Summary: Selling exploits to government agencies is becoming a more and more lucrative business. Hackers can get paid anywhere between $5,000 and $250,000 for a security vulnerability. It's been known for a while that there's a huge market for buying a... Read more »
Is Democracy An Illusion?
John Stoehr writes on Al Jazeera:
Read more »In the US, the dominant political discourse consists of ideas put forth by the ruling class.
Karl Marx never visited the United States, but he nevertheless understood the country, because he understood capitalism. As you know, there’s no American ideology that’s mightier than capitalism. Equality, justice and the rule of law are nice and all, but money talks.
In their 1846 book The German Ideology, Marx and co-author Frederick Engels took a look at human history and made a plain but controversial observation. In any given historical period, the ideas that people generally think are the best and most important ideas are usually the ideas of the people in charge. If you have a lot of money and own a lot of property, then you have the power to propagandise your worldview and you have incentive to avoid appearing as if you’re propagandising your worldview. Or, as…
UPDATE: Iranian oil bourse will start trading oil in currencies other than the dollar from March 20
“The dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme is nothing more than a convenient excuse for the US to use threats to protect the 'reserve currency’ status of the dollar,” the newspaper, which calls itself the voice of the Islamic Revolution, said. ... Read more »
Netanyahu Moves Closer to Iran Attack
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is once again hinting at the possibility of an attack against Iran in the near future, saying that he won’t need US “blessing” for the attack, while insisting that the recent clashes in Gaza were all Iran... Read more »
Young Drug Users Ingest ‘Mystery White Powders’
A poll by The Guardian and Mixmag magazine reveals that in many cases people have no idea what drugs they are taking:
A fifth of young drug users admit to taking "mystery white powders" without any idea what they contain, according to an international Guardian survey that reveals the extent of reckless behaviour among a new generation of high-risk drug takers. The poll of 15,500 people by the Guardian and Mixmag magazine also found that more respondents in the UK and US admitted taking cannabis than either tobacco or energy drinks. Those who defined themselves as clubbers were more likely to take ecstasy than smoke cigarettes... Read more »
Military Models Drone Controllers On Playstation
New York Review of Books on how the Pentagon is drawing inspiration for warfare from video games (which have historically drawn inspiration from warfare): And yet the US military does little to discourage the notion that this peculiar brand of long-dis... Read more »
The Declining Influence of the U.S. Constitution
Joel S. Hirschhorn writes at Common Dreams:
Read more »Among Americans there remains strong pride about the US Constitution, even though there is widespread support for creating reform amendments to it. Globally, however, what should surprise Americans is a significant loss of respect for it. Other nations, especially those creating new democracies, see better constitutions elsewhere. This is not opinion. It is fact. And it is important to understand this historic shift.
A new university study sends a disturbing message to all Americans that want to hang on to the fiction that the US constitution is not only the world’s best one, but does not need to be improved. Do not mentally block this finding: “The U.S. Constitution appears to be losing its appeal as a model for constitutional drafters elsewhere,” according to the study by David S. Law of Washington University in St. Louis and Mila Versteeg of the University of Virginia.
What exists today is far different than what was…
Italy’s Vincenzo Nibali wins stage with solo breakaway; US rider Horner …
PRATI DI TIVO, Italy Italian cyclist Vincenzo Nibali won the toughest stage of the weeklong Tirreno-Adriatico race Sunday with an impressive solo breakaway on the uphill finish, while 40-year-old American Chris Horner retained his overall lead. After H... Read more »
FBI Claims Presidential Assassination Orders Could Apply Within the U.S.
Via Russia Today:
Read more »United States Attorney General Eric Holder recently explained how the president can order the assassination of his own citizens abroad. But did his rationalization justify executions within the US? Apparently, the FBI wouldn’t exclude it.
Responding to a congressional inquiry this week on the rationale of assassinating Americans, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller affirmed that he himself isn’t too clear on the what Holder explained.
The attorney general addressed an audience at Northwestern University in Chicago this week with an explanation for US President Barack Obama’s killing of three American citizens overseas last year. Alleged terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki and two other US-born citizens were executed in a drone strike last year in Yemen, a kill that the White House has been reluctant to discuss in detail until just recently. Speaking from Northwestern this week, Holder insisted, however, that the details the president acted on were “sufficient under the…
What Do Secular Humanists And Atheists Want?
Thousands of Secular Humanists and Atheists will gather on the National Mall in Washington for Reason Rally on March 24. What do we want? We want to restore the values of our nation’s founders with a specific vision and plan for a Secular America.
In 2012 the Religious Right has veto power over one of two major political parties in the most powerful nation on earth. To win the Republican nomination all candidates must pledge allegiance to One Nation Under a Religious Right God. It’s Theocracy-palooza. Yet Mr. Conservative, Barry Goldwater, said, “I don’t have any respect for the Religious Right.” Why the change?
Shortly after the Republican convention in 1980, Ronald Reagan, stood before evangelical ministers in Dallas, declaring, “I know that you cannot endorse me” but “I endorse you.” This pivotal declaration, the culmination of effective organizing by the Religious Right, led to our current unprecedented moment in American history.
Often…
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