Give Me More Paid Time Off!

Olympics Pre-Party

More than 200 anti-2010 Olympics protesters, some carrying black flags and burning torches, gathered for a sort of pre-party for the Winter Games just over two weeks away. A portable audio system jacked up the energy level with the opening chords of the Rolling Stones' Street Fighting Man.

"The general goal is to disrupt the Olympics and to send a clear message to the International Olympic Committee, Vanoc and other Olympic host cities that holding the Olympics can bring you this type of resistance."

Agorists?

I heard about some sort of anarchist gathering in San Francisco and was curious why I hadn't heard about it amongst the usual circles. It also seemed immediately odd that it was taking place like some seminar conference at a Hilton... prominently featuring dudes in ties!


Checking out the speakers, I noticed some do, in fact, identify as anarchists. I checked out their blogs. They seem to write jibberish and use terms uncommon in the anarchist mileau. One such term that kept popping up is "agorist."

Wikipedia seems to tell me these agorists are "anarcho-capitalists" or just free market capitalists.

If you ask me, anyone thinking they are an anarcho-capitalist deserves a punch in the face. Hell, anarcho-capitalism is a fucking contradiction! Mere opposition to the state does not mean one is striving towards anarchy.

So who wants to go to the fest?

Apparently some of these fuckers also showed up in some front group at the LA Anarchist Bookfair as well.

PETA sucks!

PETA give animal rights/animal liberation a bad name. They don't even fight for animals. They only seemed concerned with their self perpetuating shock tactics. They don’t care when their actions reinforce oppressive systems.

We cannot let PETA be the unchallenged voice of animal rights/liberation.

This was inspired by PETA's "State of The Union" strip tease of a woman with fake boobs. (No link provided on purpose.) I was also inspired by PETA's feeble failed attempt to lend legitimacy to their tactics.

Thank you Vegans Of Color

it is freedom they say

Isn't it oh so tragic?

That I still despise those who always had it

My only choice is the refusal to pay

But it wont make this heartache go away

Because I still fell so sick of it

High rise buildings and this culture shit

This boredom destroys every thought

And I cant trust myself with want I want

Can't pretend that it doesn't mean a thing

This happiness that corruption brings

Cause it is freedom they say

But I cant wait for this freedom to go away

Cause I cant find any peace here

Just used emotions everywhere

And gratitude to a trickle down deal

Like that could change the way that I feel

Hey I was born into a mess naked undressed

All that is offered is going to break

Cause I want so much more than it can ever take

I want to shake hey I want to move

So no more cheap thrills for me and you

Release Ojore Lutalo!

Ojore Lutalo (recently released Black Liberation Army prisoner of war and New Afrikan Anarchist) was pulled off the Amtrak train in La Junta, Colorado on his way home to New Jersey from speaking at the LA Anarchist bookfair. After his recent release from time served as a POW, Ojore lived briefly in Philadelphia and was engaged with local actvist, anarchist and New Afrikan projects.

They are charging him with "endangering public transportation," but have not explained to him what that means. An officer said that bail will be set at $10,000.00 which means we will need a minimum of $1,000.00 with a good chance of it being higher in order for him to be released, while waiting for the court date.He will be arraigned Thursday morning in Coloradao. Supporterse are working on getting him a lawyer.

We will need some emergency fund raising.

Go to paypal.com and send $$ to "timABCF@aol.com"

Put "Ojore Bail" in the notes section.

Lakota Sioux Hit Hard By Ice Storm

A tribe of Lakota Sioux has been battling wind, rain and subzero temperatures this week as ice storms lash one of the U.S.'s poorest communities and leave thousands without electricity, heat or drinking water.

The Cheyenne River tribe is made up of four of the seven bands of Lakota Sioux Indians in the Dakotas, whose reservations also include the Pine Ridge, Standing Rock and Rosebud bands. Power-line damage across all reservations may exceed 5,000 downed poles, which tribal authorities said may take weeks or months for utility companies to repair.

