On “US Army charges accused WikiLeaks source Private Bradley Manning with capital offense”
If making US government documents available to the public is aiding the enemy then that government regards the public as its enemy. It follows that the state is the enemy of the people. It is high time for the people to respond appropriately to this frank admission.
Richard S
3 March 2011
On “Australian Labor Party in its death throes”
The ALP came into being to be the voice of the working class. The people in charge of the ALP administration now believe they have to bow down to the very people they used to fight against, the bosses. The ALP has moved more to the right than the liberals are. The ALP just think of the people they are supposed to represent as a commodity, to be called upon when needed. It is time for workers to start a new party and dump the ALP.
Garry J
3 March 2011
On “German interests in Libya”
Thank you Ulrich. A factual reminder to myself and all other German listeners/viewers, despite the whitewashing antics of the media here. Their incessant accusations, aimed in one sole direction, Gaddafi and only he. The imperialist attempts to rewrite or subdue history to induce memory lapses in the people are an insult and evil.
Philip T
Germany
4 March 2011
On “Russia and the uprisings in the Middle East”
When Putin speaks of the dangers of high oil prices for Russian Capitalism he has several aims in mind.
(1) He wants to spike the guns of the Western ‘Russian plot’ brigade who will suggest that the Middle Eastern uprisings were the result of a Russian scheme to drive up the price of their oil.
(2) To endorse publicly the notion of an identity of interests between European and Russian elites.
(3) To supply nutrients to the new ‘Wisdom’ that Russian gas and oil is a more secure supply option than the Middle East.
The Russian Ruling class are famous for their paranoia. But I detect no signs that anything on the scale of the Middle East is about to take place in Russia. Given the announcements of their $650 billion armaments investment program it seems that the Russian government is going to give ‘Military Keynesianism’ a go in an attempt to reduce the unemployment level—a level which by recent European standards is not
high (about the same as the German level and lower than France).
Chris
Ireland
2 March 2011
On “The New York Times and CIA killer Raymond Davis”
This article is absolutely right on!
I especially like this paragraph: “Brisbane passes seamlessly from this dilemma to a reassertion of the correctness of the Times’ suppression of the facts. He quotes the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief, Dean Baquet, as saying: ‘I would argue that, given the restriction [only a mere restriction!], we tried our best not to be misleading… I don’t regret the judgment not to identify further. These are hard calls.’“
I was reminded of the marvelous scene in Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” when Cherubino, who has been hiding under a sheet while the Count attempts to make love to Susannah, says, in self-defense, “I tried not to listen.”
Keep up the good work!
Best,
Gene G
New York, USA
2 March 2011
On the cost of living in the United States
I think it’s a disgrace how for 2 years in a row in the United States that there’s been no cost of living increase to Social Security benefits yet food prices alone are constantly going up and to make things even worse energy prices are going through the roof and nobody seems to care. Where are these so called left wing groups like moveon.org?
Nobody is saying one word about this. What they should do is cap the wealthy and pass something to help those who aren’t wealthy wouldn’t you agree? Thank you for your time.
Enjoy your day,
Michael
Connecticut, USA
3 March 2011
On “Barney’s Version: Should mediocrity be celebrated in this way?”
Thanks to David Walsh for sparing me “Barney’s Version,” a film which will be thoroughly enjoyed by my more petit-bourgeois friends no doubt. As a fan of “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz” I would have paid the ten bucks to watch what sounds like a really annoying (at best) film. A comparison of “The Apprenticeship...” with “Barney’s Version” would be enlightening. While generally similar, “Duddy” brims with social-critical judgment of the character and his relentless chase after fame and fortune. By movie’s end the hero’s ambition and greed alienates the girl who loves him, costs him all his friends, brought his grandfather to despair, and has paralyzed his most loyal employee. But what salvages the film is that we get some notion of the hungers that drive Duddy to his own inner destruction, and of the social context that frames the character. What a difference from “Barney.” This all fits well with Walsh’s recent efforts to account for the banality of film today. Thanks again, David.
Bob M
Massachusetts, USA
4 March 2011