2005.4.5=2[#95]:4703.2.27[#56/60]: [phones..] BoA tel. 1)Pope. 2)Confucian Jen/China's Executions. 3)Right-wing Radios/Schiavo. 4)Globalism?(long)

[Web to Cell] "Send a Message to a Cell Phone": http://www.smseverywhere.com/send.htm [Phone to Human] quickly: https://www.quickbase.com/db/bam6rdiey?a=q [Tibetan Studies] around SF Bay Area: http://www.stanford.edu/group/scbs/ARC/tibet/ http://dalailama.stanford.edu/index.html Clear cool then mild: Up late, emails to [G]'s idea of love to Confucian Jen answer at 1:07pm. Late lunch. Not out to bank, Rebecca's asst. tel then Rebecca tel. Sons back, but still not Mei, I'm still emailing at 8:48pm! She is back at 9:10 from computer class and cooking now when I have just finished emails for the first time at 9:20! What a long day answering [C] & [G]. Discover a small pile of tax materials. After dinner drive out for newspaper, then finish emails for the second time at 12:39am now. Jyun is out with his computer again. Finishing this now. Jyun in, bed 2:15! 1) Pope John Paul II: (1) "Above All Else, Life", by HELEN PREJEAN [a Catholic nun, is the author of "Dead Man Walking" and, most recently, "The Death of Innocents."], NYTimes OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR; Published: April 4, 2005: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/04/opinion/04prejean.html "" Boulder, Colo. — Of the many great legacies of Pope John Paul II, the one I prize the most is this: he was instrumental in helping the Catholic Church reach a position of principled opposition to the death penalty - an opposition that brooks no exceptions. "" (2) "Papal Legacy: Questioning Capitalism", Marcin Król: by TomPaine.com, April 04, 2005: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/papal_legacy_questioning_capitalism.php?dateid=20050404 ""John Paul II is difficult to understand for many Americans. He, like the church he led, was neither Democrat nor Republican. This Pope was more pro-human rights than Jimmy Carter and more anti-communist than Ronald Reagan. But it was in economics that the Pope was even more challenging to the American mind. Polish scholar Marcin Król explains John Paul II's "Third Way" between capitalism and communism. It's worth a read. Marcin Król is dean of history at Warsaw University, holder of its Erasmus chair, and publisher of Res Publica, Poland’s leading intellectual journal."" 2) Confucian Jen vs. China's Executions: (1) "THE CONFUCIAN JEN: A CRITICAL HERMENEUTICS", MANUEL B. DY JR.: http://www.crvp.org/book/Series03/III-10/chapter_xiv.htm "" Jen is a central concept in Confucian philosophy. Its philosophy of the person is built on the man of jen; "Humanity (jen) is the distinguishing characteristic of man. . . ."1 It is also the principal virtue of Confucian ethics,2 and the ethos of its social philosophy and metaphysics. No doubt, Confucianism would not be what it purports to be without jen. The aim of this paper is to subject Confucian jen to a critical hermeneutics as understood by Jürgen Habermas and inspired by his debate with Hans Georg Gadamer. The basis for such an ap-plication is the similarity of Habermas’s emphasis on the link of knowledge and human interests with the Confucian unity of know-ledge and action. A parallelism can also be noted between Ha-bermas’s three processes of symbolic reproduction of the human species: cultural transmission, social integration, and socialization, and Confucius’s three goals of life and thought: to transmit the Chou culture, to reform society, and to educate the people. "" "" Following Scheler’s insight, we may say that the human being as an individual is indeed subordinate to the state or society, and that the state therefore has the right to oblige one to subordinate one’s individual interests for the good of society as a whole. But as person, unique, non-objectifiable, irreducible and unrepeatable, the human being rises above the state which exists so that the person may grow as a unique being. Nevertheless, the human being can grow to become a person only by participating and by responding to the value of others in a community. The paradox of this unity of personal cultivation and community growth can be reconciled only if we admit of a relationship with an Absolute Person that grounds the solidarity of moral persons. "" (2) China's Executions: " Death penalty 'at record levels' ", UK News; Last Updated: Monday, 4 April, 2005, 23:24 GMT 00:24 UK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4409857.stm "" In Iran, the death penalty sometimes comes after a flogging Nearly 4,000 people were executed worldwide in 2004 - the most in nearly a decade, Amnesty International says. China carried out more executions than all other countries combined - at least 3,400 - the human rights group says. The global rise in executions was "alarming", said Amnesty's UK director Kate Allen, who called the figures from China "genuinely frightening". "" 3) US Right-wing Radios & Schiavo: (1) "Right-wing Radio", by Sarah Posner [[ a writer and former attorney who most recently practiced at Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, where she brought legal challenges to court secrecy and litigated consumer rights and civil rights cases. She is a contributing writer for Gadflyer.com. ]], AlterNet. Posted April 5, 2005: "Religious broadcasters are squeezing community radio right off the FM dial." http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21639/ "" The story of low-power radio is a cautionary tale on how a progressive victory can quickly be turned to conservative gain. Thanks to Rupert Murdoch, Clear Channel, and Sinclair Broadcasting, the right wing has long dominated corporate media. Now religious broadcasters are busy pushing community radio right off the FM dial. Low-power FM (LPFM) radio is a service created five years ago by the Federal Communications Commission in response to an effective lobbying by progressive activists -- that enables schools, churches, civic associations, or clubs to establish their own neighborhood radio stations. Yet this vision of locally operated, independently programmed, and not-for-profit media is being threatened with extinction before it even gets off the ground. "" (2) Schiavo: "Terri's Final Irony", by Jane Fleming [[ "executive director of the Young Democrats of America and former executive director of the Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders. She can be contacted via e-mail at executivedirector@yda.org or at (202) 639-8585" ]], AlterNet. Posted April 5, 2005: "Republicans who disingenuously stood up for Terri Schiavo's life are the very ones who have blocked legislation that would have granted access to treatment of her eating disorder and that could help millions of women and men who suffer from mental illness." http://www.alternet.org/story/21668/ "" Why is it ironic that Terri died of starvation? Because the reason she had a heart attack, which resulted in her 15-year life and death struggle, was her life and death struggle with an eating disorder. The saddest part is Terri is not alone, one in 10 people who struggle with anorexia will die because of starvation, cardiac arrest or other complications, yet Republican leadership continues to block legislation to ensure full and equitable access to mental health treatment. If you watch TV or skim the papers, you would think the reason Terri was on life support for over a decade is because of some rare genetic disorder that did not have a cure. When I tell people it was because of an eating disorder, they are shocked. Years ago, if Terri received the right treatment and recovery plan, she would be living a healthy life. Many people with eating disorders who get early and effective treatment fully recover within eight years--I did. "" 4) US Globalism in Danger? (1) Australia: "How to Say No to the New World Order", by M. Sabeheddin & New Dawn Research Team; Apr 4, 2005, 01:26: http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_16606.shtml#top "" The existing — still evolving — global system has been unfair and unjust to the vast majority of the human race. Its inequalities and its injustices are evident in almost every facet of international affairs. — Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, Malaysian political scientist & Human Rights activist Nationalism today is headed for a collision with Capitalism, for the simple reason that the nation per se has been redefined by Capital as a zone of depletion. In other words, the nation can either capitulate to Capitalism or else resist it…. — Hakim Bey Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ruling circles in the rich capitalist nations, led by the United States, proclaimed the dawn of a "New World Order". But it really is not so "new". A more correct term for this post Cold War era is "Corporate World Order". A global system dominated by a small minority in the North of the globe, with only one superpower, the USA, acting as the new world’s policeman. The crisis of the international capitalist system impels the ruling elites to maintain their death-ridden system by accelerating their robbery, domination and exploitation of the developing nations in the South of the globe. While at home they carry out attacks on the basic rights and living standards of working people. Dr. Ali Mazrui, the renowned African scholar, argues that this "New World Order" is "a kind of global apartheid." "" "" This paper is a contribution to the development of an Australia wide network of anti-One World Order activists. If you would like further information or are prepared to become involved in this campaign for world freedom please write to: New Dawn, GPO Box 3126FF, Melbourne, VIC 3001. "" (2) Venezuela: "Yes ... Venezuela is a deadly threat to the Washington Consensus!" by Chris Hertz, VHeadline.com Venezuela [a wholly independent e-publication promoting democracy in its fullest expression] commentarist; Published: Tuesday, April 05, 2005: http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=29464 "" Here in Washington, both the reactionary Project for a New American Century and the "progressive" Center for American Progress sponsored a symposium on the needs of the military services. Venezolanos will rejoice to hear that both called for an increase in the strength of the US Army by at least 100,000 troops. And then just on Sunday, in a radio talk, the prominent economic journalist Robert Kaplan described Venezuela as "destabilizing its neighbors." You do not have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing in the the imperial capital. And of course, a Bolivarian Venezuela, committed alike to political democracy as it is to social democracy is indeed, for real, profoundly destabilizing -- not only to its neighbors like Colombia, but to the imperial homeland itself. Consider. The job being done by the 10,000 Cuban physicians in