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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Taro who wrote (230731)	4/26/2005 7:20:03 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1574002

re: I happen to know about a little village in France, where even after 55 generations or so something like 10% of the babies born have the mongolian "blue spot" on their back. Just like Japanese and other Asian newly born. This is said to go back to Ginghis Kahn and his people, who made it all the way down there. I didn't know about that. Interesting; thanks. John

To: Taro who wrote (230731)	4/26/2005 8:18:32 AM
From: Emile Vidrine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574002

Michael Ledeen's Trotskyite Genealogy. (For those not familiar with Ledeed, he is Israel's new Neocon point man for new wars and regime change in the Middle East.) Here's an enlightening Boston Globe profile on everybody's favorite warmonger. It's hardly surprising to read he is an admirer of Machavelli. But I was certainly surprised to see he was once a member of the Social Democrats, U.S.A and actually studied with (the excellent) historian George Mosse. Ledeen went on to write a book on how Gabriele D'Annunzio--a poet, proto-fascist and all around charismatic guy--"helped invent modern politics". Money quote (below): A refugee from Nazi Germany, Mosse studied the manner in which fascists won mass support not through their ideas but through mastery of public spectacle. In addition, he traced the roots of fascist culture deep into European history. At the heart of Mosse's methodology was a commitment to historical empathy, to "seeing fascism as it saw itself and as its followers saw it." Ledeen adopted Mosse's methodology, but used it to draw a quite different conclusion. A lifelong internationalist and socialist, Mosse always looked at nationalism with an outsider's eyes. By contrast, Ledeen displayed an activist's interest in deploying sacred nationalist mythology for contemporary political purposes. For Ledeen, early 20th-century European mass politics, rooted in a half-millennium-old cultural legacy, could serve as a wellspring for reinvigorating contemporary middle-class nationalism, particularly in the United States. As opposed to the Jewish émigrés who were generally deeply committed to an internationalist order in the wake of WWII, Ledeen seems to fit into the pattern Jewish neocons of the next generation--raised in left-leaning homes (though in Ledeen's case, it seems to have been a more religious family), going into academia or leftist political life, and eventually joining the nationalistic neocon movement championed by Irving Kristol in the 80s. Some more interesting quotes... Any discussion of America and human rights must begin with the recognition that this country was created in a revolutionary period and that the democratic revolution -- of which America is but one element -- is, by its nature and of necessity, universal," Ledeen declared. ". . . It is crucial for us to remember that the 18th-century revolutionaries and statesmen who created this country recognized that it is impossible for [democracy] to flourish if it is limited to a small corner of the world. The revolution, in other words, must be exported." "All the great scholars who have studied American character have come to the conclusion that we are a warlike people and that we love war. . .," Ledeen declared. "What we hate is not casualties but losing." I am compelled to wonder--what are the real origins of this sort of militancy? Granted, the US did emerge in a revolutionary era and some of the founders would have liked to export the revolution, but can it really be argued that the necessity of US style political revolution applies to every culture and every historical period? Indeed, Ledeen's rhetoric makes me think of another historic period. When Ledeen speaks about war and warlike cultures, we behold the sort of jingoistic talk that, historically, was mainstream in America during the pre-WWI era, when it (largely as a result of Social Darwinism) was fashionable throughout the Western world. It seems the same discourse has lurked within the intellectual world throughout the 20th century, ready to spring when revolutionary or violent moments arrive. We can only hope the National Review, formerly under Buckley's relatively civilized guidance, has not completely succumbed to this sort of logic.

To: Taro who wrote (230731)	4/26/2005 3:18:35 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574002

When you get to Italy, see if you can calm things down. They are calling Bush a liar and we know that's just not true. ***************************************************** Italian Opposition Slams U.S. Report on Iraq Killing** Tue Apr 26, 2005 12:30 PM ET Printer Friendly \| Email Article \| Reprints \| RSS (Page 1 of 2) By Paul Holmes ROME (Reuters) - An angry opposition branded a report that clears U.S. soldiers of blame for killing an Italian agent in Iraq an insult to Italy Tuesday and demanded Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi address the matter in parliament. The demand followed leaks from Washington about the joint probe into the death of military intelligence officer Nicola Calipari during a hostage rescue mission. Calipari died in a hail of bullets at a U.S. checkpoint late on March 4 as he was driving to Baghdad airport with journalist Giuliana Sgrena after winning her release from insurgents. A U.S. Army official, briefing reporters in Washington on the preliminary results of the investigation, said Monday that the soldiers had followed their rules of engagement and should therefore face no charges of dereliction of duty. The official said Italy, a close U.S. ally in Iraq, had balked at endorsing the report. Rome disagreed with its findings on the car's speed and whether the Italians kept U.S. troops informed. "A unilateral conclusion absolving anyone of blame that the Italian side does not accept is an insult to the truth and to the memory of Nicola Calipari and a serious act of arrogance toward Italy," one opposition lawmaker, Giuseppe Fioroni of the center-left Margherita party, said in a statement. Sgrena, a veteran war correspondent for the communist newspaper Il Manifesto who was wounded in the shooting, called the findings "a slap in the face" and said the report sought to "lay all the blame on the Italians." The Italian government had no comment on the report, which the Foreign Ministry said was not yet official. A U.S. diplomatic source, however, said ambassador Mel Sembler had been called to the prime minister's office for talks with chief Berlusconi aide Gianni Letta. The report comes at an awkward time for Berlusconi, who faces confidence votes in the Chamber of Deputies Wednesday and the Senate Thursday on a new cabinet. He was forced to reshuffle his team last week, avoiding a snap election, after a coalition mutiny over a heavy regional election defeat in early April. Continued ... reuters.com