BEEN THERE, SMASHED THAT
Seattle artist Charlie Krafft has a great article in Salon.com about his concurrent shows at the Grand Central Arts Center and Copro Nason gallery in LA. Charlie makes porcelain weapons and other assorted ephemera. I have one of his "Spone" teapots...porcelain made from human bone china. He's an usual but intelligent and entertaining guy, who ought to be an art superstar.

Sketches from Palestine

We were at least one hundred-strong, representing Europe, America, and Australia, citizens of France, Italy, Sweden, the USA, the UK, and many points in between. We were marching arm-in-arm, chanting in Italian, French, and English.

We were (are!) the International Solidarity Movement to end the occupation of Palestine.

. . . The soldier pulled out his M16.

There was a shot. Pop!--like a firecracker. I ducked.

Another shot. Pop! I headed for the nearest wall. Another and another. Pop! Pop! Some of us ran back, others held their ground with their arms over their heads. Pop! Pop, pop!

Perhaps unwittingly (most likely), well-known right-wing hatchet man Jimmy L. has stumbled across a post by yrs. truly and responded with the most bumbleheaded tangle of opprobrium you ever did see. My reply is forthcoming.

FBI and CIA coming on-line with new powers

The anticipated changes will release agents from antiquated constraints such as requiring evidence of criminal activity before launching an under-cover investigation. Nine hundred agents will be recruited by September in furtherance of this scheme. The new anti-terror undercover shock-troops will be permitted to infiltrate groups of which the government disapproves, including religious groups, and trawl the Net poking about for signs of trouble without prior approval from headquarters.

In addition, the FBI has granted itself permission to work more closely with the CIA, a military support organization currently forbidden to operate within the US.

Expert Proposes World Eco-Cops to Guard Resources

Men in Green: Summer 2003?

Rome. Leaders of 19 NATO countries voted Tuesday to allow Russia into the alliance's decision-making process, effectively making a diplomatic partner of the very entity that NATO was created to defend against.
Rome has become a bunker. Many of the main streets in the center of town are closed to the public. Getting to the coastal roads has become impossible. And the roar of all the helicopters has given me a headache. From my livingroom window, I can see 3 helicopters zapping around like mosquitoes.

Berlusconi said today was the most beautiful day of his life. He thanked the heads of state for coming to Rome calling them all by first name. He called Bush "Dub-ya". And my ears will be happy once all the boys go back home again.

The Yes Men, following proposals (in the spirit of taking capitalism to it's logical conclusion) to have votes sold to the highest bidder, and allow human rights abuses through Justice Vouchers, have disbanded the WTO.

The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nation's Millennium General Assembly. "...Around 1950 James Hampton approached a merchant in Washington, D.C., about renting an unheated, poorly lit garage in a deteriorating residential neighborhood. Hampton explained that he was 'working on something' and needed a larger space than that available in his room in a nearby boarding house. By November 4, 1964, when he died of cancer, he had built 180 glittering objects in the garage. That 'something' had become The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly."

"In 1972 he had a vision about the end of the world, after which he began building computational devices and elaborate calendars in order to calculate the exact date of the Final Judgment..." Zebedee Armstrong is one of the featured visionary artists in the book The End is Near! Visions of Apocalypse, Millennium and Utopia by Roger Manley.

T.H. Huxley
Letters and Diary 1859


November 23, 1859
My dear Darwin–I finished your book yesterday, a lucky examination having furnished me with a few hours of continuous leisure.

... I trust you will not allow yourself to be in any way disgusted or annoyed by the considerable abuse and misrepresentation which, unless I greatly mistake, is in store for you. Depend upon it, you have earned the lasting gratitude of all thoughtful men.

I am sharpening up my claws and beak in readiness.

....I think the more



><((((º>


The end of subjectivity
A guide to musical correctness

But everything is not relative. Though there is no accounting
for simple bad taste, what is correct (or not is readily
apparent to anyone well-versed in the subject at hand.


For example, music.

