Psyberspace

February 02, 2003 – February 08, 2003 Archives

Tom Morrow’s weblog. The reason for war in Powell’s speech, in one line.

Working for Change features Tom’s comic.

Otautahi Christchurch New Zealand Peace Action Network

We have now confirmed Victoria Square, 1pm on February 15th as the venue.

The next planning meeting will be 6:30 pm Tuesday February 11th at the WEA. We will be finalising Picnic For Peace organising, followed by a longer-term strategy discussion at 7 pm. This is an open meeting, all are welcome.

There is lots of discussion on organising this event on the PANNZ list (see contact details below) so we recommend you join the list if you want to be involved.

MotherJones.com | News
Good to hear this from someone in the music world:

All of this stuff about ‘piracy’ is fomented entirely by the record and film industries to perpetuate business models that are completely disadvantageous to both the creator and the audience. They are the biggest pirates in the deal. But unfortunately, they have made huge amounts of campaign donations and essentially created all the government that money can buy. And they have Congress. Congress is passing laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which make it so you can’t break open the bottles that they’re pouring your knowledge into. They directly contravene the right to know. The right to know, I think, though it may not be explicit in the Constitution is every bit as important as the right to speak.

smh.com.au

Dr Blix took issue with what he said were US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s claims that the inspectors had found that Iraqi officials were hiding and moving illicit materials within and outside of Iraq to prevent their discovery. He said that the inspectors had reported no such incidents.

Similarly, he said, he had not seen convincing evidence that Iraq was sending weapons scientists to other countries to prevent them from being interviewed.

Nor had he any reason to believe, as President George Bush charged in his State of the Union speech, that Iraqi agents were posing as scientists, or that his inspection agency had been penetrated by Iraqi agents and that sensitive information might have been leaked to Baghdad.

Finally, he said, he had seen no persuasive indications of Iraqi ties to al-Qaeda. “There are other states where there appear to be stronger links,” such as Afghanistan, Dr Blix said. “It’s bad enough that Iraq may have weapons of mass destruction.”

It really is bad how the US admin machine generates lies, this info is also reported but somehow the might of the lies machine overwhelms it all. I got this link of daypop, not Google News for example, which means people find this but search engines don’t?

Later:
It might make no real sense to have UN inspectors (backed by US might) in Iraq but for all that the battle there is holding off the war for now, perhaps because of a falling out among thieves. For all that if the US had its way millions would be dead by now. But ultimately Blix and the UN can’t be trusted to keep the peace.

How can we stop this now?

My invitation … Write to me in an email, about one of the following: One of your dreams A difficulty or dilemma you are having A challenge or crisis in a relationship Strong feelings you have now A topic of your choice I will respond fully for the introductory rate of $US 5.00 for the first email. To get started make the PayPal payment and email me: walter@psybernet.co.nz

Thought I’d highlight my Psychotherapy Online practice. This weblog (focused on the psyche in cyberspace) will give you (if you are considering psychotherapy) some sense of who I am… but not quite of the intimate and personal work that a psychotherapeutic connection involves. Online that connection can go very deep.

Index of Poems

And it’s madness
to ask poets to celebrate,
when people can’t even
breathe deeply
for fear of war’s imminence.

— Gregory Orr

How i feel at times going about simply living – let alone celebrating life. Particularly acute with the more fun and trivial stuff…

Patron Saints Index

Patron Saint of the Internet

Could he only be sanctified, the best candidate might be that good Catholic Marshall McLuhan. Don’t laugh — he was very much a good Catholic. He even won an appointment from the Vatican in 1973.

McLuhan’s truths, like “the media is the massage” (usually misread as “the medium is the message”), still resonate nearly two decades after his death. But my favorite is this one: “Most people are alive in an earlier time, but you must be alive in our own time.”

Interesting too on this page is Isidore’s ideas about choice.

Heresy is from the Greek word meaning “choice”… But we are not permitted to believe whatever we choose, nor to choose whatever someone else has believed. We have the Apostles of God as authorities, who did not… choose what they would believe but faithfully transmitted the teachings of Christ. So, even if an angel from heaven should preach otherwise, he shall be called anathema.

There is some glimmer of truth in this… we have freedom to choose what we believe, but only if we are happy with nonsense, we are forced to choose from the domain of the credible! That does not leave much, probably not even the authorities Isidore looked to.

(washingtonpost.com)

ROME — The Archangel Gabriel is one of Christianity’s great communicators — it was he who brought word to Mary that she would give birth to Jesus, the Bible says. So it was only natural that when a search began for a patron saint for the Internet, Gabriel’s name arose.

According to a poll being conducted by a Roman Catholic organization in northern Italy, he is now in sixth place behind a 20th century martyr, an educator and a publisher born in the 19th century, an 18th century evangelizer and a 13th century nun who saw visions projected on a wall.

The web site, www.santiebeati.it, is soliciting votes with the aim of having an Internet patron saint named by Easter. “We had lots of requests for a patron, so we decided the Internet was the best tool for finding one,” said Roberto Diani, an Internet adviser for Italy’s Conference of Bishops. The official choice will be made by the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Cult and Discipline of Sacrament.

More here The Seattle Times: Web site searches for patron saint for Internet

This is not unlike looking for the archetypes of cybersapce and the discussions might well be useful!