The killing of Baitullah Mahsud in a U.S. drone strike will weaken the militant group and throw it into disarray,expertssay ByRodriguez /U.S. & so so

A Majeed / AFP/Getty Images
An undated photo from 2004 shows Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mahsud, right, escorted by his guard as he arrives for a meeting in South Waziristan, Pakistan.

The killing of Baitullah Mahsud in a U.S. drone strike will weaken the militant group and throw it into disarray, experts say.
By Alex Rodriguez
August 8, 2009
Reporting from Lahore, Pakistan -- The American missile strike that killed Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mahsud, Pakistan's most wanted militant and a staunch Al Qaeda ally, dealt a devastating broadside to extremists and handed the United States a major victory in its bid to help stabilize the volatile nuclear state.

Mahsud's death, confirmed Friday by top Pakistani officials as well as the Taliban, creates a vacuum within the command structure of the militant organization and gives the Pakistani military a rare opportunity to weaken the group, former top Pakistani security and intelligence officials said.
"The loss for the Taliban is tremendous. He was their center of gravity," said former Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao. "His loss means there will be confusion and total demoralization within their ranks. This is a window of opportunity that Pakistan has to take advantage of."

Mahsud, believed to be 35, was killed in a missile strike by an unmanned U.S. aircraft early Wednesday, Pakistani officials said. One of Mahsud's two wives was also killed in the attack, which struck the home of Mahsud's father-in-law in South Waziristan, a volatile tribal area of Pakistan along the Afghan border that the Taliban has used as a base for years.

Mahsud's wife was killed first, by a missile that struck the house, Pakistan's Express News channel reported. When Mahsud tried to escape in his car, a second missile struck and killed him, the Pakistani channel reported.
A source close to Mahsud's father-in-law said seven of the family's bodyguards and at least 26 other people also were killed. The source's claim could not be confirmed.

Immediately after the strike, Taliban leaders denied that Mahsud, the suspected mastermind of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, was among the dead.

On Friday, however, a top Mahsud aide confirmed his death.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also confirmed the death. "According to my sources, the news is correct," Qureshi said. "He has been taken out."



No. 1 target

Pakistani military and government leaders had regarded Mahsud as Public Enemy No. 1, a clever, ruthless opponent responsible for engineering suicide bomb attacks and ambushes that killed more than 1,200 people in recent years. He had as many as 20,000 fighters under his command and provided haven to Al Qaeda militants who fled after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

For weeks, the Pakistani military had been preparing for an offensive in South Waziristan aimed at eliminating Mahsud and his Taliban fighters. Rather than sending in ground troops, as they did against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley, military commanders have been blockading Mahsud's supply routes in and out of South Waziristan while using fighter jet bombing raids to strike the group's hide-outs.

In the end, though, Mahsud's death was the result of an attack from a U.S. drone, a weapon that has been a major source of friction between Washington and Islamabad. Pakistani leaders have condemned U.S. drone attacks in the country's tribal areas, saying they violate Pakistan's sovereignty and result in large numbers of civilian casualties.

The U.S. has increased its reliance on such attacks in North and South Waziristan in recent weeks. That escalation coincides with heightened cooperation between Islamabad and Washington, particularly over Pakistan's military operations against the Taliban in Swat and Waziristan. The U.S. also is sharing with Pakistan intelligence collected by drone flights over militant targets in Pakistani territory.

Mahsud's death gives a significant boost to the Pakistani military's efforts to rein in the Taliban, which it has failed to do despite several offensives in the country's volatile northwest over several years. Its most recent attempt to crush the Taliban in the Swat Valley has been lauded by Pakistani leaders as a resounding success, but most of the Taliban leadership in Swat remains at large.

With Mahsud gone, the Taliban in Waziristan probably will be in disarray as jockeying for leadership begins, experts said. Mahsud's death gives Pakistan a chance to exploit that vulnerability, analysts said, by keeping up military pressure on the Taliban while also beginning talks with militants willing to lay down their arms.

"It's an opportunity for the state of Pakistan to wrest the initiative from the Taliban," said Masood Sharif Khattak, a former top Pakistani intelligence official. "There must be a lot of people wanting to get out of all this. This is an opportunity to work on that, to give those people who want to give up that chance to do so."



Successor unclear

Several names have surfaced as potential successors to Mahsud, including Mahsud aide Wali ur-Rehman and Hakimullah Mahsud, a Taliban leader based in the tribal area's Orakzai region. He is not believed to be related to Baitullah Mahsud.

"There are Mahsud subordinates, people like Hakimullah Mahsud, who could succeed him," said a U.S. counter-terrorism official. "As a rule, these commanders are harsh characters who have supervised suicide operations, kidnappings and other crimes.


"The real challenge for any of them would be to hold together the network of tribal groups that Baitullah Mahsud assembled," the official said. "It's not monolithic. There are serious personal and economic rivalries."

None of the candidates are likely to attain the stature that Mahsud had any time soon, experts said. And the process of selecting a new leader could exacerbate those rivalries, they said.
"As they begin choosing another leader, there will be factions forming that would definitely impact the Taliban's ability to continue fighting," said Sherpao, the former interior minister. "This is the time to win over tribal groups and people who were with Mahsud."

Washington has criticized the Pakistani government for entering into peace deals with Taliban groups.

A truce with Swat Taliban leader Maulana Qazi Fazlullah fell apart this year when Taliban militants reneged on their promise to lay down arms and instead expanded their reach to within 60 miles of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.
Cease-fires negotiated with Mahsud in 2005 and early 2008 fell apart, and afterward Mahsud's fighters resumed their attacks. The truce in 2005 gave Mahsud time to consolidate and build up rank-and-file fighters.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Friday that Pakistan would press on with its military offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan.

"It is a targeted law enforcement action against Baitullah Mahsud's group," Malik said, "and it will continue until his group is eliminated forever."

Experts described Mahsud as a clever, careful tactician who deftly chose the time to strike and the time to lie low. Born in the Bannu district of North-West Frontier Province, Mahsud was schooled in a Pakistani madrasa and later fought alongside Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan during the 1990s.



Suicide attacks

In December 2007, he was chosen as the leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban, a coalition of pro-Taliban groups that menaced Pakistani society with suicide bombings and other attacks.

At a rare news conference last year in South Waziristan, Mahsud talked of the rationale for relying on suicide attacks to inflict terror.

"America is bombing us and we are facing cruelty, so we will support these suicide attacks," the Taliban leader said. Suicide bombings "are our atomic weapons. Although the infidels have atomic weapons, our atomic weapons are the finest in the world."

On the streets of Peshawar, a city of nearly 3 million bordering Pakistan's tribal areas, news of Mahsud's death was greeted with relief by many. Peshawar was hit with a string of suicide bombings this year as Pakistani troops waged their offensives in Swat and South Waziristan.

"He was very lethal," said shopkeeper Sarwar Khan. "He earned a bad name for our country and for Muslims. Such people should be eliminated."

alex.rodriguez

Times staff writer Greg Miller in Washington and special correspondent Zulfiqar Ali in Peshawar contributed to this report.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

U.S. military works to foil Afghan bombers
A special task force to counter IEDs -- improvised explosives -- is turning its focus on Afghanistan, where militants have been increasingly making bombs.
ByAlexandraZavis
August 8, 2009

Roadside bombs in Afghanistan are more likely to injure and kill U.S.-led forces than the ones planted in Iraq, even though the weapons manufactured by Afghan insurgents are morerudimentary,militaryfiguresshow.

This is in part because they are so easy to make and difficult to detect, senior U.S. officers say. Afghan insurgents also use the devices to stage complicated ambushes involving teams of bombers and gunmen.

Related Content
• 5 U.S. troops killed as Afghan violence swells
• New NATO chief makes surprise trip to Afghanistan
• Afghanistan ride-a-long with Gen. Stanley McChrystal
A military task force dedicated to countering improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, calculates that a casualty results from more than one in four bombs that troops encounter in Afghanistan. In Iraq, where the ratio was once 1 to 1, about six bombs are detonated or cleared per casualty.

Homemade bombs have not traditionally been a favored weapon in Afghanistan, say members of the military's Joint IED Defeat Organization. Schooled in the Cold War-era guerrilla war against the country's former Soviet occupiers, Afghan militants typically ambushed their adversaries with grenade launchers and AK-47 assault rifles, or fired rockets and mortar rounds from a distance.

But faced with a growing U.S. and NATO force, the militants appear to be taking a leaf from the Iraqi insurgent handbook, using bombs at least as often as any other type of weapon, members say.

The bomb force recorded 3,594 devices used in Afghanistan in 2008, more than twice the number in 2007. Army Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, who commands the force, predicts a 50% to 60% increase this year as thousands of additional troops ordered into Afghanistan by President Obama push into areas that have long been under Taliban control.

"I believe we can do what we did in Iraq, and we can start beating the problem," Metz said. "But I don't think it's going to occur before March '10."

Metz spoke to The Times on the sidelines of a recent conference in Huntington Beach that was aimed at enlisting the help of private firms, research labs and academics in developing new technology and tactics to protect against the bombs.

At least 154 U.S. and allied service members have been killed in bombings this year in Afghanistan -- four of them in a single explosion Thursday -- compared with 34 in Iraq, according to the independent website icasualties.org. Roadside, suicide and other kinds of bombings are also the leading cause of civilian war deaths in Afghanistan, killing at least 725 people last year, according to a United Nations report.

The United States already has poured billionsof dollars into the effort in Iraq, where the number of bomb attacks against American-led forces peaked at more than 2,500 a month in the summer of 2007.

Last year, there were 9,036 incidents, according to the military's anti-bomb task force. Most of the attacks have been directed against Iraqi security forces and civilians since U.S. forces pulled out of cities at the end of June, military officials said.

"Iraq is an industrial society with an educated and predominantly urban population," Metz said in e-mailed comments after the conference. "Consequently, the IEDs encountered in Iraq are relatively sophisticated, with a wide variety of switches and technologies employed."

Among the most lethal are so-called explosively formed penetrators, which can pierce the armor of a tank. U.S. commanders accuse Iran, Iraq's neighbor, of supplying Iraqi militants with the devices, charges that Tehran denies. But Metz said he has not seen evidence of the devices being exported to Afghanistan, on Iran's eastern border, on a large scale.

Because most Iraqi roadways are paved, Metz said, insurgents would hide bombs in culverts and trash piles on the side of the road, then use cellphones, hand-held radios or even garage-door openers to set off the devices when crowds gathered or a convoy rumbled by. To prevent the bombs from detonating, U.S. researchers developed tools to jam the signals emitted by radio devices.

"We did really develop very good jammers," Metz said at the conference. "We were able to push the enemy significantly away from radio devices. The problem was that, instead of more sophisticated, he went less sophisticated."

Afghanistan is a vast, largely rural country with a population less educated than Iraq's. Instead of radio initiators, Afghan bombers usually use command wires or crude pressure plates, which can be fashioned from two saw blades, some duct tape and scrap wire, Metz said.

The bombs are made from materials that are easy to find in a war zone, such as artillery shells and fertilizer. Because most roads are unpaved, militants can bury the devices in the ground and leave the wind and dust to camouflage the danger.

U.S. forces are experimenting with ground-penetrating radar to detect bombs before vehicles pass over them. But, Metz said, "there is all sorts of other clutter 18 inches under the road, and trying to develop the accuracy of the radar in order to not give you the false positives is pretty tough."

The rugged terrain also plays to the advantage of the Afghan militants, he said. Although the population is larger than Iraq's, it is scattered across a bigger country, with isolated valleys, surrounded by jagged peaks, giving bombers ample time and space to plant their devices.

Although the weapons are generally simple, "you don't need to be technologically sophisticated to be effective," said Army Col. Jeffrey Jarkowsky, who directs the anti-bomb effort in Afghanistan, known as Task Force Paladin. "The enemy is very clever about how he uses them."

A bomb that explodes under a vehicle is more likely to cause casualties than one that goes off on the side of the road, he said, especially when it is packed with large quantities of homemade explosives.

Afghan militants also use suicide bombers and other explosive devices to stage complex attacks, often as part of a more conventional ambush.

In late July, waves of gunmen and suicide bombers, some of them disguised as women, attacked a U.S. military base in Jalalabad and several Afghan compounds in Gardez. At least six Afghan security officers and eight of the insurgents were killed during hours of fighting.

Metz's organization, which was formed in 2006 with a three-year budget of $11 billion, is sending hundreds of analysts, trainers and ordinance disposal experts to Afghanistan this year. They are replicating many of the strategies developed in Iraq, such as equipping troops with jammers, ground-penetrating radar and wheeled robots to investigate suspected bombs from a safe distance.

The military also uses route clearance teams, surveillance aircraft, satellites and blimps to provide what it calls a "steady eye" over major transport routes.

But some modifications will be required in Afghanistan, officers say. The Pentagon is buying more than 2,200 lighter, more agile versions of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected truck, or MRAP, that are better suited to the rough Afghan terrain than the model developed for Iraq.

Metz said U.S. forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq detect 50% of the bombs they encounter before they explode and are using forensic methods to figure out how they were made and by whom.

Although U.S. commanders say these kinds of measures have helped reduce the threat in Iraq, they also credit a rapid buildup of U.S. and Iraqi forces, the rebellion of Sunni Muslim tribesmen against extremists in their midst and the decision of an influential Shiite cleric to stand down his militia.

Commanders say the U.S. buildup in Afghanistan, which is expected to boost the number of troops in the country to 68,000 by year's end, will give them the forces to drive the Taliban from its havens and begin reconstruction, to undercut the militants' support.

"The one sure way to defeat IEDs 100% is to defeat the insurgency," Jarkowsky said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The mother of Sohrab Arabi, shown in the poster at right, who was killed during Iran's postelection turmoil last month, speaks with protesters at an opposition rally at the Behesht Zahra cemetery in Tehran. This photo was obtained by the Associated Press outside Iran.
Thousands flood a Tehran cemetery on the 40th day since the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan.(Related photo)

Their defiance sets the stage for protests next week, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to be sworn in.
By Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim
July 31, 2009
Reporting from Tehran and Beirut -- Protesters swarmed Tehran's main cemetery and fanned out across a large swath of the capital Thursday, defying truncheons and tear gas to publicly mourn those killed during weeks of unrest, including a young woman whose death shocked people around the world.

The protests marked the 40th day since the shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan was captured on video and posted on the Internet. For Shiite Muslims, the 40th day has religious importance, often an occasion for an outpouring of emotion and grief.

Thirty years ago, such commemorations helped build momentum for the Islamic Revolution, which overthrew the shah. The resilience of the thousands of protesters this time set the stage for more clashes next week, when hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to be inaugurated for a second term despite allegations that he won only because of widespread fraud in the June 12 election.

The scale and reach of Thursday's protests, which also erupted in at least four other cities, appeared to catch security forces off guard. After initially bloodying some of the mourners arriving at Behesht Zahra cemetery, many of them young women dressed in black and carrying roses, officers stepped back. They mingled amicably with protesters, and in one case even accepted flowers from them.

The mourners chanted political slogans as they rode the Tehran subway from the city center to the cemetery and back. When they returned to the center, they took to the streets, first in the area of the Grand Mosala Mosque, where they had been banned from gathering.

Later, on side streets and main thoroughfares, they were occasionally attacked by baton-wielding security personnel, some on motorcycles.

But they were also cheered on by thousands of well-wishers honking car horns ferociously or hanging out the windows of apartments and buses. They clogged roadways and tunnels, holding up signs in support of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Shopkeepers handed out bottles of water to sustain the demonstrators in the heat.

"Honorable Iranians," the protesters chanted. "Today is a day of mourning."

And in a challenge to a harsh crackdown on the news media, they recorded everything and quickly flooded the Internet with amateur videos of the day's events in the capital as well as the provincial cities of Esfahan, Shiraz, Ahvaz and Rasht.

"Death to the dictator," chanted those in one long procession heading toward Agha-Soltan's grave, kicking up a storm of dust as they walked. "Neda is not dead. This government is dead."

As night fell, witnesses reported intense confrontations between demonstrators and security forces in north-central Tehran. Trash bonfires that had been created to counter the effects of tear gas belched black smoke into the sky. Residents nearby hurriedly took injured protesters into their homes to protect them from roaming bands of Basiji militiamen.

Iranian officials say 30 people have died in unrest since the election. But human rights monitors and independent observers say the number killed in the protests and subsequent crackdown is at least twice that in the capital alone.

On Wednesday, the Paris-based monitoring group Reporters Without Borders urged authorities to explain the death of journalist Alireza Eftekhari on June 15. His body was handed over to relatives on July 13. A news release said Eftekhari died from a severe beating.

Authorities have tried to quell the unrest using the coercive instruments of the state, angering even some of Ahmadinejad's conservative allies.

On Wednesday, the Tehran prosecutor's office announced the latest in a series of arrests of prominent political figures: Saeed Shariati, a member of the central committee of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, the nation's primary reformist grouping.

Authorities also said they would place the first group of protesters on trial. According to a statement by the prosecutor's office, they will be charged with offenses that include having ties to terrorist organizations, invading and setting fires at military bases, destroying public property, looting, and preparing and dispatching news reports for "enemies" of the Islamic Republic.

Still, under massive domestic and international pressure, officials also have acknowledged wrongdoing by authorities. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei this week ordered the Kahrizak detention center south of Tehran closed because its facilities were "substandard."

Iran's police chief, Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, said some officers "went to extremes" during the protests.

Two prominent jailed reformist politicians, Behzad Nabavi and Mostafa Tajzadeh, were allowed to phone their families from prison for the first time since they were arrested June 13.

And authorities moved Saeed Hajjarian, who was critically wounded in a 2000 assassination attempt, from prison to a detention house with medical facilities, the Mehr news agency reported.

But such steps may not be enough to appease an emboldened opposition, which is supported by a grass-roots political movement unlike any the Islamic Republic has experienced.

Former President Mohammad Khatami, speaking to a group of reformist lawmakers, called for an investigation into allegations of torture and murder.

"Crimes have been committed. Lives have been lost and immoral treatments have been meted out to our dear youths, women and men," he said. "With the supreme leader's order of closure [of Kahrizak], a fresh opportunity has come up to launch an inquiry into the tragedy and punish the perpetrators."

Among the demonstrators, spirits seemed to be rising.

"We cannot foresee any reconciliation between the two camps," said Reza, a 25-year-old at the cemetery who did not want his last name used. "So we go for collapse of the entire system in the long term."

Hamid, a 24-year-old engineering school graduate from what he described as a wealthy family, said he'd given up his previously luxurious lifestyle to devote himself to undermining the government.

"A general strike won't work now," he said. "These demonstrations are better than strikes because with a smaller number of people we . . . make them fear for tomorrow."

Parisa, a 22-year-old college student, said she had already been in so much trouble with the authorities and her college that there was no turning back.

"Whether I come to the demonstrations or not, the authorities will be keeping an eye on me forever," she said.

Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, tried to attend the mourning ceremony but were prevented by security forces, who in some cases appeared divided over whether to beat the demonstrators or guide them toward Agha-Soltan's grave. An amateur video showed mourners surrounding police officers lounging on an official vehicle, chatting amicably.

One witness estimated that 10,000 people flooded into the cemetery. Another, 30-year-old Koroush, said from a bridge that he could see thousands more were outside the grounds, unable to get in.

One person who wasn't there was Agha-Soltan's mother, Hajer Rostam Motlagh.

Many of the parents of those who have died have been warned not to publicly mourn, but she had vowed that she would attend the gathering.

Motlagh instead went to a park near her home. A photograph showed her sitting cross-legged on grass before a single candle. In an interview with BBC Persian this week, she said she didn't want people to forget her daughter, a former student of Islamic philosophy who had cultivated a passion for music and travel. And she said she had a message for the world.

"I want you, on my behalf, to thank everyone around the world, Iranians and non-Iranians, people from every country and culture, people who in their own way, their own tradition, have mourned my child," she told the interviewer. "Everyone who lit a candle for her, every musician who wrote songs for her, who wrote poems about her, I want to thank all of them."

daragahi


Mostaghim is a special correspondent.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

U.S. military works to foil Afghan bombers
A special task force to counter IEDs -- improvised explosives -- is turning its focus on Afghanistan, where militants have been increasingly making bombs.
By Alexandra Zavis
August 8, 2009
Roadside bombs in Afghanistan are more likely to injure and kill U.S.-led forces than the ones planted in Iraq, even though the weapons manufactured by Afghan insurgents are more rudimentary, military figures show.

This is in part because they are so easy to make and difficult to detect, senior U.S. officers say. Afghan insurgents also use the devices to stage complicated ambushes involving teams of bombers and gunmen.

Related Content
• 5 U.S. troops killed as Afghan violence swells
• New NATO chief makes surprise trip to Afghanistan
• Afghanistan ride-a-long with Gen. Stanley McChrystal
A military task force dedicated to countering improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, calculates that a casualty results from more than one in four bombs that troops encounter in Afghanistan. In Iraq, where the ratio was once 1 to 1, about six bombs are detonated or cleared per casualty.

Homemade bombs have not traditionally been a favored weapon in Afghanistan, say members of the military's Joint IED Defeat Organization. Schooled in the Cold War-era guerrilla war against the country's former Soviet occupiers, Afghan militants typically ambushed their adversaries with grenade launchers and AK-47 assault rifles, or fired rockets and mortar rounds from a distance.

But faced with a growing U.S. and NATO force, the militants appear to be taking a leaf from the Iraqi insurgent handbook, using bombs at least as often as any other type of weapon, members say.

The bomb force recorded 3,594 devices used in Afghanistan in 2008, more than twice the number in 2007. Army Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, who commands the force, predicts a 50% to 60% increase this year as thousands of additional troops ordered into Afghanistan by President Obama push into areas that have long been under Taliban control.

"I believe we can do what we did in Iraq, and we can start beating the problem," Metz said. "But I don't think it's going to occur before March '10."

Metz spoke to The Times on the sidelines of a recent conference in Huntington Beach that was aimed at enlisting the help of private firms, research labs and academics in developing new technology and tactics to protect against the bombs.

At least 154 U.S. and allied service members have been killed in bombings this year in Afghanistan -- four of them in a single explosion Thursday -- compared with 34 in Iraq, according to the independent website icasualties.org. Roadside, suicide and other kinds of bombings are also the leading cause of civilian war deaths in Afghanistan, killing at least 725 people last year, according to a United Nations report.

The United States already has poured billionsof dollars into the effort in Iraq, where the number of bomb attacks against American-led forces peaked at more than 2,500 a month in the summer of 2007.

Last year, there were 9,036 incidents, according to the military's anti-bomb task force. Most of the attacks have been directed against Iraqi security forces and civilians since U.S. forces pulled out of cities at the end of June, military officials said.

"Iraq is an industrial society with an educated and predominantly urban population," Metz said in e-mailed comments after the conference. "Consequently, the IEDs encountered in Iraq are relatively sophisticated, with a wide variety of switches and technologies employed."

Among the most lethal are so-called explosively formed penetrators, which can pierce the armor of a tank. U.S. commanders accuse Iran, Iraq's neighbor, of supplying Iraqi militants with the devices, charges that Tehran denies. But Metz said he has not seen evidence of the devices being exported to Afghanistan, on Iran's eastern border, on a large scale.

Because most Iraqi roadways are paved, Metz said, insurgents would hide bombs in culverts and trash piles on the side of the road, then use cellphones, hand-held radios or even garage-door openers to set off the devices when crowds gathered or a convoy rumbled by. To prevent the bombs from detonating, U.S. researchers developed tools to jam the signals emitted by radio devices.

"We did really develop very good jammers," Metz said at the conference. "We were able to push the enemy significantly away from radio devices. The problem was that, instead of more sophisticated, he went less sophisticated."

Afghanistan is a vast, largely rural country with a population less educated than Iraq's. Instead of radio initiators, Afghan bombers usually use command wires or crude pressure plates, which can be fashioned from two saw blades, some duct tape and scrap wire, Metz said.

The bombs are made from materials that are easy to find in a war zone, such as artillery shells and fertilizer. Because most roads are unpaved, militants can bury the devices in the ground and leave the wind and dust to camouflage the danger.

U.S. forces are experimenting with ground-penetrating radar to detect bombs before vehicles pass over them. But, Metz said, "there is all sorts of other clutter 18 inches under the road, and trying to develop the accuracy of the radar in order to not give you the false positives is pretty tough."

The rugged terrain also plays to the advantage of the Afghan militants, he said. Although the population is larger than Iraq's, it is scattered across a bigger country, with isolated valleys, surrounded by jagged peaks, giving bombers ample time and space to plant their devices.

Although the weapons are generally simple, "you don't need to be technologically sophisticated to be effective," said Army Col. Jeffrey Jarkowsky, who directs the anti-bomb effort in Afghanistan, known as Task Force Paladin. "The enemy is very clever about how he uses them."

A bomb that explodes under a vehicle is more likely to cause casualties than one that goes off on the side of the road, he said, especially when it is packed with large quantities of homemade explosives.

Afghan militants also use suicide bombers and other explosive devices to stage complex attacks, often as part of a more conventional ambush.

In late July, waves of gunmen and suicide bombers, some of them disguised as women, attacked a U.S. military base in Jalalabad and several Afghan compounds in Gardez. At least six Afghan security officers and eight of the insurgents were killed during hours of fighting.

Metz's organization, which was formed in 2006 with a three-year budget of $11 billion, is sending hundreds of analysts, trainers and ordinance disposal experts to Afghanistan this year. They are replicating many of the strategies developed in Iraq, such as equipping troops with jammers, ground-penetrating radar and wheeled robots to investigate suspected bombs from a safe distance.

The military also uses route clearance teams, surveillance aircraft, satellites and blimps to provide what it calls a "steady eye" over major transport routes.

But some modifications will be required in Afghanistan, officers say. The Pentagon is buying more than 2,200 lighter, more agile versions of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected truck, or MRAP, that are better suited to the rough Afghan terrain than the model developed for Iraq.

Metz said U.S. forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq detect 50% of the bombs they encounter before they explode and are using forensic methods to figure out how they were made and by whom.

Although U.S. commanders say these kinds of measures have helped reduce the threat in Iraq, they also credit a rapid buildup of U.S. and Iraqi forces, the rebellion of Sunni Muslim tribesmen against extremists in their midst and the decision of an influential Shiite cleric to stand down his militia.

Commanders say the U.S. buildup in Afghanistan, which is expected to boost the number of troops in the country to 68,000 by year's end, will give them the forces to drive the Taliban from its havens and begin reconstruction, to undercut the militants' support.

"The one sure way to defeat IEDs 100% is to defeat the insurgency," Jarkowsky said.

alexandra.zavis

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Complementary Advertisement

Shriners Hospitals for Children is a one-of-a-kind international health care system dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing specialty pediatric care, innovative research and outstanding teaching programs.Children up to the age of 18 with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries and cleft lip and palate are eligible for admission and receive all care in a family-centered environment at no financial obligation to patients or families.
Take a tour of some of our Shriners Hospitals for Children. Each tour is led by three Shriners Hospitals for Children patients.
If you know of a child Shriners Hospitals might be able to help, please call our toll-free patient referral line:
In the U.S.: 800.237.5055
In Canada: 800.361.7256

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Venezuela arrests activist accused of leading attack on Globovisión

The leader of the Venezuelan Popular Unity (VPN) party, Lina Ron, accused of leading an attack on the opposition TV station Globovisión, was arrested, the Latin American Herald Tribune reports.
The attack on the station was reportedly carried out by 35 people, including Ron, wearing the VPN's colors. Before the Attorney General’s office announced the order for her arrest, the head of Globovisíon blamed President Hugo Chávez for the incident, as Ron and her party are considered allies of the leader.
According to El Universo, Chávez condemned the attack, saying that it gives “oxygen to the counter-revolution.”

Other Related Headlines:
» Tear gas attack on opposition TV network draws protests (Knight Center)
•
Posted by Miriam Forero/JV at 08/05/2009 - 20:10

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Venezuela arrests activist accused of leading attack on Globovisión

The leader of the Venezuelan Popular Unity (VPN) party, Lina Ron, accused of leading an attack on the opposition TV station Globovisión, was arrested, the Latin American Herald Tribune reports.

The attack on the station was reportedly carried out by 35 people, including Ron, wearing the VPN's colors. Before the Attorney General’s office announced the order for her arrest, the head of Globovisíon blamed President Hugo Chávez for the incident, as Ron and her party are considered allies of the leader.

According to El Universo, Chávez condemned the attack, saying that it gives “oxygen to the counter-revolution.”

Other Related Headlines:
» Tear gas attack on opposition TV network draws protests (Knight Center)

* Posted by Miriam Forero/JV at 08/05/2009 - 20:10


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Campaign Co-Founder Kofi Annan: "We Must End the Deathly Silence Around This Issue"/Man survives fall from station platform as train passes over him..

Man survives fall from station platform as train passes over him

Friday 07th August, 08:27 AM JST

OSAKA —

A man in his 70s fell off the platform at Daikokucho Station on the Midosuji Line in Osaka’s Naniwa Ward and lay between the rails as a train bound for Nakatsu passed over him on Thursday morning. Police said the man escaped with only minor injuries.

According to the Osaka Transportation Bureau, a total of 33 trains in both directions experienced delays up to 20 minutes after the incident happened at 9:05 a.m. A total of 32,000 people were affected.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

JAL's net loss in April-June expands to Y99.04 bil

Friday 07th August, 12:16 PM JST

TOKYO —

Japan Airlines Corp said Friday its group net loss for the April to June quarter expanded to 99.04 billion yen from a year-earlier loss of 3.41 billion yen as travel demand ravaged by the global economic downturn and the new influenza scare kept the cash-strapped airline deep in the red.

Japan’s largest airline also said it booked an operating loss of 86.11 billion yen, swinging into the red from a profit of 3.91 billion yen a year earlier, on revenue of 334.90 billion yen, down 31.7%. Both the first quarter net and operating losses were also bigger than the January to March period even though JAL is carrying out various restructuring measures including job cuts and scrapping of unprofitable flights.

Earlier in the day, JAL said it will suspend its flights between Nagoya and Paris and between Nagoya and Seoul and reduce domestic flights on six routes as part of its restructuring efforts to return to profitability.

In June, the struggling airline inked a deal with two state-backed lenders and three major Japanese commercial banks to borrow a total of 100 billion yen.

The company kept intact its earnings outlook for the whole of fiscal 2009 through next March at a net loss of 63 billion yen and an operating loss of 59 billion yen.

© 2009 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Could Dick Cheney Go to Prison?


RC: PEOC room meetings on day of terrorist attacks. RESTRICTED: DO NOT PRINT WITHOUT APPROVAL OF DAVID BOHRER. Immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Vice President Dick Cheney and senior staff gathered in the President's Emergency Operations Center. White House staff collected and discussed information as the day unfolded and they kept in contact with the President. Photographed are Counselor Karen Hughes (seated left), National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleezza Rice (seated right), Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Bolten (far left), Director of Media Affairs Tucker Eskew, Assistant to the President Nick Calio, Counselor to the Vice President Mary Matalin, Chief of Staff for the Vice President Lewis Libby, and Director of the National Economic Council Larry Lindsey (right). WEB Released to NIGHTLINE 111203, David Wargin, American Legislative Exchange Council and National Journal. Released to Bush/Cheney '04 for Mary Matalin interview with MSNBC 8.20.04. Released to National Geographic for a children's book "Our Country's Presidents" 10.2.04. WEST WING JUMBO WEB. StaffPhoto imported to Merlin on Wed Jun 6 18:15:04 2007
By Ray McGovern, Consortium News. Posted July 18, 2009.

Cheney seems to fear that if our system of justice works, he could be in for some serious, uncommuted jail time.

So far, the summer has been mild in the Washington area. But for former Vice President Dick Cheney, the temperature is well over 100 degrees. He is sweating profusely, and it is becoming increasingly clear why.

Cheney has broken openly with former President George W. Bush on one issue of transcendent importance -- to Cheney. For whatever reason, Bush decided not to hand out blanket pardons before they both rode off into the sunset.

Cheney has complained bitterly that his former chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby should have been pardoned, rather than simply having his jail sentence commuted.

Cheney told the media that Bush left Libby "sort of hanging in the wind" by refusing to issue a pardon before leaving office. Libby had been convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to federal agents investigating the leak of a former CIA operations officer's identity.

"I believe firmly that Scooter was unjustly accused and prosecuted and deserved a pardon, and the president disagreed with that," Cheney said. He would disclose no details of his efforts to lobby Bush on Libby's behalf, saying they would be "best left to history."

It is getting close to history time. You do not need to be a crackerjack analyst to understand that Cheney is feeling betrayed -- that he is thinking not of Libby, but of himself, and fearing that, if our system of justice works, he could be in for some serious, uncommuted jail time.

His situation has grown pathetic. Aside from the man himself, it has fallen almost solely to faithful daughter, Liz, to defend her dad and to start a political backfire to keep him out of prison. She is to be admired for her faithfulness. In the process, though, she has unwittingly given much away.

Liz Cheney on the Offensive

On Washington Times' "America's Morning News" radio program Monday, Liz Cheney acted again as designated hitter, responding to the recent New York Times report that her father had given "direct orders" to the CIA to withhold "information about a secret counterterrorism program for eight years."

Not for the first time, Liz Cheney disclosed what has her father so worried and agitated. She said he is "very angry" over recent press reports that Attorney General Eric Holder may be about to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate "the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices."

She branded this "shameful" -- worse still, "un-American." Not the interrogation practices, mind you, but the notion that her father should be held to account for them.

Typically, she did well in sticking closely to her talking points, arguing that the issue is "somebody taking office and then starting to prosecute people who carried out policies that they disagreed with, you know, in the previous administration."

As if unprecedented decisions to torture, in violation of international law and the War Crimes Act of 1996, can be accurately described as "policies" over which there can be honest disagreement. This is about crimes, not "policies."

Pulling out all the stops, Liz Cheney worried aloud about what this does to "morale at the CIA," where the practitioners of what Bush called "an alternative set of procedures" for interrogation believed they were acting with the blessing of the Justice Department. (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity addressed that bromide frontally on April 29, 2009, in a memorandum to our new president.)

Liz Cheney went on to argue that this could, in the future, inhibit CIA functionaries from various actions out of fear of criminal liability. (To me, that sounds like a distinct plus.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Campaign Co-Founder Kofi Annan: "We Must End the Deathly Silence Around This Issue"

(August 5, 2009) - The global media development organization Internews today announced a partnership with the tcktcktck campaign (http://tcktcktck.org) a movement backed by some of the world's most recognized political leaders and non government organisations, to ensure that those already affected by climate change are heard by governments negotiating at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December.

"Today, millions of people are already suffering because of climate change," said Kofi Annan, President of the Global Humanitarian Forum, a tcktcktck founding partner. "Although developing countries did not cause the climate crisis, poor nations are suffering the most as unpredictable weather patterns and the increase in natural disasters affects access to food, water and shelter. We must end the deathly silence around this crisis because it is a major impediment for international action. Those helping raise awareness of the crisis through journalism should be praised for doing so, especially as December's international climate talks in Copenhagen approach."

The tcktcktck campaign is partnering with Internews for the Human Voices Award, one of seven major thematic awards of the Internews Earth Journalism Awards that will culminate in a high-profile ceremony in Copenhagen on the eve of the final negotiations. The Earth Journalism Awards have attracted approximately 600 registrations from over 125 countries since opening on World Environment Day, June 5.

After years of debate on the issue, leaders from across the globe are expected to converge in Copenhagen to attempt to map out a plan for addressing the challenges brought by a planet whose temperature is changing at an accelerating rate due to human activity.

"Climate change is not just an environmental problem, but an immediate threat to the survival and rights of people around the world. World leaders need to acknowledge this and commit to finding a solution at the Copenhagen meeting in December," said Mary Robinson, President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, a partner of tcktcktck. "The Human Voices Award is vital because it rewards those who have helped bring the voices of those already affected by climate change to the forefront of the debate around this crisis."

The Human Voices Award will be given to the best story highlighting the human and social dimensions of climate change. Winning work will embody excellence in journalism that features the perspectives of those communities most exposed to the current or future impacts of climate change.

"Through journalists participating in the Human Voices Award we can help to build strong public pressure for a successful outcome," said Kumi Naidoo, tcktcktck chairperson. "We must unite for climate justice and ensure that leaders sign up to a fair, ambitious and binding agreement in Copenhagen."

"The tcktcktck campaign is supporting the 'Human Voices' category of the Earth Journalism Awards because it is vital that world leaders know that inaction is affecting the lives of people and communities around the globe right now," Mr Naidoo said. "This award focuses our attention on the lives of people and communities affected by climate change, and we invite journalists around the world to ensure that their voices are heard by the negotiators in Copenhagen."

Internews is working with the tcktcktck campaign to ensure that broadest possible range of journalists enter the awards by September 7. Entrants may come from professional, citizen and community media from across the globe. We hope that journalists from each of the 192 member countries that will be represented at the negotiations in Copenhagen will submit applications to the Earth Journalism Awards so that their stories can be told at this historic event.

The tcktcktck campaign is an unprecedented alliance of faith groups, NGOs, trade unions and individuals together at this crucial time to call for a new international treaty that will save the planet from the dangerous effects of climate change.

For more information and to apply for the award please go to: The Human Voices Award page (http://awards.earthjournalism.org/content/human-voices-award).

For more information, about Internews, click here (http://internews.eu).

Partners and sponsors of the Earth Journalism Awards also include the COP15 host country, the Government of Denmark; MTV International; The World Bank; the Italian Ministry of Environment and the Protection of Territory and Sea; the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation; the Edgerton Family Foundation; Flip Video Spotlight; the Global Forum for Media Development; and the tcktcktck campaign.


MEDIA CONTACTS:
Europe and International:
Mark Harvey - +44 7703 180 524
Ria Voorhaar - +49 160 97386534

USA and Canada:
John Boit - +1 202 822 2093

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“If sexual violence is not fully addressed in ceasefires and peace processes, there will be no peace for women,” said former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland at a high-level UN colloquium on peace negotiations in New York on 22-24 June. The colloquium brought together eminent mediators, experts and women’ s rights advocates to discuss one of the most neglected aspects of conflict resolution: how to address conflict-related sexual violence in peace processes and peace accords.

At the meeting, held to coincide with the first anniversary of UN Security Council resolution 1820 on sexual violence as a tactic of warfare, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underscored the need for the issue to be addressed early and comprehensively: “Our first priority must be to include women in peace talks as full and equal partners. If we do not — if we ignore sexual crimes — we trample on the principles of accountability, reconciliation and peace. We fail not just women but all people.”

In recent decades, sexual violence in conflict has increased in scale, organization and brutality around the world. It has been used as a tactic of warfare by armed groups and, in some cases, organized by commanders as a means of terrorizing communities, forcing population flight and supporting genocidal policies. This has been seen in conflicts ranging from the Balkans to the Democratic Republic of the Congo; from Liberia to Colombia; Timor-Leste to Haiti. According to former UN Force Commander Major General Patrick Cammaert, “It has probably become more dangerous to be a woman than a soldier in armed conflict.”

Failure to address sexual violence in peace talks is increasingly linked to the subsequent elevated levels of peacetime rape committed by demobilized fighters and ordinary civilians. “Sexual violence thrives on impunity," UNIFEM Executive Director Inés Alberdi said. "If peace processes do not clearly signal that sexual violence is a prohibited feature of fighting, if prosecutions do not immediately prioritize trials of perpetrators, and if perpetrators move into government and army leadership positions, a climate of impunity is created.”

Peace processes are an entry point to break this cycle of violence and impunity. Peace talks can set in place plans for the future: for judicial responses to sexual violence, for reparations, for a new order of respect for women. At the high-level colloquium, participants generated a few key principles for mediators and negotiating parties to ensure that peace agreements are consistent with UN Security Council resolutions 1820 and 1325. These included:

* Pre-ceasefire negotiations, including humanitarian access agreements, to address sexual violence;
* Ceasefires to prohibit and monitor for sexual violence;
* Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), and Security Sector Reform (SSR) to prevent sexual violence and ensure women’s security;
* Justice processes to ensure that issues of sexual violence are addressed with equal priority to other international crimes; and
* Peace agreements to specify sexual violence victims as reparations beneficiaries, and to address their socio-economic needs in recovery and development frameworks.

The key principles are to be developed into an operational guidance note, along the lines of those that exist for other aspects of peace processes. Also planned is the publication of research papers commissioned by UNIFEM, including analyses of statistics relating to peace agreements.

On 24 June, the Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations organized an Arria Formula meeting, an informal arrangement that allows the UN Security Council to be briefed about international peace and security issues by outside experts. At the meeting, the colloquium’s recommendations were shared with Security Council Members. Participants stressed the need for the UN Security Council’s sustained engagement on the issue of sexual violence in conflict, and the need for greater accountability for women’s equal participation in all peace processes, as set out in SCRs 1325 and 1820. Read more.

For more information, please contact Anne Kristin Treiber, annekristin.treiber[at]unifem.org.

» return to top
Financial and Economic Crisis Impacts Women and Men Differently

On the occasion of the UN summit of world leaders in June to assess the global financial and economic crisis and its impact on development, UNIFEM and the United Nations Development Programme issued a joint statement, stressing that the crisis has differentiated impacts on women and men, due to pre-existing gender inequalities, levels of poverty and discrimination in society. The statement points out that the crisis is threatening women’s livelihoods and is imposing an additional burden of unpaid care work on women and girls — as governments cut spending on public services — preventing girls from going to school and women from engaging in full-time paid employment. During the summit, UNIFEM co-sponsored three events. Read more.

» return to top
Say NO to Violence against Women

Theo Ben Gurirab, President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and Speaker of the National Assembly of Namibia, signs on to Say NO.Speakers of 16 Parliaments and Chair of Bosnian Council of Ministers Say NO
Speakers and deputy speakers of 15 national parliaments and the Arab Transitional Parliament signed on to UNIFEM’s Say NO to Violence against Wom en campaign at a meeting of women speakers of parliament in Vienna in July. The meeting was organized by the National Council of Austria and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), whose president also added his name to Say NO. Read the complete story.
In June His Excellency Mr. Nikola Špiriæ, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, signed on to the campaign at UNIFEM headquarters in New York. By adding his name, H.E. Mr. Špiriæ joined more than 200 ministers and heads of state from 68 governments, as well as more than five million individuals who have supported UNIFEM’s global call to end violence against women. Read the complete story.

Thailand: Youth Say NO to Violence against Women
In May UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol of Thailand launched the Youth Say NO to Violence against Women programme, organized by UNIFEM in collaboration with the Office of the Basic Education Commission, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Justice. Preceding the launch, more than 200 students and teachers from eight public schools across Thailand gathered in Udon Thani for a three-day gender sensitivity training, where they developed their own action plan on making gender equality and ending violence against women a theme in existing school-based activities. Student-led actions in the eight pilot schools will subsequently be replicated in other schools throughout the country and ultimately become part of the official curriculum. Read the complete story.

» return to top
UNIFEM around the World

Call for Proposals: Fund for Gender Equality
UNIFEM is pleased to announce the first call for proposals for the Fund for Gender Equality. The Fund will accept applications from governmental and non-governmental organizations in developing countries to accelerate progress towards the goal of gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Fund will prioritize 30 innovative, impact-oriented programmes from around the world. The online application will be available on UNIFEM's website from 15 to 30 September. Read the application guidelines.

UN Trust Fund Alert: Drastic Shortfall in Resources Threatens Women’s Safety
The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women is a leading global source of support for country- and local-level action to end violence against women and girls. It relies on voluntary contributions from governments, the private sector and concerned individuals. Due to the global economic and financial crisis, the UN Trust Fund is facing a dramatic shortfall in donor contributions. This year, the Fund has received more than 1,600 proposals from all over the world. But there is only US$9 million available, not even half of the US$22 million granted last year. Read the complete story.

UNIFEM Executive Director signs onto UNEP’s Seal the Deal campaign.UNIFEM Joins “Seal the Deal” Campaign
UNIFEM Executive Director Inés Alberdi signed on to the United Nations Seal the Deal campaign on 30 July 2009, joining a number of UN agencies and organizations that are encouraging governments to reach an ambitious and effective global climate agreement by the end of this year. The S eal the Deal campaign — launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in April 2009 and supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) — encourages world leaders to work together to seal the deal on an equitable and effective climate agreement that will bolster the resiliency of vulnerable countries and protect the lives and livelihoods of all. Time is pressing as talks lead up to the Conference of the Parties (COP-15) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, December 2009. Read the complete story.

Global Programme on Safe Cities for Women and Girls
UNIFEM and UN-HABITAT in June signed a Memorandum of Understanding to join forces in an effort to make cities and towns free from violence against women and girls. The global “Safe Cities” programme builds on an ongoing collaboration between the two organizations in Latin America, and focuses on reducing sexual harassment and violence in urban public spaces, through community empowerment and partnerships with local authorities on practical measures. Read the complete story.

EC and UNIFEM Partner to Support Gender Equality in the Context of HIV and AIDS
The European Commission (EC) and UNIFEM are embarking on a programme that will focus on promoting the leadership of HIV-positive women’s groups and gender equality advocates, to ensure that gender equality priorities are identified, realized and budgeted in national HIV and AIDS responses. The programme will be implemented for three years in Rwanda, Kenya, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea and Cambodia, with a total budget of €2,450,353. Read the complete story.

100/100 Campaign at Mid-Year
In the second year of its 100/100 campaign for resource mobilization, UNIFEM has received contributions from 44 UN Member States, totaling US$25 million in the first six months of 2009. Sixty-seven Governments have pledged their support, with many more on the horizon. This places UNIFEM in a good position to build upon the unprecedented growth in 2008 — with a total of 80 donors for US$51 million — despite the difficulties presented by the current financial crisis. The 100/100 campaign aims to garner the support of 100 UN Member States contributing US$100 million to core resources by the year 2011. Read the complete story.

UNIFEM Johannesburg staff at a training workshop on evaluation.Series of Training Workshops on Evaluation
UNIFEM’s Evaluation Unit has initiated a series of training workshops with the aim of building the skills of UNIFEM staff and partners in all regions to plan, manage and make use of high-quality evaluations from a gender equality and human rights perspective. More than 70 UNIFEM staff and partners successfully completed the first two rounds of training, in Bang kok in June and Johannesburg in July. Read the complete story.



AFRICA

Central Africa: UNIFEM Executive Director on Official Visit
UNIFEM Executive Director Inés Alberdi paid her first official visit to the Central Africa region in May. During the ten-day visit, Ms. Alberdi met with high-level officials, gender advocates and activists, including H.E. the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, H.E. the President of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza, and H.E. the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Adolphe Muzito. The aim of the visit was to monitor the progress in fostering gender equality and women’s rights in the region, discuss existing challenges and strengthen partnerships with key stakeholders. In all three countries, Ms. Alberdi launched the UNIFEM flagship report, Progress of the World’s Women 2008/2009. Read the complete story.

Rwanda: Centre for Survivors of Violence to Open
In an effort to strengthen support to survivors of child, domestic and gender-based violence, the Rwanda National Police Health Services signed an agreement in July to open a “one-stop centre” of services in Kigali, with joint support from UNIFEM, UNFPA and UNICEF. The centre — which will be located in Kigali’s Kacyriu Police Hospital and named Isange (feel welcome and free in Kinyarwanda) — will offer free and coordinated medical, legal and psycho-social services to violence survivors through trained personnel, in comfortable and confidential surroundings. Read the complete story.

Zimbabwe: Gender Support Programme Launched
The Gender Support Programme (GSP), a fund that aims to enhance gender equality in Zimbabwe, was launched in June with more than US$3 million in funding from the European Commission (EC) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). Managed by UNIFEM, the fund will support non-governmental, community and faith-based organizations working towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. Read the complete story.



AMERICAS & THE CARIBBEAN

UNIFEM at Rock al Parque Music Festival.Colombia: Campaigning against Violence at Music Festival
UNIFEM and the MDG Comprehensive Programme against Gender Violence in Colombia joined forces to promote the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign at the Rock al Parque music festival in Bogotá in June, attended by 350,000 people. Taking part in the annual festival for the second time, UNIFEM aimed to involve youth in the recognition o f women’s right to live a life free of violence. Read the complete story.

Ecuador: Rural Women Trained in Information Technology
UNIFEM has embarked on a project with the Association of Women from Rural “Juntas Parroquiales” in Ecuador (AMJUPRE) to encourage rural women to make use of information and communication technologies (ICT). The women receive training in working with web pages, blogs and interactive forums, and learn how to organize video conferences. More than 30 women community leaders attended the first two workshops, and will pass their knowledge on to other women in their “juntas parroquiales.” Read the complete story.

