to
create the bomb and the person who named the test, provide insights into the
name:
"Why I chose the name is not clear, but I know what thoughts were in my
mind. There is a poem of John Donne, written just before his death, which I
know and love. From it a quotation: 'As West and East / In all flatt
Maps-and I am one-are one, / So death doth touch the Resurrection.' That
still does not make a Trinity, but in another, better known devotional poem
Donne opens, 'Batter my heart, three person'd God.'"
Oppenheimer's reaction to witnessing the explosion of the atomic device was
to recall these lines from the Bhagavad Gita:
If the radiance of a thousand suns
Were to burst at once into the sky,
That would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...
I am become Death,
The shatterer of Worlds.
Did Oppenheimer think that he had become death that day, or that all of us
had? Certainly that first nuclear explosion portended the possibility that
worlds would be shattered (by a "Mighty One"?), as they were soon to be in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This year marks the 65th anniversary of the Trinity test. We are now 65
years into the Nuclear Age. At Hiroshima and Nagasaki we have seen the
devastation that nuclear weapons can inflict on cities and their
inhabitants. We have witnessed a truly mad arms race between the United
States and the former Soviet Union, in which the number of nuclear weapons
in the world rose to 70,000. We have learned that one nuclear weapon can
destroy a city, a few nuclear weapons can destroy a country, and a nuclear
war could destroy civilization and most of the complex life forms on the
planet.
Nuclear weapons have endangered the human species, and yet today there are
still more than 20,000 nuclear weapons in the world. Nine countries now
possess these weapons. Humanity is still playing with the fire of omnicide -
the death of all. We are still waiting for the leaders who will take us
beyond this overarching threat to our common future. Instead of continuing
to wait, we must ourselves become these leaders.
On this 65th anniversary of embarking on the Journey of Death, we must
change course and move back from the nuclear precipice. The weapons are
illegal, immoral, undemocratic and militarily unnecessary. The surest way to
bring them under control is by negotiating a new treaty, a Nuclear Weapons
Convention, for the phased, verifiable, irreversible and transparent
elimination of nuclear weapons.
The United States led the world into the Nuclear Age. President Obama has
pointed out that the country also has a moral responsibility to lead the way
out. This can be done, but not with a citizenry that is ignorant, apathetic
and in denial. Sixty-five years on the Journey of Death is long enough. It
is past time for citizens to awaken and become engaged in this issue as if
their future depended upon it, as it does.
The fervent prayer of the hibakusha, the survivors of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, is "Never Again!" They speak out so that their past does not
become our future. It is a prayer that each of us must join in answering,
both with our voices and actions to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
David Krieger is president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
(www.wagingpeace.org), an organization that has worked since 1982 to educate
and advocate for a world free of nuclear weapons.
***
From: <moderator@PORTSIDE.ORG>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 5:37 PM
What If the Tea Party Was Black?
jasirix -- A few months ago, Tim Wise wrote a widely
circulated article called, "Imagine if the Tea Party
Was Black " which challenged America to take a close
look at the hypocrisy of the Right Wing. Now, a
Pittsburgh rapper is accepting his challenge in true
Hip Hop form. Jasiri X has released a video called
"What if the Tea Party was Black." The Hip Hop artist
says that he got the idea when Paradise,a member of the
pro-black rap group X-Clan, forwarded him a copy of
Wise's article. "I saw the article and I liked the
concept," says the rapper. So Jasiri hit the studio
with producer Cynik Lethal while Paradise grabbed his
video camera and they went on their mission to defeat
the Right Wing propaganda machine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtH7vH4yRcY
July 14, 2010
3:22
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