Contains plot spoilers. Since we will not learn in school the lessons about the 1% we ought to know, many of us rely on movies and TV, so that through images and sound we can form ideas of who the men were who screwed up our economy. In Arbitrage, we
Continue readingAuthor: Saul Landau
Canadian Dimension Feed: Violence defines American culture
As a child I played war games (cowboys killing Indians). My friends and I routinely shot each other with toy guns of course. In my south Bronx neighborhood, older gang members had real guns and sometimes shot each other. Like in the movies! The cartoons I adored as a kid
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Washington and Damascus
Syria has become dangerous. Syrians get killed and wounded almost daily. Their neighbours have also felt the impacts of violence: refugees in Turkey and outbreaks of fighting in Tripoli’s streets in Lebanon where peace depends on a nuanced arrangement between Christians and Sunni and Shia Muslims. Northern Iraqi Kurds share
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Five decades of inanity and still going
In 1991, The Soviet Union disappeared. Washington changed its anti-Cuba rhetoric from Cold War to human rights. But one issue remains: a U.S. economic colony that broke loose in 1959 still refuses to surrender. The punish Cuba policy, now 53, has grown gray and became downright inane in the 1980s
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Nefarious details in the Cuban Five case
I sit on a gray plastic chair, facing a tiny, gray, plastic table and another empty, gray, plastic chair, waiting for Gerardo Hernández in the visiting room of the maximum-security federal pen in Victorville, California. Next to me, in similar seating arrangements, a middle-aged black man speaks to a woman,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Get serious about Syria
The Syrian conflict continues to boil – or boil over – when Syrian troops fired across the Turkish border on April 9, apparently killing either fleeing refugees or armed combatants. However, despite continued words of caution from the Pentagon and White House about getting into another messy Middle East war,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Massacres and PTSD
Western media has focused attention on Sgt. Robert Bales’s background. He allegedly murdered 16 Afghan civilians, 9 of them children, near Kandahar. After the bloodbath, Bales returned to his base and confessed. The media delved into Bales’s childhood, his marriage, and even his role on the high school football team.
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Republicans implode; I’m uneasy
Republicans implode; I¹m uneasy > > By Saul Landau Republicans implode; I¹m uneasy-Saul Landau³ Romney now flaunting his wealth to impress voters! (The Onion) I smiled weakly when liberal Democrat friends guffawed last week over verbal foibles of Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. It was sort of funny when Romney
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: The 1% solution in Europe
Last month a Super Committee (12 Members of Congress) failed to decide—fortunately—our economic destiny: where our tax money would go—or not. Yes, capitalism failed again. And with it went democratic procedures in the political arena. Big Facts: Since 2008, millions got laid off, evicted or foreclosed and lost their pensions.
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Afghanistan calling!
Afghanistan calling! Ten plus years ago, the United States (oops, NATO)
invaded Afghanistan and quickly won the war against the militarily
(technologically) inferior Taliban government. Taliban fighters fled to
Pakistan. Washington and allies followed …
Canadian Dimension Feed: Riots, demonstrations and new agencies of change
An angry demonstration virus spreads to country after country in response to
negligent and callous political leaders who have ignored the basic needs of
their citizens. Instead, they have bowed or eagerly catered to demands of
multinational corporation…
Canadian Dimension Feed: Our successful democracy abroad
“There have been charges that it is morally wrong for the U.S. to aid
undemocratic regimes to strengthen their security systems, thereby serving
to entrench them in power.” But “the U.S. cannot afford the moral luxury of
help…
Canadian Dimension Feed: The good, the bad and the crazy
The political elite and its stenographic media don’t classify types of
terrorists. If they did we would get the good, the bad and the crazy.
Since no one is perfect, the virtuous purveyors of death and destruction
naturally need flexibility. Mis…