Mexico: Promoting the Rights of Indigenous Women
UNIFEM and the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI) in Mexico signed an agreement in June, aiming to strengthen the protection of indigenous women’s rights under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and other human rights mechanisms. UNIFEM and CDI will join forces in their efforts to promote indigenous women’s rights to a life free of violence, access to education and political participation. Read the complete story.



ASIA & THE PACIFIC

Pakistan: Consultation on Gender-Sensitive Responses to Humanitarian Crisis
The Ministry of Women’s Development in Pakistan, with support from UNIFEM, convened a national consultation workshop in July on gender-sensitive responses to the ongoing humanitarian crisis and women’s participation in peacebuilding. As a result of conflict, there are estimated to be more than two million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pakistan. The workshop sought to take stock of the situation, identify gender concerns in the early recovery process and reflect on ways to strengthen women’s participation in post-conflict rehabilitation, in line with Pakistan’s commitment to implement UN Security Council resolution 1325. A task force was appointed to follow up on recommendations. Read the complete story.

Timor-Leste: Delegation to Present Country's First Report to CEDAW Committee
Ahead of the presentation of Timor-Leste’s first periodic report on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), a preparatory mock session was organized by the CEDAW Southeast Asia Programme of UNIFEM in Dili in June. Timor-Leste ratified CEDAW in 2003, committing to protect, promote and fulfil women’s human rights. The mock session was intended to prepare the six-member State Delegation of Timor-Leste for its presentation to the CEDAW Committee at its 44th Session in New York. Read the complete story.



CEE/CIS

The FYR of Macedonia: Parliamentary Hearing on Gender-Responsive Budgeting
A public hearing on gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) took place at the National Assembly of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in Skopje in May, organized by the Parliamentary Committee for Equal Opportunities, within the framework of UNIFEM’s sub-regional programme on GRB. The purpose of the hearing was to introduce the concept of GRB, to discuss the role of the Parliament in the mainstreaming of gender perspectives in budgetary processes and to exchange experiences with experts from the Netherlands and Austria. It was agreed that capacities need to be strengthened at all levels. Read the complete story.

N.B. Our news-media organization’s Editor-Publisher is seriously under-threatened of murdered as named: anynoumous (Ref:CPJ) / DPJ candidate injured

N.B. Our news-media organization’s Editor-Publisher is seriously under-threatened of murdered as named: anynoumous (Ref:CPJ) by cell phone and surely its made by the local drug traffickers and corrupted organized criminals much times noticed by our authority to our Bangladesh authority of Home Affairs.

**We’ve enough evidences that the ‘Emergency Period’ was necessary (whatever that Caretaker Government Advisors did!!!) for that presence and its reasonable to quote in expressions of Secretary General HE Ban Ki Moon of UN disfactory expression towardsEU representative Mr. Stephen (Germany)and other friendly diplomats involvements in Bangladesh internal affairs via local news services. We think our diplomatic friends did what is appropriately required.


*** Our members of Bangladesh Army shouldn’t be slept before the dis satisfactory judgments are expressed by the BDR militant expressed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

DPJ candidate injured in car accident:Japan
Politics › 05:42 AM JST - 2nd August
NAGANO — A Democratic Party of Japan candidate seeking a third term in the upcoming general election suffered a serious but non-life-threatening injury in a car accident NAGANO —
A Democratic Party of Japan candidate seeking a third term in the upcoming general election suffered a serious but non-life-threatening injury in a car accident in central Japan on Saturday, police said. Mitsu Shimojo, 53, broke a chest bone when a passenger car, in which he was seated in the back, collided with an oncoming car on a road in Azumino, Nagano Prefecture. Shimojo was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital where doctors said his injury would take about a month to heal.

Shimojo’s secretary, who was driving the car, was not hurt while the driver of the other passenger car was slightly injured, Nagano prefectural police said. Shimojo won a House of Representatives seat for the first time in the November 2003 election and was re-elected in September 2005. He is preparing to run for a third lower house term in the Nagano No. 2 constituency on the DPJ ticket in the Aug 30 election.
© 2009 Kyodo News. All rights reserved. No reproduction or republication without written permission.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Rise of Gonzo Porn Is the Latest Sign of America's Cultural Apocalypse
By Chris Hedges, Nation Books. Posted July 31, 2009.


A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion dies. A visit to a Las Vegas porn convention reveals we are dying now.
Tools
EMAIL
PRINT
245 COMMENTS

Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle by Chris Hedges (Nation Books, 2009).
Share and save this post:



AlterNet Social Networks:


Also in Media and Technology
Is there Really "More to Love" About the New Reality Dating Show Featuring Larger Women?
Liz Langley
How Lou Dobbs Scared Rush Limbaugh Off the Birther Story
Eric Boehlert
'I'm Pretty. You're Ugly. Buy This' -- Why Fashion Magazines Are on the Decline
Vanessa Richmond
Limbaugh's Lies Sabotage the Health Reform Debate
Sue Wilson
My Memories of Frank McCourt, the Stuyvesant High School English Teacher
Elizabeth Kadetsky
More stories by Chris Hedges
Media and Technology RSS Feed
Main AlterNet RSS Feed
Advertisement
Upcoming AlterNet stories on Digg
Digg
What is Digg?
42 diggs
Another Racist, Crazy Conservative Attack on Obama...
...Health Reform as Reparations. And you thought the birther nonsense was unbelievable.
30 diggs
Poll: Majority of Republicans Are 'Birthers' | PEEK | AlterN
Surprising, but not so much.
27 diggs
Rachel Maddow Mystified By Lou Dobbs Odd Teabag Attack video
Dobbs called Maddow a "Teabagging Queen." What doea that mean? And has Dobbs copletely lost it!
26 diggs
Another Right-Wing Conspiracy About Obama and Health Care...
Yesterday, the president confronted the latest wing-nut theme.
25 diggs
Birther Whack Jobs: Citizens of Idiot America
Just because there are people who believe some mighty peculiar things doesn't mean I'm obliged to pay them any attention. After all, there are folks who are convinced that the moon landing was a hoax, that Israel was behind the World Trade Center attacks. Which brings me to the Birthers -- who insist that Barack Obama was not born in the US.
Powered by Digg's Users
I reported in my new book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle from the ringside of professional wrestling bouts at Madison Square Garden, from Las Vegas where I wrote about the pornographic film industry, from academic conferences held by positive psychologists -- who claim to be able to engineer happiness – and from the campuses of universities to chronicle our terrifying flight as a culture into a state of illusion. I looked at the array of mechanisms used to divert us from confronting the economic, political and moral collapse around us. I examined the fantasy that if we draw on our inner resources and strengths, if we realize that we are truly exceptional, we can have everything we desire.
The childish idea that we can always prevail, that reality is never an impediment to what we want, is the central motif of illusion peddled on popular talk shows, by the Christian Right, by Hollywood, in corporate retreats, by the news industry and by self-help gurus. Reality can always be overcome. The future will always be glorious. And held out to keep us amused and entertained are spectacles and celebrities who have become idealized versions of ourselves and who, we are assured, we can all one day become.
The cultural embrace of illusion, and the celebrity culture that has risen up around it, have accompanied the awful hollowing out of the state. We have shifted from a culture of production to a culture of consumption. We have been sold a system of casino capitalism, with its complicated and unregulated deals of turning debt into magical assets, to create fictional wealth for us and vast wealth for our elite. We have internalized the awful ethic of corporatism -- one built around the cult of the self and consumption as an inner compulsion -- to believe that living is about our own advancement and our own happiness at the expense of others. Corporations, behind the smoke screen, have ruthlessly dismantled and destroyed our manufacturing base and impoverished our working class. The free market became our god and government was taken hostage by corporations, the same corporations that entice us daily with illusions though the mass media, the entertainment industry and popular culture.
The more we sever ourselves from a literate, print-based world, a world of complexity and nuance, a world of ideas, for one informed by comforting, reassuring images, fantasies, slogans and a celebration of violence the more we implode. We ask, like the wrestling fans or those who confuse love with pornography, to be fed lies. We demand lies. The skillfully manufactured images and slogans that flood the airwaves and infect our political discourse mask reality. And we do not protest. The lonely Cassandras who speak the truth about our misguided imperial wars, the global economic meltdown and the imminent danger of multiple pollutions that are destroying the eco-system that sustains the human species, are drowned out by arenas full of fans chanting "Slut! Slut! Slut!" or television audiences chanting "Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry!" The worse reality becomes, the less a beleaguered population wants to hear about it and the more it distracts itself with squalid pseudo-events of celebrity breakdowns, gossip and trivia.
A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion dies. And we are dying now. We will wake from our state of induced childishness, one where trivia and gossip pass for news and information, one where our goal is not justice by an elusive and unattainable happiness, to confront the stark limitations before us or we will continue our headlong retreat into fantasy. Those who do not grow up in times of despair and turmoil inevitably turn to demagogues and charlatans to entertain and reassure them. And these demagogues, as they have throughout history, lead the crowd, blinded and amused, towards despotism.
The following is an excerpt from Chapter II of Empire of Illusion, where Hedges attends an enormous porn convention in Las Vegas:
The largest users of internet porn, which is slowly draining away profits from magazines and DVD sales because so much of it is free, are between the ages of 12 and 17. And porn producers know their market is increasingly underage. "The age demographic has moved downwards, especially in the UK and Europe," explained Steve Honest, the European director of production for Bluebird Films. "Porn is the new rock and roll. Young people and women are embracing porn and making purchases. Porn targets the mid-teens to the mid-twenties and up."
There are some 13,000 porn films made in the United States a year. According to the Internet Filter Review, worldwide porn revenues, including in-room movies at hotels, sex clubs and the ever-expanding E-sex world, topped $97 billion in 2006. That's more than the revenues of the leading technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink. Annual sales in the United States are estimated at $ 10 billion or higher. There is no agency that does precise monitoring of the porn industry. And porn is very lucrative to some of the nation's largest corporations. General Motors, for example, owns DirectTV, which distributes over forty million streams of porn into American homes every month. AT&T Broadband and Comcast Cable are the currently biggest American companies accommodating porn users with The Hot Network, Adult Pay-Per-View and similarly themed services. AT&T and GM rake in approximately 80 percent of all porn dollars spent by consumers.

1
2
Next page »
View as a single page

See more stories tagged with: pornography, chris hedges, empire of illusion
Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, is a Senior Fellow at the Nation Institute. His latest book is Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians.
Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from Media and Technology! Sign up now »

Media and Technology » Story Tools: EMAIL PRINT 245 COMMENTS
Advertisement



Advertisement


Top of Form
Comments Turn comments off sitewide
Give us feedback »

Tools: [Post a new comment] [Login] [Signup]
View:

I see a different point here...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Steelydan3 on Jul 31, 2009 1:17 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As usual, I find myself again on the back and forth with Chris Hedges. I believe I first met Chris Hedges when he was debating Christopher Hitchens over the Iraq War. This is the Chris Hedges that I can agree with. I then found Chris Hedges debating Hitchens again over the tactics and principles of the New Atheism. As an old atheist myself I have to concede that I found his arguments less convincing. Religious indoctrination does inculcate a kind of anti-intellectual deeply incurious world view amongst its flock at best, and at worst its the perfect breeding ground for violent irrational acts, ranging from flying planes into buildings to killing abortion doctors. That was the Chris Hedges I couldn't agree with. Now I see that Chris Hedges is taking on porn--I seem to vaguely recall him making an argument for the regulation of porn sometime back--and as an old atheist who runs a porn page I must declare that this must be the bad baaad Chris Hedges.

It's not just that I think that censoring porn is impossible but I think that you're misreading why porn is popular. Porn is popular in the United States and other oppressed places no doubt because its hard to get laid in the United States. If you want to rid yourself of what you think is the depraved fantasy of porn, then you would do well to legalize prostitution. I guess that would be difficult for the descendants of the puritans but there's your answer. We can always look to Europe and guess what? More prostitution seems to translate into less rape and violence. Who knew.

Philip Shropshire
www.threeriversonline.com
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» the excesses of the porn industry may make it even more difficult to get laid Posted by: Suzon
» RE: the excesses of the porn industry may make it even more difficult to get laid Posted by: HoboHomo
» in all other respects it was a very good gym--family owned (until the supposed "credit crunch" and Posted by: Suzon
» Hard to get laid in America? Posted by: progressive-life
» RE: I see a different point here... Posted by: richholland
» RE: I see a different point here... Posted by: ReneT
» RE: I see a different point here... Did you somehow miss the entire female degradation part of this? Posted by: smadaj
» RE: I see a different point here... Did you somehow miss the entire female degradation part of this? Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: I see a different point here... Did you somehow miss the entire female degradation part of this? Posted by: clvngodess
» RE: I see a different point here... Did you somehow miss the entire female degradation part of this? Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: I see a different point here... Did you somehow miss the entire female degradation part of this? Posted by: goldmarx
» Re: Congress or Whores in Pornography what's the difference..? Posted by: TJColatrella
Make Love With LOVE Is The Best
[Report this comment]
Posted by: dorica80 on Jul 31, 2009 1:29 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Have we people forgot how Divine is it to MAKE LOVE WITH LOVE? To make love with the one you love, has no comparison! Oh, I'd like to see a Kirlian photo of 2 human beings in love, while making love... ;) There must come out something like a rainbow or similar.
Please AlterNet, maybe you can get one. Publish it for us.
It's incredible how people like, consent to fool themselves, creating a virtual reality inside another virtual reality and so on...
From my heart to yours...
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Make Love With LOVE Is The Best Posted by: d_arnold
» RE: Make Love With LOVE Is The Best Posted by: felipe
» RE: Make Love With LOVE Is The Best Posted by: HoboHomo
Yeah, yeah, yeah...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Uriahz on Jul 31, 2009 1:28 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
All this porn out there, holy shit. Corrupting our youth. Blah de freakin blah. I saw porn when I was a kid, and I turned into a lecherous man-whore. And SO FUCKING WHAT? What in the hell is the big freakin deal? It's just fucking. Much like shitting, people fuck a lot. In fact, short of finding food and sleeping, it's the main thing we do. HUMANS FUCK! Sometimes in weird, possibly disturbing ways. Stop making something out of nothing, please. It's just sex. Sheesh.

My problem is that the world's richest people are making all the profits off the backs of their workers, who they treat like shit, same as most every other job. Pretend you love this shit job more than anything. Kiss ass and you'll be fine. No fucking dignity in any job these days, you're 'lucky' to have one at all.

What's disturbing to me is definitely not the depravity, which is actually pretty hot if you stop to think about it for any length of time. It's that the economic opportunities available to people in this country are so fucking lame that literally taking it in the ass five hours a week is a pretty good job, aside from the judgmental assholes talking shit about you and people like you.

Anyone got a free video link for that 65 Guy Cream Pie? Lord knows the author rushed out and bought himself a copy. Dude's fighting a hard-on the whole time he's critiquing this stuff, it's almost creepy.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» Congratulations - you illustrated the author's point. No Dignity with your job?? Posted by: citizen chump
» Smug what? Posted by: Uriahz
» Uriahz ... Posted by: skoog5600
» RE: Uriahz ... Posted by: Uriahz
» Thank you URIAAH Posted by: meronkun
» RE: Thank you URIAAH Posted by: helenwheels
» Thanks for nothing Uriahh... LOL Posted by: skoog5600
» RE: Yeah, yeah, yeah... Posted by: kepstein7777
» RE: Yeah, yeah, yeah... Posted by: teddy
» An honest man: Uriahz! Posted by: ReneT
» RE: Yeah, yeah, yeah... Posted by: colinsyme
» Musicians with dignity? Posted by: felipe
» RE: Musicians with dignity? Posted by: colinsyme
» RE: Yeah, yeah, yeah... Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: Yeah, yeah, yeah... Posted by: Uriahz
» RE: Yeah, yeah, yeah... Posted by: Fat Man at the Buffet Line
» RE: Yeah, yeah, yeah... Posted by: helenwheels
snobbery and shitty jobbery
[Report this comment]
Posted by: thehellezell on Jul 31, 2009 1:51 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The author, very early on, decides to equate the dramatized violence of pro-wrestling with the dramatized sexuality of porn. For a minute, you might think that he / she is on to something, but the example mainly serves as a snobby scare tactic: "If you think porn is sexy, you probably also are a dumb hick who thinks that wrasslin' is 'real'."

I'm not sure if the author has ever had a non-reflective, non-ironic moment in his or her life, but I can assure you that not all, and, from my experience, absolutely NO fans of professional wrestling have any illusions about what they are watching. For example, most wrestling fans, if they got into a bar-fight, would not try to elbow drop the person they are arguing with. Most wrestling fans, whether or not they can explain themselves in whatever trendy Bakhtin-referencing terms are hot now, understand that wrestling is a form of popular theater. It seems to me, however, that the reporter would prefer to spew class trash than to treat the subject fairly.

As a male who admittedly watches porn (often times with my completely sane, sexy, and absolutely happy fiance) I feel stuck with this article. I have a sense of impending doom about a million things in this world. And like many (i hope!) adults, I don't find anything terribly arousing about a woman having sex with 50000 men at the same time. Nevertheless, and barring the obligatory "it is the right of consenting adults" shit, I feel like I should ask the author: is the depiction of sexual acts really WORST sign of the cultural apocalypse you could come up with? Why is the specific example so old? Are you trying to convince your readers that 2004 was the last time you looked at porn?
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Fact-checking, anyone?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: bored-2-tears on Jul 31, 2009 1:51 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The revenues for the tech companies Hedges mentions (Netflix is as much a tech company as Walmart, but whatevs) are a combined $150 billion ... fifty percent more than the figure he cites as global porn revenue.

GM holds no stake in DirecTV Group, and has not since the last century.

These kind of glaring errors rendered moot any points the author was trying to make.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Fact-checking, anyone? Posted by: ReneT
» Fact-checking: A little behind the times. Posted by: Eric.Arthur.Blair
» RE: Fact-checking: A little behind the times. Posted by: maglindracia
Don Quixote
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Don Quixot on Jul 31, 2009 1:52 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Congratulations Mr. Christ Hedges for your lucid vision and brilliant description of our present world. This is probably the best article I have read in AlterNet so far. I think we all share a responsibility for allowing it to happen without opposition or protest. I think Zeitgeistmovie.com explains what has been happening very well, despite their unfortunate and wrong vision of the origin of religion, though they are right that religion has been used and abused for materialist interests.

Yes, the plan outlined in Zeitgeistmovie, plotted by the superbankers who rule our world, with the complicity of politicians and military, has been working very well. The formula is very old, dates back to the Roman empire, and has been adopted in the new US-Israel empire, or rather the Israel-US empire: give the people “panem et circenses”, bread and entertainment. Bread has been substituted by home appliances, cars and luxuries, and the Roman Coliseum is now Hollywood and TV.

Don’t let the people be informed and think, just give them misinformation and keep their minds busy with rubbish entertainment, so that ultimately their minds will become rubbish and our dominance of the world will be secured. And nowhere has the formula worked better than in the US.

But I am an optimist, believe that despite everything the US has been leading the world for the better, saving us from Nazi militarism and Communism, and hope that some Michael Moore will come out with a film asking Americans these three questions: 1) Which do you think is the percentage of media control by a group over which democracy becomes a joke, 51%? 75? 90%? 99%? 2) What do you think is the percentage of media control presently in the US? 3) Which group do you think has the main control?

Again, congratulations, thank God there are also Americans like you.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Don Quixote Posted by: helenwheels
Pedo Edo
[Report this comment]
Posted by: tabt on Jul 31, 2009 1:57 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
With all the free and kinky porn available to young children on the internet today, don't be surprised if profoundly deviantly, disgusting sex becomes the new norm sex.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» And? Posted by: AlexaD
» RE: And? Posted by: mythmorph
» Only two? Posted by: BlueTigress
» There has always been deviate sex. Posted by: felipe
» Speed the day! Posted by: ReneT
» RE: Pedo Edo Posted by: meronkun
» RE: Pedo Edo Posted by: Juven
» DONT WORRY BOUT TEH KIDZ Posted by: CAPSLOCK_AVENGER
» RE: DONT WORRY BOUT TEH KIDZ Posted by: Wilde
» RE: Pedo Edo Posted by: maglindracia
Sex paranoia?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Jimbo33 on Jul 31, 2009 2:01 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Me thinks Chris Hedges is afraid of sex like the right wingers and we can see in America the consequences of their paranoia.
Chris, keep cool, it's just sex.
Why aren't you worried about brutal horror movies, violent computer games etc.? They have indeed a proven negative effect not even on children but even on adults.
But violence unlike sex is accepted in a society that has been influenced negatively by religion over thousands of years. Just read the bible. No other book glorifies violence against innocent people in the name of a higher power so much like this scripture which is often used by self-appointed morale leaders to punish persons whose lives, sex included, doesn't fit to their little perverted view of world.
And isn't the bible the biggest pornographic scripture of all time?
Slavery, pedophilia (story of Lot), cutting off the head of an adult by a child(David), mass killing of an entire population(story of Noah) etc.
But even children are instructed to read this book in order to receive positive influence. What a sad joke.
I think that the entire adult film industry is rather a movement against this established hypocrisy and sex paranoia which pollutes the minds of the population.
So Chris, if you want to know what real pornography is then just read the bible and the Old Testament in particular.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Sex paranoia? Posted by: uncertain
» You Seem... Posted by: AlexaD
» puh-lease Posted by: permanentilt
» RE: puh-lease Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: Sex paranoia? Posted by: meronkun
» He isn't afraid of the sex, he is afraid of the retreat from reality Posted by: begruntleed
» RE: He isn't afraid of the sex, he is afraid of the retreat from reality Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: He isn't afraid of the sex, he is afraid of the retreat from reality Posted by: goldmarx
» RE: He isn't afraid of the sex, he is afraid of the retreat from reality Posted by: maglindracia
Gonzo
[Report this comment]
Posted by: kepstein7777 on Jul 31, 2009 2:21 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
http://goatmilk.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/gonzo1.jpg

We seem to think that more is always better, even when it's too much. More tattoos, more piercings, more cars, more reality shows, more reality shows about dancing...

As the article suggests, I guess that's the nature of consumer culture. Moderation and subtlety don't move the volume. Teens are the perfect market segment because they're young, impressionable, full of energy, and love to test the boundaries of excess.

The article is a bit over-dramatic, and thus is itself an example of the excesses it talks about. We always seem to need a crisis or threats of apocalypse to get our attention and feed our over-stimulated need for over-stimulation.

It's the same as it's been for a long time, perhaps only worse. Musicians like Dylan who, ironically, is a good example of media over-deification, were saying pretty much the same thing back in the 60s (www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/its-alright-ma-im-only-bleeding).
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Gonzo Posted by: gba273
great comments!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: boelander on Jul 31, 2009 2:27 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am really impressed with the quality of the comment here. Not a flame job amongst ya. Bravo
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: great comments! Posted by: uncertain
Well who knew girlfriends aren't pornstars?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: thethinkingman on Jul 31, 2009 2:44 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I like porn. It fulfills a need in me that is a separate one from sex with another human.

I don't expect any of the women I date to behave in a raunchy pornstar way, but when the occasional one does I am rather pleased.In the same way as I am pleased when they look like movie stars ( not a frequent occurrence ).

As the other guy said, it's all just sex what's the biggy?
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
The "It's just sex" defense.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: uncertain on Jul 31, 2009 3:05 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think that's the authors point - it's not just sex.

Fifty or a hundred 600 guys standing around waiting for their 18 second chance to stick their dick into something and bust a nut is not just sex.

A woman who likes to be roughed up - smacked, punched, choked, whatever - while simultaneously being fucked by four or six or eight guys is not just sex.

It's been stated - and seems to be generally accepted and viewed as "normal" (???!!!) - that the new target demographic for porn is the 12-17 male age group. (Maybe it's not the openly stated target demographic, but supposedly, cigarettes are marketed only to 18 & overs, too...)

So what happens when a 12 year old - or younger - male child sees his first porno, and it happens to be a group of four or twelve or however many guys reaming out, smacking/punching/choking, cumming on & inside some soulless breathing fuckdoll, and then all of them piss all over her?

What kind of damage is that going to do to a kid when that becomes his first impression of what sex is?

And you call it "just sex"?

I'd say "psychological warfare" is a more apt term.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: The "It's just sex" defense. Posted by: lalala
» RE: The "It's just sex" defense. Posted by: teddy
» Fantasy Posted by: BlueTigress
» RE: The "It's just sex" defense. Posted by: permanentilt
» RE: The "It's just sex" defense. Posted by: mythmorph
» RE: The "It's just sex" defense. Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: 12-17 is not the Target Demographic Posted by: rfrancis@godisdead.com
» RE: The "It's just sex" defense. Posted by: Uriahz
» RE: The "It's just sex" defense. Posted by: maglindracia
Christians say its the downfall of civilization too
[Report this comment]
Posted by: lalala on Jul 31, 2009 3:28 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
as their gettin of on it! We cant assume that every girl in porn really enjoys it. A jobs a job and that job pays. All I know is ewww. You couldnt pay me a million bucks to have 50 men cum in my ass and suck it out and spit it in my mouth. If shes having fun more power to her... but I highly doubt its real. Its a male fantasy that pays for her lavish lifestyle and her career will be over in 3 years. I hope she saves her money.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Christians say its the downfall of civilization too Posted by: kungfuma
» RE: That $$ will go for... Posted by: mythmorph
» RE: That $$ will go for... Posted by: maglindracia
» not my fantasy Posted by: permanentilt
Ugly broads
[Report this comment]
Posted by: rugger on Jul 31, 2009 3:42 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
My only problem with porn now is that the women are all butt ugly skanks and all the guys are shaved bald-headed rejects from a Mad max audition. Do women find these losers attractive? Does anyone ever screw pussy any more? What is the preoccupation with anal sex? Hey ladies, it won't be so much fun when you're in your 30's and you can't hold in a stool.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Ugly broads and Mad Max chromedomes Posted by: SkeeterVT1
» RE: Ugly broads and Mad Max chromedomes Posted by: maglindracia
Too many assumptions
[Report this comment]
Posted by: pdecarlo on Jul 31, 2009 4:40 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The last paragraph is nothing but an assumption and elucidates more about the author's fears and perceptions about the supposed connection between sexual abuse and pornographic stars than the actress's.

If no evidence of the author's perceptions can be verified, the firetruck story, along with the actress's on-set enthusiasm, must be taken as is. This article without that last paragraph would then be a celebration of the pornographic world, and would shed light about open sexuality, choice, and new experience.

I understand being critical of all depictions of identity in media, but leftists sometimes have trouble dealing with supposedly anti-third wave feminist portrayals of women that show them as overtly heterosexual and open to what some would call derogatory act. Some people just like to fuck, ya'll, and try to forget all the bullshit surrounding political correctness, because after all, that stuff is boring as fuck anyway and sex is fun.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Uh-oh Posted by: mythmorph
» RE: Uh-oh Posted by: helenwheels
Kids These Days...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: ChrisBrown on Jul 31, 2009 5:10 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Grandpa Hedges seemed to be in an especially crotchety mood when he wrote this. "World's going to hell in a handbasket, I tell ya!"

The desensitization towards violence in US pop culture is far more worrying than porn.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» But this type of sex IS violence. Posted by: wisegalah
» RE: But this type of sex IS violence. Posted by: MT512
No one forced these guys to spend the money!!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: xvictor on Jul 31, 2009 5:15 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
A product is on display. People see the product and like it. They then willingly fork over the cash to purchase the product. And they come back to get more of this product or something similar.

It's a business thingy. None of that "apocalyse" or cultural decline crap. Don't make anything more that what it really is, chris.

Btw, the porn industry is usually on the forefront of the latest internet and marketing technologies. Other industries benefits from the R&D money spent by the porn industry to make their products more tasty and attract more customers. Back when VHS was king of the media, customers was able to buy children's films like Snow White and Cinderella for a song and dance and NOT for 99 dollars each because of the marketing strategies adopted by Walt Disney and other similar outfits that originated with the porn industry. Who knew, eh?

Rather than dissing porn, embrace it.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: No one forced these guys to spend the money!! Posted by: richholland
To hell with culture!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: ReneT on Jul 31, 2009 5:20 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Who cares about culture, morality and the rest? A far superior thinker to this wrote a book decades ago called "To Hell With Culture", Sir Herbert Read.

Chris Hedges is writing an anti-sex diatribe couched in manufactured concern about how people like to have sex. Who would ever believe that fantasy is not a part of sexuality? What concern is it of his if some girl wants to have sex with 65 guys in one session. I think that's pretty hot myself.

It's great that 12 to 17 year olds see through all the crap being thrown at them by people such as Hedges and are exploring all of the erotic possibilities that they could possibly wish for, real or imagined. What great dreams these make!

Chris Hedges should have a good dust-up with Camille Paglia.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: To hell with hedonism and thoughtlessness Posted by: mythmorph
» "...what ever happened to the Roman Empire?" It lasted another thousand years after that. Posted by: UnEasyOne
» RE: "...what ever happened to the Roman Empire?" It lasted another thousand years after that. Posted by: maglindracia
Gonzo Porn
[Report this comment]
Posted by: aadinko on Jul 31, 2009 5:42 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Oh wow, sounds like this might have been a nice convention to check out!

RT
Online Privacy when it Counts
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» Identity theft website--please blow off!!! Posted by: zooeyhall
» SPAM and ADWARE alert Posted by: helenwheels
Oh, brother.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Beck on Jul 31, 2009 5:44 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Wasn't there a recent article about vibrators and another about the sex lives of young women, with provocative pictures? These don't seem to have much to do with anything. They push buttons and get comments. Is porn good? Is it bad? Years of articles (much like the veggie or atheist articles) don't settle anything, but they certainly get many comments.

Is it okay to examine the world of porn, or does that automatically, undeniably make one a prude?

Will the usual anti-feminist comments pop up, always mentioning Dworkin and always leaving out Jong? Read Erica Jong, anyone who thinks that feminist writing always leaves out sex. You'll like her books better than you like porn, I'll wager.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Oh, brother. Posted by: helenwheels
Article is not about porn
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Douglas_Wilson on Jul 31, 2009 5:48 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Article talks about illusion/delusion. Seeking happiness in a "thing". Doesn't matter what that thing is. Could be seeking happiness in arguments "I'm happy when I'm right". Tell me I'm significant (notice me). Happiness through religion, political affiliation or anything we can "attach" ourselves to. All illusory. Nothing real there.
Noam Chomsky talks about it in "Necessary Illusions". The powerful world benders use illusion and fantasy like a drug to put people to sleep. I don't know anything else about the author other than reading this article and looking at the cover of his book. But he states his purpose plainly and repeatedly. I'm kind of intrigued with the "why" in the discussion about porn. Are we sleeping?
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Article is not about porn Posted by: helenwheels
65 Guy Cream Pie
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Nebris on Jul 31, 2009 5:48 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
However distorted the paradigm may be, the above does clearly demonstrate the sexual power of women over men. Ms Jollee can take that many men over and over again, but NO MAN could take that many women in the same fashion, ever, no matter how much Viagra and Ecstasy he ate.

"The natural superiority of women is a biological fact, and a socially acknowledged reality." ~Ashley Montagu
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Porno Producer Responds
[Report this comment]
Posted by: maxfrisson on Jul 31, 2009 5:50 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Funny, I'm casting a MILF gang bang shoot now. The woman who will "star" came to me and asked me to put the group together. I have done a couple others with her before. Her #1 reason for wanting to do this was she craves the multi-partner sex. She got her first taste of groups of guys on a Football Team Bus that she sneaked on with the goal of getting shagged by the team. She has a cute little saying "Dicks are like potato chips, One is never enough" She does this without cameras rolling.

Point is lots of porn today is woman-driven, semi-pro and amateur stuff, it's like couples hobby
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» You can always find someone who wants to do or say anything you care to name Posted by: begruntleed
» RE: Porno Producer Responds Posted by: ellie
» RE: Porno Producer Responds Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: Porno Producer Responds Posted by: meronkun
Some problems here...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: COhippie on Jul 31, 2009 5:56 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hedges makes the usual mistake of BELIEVING the porn industry when it says how much money it's making. They're not exactly the most organized or honest people, you know.

Also--most people know full well that the girl in 65 Guy Cream Pie is lying when she talks about what turns her on. How does he know that the people who watch it can't distinguish between reality and fantasy?

Those people probably know full-well that it's a fantasy. It's a fantasy that works just barely well enough for about 5 minutes.

That's the real problem with porn--poor quality. Bad acting, no scripts, fake-boobed, fake-tanned, fake-blonde actresses that all look alike. No variety. No soul.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» need attractive young men to go with the ladies Posted by: raginghormones
» Thank you! Posted by: BlueTigress
Alternet--the new Puritans--"Repent!! Oh ye sinners!!!"
[Report this comment]
Posted by: zooeyhall on Jul 31, 2009 6:22 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"the economic, political and moral collapse around us"!!!

Yup...the evils of porn are to blame.

We're all too busy jackin' off to the hot stuff to take note of the coming Apocolypse!

In the 1950's, rock and roll was supposed to send us into the moral sewer.

In the 60's it was racial desegregation.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Idiotic comments
[Report this comment]
Posted by: funkphilosopher on Jul 31, 2009 6:27 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
While I do disagree with the author that this is somehow the end of the world, the comments I've seen have either missed the point or are completely f-ed up. The author's point is that this is not sex, this is an illusion/fantasy and one that is especially derogatory (please note the way she speaks of her body in the third person). The fact that her body no longer belongs to her is represented clearly here, she in fact belongs to the porn company/pimp (if you really believe most women choose to do porn you are just fooling yourself). What's worse is that even though a lot of commenters have stated "It's only for money, I know it's not real" or some other crap, you forget that when you consume this stuff you are training yourself to be aroused by acts that are continuously becoming more inhumane (what the hell was with that commenter blaming women for anal sex? Do you really think most women like that? Are you just a fucking idiot?). I'm not opposed to sex, and I don't care if sex is graphically displayed, but I am opposed to patriarchal abuse being displayed and consumed.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Idiotic comments Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: Some people refer to themselves in the 3rd person Posted by: rfrancis@godisdead.com
I'm going to take a shower and
[Report this comment]
Posted by: AMERICAN VETERAN on Jul 31, 2009 6:35 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
play with my balls.

I have a tee time @ 11AM.

This entire section was borrrrrrrrrrrinnggg.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
The Internet Was Built On Porn
[Report this comment]
Posted by: femmyv on Jul 31, 2009 6:41 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In the early days of the WWW, porn was in all likelihood the most profitable venture for small basement-operated ISPs to make money. The cost of bandwidth was outrageous compared to today's rates, and no one was making money off of dial-up accounts.

When AOL and Mindspring added WWW, Usenet was getting packed and trolled and spammy, and so admins added "U2" or Usenet 2, a new batch of groups that you had to have a shell account or a non-corporate ISP to tap into. Most of the interest groups were pretty mundane but what was interesting was that the porn groups were all suddenly filled with top-notch scans, subtly advertising a pay-for web server.

That was when it really hit home, that the profit centers of the internet, at that time, were all intertwined with porn.

I don't expect the internet is going to be an arena where Hedges' ideas are greeted with ribbons. It's like walking into an opium den and telling people 'drugs are bad for you.'
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» Every new technology to produce images has been driven by porn Posted by: begruntleed
» RE: The Internet Was Built On Porn Posted by: helenwheels
The Auhor Is Right
[Report this comment]
Posted by: peaceia85 on Jul 31, 2009 6:49 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It is not just sex.
It is a degrading anti-love illusion being sold to the masses so make them think that Bush and Palin are geniuses
It is a massive mind control tool.
And it is not only puritans and right wingers who can see this.
The author is right. It is a sad state of history.
And I do not expect some pigs who commented before me to agree with me.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Author cannot distinguish reality from fantasy
[Report this comment]
Posted by: mjt on Jul 31, 2009 6:51 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There are problems in our culture in distinguishing fantasy from reality, but porn in not the area in which these difficulties lie.

It is rather in our pathological belief that force solves everything whether within our borders or outside them. The fantasy that we have both the ability, and the obligation to maim, kill and destroy in order to change others to our own standards of behavior.

It is this belief in Imperialism, war and imprisonment that will cause our downfall, not some sexual images, stories or fantasy.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Author cannot distinguish reality from fantasy Posted by: helenwheels
» Can't you see that war is connected to a pornographic mind? Posted by: smadaj
» RE: Author cannot distinguish reality from fantasy Posted by: mjt
OMG... Stop the world from turning!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: chariotdrvr14 on Jul 31, 2009 7:11 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Chris Hedges strikes me as one who pines away for the simpler days of yore; when porn was under the counter, unregulated and sometimes used as an excuse by conservatives to clamp down on art and political expression.
And back when racism and sexism wasn't considered a problem because it never found its way into the media spotlighting of society's daily abuses.

I'd rather remain true to Wilhelm Reich's philosophy of sex positivism than resort to a hasty retreat because of some of the ridiculous (and sometimes grotesque) excesses in the porn industry. There are laws in place to deal with the true crimes.

For the rest, it has more to do with an overall social value pushed by the media -that in a sense is a backlash to the perceived threat to the male identity by feminism. The MSM is still largely a male dominated industry run on testosterone. The misogyny perceived in the porn industry is just a reflection of a greater section of the male faction of our collective libido. Suppressing it won't make it go away or turn it into something "beautiful"... suppressing sex itself will just incite another sexual revolution.

As long as conservatives bang the drum calling males to circle wagons and push traditional stereotypes of male image in its tv, film and radio images... then whining about bad taste porn is going to be a huge waste of your time and emotional energy.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: OMG... Stop the world from turning! Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: OMG... Stop the world from turning! Posted by: chariotdrvr14
» RE: OMG... Stop the world from turning! Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: OMG... Stop the world from turning! Posted by: chariotdrvr14
» RE: OMG... Stop the world from turning! Posted by: chariotdrvr14
» Porn and law Posted by: BlueTigress
The last thing I want to do is defend a crappy company like GM...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: ShrubtheWarcriminal on Jul 31, 2009 8:01 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...in any way shape or form but in the interest of facts:

GM has not owned any interest in Direct TV since 2003.

The mid-to-late 1990s saw a number of important initiatives in GM's non-automaking operations. In 1994 the renamed Hughes Electronics unit introduced Direct TV, a satellite-based direct-to-home broadcast service. The 1995 sale of the company's National Car Rental business was followed by the spinoff of EDS the following year. One year later, Hughes Electronics was revamped through the sale of its defense electronics operations to Raytheon Company and the merging of its automotive electronics activities (Delco Electronics) into GM's auto parts subsidiary, Delphi Automotive Systems. Hughes began concentrating on digital entertainment, information, and communications services and made a key acquisition in 1999 when it paid $1.3 billion for the direct-to-home satellite business of Primestar. In early 2000 Hughes would make a further divestment of a then noncore unit, selling its satellite manufacturing operations to the Boeing Company for about $3.75 billion. Delphi, meanwhile, would be completely separated from GM through a May 1999 spinoff to shareholders.

For your info:

GM’s Principal Subsidiaries:

General Motors Acceptance Corporation; General Motors Investment Management Corporation; GMAC Commercial Finance LLC; Saturn Corporation; Holden, Ltd. (Australia); General Motors do Brasil Ltda. (Brazil); General Motors of Canada, Ltd.; Adam Opel AG (Germany); General Motors de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.; Saab Automobile AB (Sweden); Saab Cars Holding Corporation; Vauxhall Motors Limited (United Kingdom).

GM’s Principal Operating Units:

GM Automotive; Financing and Insurance Operations.

The cable industry has been among the most critical voices at the FCC regarding media giant News Corp.'s purchase of a satellite distribution system that competes directly with cable.

In 2003 it was announced that News Corp. would purchase General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - News)'s 19.9% stake in Hughes Electronics Corp. , which owns DirecTV, and a further 14.1% of Hughes, giving it control of the satellite service.

I know FACTS get in the way of issues these days but where does that leave this now prurient article now (to me anyway), with some facts getting in the way?

Probably like most things, this article may be interesting to think about, but if you faced the reality of actually doing this fantasy, I imagine most would pass. But to each his or her own, I guess.

I go by the old rule, that if it does not hurt anyone then it is your own moral issue to deal with. I am sure there may be exceptions, but they escape me at the moment. Maybe just ask the question, "Do I feel better for doing this afterwords?"
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Can I have this, can I have that???
[Report this comment]
Posted by: type22003 on Jul 31, 2009 8:10 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I just find it interesting that whenever I click on to read another comment, I'm invited by some scantilly clad/sensuous babe to purchase some piece of shit product or service. Oh well, the price we pay for free internet sites like this one!!!
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Just hit the "Report this comment link" Posted by: ShrubtheWarcriminal
Johnny Fartpants
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Johnny Fartpants on Jul 31, 2009 8:21 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Care to make it 51 Ariana?
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
It appears most commenters are missing the point
[Report this comment]
Posted by: helenwheels on Jul 31, 2009 8:26 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's pretty telling seeing all the paranoid comments up here... like Hedges wants to take away their precious porn. His point is the danger of uber-escapism. And his chosen escapism at this time is porn. THe man writes exhaustively on other topics, so calling him a prude or sex-obsessed is an easy way to dismiss what he's talking about THIS time.

Most people ARE sleeping. The ones up here claiming a 21-year-old who likes to be gang-raped by 65 men can have a healthy psyche just floor me (and, by the way, I know one porn star and believe me, there's a hell of a lot of pain there).

The people who get super-defensive about their porn are the ones yelling "Slut slut slut!" in the arena and don't even know it (if these comments are any indication).

Of course it makes sense, though. Once you are in the throes of the illusion, an article like this is threatening, because it asks the reader to accept that perhaps they have blinders on. These commenters and those that bury themselves in porn - or video games, or the new-age & religious b.s. Hedges mentions (which I find imminently more dangerous than porn) - are simply terrified of reality.

I find reality very challenging, and depressing at times, but having cut out the "escapism" in life, I find there is no going back. I no longer find all that crap entertaining. I find reading and enjoying nature and the arts and making friends and spending time with them infinitely more rewarding and pleasurable.

Is a little escapism good? Sure. I wish more folks wouldn't take the easy route, though. Why not take a brilliant hike instead of sitting in front of the TV with a box of kleenex and KY jelly?
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» Did liberals forget what liberty means? Posted by: rafaeltoral
» RE: Did liberals forget what liberty means? Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: Did liberals forget what liberty means? Posted by: helenwheels
» GANG-RAPED? Did someone just sneak in a weasel word? Posted by: dbarber
» RE: GANG-RAPED? Did someone just sneak in a weasel word? Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: GANG-RAPED? Did someone just sneak in a weasel word? Posted by: goldmarx
» OMG Did you ACTUALLY say I put too much thought into... Posted by: dbarber
» RE: GANG-RAPED? Did someone just sneak in a weasel word? Posted by: maglindracia
» Porno Producer Responds Posted by: maxfrisson
Porn and impotence
[Report this comment]
Posted by: RegK on Jul 31, 2009 8:39 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you don't care about the effects of porn on women and you think consuming porn is fine for men, think again. Ten years ago I divorced a man who became so addicted to internet porn that he developed a condition called 'masturbatory impotence'. In this condition a man becomes so dependent on hardcore porn, the extreme fantasies it produces, and the feel of his own hand that he can no longer perform sexually with a real woman, yet he demands constant sexual performance from his partner. Porn changed my ex into a narcissistic monster who who denied he had a problem. In fact, he kept telling me I had a 'sexual problem'. I sure did; it was him.
I'm remarried now and the sex is great. My advice to women would be to stay far away from men who are into this sick stuff--and a lot of internet porn truly is sick, much of it is just ugly. It degrades women and destroys men's sexual and mental health. A porn addict will eventually try to get you involved in his compulsions and then call you a prude for not wanting to, but there's nothing at all wrong with you for wanting loving beautiful sex. Don't waste your precious time trying to help him; you may now have to leave him in order to find good sex again.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Porn and impotence Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: Porn and impotence Posted by: lacamila
» RE: Porn and impotence Posted by: sowles
WELL - I'm no Cassandra
[Report this comment]
Posted by: stellabloo on Jul 31, 2009 8:42 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Stella Blue is the broken angel with the guitar, in case you missed the 60's.

It is all well and fine to blame the deterioration of society and the current upswell of apathy and excess on the bloated forces of capitalism but there is a direct link that doesn't require an essay. Eight million amerikan children are being taught daily via forced television viewing that excess and groupthink are the norm:

Joy of Pepsi

How the hell can math compete with THAT?

Manipulated Kids - "It's not really a commercial--it's just a commercial sponsored by Pepsi."


Uh, when I was in school we watched NFB stuff, "Paddle to Sea", "To Build a Fire" and my perennial favorite "The Point"

I was 6 yrs old, summering with my parents in the Yukon wilderness, when I first read Alice in Wonderland. Two years later, my best friend's draft-dodging pilot dad introduced us both to Tolkien. From then (tv was a strictly rationed 2 channels) it was an omnivorous diet of library books (back in the day when The Electric Koolaid Acid Test was still in the school library) ... until I found Tom Robbins.

That rabbit hole is still out there, for anyone who's interested.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
This article is probably guerrilla marketing for 65 Guy Cream Pie.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: stina723 on Jul 31, 2009 8:46 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I wouldn't be surprised...
I know when I am watching 65 Guy Cream Pie (because now I am morbidly fascinated) I will be acutely aware that what I am seeing on the screen is an illusion and not reality. I think the only person who has a hard time distinguishing between the 2 is the star, Ariana Jollee.

It would have been more fascinating if the author had written a book about Jollee. Like what has her life been like? Why does she star in Gonzo porn? Was she sexually abused? Is she saving all her money? What are her hopes and dreams for her life? And tied that into the ethical collapse of American society because the two are inextricably intertwined. Failure to distinguish between illusion and reality is just a symptom of a much much larger problem.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: This article is probably guerrilla marketing for 65 Guy Cream Pie. Posted by: helenwheels
» I love you too. Posted by: rafaeltoral
How is degradation a good thing? Don't see it as degrading? Imagine your daughter's the "star"
[Report this comment]
Posted by: smadaj on Jul 31, 2009 8:47 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
How on earth anyone can read this article and then think that 12 to 17 year olds - mostly boys - viewing 50 men ejaculating all over a woman like she is a pile of dirt, and that woman squealing ecstatically as though being shit on was a wonderful thing -- how can viewing that portrayal of male and female sexual roles be good for society? I am no prude, but degradation, mostly of women, is hardly entertainment, nor is it informative in any positive way. It teaches males to think of dominating and degrading females, and it teaches females to think of themselves as objects that have been created for the sexual amusement of males. The female in the article is basically stating that she was gang raped by firemen, and that it was a grand experience and she wants even more! Would any of you want to hear your daughter say that?
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: How is degradation a good thing? Don't see it as degrading? Imagine your daughter's the "star" Posted by: helenwheels
» RE: I would seriously doubt that this woman... Posted by: ShrubtheWarcriminal
» Now that you ask... YES!!! Posted by: ReneT
» As you can see and read from all this, it's social and complete. Posted by: talkville
Every Generation...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: popeurbanxxiii on Jul 31, 2009 8:59 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...has it's avuncular curmudgeon proclaiming the end of civilization. As so many of the posters noted above, "nothing new here".

Is it just a function of getting older that makes the soon-to-be-passing generation proclaim that the world is going to Helena Handbasket - or Ariana Jollee? (I know... he's only 53, but the point remains.)

In the end, we have survived Jazz, alcohol (and it's prohibition), the "Red Menace" and McCarthy, Rock-and-Roll, the Sexual Revolution, "crack cocaine", the "Culture Wars" of our blessed St. Ronnie and his ilk, violent video games, you name it. We've faced all of these so-called "culture killers" and we have muddled through and staggered into the future.

Change is not always de-volution or degradation. I guarantee you, you will not die in a world like the one you were born into. That's life. Especially in this modern age.

I get fleeting images of Tipper Gore railing against "explicit lyrics" in Congressional hearings reading this article (another thing we seem to have survived without succumbing to anarchy!).

Porn today is somewhat analogous to drugs in the '60's insofar as some people will use it responsibly, some people will abuse it, and some people will have a pathologial relation to it.

