Showing posts with label toronto star. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toronto star. Show all posts

2/22/09

Straight Talk at the Smokeshop

punditman says...

This morning Punditman went to his local variety store to pick up a copy of the Toronto Star, which sometimes contains some interesting content and perspectives that Punditman may have missed in his online probes. In fact, the Star is about as far as you can go within North America's old dead tree information and doctrinal system of media enslavement before the strictures of institutional self-censorship kick in. Europe of course is a different story with a wider range of permissable opinion. Enough Chomsky-speak.

As Punditman stood in line, the man in front of punditman (MFP) noticed that the debit machine said "Chase" on it. The store owner (SO) is East Asian and speaks broken English. Here is their conversation as heard by Punditman:

MFP (pointing to the debit machine): "Chase. They're the bad people. Money, money, money."

SO: "Money, money, money."

MFP: "That's the Rockefellers. They're the ones responsible for this 'national debt.'"

SO: (chuckles).

MFP: "But there's no national debt. It's bullshit. The MFP then gathered up his groceries and said, "Thank you sir," and departed.

Punditman considered adding his two cents worth but was not yet caffeinated; who knows what gibberish may have flowed from Punditman's logy Sunday morning brain? Punditman considered striking up a conversation, because he was interested in discovering how the MFP arrived at his conspiracy theory regarding Chase Bank (and no doubt the Federal Reserve Board too—as being responsible for yet another "engineered" economic crisis as well as every war since 1914—I'm guessing the MFP had heard that one too).

It occurred to Punditman that the MFP may be a reader of Punditman and perhaps MFP has read one too many of Peacenik's posts, followed a link or two and ended up at From the Wilderness' Peak Oil Blog? Then Punditman realized that if that were so, MFP would have been doing his grocery shopping at the Bulk Barn instead of a variety store. Punditman also noticed that the MFP was buying a copy of the Toronto Sun and so immediately dismissed the notion that the MFP was a Punditman reader. Perhaps the MFP has read the Turner Diaries and trains with some far-right, wingnut survivalist group on the edge of town? One never knows.

Punditman has decided there are three types of people in the world:

1. People who get most of their information and formulate most of their opinions by surfing the internet, which contains a broad range of perspective, including everything from wingnut to the best of the best. At least these people are thinking.
2. People who get most of their information and formulate most of their opinions by reading newspapers, which generally contain a narrow range of perspective. At least these people are trying to think (or think they are trying).
3. People who don't read but get most of their information and formulate most of their opinions by absorbing sponge-like, news soundbites from TV. These people have stopped thinking.

As far as reliable sources, Punditman trusts #1 more than #2 and laments the fact that #3 is even a category.

12/4/07

Nuclear Weapons Bombshell for Bush

AP PHOTO

Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility is seen in a June satellite photo.
U.S. spy agencies insist Tehran scrapped arms bid in 2003, despite White House rhetoric
Toronto Star
December 04, 2007

WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON–Iran scrapped its pursuit of a nuclear weapon four years ago, according to a declassified security document released yesterday, contradicting the bellicose rhetoric aimed at Tehran by U.S. President George W. Bush.

Just six weeks ago, Bush linked Iran's nuclear ambitions to a potential World War III, but the National Intelligence Estimate painted a picture of an Iran guided by sober cost-benefit analyses, not the wild-eyed rush to destruction often described by the White House.

Although the report says Iran has left the door open to pursue a bomb, it now estimates it is unlikely to have the wherewithal to develop such a weapon before 2015.

Critics who had been fearful that Bush and U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney were weighing military strikes on Tehran stressed yesterday's report now offers an opening for a "diplomatic surge" with the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The National Intelligence Estimate represents the consensus of 16 separate American spy agencies and is provided to U.S. military and political leaders to help craft strategy or respond to perceived threats.

A full report was provided to Bush last week before a declassified version was given to U.S. legislators by Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence.

The review, which represents a complete about-face from a 2005 report on Iran, brought memories to the fore of the botched 2002 intelligence on Iraq which led to the U.S. invasion the following spring.

Full article...

punditman says...
White House to intelligence community: "What? Don't you know yet that we make the intelligence fit our policy, not the other way around?"