Note from the Editor

Allow us to feature once more Swans' Special Issue on Iraq, "RESISTANCE: In The Eye Of The American Hegemon." Please, disseminate its URL as widely as possible.

Back to our bi-weekly schedule, here are Milo Clark and Phil Rockstroh who, politics and religion in mind, provide insights counterbalancing the usual BS disseminated by the lib-labs and their mirrored conservative alter egos. Clark shows the parallel paths of Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush, both characterized by privilege, violence, and religious fundamentalism, and separately explains why the Bush phenomenon is part of the continuum of the US mytho-history. Rockstroh takes fundamentalism straight on, including the bible and "pious" Mel Gibson, and then cleverly details the lunacy of Bush's Mars program and his so-called morality. Do not miss the lofty exchange.

Furthermore, with the help of Frank Wycoff, we explore the diluted representation of the US House of Representatives. There are indeed ways to proceed (and they are not new). There is nothing new either about extinction, whether it is language or the "assimilation" of culture, as Gerard Donnelly Smith demonstrates. And if you are not convinced, Jim Craven's poem will sway you...

Of late, our work has been hampered by people who endlessly argue with our reprint policy, and with scavengers. As the argument goes, we do not make Swans' Work fully accessible to the public. How more accessible can you be when you are just one URL away? We do not know. Go figure. The issue is not about accessibility. It is about using someone else's content to one's endeavors. The issue is about stealing -- an endearing American pastime. If you are skeptical, just check the American Buddah web site and see for yourself the sheer hypocrisy... More to come on this subject of some importance, at least to the Swans' collective and to its editors. Mark Hand of Press Action runs a "hero of the week" feature. Maybe we need to feature a "scavenger" of the week award.

As always, please form your OWN opinion, and let your friends (and foes) know about Swans.

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Iraq: Invasion, Occupation, Resistance

RESISTANCE: In The Eye Of The American Hegemon
A Swans' Special Issue

Edited by Gilles d'Aymery and Jan Baughman
Coordinated by Tanweer Akram

A collection of essays on Iraq by Tanweer Akram, Justin Alexander, Anthony Arnove, Naseer Aruri, Jan Baughman, George Capaccio, John Catalinotto, Milo Clark, Gregory Elich, Mike FitzGibbon, Sara Flounders, Manuel García, Jr., Denis J. Halliday, Edward S. Herman, Rania Masri, Thomas Nagy, Coilín Oscar ÓhAiseadha, Michael Parenti, Louis Proyect, John Sloboda, Gerard Donnelly Smith, and Michael W. Stowell, with an introduction by Gilles d'Aymery.   More...

 

 
Patterns which Connect

Milo Clark:  In Perspective, Parallel Lines Converge

Among the many forces in array around us, two are moving in parallel. I can give them several names, say Islam and Judeo/Christianity. Their shared ideological and religious grounds are monotheistic. As God controls, therefore those who control God control.   More...

 

Phil Rockstroh:  A Poison Pen Letter To Our Apostle Of Perpetual Psychosis,
Brother Mel Gibson

You just had to go and do it, didn't you? You had to go scavenging through the bone yard of buried religious delusions and dig-up that putrescent lie. Yet: When anger and scorn come your way as a result, you want to portray yourself as the aggrieved party in the situation.   More...

 

 
America: Myths and Realities

Phil Rockstroh:  God-Loving And Chaste In Outer Space

In an action that comes close to defying belief, owing to the fact of its nearly perfect metaphorical acuity, the Bush administration canceled funding for the Hubbell telescope, a device from which we gain understanding of ourselves and of our origins by peering into the farthest reaches of the universe.   More...

 

Milo Clark:  Patterns Which Do Not Connect

An example of system in Whitehead's sense is the mytho-historical perspective that the United States has been a) a democracy, b) a republic, or c) a representative democracy. In the second half of the 20th century, the USA morphed irrevocably into a bureaucratic state.   More...

 

Gerard Donnelly Smith:  Genocide: Language Acquisition As Slow Extermination

When a child acquires language that child also acquires cultural meaning, gains access to an epistemology and way to code and decode secrets, to posit and solve mysteries, to create and justly administer laws, and to a receive vision, then record and safeguard the myth.   More...

 

Philip Greenspan:  Successes For The 'Dummies'

Walking through a bookstore a few days ago I glanced at the titles of various books that were displayed. On several I saw the same word in the title. As so often happens a word, phrase, sentence or thought will trigger a memory. This time it was "dummy."   More...

 

 
Countdown to 2004

Frank Wycoff:  Do You Feel Represented?

Why is it every time an election comes around I feel so un-represented? One man, the president, supposedly represents 290 million people; two (mostly white; mostly men) represent millions from each state in the Senate; and then we have the House of Representatives, 435 members representing 667,000 people each.   More...

 

 
Poetry

James M. Craven:  The Labor of Sisyphus

        From the genocidal Puritans,
and all the misery—and wealth—their genocide brought,
        to the occultist Masonics and Illuminati,
and the "Founding Families" of the Republic
—slaveholders, oligarchs, elitists and predators all,
        to the opium trade of the 1800s,
and all the misery—and wealth—that it brought,   More...

 

 
Letters to the Editor

Letters

On Ralph Nader, various essays by Milo Clark, Steven Yoder, Philip Greenspan, Tanweer Akram, Gerard Donnelly Smith, and, of course, on our Special Issue on Iraq.   More...

 

 
Announcements

– If you wish to receive an e-mail regarding each new rendition (twice a month) with the Note from the Editor and the URL to each article, please send an e-mail with "Subscribe Swans" in the subject line. Please also include your first/last name in the body of the message.

 

 

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URL: http://www.swans.com/library/past_issues/2004/040216.html
Created: February 17, 2004