Total Un-Recall: RNC 2012 In Denial, Welcome to Tampa, FL (Fantasy Land)

Welcome to Tampa, FL (Fantasy Land), where the GOP is holding its 2012 Republican National Convention: an impressive gathering of the Haves, the Have Mores, and the I Vote Romneys, and basically a huge marketing event aimed at selling a soap too slippery to be held correctly, and too foamy to wash anything correctly (except maybe via money laundering in the Cayman Islands).

But Mitt Romney only made a quick apparition for Day 1 bis* of the RNC: at the end of the speech of his wife Ann, a truly remarkable person who managed to tweet while she was on stage and inspiring me the following series:

• - Yes, Ann Romney can become the first lady. Of Puerto Rico. Or rather the Cayman Islands
• - Oh my. Ann Sarah Romney forgot to wink.
• - Ann Romney pours too much tons of fake empathy to sound sincere. Her "I LOVE YOU WOMEN" is embarrassingly condescending
• - Ann Romney's "I love you women" mirrors her husband's campaign: 100% marketing 0% sincerity
• - Hey Ann Romney, I'm smart enough to know Mitt's solutions are dumb enough: they put the US in this mess, remember?
• - Yes, Ann Romney. Mitt Romney makes me laugh too. As long as he's not in the White House, that is.
• - Attack of the GOP first lady wannabe clones. Can't tell Ann Romney from Mrs McCain, Santorum, Gingrich...
• - Ann Romney truly is exceptional: she was tweeting during her speech. As if fake compassion wasn't enough...
• - Ann Romney: "he's too Mitt to fail". Selfpersuasion is not a solution.

Of course Ann Romney didn't write that tweet, and of course she didn't write that speech. Everything in this show is fake. It's all about storytelling, with actors playing roles on stage. Ann's job was to sell Romney Soap Bars to average housewives, members of the fabled "99 percent" she read about in a Forbes Magazine Mitt left behind in the john. A distant ethnic group she romneyshly courted by a very direct and unsubtle marketing gimmick: "I love you Women!". Mia Love definitely did a better job at ticking demographic segments off Mitt's endless list.

And Romney received a ton of support in the late hours of Day 1 bis: Chris Christie. The heavyweight spoke of a Second American Century (probably Before Christie), and a fantasy land where the other party would be divided and divisive, misleading and misled. Unfortunately, the Governor of New Jersey, by portraying the ideal POTUS-VP tandem, exposed how far the Romney-Ryan ticket was from that dream. And pointing out the fact that Mitt Romney didn't even consider him for the job was the final straw: with such powerful paws, a pat on the shoulder has the same effect as a stab in the back.

Theme of the day? "We Built It". The military failures, the deficits, the economic collapse, that's us. You miss Bush-Cheney? Vote Romney-Ryan. Yes we can build it again. Relapse you can believe in.

At the RNC, divided, we never fail to make you laugh. I can't wait for Day 3 of this farce.


blogules 2012
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* Day 1 was cancelled because of Hurricane Isaac - Hurricane Ron Paul rocked the ground on Day 0 but the GOP managed to ban it from its show

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20120830 UPDATE: tweets about AR

Between balance and Ryan, Romney made his choice

Ever since Bush-Cheney-Rove destroyed the GOP from the inside, the party has lost its compass. And I've said it again, again, and again: if you're Republican, if you love your country, and if you like your party, fix the GOP before causing more damage to both*.

Until that happens, you're doomed, and bound to witness comical suicidal dashes every four years: a somewhat moderatish loser emerges from zooesques Primaries, but to achieve that he has to do things that negate his own self, and ultimately to pick a lunatic that suits the radical flavor of the month.

Four years ago, when theocons were setting the agenda, John McCain had to pay a visit to the infamous Discovery Institute and to select an ayatollah as a running mate to receive the official blessing from his old nemeses Dubya and Rove.

This time, with Tea Partiers the leading cult, Mitt Romney had to euthanize Romneycare, and to put a fiscal taliban on his ticket.

Like Palin, Ryan embodies the negation of America as a republic and as a democracy. Both politicians have a vision of politics that negates the "polis" itself, and ineluctably lead to the destruction of America as an ideal of nation.

