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76 [lbo-talk] Lovelock admits he was 'alarmist' about the impact of climate change -- rank: 1000

'I made a mistake': Gaia theory scientist James Lovelock admits he was 'alarmist' about the impact of climate change British scientist admits he had 'extrapolated too far' in earlier book Claims other environmental commentators such as Al Gore did the same Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134092/Gaia-scientist-James-Lovelock-I-alarmist-climate-change.html

Document Size:	5342
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Apr 24 04:49:13 PDT 2012

77 [lbo-talk] Marx's Rejection of a Moral Critique of Capital -- rank: 1000

Marx s critique of capital is indeed moral, but the moral judgment he applies is an historically contingent one, not an ahistorical standard. Marx critiques capital from the standpoint of human development. Capital, he argues, is developed to such a point that it can only carry on as a barrier to human development it is historically redundant. What Marx rejects is not moral judgement as such, but that ahistorical invocation of moral absolutes which are, he argues, only the superficial reflecti ...

Document Size:	5207
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Apr 15 11:19:54 PDT 2012

78 [lbo-talk] C. Robin on Libertarians and Women's rights -- rank: 1000

Corey Robin wrote 'Remember Red Vienna? It wasn't all economics, you know', talking up the feminism of the socialists. But Mark Mazower describes an authoritarian oversight of family life in Red Vienna where 'Marxist councillors offered a "social contract" with parents offering assistance in return for their commitment to responsible parenting', but where this was lacking 'social workers were on hand to remove children to the municipal child observation centres' Dark Continent: Eur ...

Document Size:	5354
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Thu Apr 12 00:23:43 PDT 2012

79 [lbo-talk] Killing of Bangladeshi Labor Organizer -- rank: 1000

A friend, Ishraq Ahmed, director of the Freedom Fighters museum in Bangladesh, is currently being harassed by the Bangladesh Govt. that is (falsely) accusing him and others of sedition. He says that much of the current clampdown is connected to India s tightening grip over the country. http://www.economist.com/node/21543566

Document Size:	5077
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Apr 10 05:45:34 PDT 2012

80 [lbo-talk] Still Moving to the Suburbs and Exurbs: The 2011 Census Estimates -- rank: 1000

Despite the higher gasoline prices and the illusions of a press that is often anti-suburban, both the suburbs and the exurbs continued to attract people from elsewhere in the nation. The core counties, which contain the core cities, continued to lose domestic migrants to other parts of the country, principally to the suburbs and the exurbs of the large metropolitan areas. Over the past year, the core counties of major metropolitan areas lost 67,000 domestic migrants (people move between a metrop ...

Document Size:	5951
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Apr 9 07:13:45 PDT 2012

81 [lbo-talk] Chomsky's losing it -- rank: 1000

If opposing the broad, consensual goals of an ethnically oppressed group is racism, then presumably only racists in Europe and America would have been against Zionism after the 2WW. Demanding we bow down before the moral claims of the victims has been the bread and butter of Zionism for decades. On Adolph Reed s points, I don t know if he has it exactly right, but it is certainly a valuable investigation. How could one not notice that the meaning of race has changed in the US and in the devel ...

Document Size:	5494
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Sep 28 11:36:17 PDT 2011

82 [lbo-talk] Freedom of (racist) speech -- rank: 1000

championing racist views is crossing the line. He ought to be imprisoned until he recants. Sadly that is not on the table. Sorry, but my libertarian instincts draw the line at ... Your libertarian instincts seem pretty non-existent to me. Do you really think that jail is the best way to change minds? Or indeed that the jails are there to enforce anti-racist thinking? I can only guess that Tasmania is a much more enlightened place than London The case for free speech whether you agree with it o ...

