Good evening, fatster, hope you enjoyed your day off.

In International news, on TV tonight al-Jazeera and France24 are reporting that exit polls show the center-left in the lead in the Italian elections.

On education, your items suggest to me that Rand Paul and Michelle Rhee share the conviction that the problems of inner-city schools are to be located somewhere other than their social context which makes learning for the average child difficult or impossible, for all their differences on just what scapegoat they blame (the schools themselves for Paul; the teachers for Rhee).

Since I have a certain prime position here let me address a complaint to whoever is watching. I am really tired of that pair of eyes looking at me from all over the page on every FDL post telling me that I’m being scroogled. The reason offered is that I use g-mail, but in fact I do not. This is like having to watch TV ads for candidates in Maryland and Virginia every election cycle when I don’t vote there as I live in D.C.

Good evening, f. You know that things are going badly when they start resorting to body counts:

Nearly 100 Rebels Are Reported Killed in Mali Battle

Thnx so much for the update on the Italian election, E. F. Beall. I guess we’ll know the results tomorrow.

Rand Paul and Michelle Rhee–what a combo, huh?

So nice to see you, allan.

Body counts–Arrrrrrgh! Hell, revisited.

Thnx, allan.

I googled scroogle and came up with this, E. F. Beall.

Regarding “Compassion and grace. . .Germany’s development minister. . .”

——————-

Eating horse meat unexpectedly, then finding out, would be quite a shock in our neck of the woods. I understand it is very similar to beef, though. In France it’s no big deal as long as the consumer knows what’s on the plate.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=horse+meat+france&qpvt=horse+meat+france&FORM=IGREn

But for many of us, and not just vegetarians, eating horsemeat would be unthinkable. Why? Maybe horses’ higher intelligence gains them unfair credit as more sentient and deserving of protection than steer.

I’m afraid I’m part of that “yuck” factor crowd, but quite certain I enjoyed dog, snake, rice bugs, and other such specialties in Thailand 40 years ago. For the GIs the menu said, “chicken,” to keep them comfy. I never asked for clarification.

The only truly honest folks in this dilemma are vegetarians and PETA types.

BTW did anyone notice the McCain brand frozen horsemeat lasagne in that link?

LOL, maa8722. You were wise not to ask for clarification–or maybe just dog-tired (no pun intended, i promise) of those LRP rations which preceded MREs, as best I understand it.

As a child, I drew the line at consuming certain things such as deep-fried possum. And it’s a good thing, too: “Also bear in mind that a small cadre of renegade opossums has been known to have sought out people who have eaten their compatriots and lay seige to their dwelling. Armed with crude but efficient crossbows, they may shoot arrows into the car tires or capture and hold hostage the pets of the offending citizens.” Source.

That’s the same as what you get by just clicking on the ad. Doesn’t change the fact that it is obnoxious.

Hahahahahaha. Thnx so much, maa8722.

So sorry you’re plagued by that, E. F. Beall. Wish I could be of help.

Kitty, ink, and parchment: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/02/the-15th-century-equivalent-of-your-cat-walking-on-your-keyboard/273283/

Cool! Thnx so much, Phoenix Woman. Nice to see you, too.

Interesting Dalai Lama history.

Tibet’s self-proclaimed independence in 1913, after the fall of Qing Empire of China, was never recognised legally by any country.

snip

Once the Chinese People’s Liberation Army forces defeated Tibet’s army on October 7, 1950, Beijing started a campaign of re-integrating [my bold] Tibet into the People’s Republic of China.

snip

In 1951 the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, preferred to stay in Lhasa and formally accepted “The 17 Point Plan” peace treaty uniting Tibet and the People’s Republic of China.

Three years later the Dalai Lama was elected vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s National Assembly, thus entering China’s ruling elite.

Whatever.

Read the article.

Geez, F35 has been the most expensive, most prone to every error under the sun since its inception. Don’t need to include China sabotage into the mix. Hope Pentagon paid emptywheel big bucks for the headline.

Furthermore, none of the Chinese hacking stories have come with any evidence. If you want to believe that Iraq had WMDs all over again, no stopping you.

You might consider perspective in first item here (or not) before getting exercise by jumping to conclusions about hysteria over faux and forthcoming cyberattack hysteria.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

While we’re at it, let’s disinter Echelon from the memory hole. Predates FISA spying on domestic citizens by over half a century. I used to know about Echelon, but forgot, so link serves as a reminder for others who knew, but forgot about Echelon.

