Most Interesting Thing You've Read This Past Week

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So, welcome to the second edition of this weekly open thread!

What is the most interesting thing you've read in the past week?

It can be anything - a book, a news article, a blog post, a recipe, a cartoon, anything goes...

And please - if there's a link, link it; if it's a recipe post it. :D

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Mother Jones article on Solitary Confinement

sartoris's picture

Mother Jones usually delivers several times per issue. However, the best article I have read in a very long time is in the current Nov-Dec. It is a very long article about the depravity of using solitary confinement on prisoners. The article is written by Shane Bauer, who was one of the 3 American hikers held in Iran for 26 months. He visits a California Super Max prison and compares the American solitary confinement with what he experienced in Iran. He even corresponds with numerous US prisoners about their own experiences. Some nauseating facts from the article: there were 81,622 prisoners in solitary in 2005, the last year the federal government released data on the number of prisoners in solitary in US prisons. Today in California there are 11,730 in solitary. One prisoner in Californa has been held in solitary for 42 years.
This article is exceedingly well written and could easily be the foundation for a book. I'm not sure if he is writing one or not. I might put together something for VOTS on this subject since I was woefully ignorant of this and find it just reprehensible.

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print version only

sartoris's picture

right now it's only available in print, however, they usually put the older articles online after the next issue is published. it's a beautifully written article and it just reads like it is going to become a book. I had no idea this guy was so gifted.

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There is an earlier Mother Jones article

traveler's picture

on solitary confinement written 19 June 2012. Senators Finally Ponder the Question: Is Solitary Confinement Wrong?. Link is here.

The cell placed at the back of the hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building was a pretty accurate replica of a real isolation cell—the kind that exists in supermax prisons and solitary confinement units all over the country. It measured about 7 feet by 10 feet, with a tiny covered window too high to see out of and nothing inside but a bunk and a toilet. The door contained a slot through which a guard slides a food tray; for many prisoners, this represents their only human contact for the day. These are the conditions in which some 80,000 inmates live on any given day in American prisons and jails. They spend at least 23 hours a day in their cells, and some remain in solitary for years or even decades.

More at the link noted above.

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It's not just solitary confinement, either

geomoo's picture

Please don't imagine solitary confinement in an otherwise clean and well-ordered environment. Instead, picture excrement and blood smeared on the walls of a place of hell. One of the things inmates of supermax prisons found hilarious was the notion of saving detainees from Guantanamo by moving them to supermax prisons, where torture is a routine part of the daily grind.

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This article is pretty interesting.

Big Al's picture

It explains why natural gas and pipelines are a key reason for the mayhem being caused in Syria and why they want to go after Iran and control the ME. Some very interesting changes that have occurred in the last couple years due to new natural gas findings in Israel and between Syria and Qatar. It appears to be the real reason Qatar is involved in trying to take down Syria, as well as Turkey and at least partially Israel.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-turkey-israel-and-the-greater-middle-...

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Excellent report and analysis by Engdahl

traveler's picture

Thanks for sharing Big Al.

I wonder why we never find anything comparable in our corporate media!

Never mind, the answer is obvious and I'm sure there are those who would label it as "conspiracy theory", those well known weasel words used when they cannot refute facts and logical analyses.

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No sweat T. That's the only kind of stuff I read so

Big Al's picture

I sometimes wonder why everybody doesn't know this shit. That's the big problem isn't it. But hell, it's right there with a click of the mouse. Too many who should know better continue to watch the programs the oligarchy presents on the TV and read what the oligarchy prints in the newspapers. I refuse. The only reason I look at MSM print is to see what bullshit they're spreading.
Ya, conspiracy theory. I was reading a couple articles on Washington's Blog tonight about the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan to end WWII and the attack on Pearl Harbor. That's appears to be when the government started using the term conspiracy theory in earnest to label people as nutcases for questioning the official government accounts. Now it's so ingrained and so much effort put into it by the government and special interests that it's a very successful way to stifle discussion and reporting. .