Unless the whole country has become crazy, this sick Mitt Romney - Paul Ryan joke simply cannot go all the way to the White House.

Just like I said in 2004, just like I repeated in 2008, this GOP is bound to lose: either the elections, or its very soul.

Wake up.

blogules 2012
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* "Grand Old Parting: fix your party before causing more damage to your country"

Retweet this: "South Korea censors freedom"?

When I opened the International Herald Tribune last Thursday, I made a bet with myself. I've waited until today Sunday and for the moment, I've won it.

The bet? "I'm pretty sure I won't see this article with the same title online, if the article ever makes it online".

The article's headline? "Tweet this! South Korea censors freedom". As you can see, it was Thursday's top headline:

This article mentions a few facts. For instance, that international observers sometimes put South Korea on par with countries like Russia because the government shows little tolerance for critics. I already mentioned the degradation of South Korea rankings in the Press Freedom Index (see "25 years later"). Nothing new under the sun.

But. This is not the kind of headlines that make a government happy. They prefer when major international media talk about Korea's successful olympics, or when they set themselves the political agenda. Say, for example, why not a last minute visit to Dokdo, eh? Done! And by a miraculous coincidence, precisely two days later (see "Worst followers").

One of the reasons why I made this bet with myself (even before the sad Dokdo episode) is that a couple of years ago, there was an interesting mutation of a NYT/IHT article between the web and the print editions, when "South Korea Admits Civilian Massacre During War" became "South Korean panel confirms full horror of civilian massacres" (see "Lost In Translation ?"). For the first time at the international level, this administration officially distanced itself from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission it was supposed to support. The termination of the institution in the months that followed was so messy that the man in charge of the dirty job eventually got fined (see "Truth and Reconciliation - Justice at last").

So as I write these lines, "Tweet this! South Korea censors freedom" has not yet made it to the IHT/NYT websites. Not even under a milder title. And if you search all the articles of the author CHOE Sang-hun, you get a list that covers the ones before, and the one that came later (I actually waited for that to happen to write this piece):

At the headline level at least, I'm sure Cheong Wa Dae approves the new editorial line: the previous articles were exposing the lavish lifestyle of the North Korean elite, and the latest one relates the visit of the Korean President to Dokdo.

Nevermind other truths, and forget about reconciliation.


blogules 2012
- initially published on Seoul Village as "Censorship about censorship in South Korea?" Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
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How about sending NASA's curiosity probe to Planet Romney?

NASA's Curiority probe lands on Mars: "Next stop: Planet Romney! But that's even further from Earth, and I won't be allowed to dig".


blogules 2012
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2012 Mitt Romlympics

Mitt Romney brought back a couple of titles from his overseas tour:
- from London, a Gold Medal in Nosediving followed by a Gold Medal in Backpedalling
- from Israel, a Gold Medal in Bootlicking
- for good measure, his aide added more gold from Poland (Short Range Insult Shooting)

As if the guy needed more gold. You'd expect him to excel in Sailing or Polo, but he's even better at Artistic Gymnastics:
- Floor exercise (undefeated champion, great master of flip-flop and foot-in-mouth)
- High Bar (his income bracket)
- Parallel Bars (with a weakness for the kind that vertically cross a big fat "S") - Still Rings (after all these years, they never left Mitt's and Ann's fingers - and all other rings are safely kept in the next apparatus)
- Vault (main stashes in Switzerland, Cayman Islands)
- Pommel Horse (Romney's whole universe revolves around the only part of him that never changes and never moves: you could rodeo on his hairdo, not one hair would break ranks)

The only thing missing is a record or two, but the ones from Bain and Salt Lake City have either disapeared or been destroyed, and his tax returns are far from telling the whole story. Furthermore, Romney's main achievements remain tainted, since he openly abused dubious performance-enhancing methods to optimize returns on investment.

Anyway, according to this great expert in Olympinomics, "the most important thing is not winning but taking shares".

blogules 2012
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
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Bawling for Columbine

"Bawling for Columbine: if you plan to go to a mall or a movie theater, check the NRA forecast first (Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, or any other hatemonger will do)."

One more tragedy, this time in Aurora, CO. Even if the Rush-Aurora connection is less direct than the Sarah-Tucson one (Limbaugh ranted at the Bane-Bain villain in the latest Batman movie, Palin at Gabrielle Giffords herself), gun control - or lack of - remain the issue.

Gun control is to weapons what democracy is to politics. The NRA imposture is undermining democracy.

(20120722 UPDATE)

Join the Brady Campaign petition to demand Congress stop arming dangerous people: http://www.bradycampaign.org/dangerouspeople

blogules 2012
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
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This time, vote with your brain

Q: Why are so many US voters considering replacing the guy who's selflessly trying to fix the system with the guy who's shamelessly profiting from the failures of the system?

A: Probably for the same reasons that, back in 2004, a majority of US voters decided to elect the guy who forged a case for an illegal war, condoned torture, undermined democracy, and destroyed the economy.


blogules 2012
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
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Didier Raoult: a closet Creationist or just a questionably honest scientist?

Still under the shock following the recent triumph of Creationists in Korea (see "The Republic of Korea is under attack. From within."*), I smelled something very very fishy as soon as I saw this title for a Viewpoint in today's Korea JoongAng Daily: "Life after Darwin".

Indeed, this piece seems very much to have been written if not by a closet Creationist, at least by a more than questionably honest scientist.

Either way, Didier Raoult is gathering audience. The Director of the Research Unit in Infectious and Tropical Emergent Diseases (URMITE) at the University of the Mediterranee in Marseille is a mass producer of articles criticizing Darwin and more or less directly fueling Creationist propaganda.

Ever since the Intelligent Design imposture collapsed (following the publication of the "Wedge Strategy", a document where their 'inventors', the Discovery Institute, detailed their methods and actual political agenda), creationists and fellow fundamentalists have been trying to find more subtle ways of undermining science and democracy.

This "Life after Darwin" was published by The Project Syndicate, and also appears in The Cambodia Herald. Interestingly enough, today, the "Particle of God" was to make the headlines following yesterday's press conference at the CERN. Not a good day for science revisionists, who needed to be cheered up with some classic Darwin bashing. 

Bring'em on! Higgs Bosons will fly.

PS: I just submitted this to Korea JoongAng Daily:


When a scientist insults intelligence


Didier Raoult’s “Life after Darwin” (Korea JoongAng Daily - July 5, 2012) cannot remain unanswered, particularly at a time when scientific revisionism is gaining ground in Korea: Nature recently published an article exposing an alteration of the Ministry of Education’s guidelines for school textbooks following intense lobbying from Creationists. Such a bold attack on democracy would have instantly made the headlines in the US or in Europe, but it didn’t seem to cause much emotion in Korea beyond scientific circles. Here, the message is much more subtle.


To say the least, Mr. Raoult is a controversial figure. If he’s always careful to officially keep his distances with Creationism and its offsprings (including the Intelligent Design imposture), he nonetheless uses the same deceitful techniques, and his critiques of their nemesis, Darwin, basically recycle arguments from the past with a modern twist. As a result, Mr. Raoult never manages to convincingly challenge evolution itself, but he constantly contributes to the verbose smokescreen at the core of the Intelligent Design's "Wedge strategy". No wonder his writings are widely circulated among Creationist circles.


Mr. Raoult criticizes Darwin and Darwinism very much the way I could criticize Hippocrates and Scientism. For instance, he singles out Darwin’s simplistic representation of the tree of life, but without taking into account the scientific progresses made ever since (believe it or not, there’s evolution in science itself as well, and evolution as a science is already experiencing “life after Darwin”!), and the way he mocks at Darwinists as members of a cult mirrors the critics waged against Scientism centuries ago. Fundamentally, he’s not tackling the key issue, and he never succeeds in proving evolution wrong.


Of course, recent discoveries in his field, and the complexity of ecosystems within every living organism are clearly adding to the scientific challenge, but unfortunately for Mr. Raoult, they are only making evolution even more interesting and stimulating to study.


Scientists must always challenge existing theories, and honest scientists are delighted to study new ones when they respect a rigorous scientific approach. Mr. Raoult may be good in his field, he certainly doesn’t respect our intelligence with this very ambiguous piece.

Stephane MOT

blogules 2012 - initially published in SeoulVillage ("Scientific revisionism, continued?")
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
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* "State-condoned creationism in Korea? A cold-blooded murder against King Sejong" on SeoulVillage

50+20 - Relearning Economics

You already know* how I consider this crisis:
- at the root, this is not a financial crisis but a crisis of finance, this is not an economic crisis but a crisis of economics
- past ideologies are not the solution, we need a sound, pragmatic approach, and a restoration of economics as it ought to be defined**: not the science of wealth, but the comprehension of a system or an activity, be it an individual, a society, a company, a living organism... Again, "we shall win over nowadays depression only by opening ourselves up to economy, not by trying to elude it because we forgot what it means for the future of this planet". Again, finance is a means, not an end. Again, no equation is relevant if it doesn't consider humans and the environment.

Of course, business and economics should be taught accordingly.

I wasn't surprised to see my old school ESSEC (the "think different" side in the Coca Cola - Pepsi war of French business schools) among the promoters of the "50+20" initiative (50plus20.org), which seeks the education and development of globally responsible leaders, the enablement of business organizations to serve the Common Good, and the transformation of business and the economy...

Can you spot Stephane, Heyonn and Don in this video aired at the 3rd Global Forum for Responsible Management Education on 15 June 2012? Tip: we were facing the sun and Inwangsan, with the Gyeongbokgung behind us (if you can't see the landmarks, we could enjoy the sun):



50+20 Agenda: Management Education for the World - Launch Video (720p).

blogules 2012
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
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* see among other posts "This is not a financial crisis", or in French: "Le stade ultime du libéralisme, c'est la négation du marché (le déni d'économie continue)", "Mondialisation : du "free market" au "fair market""...
** see "define: economy"

The Republic of Korea is under attack. From within.

After the shameful termination of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Korea, and after the flabbergasting removal of history from school curriculum, yet another outrageous victory for revisionists in Korea: the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology gave in to a Creationist lobby, and made possible the publication of high school texbooks where examples of evolution have been removed.
This incredible story, "South Korea surrenders to creationist demands", was published earlier this month in Nature:

A special purpose vehicle of the Korea Association for Creation Research* (kacr.or.kr), the revisionist lobby which pulled the strings didn't try to masquerade behind an Intelligent-Design-like smokescreen: it's even named the Society for Textbook Revise! Note how STR's website (str.or.kr) apes its US creationist counterparts:

Letting Creationism, the very negation of science and education and one of the worst enemies of democracy, dictate the contents of textbooks is undoubtedly the most profound disgrace imaginable for any Ministry of Education.

But here in Korea, that's the ultimate abomination.

This is Korea, the country of King Sejong, a wise statesmen who advocated education and science.

This is Korea, a country victim of revisionist texbooks in Japan, where the extreme right, though very small in members, has considerable power over national politics and manages to keep the whole population in the dark regarding the country's troubled past.

Once again**, it seems that Korea is under attack from its worst enemies, the ones from within. A minority of extremists who dream of copying the Japanese "model" and to rule over the past and the future of the country.

And once again, these impostors are not nationalists: they want the destruction of Korea as a republic and as a democracy, and they are the best allies of the impostors who, in Japan or in China, multiply the same kind of provocations to fuel mutual hatred and extremism across the region.

Across the aisle, true Korean nationalists, true partisans of democracy and of the republic must defend the nation against the impostors who try to destroy it: expose and condemn their impostures, prevent revisionist textbooks from being published, and restore the values that make Korea a great country.

Wake up Korea!

blogules 2012 (initially published on SeoulVillage: "State-condoned creationism in Korea? A cold-blooded murder against King Sejong")
Since 2003, nonsensical posts about noncritical issues in nonenglish (get your blogules transfusion in French)
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* Of course, "creation" and "research" are antinomic, but precisely, the whole concept of creationism is an insult to science and education. If believing in a creator is perfectly respectable, "Creationism" is pure forgery, an imposture that has nothing to do with science, and even nothing to do with religion: the agenda is political and ultimately, it's about replacing democracy with theocracy, and about replacing religion with fundamentalism.
** They seem to grow bolder by the day, and the multiplication of such provocations (see recently MBC's xenophobic video - "Still no apology from MBC, and more provocations on the Chinese front") is probably not a coincidence in this election year.