Shame on Obama.

Why on earth did Pex have to be so goddamnn right?

Less Americans have access to basic necessities than when Obama was elected.

Goddamn scum.

A case study of a corrupt occupation.

John Dolan is one of the good ones. He is a bitter and pessimistic man but such are the wages of speaking truth to power. People far better informed than me have suggested he has a further curse, he is an unrecognised artistic genius, doomed like Van Gogh or Nietzsche to have his literary work recognised only after his death. I mean sure you can be high minded and stuff but I'd imagine all things being equal those with gifts would like to be recognised in their lifetime, especially by young attractive people and rich people of any shape size or colour. I mean damn, who wouldn't?

He was one of the main people behind The Exile and is still an occasional contributor to The Exiled. While he did a lot of good work under his own name his most popular stuff was probably when he posed as http://exiledonline.com/cat/war-nerd/>The War Nerd where he did quite probably the best analysis of modern conflicts you're likely to read, stripped of jingoism and bolstered with the context we're seldom provided with. To actually make a living, for the powers that be make sure dissent isn't profitable, he worked in academia all over the world until a few years ago while at the University of Victoria he was fired for encouraging students to criticise George Monbiot. Now I'm not sure of the specifics and since I like Monbiot I'd like to hope he didn't personally push for the dismissal but who knows. He wrote of the trials of extreme poverty in North America and one can thus understand how he came to be employed at the corrupt right wing institution that is the America University of Iraq.

He got fired after working there for little over a year but he experienced enough to write a lengthy article about how messed up the place was. I feel little need to criticise a formerly destitute man for selling out in order to eat. The way things work you either sell out or start off rich enough not to need to worry about an income, the game is rigged. Indeed the concept of selling out seems to me to mean you get nice and rich off of betraying your ideals but you don't go into academia to get rich (except maybe if you're an American sports coach):


Bear that in mind when reading the article for if an institution like a university which one generally wouldn't associate with a bonanza of graft ("suck on it losers, I got three of my monographs bought by the library!") you can begin to guess how terrible the corruption and fraud is in occupation institutions that are associated with fabulous wealth. That is not to say the American University of Iraq is simply a cautionary hint to the wider Iraq situation, it the people who are paying considerable amounts of money to learn there are being shafted by the cronyism and blind right wing ideology touting of a faculty so cowed and intellectually timid as to no longer really be able to call themselves academics.

Still when it comes time to bomb Iran we will likely sell the Kurds out to gain Turkish support, and dead Kurds wont need universities.

Oregon congressional candidate thinks law is more of a guideline.

pretend I made an Oregon trail joke here, something about only being able to carry 15lbs of illegal funding back to the wagon or whatever

A Republican candidate for a Congressional district in Oregon has received mysterious support to the tune of $150k from anonymous donors which if it is from a single individual is extremely illegal. He appeared on the Rachel Maddow show to... well allegedly to address this issue but mostly to rant and gurn like a crazy old man. What clear message he did give was that because his Democratic opponent has around a million dollars of funding (to his ~$350k) and because Maddow can't account for every penny said Democratic candidate has spent (which is not really relevant as long as it was donated legally) then him receiving $150k of highly suspicious funding is of no consequence. I suppose he sees campaign funding laws as a kind of handicap system so the less likely you are to win the less they apply to you.



To save you from having to watch the later parts of the video, he is quite uncomfortable to watch, I will point out the guy is... how should I say it? Adamant in his claims he is a scientist but in possession of insights and views that the majority of the scientific community is not. To wit, he is fucking crazy. Hes a Republican so his denial of global warming and Evolution aren't especially shocking. Nor is the fact he supports home schooling (he has home school curriculum business) but his vehemence is noteworthy, he believes the public school system should be abolished:

He also believes Women and African Americans don't have the mental capacity or inclination for science and that the best place to store nuclear waste is in the foundations of buildings, why? because it is good for you!

Robinson is an advocate for nuclear power and a proponent of radiation hormesis, a theory claiming that very low levels of radiation can be beneficial to humans. He writes in a 1997 issue of Access to Energy, “The most sensible use of low-level radioactive waste is as a concrete and insulation additive in residential homes — especially in areas where there is insufficient natural radiation for optimum health.” He told EW that a state like Oregon, with its lower radiation rates, suffers from higher cancer rates than Colorado, which has higher background radiation. The damage done at a very low level of radioactivity keeps the immune system in shape, he says. In response to a question regarding whether this is similar in principle to homeopathy, he says, “Homeopathy is so strange; it’s outside of my field of specialization.”

Both the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements and United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation say there is no evidence to support the theory of radiation hormesis. What has been proven is that high levels of radiation are indeed pretty bad for our health.

So really I suppose his disinterest in the law is unsurprising, he seems pretty disinterested in reality as a whole. But after a few depressing posts of late I can bring you a ray of hope in regards to this guy. As things currently stand he has a 0.0% chance of winning the election. All the more reason to cheat I suppose.