AdamSmith

Greenwald in yesterday's Guardian, which as of this moment appears not yet to have any comment on his departure: The perfect epitaph for establishment journalism'If MI5 warns that this is not in the public interest who am I to disbelieve them?', says the former editor of The Independent Glenn Greenwald theguardian.com, Monday 14 October 2013 08.23 EDT Some journalists view this as an inviolable decree that may not be questioned or defied Photograph: Alamy Like many people, I've spent years writing and speaking about the lethal power-subservient pathologies plaguing establishment journalism in the west. But this morning, I feel a bit like all of that was wasted time and energy, because this new column by career British journalist Chris Blackhurst - an executive with and, until a few months ago, the editor of the UK daily calling itself "The Independent" - contains a headline that says everything that needs to be said about the sickly state of establishment journalism: In other words, if the government tells me I shouldn't publish something, who am I as a journalist to disobey? Put that on the tombstone of western establishment journalism. It perfectly encapsulates the death spiral of large journalistic outlets. Lest you think that the headline does not fairly represent the content of the column, Blackhurst, in explaining why he would never have allowed his newspaper to publish any of the documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, actually wrote: If the security services insist something is contrary to the public interest, and might harm their operations, who am I (despite my grounding from Watergate onwards) to disbelieve them?" Most people, let alone journalists, would be far too embarrassed to admit they harbor such subservient, obsequious sentiments. It's one thing to accord some deference or presumption of good will to political officials, but the desire to demonstrate some minimal human dignity, by itself, would preclude most people from publicly confessing that they have willingly sacrificed all of their independent judgment and autonomy to the superior, secret decrees of those who wield the greatest power. Chris Blackhurst has obviously liberated himself from these inhibitions, though not entirely, as he infuses insincere caveats like this into his paean to the virtues of obedience: "I'm cynical about officialdom, having seen too many cover-ups and appalling injustices carried out in our name." One would think that most journalists (particularly those who edit a newspaper called "The Independent") would want to maintain at least a pretense of independent thought and thus refrain from acknowledging such cringe-inducing things about themselves. Still, what Blackhurst is revealing here is indeed a predominant mindset among many in the media class. Journalists should not disobey the dictates of those in power. Once national security state officials decree that what they are doing should be kept concealed from the public - once they pound their mighty "SECRET" stamp onto their behavior - it is the supreme duty of all citizens, including journalists, to honor that and never utter in public what they have done. Indeed, it is not only morally wrong, but criminal, to defy these dictates. After all, "who am I to disbelieve them?" That this mentality condemns - and would render outlawed - most of the worthwhile investigative journalism over the last several decades never seems to occur to good journalistic servants like Blackhurst. National security state officials also decreed that it would "not be in the public interest" to report on the Pentagon Papers, or the My Lai massacre, or the network of CIA black sites in which detainees were tortured, or the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program, or the documents negating claims of Iraqi WMDs, or a whole litany of waste, corruption and illegality that once bore the "top secret" label. Indeed, one of the best reporters in the UK, Duncan Campbell, works for Blackhurst's newspaper, and he was arrested and prosecuted by the UK government in the 1970s for the "crime" of disclosing the existence of the GCHQ. When Blackhurst sees Campbell in the hallways, does he ask him: "who are you to have decided on your own to disclose that which UK officials had told you should remain concealed?" The NSA reporting enabled by Snowden's whistleblowing has triggered a worldwide debate over internet freedom and privacy, reform movements in numerous national legislatures, multiple whistleblowing prizes for Snowden, and the first-ever recognition of just how pervasive and invasive is the system of suspicionless surveillance being built by the US and the UK. It does not surprise me that authoritarian factions, including (especially) establishment journalists, prefer that none of this reporting and debate happened and that we all instead remained blissfully ignorant about it. But it does still surprise me when people calling themselves "journalists" openly admit to thinking this way. But when they do so, they do us a service, as it lays so vividly bare just how wide the gap is between the claimed function of establishment journalists and the actual role they fulfill. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/14/independent-epitaph-establishment-journalism

Glenn Greenwald out at 'The Guardian', will launch new media venture By DYLAN BYERS | politico.com 10/15/13 4:48 PM EDT Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who broke the National Security Agency surveillance story, is leaving The Guardian to start what he described as “very substantial new media outlet," BuzzFeed's Ben Smith reported on Tuesday. The new venture, described by a source familiar with it as "rather extraordinary," will be web-based and funded by a philanthropist, POLITICO has learned. In his interview with Smith, Greenwald said it would have major financial backing and would have hubs in New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. He disclosed no further details, but called the venture "momentous" and said it will be "be unveiled very shortly.” “My partnership with the Guardian has been extremely fruitful and fulfilling: I have high regard for the editors and journalists with whom I worked and am incredibly proud of what we achieved,” Greenwald said in a statement. “The decision to leave was not an easy one, but I was presented with a once-in-a-career dream journalistic opportunity that no journalist could possibly decline.” “When people hear what it is, there is almost no journalist who would say no to it,” he said. Greenwald, who lives in Brazil, published the bulk of the revelations about U.S. and British mass domestic spying practices provided by Edward Snowden, the former CIA and NSA employee currently taking refuge in Russia. In a statement, Guardian spokesperson Jennifer Lindenauer said the Guardian was “disappointed” to lose Greenwald and described him as "a remarkable journalist." http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/?hp=ar

Plummeting morale at Fukushima Daiichi as nuclear cleanup takes its tollStaff on the frontline of operation plagued by health problems and fearful about the future, insiders say http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/15/fukushima-nuclear-power-plant-cleanup

Nice! NYC Club updates: Club 20 and Splash are no more. Possibly local posters can update on any pending or rumored reopenings/reincarnations.

For horror fiction aficionados, the whole 20th-century canon flows from one fount -- H.P. Lovecraft. Thought I had read 97.8% of everything ever written about him, but was tickled to have just come across this delightful article in the ever-surprising web site tvtropes.org: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/HPLovecraft ...possibly the best one-piece summation of the man & his works anywhere. He is acknowledged as a if not the primary influence by such as Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, of course Steven King, many others. Another summary: http://www.americanheritage.com/content/man-who-can-scare-stephen-king In August 1990 Brown University, in HPL's beloved hometown of Providence, RI, organized a scholarly conference on him, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth. I went, and marveled to find also in appreciative attendance such figures as the macabre cartoonist Gahan Wilson. This event subsequently morphed into an annual convention of scholars, horror writers, and fans called (of course) The NecronomiCon. Was glad to see it revived this year, after some years' hiatus: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2397761/H-P-Lovecraft-honored-hometown-Providence-NecronomiCON.html

It is not that hard to have a fatal crash landing from too low an altitude for a parachute to function, I think. As for ejection seats designed to fix that by boosting the ejectee way up high, (1) not so much fun if your craft is not pointing the right way (i.e., up), (2) also no picnic if they fracture your back or neck. Wonder what insurance will cost?

Fascinating. Thanks for posting this.

This analogy is spot on. I (and others who are more knowledgeable but, being closer to it, can't afford to say this publicly) remain convinced that Toyota's unintended-acceleration "issues" were due at least in significant part to unforeseen glitches in onboard software management of multiple interacting electromechanical control systems. Now imagine the same thing happening, but with the added thrill of undesired translation along the Z axis.

Come to think of it, you are on point: the treatment of this guy by his government-contractor employer is fully in line with current trends in government persecution of whistleblowers.

P.S. My father told the Numbered-Joke Joke as set among a group of prisoners on a chain gang. A new prisoner joins the gang, and, his first night sitting around the fire, witnesses various of his cohorts calling out a number, followed by raucous laughter from the rest. Puzzled, he asks the fellow beside him what gives. The man explains, 'Well, we've been together so long, we know all of each others' jokes, so now we just call 'em out by number. Here, I'll tell you a few so you can join in.' After that instruction, the newbie decides to try his hand: 'Thirty-eight!' Dead silence. Urgent whisper to the guy beside him: 'I did it just like you said! What's wrong?' 'Well,' came the reply, 'some can tell 'em; some can't.'

You caught his selection of the word "Highness."

More Hanford hopelessness, and cluelessness... http://m.mcclatchydc.com/dc/db_97947/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=DlUjAuwc

The article says he is engaged, not at all the same thing. Where is your home-wrecking instinct? You could have a gorgeous CLEAN hubby and a child to boot.

Well. For starters, neither is wearing SHOES. Even on the beach, how can hito properly evaluate a man who isn't advertising his taste in footwear?

LOL Right there with you. Unless the dealer can include RA1 in the deal. I and most people I know find it nontrivial to manage our vehicles in just 2 dimensions.

I will have that one, thank you. We will get along just fine. Booze costs too much in Sweden anyway.

Amazing -- one for both me and hito...