Venezuela -- the free medical care for your poor -- is an amazingly serious challenge to the privatized medical system in place right here in the USA. Here we spend near 20% of the largest gross national product of any nation on this planet on health care. And the morbidity statistics of our citizens are inferior to those of the Republic of Cuba! And now another country in what we would like to think of as our colonial hinterland wants to follow in Castro's medical footsteps. Can you possibly imagine anything more outrageous? "" (3) Venezuela & Cuba < Russia-China-India-Brazil - SCO & Iran: "If America dares to attack Venezuela, every supertanker approaching the American southern oil terminals will be sunk by Mach 2.9 missiles", by Joe Vills [Australia-based international investigator]; Published: Friday, April 01, 2005: http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=29045 "" Back in November 1962 when President Kennedy forced the removal of Russian missiles from Cuba, very few Americans stopped to ponder whether, at some point in the distant future, the tiny island of Cuba would decide to exact revenge on the United States for this very public humiliation. Forty years ago it all seemed most unlikely, but today the wheel has turned full circle, and a little Fidel Castro payback appears to be just over the horizon. Based on received intelligence, it seems likely that the Island of Cuba will soon be used as 'point man' in a grand plan to deny American warships and other vessels safe transit through the Gulf of Mexico. "" "" As you may expect, there is really nothing random about the process at all -- merely the understandable caution and strategic camouflage of a multinational coalition closing in on the most dangerous and brutal nation on Planet Earth since early in the 20th Century. During the last thirty years alone, America's controllers have ordered the calculated murder of more than six million innocents around the world, and the world is not prepared to tolerate another six million innocents being murdered during the next thirty years. "" "" the intriguing answers to why Middle East LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) is now heading east rather than west; why Russia has forged an ironclad coalition with China, India and Brazil, and why they really want the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed El Baradei removed from office. "" "" coalition consists of India, China, Russia and Brazil "" "" the coalition automatically includes the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which is presently comprised of China, Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Dangerously for America, the coalition will soon have another important member, Iran, currently due to enter informally in a few months time through the SCO "back door" because of a mammoth energy deal. "" "" On 16 November 2004, just six days after Vladimir Putin formally introduced Brazil as a member of the new coalition, IAEA inspectors from Geneva visited Rio de Janeiro. Just eight days later on 24 November 2004, Brazilian Energy Minister Eduardo Campos announced that the IAEA had issued Brazil with a permit to commence the experimental stage of uranium enrichment. Paranoia immediately swept down Wall Street at the speed of light, and within hours the White House was pathetically whining that IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei should be removed from office. Dark hints by the New York Times that El Baradei had "not been doing enough in Iran", were just a hasty smoke screen. For many years they had a fallback plan in case global conquest became impossible. Code-named "Fortress Americas," the plan relied on the USA being able to conquer both Canada and South America, thereby building themselves an impregnable redoubt in the Western Hemisphere, to provide cover while rebuilding their strength. I wrote two long reports on this top-secret plan, which are linked at the bottom of this page for those who wish to study the details. "" "" Venezuela had already signed up in secret, "" "" In its normal crude way, the CIA had already given advance warning of this intent by planning to shoot down Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez' aircraft in late September, when he was en route to address the United Nations in New York. Fortunately for Chavez and his country, Venezuelan Intelligence received advance warning and blocked the President's flight. The CIA shoot-down was to be followed 14 hours later by "phase 2," an attack on the Presidential barracks while the country was still in shock about President Chavez' 'accidental death', thus capturing Venezuelan oil and handing it to America on a plate. Of course the CIA should have cancelled "Phase 2" the minute it knew that the Presidential aircraft had not taken off from Caracas for New York, but sadly the CIA planners forgot, and the Presidential barracks attack force was swiftly overwhelmed by a very alert Venezuelan military. Needless to say, "Phase 2" proved that "Phase 1" was very real and accurate intelligence, in turn proving that they had yet again ordered the murder of a head of state for monetary gain, a long standing tradition on Wall Street. Within days Russia 'agreed' to provide Venezuela with fifty MIG 29 fighters, because it was obvious that Wall Street would try again later if a deterrent was not put in place, and Chavez could hardly rely on America to send spare parts for his fleet of aging F-16s. New York was furious of course, but could hardly do anything about it. And besides, what harm could 50 MIG interceptors a thousand miles away do to America? New York had made the fatal error of assuming that the MIGs in question were being delivered exclusively to protect Venezuela against American bombers or troop transports. In fact, all fifty aircraft are MIG 29 SMTs, the very latest in Russian technology with enhanced attack payload capacity and a Plasma Stealth System ... hardly the aircraft one would choose for a Red Baron dogfight at 15,000 feet, now is it? All Venezuelan MIG 29 SMTs are painted dark blue, which may be part of the stealth system, but more commonly denotes that the aircraft will be used for low level attacks over water. "" "" What absolutely no one outside Russia and Venezuela knew until recently, is that 20 of the fifty Mig 29 SMTs are fully-equipped to carry and fire the devastating SS-N-25 [and now SS-N-26] "Onyx", a devastating and completely unstoppable Mach 2.9 ramjet anti-ship cruise missile which skims the waves at twenty feet, before delivering a knock out blow to its maritime target more than 200 kilometers away. So great is the kinetic energy at the point of impact on the target, that Onyx can sink an American aircraft carrier or supertanker using only a conventional penetrating warhead. Those scientists who might doubt this should calculate the impact energy of 5,500 pounds of missile striking a carrier or tanker at a terminal velocity of 2,460 feet per second. It is understood that Russia is providing Venezuela with a stockpile of forty anti-ship Onyx missiles. "" "" on 2 December 2004 the Asia Times published "China Rocks the Geopolitical Boat with Iran Oil Deal", "" "" Though America officially refers to Iran as part of the "Axis of Evil," this does not stop it importing very large quantities of Iranian LNG through third parties. Now all that will come to a grinding halt, because Iran must naturally focus exclusively on filling its mammoth Chinese commitments. Thus on December 2. 2004, the block on external energy supplies to America started in earnest. At the same time, Iran effectively came under China's protection, because any American attack on Iran will impact directly on Chinese National Security by severing its energy resources. It is but a small step for Iran from there to full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and overall protection by the Russian-Chinese Axis. "" "" Despite Venezuelan claims that they want to use the MIG 29 SMTs to protect the Panama Canal (which is true to a certain extent), their most obvious use initially appears to be that of defending Venezuela against an American aircraft carrier strike on Caracas, or elsewhere in the country. Yes they can do that, because any US carrier getting close enough to launch its aircraft against Venezuela, can in turn be sunk very swiftly indeed by one or two of the lethal and unstoppable Onyx missiles. However, this would not stop a strike by long range ALCMs dropped by B-52 bombers, another cowardly weapon of mass destruction. What then? This is where the really clever bit comes in. Russia has arranged for the Venezuelan pilots to receive their advanced MIG 29 training in Cuba, which already has six earlier version of the aircraft. So the Cuban instructors are well up to the job, but don't have the latest MIG 29 SMT model that the Venezuelan Air Force will have. Russia is donating four [Onyx equipped] MIG 29 SMTs to Cuba free of charge, for use in training the Venezuelan pilots and then to add to their own inventory. Agreement has also been reached for joint exercises in the future, using Cuban airspace. All of a sudden, America will be facing the same deadly threat it faced when arguing with China about the future of Taiwan. Basically, China demonstrated the awesome accuracy and power of its SS-N-22 Sunburn and SS-N-25 onyx missiles against moving unmanned maritime targets, and the US Fleet swiftly withdrew. So how is the US Navy going to feel when every dark blue MIG 29 SMT flying off a dirt strip in Cuba (yes, they can do that), is possibly carrying an Onyx missile capable of sinking any American ship within a tactical radius of 600 miles? It seems beyond doubt that the main message will get through, i.e. that if America dares to attack Venezuela or even little Cuba, every supertanker approaching the American southern oil terminals through the Gulf of Mexico, will be sunk by an invisible Mach 2.9 missile exploding in a white fireball. Worse still, there is the possibility that some of America's offshore oil platforms in the Gulf might also be destroyed, causing savage blowouts that will burn for ten years or more. "" "" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez flew to Beijing on an official visit extending until Monday December 27, a total of five days straight. Evidently the Chinese regard President Chavez as a very important Head of State ... which is hardly surprising when you understand the reason for his visit. Until they tried to murder him back in September, Chavez was reasonably happy supplying America with 2.7 million barrels of oil per day ... which is about 80% of Venezuela's total production. The attempt on his life was one giant step too far though, so Chavez went to Beijing negotiating to sell the entire 2.7 million barrels per day to China instead. Joe Vialls joevialls@gawab.com ""