With just 10,000 residents spread across 2.8 million acres, many Cheyenne River families depend on electricity transmitted across hundreds of empty miles to run pumps for drinking water, or to power the ignition modules on natural-gas and propane heaters.

here is a list of what is needed:

•Non-perishable food
•Cots
•Heat sources (heaters & fuel)
•Camp stoves & fuel
•Lithium 1, 2 and 3 batteries for law enforcement
•Lamps/Batteries/Lamp Oil
•Toilet paper
•Paper products for the shelters
•Pampers/formula
•Hand/baby wipes/Hand sanitizer

Ship in-kind donations to:
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman’s Office
Attn: Ice Storm Emergency Supplies
PO Box 590
2001 Main Street (Tribal Offices)
Eagle Butte, SD 57625

You can also contribute money to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe’s emergency relief fund, which has been depleted in the past months.
Mail checks to:
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe/2010 Disaster Account
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman’s Office
Attn: Ice Storm Emergency Fund
PO Box 590
2001 Main Street (Tribal Offices)
Eagle Butte, SD 57625

Think of it like paying overdue rent.

Link Roundup

-If desktop manufacturing is the next frontier of capitalism, how will it affect people's needs/demands for services not provided by government or employer (i.e. healthcare)??


- Toussaint-Louverture biopic has had difficulty in getting funding due to its lack of "white heroes."

- The Court says inmates cannot play Dungeons & Dragons. Prison officials said they had banned the game at the recommendation of the prison’s specialist on gangs, who said it could lead to gang behavior and fantasies about escape.

- "The hope of the future does not rest, as commonly believed, in winning the people of the "buffer fringe" to one superpower or the other, but rather in the invention of new weapons and tactics that will be so cheap to obtain and so easy to use that they will increase the effectiveness of guerrilla warfare so greatly that the employment of our present weapons of mass destruction will become futile, and on this basis there can be a revival of democracy and of political decentralization in all three parts of our present world."

- An interesting map:


- What if?..
The US is gutted economically, in a fashion very similar to how the USSR fell (hint: not by terrorism, EMP blasts, warfare, drugs, environmental collapse, peak oil, etc.). How? US elites simply shift their loyalties to the global economic system and loot the country on their way out the door. This defection causes a slow but inexorable economic collapse. Incomes decline, the well off bunker themselves (transferring wealth out), and the government is ineffective.

ZOG

The following video is maybe not even worth watching. Is there anything surprising about the President of the USA stammering, stuttering, and regurgitating Zionist propaganda? No. The only thing surprising is that someone was actually able to ask him the question.



So why even post this? I figured it could be an opportunity to help popularize a viral video that raises the issue of Palestinians and shows our President as the Zionist fool he is.

"You can't be neutral on a moving train"

A Cheap & Easy Way To End Terrorism

So, the boogeyman, bin Laden, has claimed responsibility for the attempted destruction of an aircraft headed to Detroit on Christmas (after the fact, of course). He said:
“America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine,” he added. “God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support for the Israelis continues.”

Since December 25th, TONS of money has been spent on trying to destroy this supposed terrorist threat. At the same time, we spend millions of dollars bankrolling the state of Israel so that it can continue is warmongering and genocide.
Why not just cut all funding to both?! Ending aid to Israel (which offers the US no real benefit anyway) would, according to bin LAden, end Al Qaeda's actions against us. That would void any need to spend billions trying to eradicate their threat.

Wow. What a simple solution. Why hasn't Obama thought of that?

E-40 - "The Server"

Secret ICE Castles

A list of 186 previously-secret Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sub-field offices has been uncovered. The list reveals the locations into which an unknown number of migrant workers and other non-citizens have been “disappeared.

THE LIST (pdf)

I remember growing up and hearing the horror stories of supposed communist states and dictators with their secret prisons and indefinite detention without trial. We always thought "how could the people be so stupid to stand for that?!" It was always positioned with knowing that our USA didn't do such things. I guess no matter how many people were assassinated or railroaded in prison on trumped up charges, the USA, at least, liked to keep up appearances.
It is an interesting psychological shift for a government to openly operate secret prisons, hold people without trials, and assasinate.

(thanx RAIM)

Cosmo Warns of Girlie BF's

Bullshit Cosmo Magazine is telling women that if they blur traditional gender roles with their boyfriends, the boyfriends will push them away. Then Cosmo goes on to define exactly what woman do but men should not do.

Cosmo says men should not:
-care about his skin
-eat vegan food
-bake
-like Lady Gaga

Cosmo goes a step further making suggestions what a woman should do with her boyfriend:
-buy a dog (or pretend to)
-not go to work
-have him teach you how to play a video game and get naked

Gun or Mtn Dew Bottle?

Three plainclothed pigs attacked 18 yr old Jordan Miles because they mistook his Mtn Dew bottle for a gun! The three apparently did not identify themselves as police.

Deliver Us From Evil

Deliver Us From Evil is a powerful documentary about a serial child rapist Catholic Priest and the lengths to which the Catholic Church took to protect him and essentially promote his continued abuse of children.

The Catholic Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, on down to the Priests are nothing more than a cabal of child rapists and child abuse enablers with their hands in bags of gold (when not in children's pants).

The voice of Tom Doyle was refreshing in the film. He was critical of the church's hierarchy, perceived infallibility, and centralized power. He crafted proposals for the Catholic church to combat child abuse and they ignored and/or fought against all attempts.

It is interesting to note that at the Vatican's request, President George W. Bush granted the pope immunity from prosecution.

A New Script For Talking About Abortion

In the US, abortion is framed as a deeply moral and highly emotional issue. In the public imagination, the choice to have an abortion is a wrenching one, one that often leaves women feeling emotionally fragile for months and years afterward. No doubt this is sometimes the case. But for many women, my friend included, it is not a wrenching or painful decision, but an easy and obvious and matter of fact one.

READ ON HERE

Remember when television networks refused to air paid ad spaces encouraging folks to buy nothing, not buy fur, and not vote for Bush? Well, Christian fundamentalist anti-abortion ads are ok.

Fear and Failure at Airports

Related to my previous mention of 'failure strategy' taken from Global Guerrillas:
With as easy as it is to shut down airport terminals based on our culture of fear/panic, it sure seems easy to bleed industries of efficiency and profit.

Beautiful Thieves (Preview)

click on reclining Havok

Fin Fang Foom what?!

Out of all the villains to be used in the Iron Man films, for some fuckin' reason they are going with The Mandarin. I guess because y'know... it is a post-racial world or something. Racism is cool now. (If you are puzzled what I am talking about, just wait. The Mandarin is orchestrating everything behind the scenes. Just look for the clues!.. Or interviews with the director.)
Now Iron Man 2 has an "easter egg" cameo by another very very odd villain (Who, I would argue is also racist), the alien dragon Fin Fang Foom.


Well, looks better than the comic.

Murdering the dead

Remember:

capitalism both exacerbates, and creates, supposedly 'natural' disasters

Yes, More on Haiti

The flow of information coming out of and/or regarding Haiti is internet-style overload. I hate contributing to the deluge but I do think a lot can be observed and learned from this event in regards to imperialism, civilization's collapse, survival, disaster capitalism, anarchy, and the imposition of law & order.


"There are no security issues".
...newspapers and on television programmes across the world, uncritically reproducing the claims of the Haitian police, using less than a handful of named and unnamed witnesses as editorial sock puppets to justify the attempts to spread terror and organise vigilante violence - to actually create the very suspicion, mayhem, and bloodshed that has so far been notable by its absence...
But what we are seeing here is the entirely justifiable expropriation of hoarded goods in stores and other situations being used to characterise the situation as a security crisis. In a scandalous if barely reported manipulation of aid workers, it has emerged that both UN and US authorities instructed people not to deliver relief directly to the victims, because doing so will lead to them being attacked by an 'angry mob'.


CNN's Anderson Cooper poses for a photo op with an injured boy he can then rescue on camera. (That shit is all the rage after Katrina.)

10,000 US troops taking over, 3,500 extra UN troops are being sent to combat "lawlessness".

Mercenary trade association, the International Peace Operations Association, are offering their services in Haiti.
Among the services offered are: “High Threat terminations,” dealing with “worker unrest,” armed guards and “Armed Cargo Escorts.”

The US military has taken control of the (wreckage of the) presidential palace, and Port-au-Prince's general hospital. Thankfully, capitalism is quickly being reestablished.


One of the more inspiring things to rise out of this disaster are The International Anti-Capitalist Disaster Response Brigades.
Check facebook for great updates on Haiti and disaster capitalism.

Book of Eli: Christian Propaganda

io9 has done an excellent job at exposing Book of Eli as an idiotic film to promote Christianity.

Meredith Woerner interviewed The Hughes Brothers about the film and Christianity. Here are some choice quotes:

It depends on what you believe. It could be about irrigation, if you want that kind of irrigation for your mind. Some people need to read to stimulate themselves. It could be that book or another book. That character [Eli] believes that he was told to take it somewhere. I can agree with the intent of that question, you know? But as a filmmaker, you have to believe in the story and that translation. If you're making Lord of The Rings, you have to believe in Middle Earth. If you are making Star Wars, you have to believe that there are spaceships up there going around in space, even though it's not reality. You have to believe in the mythology of that movie in order to do it.

Why is it important that people are holding that book in such high regard, or thinking that it should be spoken from, or told to others as opposed to building a church talking about irrigation? You can pose that question to anybody in any time period, post-apocalypse or now, about any religious text, or any text of any sort. "Oh, it's more important to survive. We need food. So why not build churches about survival and food?"

I'm not trying to be vague. It depends on who the person is and what their want is. Let's say they found water. Then what? They may need to feed their soul, and then what?

Using that book — one of the biggest selling books of all times one of the greatest influences of other literature of all times as well — it just made it that much more impactful and powerful.

It's about accepting the common human spiritual condition. And let's not split hairs over who God is or what God is, we're all going to assume coming in, even non-believers, that there's something going on.

io9 also compared Book of Eli to a very similar film, Zardoz.
Book of Eli manages to follow the basic plot of Zardoz, while completely draining away all the meaning and coherence of the original.

US as a great warrior tribe or the decline of governments

Let me direct your attention to Marwan Bishara's The US as a great warrior tribe

This article describes how the USA has helped accelerate the decline of governments' power and influence globally.

And I love this quote too much to not post it:
"Barack Obama's election has defused war criticism, diminished the 'peace movement' and once again united the country under the flags of war."

HuffPost and Tila's "Abortion"

I don't know why the hell anyone cares about Tila Tequila. We would all be better off (including Tila) if we just ignored her. If Huffington Post is going to "report" on this attention whore, at least they could keep anti-abortion bullshit off of their pages.


Recently, HuffPost posted an article entitled 'Tila Tequila Talks About Her Abortion, Lack of Friends.' However, the article makes NO mention of an abortion! It includes this quote from Tila:
"Then was I was 17 I got pregnant and my boyfriend at the time hit me in the stomach with a hammer & I got a miscarriage"

Uh, hitting your pregnant girlfriend in the stomach with a hammer is not an abortion. It is assault!

MTibbs brought this point up in the comments section. As is typical in comments sections and message boards it quickly devolved into idiocy with people insisting the hammer was the abortion.
Tell the liberals at HuffPost to stop buying into the rightwing's anti-abortion rhetoric.

Unfortunately for us all, Tila Tequila says she is writing a book dedicated to her "son." I love dedicating things to people who don't exist. In fact, this blog entry is dedicated to Logan Garcia, the man who would have been my best friend... if he ever existed. sigh

Anarchists vs. Arpaio

A march took place in Phoenix, AZ in support of immigrants rights and to protest fascist Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Zack de La Rocha and Linda Ronstadt performed.

Apparently anarchists began throwing rocks and water bottles at officers who had been stationed at Arpaio's tent city jail. A horse-mounted officer attempted to enter the crowd to take the items away and the crowd retaliated by pushing the horse with sticks. Officers reportedly used pepper spray and tasers to separate the horse and officer from the crowd.



I love the "Assasinate Arpaio" banner.

UPDATE: READ HERE

more Haiti

Mel at BroadSnark wrote a great piece analyzing donating and nonprofits.

As I mentioned The U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy.

-Telephone companies are making a killing. Free the phone lines!

The expected looting for survival is taking place as is the expected defense against law and crooked theft.
This is a very important aspect for us all to pay attention to. Given such a situation, most of us would be without food and water in a matter of days. How would we defend ourselves and our communities? How would we acquire the needed resources and aid? How would we stave off the boots and bullets of invading forces?

The International Anti-Capitalist Disaster Response Brigades is a FANTASTIC idea of the networks that need to build for preparedness.

AFI: Night of The Phoenix

Last night I saw AFI play The Phoenix Theatre in Petaluma, CA. It was better than any time I saw them circa Decemberunderground. The lighting was pretty intense for such a venue. Definitely one of the better bands performing live currently (despite any ill feelings I might have about prerecorded tracks).

Big ups to my boys in Wolves And Thieves & Ceremony.

Death From Above

3 Links

-Vegans are witches!
"veganism offers a place of solace for sodomites"
"If every meal you eat doesn’t contain something that lives in, or comes out of something that lives in, a barn, you aren’t a real man. Jesus warned us that the men who would one day call themselves “vegans” are nothing more than nancy-boys looking for refuge somewhere."

