Roger Ebert writes of death as a matter of fact and permanent

In 2011, Salon published a serene meaning-of-life article by Roger Ebert. Here is an excerpt:

Many readers have informed me that it is a tragic and dreary business to go into death without faith. I don’t feel that way. “Faith” is neutral. All depends on what is believed in. I have no desire to live forever. The concept frightens me. I am 69, have had cancer, will die sooner than most of those reading this. That is in the nature of things. In my plans for life after death, I say, again with Whitman: I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. And with Will, the brother in Saul Bellow’s “Herzog,” I say, “Look for me in the weather reports.” Raised as a Roman Catholic, I internalized the social values of that faith and still hold most of them, even though its theology no longer persuades me. I have no quarrel with what anyone else subscribes to; everyone deals with these things in his own way, and I have no truths to impart. All I require of a religion is that it be tolerant of those who do not agree with it.

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Drones for hire

If you need drones, we've got drones. Apparently, this shoudl be our new national motto, according to this NYT article:

"Mr. Muhammad and his followers had been killed by the C.I.A., the first time it had deployed a Predator drone in Pakistan to carry out a “targeted killing.” The target was not a top operative of Al Qaeda, but a Pakistani ally of the Taliban who led a tribal rebellion and was marked by Pakistan as an enemy of the state. In a secret deal, the C.I.A. had agreed to kill him in exchange for access to airspace it had long sought so it could use drones to hunt down its own enemies."

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Bradley Manning almost prevented the Deepwater Oil spill

Greg Palaste reports that the information released by Bradley Manning could have, almost, prevented the Deepwater Oil disaster. Manning's release of data definitely shows corruption by the U.S. in covering up a BP's dangerous method of capping its underwater wells with nitrogen-laced cement. It is absurd for the U.S. to accuse Manning of attempting to aid U.S. enemies when Manning did not financially benefit in the least labors, continues to pay a huge price for providing valuable information to the People of the U.S., and his efforts continue to expose the U.S. government as corrupt.

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How to investigate rich people hiding their money in off-shore accounts

Here's how to track down and expose thousands of rich people hiding their money offshore. Congratulations to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. What did they find in the 260 GB hard drive that was anonymously delivered to ICIJ? Here's another article on the work of ICIJ:

The secret records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists lay bare the names behind covert companies and private trusts in the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and other offshore hideaways. They include American doctors and dentists and middle-class Greek villagers as well as families and associates of long-time despots, Wall Street swindlers, Eastern European and Indonesian billionaires, Russian corporate executives, international arms dealers and a sham-director-fronted company that the European Union has labeled as a cog in Iran’s nuclear-development program.

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