And, as one of my favorite Hippie songwriter/poets once put it, in regards to sex;

And when it comes down to just we two, I ain't no crazier than you..." -Dave Mason

Pax...
Pope Urban XXIII
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» I love you. Posted by: rafaeltoral
» RE: But we have yet survived the Shrub and BamBam years. Posted by: ShrubtheWarcriminal
Marriage Porn what's the difference..?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: TJColatrella on Jul 31, 2009 9:12 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Why is it there is never shortage of more than eager and willing American and other women to participate in their degradation and exploitation..?

Is it all that different from marriage when you think about it..?

I'm just sayin..

I know, I'm a terrible terrible bad bad bad person...!
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Your wife does 50 to 65 men at a time? Posted by: ShrubtheWarcriminal
» RE: Your wife does 50 to 65 men at a time? Posted by: TJColatrella
Big leaps
[Report this comment]
Posted by: MT512 on Jul 31, 2009 9:14 AM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I've read some books about this industry that mostly take the same general view as this article. And I don't disagree with most of this article--I think we are amusing ourselves to death.

My principal complaint though is a common thread of moralistic assumption on the part of the authors as to what is going on with the porn stars and their audiences, usually by taking individual comments and unreasonably assuming they represent the entire business or all of its consumers. This article quotes Ariana Jollee as referring to her body parts without saying "my this" and "my that" and immediately makes a big leap in concluding from that language that the poor girl "no longer consciously recognizes [those parts] as herself." Hedges has the special power to make an instant psychological assessment and read her mind? Simply referring to some part of your body in some vaguely distant way does not mean you suffer some kind of psychotic dissociation from yourself. One could maybe even argue that Hedges is objectifying her, making her into nothing more than a mindless yet pitiable victim.

"...so I saw the sunrise on the left and realized I was facing south."
"OMG you poor thing, you said 'the' left and not 'my' left. Don't you love yourself? Don't you see how something-you-do-that-I-don't-like is destroying your identity?"

Another example is a book I read in which some porn star or producer guy was quoted as describing some particular porn actress as being "born to fuck." One isolated quote from one individual, yet the author then seamlessly extrapolated that all males in the porn business and in its audience view all women as lifeless objects whose sole purpose is to sexually pleasure men.

Is it not possible for a straight male to have healthy and loving relationships and great sex in real life with women he respects... and enjoy watching strangers have sex on a screen?
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» no need to be bothered by harm being done to strangers... Posted by: Suzon
» but apparently a need to judge and be bothered by an individual's expression of free will Posted by: rafaeltoral
» RE: Big leaps Posted by: maglindracia
It's almost enough to make one feel nostalgic
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Eric.Arthur.Blair on Jul 31, 2009 9:24 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Nostalgic for the days when porn was shot on film in roughly feature-length episodes and actually had a story line, however preposterous it was. Gonzo porn is just a retuen to the old 8mm loops in a longer format. It's possible to watch Barbara Broadcast or 8 to 4 and enjoy them as films as well as sources of titillation or gratification.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
I wonder how enthusiastic she'll be
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Alenna on Jul 31, 2009 9:29 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
when she's wearing diapers at the age of 30. Or when she becomes a "has been" and they move on to prettier, younger girls. But, it's her life - I did a few stupid things when I was her age. Fortunately for me (and others of my generation), we didn't have cameras EVERYWHERE to make a permanent record.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: I wonder how enthusiastic she'll be Posted by: monkeywrench
Do you MAKE porn
[Report this comment]
Posted by: richholland on Jul 31, 2009 9:40 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
if it doesnt make money for you?????

How many women with a good husband, some kids an interesting job, good health insurance, a mansion, aHummer are willing to have men pissing all over her body (of course this is female freedom). for a lousy $ 250.
Just look on Elite Pain @ and Hedges is right
there is few dignity and honor left.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
12-17 year olds is their target market?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: MT512 on Jul 31, 2009 9:45 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I can understand why a pop rock group might target 12- to 17-year-olds, hoping they'll save up their allowance or get Mom to buy the CD. But Mom's not going to buy Junior a month's subscription to fuckmelikethecrazedsexkitteniam.com, and they don't take cash.

So it seems to me a bad demographic for the porn business. Do 15 year olds have credit cards or PayPal-able checking accounts? And if they just surf for the free porn, then is there any target market?

Well, on second thought, maybe it's an investment-over-time thing like Joe Camel appealing to kids. Maybe they can't get those cigs now (or it's tough to) but they will become regular customers once they turn 18 (or in the case of the porn, whenever they get a credit card).

Yet on third thought, I really doubt the porn industry really has to "hook 'em young" to ensure continued revenues in the future.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: 12-17 year olds is their target market? Posted by: richholland
» RE: 12-17 year olds is their target market? Posted by: MT512
Reporting Oops: GM and DirecTV
[Report this comment]
Posted by: cliffweathers on Jul 31, 2009 9:46 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
General Motors hasn't owned DirecTV in six years. It sold its interest to Rupert Murdoch in 2003. It's now owned by Liberty Media.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Reporting Oops: GM and DirecTV Posted by: monkeywrench
» RE: Reporting Oops: GM and DirecTV Posted by: Eric.Arthur.Blair
How can anyone take this author seriously?
[Report this comment]
Posted by: prairieguy on Jul 31, 2009 9:48 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Scanning the comments, I think I would agree with most of the responses that take the author to task for his cultural scare-mongering and snobbery.

I had to rely on the comments, because I couldn't read past the following sentence in the opening paragraph and take anything from this guy seriously:

"The more we sever ourselves from a literate, print-based world, a world of complexity and nuance, a world of ideas, for one informed by comforting, reassuring images, fantasies, slogans and a celebration of violence the more we implode."

There is nothing inherently noble, complex, or naunced about print. Nor is there anything about print media that inherently protects us from reassurance, fantasy, slogans or violence.

Anyone with a shred of knowledge about culture and media knows that this kind of essentializing argument has always been bullshit. These kinds of claims were just as bogus back in the 18th century, when they were used, as here, as a misleading foil for this kind of 'culture is doomed, ZOMG!!!!' mania. Except that back then, these arguments were just as often AGAINST print for *creating* all the cultural ills that this guy thinks print will save us from now.

Hedges should pull his head out of his ass.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: I agree... Posted by: ShrubtheWarcriminal
» How can anyone take alternet seriously? Posted by: rafaeltoral
Nothing new
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Juven on Jul 31, 2009 10:00 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
porn and sex have been around since we crawled out of the mud. Look back at history if you have any questions. Read the Bible if you want to read some sick shit. Read about the Greeks and Romans; and on and on. It has not led to any collapse of any culture quicker than any other aspect of culture. Repression is worse than liberation, whether the liberation fits within a particular paradigm or not.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Kids and porn
[Report this comment]
Posted by: BlueTigress on Jul 31, 2009 10:01 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The main thing that bothers me about the idea of 12-17 year olds looking for porn, is that this is the time when they should be learning how what they like and what feels good.

The idea that boys will try and get girls to duplicate something they saw on-line because they have some vague idea that this "what you do" is terribly sad.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Kids and porn Posted by: ReneT
» RE: Kids and porn Posted by: richholland
What is "libido?"
[Report this comment]
Posted by: mythmorph on Jul 31, 2009 10:02 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In the dictionary, LIBIDO is defined (first definition) thus:

(psychoanalytical) "All of the instinctual energies and desires that are derived from the id".

Thus, according to the Jungians in particular, all creativity derives from the libido. In other words, the libido is a basic human energy that can be channeled into a number of ways by which it can find expression and outlet. Sex is the fundamental act of creation in all species.

But if humans devote their libidinous energies primarily towards sexual gratification, all this degree of their creative potential gets focused in that direction. Like a powerful spotlight, it goes where we point it.

This country, which cuts spending for the arts whenever money is tight, is doing a great job of draining the libido away from focusing upon and rewarding creativity in many areas (science is also creative, of course). Kids need to learn to value creativity; we need venues and outlets and encouragement. It involves a little effort.

Instead, by default, if you will -- this "culture" allows for endless, E-Z, vicarious, libidinous thrills through porn access (thus stroking our basic infantile need for physical pleasure).

Look around. What/who is sought-after and glamorized in this culture? Creative achievement (in ways other than new and ever-more thrilling adventures in porn highs?)
and individual inventiveness? Or dumbed-down celebrities competing to reveal their sexuality with less and less clothing, and cosmetics and idiot magazines whose use and advice make women more desirable fuck-objects?

Look: sex is cool; sexual gratification is very important; sexual attractiveness is one vital component in attracting attention from whatever the opposite or same sex one favors. No reasonable person would argue this. HOWEVER -- the caveat stands: don't put all your Lidinous eggs in the porngasm basket.

Pornography is dangerously addictive. There go other creative venues. After orgasm, the male of the species just turns over, grunts, and goes to sleep. No energy left even for mowing the damn lawn.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: What is "libido?" Posted by: monkeywrench
Most everyone missed the point
[Report this comment]
Posted by: nearblindjames on Jul 31, 2009 10:16 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I read almost every comment on this thread, and a few people point out that all the others are making this out to be an article on porn. It clearly is not. The point is that many people are totally distracted by the illusions and are distanced more and more from reality -- seeing this as an article about porn actually reinforces that point. I think some celebrities (and maybe even some non-celebrities) feel that if whatever they do or say doesn't happen in front of a camera, then it didn't really happen. Life can always be re-shot and editted for these folks. That is the point Mr. Hedges is aiming for. When did life become about WATCHING life? Learn a skill, work on your car or house, help a neighbor with babysitting, get a new hobby, do charity work for the community -- DO something instead of watch something. At least the poor folks participating in this video are participating -- even though I think it is a very sad endeavor. Remember the words of Gil Scott-Heron -- "The Revolution will NOT be televised".......
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» You're missing the point. This is the illusion. This is the spectacle. Posted by: rafaeltoral
As usual most of the Alternet posters miss the point
[Report this comment]
Posted by: ETSpoon on Jul 31, 2009 10:40 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The above essay is not merely an anti-pornography polemic but a small portion of a longer work.

The editors of Alternet.org, however, like editors everywhere know that sex, like violence, attracts a crowd.

What I think the author is saying is, what many Americans believe is reality is actually fantasy and they are unable to differentiate one from the other.

For instance one of the most prevalent fantasy lifestyles is that of the "biker outlaw" which Harley-Davidson has successfully nurtured, with the aid of Hollywood, to first return to profitability and, maintain it.

Another is the "hunter" fantasy lifestyle, which the firearms industry and ancillary sporting goods industries fosters to the tune of...who knows how many millions, perhaps billions of dollars in profits per year. I'm sure we've all seen myriads of men, and a few women, sporting cammoflage pattern shrits, pants and shoes in a decidedly urban setting.

These are but two of the most prevalent of fantasy lifestyles among suburban white men.

Now I must fulfill my fantasy role as a home-remodeler.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: As usual most of the Alternet posters miss the point Posted by: maglindracia
Porn is just one manifestation of a much larger problem
[Report this comment]
Posted by: justAnEgg on Jul 31, 2009 11:06 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Judging on the introductory part of the article, Chris Hedges has not porn in mind, but kitsch in its broader sence: everything we touch in our culture is a fake.

The Czech writer Milan Kundera, in his book The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), defined it as "the absolute denial of shit". He wrote that kitsch functions by excluding from view everything that humans find difficult with which to come to terms, offering instead a sanitized view of the world, in which "all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch)
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Men!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: MT512 on Jul 31, 2009 11:12 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Some of the comment discussions here reminded me of a study I read about in which male rhesus macaque monkeys will forgo a treat of juice in favor of looking at photos of female monkeys' behinds. I thought that was pretty interesting!
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
BA
[Report this comment]
Posted by: mnstra on Jul 31, 2009 11:16 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Good essay. We must ask the men and woman why they star in porno films.They whant to make money.No brainier. I work in a large Atlanta area medical center. Many nurses there are good looking and intelligent woman.But the work is very hard, sometimes demeaning and abuse is common from families, doctors and the management.The pay is not great, however. If a good looking woman wants a shot at becoming very rich with her body / Why not. Why put up with the crap of working for a oppressive cooperation?Yes being a porn star is risky, but so is contracting a disease from a patient or the risk of bodily injury from lifting overweight patients and getting hurt.
Or many other on the job injuries that occur in the millions every year.The pornographer is , however as psychopathic as the CEO. so pick your poison.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: BA Posted by: maglindracia
Traditional
[Report this comment]
Posted by: talkville on Jul 31, 2009 11:32 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
From Mother England was inherited the obsession with cultivating the subject -- subjectivism. The positive valuation, the intensification and the celebration of subjectivism deeply rooted in English cultural ways and daily pounded into the consciousness by the entertainment sector, the PR sector, the Marketing and Advertising Sector and all the propaganda engines private and public that lavish praise on egoism and "self-interest" has brought us to the incurable state of bona-fide psychopathology and an almost complete detachment from reality.

Who needs reality?, they say; there's virtual reality and making imagination substitute for the world.

Pathetic. "Make your dreams come true!"
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
For fucks sake...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: thedigitalfrenzy on Jul 31, 2009 11:40 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If Alternet runs another story with the word GONZO in the title I am going to go fucking bananas. You are defacing a writing style that you have no hopes of ever attaining.

Rape and pillage another adjective please. Using Gonzo in the title doesn't give your pablum more edge.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: For fucks sake... Posted by: xmvince
Kitsch sex and desensitivisation of humanity
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Changling on Jul 31, 2009 12:14 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I like pornography like the next man but I have limits. 50 waiting for sex with one woman is tiresome. For the woman, she is numb or else in pain from being rubbed raw. It is more a spectacle of self abuse than erotic. Maybe a gang sex scene with many men and/or women I would find erotic, depending on how it is done, but 50 isn't. Even 10 is too much, but with some they just escalate and this poor woman has decided to take the escalation as a meal ticket. Hope she is alright with that and doesn't regret it later.

Bush and Cheney along with the other presidents since Reagan have been giving us and the world a taste of their fantasy world templated, if not hammered into reality. The blood makes a good lubricant.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
wolfride
[Report this comment]
Posted by: wolfride on Jul 31, 2009 12:53 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Fine writing by Hedges. An excellent description of the culture. You can draw a parallel between food and pornography. Cheap food is replacing real food and addicting the users with sensations they can't understand or control. And Gonzo pornography is like most new television, devalued and cheap content create enormous profit for the license holders and distributors. In the porn industry many of the old timers decry the way in which cheaper and cheaper porn is pushing out the "quality" work. Hedges has done a fine job of explicating the way in which this corporate cycle plays its game of capture and destroy.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
A culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion is
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Flubbishone on Jul 31, 2009 1:30 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The problem with your thesis is that we cannot actually ever distinguish between reality and illusion. No culture has ever been totally able to, and we see this in the past:

Plato's allegory of the cave is describing a similar phenomenon to the spectacle of Debord or the simulation of Baudrillard. They are all describing the making of an object into the image, the reification of the image, making it the real. The image and the real are never completely distinguishable, this does not cause cultures to collapse. We can retreat more into the image, and that will not necessarially cause the culture to collapse as the image does generally approximate the real in many things. Which side is better is uncertain, but people will not wake up, they just like staying where they are (they could react violently, as they do in the allegory of the cave). I do not think that we will change out of this and I do not think it will crash our culture. If the image is totally shattered, the people would probably cause the collapse of the nation, of the culture from pure culture shock.

