Dear Sirs:
In a recent OpEd Andrew Sentance resurrects the discredited theory of “cost push” as the cause of price inflation. According to this theory rising oil and commodity prices “push up” other prices and lead to widespread price inflation. Left unexamined is how it is possible for ALL prices to rise.
Daily Archives: 24 March 2012
Soldiers don fake belly, breasts to better understand pregnant troops’ exercise concerns
Historically, belief in an empire’s military supremacy outlasts the reality. Soldiers donning “empathy bellies” is a strong sign that the decline of American empire will be accompanied by humiliating military defeats.
he Army is ordering its hardened combat veterans to wear fake breasts and empathy bellies so they can better understand how pregnant soldiers feel during physical training.
This week, 14 noncommissioned officers at Camp Zama took turns wearing the “pregnancy simulators” as they stretched, twisted and exercised during a three-day class that teaches them to serve as fitness instructors for pregnant soldiers and new mothers.
Army enlisted leaders all over the world are being ordered to take the Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training Exercise Leaders Course, or PPPT, according to U.S. Army Medical Activity Japan health promotion educator Jana York.
Developed by the Army in 2008, the course includes aerobics classes, pool sessions and classroom studies on the physiology of pregnant women. (Read more)
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan won’t pay back taxes
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, who is being sued in California by the federal government, said she has a duty to not pay taxes because her son died in what she called an “immoral” war.
An Internal Revenue Service officer, in a federal filing Tuesday in Sacramento, said Sheehan has refused to provide financial information for the 2005 and 2006 tax years. The filing asks the court to order Sheehan to comply.
Sheehan, of Vacaville, told CNN affiliate KXTV she has not paid federal incomes taxes since 2004 — and has not disguised the fact.
“I feel like I gave my son to this country in an illegal and immoral war. I’ll never get him back,” Sheehan said. “And, so, if they can give me my son back, then I’ll pay my taxes. And that’s not going to happen.” (Read more)
Media smears suggest Swedish complicity in a Washington-driven push to punish WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
War by media, says current military doctrine, is as important as the battlefield. This is because the real enemy is the public at home, whose manipulation and deception is essential for starting an unpopular colonial war. Like the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, attacks on Iran and Syria require a steady drip-effect on readers’ and viewers’ consciousness. This is the essence of a propaganda that rarely speaks its name.
To the chagrin of many in authority and the media, WikiLeaks has torn down the facade behind which rapacious western power and journalism collude. This was an enduring taboo; the BBC could claim impartiality and expect people to believe it. Today, war by media is increasingly understood by the public, as is the trial by media of WikiLeaks’ founder and editor Julian Assange.
. . . .
For this, as the American historian William Blum points out, “dozens of members of the American media and public officials have called for [his] execution or assassination”. If he is passed from Sweden to the US, an orange jumpsuit, shackles and a fabricated indictment await him. And there go all who dare challenge rogue America.
In Britain, Assange’s trial by media has been a campaign of character assassination, often cowardly and inhuman, reeking of jealousy of the courageous outsider, while books of perfidious hearsay have been published, movie deals struck and media careers launched or resuscitated on the assumption that he is too poor to sue. In Sweden this trial by media has become, according to one observer there, “a full-on mobbing campaign with the victim denied a voice”. For more than 18 months, the salacious Expressen, Sweden’s equivalent of the Sun, has been fed the ingredients of a smear by Stockholm police. (Read more)