The Zero Growth Mind

Yes the world is returning to a zero growth or negative growth future very soon. Agriculturally and financially. But it won't be idylic. All the projections for the present and the near future are based on growth. Economies can't survive with zero growth. Capitalism demands growth. Right now the bailouts and stimulus programs are creating an illusion of growth. But it is winding down in a hurry. Watch Obama's speech about the economy tonight. Peacenik will. Will Obama mention growth? Will he tell the truth? Will he tell people how to survive in a zero growth world? Can one survive in a zero growth world?

Posted by Ugo Bardi on September 14, 2009

Ancient peasants lived, mostly, in a "zero growth" world and, perhaps, in the future we'll return to a condition in which the finiteness of resources is an obvious fact of life. We see in this painting a group of 19th century Dutch peasants as painted by Vincent Van Gogh, who had an uncanny capability of showing not just the exterior aspect of things but also their inner reality ("The potato eaters", 1885, the Van Gogh museum, Amsterdam)

We often think that we have a problem of scarcity of resources. It is not so: scarcity is not absolute. Whether we have enough of something or not depends on our perception of what we need. And, because we seem to think that we never have enough, we tend to use what we have faster than it can be replaced. It is the phenomenon called "overexploitation" or "overshoot". It is the main problem that we are facing and it is all because of the way the human mind works. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, overexploitation is all in the brain of the exploiter.

Nate Hagens has argued several times in "The Oil Drum" that the human mind is geared for growth (see, for instance here ). Apparently, we act on the basis of a series of neurotransmitters (e.g. dopamine) that make us search for continuously renewed stimulation. This way of functioning of the human mind is what generates our tendency of "discounting the future", that is of giving a lower value to the future than to the present. This rapidly declining discount function is the key of the mechanism of overexploitation.

Read on...

Iran War Drums Begin Beating in Washington

Peacenik must have missed the memo where the world agreed that Iran cannot have nuclear power, and the U.S. and or Israel have the responsibility to prevent Iran from having nuclear power. In fact Peacenik seems to recall the U.S. unilaterally disavowing the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

But the warmongers want their war and the fearmongering media is only too happy to play along. The U.S. has circled Iran. The U.S. has shown a willingness and desire to wage war. If you were Iran what would you do?

by Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe



WASHINGTON - As nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West continue to move slowly, U.S. President Barack Obama is coming under growing pressure from what appears to be a concerted lobbying and media campaign urging him to act more aggressively to stop Iran's nuclear program.

Obama has given Tehran an end-of-September deadline to respond substantively to his offer of diplomatic engagement. But already hawks in the U.S. – backed by hardline pro-Israel organizations – have pressed him to quickly impose "crippling" economic sanctions against Tehran, and some are arguing that he should make preparations for a military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The pressure campaign kicked off in earnest this week. On Thursday, hundreds of leaders and activists from the U.S. Jewish community descended on Washington to lobby for harsher sanctions, while widely-publicised media reports suggested that Iran is already nearing the verge of a nuclear capability.

Read on...

A 9/11 Reality Check

punditman says...9-11. It is unlikely that this blog, and thousands like it, would even exist if not for that fateful day 8 years ago. Eight years ago, everyone was discussing what the Bush administration was going to do in the wake of the attacks on New York's Twin Towers. Anyone with a driblet of political instinct knew there would be war in Afghanistan. So how is that working out? If someone went to sleep eight years ago and woke up today, they may have trouble believing that the Afghan War is escalating as I write this.

Eight years ago, some of us predicted there would be an assualt on liberty and a crackdown on dissent. And excuses and lies for more war too, in Iraq, or anywhere deemed necessary to go after those "with global reach." 9-11 offered little Hitlers everywhere international carte blanche to forego civil rights in the name of security. It gave us a permanent warfare state that shows no signs of abating. It gave us torture without accountability. 9-11 dumbed us down so that those who never ask the right questions and always avoid the real issues were alloted permanent prime time coverage, while anyone with a lick of common sense went scrambling off to the blogosphere attempting to make sense of planet weird. 9-11 was the perfect gift to the forces of stupidity and reaction. Too perfect, almost.

by Robert Scheer

What if eight years ago the World Trade Center had been leveled by a small nuclear bomb that took out most of lower Manhattan as well? How many millions of innocent civilians would we have killed in retaliation? Would we still be a free society, or would Dick Cheney have attained the power of a demented king, having moved on from snooping on our phone calls and outing honest CIA agents to destroying the last vestiges of the rule of law?

