b,
thanks i have your blog for breakfast. happy new year 2009.
We are all Gazan’s, I will have you’ll in my thoughts and prayers.

Posted by: hans blink | Dec 31 2008 18:08 utc | 3

B-heck of a job you are doing in here, so thanks for all the past work and that to come, indeed.
To you, and your most excellent commenters in here, Slainthe Mtah!
This West Coaster appreciates all the info shared one can’t FIND in the US MSM . . . speaking of MSM, how BOUT that Zbig smackdown of JoeBlow!! *G* Perhaps a sign that the MSM talking heads of ALL channels are gonna get taken to the woodshed and have to learn how to do data based story telling rather than parroting what their sponsors want them to portray . . .*G*
And imagine, a media with a self muzzled Coulter/Hannity/Limbaugh/Malkin because they have been so marginalized to the right that even sponsors won’t support them? *G*
I’m with you B, it’s all about the little picture things that can make for large rays of sunshine!!!

Posted by: larue | Dec 31 2008 20:16 utc | 5

some seriously kick ass art being posted today (and the 27th)over @ anna missed’s blog. don’t miss it for a round up of this years events.

Posted by: annie | Dec 31 2008 20:41 utc | 7

B, absolutely nothing to apologize for. Your blog has gotten better and better and better, consistently. Take a few days off.
I agree with your assessment of 2009 = bad.
It’s already going to be horrendous for the peoples of Gaza, DRC, etc.
Love and peace, yes. And connectedness. (And my new grandbaby.)

Posted by: Helena | Dec 31 2008 20:56 utc | 9

Contours of Crisis
Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan

Although past bear markets have always given way to long bull runs, these transitions were never automatic. Each and every one of them reflected a profound transformation of the underlying social structure. And in our view, this correspondence still holds. In order for the current crisis to end and a new upswing to begin, something very big has to happen: the social structure must change.

Posted by: Frank | Dec 31 2008 21:57 utc | 11

peace demanded, life respected, and dignity for all!
thank you b.

Posted by: Lizard | Dec 31 2008 22:43 utc | 13

MoA is an oasis of clarity & vision. Thanks to b and all the commentors who make it what it is.

Posted by: Colin | Dec 31 2008 23:26 utc | 15

Best for 2009 all

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jan 1 2009 0:20 utc | 17

the system?
happy new year!
PS. Me personally don’t believe in systems. It is men, women, humans who define the world …

Posted by: outsider | Jan 1 2009 0:45 utc | 19

b and all the rest of you:
Best wishes for the new year — grim though it may look from here.
Whatever happens in 2009, I’ll be reading about it on Moon’O’Bama — my favorite blog!
Uncle $cam, just make sure the Non-Celebrity Death Beeper don’t get us!
Love & peace to all,
obob

Posted by: oboblomov | Jan 1 2009 1:15 utc | 21

Thanks from the bottom of my heart to b, and all the great people who post here. MoA is a refuge and one of the places where we can grasp a little light, and prepare ourselves with knowlege, compassion, and solidarity, against the troubles that seem sure to come.
Stay strong, one and all, and Happy New Year.

Posted by: Copeland | Jan 1 2009 1:23 utc | 23

b, Light posting, schmite posting. Its a heroic effort to be consistent on a blog. I’ve had one for a couple of years, but don’t publish it because I don’t have the time/dedication to do it yet. But I am ‘retiring’ in 2 weeks, so maybe that will change.
I’ve been helped by your insights and have comfortably linked “Moon” in the past to other sites I respect.
’09 does indeed not portend well and, we could say in general, the experiment is not going very well.

Posted by: DonS | Jan 1 2009 1:36 utc | 25

a little jewel for all but especially uncle & lizard

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jan 1 2009 1:54 utc | 27

in case anyone is interested, new diary by billmon at dkos, top of the rec list.

Posted by: sharon | Jan 1 2009 2:05 utc | 29

what has been happening in the last week in the occupied territories have disturbed me profoundly. i was in no mood to celebrate a new year so i decided the night would be devoted to seeing some documentary work i have not yet seen.
in fact i had a number to see but i did not get past the first because it resonated with all the falseness of this world & possibly the next. it was a film on the birmingam six. how they were framed, tortured, belittled & then sent to prison for 16 years. six london irish working men. simple men – that would have been evident to the dumbest of observors. simple but innocent. & you observed (ii think when the film was made they had only been released from prison) & it was like seeing living buddhas – all that was wrong with this world had gone from them & through their torture they were – for me, without question, saints – brendan behan’s saints but saints all the same
i remember fighting for their release, reading at concerts & benefits – but to see them was extraordinary
& all that was false – for example the ‘rule of law’, ‘justice’ ‘equality before the law’ – so hollow after you listened repeatedly to the learned judges pompously lie, lie & lie again. judges exhibiting out species at its worst & cruelest – full of air & of themselves & of their world – but these saints revealed to one & all they & their world were nothing. nothing. absolutely nothing
i was reminded of that moment at the end of john le carré’s ‘smiley’s people’ – when his beloved karla crossed the bridge – how hollow was the victory – because smiley understood what he had defended did not exist at all. pomp & ceremony. tainted in the blood, torture & oppression of others. that there was no better world. just different variations of the same hell
just as the language of livni & her sullen crew bear no relation to any reality. they are not victims. they are oppressors & profoundly cruel oppressors, at that yet she uses the language of victims that she not only has no right to use but she dishonours actively those who wer or are
i am reminded again & again of jack henry abbots meditation on tragoidia – how the oppressor envies the oppressed & how the oppresssors will to destruction always carries with itself something perverse, something infected & it is how i hear the spokespeople of israel as sick, sick people vomiting again & again the same phrases which have long lost any meaning in hebrew arab or english – if indeed they ever had any meaning
& yes i repeatedly go back to the nazis but the comparisons are not only historically exact they are also symbollically exact. in the ned the nazis were performers – they were not visionaries or great men as lenin was – he was history whatever his faults – no they were bad actors, pumped up layers, doctors, engineers or functionaries for the most part with a very very limited vision. they were themselves cornier than the character we would witness in charlie chaplin’s ‘the great dictator’ – they were fuck up, jokes, the ass end of a bad time in history but because these clowns had the complic aid of a people who preferred their own silence – these clowns created a very real damage with very real consequences – between 30 – 50 million. & a world so fucked up after that all leaderships followed their example. what was the iron lady thatcher except some grocery clerk form of ernst rôhm who was himself a caricature. when they strode. they strode in exactly the same way. watch any footage & you will see what i mean
i mean look at these fuck ups – & they illustrate exactly what wilhelm reich wrote – watch all or any of them – from de gaulle to john howard, from truman to bush, suharto, diem howard etc etc etc – they are living jokes. their words mean nothing & only exist in a world so polluted it needs to hear the same thing over & over & over. no wonder pinter loved silence
i was touched tonight, then, in a way i did not expect – the birmingam six, the guileford four had whispered in my ear – & wher i live & in what state i live – that is satori or at leas a form of sammhardi

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jan 1 2009 3:27 utc | 31

finally!
happy new year, amigos

Posted by: b real | Jan 1 2009 4:58 utc | 33

happy new year to all of you at MOA…
Thanks so much b for all that you do.
R’giap – keep the faith… let’s look for the dignity in mankind not the falsehood. I too am sickened and blown away by the resonances of history echoing in today’s Gazan horror – it’s incomprehensible… but we can only confront it by acknowledging human dignity, the dignity of each and every human being, in our daily lives.
Please everyone, if you can, please watch Palestine Think Tank Video on Gaza (scroll to “Gaza in Crisis Dec 2008”) to ring in the New Year.
Thanks,
Bea
PS Please visit Gaza Siege Blog often.

Posted by: bea | Jan 1 2009 5:15 utc | 35

r’giap@27–a jewel indeed. beyond gratitude is what i would say now if i could say it right. the new year is just an hour old here, and the explosions that signify imperial celebration have finally subsided. ordinance set off for show is beyond grotesque as tanks are set to roll into the strip.
in search of a proper reply, i came across this rendition of a Weldon Kees piece to get past the headset setting, i suggest closing one’s eyes.

Posted by: Lizard | Jan 1 2009 8:46 utc | 37

My links again: (Note to self: Do not post again on New Year’s Eve!)
Palestine Think Tank TV – Gaza in Crisis / December 2008 – You will need to select this presentation from the menu bar at right, because a different presentation opens upon arrival at the site.
Gaza Siege Site

Posted by: bea | Jan 1 2009 12:59 utc | 39

Many thanks B and entourage for all the passion and truth of your blog. Have a successful and satisfying 2009.
eas

Posted by: eas | Jan 1 2009 15:26 utc | 41

askod – look on the bright side – at least it’s only wiretapping
Vietnam Outlaws News Blogs, Claims Foreign Servers Will Help

UNITED NATIONS, January 1 — Vietnam in late 2008 moved to regulate the blogosphere, dictating that blogs remain entirely “personal” and not purport to report any news, much less state secrets. The Vietnam government stated that services such as Google and Yahoo will help them enforce these “no news on blogs” rules.
…
..the goal seems to be to have news and social critique disappear from the Internet. In November, Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Information and Communications (MoIC) Do Quy Doan argued that “as blogs are personal sites, bloggers are not allowed to use blogs to promote anti-state activities, war and obscenity, or to offend the honor or prestige of organizations and individuals or to release secret state documents.”
Doan subsequently signed into law circular 07/2008/TB-BTTT which provides that blogs shall not even “post links which go to information that violate Article 6 of Decree 97/2008, banning anyone who takes advantage of the Internet to deliver distorted information [or] reveal state secrets.”
…
At a press conference about the circular, Doan was asked how the government would “prevent ‘black’ blogs, blogs that are contrary to Vietnamese customs and habits?” He answered that “most bloggers in Vietnam are using services supplied by foreign service providers… After the circular takes effect in 2009, the two sides will exchange information and cooperate with each other. I think service providers also wish to have a clean Internet environment. I think if state agencies of Vietnam ask for cooperation, Google or Yahoo will be willing too.”

Posted by: b real | Jan 1 2009 23:40 utc | 43

I come here to learn, to open my eyes a bit more, to laugh, to weep, to pray. Thank you, b, for everything. I’ve been reminiscing about the moonbat adventures of 2007, and singing with Jana. I hope she is well, and all of the moonbats who share their thoughts and hearts here. Though peace in the larger world seems impossible, I wish inner peace for all.
“When I breathe in, I breathe in peace.
When I breathe out, I breathe out love.”
-Sarah Dan Jones

Posted by: catlady | Jan 2 2009 17:23 utc | 45