In the mid 1930s, my father-in-law ran a cotton gin in southwest Oklahoma. Cotton harvest was busy -- trucks and trailers bulging with freshly picked cotton bumped and weaved in slow, continuous convoys along mostly dirt roads to the one cotton gin in the county.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_729.shtml

Economy

Fed Set to Cut Interest Rates for 13th Time, by Glenn Somerville, Reuters, June 25, 2003

Washington - Policymakers at the U.S. Federal Reserve (news - web sites) will wrap up a two-day meeting on Wednesday that was expected to result in a 13th drop in interest rates designed to light a fire under a flagging recovery.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_723.shtml

 

Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity,
their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.

- Aldous Huxley

Iraq

Iraqis Resisting Occupation by Foreign Invaders - Kill 6 British Soldiers, by Bassem Mroue, Jun 25, 2003

     Does this look like a small Pro-Saddam "remnant" to you?

     Reports: Angry Iraqis Killed U.K. Troops, by Bassem Mroue, AP, June 25. 2003

Majar Al-Kabir, Iraq - Six British military police killed in southern Iraq (news - web sites) were slain by armed townspeople angry over civilian deaths during a demonstration, local police said Wednesday.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_716.shtml

What Kind of Beast is This? (Reuters report on killing of British Troops with introduction by Axis)

UK Says Attack on British Troops 'Unprovoked', Reuters, June 25, 2003

Amarah, Iraq - A British military spokesman said Wednesday an attack on British forces in southern Iraq Tuesday in which six soldiers were killed was unprovoked.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_719.shtml

 

It is the malady of our age that the young are so busy teaching us that they have no time left to learn.

- Eric Hoffer

Korea

The Dear Leader, demystified, by Aidan Foster-Carter, Asia Times, June 24, 2003

Remember when North Korea was the hermit kingdom, and Kim Jong-il the great unknown? No one ever saw, let alone met, the Dear Leader - or "party center", as he was at first mysteriously dubbed even in the Pyongyang press, before finally being unveiled as his father Kim Il-sung's chosen heir in 1980.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EF24Dg03.html

A torn jacket is soon mended;
but hard words bruise the heart of a child.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -

China-India

Ancient route to peace, by Ranjit Devraj, Asia Times, June 25, 2003 

New Delhi - The world's two most populous countries, India and China, plan to resolve long-standing disputes over their 3,500-kilometer-long border by reviving a centuries-old trade that was halted abruptly by a brief but bloody war in 1962.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EF25Df01.html

Africa

Fuel Price: Strike Likely As Labour Meets: New prices may be reviewed - Ogbeh; Youths threaten to blow-up Shell facilities, All Africa, June 22, 2003

Twenty-four hours after the Federal Government petroleum regulatory agency, Petroleum Pro-ducts Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) hiked petroleum products prices, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday said it would meet Tuesday to firm up position on the development. If the government maintains its position, labour may go on strike to push for a downward review.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200306230030.html

Honest Lullaby

Early early in the game

I taught myself to sing and play

And use a little trickery

On kids who never favored me

Those were years of crinoline slips

And cotton skirts and swinging hips

And dangerously painted lips

And stars of stage and screen

Pedal pushers, ankle socks

Padded bras and campus jocks

Who hid their vernal equinox

In pairs of faded jeans

And slept at home resentfully

Coveting their dreams

And often have I wondered

How the years and I survived

I had a mother who sang to me

An honest lullaby

Yellow, brown, and black and white

Our Father bless us all tonight

I bowed my head at the football games

And closed the prayer in Jesus' name

Lusting after football heroes

tough Pachuco, little Neroes

Forfeiting my A's for zeroes

Futures unforeseen

Spending all my energy

In keeping my virginity

And living in a fantasy

In love with Jimmy Dean

If you will be my king, Jimmy, Jimmy,

I will be your queen

And often have I wondered

How the years and I survived

I had a mother who sang to me

An honest lullaby

I travelled all around the world

And knew more than the other girls

Of foreign languages and schools

Paris, Rome and Istanbul

But those things never worked for me

The town was much too small you see

And people have a way of being

Even smaller yet

But all the same though life is hard

And no one promised me a garden

Of roses, so I did okay

I took what I could get

And did the things that I might do

For those less fortunate

And often have I wondered

How the years and I survived

I had a mother who sang to me

An honest lullaby

Now look at you, you must be growing

A quarter of an inch a day

You've already lived near half the years

You'll be when you go away

With your teddy bears and alligators

Enterprise communicators

All the tiny aviators head into the sky

And while the others play with you

I hope to find a way with you

And sometimes spend a day with you

I'll catch you as you fly

Or if I'm worth a mother's salt

I'll wave as you go by

And if you should ever wonder

How the years and you'll survive

Honey, you've got a mother who sings to you

Dances on the strings for you

Opens her heart and brings to you

An honest lullaby

- Joan Baez

 

Cats

Rules for Cats to Live By (The continuing struggle for human independence from the Feline Empire),  by Kiki, Axis of Logic, June 24, 2003

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_707.shtml

Palestine

Ariel Sharon's Ruse May Fool Americans--but Not Many Israelis Are Tricked, by Uri Avnery, June 22, 2003

The most talented director could not have done better. It was a perfect show.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_709.shtml

Israel responds to Hamas' agreement to cease fire, by Karin Laub, AP, June 24, 2003

Israeli Forces Arrest 130 Palestinians

Jerusalem - Israeli forces swept through Hebron early Tuesday and arrested more than 130 Palestinians in a roundup targeting the West Bank city's Hamas network, the army said.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_700.shtml

The Road Map of Marquis de Sade, by Israel Shamir, June 25, 2003

(A talk given in Paris on 18 June 2003)

The Road Map is not a compromise between Palestinians and Jews, but between Jews and Jews, none of whom lives in the Middle East, namely, between Jewish liberals of New York and Jewish neo-cons of Washington.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_725.shtml

Airstrike, Threats Undercut Mideast Truce, by Dan Perry and Karin Laub, AP, June 25, 2003

Jerusalem - Islamic militants agreed to halt attacks on Israelis for three months, Palestinian negotiators said Wednesday. But the tenuous deal was immediately undercut by an Israeli airstrike and Hamas threats of revenge.

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_730.shtml

"If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer.
But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her
time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen."

- Henry David Thoreau

Workers of the World

Struggles in the Americas: In Latin America, United States, Canada and around the world:  Workers are uniting in their stand against the exploitation of the ruling class.  Recently George Bush charged his critics with turning the political battle into a "class war". Who's kidding whom?  It is a class war and always has been!

http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_731.shtml

Have you got a Brook in your little heart,

Where bashful flowers blow,

And blushing birds go down to drink,

And shadows tremble so -

 

And nobody knows, so still it flows,

That any brook is there,

And yet your little draught of life

Is daily drunken there -

 

Why, look out for the little brook in March,

When the rivers overflow,

And the snows come hurrying from the hills,

And the bridges often go -

 

And later, in August it may be -

When the meadows parching lie,

Beware, lest this little brook of life,

Some burning noon go dry! 

End