As assaults on a society go, the 9/11 attacks, which left 3,000 dead and are sure to be described in this anniversary week as being among the greatest of historical outrages, were something less than that, given the world’s experience with the ravages of war. The countless Russians and the 6 million Jews killed by those so finely educated Germans come to mind. The 3.4 million Vietnamese, mostly rice farmers, whom Robert McNamara admitted to having helped kill with his carpet-bombing of their country, are a forgotten footnote. Yet we who have never experienced such carnage on our home front all too easily poke out tens of thousands of eyes for each lost one of our own.

Surely two planes crashing into office buildings and another hitting the Pentagon doesn’t compare to the leveling of every major city in Japan with conventional bombing, capped off by the mass murder of hundreds of thousands more at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Speaking of eyes lost, mark the words of Hiroshima’s mayor two years ago: “That fateful summer, 8:15 AM. The roar of a B-29 breaks the morning calm. A parachute opens in the blue sky. Then suddenly, a flash, an enormous blast—silence—hell on Earth. The eyes of young girls watching the parachute were melted.”

Keep Reading...

Soon to Be Freed, Shoe-Throwing Iraqi Journalist Showered With Gifts: "I Feel Like Michael Jackson"

Peacenik salutes Muntazer al-Zaidi. Have a good weekend.




By Martin Chulov and Rory McCarthy, The Guardian.

Posted September 11, 2009.

Muntazer al-Zaidi has won the adulation of millions, who believe his act of defiance did what their leaders had been too cowed to do.

As his size 10s spun through the air towards George W Bush, Muntazer al-Zaidi -- the man the world now knows as the shoe-thrower -- was bracing for an American bullet.

"He thought the secret service was going to shoot him," says Zaidi's younger brother, Maitham. "He expected that, and he was not afraid to die."

Zaidi's actions during the former U.S. president's swansong visit to Iraq last December have not stopped reverberating in the nine months since.

Read on...

Obama's Quagmire Looks a Lot like Vietnam

Afghanistan. Iraq. Vietman. And on and on and on. The Taliban are not al Qaeda. Canada's security is not affected by Afghanistan. There is no longer any rational or valid reason for Canadian forces to be in Afghanistan. Canada's federal deficit just topped $50 billion. Canada cannot afford a costly misadventure in Afghanistan.

An election in Canada appears to be imminent. Where does each party stand on Canada's role in Afghanistan? Peacenik is afraid to find out. Peacenik is already demoralized by Canada's role in Afghanistan. Nothing good can come from Canada's continued participation in Afghanistan. Can't any politician stand up and convince an average Canadian voter that Canada should bring the troops home now? Is it that hard of an argument to make? Does Don Cherry make Canada's foreign policy?

By Robert Scheer, Truthdig. Posted September 11, 2009.



The way he's headed on Afghanistan, Barack Obama is threatened with a quagmire that could bog down his presidency

True, he doesn't seem a bit like Lyndon Johnson, but the way he's headed on Afghanistan, Barack Obama is threatened with a quagmire that could bog down his presidency. LBJ also had a progressive agenda in mind, beginning with his war on poverty, but it was soon overwhelmed by the cost and divisiveness engendered by a meaningless, and seemingly endless, war in Vietnam.

Meaningless is the right term for the Afghanistan war, too, because our bloody attempt to conquer this foreign land has nothing to do with its stated purpose of enhancing our national security. Just as the government of Vietnam was never a puppet of communist China or the Soviet Union, the Taliban is not a surrogate for al Qaeda. Involved in both instances was an American intrusion into a civil war whose passions and parameters we never fully have grasped and will always fail to control militarily.

Read on...

