Disinformation, Distorted facts, Self-deception, choosing to be ignorant

How did the Bush administration decide to invade Iraq? By choosing to be ignorant! --

BBC News - A Point of View: See no evil: " . . . Much has been alleged about disinformation in the run-up to the invasion. But if some of those who launched the war were presenting a distorted picture of the facts, they were also deceiving themselves. Contrary to a common view, it wasn't that Rumsfeld and his fellow war-planners failed to prepare for the situation that would come about in the country after the invasion. If they'd known the chaos and conflict that would follow, they might not have been able to launch the war. So rather than confront the facts, they chose to remain ignorant of them. For Rumsfeld and others who thought like him, the risks of the invasion weren't unknown unknowns. They belonged in another category of human ignorance: that of unknown knowns - things they decided weren't worth thinking about. It's an attitude that hasn't gone away. A similar denial of reality prevails today in Britain and many other countries in connection with the financial crisis and its aftermath. The bankers and politicians seem genuinely to have believed that a new type of capitalism had been invented in which booms and busts would no longer occur. In the new era we'd entered, they were convinced, a level of prosperity had been reached that would only increase for the foreseeable future. . . ."

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Brain-dead Texas woman off life support, the backstory?

This was a very sad story (see below). I do not know whether this is a case of brain-dead legislators or a greedy health care system (no mention in the news as to who was paying the bill, or what the per diem charges were that the hospital kept running up, against the family wishes, even though the poor woman was already dead according to the judge) --

Family: Brain-dead Texas woman off life support - Health care - Boston.com: "A brain-dead, pregnant Texas woman’s body was removed from life support Sunday, as the hospital keeping her on machines against her family’s wishes acceded to a judge’s ruling that it was misapplying state law ... John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth announced it would not fight Judge R.H. Wallace Jr.’s Friday order to pronounce her dead and return her body to her family. The 23-week-old fetus she was carrying will not be born. The hospital’s decision Sunday brings an apparent end to a case that became a touchstone for national debates...." (read more at the link above)

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Do you have what it takes to work for a startup?

Startups require continuous learners, emotional intelligence --

Startup Institute: 'We want to help people find careers they love' | Technology | theguardian.com: ""The ideal person that works for a startup is is three things," says Aaron O'Hearn, the co-founder and chief executive of Startup Institute. "Firstly, they are a continuous learner. Whether it's in their work, their personal life, their hobby, they're constantly absorbing new knowledge and learning how to apply it. "They're always looking for a better way, they're always looking to understand something better, so they can do it more efficiently or more enjoyably. And the third thing is that individuals who work for startups, who have success there, are generally very aware. They have emotional intelligence." (read more at link above)

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Prosecutorial Abuse, American Injustice, Epidemic and Systemic

How bad is the American justice system? Read on . . .

Freedom ‘better than prison’ for Akron man awaiting retrial " . . . Prison is where Jones had sat since he was arrested in the 1993 slaying of a Goodyear worker. He always professed his innocence. The evidence against him was rife with questions: a jailhouse snitch was the state’s star witness; no physical evidence linked him to the killing. Jones, now 51, said he never expected to be convicted, but he was. He didn’t expect to lose his appeals, but he did. Only through new DNA testing, the efforts of pro bono lawyers and a judge’s order did he win the chance at a new trial. Last month, his bond was lowered to $300,000. An anonymous donor — a person Jones believes is a former inmate exonerated of a murder charge — posted the $30,000 needed to secure Jones’ freedom while he awaits trial in February... After he was convicted in 1995, his wife struggled and five of his six kids were sent into the foster system, Jones said. Zack Jones, now 22, was just a baby when his father went to prison. He bounced around foster families until he was 18.... Jones will be confined to his daughter’s small apartment, where he has greeted a steady stream of friends and family. He’s not allowed to leave without permission; an ankle bracelet monitors his whereabouts. With help from the Ohio Innocence Project, Jones secured new DNA testing. The results failed to connect him to the crime scene, and a judge ordered a new trial. Prosecutors appealed but lost. In her two-page decision, Common Pleas Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands stated that the absence of Jones’ DNA and that of another police suspect “calls into question the state’s entire theory of the case...” (read the full article at the link above)

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