Document Size:	5530
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Wed Sep 28 11:30:30 PDT 2011

83 [lbo-talk] The Aborigines' Protection Society, a talk, London, 21 Oct -- rank: 1000

The Aborigines Protection Society Between 1836 and 1909 the British Empire grew to take in New Zealand, much of Australia, Fiji, New Guinea, Southern Africa (beyond the Cape), and much more from 2,824,040 square miles to 12,700,000. Looking back, we often say that Colonisation was about enriching the British Empire and so it was. But the historical record says that the avowed reason for much of Britain s Empire was to protect the natives. Between 1836 and 1909 the Aborigines Protection Soc ...

Document Size:	7322
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Mon Sep 26 06:00:17 PDT 2011

84 [lbo-talk] The struggle over Britain's housing shortage -- rank: 1000

Some recent articles of mine on Britain s house shortages and the eviction of Dale Farm travellers http://jacobinmag.com/blog/?p=1622 http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/11094/ http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/09/484850.html https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/09/484716.html http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/11073/

Document Size:	5348
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Sep 20 08:27:57 PDT 2011

85 [lbo-talk] Donate to Wall Street protestors -- rank: 1000

Max: Do you mean LBJ was oppressive in domestic terms -- the small matter of imperialism aside -- and if so, how? I was thinking of the FBI s COINTELPRO campaign against the Black Panthers

Document Size:	4782
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Sep 20 04:45:09 PDT 2011

86 [lbo-talk] Donate to Wall Street Protestors -- rank: 1000

I have no brief for Ron Paul, but it seems to me that if some including me are less critical of the libertarian right, it is because we think that the left got the balance between state and liberty wrong. British Social Democracy, certainly, and Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson big government were authoritarian and oppressive regimes. I think the left ought to oppose the bail-outs, because they are all about directing public money to parasitic capitalist concerns, and sweet FA to do with saving ...

Document Size:	5870
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Tue Sep 20 01:41:53 PDT 2011

87 [lbo-talk] Crap architecture -- rank: 1000

Doug: Oh, the awfulness of American suburbia, for example? Yes, that was the example of social judgement masquerading as aesthetic critique I had in mind... So, since you raise it, let s go through it. The place where most Americans live, is awful to you. This, you say, is not a judgement on them, but on the social arrangement they live in. That rather begs the question, are cities not awful? Some people think so. But most people with an ear can recognise that that is just hateful class prejud ...

Document Size:	5255
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 18 11:52:22 PDT 2011

88 [lbo-talk] Dale Farm residents voice final plea -- rank: 1000

Dale Farm residents voice final plea Posted on September 18, 2011 by dalefarmsupport With 24 hours until the eviction of Dale Farm, residents voice a final plea for an alternative site to move onto as they face forced eviction from their homes. Members of the community, joined by local and international supporters, are preparing to defend the Traveller community that bought the former scrap yard in Essex, a decade ago. Many of the 87 families on the site have nowhere to go and are in a last minu ...

Document Size:	5482
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 18 11:40:14 PDT 2011

89 [lbo-talk] Crap architecture -- rank: 1000

Doug: You can hate the social arrangements without hating the people, James No doubt you can, but that s not an aesthetic criticism, is it? And since we are talking about architecture, it is not obvious to me what social arrangements you are talking about. Those that lead the Basildon Council to evict Gypsies from their Green Belt built settlements, perhaps? Or the overcrowding and flatsharing that is booming thanks to my country s housing shortage? I certainly object to those social arrangemen ...

Document Size:	5422
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 18 11:35:53 PDT 2011

90 [lbo-talk] Crap architecture -- rank: 1000

No doubt there are more than value judgements in principle to be made in architecture. But I have to say that in my ten years writing about Britain s useless and frustrated construction industry, every single judgement I have ever read is just social conservatism masquerading as aesthetic critique. There are no end of snobs bemoaning every new development of every kind, from Ian Fleming s assault on the architect Goldfinger, right through to the New Urbanism s polemics against the suburbs. What ...

Document Size:	5147
Author:	James Heartfield
Date:	Sun Sep 18 11:02:39 PDT 2011