- An Iraq war veteran has been arrested and charged with threatening to kill his officers in a rap song.
"watch all the bodies hit the floor"

- Vermont looks to secede.
"The only hope is to just say, 'Look, this isn't working for us. We want to start fresh again"

Thoughts on Haiti’s tragic earthquake

Have you read The Road? It is a great novel by Cormac McCarthy set in a post-civ world. It isn’t like how CrimethInc or John Zerzan imagine it but it is how I would imagine it. The book specifically does not get into HOW the world got to such a point. That is to the benefit of the story. I often wonder how Primitivists think civilization will collapse because most all anti-civ anarchists assume that civilization will collapse around the world at close to the same moment (and that capitalism will die along with it). I don’t completely dismiss civilization’s collapse but capitalism has shown how resilient it can be and it will attempt to go down with the ship.



Good examples of civilization collapse would be New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina, The Philippines in Typhoon Ondoy, Indonesia in the 2004 tsunami, and now Haiti’s earthquake. In every instance those with money/power took the event as an opportunity to consolidate power/wealth and (further) disenfranchise whole populations. Some of those areas are now uninhabitable and “outside” of civilization (as much as something can be outside of a global capitalist sysyem… which is, actually, not at all). These events didn’t loosen the grasp of civilization/production/capitalism/imperialism/power. In fact, the grip of the powerful was tightened.

When I heard about the Haitian earthquake and the devastation, I began thinking of it in these terms. I began to place it like a puzzle piece into the fabric of civilization’s coming end. Then I checked myself. I made the mistake that people throughout history always make and most in the anarchist milieu excel at. I placed myself at some pinnacle or end of history despite the fact that, materially, it is not so different from ages past. Catastrophes like the ones listed above have always taken place (albeit, perhaps, at different frequencies) and have always shaped how/where civilization takes shape. This was, in fact, not a natural disaster. This was a disaster by human design.

If we are concerned with helping to end the suffering of Haiti after this horrible disaster, we must be concerned with preventing such disasters from occurring. And believe me, they are preventable. It wasn't actually the earthquake which caused the damage and death in Haiti. It was the poverty. So, why is Haiti the poorest nation in the Americas?

In 1802 France sent 22,000 soldiers to Haiti to stop a slave rebellion and recapture the plantations that once made it an economic giant. Napoleon said that the recognition of the freedom of the slaves would be a “rallying point for freedom-seekers of the New World.”

The United States backed France in ordering Haiti to pay 150 million francs in gold to compensate for the costs of the war it won. In return, Haiti would supposedly be granted international recognition. Repayment locked Haiti into the role of a debtor nation –where it remains today.

After 1850, the United States declared the Haitian people unfit to rule themselves. Americans seized land for exploitation.

Up into the 1990's, the US enacted a trade embargo against Haiti.



So it is a long history of a country exploited first by the French and then by the USA. We, the USA, imposed the conditions on Haiti that allowed this earthquake to cause the damage it has. The profound injustices of class society mean that natural disasters become man-made disasters.

Now the relief effort begins. While I recognize the need to help those subjected to this abject poverty and affected by the destruction of this earthquake, we cannot take our eyes of the vultures of disaster capitalism.

Help The Trailer Park Trash Cats

The Agee Memorial Wildlife Fund is assisting in a project to rescue about 25 to 30 cats living at a Sacramento trailer park that is slated to be bulldozed on January 15, 2010. There are only two human tenants left, the rest having been evicted and leaving their beloved pets to starve to death or be crushed under rubble. One of the saddest aspects to this story is that it wasn't their intention to just leave them, they, themselves have nowhere to live either.

The "Trailer Park Trash Cats" Fund!

Any funds earmarked for this program will go towards not only the cats' medical needs, but to pay for their boarding, food, litter to anyone that will open their house on a temporary basis. Otherwise, the cats that are lucky to be rounded up with no place to go, will have to be sent to the pound for euthanasia.

We need to act quickly to get these cats out of this horrible situation. Time is running out. The city of Sacramento will not cooperate with us and is locking the gates on January 15, no matter how many cats are left. Right now, they are barely being fed, there is broken glass scattered all over the place (one of the cats has an injured paw and several are sick).

The friendly cats will eventually be run through PetSmart in order to find a new home. Our hope, depending on how many people can help, is that any cats deemed not adoptable, will either be placed in barn cat situation or we might be able to house them here, depending on the numbers!

