Being ready to murder as a way of life

The attack at the Dutch royal family of April 30th - which took the lives of seven people, the perpetrator including, and several wounded who will be scarred for life - keeps intriguing. Now here is someone who was fired, who would be evicted because he was unable to pay the rent and as a divorced father was deprived of the right to see his children.

Yes, there are thousands or hundreds of thousands of people like him, if not millions. Luckily, hardly any of them decides to do an Attentat.

But even though poverty may have loomed for the late attacker, he still had a car, the best legal means to kill or hurt. It was a Suzuki.
I am not sure whether CNN mentioned the brand in its news item about the attack. But click on the illustration and find out what CNN has to say about Suzuki.

CNN is not broadcasting for the news ONLY ON CNN.
CNN is there for the advertisements.

And any advertisement for a brand of car is an advertisement for cars in general, as Erich Fromm has written. It projects a society in which it is perfectly normal and desirable to own your own four wheeled means of transport (which has to be bought on credit of course - oops, something going wrong with this these days).
And "creating" seven dead and several more wounded is a way of life.

Libertarian marxist André Gorz already summed up the case against cars in 1973.
Come to think of it, Dutch Christian anarchist Felix Ortt already wrote half a century before Gorz that it was a wasteful means of consuming energy - when you convert the costs you end up in proceeding at a speed of 5 km/h - the speed of a walking person - and you use quite a lot of irreplaceable resources for this result.

h/t Lapis Lazuli.

Obama: 5 Challenges that he and his friends face together

Friendship, ties, tributes, deep respect. These are the things that bring Turkey and the USA to fight their common enemies.

This is how stately speeches work: there is a cordial introduction and then a rounding on the "Other". If states exist only by perpetuating violence then alliances between states exist to bring violent thoughts and actions together across the world.

So what and who are Obama's enemies? Well, according to his speech in Ankara, Turkey today they are the following:

An economic crisis that recognizes no borders.

1. Extremism that leads to the killing of innocent men, women and children.
2. Strains on our energy supply.
3. A changing climate (Change we can believe in).
4. The proliferation of the world’s deadliest weapons.
5. The persistence of tragic conflict.

It is encouraging to hear a world ruler speak frankly of the "strains on our energy supply". When do politicians ever even hint at Peak Oil let alone to do so as a key theme for his or her future agenda? Yet his solutions, none are given, instead he focuses on bailing out the banks and hunting down the terrorists. So no CHANGE there then. And HOPE has an even bigger carbon footprint than the WAR ON TERROR.

Obama quotes a Turkish proverb, how cute of him: “You cannot put out fire with flames.” I don't know why. It has nothing to do with the content of his speech perhpas he just wants us to look the other way a moment while he gets on with the important work of government.

Gaza - follow the money of the future

In case you - rather: we - thought red peppers and oranges would be the main products, if ever Gaza would be producing anything in the future: read this and think again. And think again about the reasons why things are happening like they are at the moment.

Politicians spin Kingsnorth protest

Well done to the Lib' Dem's for forcing the issue when the home office claimed that heavy-handed police presence at the climate camp was justified by the 70 police officers injured by protestors.

It now turns out there were 12 reportable injuries none of which was caused by a protestor but one was caused by a bee and another by sitting in a car!

Greenpeace 6 cleared of unlawful dammage

From the Independet

"The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.

Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a "lawful excuse" to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of "lawful excuse" under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage – such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire."

While any criminal act should "count the cost" of possible penalty its great to know that a jury of our peers is often on our side and that the law can ofen highlight its own injustices.