Omega 3, Brain Health, and Society

Reading this article prompted Peacenik to go to Peacenik's vitamin cabinet to check. Because Peacenik has not been taking any Omega 3 supplements. Now Peacenik is wondering if Peacenik's brain has been mis-firing because of a lack of Omega 3. Peacenik discovered this in Peacenik's vitamin cabinet: Omega-3 Salmon and Fish Oil, Halibut Liver Oil, Cold-FX (non drowsy), Centrum Chewables (multivitamin), vitamin E (400 iu). Is Peacenik taking enough vitamin supplements? Is Peacenik a victim of vitamin supplier marketing? Should Peacenik take something else? What do you take? What should Peacenik take?

OMEGA 3, BRAIN HEALTH, AND SOCIETY

Our distant paleolithic ancestors ate an omnivorous diet composed of wild plants, animal meat and fishes. About 10,000 years ago, domesticated animal meat, milk, eggs and cereals grains were gradually introduced in the human diet. During the 19th century, refined sugars, refined grains and hydrogenated vegetable fats became part of the human diet. Vegetable oils, high-fructose corn syrup and processed food became very popular in the 20th century. All these recent changes have altered our genetically determined biology. To function optimally, our body and especially our brain need to respect our evolutionary dietary history.

The fatty acids composition of modern diet plays an important role in brain function, and thus behavior. Modern diets have created a great imbalance between two important fatty acids nutrients. Omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids are essential nutrients to human health and cannot be manufactured by the body itself. We must get them from food, the best source of omega 3 being fish while the main source of omega 6 being vegetable oils. Our distant ancestors ate a diet with a balanced ratio of omega 6 /omega 3 fatty acids of 1:1. The human brain evolved for hundreds of thousands of years fed with balanced portions of game meat, fish, fruits, vegetables and roots.

Read on...

Update: Peacenik just remembered why Peacenik wasn't taking the Omega 3 that is in Peacenik's cabinet. The fucking pill is big enough to choke a horse. Peacenik took one. It was hard to swallow. Peacenik needs to find smaller Omega 3 pill.

Tomgram: Measuring Success in Afghanistan

The futility of America's and Canada's military adventure in Afghanistan is palpable. There is no need for Canada to be involved in Afghanistan. Maybe the original reason for Canada to get involved was so that Canada would have an excuse for not getting involved in Iraq. And to curry favour with an neo con president of the U.S. Neither good reasons.

But nothing good is coming from Canada's involvement. Unless you think the militarization and brutalization of Canadian society is a good thing. Unless you think spending money on killing is better than spending money on healthcare. You like the militaristic patriotism of the U.S? It has taken root in Canada. Peacenik was proud of Canada's foreign policy when Canada was a peacemaker. Time to exit Afghanistan. Past time.

Measuring a War Gone to Hell
By Tom Engelhardt

Here may be the single strangest fact of our American world: that at least three administrations -- Ronald Reagan's, George W. Bush's, and now Barack Obama's -- drew the U.S. "defense" perimeter at the Hindu Kush; that is, in the rugged, mountainous lands of Afghanistan. Put another way, while Americans argue feverishly and angrily over what kind of money, if any, to put into health care, or decaying infrastructure, or other key places of need, until recently just about no one in the mainstream raised a peep about the fact that, for nearly eight years (not to say much of the last three decades), we've been pouring billions of dollars, American military know-how, and American lives into a black hole in Afghanistan that is, at least in significant part, of our own creation.

Imagine for a moment, as you read this post, what might have happened if Americans had decided to sink the same sort of money -- $228 billion and rising fast -- the same "civilian surges," the same planning, thought, and effort (but not the same staggering ineffectiveness) into reclaiming New Orleans or Detroit, or into planning an American future here at home. Imagine, for a moment, when you read about the multi-millions going into further construction at Bagram Air Base, or to the mercenary company that provides "Lord of the Flies" hire-a-gun guards for American diplomats in massive super-embassies, or about the half-a-billion dollars sunk into a corrupt and fraudulent Afghan election, what a similar investment in our own country might have meant.

Read on...

Chew It Up, Spit It Out, Then Brew. Cheers!

As part of Peacenik's ongoing series about the brewing industry, Peacenik offers this story about Latin American corn beer. Peacenik is a big fan of beer, but Peacenik thinks Peacenik will take a pass on trying Chicha beer.

