A DAY IN THE ASYLUM

"Non-psychopaths respond faster and display more brain activity when processing emotionally loaded words such as 'rape' or 'cancer' than when they see neutral words such as 'tree.' With psychopaths, Hare found no difference. To them, 'rape' and 'tree' have the same emotional impact -- none."
~ Robert Hercz, "Psychopaths Among Us".

Mmm, mmm, mmm . . . The Council on Foreign Relations wants to improve US-Turkey relations and fast. Why? Well, those pesky Kurds, for one thing. From TDN:

CFR experts believe that the Turks have reason to be concerned. The reality of the situation in Iraq strongly suggests that the Kurds are poised to gain at least significant autonomy in Iraq and control of the oil-rich region surrounding the city of Kirkuk. Further, it would be illogical for U.S. forces, the report stated, to take any action that might destabilize the only region of Iraq that has been relatively quiet.

Among the initial priorities are the following:

1. Clarifying the positions of all parties on the future status of northern Iraq;

2. Identifying areas of common interest and potential confidence-building measures (such as Turkish investment in infrastructure development, free trade, oil pipelines, and adequate border controls);

3. Possible avenues for dealing with the PKK in northern Iraq (such as pressure from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, PUK, and the Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party, KDP, to restrain the PKK, a Turkish amnesty for PKK fighters, rules governing extradition, and potential combined military action.)

Given that this is a report on US-Turkey relations, does that mean that "[c]larifying the positions of all parties on the future status of northern Iraq" mean that "all parties" are only the US and Turkey? Or are they going to allow Baghdad to have a clarified position? What about the people who actually live in "northern Iraq," which is really South Kurdiistan? What about those pesky Kurds themselves? Do they get to clarify their position, too? Is that going to be an actual democratic process by which pesky Kurds will clarify their position, or is it going to be a clarified position decided for the people based on the personal interests of the two continuously bickering clans, the Hatfields and McCoys of the Middle East, as it were--the KDP and the PUK?

What about those suggested "confidence-building measures?" Whose confidence are Turkish investment, free trade (i.e. globalization), oil pipelines, and border controls supposed to build? Are those measures supposed to build the confidence of the Kurdish people or are they supposed to build the confidence of the Hatfields and the McCoys, the fascists in Ankara and all of their little toadies (Ilnur Cevik comes to mind), and the all whores in the Washington regime who pass for politicians, bureaucrats, and their policy-makers--the lobbyists--who can never think of anything but turning a buck (Joseph Ralston and The Cohen Group come to mind)?

Then we come to item number 3, the priority most lacking in reality, because for this we already have two solutions: PKK's Declaration for a democratic, political solution to the brutality of the Ankara regime against the Kurdish people in North Kurdistan, the very brutality against which PKK picked up arms to engage in a legitimate struggle against a racist regime in the first place, and the fifth unilateral PKK ceasefire.

But to create a peace based on those two democratic offers would be an exercise in actual democracy, as in something that is the actual will of the people involved, and not the chickenshit democracy that the elites of the world (like those that make up the ranks of the so-called experts at the CFR) permit to trickle down or allow us to glimpse briefly by way of smoke-and-mirrors. In short, a kind of democracy that exists only in our wildest fantasies.

After the immediate priorities are taken care of, the CFR has a "second track" suggestion, that of "establish[ing] a high-level U.S.-Turkish Cooperation Commission that would include a strategic security dialogue, the expansion of economic and commercial ties, and the development of cultural exchanges, with emphasis on the expansion of educational opportunities."

How clueless can the "experts" at the CFR be? Track 2, suggestion 1 is already in place; it's called the Deep Freakin' State.

Just for reference, take a look at who the "experts" at the CFR are:

The membership of the CFR includes past Presidents, Ambassadors, Secretaries of State, Wall Street investors, international bankers, foundation executives, think tank executives, lobbyist lawyers, NATO and Pentagon military leaders, wealthy industrialists, journalists, media owners and executives, university presidents and key professors, select Congressmen, Supreme Court Justices, Federal Judges, wealthy entrepreneurs, and as many as ten 9-11 Commission Members.

Now that right there should make you want to run for the mountains, screaming, because these are all the very same people who have enabled genocide in Turkey since 1915. And if you have any doubt about the elites encouraging genocide so that they can maintain their status as "elites," then take a look at a report on a commemoration of Hrant Dink at the UK's House of Commons, from KurdishMedia:

The audience sat in hushed silence awaiting for the final Lesson No. 4; the revelation of what Professor Hovhanness Pilikian labelled as “the grand secret of the British Empire”--complex socio-economic ideological factors that resulted in setting the British imperialist mindset, secretly provoking genocides, for world-domination.

Similar views are well-established by the work of the American Professor Noam Chomsky, concerning the attempts at world-domination by the American political elite.

What was highly original in Professor Pilikian’s own theorizing was the extraordinary fusion of well-rehearsed historical facts – the Malthusianism of British politics still active today in the Thatcherism of the New Labour – blaming the poor for their lot, and wishing to control their fertility ; The birth of the grotesque Eugenic movement in Britain, with modern echoes in the US perpetrated by Ku Klux Clan-type organizations ; He spoke about Social Darwinism which advocated the Superiority of the Western Christian race – meaning of course, the Victorian British – entirely grounded on Darwin’s pseudo-scientific Origin of the Species, the original First Edition (1859) title of which is nevermore published (thank god!). It reads (incredibly for modern tastes) – “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the preservation of favoured Races in the Struggle for Life”. In that use of the conjunctive “or” – Professor Pilikian pointed out, hangs a genocidal tale … It manifested the British imperialist Establishment’s ‘secret’ intention to find a respectable ‘scientific’ theory to justify causing global wars (and two world wars did follow… in obscene frequency) for ‘the survival of the fittest’ “Favoured Race” to emerge as a ‘naturally selected’ ruler of the world …

Professor Pilikian’s contention was that the Industrial economic Revolution created in Britain was evolving (in a Darwinist manner) into the 19th c British imperialism, with voracious appetites for global markets – very much the case, he felt, of present so-said Globalization. Britain let rip the First World War led by Queen Victoria’s grandson, the German Kaiser who considered himself to be the better … British! And the trigger for this murderous Darwinian “laboratory”exercise was the genocide of the Armenians in 1915!

Former Turkish president Suleyman Demirel says the Deep State is the TSK. I have two words to say about that: No Shit. From TDN:

. . . what is called the “deep state” amounts to nothing more than the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) taking over the administration of the country three times since 1960 on grounds that the state was brought to the brink of collapse, the "dean" of Turkish politics has said.

[ . . . ]

If there was a deep state, it was the TSK, he said. Acting with that sensitivity and with the pretext provided by the Internal Service Law – the law that sets the guidelines for the duties and functions of the TSK – the TSK has intervened in state administration three times. He said apart from the TSK there was no power within the state that could undertake anything on behalf of the state.

Everybody remember that when Grand Poo-Bah Buyukanit arrives in DC soon.

Two Turkish parliamentary deputies are still in New York playing violins for the Iraqi Turkmen Front. Cry me a river.

One of the best things I've come across in the last few days is something from the end of January. At the time, DTP Qers provincial chairman, Mahmut Alinak, received a nasty email from the Deep State whackos who murdered Hrant Dink. Never one to mince words, here's what Heval Mahmut had to say about the email, from the hevals at KurdishInfo.

"Any psychopath can think himself as the propriator [sic] of his country and launch an armed attack against intellectuals and politicians that he regards an enemy."

Psycopaths! That is hilarious because it's absolutely true. There's none of that ridiculous political correctness about Mahmut Alinak; he just says it like it is. Mahmut, dude, you rock!

Yes, folks, the psychopaths are running the asylum.