Category Archives: Current Events

Weil and “Attention”

Because it is Simone Weil’s birthday today and events in Egypt are steadily turning from bad to worse, here are some quotes from her to remind us of what we need to remember when it comes to the suffering of others:

The capacity to give one’s attention to a sufferer is a very rare and difficult thing; it is almost a miracle; it is a miracle.

Equality is the public recognition, effectively expressed in institutions and manners, of the principle that an equal degree of attention is due to the needs of all human beings.

Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention.

(Photo montage via Line Street Productions)

Picture of the Day

A remarkable and inspiring image under any circumstances, but how satisfying to see it happening now: Christians in Cairo form a protective circle around Muslims at prayer.

On the darker side of things, it looks like the military has decided not to withdraw its  support of the Mubarak regime, although it has not so far participated in the crackdown, leaving that to “pro-Mubarak demonstrators”: that is, government-paid goons, which the military stands by and watches as they violently attack peaceful demonstrators.

(h/t Dish)

Crackdown in Egypt

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXwKqmDmuDs

Raw footage from Tahrir Square today

It may be starting.  “Pro Mubarak demonstrators” armed with whips, sticks and bricks are assaulting demonstrators and reporters in Tahrir Square in Cairo.  It’s reported that some are now jumping onto tanks and encouraging the drivers to move against the crowd.

Dish updates here.

Al Jazeera English here.

Al Jazeera YouTube Channel live feed here.

Quote of the Day: “Uninformed nonsense mixed with brazen bullshit”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH7GPPpsw6g

Glenn Beck, once again, peddling lies and paranoia about Egypt.  As with Palin, it never stops.

Conor Friedersdorf, conservative, in the Daily Dish:

As I’ve said before, lots of Glenn Beck listeners aren’t in on the joke. Unlike Roger Ailes, Jonah Goldberg, and every staffer at the Heritage Foundation happy hour, they don’t realize that the Fox News Channel puts this man on the air fully understanding that large parts of his program are  uninformed nonsense mixed with brazen bullshit. When a Fox News host tells these viewers, “I’m not going to treat you like you’re a moron,” playing on their insecurity about other media outlets talking down to or lying to them, they take it at face value. What sort of callous, immoral person allows these viewers to be played for fools?

One Hundred Percent Renewable Energy by 2030

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_VjibuRLyA

An excerpt from a speech delivered on January 13th, 2011, by Mark Jacobson

A newly released paper by professors Mark Jacobson and Mark Delucci of Stanford University suggests that we can, using existing technology and resources, convert to one hundred percent renewable energy as early as 2030.

All that is required, of course, is the political will.  And with climate change denialism being heavily funded by the likes of ExxonMobil and the Koch brothers — who also have a good portion of Republican members of Congress in pocket — that won’t happen just by wishing for it.

The Koch brothers are also among the founders and funders of the astroturf fraud passing for a populist movement, the Tea Party, which, of course, is wholly on the side of climate change denial.  Finding the political will to address climate change in ways that are available to us now will require getting past pretty formidable powers who’ve already demonstrated the damage they can inflict upon the public discourse needed to make it happen.