(7.5 + 8) X (8 + 9.5 - 3) = 224.75

The formula
(c@ + E) X (rP + iP + T) = mc

Lowest possible score: -140

Highest possible score: 400

300 - 400:   Only the most correct subjects can expect
to score anywhere near 300. These mavericks make up for any
slight missteps with their adventurous spirit. Highest scores
yet calculated: 361, for the Lou Reed-led, pre-reunion Velvet
Underground, and 360, for John Coltrane's work between 1963
and 1967. These scores break down as follows:

Velvets (10 + 9) X (10 + 8 + 1) = 361

Coltrane (10 + 10) X (9 + 9) = 360

-140 - 0:  Only the most incorrect subjects can be
expected to score below zero. At this point, a coherent aesthetic
and apt execution will hurt a subject more than these factors
will help. Consider: the Cranberries (-7), Sammy Hagar (-8),
Motley Crüe (-14), Jane's Addiction (-28), Night Ranger
(-40), Doobie Brothers (-45) (oh shit, forgot "China Grove"),
Whitesnake and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (both -48), and Billy
Joel (-75).

The lowest scores yet tabulated are:

Sting (6 + 8) X (1 + 10 - 18) = -98

Eagles reunion (8 + 10) X (1 + 10 - 18)= -126

a singular theory that lies at the heart of the subject's work

><((((º>

                      (D+ + R-) - (R+ + D-) 

PI = 100 * ---------------------------                            

                   D+ + D- + D= + R+ + R- + R=

( = the partisanship index (PI) of pundits )


the steady screed stream



><((((º>

I freed whom?!!?


I'm just kidding, of course. I can think of no greater legacy to leave behind than the abolishment of such a cruel and primitive practice. That is a wonderful joke, though. And I do love a joke. Just ask Mary.

There are few things I cipher about the current state of the nation. The difference between all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive for instance. (Are these not the same thing or has a wheel escaped my attention?) Foremost, though, is the persistence of religious conviction existing alongside the persistence of racial, sexual, and class hostility. These appear, to me, contradictory forces at work. For the record, though I mentioned my love for the joke, it was not in jest that I included that "this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom" passage in my address at Gettysburg; that was not flip. In transcribing that passage for me, Kennedy, my faithful secretary, did not follow it with a small parenthetical reminder to "pause for smattering of laughter." Get it together, please. I was shot in the head.


What would Abraham Lincoln Want to Say To Us Today?


><((((º>

Emily Dickinson: The Lesbian Belle of Amherst

Retablo of Cevero Osornio (1937, Oil on metal). "...My son finding himself in great danger in the state of Wisconsin, U.S., I asked the Lord of Saucito that he save him and that he return with wellbeing to our town and having granted me such a great miracle I dedicate this retablo." From Miracles on the Border: Retablos of Mexican Migrants to the US.

REPUBLICANS PROPOSE PETS-TO-WORK BILL

IN AN EFFORT designed both to stimulate the economy and further the government's crackdown on welfare, two Republican Representatives--Robert McKinney of Ohio and Bob Barr of Tennessee--today proposed the "Pets-to-Work Bill."

Explains McKinney: "There are ten million live domesticated pet-animals living in this country right now. What are they doing all day?"

I remember hearing a theory once about the tallest building in town. 2 historical accounts were given--at one time, in one place, nothing in town could be built which was taller than the church (and I don't remember what the other building type was) . . . in contrast to today, wherein the highest building, in every city, is a symbol of the corporation, and an imposing one at that--giving no doubt as to who rules the town (and the world?) . . .

I propose we make a draft of legislation which will make it illegal, by law, to build any building in any town, all across the USA, which will be higher than that town's Hall of Democracy.

I am most interested in the concept of democracy, and want to create a side web page (static, not a blog) entirely devoted to that very subject, but more importantly (specifically) about: Revolutionizing Democracy in America.

I beseech all Harbingers to help, if they feel so inspired, and the general public, too: How do you think we can Revolutionize Democracy in America?

Harbingers may feel free to blog it, and the general worldwide audience is wholeheartedly invited to pitch in here.

So the next time you criticize American democracy and some lunkhead sneers: "So what do you suggest?" you can tell them where to go!

Steal This Modem
Nuno Andrade,  May 21, 2002

On Tuesday, April 15, 2002 at exactly 12:00 AM GMT, the Israeli government was attacked, not by Palestinian suicide bombers or Hezbollah fighters wielding rifles, but by activists armed with nothing but computers and Internet connections.

The attacks, conducted on Israeli government information systems, were organized by the Electrohippie Collective, a group of activists and computer experts intent on using the Internet to further their political agenda. In a mass e-mail sent the day of the cyber-attacks, the Collective stated, "In response to...the recent Israeli military incursions into the major settlements of the West Bank, the Electrohippie Collective is mounting an online 'electronic civil disobedience action' against the information systems of the Israeli government."

What do you get when you combine a eccentric British businesswoman-turned-activist, a homicidal Hollywood actor, a leftist UK journalist, and a spineless search engine? Fun for everyone!

Richard, a healthy dialectic is always welcome. I hadn't read anything on the Earth Summit prior to yesterday, so I thank you for another viewpoint. (I admit to having my cynicism momentarily lulled by such beguiling phrases as "Earth Summit" . . .) I, too, would like to offer a countering view to something posted here--in response to Post-Atomic's posting about samizdats: I think the purveyor of that opinion is either a pessimist or a propagandist for the status quo. Samizdats are just one arm/extension/tool of an education movement designed to impel one towards action, and many of these movements have seen success--in some cases quite extraordinary success as in the case of East Timor, whose celebration of statehood this past week we should all glean some rather empirical optimism from, yes? Long live Samizdats! Long live Education!

Good politics begin with learning to say please and thank you.

Paul Marcus... The Promised Land (1999, 2 blocks woodcut). Part of Yearning to Breathe Free - A portfolio of 12 woodcuts in an edition of 25. "...In 1992 at age 22, Rosa fled her village with its 19th century technology, where she had lived 17 years, in a feudal state, where the 20th century breaks in only with Army helicopters, guns and tanks, light bulbs and a single telephone; where adulthood is not defined as a rite of passage from one age to another but is measured by the amount of coffee beans you can pick. She grew up in a community that under normal circumstances would mean a harsh existence; add to this decades of Civil War, and the circumstances ensure human disaster." From Works by Paul Marcus at Graphic Witness.

As it was with samizdat, most people in authoritarian regimes never get a chance to see Internet publications, and the whole enterprise, both the publishing of banned information and official attempts to stop it, is more a game for elites: elite dissident intellectuals criticize elite rulers, and they argue back and forth in a virtual space. The opponents can score a few victories in that virtual space, but meanwhile, back in reality, little changes for the people on the ground.

via Libertarian Samizdata

Why The Earth Summit Matters

The growing power of corporations has been accompanied by worsening inequality both within societies and between states. In 1960, it is estimated that the richest fifth of the world's population, almost all living in developed countries, were 30 times richer than the poorest fifth, almost all living in developing countries. By 1997 the top fifth were 74 times richer, and the figures are believed to have got worse since then.

Corporate power is also often associated with irresponsibility towards local populations and the wider environment - Asia Pulp and Paper rampages through the rainforests of Indonesia, using money provided by Barclays Bank; Exxon-Mobil lobbies to destroy the Kyoto agreement on climate change and Balfour Beatty planned to evict thousands of Kurds to build the destructive Ilisu Dam.

A key issue at the Earth Summit will therefore be corporate accountability.

Dr. Menlo is against crime: corporate crime and violent crime.

I want to extend a warm welcome to all the new Harbingers on the left. Thanks for participating!

(All the Harbingers will be thanked by name in my next update of my primary blog--tho not so primary lately, I know. Coming tonite: it's not about me: extended mix)

Last nite I saw Alexander Cockburn give a talk here at the Labor Temple in Seattle. Among a wide range of topics, he stressed the theme of "Creative Liberty." Unlike Molly Ivins, Mr. Cockburn believes that Dubya is dumb. One (of many) things I learned: Alexander Cockburn is related to Laura Flanders. To a person during the questioning session at the end the audience proved themselves to be quite bright. One disputed Cockburn's comparison of Ariel Sharon as a war criminal to Milosevic as a war criminal--the implication being Milosevic wasn't as bad as Sharon. One asked, considering that Israel has never stopped building "settlements," did Israel really ever plan to participate in the "land for peace" deal? Cockburn: absolutely not. Another asked if withholding the massive Israeli subsidies was at all possible via the Democratic Party. Cockburn: absolutely not. We raced to get to the temple by 7 . . . we were a little late and when we were finally seated about five minutes after seven we were forced to sit through several folk singers. I thought something similar the night before N30 back in '99 when I went to see Michael Moore speak at the Seattle Center (along with Jello Biafra, Anita Roddick, and many more), and was also confronted with folk singers: why do they assume that just because you are here to hear a progressive speaker that you also like folk music? I would rather they begin the nite with a tape of Roni Size . . .

"The sky is the ultimate art gallery just above us."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

International Dark Sky Association

Biotech Bias on the Editorial Pages of Major United States Newspapers and News Magazines

Taken together, the results of this investigation lead us to a real concern that the news media is playing a biased role in opinion formation.  Rather than taking a balanced view of facts and arguments for both pro- and con- positions on the issue of GM foods and crops, the media appears to follow the lead of industry advertising and public relations in a lock-step fashion.  This, we believe, is a significant disservice to the American public, who in the end, are the ones who must make the key decisions, through the democratic process, concerning the future of these controversial technologies.

White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security
Final Report to President Clinton, February 12, 1997

Dear Mr. President,

We are pleased to present you with the report of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. You established this Commission by issuing Executive Order 13015 on August 22, 1996 with a charter to study matters involving aviation safety and security, including air traffic control and to develop a strategy to improve aviation safety and security, both domestically and internationally.

During the past six months, we have conducted an intensive inquiry into civil aviation safety, security and air traffic control modernization. Commission and staff have gathered information from a broad range of aviation specialists, Federal Agencies, consumer groups, and industry leaders.

After many months of deliberations we have agreed on a set of recommendations which we believe will serve to enhance and ensure the continued safety and security of our air transportation system.

We are privileged to submit these recommendations herewith.

Sincerely,

Vice President Al Gore, Chairman

Fazal Sheikh. "...In 2001 the writer/photographer Fazal Sheikh, with support from the Swiss-based Volkart Foundation, conceived of a series of book projects which would further the awareness of human rights issues around the world. This site has been mounted to coincide with the publication of the first two volumes in the series, A Camel for the Son and Ramadan Moon, which concern the situation of women refugees from Somalia. As part of the ideology behind the series, the books are being offered in their entirety on-line, where they may be read free of charge."

The Responsible Parents Guide To Healthy Mood Booster For The Entire Family

"Could we live happily ever after? Perhaps. One's interest in the genetically pre-programmed states of sublimity sketched in The Hedonistic Imperative is tempered by the knowledge that one is unlikely to be around to enjoy them. It's all very well being told our descendants will experience every moment of their lives as a magical epiphany. For emotional primitives and our loved ones at present, most of life's moments bring nothing of the sort. In centuries to come, our baseline of emotional well-being may indeed surpass anything today's legacy wetware can even contemplate. Right now, however, a future Post-Darwinian Era of paradise-engineering can seem an awfully long way off. Mainstream society today has a desperately underdeveloped conception of mental health."

"Evolutionary Love" by Charles S. Peirce, 1893:

Well, political economy has its formula of redemption, too. It is this: Intelligence in the service of greed ensures the justest prices, the fairest contracts, the most enlightened conduct of all the dealings between men, and leads to the summum bonum, food in plenty and perfect comfort. Food for whom? Why, for the greedy master of intelligence. I do not mean to say that this is one of the legitimate conclusions of political economy, the scientific character of which I fully acknowledge. But the study of doctrines, themselves true, will often temporarily encourage generalizations extremely false, as the study of physics has encouraged necessitarianism. What I say, then, is that the great attention paid to economical questions during our century has induced an exaggeration of the beneficial effects of greed and of the unfortunate results of sentiment, until there has resulted a philosophy which comes unwittingly to this, that greed is the great agent in the elevation of the human race and in the evolution of the universe.

In Defense of the Rights of Political Prisoners, by Lori Berenson

In hipstep with that last great link via the wonderful Mr. Woods, I give you: Hypocritical Hyperbole via the also wonderful Molly Ivins:

Mahathir Mohamad is a far more brutal ruler than Castro ever dreamed of being. His party has been in power since 1957 (love those free elections). He's been in office since 1981 and the subject of denunciations by human-rights groups the entire time. His ruling faction is far ahead of Castro on bloodshed points. And we're offering Mohamad whatever he wants.

I dare say: hypocrisy is one of the biggest memes of this administration's marketing strategy, yes? Or is it simply unseen because the corporate media machines are not pointing it out? The Amazing Anesthetizing Techniques of the Big Media in America coupled with the US Educational Conformity System are perhaps the number one reason why so many Americans are ignorant of international affairs, thus ethnocentric, apathetic and easily prone to jingo-ism. We need a meme-virus to light their fire--their neuron-fire to go rat-a-tat-tat against that good long nite.

Normon Solomon presents: A Basic Matter of Democracy

The fact that the U.S. Senate is fundamentally undemocratic is a complete nonissue among politicians and journalists alike.

Wired News and Science News reported this week, that meteorological researchers have discovered commercial jet contrails produce a measurable change in the weather. By comparing temperatures during the three days commercial traffic was grounded in September to the temperatures when flights resumed. It, "...emerged that the American climate was indeed noticeably different during those three days without air travel."

Some people have been saying for a few years they already knew contrails affected the weather, and a lot more. But not in the same way the atmospheric scientists claim they do...

Upton Sinclair and the Contradictions of Capitalist Journalism

"Yet while The Jungle remains a staple of American literature, The Brass Check has been all but forgotten. This is the case despite its groundbreaking critique of the structural basis of U.S. journalism, arguably the first such systematic critique ever made. Anticipating much of the best in more recent structural media criticism, Sinclair explained the class bias built into journalism in a four-part systemic model emphasizing the importance of owners, advertisers, public relations, and the web of economic interests tied into the media system, and invested in its control of public opinion. Integrating the critique of the press into the larger history of Progressive Era activism, Sinclair pointed to the centrality of the media in all of the problems of social injustice which attended the rise of modern capitalism."

Yossi Lemel... Israel - Palestine (2002). From Yossi Lemel - Israeli Poster Artist.

Tom Huck... Chili Dogs, Chicks and Monster Trucks (1999, woodcut, From the 14 Rural Absurdities Suite). "...One of Huck's friends noted of the woodcut exhibited here, Chili Dogs, Chicks and Monster Trucks from the 14 Rural Absurdities Suite, 'You make Dürer clouds' - which Huck was happy to acknowledge." From Dürer's Echo: Five Centuries of Influence.

Social Design Notes : See

Rageboy (Chris Locke) in The Guardian

Capitalism has to engage with society. At the moment, companies don't have to look at social effects in their cost of sales. That thinking has to change. You know, if the whole fucking planet melts down, how good was your business plan?

He has such a fantastic ability to get to the core of the matter. Simple, but entirely correct.

A couple interesting paragraphs buried toward the end of a limp New York Times account, detailing the casual attitude towards security at American governmental labs:

The Agriculture Department review found that even after the anthrax attacks by mail last year, several agency labs did not keep accurate records of potentially dangerous biological agents, had no centralized inventory system and kept vials without labels.

In several cases, there were either more or fewer vials on hand than in inventories, and one facility lost track of a vial containing 3 billion doses of Vesicular stomatitis virus, which can cause a flu-like illness in humans as well as fever and lesions in animals that can lead to malnutrition.

Excuse me, 3 billion doses? I'm not sure what amazes me most about that figure. That a single vial can potentially infect half the earth's population, or that a lab presumably staffed by professionals could lose it and not seem all that concerned.

Perhaps I'm overreacting. There may well be nothing all that alarming about a few billion potential biowar infections. But that leads me to what I find most bizarre about this matter-of-fact revelation... the Times doesn't even bother to explain the tidbit's significance, it simply drops the matter entirely.

This seems like an opportunity to remind everyone that the "investigation" into the Anthrax letters last fall is currently being pursued with the same urgency as the search for Judge Crater... As Barbara Hatch Rosenberg reports, investigators may well be dragging their feet because they know American labs contracted by the government (and quite possibly some of their employees) were in fact the source.

::New York Times, Lax Federal Safeguards Found
::Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Federation of American Scientists: Analysis of Anthrax Attacks

"In the State of Kansas, men sit on the curb for hours and just look.." Great Depression Tours with William Gropper. "...During the Great Depression (William Gropper) wrote and illustrated several articles for The Nation magazine about his travels among disposesed agricultural workers caught up in the financial turmoils and droughts of the 1930s."

The Einstein File

Unlike the popular image of Einstein as an absentminded, head-in-the-clouds genius, he was in fact intensely interested in the larger society and felt it was his duty to use his worldwide fame to help advance the cause of social justice. Einstein was a fervent pacifist, socialist, internationalist, and an outspoken critic of racism (he considered racism America's "worst disease"), as well as a friend of celebrated African Americans Paul Robeson and W. E. B. Du Bois. Einstein dared to use his immense prestige to denounce Joseph McCarthy at the height of the feared senator's power, and publicly urged witnesses to refuse to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

. . . the scientist was barred from working on the bomb, as a security risk by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI and US Army officials.

It was part of Hoover's secret, 23-year campaign to undermine Einstein's influence, a campaign that included illegally opening the scientist's mail, monitoring his phone, trying to link him to Soviet spies, and trying to take away his American citizenship - a campaign detailed for the first time in The Einstein File.

Author Fred Jerome today on Science Friday [pp]: "If Einstein were alive today he'd be on the Ashcroft list."

If conspiracy theories motivate students to learn, here is a good place to start: A TIMELINE SURROUNDING SEPTEMBER 11TH - IF CIA AND THE GOVERNMENT WEREN'T INVOLVED IN THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS WHAT WERE THEY DOING? . . . via New World Disorder and Unknown News, respectively.

Time Now to Disarm a Soldier

She doesn't even know his name, the Israeli soldier who shot her, although she aims to find out. She has some questions for him.

Like, how could he have failed to notice her cameras, her massive lenses and her large backpack? And how could he mistake a 26-year-old, fair-skinned American woman for a rock-throwing Palestinian man? And what exactly was he thinking that Saturday afternoon on the outskirts of Bethlehem when he lifted his M-16, pointed the gun in her direction, placed his finger on the trigger and squeezed?

Yola Monakhov would like to know.

Israel Leans on Refuseniks and their Supporters

"We have created an entirely hallucinatory reality in which the true humans, members of the Nation of Masters could move and settle freely and safely, while the sub-humans, the Nation of Slaves were shoved in the corner and kept invisible and controlled under our Israel Defense Forces boots," wrote Sgt. First Class Assaf Oron.

The Refuseniks are a newsworthy story, no? It would be interesting to do a LexisNexis search on it to see who has covered it. A Daypop query turns up only 9.

women like litter
Rome. Umberto Bossi, Minister of Reform, announced his plans to create "Eros Centers", government endorsed brothels. His main reason for doing so, he claims, is to force the prostitutes off the streets where their presence gives a bad impression to families. Like it's okay for daddy to go to whores as long nobody can't see him do so.

Also, many female illegal immigrants from Eastern European and African countries are younger, sexier and do more for less. Aging Italian prostitutes complain that their arrival has created too much competition and thus the Italians now earn less. Therefore, if you want to sell your body to earn a living in Italy, you will now have to apply for a sort of Green Card to do so. In other words, if you want to become a whore, first you must try to become an Italian.

Bossi sustainers claim that prostitution also helps stimulate sexual fantasies and thus leads to healthier sex. Please Boys, spare me the sleeze! I've never been to a prostitute before and I have no difficulty at all in stimulating my sexual fantasies. This is just a dust covered justification for those men who don't know what good healthy sex is and can only get it off by Breaking Taboos. Very boring. If you're a good lover, you don't need to pay someone to go to bed with you because they'll do it for free.

Well Berlusconi did promise to create new jobs when he campaigned but I had no idea that he intended doing so, in part, via the creation of these Eros Centers. I mean, maybe if he created other kinds of job opportunities, alot of women wouldn't be forced to sell their bodies as a means of economic survival. And if prostitutes do become part of the legitimized working force, this will mean, wouldn't it, that they will thus be entitled to all the other benefits that other workers have. Like sick leave, the right to strike and retirement at age 63. Yeah....

In Italy, prostitution is not illegal but smoking marijuana is.

Bossi ha parlato di “eros center”, paventando una sorta di riapertura delle case chiuse. («Quando tolsero le case chiuse le mogli si trovarono la concorrenza fuori di casa» ha spiegato). Le nuove leggi a difesa della famiglia dovrebbero quindi, oltre a togliere la prostituzione sui viali, eliminare la pornografia dalle televisioni la notte, eliminare le riviste porno dalle edicole, liberando il Paese da una serie di fattori che porterebbero a una «omosessualità indotta». «Vi immaginate cosa diranno ora i radicali?» ha poi ripetuto ironicamente, sfiorandosi l’orecchio destro.

Bush's Hit List At the United Nations

Quietly, and without the fanfare that accompanies the campaign in the mountains of Afghanistan, the administration has begun a long march through multilateral institutions. At the UN and elsewhere, the U.S. has mounted a campaign to purge international civil servants judged to be out of step with Washington in the war on terrorism and its insistence that the U.S. have the last word in all global governance issues.

The first and most prominent to go was Mary Robinson . . .

Remember how hard New York's elected representatives had to fight to get $20 billion in aid for the stricken city — aid that had already been promised? Well, recently Congress agreed to give farmers $180 billion in subsidies over the next decade. By the way, the population of New York City is about twice as large as America's total farm population. [...]

Paul Krugman of the NYT blows away the myth of "America's heartland," and how. No matter where you live on the planet or how many megabucks you may or may not have, you should always pay attention to how your government chooses to spend your money. [ via Anil Dash ]

Untitled (My Mother). A drawing by a child survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. From 'Witness to Genocide: The Children of Rwanda' Gallery. "...Their drawings may be unsettling, but they are images emblazoned on the minds of innocent children who witnessed the brutal slayings of their parents siblings and neighbors. For the children, these are the images that wake them in the middle of the night. Night after night. For the rest of us, these drawings are a reminder of what inevitably happens when the international community permits power-crazed leaders to foment genocidal violence." At PaPa iNk - The International Gallery of Children's Art.

Killing Corporations, by Geov Parrish

A movement is quietly taking shape, in Seattle and other cities, to boldly challenge the power of corporations.

The idea is radical in its simplicity: to take on the rapidly expanding power of corporations by revoking their original charters.

View from Ramallah

Who is responsible for this? Well, there is no such thing as a Palestinian attack helicopter, battle tank or anti-aircraft weapon. And looting has without exception occurred between the moment Israeli soldiers enter a building and the moment they leave it. Today they did the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, containing the archive not only of its namesake-one of our most famous educators-but also the office of our poet laureate, Mahmoud Darwish. Hardly a coincidence if one recalls the Ministry of Education was ransacked last week.

This is the "terrorist infrastructure?" Still sounds like "ethnic cleansing" to me.

He tapped on the primate’s half-closed eyes with the end of the scalpel saying “You dead?” and then sliced into him. He completely opened the thoracic cavity and severed an artery, saw the blood being pumped out by the heart and said, “this guy could be out more”

--Michelle Rokke
Undercover Investigator inside HLS, 1997

smash hls

Timber Giant Gears Up for Eco-Battles

More than two years after anti-logging protester Julia "Butterfly" Hill descended from her redwood tree home, the Pacific Lumber Co. said it is gearing up for a new set of clashes around its plans to log in certain areas of Humboldt County. The timber giant appealed in late April for help from the county's Board of Supervisors in tackling what it called "eco-terrorists" who seek to disrupt company operations. "We now see another summer of possible controversy and confrontation between my company and its employees and those who oppose the cutting of any timber, any place for any reason," said Robert Manne, president and chief executive officer of Pacific Lumber Co. Manne cited Internet traffic that shows "environmental radicals who oppose all timber harvesting have been appealing to hundreds of supporters," encouraging them to come to the North Coast for protests against the Scotia-based company.

The Internet: Peer-to-Peer Democracy?

"Hell, no, we won't go."

Guerrillas of the Week
Editor's Pick,  May 6, 2002

This week’s guerrillas are warriors who refuse to fight. They are some of Israel’s top young military men, yet they have refused to serve in the Occupied Territories. They are called Refuseniks. There are 450 of them, and they have become a lightening rod of  controversy in Israel. 

In a nation in which almost everyone serves in the military at some point in their life, the Refuseniks are going against one of the most sacred traditions in Israeli society. The emergence of an organized group of bright, young soldiers who are refusing to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has rocked that nation to its core.  

Introducing Blythe ...the newest member of the S.W.A.T. Team. (jp)

Some on Harvard, MIT Faculties Urge Divestment in Israel

Nancy Kanwisher, an MIT professor of brain and cognitive science and one of the petition's organizers, said she had been ''politically dormant'' until she saw photographs of the Jenin refugee camp, where Palestinians allege Israeli forces massacred hundreds of civilians and violated the international laws of war during a three-week siege.

''I looked to see where the protest was, and I couldn't find it,'' she said. ''I was shocked.''

See also: HarvardMITDivest.org

Activists Welcome Ruling That Corporations "Must Speak Truthfully"

In a ruling hailed by corporate-accountability and labor activists, the California Supreme Court has held that corporations may be liable under the state's consumer-protection laws for misleading advertising or public statements about their products or operations.

A majority of four of the seven Court justices ordered the trial court to proceed with a case brought by Marc Kasky, an activist who charged that Nike, Inc., made false statements about conditions in Asian factories used to produce its shoes and apparel in order to counter criticism that the company was using "sweatshop" labor.

Just do it: don't lie.

Activists Sneak into Church of Nativity

At about 6 p.m. today (ME time), a group of 24 international activists slipped past Israeli Defense Force roadblocks to enter Bethlehem's Manger Square. Running across the square, 11 were then able to enter the besieged Church of the Nativity through service doors to deliver food to the 200 Palestinians who have been trapped in the church for almost a month. IDF troops caught and detained the other 13 activists.

"We took them completely by surprise," says Kristen Schurr, an activist from New York City, who adds that she did not notice any shots fired at the group. None of the activists were wearing protective gear, in solidarity with the many Palestinians who do not have such equipment and have endured beatings at the hands of IDF troops since the Israeli offensive in the West Bank began at the end of March. One journalist also entered the church with the activists, who include US, Swedish, UK, and Irish nationals.

I can't tell you how disgusted I was yesterday to hear about the House and Senate overwhelmingly passing pro-Israel statements . . . then I get home and read what Al Jensen posted about Dick's ethnic-cleansing . . . I really just don't know what to say . . . words fail.

Frans Masereel... The City (Die Stadt). "...First published in Germany in 1925, The City is a portrait of urban Europe between the wars, told in one hundred woodcuts of exceptional force and beauty. Frans Masereel portrays parks and factories, shipyards and brothels, crowds, lovers, and lonely individuals with remarkable subtlety and nuance while exploiting the stark contrast of the woodcut medium."

Follow in the web-steps of Dirk Hine, and others . . . via Consumptive.

Remember: you can't step in the same web twice.

Nike Loses Greenwashing Suit
The company had claimed that its public relations campaign in which it said it did not run sweatshops could not be challenged under false-advertising laws because it was protected as non-commercial speech by the First Amendment. The California Supreme Court didn't agree, and now a lawsuit against the company can move forward. Considering the evidence that the statements they made were false, this looks like a major blow to greenwashing campaigns across the board.

Eric Drooker... Slingshots vs. Tank. From Works by Eric Drooker. Graphics, paintings, sequences, prints, and more by Eric Drooker. "...Drooker illustrated the city's infrastructural stress, housing decay, homelessness, garbage-hunger and bitter suffering of marginalized families, Blacks and youth, with such vivid detail that the authoritarian reality horror of our contemporary dog-eat-dog Malthusian technoeconomic class-war became immediately visible."