[Marxism] Bill Blum

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is the guy whose books Osama bin Laden recommended. He has a website
that for the longest time contained nothing but excerpts from his book
"Killing Hope" and the occasional article. Apparently he has begun posting
"Anti-Empire Notes" on about a monthly basis. His website is singularly
primitive as he freely admits but the content is tip-top as this excerpt
from his latest "Anti-Empire Notes" should indicate. You'll note that there
is only one URL that gets you to the website. Once you are there, you have
to poke around until you find what you're looking for.

http://www.killinghope.org/

Is this any way to organize a society of human beings?

April 18 was the 100th anniversary of the historic, catastrophic San
Francisco earthquake of 1906. Studies predict that the next big quake in
the city will take a much greater human toll because so many of the
residents live in apartments and houses built before building codes were
tightened in 1970. And because many units are rent-controlled apartments,
we are told, landlords have few incentives to seismic retrofit.(17) There
are those who would use this as an argument against rent control. There are
others who would use it as an argument against free enterprise or private
ownership of housing. Think of it. Over the years, California has learned
very well how to modernize buildings to prepare them to withstand
earthquakes much better than in the past. That this works has been proven
again and again, even dramatically, such as in Los Angeles, hit by a 7.4
quake in 1994, with relatively little damage. (I was asleep in my bed in
Hollywood when it hit in the early morning of January 17 and was rudely and
frighteningly awakened, but the apartment building was fine.) Yet large
numbers of people in California are still living in dwellings very
vulnerable to a quake because to correct the situation would adversely
affect the profit and loss statements of the owners of those dwellings.


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism