Cross-posted from My Left Wing and available at Blue House Diaries

In the thread of Jeff Huber's diary, weeping for brunnhilde ponders:

Why is it that Soviet citizens knew they were being lied to, yet Americans engage in tragically blithe and reckless credulity?

There are many ways to approach such a question, but what was interesting to me was the latter part of the question, why some of my fellow Americans behave how they do.

Below was my take on the question, with some revisions.

Cross-posted from My Left Wing and also available at Blue House Diaries.

"Study: 744,000 Are Homeless in U.S."

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There were 744,000 homeless people in the United States in 2005, according to the first national estimate in a decade. A little more than half were living in shelters, and nearly a quarter were chronically homeless, according to the report Wednesday by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, an advocacy group.

A majority of the homeless were single adults, but about 41 percent were in families, the report said.

From My Left Wing

Podcasting is the new thing, and like blogging, it's pretty user friendly. This will be a basic introduction to podcasting and then provide some instructions for those inclined to learn how to listen to podcasts.

First things first: What are podcasts?

Podcasts are basically segments of audio (but sometimes video) that are posted online at a certain interval. The interesting thing about podcasts is that there are shows/segments on a whole variety of subjects. It's a wonderful way to become familiarized with a subject that you haven't studied.

Furthermore, there are all different levels of production done with podcasts. Like blogging, some large corporations have taken up the format of podcasts, while there are also some done by regular citizens. Some podcasts are also longer than others. I typically listen to shows that last from a half-hour to an hour, but there are some out there that are as brief as a minute long.

If you have a portable mp3 player, like an iPod, you can then listen to these segments outside on a walk, on the way to work, anywhere. However, you can also listen to them on your computer, which I will explain shortly.

Ben & Jerry's is a favorite company amongst many progressives for its public opposition towards the cruel and environmentally destructive effects of factory farming. On its web site, the company criticizes what it calls "giant, industrial farming operations," and it ends one of its commercials with the tag line, "Ben & Jerry's: Join our fight for small family farms." Unfortunately, in at least one important area, it looks like the company's "green" values are just a hoax.

::More on the flip::

This was how my undergraduate course on American Foreign policy usually began. By a show of anonymous hands, the class was divided evenly in their support for the pending war on Iraq. Already being outraged by the Bush Administration, this young student of political science was quite skeptical of many of the stated reasons for an Anglo-American invasion of Iraq.

Yet, after attending enough classes, and discussing international relations as if one were a policy maker, the assumptions that Saddam had large quantities weapons of mass destruction became internalized; as the professor always said, "We have the receipts." Even though I was always a vocal opponent of the war, it was as if to get a seat at the table, one had to adopt a certain train of thought and accept certain assumptions.

::More::

It is common knowledge that Congress voted to pass the Iraq War Resolution. Yet the media hardly ever mentions that we are bound to the U.N. Charter, it is the law of our land, and thus I was never convinced that the United States of America had the legal authority to attack Iraq. I am not the only one, similar positions have been advocated by Juan Cole, Kofi Annan, Hans Blix, and also by neo-conservative Richard Perle.

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I kid. But seriously, have you ever been approached on the street by a Lyndon LaRouche follower? Well I have a few times, most recently the other day. The guy was pretty friendly, not a jerk or anything, but assumed that I was pretty uneducated, which is ironic considering I was outside a university.

At first, I was slightly annoyed. He started asking me a whole bunch of questions about standardized testing and whether they gauged knowledge, and when he felt that I wasn't prone to just buy his points, I was pretty money, he started to get into the LaRouche ideas on epistemology and history. I actually did have to go, so I left.  But I walked away from the conversation half wondering about the guy's well-being, had he been brain-washed?, and half wondering  if perhaps my conception of what LaRouche stood for was really as crazy as it is often characterized.

::More::

But why is it that people, myself included, who advocate for better treatment of animals in our society feel that we need to approach others in a diplomatic way (at least most of the time, heh). You don't hear people calling others: omnivultures, meatfiends.. (ok, I'm not a very creative writer and can't come up with any more).

When comparing two value systems which seem to be different Neil Levy, in A Short Introduction to Moral Relativism, explains two scenarios: one in which two people disagree because their perspective "begs the question" of the other's value system and another in which two individuals disagree because of a set of facts.

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One night when she was in Dublin, she stumbled, and yes I mean stumbled, into a pub. Her and her friends were trying to think of a way to drink a lot in a short period of time, so she had the idea of ordering an "Irish car bomb" (which is when the bartender pours a pint of Guinness and gives you a shot of Jameson or Baileys, and you then subsequently drop the Jameson into the pint and chug the whole thing). This turned out to be a bad idea.

The bartender took a second, and then explained to my friend that they were fresh out of car-bombs but that he could make her a "9/11."  Well, she was a little shocked, but explained to me that she learned never to order an Irish car bomb in Dublin.

Well Irish car bombs aren't the only alcoholic endeavors to embody a political title. Back here in the Land of Liberty I have been to countless places where people play a gamed called "Beirut."

::More::

Rick Klein wrote an article on the front page of the Boston Globe entitled Democrats embrace tough military stance. At face value this message seemed fine, a tough stance against imminent threats and possible humanitarian intervention:
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I believe there is a disconnect between certain practices in contemporary art and most of the public’s idea of what constitutes art. Part of the problem, in my humble opinion, is a lack of the proliferation of recent art history. While art is nebulas, art history can function as an important tool in exposing us to new ideas and helping us understand art.

This may be an outcome of the idea that it is common for people to reject what they don’t understand. What follows is a general attachment to received opinion about what art is, and what art should be.

If culture is important, as an influence in our society as well as our political climate, and we believe art is a fundamental cornerstone of our culture, than it follows that our culture will not progress until artistic trends of the last century are, at the least, investigated.

::More (Worth a read, I pinky swear!)::

Rami  Khouri's, From Belfast to Beirut: Good news at last, tackles the idea of being inclusive in bringing various conflicting factions to the negotiating table as well as the idea that the factions must feel some sense of ownership of the ideas that are being brought to the table.

Khouri begins his piece by investigating the implications of the Irish Republican Army's decision to halt violent resistance against the UK and explaining how this could serve as a model for establishing a peaceful Middle East "which in turn would help reduce the global terror problem".

Essentially the point of the bloggesphere is to improve the world. Most places have their own goals, their own mission, and work with others who are willing to help.. whether its exposing the calculated lies of the Bush administration or helping raise money for progressive candidates, these are all important avenues and as most people here would agree these acts can be viewed as helping other people or at the least preventing harm.

Well I don't have anything insightful for you today, sorry!  I just wanted to remind people that...

Dr. Odeh is a Palestinian Mulsim who lives in Jerusalem and is the Director of the Palestinian Happy Child Center. As the title of her center indicates Dr. Odeh works with children and told the story of one epileptic child and the general requirements to get past a checkpoint in medical situations.

::More!::

Fox News isn't just a biased news source, just another opinion, its gone too far. It's not just another opinion to state:

MARKS: It [Edgware Road] is an area that has a very large Arab population. Surrounding that station, a large number of Middle Eastern restaurants. So, it's a further indication, if in fact these attacks were carried out by Al Qaeda-affiliated cells, that these people are, if necessary, prepared to spill Arab blood in addition to the blood of regular -- of non-Arab people living in London. (emphasis mine)

More..

One difference I have noticed between myself and friends of mine on the wrong side of the political spectrum is that I have heard policies justified in terms of its importance in regards to tradition.

I believe that tradition alone is not enough to justify anything.
More!