By JOYCE WADLER

Published: September 8, 2009

Rehoboth Beach, Del.

Ryan Collerd for The New York Times

SAM CALAGIONE, the founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales, has a taste for exotic brews. There is Midas Touch, created from sediment found on drinking vessels in the tomb of King Midas in Turkey, and Chateau Jiahu, inspired by trace ingredients from a 9,000-year-old dig in China.

But his latest seemed extreme, even for an extreme brewer. He planned on making a batch of chicha, a traditional Latin American corn beer.

And in order to follow an authentic Peruvian method as closely as possible, the corn would be milled and moistened in the chicha maker’s mouth.

Read on...

The Labor Day Blues

Here is Jim Kunstler's take on the state of the media world: "Whatever the politics of the moment may be, national attitudes are surely changing. A psychology of hardship is overtaking even the bread-and-circus blandishments of the Cheez Doodle / infotainment / professional sports matrix of idiocy that the sociopathic corporate axis-of-evil operates to take advantage of ordinary human weakness."

Read his whole article. As usual it is entertaining. And kind of frightening. Meanwhile Obama gives a speech to school kids today. The media is painting it as wildly controversial. When George Bush went into classrooms to read his favorite book to the children, "The Hungry Caterpillar" it wasn't controversial. Peacenik says some things never change.

by Jim Kunstler

One national moment-of-nausea this Labor Day weekend struck Sunday morning, when CNN's John King led off his 10 a.m. State of the Union show with a valentine to ABC's Diane Sawyer, on her becoming anchor of that network's evening news. (This was the most important news of the week???) The old legacy networks have taken on the role of dishing out reassurance to an anxious and insecure public as job number one, and the subtext of the Sawyer lede was that a Mommy figure would soon be in place to soothe the multitudes even as the nation free-falls into bankruptcy and disorder. This is supposed to be a counterpoint to the chorus of smug, braying rabble-rousers who inflame the crowds on Fox News and MSNBC, and CNBC -- the Glen Becks and Keith Olbermans and Dennis Kneales -- who work the anger regions of the brain.

The inherent conflicts arise from a nation that simply cannot bring itself to try getting its house in order. Instead of adult leadership, we prefer good parent / bad parent therapy -- a psychodrama of alternating messages of reassurance and punishment that provides distraction from problems and conundrums too horrible to face. One unfortunate result is the evaporating legitimacy of anyone or anything in authority, and that is extremely dangerous at a time like this because it creates the perfect opportunity for the rise of a corn-pone Hitler who will beat a path straight into a national ordeal-by-fire, and make everybody feel better by telling them clearly what to do.

Read on...

Meet the Press's Idea of a 'Debate'

Here are two examples of why the mainstream media is broken. Could there be a more slanted, tired, irrelevant panel ever. Neo cons all. Peacenik is so tired of all the same pundits shaping policy debates in the U.S. that Peacenik may kick in Peacenik's tv screen. Do pundits have to die to get off Peacenik's tv screen? Do pundits never retire? Ever?

by Glenn Greenwald

On Sunday, Meet the Press hosted a panel discussion to debate two primary issues: (1) foreign policy -- specifically, the war in Afghanistan, and (2) health care. The panel: Rudy Giuliani,Tom Friedman, Harold Ford, Jr., and Tom Brokaw (as Jay Rosen often notes, Meet the Press is doing a fantastic job of fulfilling its pledge to present "fresh voices" in its discussions).

With regard to Afghanistan, there is a major debate currently taking place about whether we should stay in that country. A majority of Americans now opposes the war. But there was not a single participant there who shares that view. All of them believe that it is imperative we remain, and put on their little General hats to exchange deeply Serious analyses of how we need to adjust our strategy and tactics for greater mission success. Of course, all of three of those whose views were known about Iraq -- Friedman, Ford and Giuliani -- were vehement supporters of the invasion. As always, not only does support for that war not produce shame or even impair one's credibility and Seriousness, but the opposite is true: having supported it is a prerequisite for being considered credible and Serious, which is why those are the only people -- still -- from whom we hear when it's time to convene Serious discussions of foreign policy. What an odd filtering standard for The Liberal Media to use.

Read on...