I do not think it is symptomatic of a collapsing culture either, as all cultures and all peoples have this same phenomenon: reification.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» Behold the spectacle!!!!!!!! Posted by: rafaeltoral
Porn is nearly maxxed out
[Report this comment]
Posted by: MOTELCALIFORNIA on Jul 31, 2009 1:52 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Really. The only thing left is to place snuff films under the protection of the First Amendment and that'll be that. People simply do not understand that sexual desire is a basic instinct and could care less whether you love the person you are having sex with or not. It only cares that you are horny and willing. The only purpose of a basic instinct is to satisfy basic needs and to propagate the species. You can enjoy sex all you want, but that's besides the point.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Porn is nearly maxxed out. Need to take a break Posted by: Changling
Oh well
[Report this comment]
Posted by: xmvince on Jul 31, 2009 1:53 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yeah I guess it is a lot harder to get laid in America considering I've lived here all my life and never fucked any girls, yet when I visited Italy there were many girls and had sex with one that I really liked. That was my first and only time tbh, but yeah, I work out a lot and say I have a very nice figure yet it's impossible for me to find a decent girl in America that doesn't just completely piss me off with immaturity. Maybe I just need an older woman? Maybe the teenage chicks are too superficial and don't want a serious relationship which is what I want..
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Oh well me too but without the trip to Italy or the sex. Posted by: Changling
Porn's Root Cause
[Report this comment]
Posted by: John Freeman on Jul 31, 2009 2:26 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This entire thread of conversation seems to be about the good/bad concerning Porn. I think when one looks at the reason porn exists the problem is much deeper. Consider that every main-stream religion looks at one of the main reasons for living (sex) as abhorant and thus creates many toxic ways we attempt to access something that should be as natural to us as breathing. Perhaps once we finish dealing with the scam that is our health care system, the mess religions have made out of our world might be a great clean-up project.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» Porn's Root Cause is: Posted by: rafaeltoral
» RE: Porn's Root Cause is the human brain Posted by: Changling
With more useless drivel comments on porn and Lou Dobbs, the author might be right.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Benn_Miller on Jul 31, 2009 2:44 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So much for alternative media. I was thinking of donating to Alternet but I will pass.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: With more useless drivel comments on porn and Lou Dobbs, the author might be right. Posted by: ReneT
Stop with the patronizing sexist bullshit.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Pissed Off Woman on Jul 31, 2009 3:21 PM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Chris Hedges, and a lot of the commentators here, are annoying me to death with their "concern" for the poor, poor gang-bang porn star. Why don't they see the males' roles in the gang-bang porno film as degrading? They're waiting in line to fuck somebody, and being paid less for it to boot. Oh no wait, that wouldn't be in accord with the image of woman-as-helpless-victim, would it? I doubt that Ariana's nearly as enthusiastic about being fucked by 65 guys as she's acting, but it is consensual sex. She made a choice to go into this business and do these types of scenes, and who are you to declare her less of a person for it? Also, she's not portraying it as a hateful forced experience either, but as something she's "insatiable" for. But that doesn't fit in well with your victim ideology, so you ignore it.

Yes, women need more economic opportunities so they're not forced into sex work. But those who are in the business are not helped at all by your "concern".
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» She'll probably become a born-again Christian after her porn career Posted by: Gabba_Gabba_Hey
» RE:Porn does not have to be degrading Posted by: Changling
» RE: Stop with the patronizing sexist bullshit. Posted by: maglindracia
Good Orgasms.
[Report this comment]
Posted by: melpol on Jul 31, 2009 3:48 PM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There is nothing on Earth as thrilling and important as a heightened sexual orgasm. The porn industry attempts to make that goal obtainable. reality and a powerful orgasm can never be more synchronized.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Good Orgasms. Posted by: rafaeltoral
CUTTHECABLE
[Report this comment]
Posted by: sowles on Jul 31, 2009 4:50 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I wonder if this writer has ever seen a pair of sissors. Man has been gazing and women have been exhibiting (their genitles) since the beginning of time. There are cave drawings to support this at Lasqoux, France that you won't see in your 8th grade history book. As my Swedish Ma used to say: "You don't have to open a garbage can to know there is garbage inside." For peeing out loud! When are these nutty liberals going to get it! You can't legislate morality. Respect for men and women comes from good parenting not from our idiot government. I think even Obamamammy gets this. Why is it that Libs, think that porno is only about sex/or the lack of it; when in fact, prono is the trashing of the mind? What Hitler, Stalin, Castro, and Mao did is real phongraphy of the soul. Nobody holds a gun to one's head to buy Penthouse or their ilk, but they do hold guns to your head to believe in their political filth. Grow up, get a job and get over it!
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
What starts in the mind manifests in reality
[Report this comment]
Posted by: humanrevolution on Jul 31, 2009 5:04 PM
Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Bottom line. Keep giving power to the thought of the end of the world and you will create it. Talk about a sick fetish. How about we give our thoughts, words and actions to making a better world instead of all the time blabbering about the end of the world? Just a thought.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Well, now we know
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Urstrly on Jul 31, 2009 5:25 PM
Current rating: 1 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Who watches all that porn that is making people rich, rich, rich. And what happens to the discarded "actresses" later is tragic, tragic, tragic. It has nothing to do with appreciation for one another and everything to do with making people and their genitals into objects.

And, BTW, are those porn ads running at the top and bottom of my screen from alternet? Yuck.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» Another puritan creep Posted by: ReneT
Pornography is not doing well economically
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Gabba_Gabba_Hey on Jul 31, 2009 5:27 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's been widely reported that the porn industry has been hurting economically. Larry Flynt even suggested a federal bailout, half-jokingly. This made a lot of news recently and it's surprising the author doesn't mention it, even in passing, nor do any of the comments here (unless I missed a "RE:" or two).

While there is more and more FREE porn put on the internet by amateurs, the sensational example of supposed moral decay cited by the author - a woman taking on 65 men for the camera - is apparently an example of old-fashioned porn for profit. (Isn't it? - did I miss something there?)

The article claims that the new hard-core porn has a target audience of 12-17 year old boys. But as one poster notes above, that audience doesn't have credit cards to pay for online porn.

Something here doesn't add up!
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Shakespeare wrote sleaze too --
[Report this comment]
Posted by: PaulK on Jul 31, 2009 6:55 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
William Shakespeare's bawdy comedies and tragedies were pretty much forgotten, along with the Bard of Avon, soon after his death. He happened to have a few admirers who kept his plays safe.

We are a species that fantasizes about sex. We also masturbate weekly or daily. We cannot stop. Ascetic monks have complained that they can't stop.

The author seems to think that our fantasies, sometimes acted out by actors of both genders for centuries, are wrong, evil, and lead to perversion. Our culture is about to die!

Generations of average people have fantasized about committing or experiencing rape, or about amazingly available and/or stupid (pick one) sexual partners. Our hormones want these scenarios and our bodies follow, while we lie alone at night, thousands of times over our lifetimes.

We are animals. Many, many people have tried date rape or something akin to going too far, something not agreed to previously by the lover or partner. It may well be that these rough sex movies about multiple male partners and willing, happy, highly sexualized women have nothing to do with reality on the street, but the image goes way back because it's genetically bred into our hormones and subconscious. It causes generation after generation to go crazy over love and eventually to unwillingly create millions of children. That's who we are as a species. Crazy!

This is from my male viewpoint. I understand that female-oriented pornography (see "Sex and the City" for example) has a considerably different focus on being helplessly swept away in love affairs. Is this equally the death of our culture?
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Two very different halves of the article...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: doctorsquared on Jul 31, 2009 9:36 PM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The first half of the article is a typical Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire-esque commentary on the decay of our society; it is also a fairly accurate assessment.

The second half, on the other hand, is an equally typical politically correct apologetic intellectual "gosh, how can these poor, defenseless women not know they are being degraded? Too bad they can't be educated by someone like me"-esque, out-of-touch-with-the-working-class take on pornography.

Whence this puritanism about sex on Alternet?
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: Two very different halves of the article... Posted by: ReneT
The capitalistic point of porn
[Report this comment]
Posted by: smendler on Aug 1, 2009 5:57 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What is disturbing about porn is not just its dehumanization/mechanization of the act of sex. There's also a deeper, underlying dynamic that shows up in other aspects of capitalistic culture. This is the dynamic of dissatisfaction: what you have isn't good enough; you should always want MORE. (This shows up in romance novels, too, by the way.)
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: The capitalistic point of porn Posted by: maglindracia
I knew Gonzo was a muppet
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Angie on Aug 1, 2009 8:32 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...but more to the point, this article was relevant for me in other ways. I had managed to make it to age 38, with 20 lovers, and no one asked me for anal sex (a few guys asked if I'd ever had it, but the conversation never went past my "eeuww"). My current beau of 3 months made a very compelling case for me doing it with him. I kinda enjoyed it 1 out of 4 times, but mostly didn't understand what all the hype was about. Once I felt what I thought was blood vessel burst, had the confirming drops of blood afterwards, had pain while pooping for a week afterwards, had lubed-up semen dripping out of me another time, and a general uncomfortable feeling during the act. Earlier this week, my butt seemed slightly leaky, so I attributed it to some stomach bug that my body was fighting. I had told my boyfriend that maybe I need to talk to some gay guys to find out how this thing is supposed to work. However, thanks to a couple candid posters here, I realized I'm setting myself up for hemorrhoids the size of grapefruits, wearing diapers, and anal reconstruction, at the rate I'm going.

What is relevant to the topic of this article is that my boyfriend's impression of what is "sexy, unforbidden..." and normal, was based on the fantasy illusion glamorously portrayed in his porn stash. Anal sex seems to serve men with a tight fit (at least initially?) and low rates of pregnancy. But, it doesn't seem to serve women. Especially if the guy is bi, has multiple partners, etc.

I'm all for him obtaining sexual gratification through visual stimulus and manual manipulation when I'm not up for the act. However, I don't know how much that medium is affecting his satisfaction in the real world. I don't know that his wanting me to get implants, regular brazilian waxes, moaning like the porn stars, with camera-ready action shots... and all his talk about wanting to cum on my face... I'm not sure that's the direction I want to be going in.

I'm sure my boyfriend objectifies women to a small degree. I'm trying to figure out how much, if any, of that is okay and can be part of a healthy relationship.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: I knew Gonzo was a muppet Posted by: sureshot45
» RE: I knew Gonzo was a muppet Posted by: maglindracia
» RE: I knew Gonzo was a muppet Posted by: maglindracia
Obama is our End
[Report this comment]
Posted by: C. Rich on Aug 1, 2009 9:07 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It is just facing it folks:

http://americaspeaksink.com/2009/07/is-obama-nigger-rich/
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Thank you
[Report this comment]
Posted by: party666 on Aug 1, 2009 9:14 AM
Current rating: 3 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Thank you for your share of points in this article

you have indeed saw through some of the bigger
imminent underlying problems in this society

Please don't mind all the negative comments,
just know that there are people out there who
support your points made here in this article

people should know that if they continue to be
blindfolded and try to "wrong the right" rather
than supporting what is really to "right the
wong", then they are only just creating more
problems within and disencourage many people from speaking anything that aren't congruent to what they feel or the norm. Like your article said, people have indeed become a lot more selfish and mainly at the expense of other peopl,that we can indeed tell. In fact, most of them have already been deluded.

Everyone has been programmed into loving
sex. However, porn doesn't create positive
consequences on the purpose of encourgaing good sex. Porn is all about self-gratification and selfish orgasms. It's one of the oldest, yet lamest excuse that has encouraged us human to behave like uncivilized animals, a backwards technique toward better
potential, deeper relationships between people and healthier progress. (notice that porn in this era is a lot more accessible than before the internet age and in fact,almost everywhere)

To those who will have read my comment, you can think whatever you would like to think and say whatever you would like to say, but I don't care because I already saw through the core of every one of you
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
grokagain
[Report this comment]
Posted by: grokagain on Aug 1, 2009 11:39 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I've read a number of comments and I'm surprised at many interpretations. The piece doesn't have anything to do with porn, it's just a vehicle. he could have talked about these reality shows where over weeks someone picks the love of their life....

it's about our wholesale retreat into illusion. and porn is illusion. illusion, like anything else, in moderation, is fine.

in this country we are becoming soooooo drawn to illusion that you can see people have a hard time differentiating illusion from reality. i mean, have you looked at fox news ratings?
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Sex is a Private Matter
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Just Me on Aug 1, 2009 12:17 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Sex is a private matter between consenting adults. It should be done with love and mutual respect and not with aggression and certainly not violence. What is seen in porn movies is not real and in many instances is a crime. The men and women who act in them are idiots with no other marketable skills nor do they have any shame or modesty. The crap that is shown when then used as a "teaching" tool for first timers sets such a bad image that I'm surprised there hasn't been a decline in the population because no normal person could live up to such abnormal standards. Those that use it as a substitute for sex since they don't have a partner quickly find that it creates even more tension rather than relieve it. All it shows is that women are to be degraded and that makes the jobs of those who fight for women's empowerment that much harder. I want unashamed sex with unbridled passion but only with the person that I know I will wake up to every day. Empty sex without responsibility and accountablity is for cowards - mostly men - which leaves women still the scorn of society when she becomes a single mother who then is not entitled to have sex anymore or risk having her children taken by the same government that actually promotes pornography snd permits men to continue to screw as many women as they want. I say ban all pornography or at least give it back the stigma it once had.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
alternet's comments function
[Report this comment]
Posted by: mollyfurie on Aug 1, 2009 12:27 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Why is it so darned hard to read alternet's comments. It's not worth the trouble.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Anthony D'Auria
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Tony D on Aug 1, 2009 5:21 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What's the big deal about porn and related sexual activity? We all recognize that mankind is a sexual animal like other animal species; it is just a hormone driven event (the reason there are so many of us.) It is a proven fact that sexual repression leads to deviate sexual activity. And repressed sexual activity is a religious phenomena propagated by religious fundamentalists who need to control. In countries and societies where there is no sexual repression there is no need for porn.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
maybe its the slow but steady change in gender roles
[Report this comment]
Posted by: sureshot45 on Aug 1, 2009 6:16 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
im thinking that since women are now in the workplace, marketplace, every other place besides sitting at home waiting to take care of a man..maybe men get off on this fantasy of total and complete degradation? i mean..if your wife/girlfriend/sister is now considered an equal..or even worse..your superior..maybe those are the guys consuming this porn. really a fantasy world where women are put in their 'place' so to speak.

who knows? everyone keeps saying 'porn is fantasty. its not meant to be real.'

i think that means our fantasies should be examined- i mean..what is it saying about society in general when an ultimate sexual fantasy involves one woman getting violently penetrated in several orafices for hours? or killed? or beaten? fantasies are things that in your 'fantasy world' would actually happen, right?

sometimes sex is just sex. but sometimes violent degrading sex is much more than just sex..to the consumer and those performing.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
» RE: maybe its the slow but steady change in gender roles Posted by: talkville
that hideous strength...
[Report this comment]
Posted by: DeanTaylor on Aug 1, 2009 9:33 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"The more we sever ourselves from a literate, print-based world, A WORLD OF COMPLEXITY AND NUANCE, A WORLD OF IDEAS, for one informed by comforting, reassuring images, fantasies, slogans and a celebration of violence the more we implode" [stress added].


As log as the neo-liberal agenda--i.e., unfettered market depredations and unregulated Wall Street speculation--is permitted full sway, as long as DC endorses that hideous, money/power-obsessed "ethic" which underwrites our day-to-day reality then the quality of our lives is lost to us. We forfeit that which we need for our own sense of well being, i.e., our complexity, nuance, the ideas which help us to imagine and (re-)create. Of course we will then seek outlet in fantastic, health-sapping escapism: drink, drugs, pornography, etc.

We are swept along in the money/power torrent--whether or not we approve of the money/power agenda is beside the point: we are involved on some level. In that it is informed solely by greed for personal gain capitalism cannot be rehabilitated, i.e., it must be contravened. It is the very antithesis of the complexity and nuance, the world of ideas, which is our own Life mainspring: it--i.e., Empire--is destroying our souls.

We need not be surprised when we read of the pecuniary gain to be had in pornography: capitalism itself is an obscenity, and pornographic films are merely one of its natural expressions. War in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan--and, soon, Iran--are another.

Welcome to hell kiddies. Abandon all hope ye who enter here...
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Majority rule????
[Report this comment]
Posted by: talkville on Aug 2, 2009 1:20 AM
Current rating: 1 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If all this regurgitated mish-mash of commentary sloshing down a growing drain-pipe column against the article by Hedges is any indication, it appears that the over-whelming force of opinion -- the "conventional" consensus -- STAY AWAY FROM MY BLOCK!!!

A troop of baboons scraggling around in an arid wasteland is ACTUALLY MUCH MORE ADVANCED AND EVOLVED than all those textual grunts and shrieks exemplified by a great number of those comments. That they are well-trained in typing is beyond question.

STAY AWAY FROM MY BLOCK! This is a human and social alliance of free men and women -- and we're armed and prepared to meet you if you should fantasize any moves to come around here.
[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]
Long live The USA...ha ha hha
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Saif on Aug 2, 2009 1:26 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
this is the liberty that the USA is promoting all over the world. The Liberty to live in illusion and leave enough space for the haves to act and dominate the others. The poor others who by ignorance think they are really living.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX