Soren has, as he promised, interviewed Constantin von Hoffmeister, and the file is uploaded to the Radio page.

The original announcement of the interview was received with protest from some MR regulars.  But the interview itself is a considerable success and, I think, cautions against too hasty a judgement.  I recommend it.  File size 42.4 MB.  Run time 1 hr 1 min 49 secs.

Just to keep you in the picture, the next show is likely to be Fraser II, conducted by James Bowery.  After that Geoff Beck is back.  Sort of.  I will be interviewing him.  But, happily, he will do the editing.

This CSPAN video of Thomas P.M. Barnett before to the National Defense University (warning: requires bittorrent) shows one of the best thought leaders of globalization in one of his best presentations.  Here is the key quote from that presentation:

“This extension of our networks is how we extend our transparency and our security.  Not stopping things at our border.  Everybody’s information network is only as secure as every other network it connects to.  It’s about extending networks.  Not firewalling them.”

Is it just me or did he just contradict himself there?  I mean, I know its only central to his whole paradigm so a contradiction there isn’t very important… but really… I just can’t seem to get myself past such details.  Maybe if I got therapy for OCD…

If he had said something about increasing the ISO standard of intrusion used for each nation already in the network as the network expands, so that the probability failure (1-(p**N) where p is probability of non-failure of a given node and N is number of nodes) is held to some reasonably low constant then he might not be self-contradictory.  But then he would be subject to a simple reductio ad absurdum:

If we follow his maxim of “extend, don’t firewall, the networks” and add “simply increase the standard level of Big Brother intrusion” you get to the point that you do away with the “firewall” between sewage and fresh water (assuming you can remove the smell so the “market value” of the sewage water is high enough to make it profitable).  Of course the level of intrusion here ends up being killing off everyone so there aren’t any intestines harboring bacteria, but who needs humans anyway?  Of course you can be “reasonable” and not kill off all the humans, leaving the details of how to prevent pathogens from spreading through the population to the, uh, rational humans (who processed their own food and water) left after the plague wipes out the rest.

The cunning, effort and sheer bloody manipulativeness that is required to post at majorityrights.com goes sadly unrecognised.  So here, for your edification and enlightenment, are two examples of the kind of thing that has sometimes to be done (it never works, of course, but it is done):-

The first is a letter written to the Schools Minister and Labour MP for Dorset South, Jim Knight.  The writer is one “John Standing” of Brighton, E.Sussex - a man indeed of some standing in the life sciences (though I wouldn’t be too sure about that).  He was moved to protest to Mr Knight by a BBC News article about the nature of the black male.  Well, it’s not about the nature of the black male, that’s the problem.  It’s about white racism:-

READ MORE...

If you look at this week’s Majority Report you’ll notice prominent in the stories is one:

“FREAK! Hollywood Distributes Decent Movie: Astronaut Farmer”

There’s a reason for that, despite the fact that it includes the positive portrayal of rural US land holder employing a Mexican:

It is the first time Hollywood has portrayed NASA’s manned space program as, not only an ersatz substitute for the American Pioneer Spirit, but a pioneer-funded (via taxes on the Americans which the US Founders called “our posterity”) enemy of the American Pioneer Spirit.

“The Civil Rights Movement” had legs, the vigorous support of Hollywood and the vigorous support of academia, while the American Pioneer Spirit’s frontier was relegated to a dysfunctional bureaucracy continually complaining that not enough funding was available to deliver the promise.  This vicious betrayal of the American Pioneer Spirit is central to our time—since it was during the 1960s that the liberalizations we now decry were enacted at the same time it appeared there was a new frontier opening up.  The bottom line is Kennedy’s “New Frontier” was a con game to grab the land of the “posterity” of the founders of the US, on behalf of other interests—thereby rendering the government utterly without legal foundation.

There is a book to be written here but a movie that touches on the theme of the failed promise of JFK’s “New Frontier” is a major accomplishment, even if it is flawed in other ways and even if it comes 35 years too late.