Minor Lew point. Rival factions seem to be Goldman Sucks vs Shittybank.

(Leaving aside for the moment that Rubin was at both.)

Rival factions. Who’s up & who’s down. What does it mean.

I haven’t a clue but suspect it is of existential importance for peeps who play at that level.

Rhetorical Q: Why is there a austerity “debate’?

I’veeaten a fair amount of horsemeat (mostly steaks) in my life. In the day it was a great improvement over the red slime commonly sold as beef. It tastes a bit like deer meat, and you cook it withe same care (well done is like shoe leather). But since we can now gwt bison on a regular basis we’ve stopped buying it. Plus our butcher buys good beef and dry ages it himself. Expensive, but you shouldn’t eat too much meat in any case.

To ensure a happy retirement for bankers and hedge fund managers. For the life of me I can’t come up with any other plausible reason esides witchcraft, which one should not rule out.

Bravo, fatster. What a tour de force! Thank you, very much.

So, there’s talk of organized crime being involved with selling horse as beef.

Roumania? Who knew?

The Best Picture award to Argo seems to me a symbol of obeisance by Hollywood to the National Security State, in suitably liberal form. (The CIA action in Argo took place during the liberal Carter administration, involved the “enlightened” Canadians, and put the the CIA in service of a genuine humanitarian rescue operation.) Zero Dark Thirty, in contrast, shows a blood and guts CIA engaged in torture and at the service of the W. administration during the first part of the movie. There is no way that Argo could reasonably be considered the actual best picture of the year compared to, say, Life of Pi.

“Park Geun-hye has become South Korea’s first female president and returned to the presidential mansion where she grew up with her dictator father.”

“Pyongyang, Washington, Beijing and Tokyo are all watching to see if Park pursues an ambitious engagement policy meant to ease five years of animosity on the divided peninsula or if she sticks with the tough stance of her fellow conservative predecessor, Lee Myung-bak”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/02/24/wrd-south-korea-president-north-korea.html

More on CIA front, USG funded faux NGOs. Dead French Photographer was State Department-Funded – Embedded With Al Qaeda

Couple of paragraphs of interest.

Voisin’s organization, Reporters Without Borders, is a notorious faux-NGO that plays a pivotal role globally, undermining nations targeted by Western corporate-financier interests, working in tandem with US State Department-backed proxies in Iran, China, Russia, Sudan, and everywhere else Wall Street and London seek to plant their flag. In 2008, Reporters Without Borders received cash from the State Department-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) whose board of directors is a who’s who of warmongering Neo-Conservatives and corporate special interests.

snip

Reporters Without Borders also received cash from the Sigrid Rausing Trust, the Overbrook Foundation, and the US State Department’s Washington DC-based “Center for a Free Cuba.” It should be noted that the Sigrid Rausing Trust also provides funding for the International Crisis Group (ICG) (along with BP, Chevron, Shell, Deutsche Bank Group, and Morgan Stanley) who in part helped blueprint and cheerlead the violence that ultimately claimed Voisin’s life. In fact, the ICG includes amongst its board of directors, Kofi Annan who helped buy time for NATO militants to rearm and redeploy with a disingenuous “peace plan.”

snip

The runaway depravity of the West, its governments, institutions, media, and faux-NGO’s are permanently disfiguring any potential concept of “international law” and has left the people of the West with a floundering legitimacy that will inevitably impact all other aspects of their life, not merely foreign policy. Criminal foreign policy is just one of many symptoms of a corrupt, corporate-financier dominated ruling oligarchy that has hijacked the institutions, charters, and social contracts that bind together a functional society.

Thnx, nixonclinbushbama.

Makes one wonder where there’s not organized crime.

I never did fully understand the reasons behind the 1959 Tibetan revolt against the Chinese government, or why the Dalai Llama, who had lived in Beijing as a teenager, suddenly became an exile in India. From what I have read of and by the Dalai Llama, he is not an opponent of the People’s Republic, only of its oppression of the Tibetan people.

Correction: “Lama” not “llama” (the animal).

The roots go back many centuries, but this specifically addresses the 1959 uprising. Many footnotes, so you can follow up.

Here’s a piece on the Dalai Lama’s escape into India: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/31/newsid_2788000/2788343.stm