Is neutrality really being neutral ?

Is neutrality really being neutral ? I thought it was an interesting question. Especially after I read the news that the neutral Swiss have banned minarets from their country. Historically the Swiss have taken the neutral stand from both the world wars to most of their foreign policy. By simply giving a pass to a wrong doer makes you equally guilty.. The daily show had a piece and John Oliver's interview was quite interesting

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Oliver's Travels - Switzerland
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Rand Illusion

Ayn Rand nicely explained by Steven Colbert

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

The Word - Rand Illusion

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Rap Battle
NASA Name Contest

back again

Bill waterson rules

Colbert explains BGH

Steven Colbert explains recombinant bovine growth hormone...

Documentary

well I am creating a list of must see documentaries.. first in the series is "The Corporation" . I watched it some years go I watched it again today. Part of the reason is something I remembered from Farid Zakaria (GPS show host in CNN) a few weeks ago during the height of economic meltdown. Well in conclusion Farid question if the economic meltdown is an indication of the failure of free market/globalization. He answers that it is not and goes on to explain that no economic model is perfect but the free market model is self correcting and that it will correct and in due course of time will evolve into this perfect model. (I am not exactly quoting him but this is what he meant). I am no economist but I have my own doubts about this claim. I just remembered this documentary "The Corporation" so true and will also explain why a non supervised, de-regulated, freemarket might not be the solution. On a good note you can watch it legally for free in google videos.
Some other documentaries I watched recently

*The Corporation

*Life and Debt

(about IMF practices with an example of what happened in Jamaica)
*Bring back my father (Vandana shiva campaign for the farmers in India)

*Outfoxed

(all about Fox News)

*why we fight

(well the name explains all)

friday

well it is friday and for the next couple of weeks no visit to D :( and unlike the usual friday "yayyy" it has been more friday "crap".. part of the reason is the god forsaken seminar series we have every friday... keep telling myself not to attend but usually end up getting tricked for a nice talk or sometimes for food. Toady was one of those moments (again) when right after some talk you feel dumb,,, like shit,,, wondering more if my last six and half (not seven) years could have been better spent doing something else......

Good one

"The intrepid reporting of award eligible journalist Sean Hannity" I laughed so hard

Prayer for John Macain

The only two program which I watch for my dose of american political news is Colbert Report and Daily Show by Jon Stewart. It is an irony that both are aired in comedy central not a major news channel but I think they are more fair and balanced than other news channel. Here is an interesting part from a recent episode of Colbert report

Orhan Pamuk

My friend asked me to read Orhan Pamuk's Nobel Lecture. It is a very moving speech. I am right now reading "my name is red" I will blog about it when I am done. For now...

Pamuk's Nobel lecture

who is joe the plumber

How high is the sky?, how deep is the ocean? who is Joe the plumber?

It was interesting to watch the final presidential debate a couple of days. Joe the plumber was mentioned quite a lot of times. After watching some video interviews of the mysterious Joe the plumber you can just conclude that is "yet another right wing nut". O believe me just the couple of minutes of interview and a non zero IQ was all you need to understand that. So whats his problem? Well it seems that our good old Joe wants to buy his plumbing business. This wonderful business makes more than $250000 income, a range which gets taxed 3% higher in Obama's plan. Well he is upset, now now how is going to buy this business (in which he currently works).. after all he still owes IRS a lil more than thousand dollars ? well this part lets just say it is "magic". So the "American Dream" of Joe the plumber is all shattered because he has to pay 3% extra tax. But well one may say are we along with our humble Joe the plumber counting the chicken before they hatch.. ehh in this case we are counting chickens with no eggs at all. But I guess it is idea of redistribution of wealth that bothers Joe. I mean rightfully so does that makes us socialist!!!

The one word which republicans hate : socialist... you are just few steps away from becoming godless communists. But again are'nt taxes itself a way of redistribution of welath? I would say that in the bush administration there has been a redistribution of wealth... yeah the money from the less fortunate has been redistributed to the rich. Case and point the almost trillion dollar bail out plan. I think it is not the redistribution which bothers republicans..it is directions in which it goes. In all what surprises me is that an average Joe the plumber, who in his own words is now where making close to $250000, who owes IRS back taxes is freaking about taxing more for those who have more.

veepee

"That's why I say I, like every American I'm speaking with, we're ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately what the bail-out does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Helping the – it's got to be all about job creation too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans and trade – we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing, but one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today – we've got to look at that as more opportunity."



well gee z that's quite a mouthful but this was a response from the Russian neighbor and veepee pick Sarah Palin's answer to one of Katie Couric's question on the bail out. More specifically the question was why not to use the bail out money for people directly. Unfortunately here in US socialism is looked with greater skeptism than any where else. And it is not just the rich people even middle class american are!