blue eyes

I have blue eyes.
They get complimented often. It bothers me. I enjoy telling people that my eye color is a mutation and that blue eyes only exist/persist due to White supremacist influence in mate-choosing / breeding.

Anyway, blue eyes, blonde hair, and pale skin are mutations and would have already faded into the dustbin of history if it weren't for European cultural imperialism.

Enjoy your day.



(thanx Mel)

NYT: Rethinking meat

The New York Times printed a very interesting article on the ills of meat consumption.
The article frames the issue in a way that I believe will effect more change than a PETA campaign or animal liberation efforts. It frames it in a way that directly effects us; humans and this world.

The most glaring shortcoming of this article is that with all of the far-fetched suggestions for solutions, it doesn't even mention veganism!

Some highlights:
"Global demand for meat has multiplied in recent years"
"The world's total meat supply was 71 million tons in 1961. In 2007, it is estimated to be 284 million tons."
"In the developing world, it rose twice as fast, doubling in the last 20 years."
"Americans eat about the same amount of meat as we have for some time"

This totally debunks the myth that many USAmericans vegans believe where we are already effecting the necessary changes through individualistic dietary choices.

"30 percent of the earth's ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production"
It "generates nearly a fifth of the world's greenhouse gases - more than transportation."
"the demand for meat - contribute to nearly three-quarters of all water-quality problems in the nation"

I love how I so often hear people championing "green" consumerism never include meat/dairy into their equation. It would just simply be too much for their "green" consuming to actually cause them to have to make real changes.

"the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds catle, pigs and chickens."
"higher prices for feed divert production away from food crops."

The article also touches on the health impact; connecting "health problems" to meat consumption.
It also notes that we "would do just fine on around 30 grams of protein a day, virtually all of it from plant sources."

Admitting that "these problems originated here," "a stronger public relations campaign in the reduction of meat consumption... emphasizing personal health, compassion for animals, and doing good for the poor and the planet" is needed.

I would love to see the meat/dairy industry's reaction to any such campaign (remember how they went after the all-powerful Oprah just for saying she was going to stop eating beef?!)or to any attempt to reduce/remove their massive subsidies.




(thank you DP)

RIP: al Hakim

George Habash, جورج حبش, aka al Hakim ("the wise one") died of a heartattack at the age of 81.
Habash led a principled struggle for Palestine for over 60 years.

In 1948, the Zionist Israeli military took over his hometown of Lydda and expelled its approximately 10,000 Palestinian residents, who were marched to the Arab front lines at gunpoint in what is now known as the Lydda Death March.
Habash and his family became refugees. Israel refused to allow the refugees to return to their homes and passed the Absentee Property Law, which confiscated the homes and property of all Palestinians who were not present at their home. This included the Habash family home and property.

In 1967, The Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine (PFLP) was formed with Habash as its Secretary-General.
Since 1969, Habash and the PFLP have unwaiveringly been socialist and demanded Israel's complete eradication as a racist state through military struggle and promotes a one-state solution (one secular, democratic, non-sexist state).

During Habash's time as Secretary-General, the PFLP became known as one of the most radical and militant Palestinian factions, and gained world notoriety. The PFLP's pioneering of modern international military operating brought the group, and the Palestinian issue, onto newspaper front pages worldwide.

In 1993, again demonstrating clarity, PFLP set up an anti-Oslo sellout alliance with prominent groups such as Hamas. These Islamist groups gained prominence as part of Israel's divide and conquer plan to weaken secular radicals such as Habash and PFLP!

Habash is still widely respected among Palestinians for his discipline and commitment.

Long live al Hakim!
Long live PFLP!
Long live Palestine!

Filipina Freedom Fighters

Marie Claire Magazine did a photo story on the women in the New Peoples Army of The Philippines.
I have not read the article but Guerilla Busfare did a cool write-up on it (with images!).

It is cool to see the NPA getting any exposure in the USA where it is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
(It is designated so due to the alleged targeting of US military interests in The Philippines- not due to any Muslim alignment as suggested by Guerrilla Busfare.)

"The current regime of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is Bush-sympathetic and marked as one of the highest human-rights violators since the beginning of her term, it serves many young women no other choice but to join the rebels in the fight to keep the sovereignty of their homeland."

Fulham: 5th American

It is official: Eddie Johnson is now a part of the Fulham FC squad. He should be playing this week against Bolton.

Johnson is the 5th USAmerican playing for Fulham. He should work well with Clint Dempsey and Fulham desperately need it if their sorry asses hope to avoid relegation.