Unfortunately, we are finding out that many of the cats are not as friendly as we hoped and therefore, might end up having to come to the sanctuary, which puts an additional financial burden on us (we are already totally full with over seventy cats) to care for them the rest of their entire lives.

DONATE HERE

al-Balawi: Sorta Like a Big Deal

Do you realize how big of a deal Hammam Khalil al-Balawi's attack on a secret CIA base in Afghanistan is?
He killed several CIA agents as well as Blackwater mercenaries at a base no one is supposed to know exists. The US government and Blackwater have had to acknowledge the base and that they had people there.

Dem crit 2

I saw a poll on MSNBC telling me that only 44% of Dems feel like the country is headed in the right direction. It got me to thinking about how the Dems are losers and the GOP will continue to be the winners.

Society is moving in a perfectly ratrional trajectory for capitalism. The state regulates capital less and less, corporations get more powerful, the divide between the rich and the poor grows. At the same time, to help create more markets, capitalism ditched the stuffy version of itself from the pinnacle of the 1950's and along with individualism made pretty much anything acceptable: no more modernistic good or bad values. Everyone can do what they want and the capitalists use this decadent individualism to their market advantage.

The GOP's goals fit right into this model. They make themselves the unashamed more pro-biz party of the two. At the same time, they capitalize on American's misgivings of decadent loss of (traditional) values. Make no mistake, the ramping of individualist non-values isn't being declined by any GOP effort as much as their efforts play to a specific power base. This is win-win. They can take unfettered stances in favor of the rich and against the masses of people as well as taking bullshit stances on fear issues that will remain fear issues.

Dems can't win. They play a progressive compassionate card but never come through. That makes them losers in the eyes of their power base. They are also losers in the eyes of their enemies for raising the issues to begin with. The Dems might use popular rhetoric but they act in concert with capital.

Who would've bet that a party occupying the majority of powerful posts in the government would be so impotent? (Capital would've taken that bet.)

Dem crit 1

I want to begin an ongoing critique of The Democrats in this Obama era. Here goes...

Who Inherits the Rage: Brooks on Tea-Baggers contains this quote:
The public is not only shifting from left to right. Every single idea associated with the educated class has grown more unpopular over the past year.
The educated class believes in global warming, so public skepticism about global warming is on the rise. The educated class supports abortion rights, so public opinion is shifting against them. The educated class supports gun control, so opposition to gun control is mounting.
The story is the same in foreign affairs. The educated class is internationalist, so isolationist sentiment is now at an all-time high, according to a Pew Research Center survey. The educated class believes in multilateral action, so the number of Americans who believe we should “go our own way” has risen sharply.



The whole article leaves me feeling pretty sick. I try to avoid nihilism and misanthropy but I certainly feel that America has no revolutionary potential. When I say America, I by-in-large mean White America. When I say White America, I am excluding the pockets of expected resistance and potential traitors. When I say "revolutionary potential", it is just a way of gauging the potential of the populace to wage revolution... and not fascistic transition of power.

I guess the biggest bummer is that IF the "tea party" rhetoric was what they actually would impliment, I would be fine with it. Give all the money to the rich and withdraw troops from abroad? Awesome. That would equal revolution here and there. Of course, it is nothing of the sort. It is just the age old duping of the masses with good sounding rhetoric and empty promises.

(I am not actually saying I am "fine" with a widening gap between rich and poor but I recognize its potential for fostering insurrection.)

Link Roundup

-Maybe all the government surveillance is overload and renders the government inefficient.

-Felons losing the right to vote disenfranchises a huge portion of our population- especially with the ever expanding criminalization of life. What if felons got the right to vote back?

-Taser hates sexting

"We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism"

In what I believe is an important case to watch and think about, 5 Americans were detained in Pakistan and will likely face life sentences on terrorism charges. They may also face conspiracy charges in the US.

These five American Muslim men intended to enter Afghanistan "to help their Muslim brothers who are in trouble, who are bleeding and who are being victimized by Western forces." They have no ties to the boogey man Al Qaeda nor did they intend to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan.
This is significant because these men are Americans who decided they could not stand idly by as the US brutally occupies Afghanistan. It is reminiscent of calls in the early 70's of American radicals to join the war against imperialism already in progress.

"We are not terrorists," one of the five men, Ramy Zamzam told the press.

Synth Britannia

Synth Britannia is an amazing BBC documentary chronicling the rise of synth music from its experimental dystopian beginnings in the late 70's to the synth pop of the early 80's. There is an incredible amount of behind-the-scenes tales. I found it interesting how progressive and punk-like early synth musicians were.
The genre of synth pop grew up alongside me in the 80's and play a crucial role in my views on music and theatrics still today.

Human League.Gary Numan.Ultravox.Depeche Mode.Yaz(oo).Normal.OMD.Soft Cell.Joy Division.

PLEASE NOTE: YouTube has the video available in 9 parts. However, Warner Music Group disallows the final 9th part to be viewed!!

You Betrayed Me By Growing Up

Goddammit, we were supposed to stay young

But now it's over, it's finished, it's done

Normal expectations, they were on the run

But now it's over, it's finished, it's done

Maybe it was no one's fault

I know it wasn't mine

And now (that you've moved along)

And now I'm next in line

You betrayed me by growing up

You betrayed me by growing up

I thought we had the same ideas

But you, you proved me wrong

And now (I've been played the fool before)

But never for quite so long

You betrayed me by growing up

You betrayed me by growing up

No, I'll see you tomorrow

Same channel, same time, same place

I'm not going anywhere

Cause I quit your fucking race

You betrayed me by growing up

You betrayed me by growing up

impressed

(trying to be careful what I entitled this entry)

Avatar is crap

Rightwingers have labeled Avatar a “Recruiting Film for Eco-terrorists."

I would (more accurately) call it a recruiting film for imperialism.
... or just pure crap.

The New Terror War Front

We are all still experiencing the security and aggression impact from dude lighting his chonies on fire and attempting to blow a hole in a flight heading to Detroit.

Why did he do it? Well, if "al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula" is to be believed, it was retaliation for the U.S.'s role in a recent Yemeni military offensive.
This is key and widely ignored by corporate media and the US government because it points to US aggression in a sovereign state, Yemen. Now, of course, the loud rhetoric coming from the US and UK governments is that military actions will be take (or stepped up) inside Yemen against Islamic fundamentalism. It is very clever to start a war without telling anyone, wait for a counter-strike, and then declare that counter-strike as the reason for the war.

A Fourth Front
Although USA was involved covertly in this new front in the nebulous "war on terrorism", it would seem a genius strategy to get the USA deeper involved in this front while we are still fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It seems like military suicide to willingly open a new front.

Take a look at this map.

How much longer can Iran and Saudi Arabia stay (semi) neutral while they are surrounded by wars?

Al Qaeda doesn't even need their missions to be "successful." Their attacks generate more expense (a nice return in red ink for a relatively small effort) even when they fail. Failure is interesting, as a strategy, because it doesn't require the necessary planning, funding, and training required for a potentially successful attack. As a result, attacks can be made quickly across a broad spectrum of targets.

At this point, al Qaeda, as much as it even exists as an actual organization, is a decentralized international spirit of resistance. If every action taken against the USA has been in retaliation for actions against Muslim regions/people, what would happen if the US stopped provoking the attacks? This blowback is desired. It is desired because it is profitable.

This new front as well as the surge in Afghanistan are profitable actions made in the interest of our privatized military force.
This privatized military has been granted immunity from any US or international law. Even bloodsuckers, Goldman Sachs, are in on the take.

Now we are all, once again, being told to give up more of our freedom for security for a fool's war and the profits of a privatized military that is beholden to no master.

True Odds of Airborne Terror

facebook regret

I remember when I very first sign up for and logged into facebook. I felt like I had stepped into the future… or 1984. How did facebook already know who my friends were and how did it already have photos of me listed?!

Recently, I ventured out of my facebook hermitude and found out that 1)our pasts are inescapable on the internet and 2)some memories and/or past friendships were actually meant to be forgotten. For every time I get excited at finding a 15 yr old photo of myself with long lost friends, there is a time that I run across someone I don’t want to see. When the latter happens, I instinctively click past the page or photo as if they could actually spot and recognize me if I am not fast enough. There are fuckin’ reasons why some people aren’t part of my current life! I don’t need facebook to allow them a window into my world, see who I hang out with, or possibly add me as a friend. And what is this “adding as a friend?” If I haven’t spoken to you in years and neither of us desire a reunion, what is the point?

I used to love collecting my memories as if they were mint condition Star Wars figures. Now I have enough memories to know that not all of them are good. Call it regret. Call it a feeble attempt to not be beholden to my past. Not all memories are the short red Snagletooth that came with the JC Penny Cantina playset. A lot are just the nameless droid not worth keeping.