Nancy Drew They're Not

Is this the face of corporate hegemony:



Or is this?



A shadowy group called the Girls’ Intelligence Agency (which offers very little information about itself), is described on Yahoo thus:

Slumber party guests have more to worry about than frozen underwear these days. The Girls' Intelligence Agency (GIA) is a marketing firm that collects information about the buying habits of female 'tweens (girls ages 8-to-13) through its "Slumber-Party-In-A-Box" marketing tool. GIA recruits girls, secret-agent style, to host slumber parties where they open a box full of never-before-seen products, including movie and TV previews, branded T-shirts, and samples, aimed at the 'tween market. The company collects girls' reactions from thousands of slumber parties and reports them to clients such as Disney, FOX, and Capitol Records.

"They claim to have a 'network of over 40,000 secret agent influencers nationwide." Creepy.

Ever wonder where your friend Suzy got such new schlock? And why she invited you to her slumber parties even though you weren't really good friends? Well, now you know.

Business is business, and business must grow (as Dr. Seuss used to say), but doesn't this seem a bit desperate? If the only way to expand the market is through espionage geared at younger and younger kids, eventually the limit will be reached. What will the corporations do when there's nowhere to go? Maybe ours will be the first generation to have pre-natal advertising; a Motorola instead of a Mozart effect.

For All Those Who Think the Universities are Full of Elite, Out-of-Touch Radicals Who Hate Their Country…

…. You’re not alone.

The Chinese Communist Party and Chairman Mao stand with you.



Just a sample:

I have undertaken the task of organizing conservative students myself and urging them to protest a situation that has become intolerable.
David Horowitz
The Campus Blacklist
April 18, 2003

Students on University campuses were organized into groups of “Red Guards” and were given the chance to challenge those in authority. Students quickly turned their attacks on their closest adversaries, their teachers and university administrators.
Therese Hoffman
The Chinese Cultural Revolution:
Autobiographical Accounts of a National Trauma
2001

...

Horowitz's organization has published ads in campus newspapers calling on students to report professors who try to "impose their political opinions" in the classroom.
The Daily Texan
Conservatives gaining ground at UT
March 8, 2004

Mao actively urged young people to confront, denounce, and even punish their teachers and other authority figures in their lives.
Christian Science Monitor
China hums with change
June 10, 2004


Naturally, organizations where it's the duty of people to study, learn, and debate are going to be strongolds of left-of-center thinking. Colleges are unique among other stages of learning because what people are taught is not harmonized - that is, a student could learn an idea in one class, then a contradictory one in another. Naturally, the ruling right-wing theories should be given a fair hearing, but they usually wither away in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Could you imagine the horror of a place where all institutes of higher learning instill the students with unquestioning awe of their leaders, ardent nationalism, and hatred of their country's enemies? Oh yeah, you can - it's called North Korea. Or Saudi Arabia, or Syria, or - well, you get the idea.

It's the responsibility of each generation to deal with the problems their elders leave behind. That can't happen if they're conditioned to believe the status quo is perfect.

Updates! Updates for All!

What good is a news story without a follow-up?

Global Warming

Further signs of this problem: the snows of Kilimanjaro have disappeared! Take that, Hemingway.

About a month ago, another study came out claiming that humans are causing this rapid, unexpected rise in world temperatures. I think that brings the total number of scientific inquiries blaming pollution up to about 290.

But all is not lost; if we’d simply phase out the older, dirtier polluters (coal factories, inefficient cars, etc.) and replace them with their cleaner, more modern equivalents, we’d be in good shape. After all, the average car in 2004 produces 1/10 as much pollution as the average car in 1970, and maybe less.

Sgrena

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced today that Italy would begin to withdraw its 3,000-strong force in Iraq. This certainly wasn’t Berlusconi’s idea; he’s a firm supporter of the war and a friend of President Bush. The Italian public, however, is strongly anti-war, and the business with Sgrena was just too much for them to take. I guess some aspects of democracy aren't totally dead in Italy. Yet.

P.S. Does Eason Jordan get his job back?

Saddam’s (Faked?) Capture

No more news yet; the US media is ignoring this thing entirely. The only references I’ve been able to find are Arabic publications repeating the original article and neocons calling the marine a liar. Of course, no one actually wants to have an investigation; the truth has a way of embarrassing everybody. Maybe we’ll find out in 50 years when the CIA files are unsealed.

I Hope Larry Kudlow Can Swim

For a long time, the trump card of conservatives was National Security. “Do you really care about the minimum wage, abortion, or gay rights?” they’d say, sneering at the very idea. “Are those namby-pamby Democrats going to protect you from Communi- I mean, terrorism?” One could argue that the Democrats had done a pretty good job in years past, and that terrorist attacks were sharply rising under the Bush administration, but that’d just make them mad. “Trust us, things would be a lot worse with Al Gore in the White House!” they’d yell, spewing crumbs everywhere. “IF IT WEREN’T FOR US, YOU’D ALL BE BLOWN TO PIECES! IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT?!?! WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA!?!?!?”

Of course, that’s not what we wanted, and we did not hate America, and since it was fairly impossible to prove them wrong about a hypothetical situation, we usually shut up at this point and found someone more interesting to talk to.

But, even the threat of violent attacks pales in comparison with the total destruction of the human race as we know it. No, I'm not talking about nuclear weapons - though that should be dealt with sooner rather than later. I'm talking about something that, unlike its Republican equivalent, is a real, measurable phenomenon that is happening right in front of us.

It’s that old standby Global Warming.

Canada’s ice caps are melting away.

The original government release:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2005/Canada_Ice.html

For popular consumption:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050309142557.htm

What’s the response to this? Republicans certainly aren’t going to do anything about it; the unfettered free market isn’t concerned with such things. After all, it only seeks to maximize profit, not minimize losses.

How important is The Greatness of America if said Greatness is submerged under the Atlantic?

The Fallacy of Sanctions

A common 'moderate' way to deal with a rogue nation is to end trade. That way, there's no fighting, just a stern and unmistakable message telling the country we disapprove of them, and offering the possibility of restored trade if they change their ways.

Yet from Iraq to Palestine to Cuba, they’ve been an exercise in futility. They’ve produced plenty of poverty, disease, and resentment, but they’ve never managed to actually bring down a government unless followed by a large-scale invasion.

Sometimes it can be necessary to restrict the importation or exportation of certain things (such as, say, nuclear bombs), but to forbid food, medicine or workers to enter a country is worse than useless.

Whenever a nation is threatened by an external force, the people look to their leaders for protection and support. An embargo is the same as a bomb, and sometimes worse.

But wouldn’t those who suffer under an embargo blame the actions of their leaders which caused the sanctions in the first place?

No; not in the entirety of recorded human history has that ever happened. People simply do not think that way. They say to themselves “It wasn’t our corrupt, dictatorial leaders who imposed the sanctions, it was those foreign powers. It is cruel to make us suffer for something our leaders – who definitely are none the worse for wear because of these restrictions – have done.” This is assuming, of course, that the people of the isolated nation don’t support their rulers in the first place, while oftentimes they do. The notion that an entire country will embark on a collective guilt trip and beg forgiveness is ridiculous.

Some poeple never learn.