Collective Punishment

Collective punishment is a real asshole move.
Collective Punishment is when an occupying power punishes a group of people as a result of the behaviour of one or more other individuals or groups. In times of war and armed conflict, collective punishment has resulted in atrocities, and is a violation of the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions.

Britain used collective punishment against the American colonies in response to the Boston Tea Party.
Germany's whole Nazi program was based on collective punishment.
USSR used mass deportations as a form of collective punishment.
USA used collective punishment to terrorize Vietnam into submission.

Today, Zionist Israel constantly uses this war crime as a genocidal means to eliminate any resistance by Palestinians and even Palestinians themselves.
Recently Israel enforced a large scale blockade of Gaza. In effect, it left Gaza residents without power, water, food, or medical care.
The crisis is enormous! Still under international pressure, Israel has refused to end the blockade. The intended damage is already done.

This is a humanitarian crisis as a result of nothing more than imperialist racism by Israel.

Gaza needs help!
To make a donation to help the people in the Gaza Strip go to
www.al-awda.org/donate.html
Please indicate that your donation is for the GAZA EMERGENCY FUND.


If you are in the SF Bay Area, hit up the Israeli consulate on Friday, Jan. 25, 4-6 p.m.
Let them know what fuckin' scumbags they are.

(thanx Josh)

Akon's bling?!

Hip hop and diamonds & gold have a long and complex relationship.

I happen to be old enough to remember the days when Public Enemy (successfully?) told folks to take off the gold ropes (and put on African medallions). P.E. identified gold and the mining of such resources linked to African oppression.
Today diamonds are on the top of hip hop accessories and they are unquestionably linked to horrors and oppressions in Africa.

Well, Akon now actually fuckin' owns a diamond mine in South Africa!!!!
It gets better...
"I don't even believe in conflict diamonds," Akon, who is originally from Senegal, announces. "That's just a movie. Think about it. Ain't nobody thought about nothing about no conflict diamonds until the movie came out.
"It's no different from The Blair Witch Project. Everybody thought that was real."

wow!
It is sad to even think he is serious.
_____

It is interesting how often "conflict diamonds" pops up as a concept in the diamond-laden world of hip hop. As if to ease the minds of those covered in "ice" that they are somehow removed from any horror connected to their jewelry if they don't buy diamonds labeled as "conflict diamonds."
Trust me, when a diamond, which is not a relatively rare resource, is mined by DeBeers (or anyone else) the amount paid to the miners (often virtual slaves) is so lop-sided compared to the diamonds market value, it blows anyone's mind.
So all diamonds are conflict diamonds because all diamonds fund war.

"Anarchist Superstar" Brad Will in Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone's January 24, 2008 issue #1044, features a story titled The Martyrdom Of Brad Will about the life, struggles, and assassination of Brad. (On the cover it is called "Anarchist Superstar.")

Surprisingly, the story is pretty fuckin decent. Any mainstream article that name-drops Kropotkin, quotes Hakim Bey, and humorously explains the difference between anti-civ anarchy and social anarchy is, at least, on the right track. The story also accurately stands by Brad being assassinated by Mexican death squad military (rather than the bullshit the governments are throwing out there).
The best and probably most complex issue the article takes up is the role and effect Brad, as a White USAmerican, had in global struggle. His mere presence (and subsequent death) drew attention to struggles such as Oaxaca. However, at the same time, his death (being valued that much more due to his social standing) gave governments (Mexico and USA) an excuse to justify clamping down.


READ THE ARTICLE HERE
FRIENDS OF BRAD WILL
_____

Something the article got me thinking about was the historical and contemporary role of international fighters.
International or "foreign" combatants are something that have existed as long as solidarity and common cause have. One of the most well-known examples being the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War. Today, there is much talk of "foreign fighters" in places like Iraq.
The very nature of such a discussion assumes that we respect borders as set by our oppressors and that solidarity of struggle cannot righteously exist. We must not allow the oppressor, settler, crusader, and occupier to dictate our struggles.

HIPSTER hop: The Cool Kids

As somewhat of a hip hop purist (although perfectly willing to stay current or ahead of the curve), I got a huge kick out of FOBBDeep's "review" of The Cool Kids SF show (or at least the audience).
PEEP IT!

quick thoughts: Women in Comix

It just occurred to me (as I was lusting over Gina Carano and thinking of what super-hero she would be best suited to play) that, in fact, DC Comics has more female costumed heroes and more powerful (in strength and character) females than Marvel Comics. I would have thought it to be the opposite.

I have long been more loyal to Marvel and I think I am not alone in having the perception that Marvel is more "modern." DC is older and maybe it seems like more of their characters have roots in the 1950's. Not to mention the frequency of names with "lad" or "girl" in them. However, now that I think about it, Marvel might be too reliant on 1990's era huge muscles & huge boobs.

I can easily think of several strong major characters in the DC universe (even Wonder Woman's current image as written by a woman!). What major books/teams in the Marvel Universe have strong female characters? The X-Men? The only notable strong adult woman mutant is Emma Frost who runs around in lingerie, seduces married men, and is all around manipulative. The Avengers do fair better with Spider-Woman and the mighty Ms. Marvel. DC's Birds Of Prey book (which I have not read) has garnered good reviews.Whereas, Marvel's second or third string female team book, Heroes For Hire, was even recently involved in a scandal due to a violence-fetishizing cover. Hell, look no further than Marvel's editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada, who, after Spider-Man's "OMD", seems to suffer from Women In Refrigerators syndrome.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Anyone want to argue differently?

Too bad DC killed off Big Barda.

an interesting further read

Trained To Kill

At least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have committed a killing or been charged in one in the United States after returning from combat.
There have been 349 homicides involving all active-duty military personnel and new veterans in the six years since military action began in Afghanistan, and later Iraq.
About a third of the victims were girlfriends or relatives. All but one of those implicated was male.

Let's not forget about the over 1,165,204 people killed by the US occupation of Iraq plus the over 12,000 killed in Afghanistan

One More stupid Day

Recently over at Marvel comics, the big Spider-Man "One More Day" story arc wrapped up. In the tradition of the most fucked up poorly written fiction, the story undoes major threads in Spider-Man continuity (not to mention murks up larger Marvel Universe continuity). The whole thing was dictated from Marvel Editor-in-Chief, Joe Quesada who always had some weird fixation on Spidey's marriage to Mary Jane.

The marriage is undone as is other seemingly unrelated issues (i.e. Harry Osborne's death, Sipder-Man's publicly known identity, and organic web-shooters).
Fans are outraged. The Marvel.Com forums were forced to forbid personal criticism of the creators. What really makes this bullshit so interesting is how the highly acclaimed writer credited with the story, J. Michael Straczynski, initially asked for his name to be removed and has publicly denounced the story.
THIS account of the situation by JMS is hilarious!

"It's magic, we don't have to explain it."

كوفية

"Keffiyeh is often spelled kaffiyah, keffiya, kaffiya, kufiya or some other variation.
A traditional headdress of Arab men, made of a square of cloth ("scarf"), usually cotton, folded and wrapped in various styles around the head. It is commonly found in arid climate areas to provide protection from direct sun exposure, as well as for occasional use in protecting the mouth and eyes from blown dust and sand.In the 1930s, the keffiyeh became a symbol of Palestinian nationalism."

I have always worn a keffiyeh as a small symbol of solidarity with Palestinian Liberation. Whenever I have seen someone wearing a keffiyeh, I safely assumed the same. (The same could be applied in reverse since I have received approval and disapproval simply for wearing a khaffiyeh in public.)

Now, the keffiyeh has been co-opted into a hip fashion accessory with the wearers unaware and seemingly unconcerned of any historical or political significance.
This past week alone, I have seen various people wearing keffiyeh that have no defined sympathy or solidarity towards Palestine. I have even been asked where one can purchase such a scarf.

I am aware it began in earnest well over a year ago when Urban Outfitters began carrying rainbow colored keffiyeh. Now, it is difficult not to walk the street, let alone go to a hip nightclub without seeing everyone rockin' some form of keffiyeh.
If this proliferation of Arab-chic translated to any sort of anti-Zionist consciousness-raising or if the bank being made off these scarves found its way into the desperate hands of Palestinians, I would be fine with the keffiyeh's role as fashion accessory. Of course, in this time of Zionist endgame and genocide against Palestine, all symbolism of the keffiyeh may be lost on the hip American youth.

It should also be pointed out that Urban Outfitters actually stopped carrying the popular item due to Zionist pressure. CEO, Dick Heyne, stressed that the company had not intended "to imply any sympathy for or support of terrorists or terrorism."

More on the trend:
Orthodox Anarchist
Faking Good Breeding
Ricky Martin!
David Beckham!

**Wanna purchase a keffiyeh? GO HERE!! (cheaper than Urban Outfitters)**

**Or try THIS SITE to purchase keffiyeh**