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151 [lbo-talk] Workers of Europe unite, you've only Euro chains to lose -- rank: 1000

Marv yes, I agree with Charles. The working class opposition to the *European Union* is by no means all nationalist, nor under any illusion that indigenous bosses are better. There may be some that think that. But most are positively in favour of Europe. They just do not confuse the marvellous creativity of the peoples of Europe with the moronically oppressive European Union. The European Union is an anti-democratic force that works for business elites, and against popular control. Read these ...

Document Size:	5619
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Dec 21 13:35:29 PST 2011

152 [lbo-talk] The Planet is Fine -- rank: 1000

Re. public transit vs. car the two are not really interchangeable. Public transport can displace some car journeys, but car journeys overall tend to go up anyway, because the train, tram or subway doesn t always go where you want to go. The carbon tax is regressive because it punishes mass consumption. If you think that masses excessive consumption is the problem, then I suppose it makes sense to punish it.

Document Size:	4994
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Dec 21 09:16:29 PST 2011

153 [lbo-talk] Happy Xmas, wretched of the Earth -- rank: 1000

Worried about what to get the wretched of the Earth for Xmas? Why not patronise them with this Hygiene kit - from Oxfam - a snip at £14.00. 'It contains simple stuff like soap, a bucket and cotton wool, but it's amazingly effective in saving lives in an emergency. Keeping clean not only does wonders for someone's dignity, but in crowded refugee camps, these items can help keep deadly diseases like cholera at bay.' http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/oxfam-unwrapped-parents-and-carers/OU5035HU

Document Size:	5191
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Dec 21 08:29:27 PST 2011

154 [lbo-talk] The Planet is Fine -- rank: 1000

On Carbon Tax, I believe that the argument is that the price mechanism is not a good way to address the problem that the carbon tax addresses. Myself, I recall leftists used to say that all taxes on goods (rather than on incomes) were regressive, because they hurt the poor the same (which is relatively speaking, more) than they do the rich.

Document Size:	4798
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Dec 20 08:08:28 PST 2011

155 [lbo-talk] Oh! Bitchery! -- rank: 1000

For a more generous appreciation... http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/christopher-hitchens/graydon-201112

Document Size:	4618
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Dec 20 01:05:07 PST 2011

156 [lbo-talk] Re; The Planet is Fine -- rank: 1000

In Britain protestors reckon that 27,500 excess winter deaths are due in part to fuel poverty. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/nov/22/fuel-poverty-protestors-die-in-winter-deaths Sadly, that fuel poverty is aggravated by shortfall in electricity production as too few power stations are built to meet demand, pushing prices higher and boosting EDF s profits. Former Vice President Al Gore was one of those who added his voice to the demands that Britain stop building power stations, when climat ...

Document Size:	5289
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Dec 19 23:54:56 PST 2011

157 [lbo-talk] What the 9/11 bombers really think -- rank: 1000

What is the evidence that this statement is not exactly what its words scream it out to be: a fabrication designed as propaganda to prepare the genocidal attack on Iraq? What is the evidence that Shane Mage is not really a lizard-person sent by David Icke to spread fear and discord among the human race?

Document Size:	4870
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Dec 18 12:05:56 PST 2011

158 [lbo-talk] What the 9/11 bombers wanted -- rank: 1000

How do we know what the 9/11 bombers wanted? From their leader s political statement Letter to America, 2002 The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam. ... We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honour, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling's, and trading with interest. ... You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desi ...

Document Size:	6022
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Dec 18 09:05:07 PST 2011

159 [lbo-talk] Oh! Bitchery! -- rank: 1000

Max writes: situating all these conflicts in people getting crazy from religion is a profoundly reactionary (and lazy) way of thinking. In fairness to the 9/11 bombers (and the 7/7 bombers) they thought that what they were doing was religiously motivated. Of course you can ignore their views and explain their actions in terms of some other goal, attributing to them some kind of false consciousness, but that only shows an essential intolerance or perhaps indifference to the dafter ideals of ...

Document Size:	4988
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sat Dec 17 06:08:53 PST 2011

160 [lbo-talk] Oh! Bitchery! -- rank: 1000

Ravi: I am curious how does one objectively judge these things? Perhaps Eric is using that same objective method and arriving at different conclusions? The answer is that *you* don t judge, you listen to the judgements of others. Read over the obituaries, and the many life assessments before he died. The weight of the judgements are that he was a sharp critic and commentator. Michael Smith: Oddly enough, Doug, I believe you're the first person so far to have used the term 'racism' in connec ...

Document Size:	5207
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Dec 16 20:57:58 PST 2011

161 [lbo-talk] My Letter To CH -- rank: 1000

Me, personally, I am all in favour of pissing on the grave, ideally while the earth is still loose. But this judgement on Hitchens is plain wrong: as a critic, decidedly un-droll as a wit, not particularly erudite as a stylist, and his atheism was thinly disguised racism and imperialism . You can disagree with some of what he said, but much of what he said was pretty sharp. As critic or wit those are objective judgements that you cannot undermine by saying that you didn t find him funny or er ...

Document Size:	5084
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Dec 16 13:52:12 PST 2011

162 [lbo-talk] Anti-Islam prejudices -- rank: 1000

Michael, not sure that there is much to choose between US and UK prejudices against Muslims In U.S., Religious Prejudice Stronger Against Muslims 43% of Americans admit to feeling some prejudice toward followers of Islam http://www.gallup.com/poll/125312/religious-prejudice-stronger-against-muslims.aspx Britons are suspicious towards Muslims, study finds The British public are concerned at the rise of Islam in the UK and fear that the country is deeply divided along religious lines, according to ...

Document Size:	5317
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Dec 16 13:46:25 PST 2011

163 [lbo-talk] Christopher Hitchens -- rank: 1000

Hitch's and Dawkins' demented frothings about Islam that doesn t seem entirely fair. Both insisted that their target was religion per se, not Islam in particular. Maybe I am just confirming Michael s prejudices about the English, but Islam is a load of old bollocks, as Christianity is. When Marx said that the critique of religion is over, he didn t mean that he thought that people were being unfair to religion, he just thought that the case for religion had been pretty well exploded. (burning ...

Document Size:	5154
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Dec 16 12:53:55 PST 2011

164 [lbo-talk] Christopher Hitchens -- rank: 1000

I rather admired Hitchens for that waterboarding stunt he did Yes, though he might have been copying the French torturer Massu of Algeria, who said that he tried the gegene (accents missing means hand-wound electricity generator) on himself, and it did not hurt so bad, in an interview in the Spectator. That was generally taken as bad form on Massu s part.

Document Size:	4843
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Dec 16 12:33:33 PST 2011

165 [lbo-talk] Christopher Hitchens -- rank: 1000

Ravi: I do not know Galloway s background, but he gives off the vibes of a backroom brawler, the kind of guy who might just reach across and slap that sneer off your face Galloway has his own flaws, no doubt, but I thought he demonstrated the best of the left-Socialist tradition in his agitation against the war. A friend of mine stood as a revolutionary communist candidate against Galloway when he was the Labour Party candidate in Fife or some such place. He was a pretty effective operator, and ...

Document Size:	6301
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Fri Dec 16 12:29:31 PST 2011