a thread about the civil unrest in egypt (& elsewhere in 'the region' if necessary)

I think we should finds somewhere else to talk about Zizek, but the quote from him I saw about communism was of the "you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs" type, explicitly condoning mass violence in the cause of building a better tomorrow.

Do you reckon Gaddafi will still be alive in a week's time?

man, where will we ever find a This is the thread where we talk about Slavoj Zizek... ???

Do you reckon Gaddafi will still be alive in a week's time?

I wouldn't be surprised if he met the same fate as Arcesilaus IV.

okay even I had to look that one up

BBC:

There are two Libyan naval vessels that have been sighted since yesterday, parked sideways facing Tripoli.

People here believe they are gunships on stand-by.

This seems headed for civil war. Already is? Maybe the country will split east / west? The character of this uprising seems majorly different from Tunisia and Egypt.

dees otm
http://www.sl-webs.com/custimages/dd395-opec-site.jpg

gonna be a short civil war in Libya is my guess, ending with Qaddafi dead.

we should do a poll: "in what manner will Qaddafi get killed?"

Wish he just flees. Guy is a goldmine of hilarious quotes and UN trolling. But also evil (downside).

pack up his tent and fade into the desert

road trip with chavez and bob mugabe

could be taking kim jong un out to lose his virginity

Maybe they could both get haircuts for the sake of humanity

"Bye, guys, me and Kim are just going out for haircuts."

*Looks at Kim, winks*

Wow, did not realize:

Have you ever used a Libyan domain name? If you've linked to anything on Twitter, you probably have. The .ly suffix, beloved of those who want to shorten their links (usually to bit.ly), belongs to Libya, and according to "policy wonk" Jerry Brito writing in Time's Techland section, it faces an uncertain future.

ha yes there was a big collective freak out when a couple months ago kadafifi was all you know i can do w/whatever i want w/these .ly domains right

iirc he handed a foreign owned .ly domain over to libyan cause they asked or it

mitt romney stopped using mitt.ly a few months ago

and some "sex positive erotica blogger" or some such had her url shortner suspended

lol

the internet

lol mitt.ly

yeah all that real.ly made me laugh i gotta say

i had not realized until a news story last night that Q is really close with berlusconi? npr described some scene where silvio paid a room full of models $100 a head to sit for a lecture from mr. libya about the virtues of islamic civilization. i don't live under either man but that kinda makes me think "worth it".

And I'm not sure what's wrong with being "somewhat sympathetic to" Mao tbqh

lol saw this quoted after the skip

cannot wait to see who posted it!

seems like the The_Wests credibility re: democracy/values "promotion" was erased long before the iraq war

― max, Wednesday, February 23, 2011 5:11 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

not rly dealing in absolutes here. look at the competition. by the highest standard the_west has always been a criminal enterprise whose power rests on a laughable simulacrum of consent. but it isn't universally seen that way in europe, eastern europe, etc. they probably take a different view in south america, south east asia, the middle east...

by the highest standard the_west has always been a criminal enterprise whose power rests on a laughable simulacrum of consent

oh, so there IS one thing we might possibly agree on

the_west doesn't have a freehold on democracy, obvi; by the same token, it pretty fuckin obviously doesn't have a freehold on 'criminality'. i'll go out on a limb, though, and say maybe the egyptian protestors are looking to have a country more like france than saudi arabia/china though. something a bit rich about pampered westerners saying, effectively, the thing the revolutionaries want, some degree of representative government, is overrated.

real talk

any USers see frontline last night? interesting shit. have to say i'm a little skeeved out by how involved and how crucial the (young end) of the muslim brotherhood was to the whole thing.

I don;t watch cable news all that often but wy the fuck is MSNC's Morning Joe playing Gimmie Shelter under Pay Buchannan ranting about the possibility of Gaddafi taking hostages in Libya?

"wy the fuck is MSNC's Morning Joe doing [x]" is one of those questions i've learned not to ask

coz it sounds mean

Reading Pilger makes me sad. First commenter OTM.

http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2011/02/pilger-fascism-bahrain-egypt

Clearly it is a 'thing' because they had some U2 bollocks playing under Hillary Clinton. I'll never stray from Radio4 again.

never understood how anyone can take pilger seriously

Was fairly easy to do so in the '70s but now, not so much.

Way back he used to be a great investigative reporter and campaigner. Now he's just embarrassing. I thought his The War You Don't See doc got a remarkably easy ride from critics.

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/02/ambassadors-caught-on-tape-china-edition/71637/

this might be a big deal? some small "jasmine" style protests got off the ground in china, US ambassador was there, just chillin. the video is hilarious

Very curious how the just-announced $35 billion buy-off from King Abdullah goes over in Saudi Arabia. As they pointed out on NPR, granted full scholarships to all students studying abroad means very little when there's a close to 50% unemployment rate among Saudi college graduates. Likewise, addressing the housing crisis is mostly symbolic, when this pay-out will only reduce the wait for a mortgage from 17 years to 16 years (real numbers!). Just as a show of force pisses off the populace, I wonder whether waving all that money around will sate the people or just remind them how little they have. Especially with King Abdullah having spent most of the past few pivotal weeks out of the picture/country getting serious medical treatment. What smells more, blood or money?

lol hes wearing a leather jacket w/american flag shoulder patch as if to say 'i am the ambassador' xp

good on him for heading out to just check the vibe - i dig the style

the top gun look is tight

haha huntsman is such a goof, you guys know hes a HUGE dream theater fan right

Huntsman is also a self-proclaimed fan of the progressive rock genre and on July 30, 2007, attended a concert by progressive metal band Dream Theater. Later that day, Huntsman signed a proclamation creating "Dream Theater Day" on that date for the state of Utah. According to Dream Theater's website, Huntsman is a keyboard player. Huntsman also joined REO Speedwagon on the piano for two songs during their concert at the Utah State Fair on September 16, 2005.

god eff this nonsense about bp employees stuck at tripoli airport. who gives a shit?

I sort of care that our government is too incompetent to run a rescue operation from a war zone actually.

haha huntsman is such a goof, you guys know hes a HUGE dream theater fan right

Jesus H and up until now I didn't mind the guy.

i think the problems are due to single flight cancellation due to mechanical problems at gatwick

also imo a very well insured and resourced oil company operating in a country like libya, in which the airport is still open and safe, and which has a contractual obligation to its employees to get them out, should take care of its own business.

Everybody else's government seems able (and willing) to do it

Some of them, unlike us, weren't even buddies of Gadaffi

xpost It's not like BP are paying all their UK taxes. I know, let's persecute some single mothers instead!