Back in the Pleistocene when one of my notions was to be a lit-crit-informed art critic, I looked forward to one day overturning the critical establishment's snootiness about Rockwell. A far darker, more multilayered imagination than usually acknowledged. Glad to see this news, even if (as Johns said) record prices say a lot, they just don't say a lot about the piece as art. The true value of Norman Rockwell, America's patriot painterRockwell is often called 'folksy', yet his art, which now fetches millions, was deeply engaged with the great issues of his day Nicolaus Mills theguardian.com, Saturday 12 October 2013 08.00 EDT Detail from Norman Rockwell's civil rights era cover painting for Look, the Problem We All Live With. Photograph: EPA Norman Rockwell, the artist-illustrator who gained a nationwide following for his many Saturday Evening Post covers, is back in the news 35 years after his death in 1978. Sotheby's in New York is planning to auction seven Rockwell paintings on 4 December, and the paintings are expected to sell for record prices. According to Sotheby's, one of the paintings, Saying Grace – showing an older woman and a boy saying grace in a crowded restaurant while two men seated at their table gawk at them – could bring in as much as $20m. The previous high for a Rockwell painting, $15.4m, was set in 2006 for Breaking Home Ties, a picture of a teenage boy going away to college. At a time when the art world is still feeling the effects of the recession, it's understandable why there should be such interest in the prices buyers are willing to pay for Rockwell's depiction of "homey, small-town America" – as one report on the Sotheby's auction put it. The problem with this focus on the dollar value of Rockwell's most nostalgic paintings, though, is that it undermines his greater importance and influence. We forget that, in the dark days of the second world war, Rockwell played a critical role in helping Americans on the home front understand what was at stake in the fighting going on in Europe and the Pacific. The British had Lawrence Olivier reminding them of their heroic past with his Henry V of 1944. Americans had Rockwell reminding them of their basic decency. Nowhere is Rockwell's achievement clearer than in the second world war era paintings marking their 70th anniversary this year – Rosie the Riveter and the Four Freedoms, the series Rockwell did illustrating the "four freedoms" that President Franklin Roosevelt declared were the bedrock of a democratic society. In Rockwell's hands, the Four Freedoms cease being merely abstract principles. They become a familiar way of life, ideals worth defending: Freedom from Want shows a family sharing a Thanksgiving meal; Freedom from Fear portrays parents tucking their children into bed; Freedom to Worship consists of close-ups of people of different faiths praying; and Freedom of Speech centers on a town meeting in which a man – who looks much like a beardless Abraham Lincoln – has his say while his neighbors respectfully listen. These paintings, done in a muted palette, reflect Rockwell at his most serious. Americans immediately took to the paintings, and in April 1943, the Four Freedoms began a nationwide tour in which over 1.2m people viewed them and also bought $132m-worth of war bonds. At a time when families planting victory gardens in their backyards accounted for 40% of the vegetables grown in the United States, the Four Freedoms confirmed how the decisions Americans made in their everyday lives mattered. When the paintings came to New York, they were not confined to a museum; they were put on display at Radio City Music Hall. With his painting of Rosie the Riveter – the 29 May 1943 cover of the Saturday Evening Post – Rockwell continued to emphasize the contribution everyone had to make as long as the war lasted. The replacement of men by women in the workforce began well before Rockwell ever produced his rendering of Rosie the Riveter. There was even a 1942 song that declared: She's making History Working for victory Rosie the Riveter. Rockwell's genius was to both make Rosie appealing and focus on women who were doing hard manual labor making the weapons of war, rather than just clerical work. In a period in which blonde Betty Grable in a bathing suit was the pinup ideal, Rosie was Betty's physical opposite. In Rockwell's painting, Rosie is wearing work clothes, her arms are muscular, and she is smudged with grease. Yet, Rockwell's Rosie is unburdened by her situation. We see her taking a lunch-time break, and she appears happy with the choice she has made to help the war effort. Her half-shut eyes give her a dreamy look. She holds a sandwich in her left hand, and she deftly balances a rivet gun on her lap. Any woman, the painting says, could follow in Rosie's footsteps and take pride in what she was doing. We can only guess at what Rockwell would say today about being pigeonholed as folksy, but we do know how anxious he was to do his part for the war effort. In an interview that he did for a 1945 profile in the New Yorker, he complained of initially being turned down by government officials when he went to Washington and tried to interest them in the charcoal sketches that became the basis for the Four Freedoms. It was the Saturday Evening Post that saved the day by commissioning the Four Freedoms paintings – and allowing Rockwell seven months to complete them, after he had promised to get them done in two. In the 1960s, when the civil rights movement was experiencing some of its worst violence, Rockwell refused to sit on the sidelines and watch. He directly engaged the conflict with his art, and completed one of his most poignant final works – the Problem We All Live With, a painting for Look magazine. The work depicts a young African-American girl, six-year-old Ruby Bridges, being escorted to a formerly all-white school in New Orleans by a cadre of US marshalls protecting her from an angry and violent mob. Rockwell never doubted that his depiction of the Four Freedoms would touch people, and in his work during his later years, he made a point of using his art to extend the values embodied by that piece. From the fight against fascism abroad to the fight for freedom at home, Norman Rockwell highlighted the brightness of the American spirit in the darkest of times. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/12/norman-rockwell-american-patriot