From the Independent today:-

Second generation ethnic minorities make ‘remarkable progress’ in work

Ethnic minorities have gained greater equality in the job market over the past 30 years, according to new research. Second generation minorities, especially men of black Caribbean, Indian and Pakistani heritage, are succeeding in ways their parents could only dream of, a study by Dr Yaojun Li, from Birmingham University, and Professor Anthony Heath, from Oxford University, found.

They are much more likely to gain access to professional and managerial jobs, according to the research, presented to the Royal Geographical Society’s annual conference yesterday.

However, the fortunes of men of black African origins are still very polarised. Although now more likely to be in professional and managerial jobs than white British men, with a large proportion - about 40 per cent - holding these positions, they were also more likely to be unemployed with one in five being out of work.

Indian men are now just as likely as their white British counterparts to hold prestigious positions. But black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men were still less likely to achieve high status jobs, and were more likely to be unemployed and be in unskilled jobs than white British men.

“Even though several ethnic minority groups are still disadvantaged, there has been remarkable progress,” Dr Li said. He said that through the 1980s and early 1990s, black Caribbean, black African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men were consistently more likely to be unemployed. However, since the mid-1990s the differences had been significantly reduced.

And now, please cast your eye over this, from BBC News:-

Jail office moves for ‘diversity’

Prison service leaders are being criticised amid claims they are relocating an office from Corby because the town is too white.

One of the factors behind the centre moving from Corby to Leicester, with the loss of 90 jobs, is because the city boasts a “diverse workforce”.

... Crown House has handled prison contracts for catering, transport and prisoner escorts for more than 30 years.

Staff do not yet know when their jobs will end.

Almost 94% of the population in Corby are white British, compared with just under 60% in Leicester.

A Prison Service Spokesman said: “The potential sale of the property has given Her Majesty’s Prison Service the opportunity to look at what provides the best option for the Prison Service and therefore the taxpayer in the medium to longer term.

“The key factors that influenced our decision to relocate to Leicester were the closer proximity to a greater number of prison establishments, better transport links, the ability to recruit professional staff and the ability to attract a more diverse workforce.”

READ MORE...

Dr Tomislav Sunic’s new book, Homo Americanus is finally available at Amazon, price $15.99.

I will be reviewing it in the next couple of weeks.  But I can tell you now that it argues the case for equivalency between Homo sovieticus and Homo americanus in every respect save one - where the former failed the test of time the latter has succeeded, but the answer to what succeeds him may be nothing.

American readers will be challenged by this portrait of American culture and Personality.  But the honest reader will recognise its truths, and close the book a wiser man.

If you hire Mexicans to work your land, your family will become landless and probably lose its life in a war coming to your area.

The only way out of this is to turn in those you are conspiring with and even then you will not escape with the land which you held in economic stewardship for the people of the US.

In the Scotsman an ICM poll has revealed the continuing hardening of SNP support and the softening of Labour’s.  The speculative scenario I suggested on January 13th - an SNP government in May, a carried vote on independence in 2010, followed by the grisly death of the Labour Party nationally - is coming ever closer to fruition.

From the Scotsman:-

Under the poll results, Labour would have too few MSPs to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats and would have to try to rule as a minority government or patch together an unlikely coalition with the smaller parties to get into government again.

Translated into seats, the poll would give the SNP 44 to Labour’s 41 - a major turnaround on 2003, giving the SNP 17 more seats than they won then and Labour nine fewer.

The Liberal Democrats would also see a big improvement, with 23 MSPs gaining an extra six seats on the 17 they won in 2003, while the Conservatives would be down slightly, with 17 seats, not the 18 they won in 2003.

According to the poll, the SNP is in line to win 34 per cent on the constituency vote, up 1 per cent on last month, and 32 per cent on the regional vote, down 1 per cent.

The Scotsman still predicts a minority Labour administration.  But there is a grim 70-day slog ahead of Blair and McConnell, in which they can only lose more ground.  The potential for a highly significant moment in Britain’s political history is decidedly there.