–Doug Ireland’s blog has a rundown of the current state of Polish politics written by David Ost. An interesting read and worth knowing if you care at all about European politics.

–It is not just US soldiers that know how bad it is in Iraq. The UK military is also losing recruits.

–This article starts with a nasty “joke” but then points out the obvious: In Canada we treat the First Nation Communities as if they are second class.

–Isn’t it great that the leaders who have the power to make unilateral decisions are the ones that never get the blame?

In answer to yesterday’s question: “How are we to account for the relation between thought and being when they have been identified as opposites with no common thread; with no ‘connection’?”

Spinoza answers that the question itself has not been properly posed. Thought and extension are not seperate, but are two attributes (expressions, properties, or manifestations) of the same substance: real infinite Nature.

“That was Spinoza’s standpoint, a circumstance that seemingly gave Engels grounds for replying categorically and unambiguously to Plekhanov when he asked: ‘So in your opinion old Spinoza was right in saying that thought and extension were nothing but two attributes of one and the same substance?’ “Of course,” answered Engels, “old Spinoza was quite right”.’”

This, however, is not to say that human thought is “in the world”; rather (and here I will employ A. N. Whitehead’s terminology), the world (substance) has “sensitivity” and “materiality” — The more complex the entity (e.g. a human), the more complex the “thought”. So, for instance, an atom has both characteristics of “sensitivity” and “materiality”, or in the language of the time, it has both “thought” and “extension”.

This distinction between human thought and thought in the world is well exemplified in this passage: “Spinoza said more than once that it was impermissible to represent thought as attribute in the image and likeness of human thought; it was only the universal property of substance that was the basis of any ‘finite thought’, including human thought, but in no case was it identical with it. To represent thought in general in the image and likeness of existing human thought, of its modus, or ‘particular case, meant simply to represent it incorrectly, in ‘an incomplete way’, by a ‘model’, so to say, of its far from most perfected image (although the most perfected known to us).”

This is reminiscent of Plato, who held that the world was knowable because it was imbued with thought.

Another important point in this essay is that thinking is identified as action.

–The WSWS takes another indepth look at Friedman of the the NYTs. It is a wonder why anyone reads Friedman’s writings as he ends up being wrong on pretty much everything.

–Some news from the ground about the conditions in Kashmir after the earthquake.

–Some more WSWS analysis of the re-hashed attacks on Respect MP George Galloway. The WSWS group is not a big fan of Galloway but will support him in the face of an attack from the ridiculous right.

–Lenin’s Tomb takes a look the history of liberals in Britain and the US and how they seem to shoot themselves in the foot all the time. I would say that it is a good thing except they tend to bring bad things upon the people they are exploiting at the time.

–The public needs to stand strong with the workers if it wants to keep these public services at a level that is useful for us to use.

–The legal system looks like it might actually be catching up to the stuff that is going on in Guantanamo Bay Gulag. Too bad it will not have an effect on the lives of the people there.

–Patrick Cockburn writes about the current state of affairs in Iraq. One wonders what good a constitution is if there is no law or justice throughout the country?

–I had to post this again. Looks like Hands Off Venezuela is making waves. They have now got regular posts on ZNet which is one of the largest left-wing news portals in the US.

–Unilateralist decisions about the future of the Palestinian Territories by Israel is nothing new. Have a read of the current policy and action going on there (it is not as of you are going to hear about it anywhere else).

–Support the struggle of the workers to get a decent retirement. All our futures are on the line.

–Duncan Cameron writes nice things about the current state of “socialism” in France and Lionel Jospin. I have to say that the things that I have heard about Jospin do not want me to sing his praise but it is still an interesting read. (Have a look at Douglas Ireland’s blog for more information on politics in France).

–The Green Left Review has an article on the current state of building socialism in Venezuela.

–Continued struggle of the Venezuelans to get the word out that Chavez is nothing like the caricature the US government and media portray him as.

–Some interesting news from Venezuela. Chavez has met with the business leaders on his own terms. There are still businesses doing well in Venezuela but they will have crises sooner or later and when they do the workers will have the option of taking over the company themselves.

–Just as WalMart was put into a nice light with their supposed fight for a higher minimum wage in the US there seems to have been a release that the company is constantly examining more ways to screw over its workers. Can anyone say “union needed”?

–Support the workers of Sodexo in their fight for a real living wage.

–This is interesting. Are they going to get a medal or are they going to get fired?