Now that US troops are committed to Iraq again, this song reminds me of how civilians have lost all decision
making power to the MIC.

Though produced after Vietnam, this song is one of a number of 'conscience' pieces that CSNY aren't so famous for, but which represent some of their best music. It also echoes my feeling over the murky, suspect uses of our military to prop up extraction contractors. It reminds me of information disadvantage we usually endure, if reports are true that there will be even more limited media access to what I can only think is an extraction war over in Mosul.

I know our troops know their jobs. That they want to serve. That I'm no military policy expert. But to take, train and retake?



(headphones recommended)

"Shadowland"

Behind a nation's blind salute
Behind "my country `tis of thee"
Behind the pain that won't compute
Erase the memory of Shadowland.

An open wound that never heals
A bone that never seems to set
A mind that thinks but never feels
The face we've never met from Shadowland.

They tell us time and time again
They only want a few good men
They lead us through the lion's den
To Shadowland.

The world would just as soon forget
And watch the wreckage drift ashore
Ten years reduced to one regret
The baggage of war from Shadowland.

Don't ask us how our names were lost
Our nation did a sleight of hand
We never saw the line we crossed
That took us into Shadowland.

They tell us time and time again
They only want a few good men
They lead us through the lion's den
To Shadowland.

The son will reap what fathers sow
But mothers have to hear the sound
Of the last breath of the boy next door
Whose life has ended.

Shadowland, Shadowland, Shadowland.

Highly recommended to spread around -- since most people on DU understand the history of white privilege in America -- and still well worth watching, as any internal racial divide needs closing, not widening.

Thank you for the cheer, kindness, humor, brilliance and solutions that you've shared over the years. I don't know how I'd get on without you. For this and all future Thanksgivings, may you know that you are loved and appreciated for how good you are, and for all the good you do for others.

I'm not a fan of country, but I like this Garth guy. For Ferguson, he's done the right thing.

United, yet each playing our part toward the greatest good for the greatest number.

We've got to GOTV! EARLY! A Big Thank You to RBinMaine for bringing this speech to DU's attention.

I can't believe I'm reading such a public announcement from my 35 year-old, lifelong Democratic voting daughter!

My daughter:



On the spur of the moment I felt that I had no choice but to make a public appeal to her, although talking about voting publicly with a family member is a pretty awkward thing to do on Facebook. Even her little brother popped up in support of "ground level progressivism."

I felt that I'd failed, and that she's become someone I can only be tolerant of and courteous toward, but can't respect. I don't want to feel that way, but dammit, I do.

Me:



Questions: Could I have said or done something else? Has anybody else experienced this?

I hope this isn't a trend elsewhere. Maybe I'm just tired right now, but I'm also feeling like I'm losing my children to the disengaged youth stereotype. UGH.

This is a report from the Africa side of the Ebola world on the struggles of doctors and their treatment attempts. It details the epidemiological studies and genome mapping of Ebola.

The report names ZMapp as the medicine produced by Kentucky Map BioProcessing labs, as the first medicine that saved Dr. Brantley, whose blood has been since donated to help treat Ebola patients back in the USA.

The report also summarizes vaccines in development, from the National Institutes of Health's testing of a vaccine made by a division of GlaxoSmithKline and based on an adenovirus on twenty volunteers, to one called VSV-EBOV, developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and licensed to NewLink Genetics, which started human trials last week.

It's long and dramatic, but worth your time. Unlike the rest of media, this is the kind of information that shows us how awesome people in scientific fields are awesomely in the forefront and behind the scenes.

Did I mention that I love the New Yorker?

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/27/ebola-wars

The documentary "Through A Lens Darkly" -- willfully unseen -- unpacks the war of images within the American family album. It re-establishes that black people's representations of themselves ARE American history. It re-establishes that black people have the final word -- and image -- about who they are. American.

This film has been around awhile but PBS and theaters should give it far more exposure right now, as the current media portrayal war on a whole people continues. A powerful and important film that should be required viewing for all Americans. Fight the power.

September 21 starts a eighteen month fight against climate disaster.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Climate_March

It's not surprising that Professor Mary Beard is told by Rod Little, an internet provocateur, to get over it, saying "why would it be worse for a woman than a man?"



My view is that a violent language climate leads to violent actions. Psychological assault is the warmup to physical assault. That women have to continue to walk psychological minefields is a psyop that saps their energy that costs this society and weakens our identity as civilized.

What Jon Stewart says about living with racism holds true of women living with misogyny: "If you are tired of hearing about it, imagine how fucking exhausting it is living it."