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Here's the link to one of the articles.

Big Al's picture

Just based on what the military and government leaders were saying, there should be no doubt that dropping those bombs was not necessary and the meme that it saved a million American lives is pure bullshit. The real reason appears to start the Cold War with the Soviet Union in earnest by showing them what the US could do and to prevent the Soviet Union from gaining more of a foothold in Asia.
Truman is a true war criminal of the highest order.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-real-reason-america-used-nuclear-weapon...

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The Chinese don't know from happy

geomoo's picture

The Chinese government is attempting to bring Marcuse's "happy consciousness" to their country. In examining reactions to this trend, which is to say, in promoting the trend by pretending to report objectively on whether people are happy (fake democracy just as we have here), CCTV evoked strange responses to the question "Are you happy?", responses such as people giving their name or expressing disbelief that anyone would ask such a thing. Some of these snarkily dubbed "magic responses" have gone viral on the net. Netizens are now enjoying laughs at the government's expense as the responses underline the absurdity of the government's attempts. I'm sure the climb will be steep before China hypnotizes the populace as thoroughly as Americans have been pacified, because people watch television for an average of about 2 hours a day as compared with 5 hours per day here in the U.S., thus giving happy consciousness an especially strong hold here.
Link

Happy consciousness a la Marcuse is the belief that the world is rational and that the system delivers the goods. It is useful to ponder that a totalitarian government would put energy into convincing its citizens to think of themselves as happy. Anyway, some of the responses are pretty good.

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A couple of foreign pollicy items as noted below

traveler's picture

This is from Pat Lang's blog - Sic Semper Tyranis: The Assad government is defending the minorities. - Clifford Kirakofe (see article and comments).

Syria: "The departure of the Assad regime and a new government in Syria run by extremist Salafists, al-Qa'ida or the Muslim Brotherhood is a daunting prospect for the minorities, and for a majority of the Sunni population, who have flourished under the tolerance of the Alawite regime. The US State Department and the West generally are, oddly, not impressed by Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III's statement that "there is more religious freedom and tolerance in Syria than in any other Arab country".

Much more in the article linked above.

This video - below - is somewhat dated, going back to earlier this year. An RT interview with former CIA agent Michael Scheuer - his views on current (at the time of the interview) issues and on who our enemies are. I don't necessarily agree with all of his points but still find the interview very interesting and worthy of watching for anyone interested in these kinds of things.

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Interesting article on Syria.

Big Al's picture

The so called liberal left as we see on Daily Kos, or democrats in general who supported Obama's illegal war in Libya seem to still be confused about what's happening in Syria, proving they didn't learn any lessons about Libya. I've notice many on here still can't quite grasp what it is, an illegal war against Syria to change government and balkanize the country. Another in the long line of regime changes taken or instigated by the US for corporate power, oil, natural gas, and other resources and infrastructures opportunities, and hegemonic and imperialist goals. I think relative to listening to and reading primarily MSM sources on this topic, without researching alternative (true) reports, opinions and news and not completely recognizing that the MSM reports solely with a progagandist purpose, still affects the opinions of not only the faux liberals but those you would think would know better by now, i.e., constant war for the last 11 years and a long list of regime changes since WWII alone, let alone Smedley Butler.

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Not to mention any names

traveler's picture

but some of the diaries about the Syrian situation were outrageous, way over the top, much less subtle bullshit even than that from the MSM.

I would propose the idea that If Romney were president and the same events were taking place, the same policies being pursued, there would be an uproar and less acceptance of the propaganda and misinformation from the establishment media. Not only at Orange but all around.

For this reason I believe the oligarchy would prefer that the current office holder remain in power for another four years.

That said, I sense something, can't put my finger on it, but that even those behind the scenes are beginning to realize that the current strategies are not working out so well and that it is likely that there are serious discussions going on as to how we might redirect our efforts towards the goal of "a new world order" which many of them dream of.

Perhaps I'm the one who is dreaming. After the election is settled we should be able to see more clearly.

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