Say hello to

The Sanctuary. You'd probably already noticed the Sanctuary graphic on the top left sidebar, since late last week. Let's just say I have some high hopes for this one. Both the concept and the editorial crew are solid (several have been part of the Eegeehood - scroll down the left sidebar just a bit - for ages). Check it out.

Good bombs, bad bombs?

John Ross sez¹:

Seventy-one thousand three-hundred seventy-nine were incinerated by the Atomic Bomb on August 5th, 1945 at Hiroshima to "save lives"; 49,205 at Nagasaki three days later to "save lives"; 83,783 on my seventh birthday, March 11th, when the U.S. bombed Tokyo with 16,000 tons of Napalm, yup, "to save lives." The year before, the allies saturation-bombed Dresden, taking another 135,000 lives "to save lives." The four bombings together total up to around 340,000 deaths, 99.99% of them civilians who just got in the way. Given the 3,000 vaporized up in the Twin Towers, there is an important karmic deficit outstanding.

1. Ross, J., (2004), Murdered by Capitalism, pp. 305-306.

Carpe donut!

Michelle Malkin has ditched Starbucks for Dunkin Donuts. If you really want to save the world, switch to Krispy Kreme iced lattes.

A Belfast mural that says it all

Found at Lenin's Tomb.

Lori Drew follow-up

Late last fall, I learned about Lori Drew's actions that led a neighborhood kid to suicide. Looks like Megan's family may yet find some legal recourse:

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles today indicted a woman of fraudulently using a MySpace.com account to "cyber-bully" a Missouri teenager who later hanged herself because she believed she was being rejected by a 16-year-old boy she met on the social networking website.

Lori Drew, 49, of O'Fallon, Mo., faces three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress on the girl and one count of conspiracy.

The case set off a national furor when it was revealed that 13-year-old Megan Meier was the victim of a hoax perpetrated by Drew, who was the mother of one of the girl's former friends.

It won't bring Megan back to life, but perhaps would help the Meier family to heal.

In the midst of finals week

Blogging has been, and will continue to be a bit more sporadic until about Tuesday next week. There's plenty I've been wanting to write about, but barely the time to collect my thoughts or to post anything beyond a one or two-liner. As time permits....

Got some change to spare?

No - it's not for me. Rather, I'm directing your attention to fellow blogger Arthur Silber. In an ideal world, someone with writing of his caliber would be raking in the cash from book deals, the lecture circuit, etc. Instead, he's scraping to get by, subsisting largely on donations. If you've got some change to spare, it would be most appreciated.

Problem:

Starvation and food riots caused by commodities speculation - in other words many humans murdered by capitalism.

Solution?

In times of famine, Vladimir Ilych Lenin took a robust line on speculation. "We can't expect to get anywhere," he told the Petrograd Soviet in 1918, "unless we resort to terrorism: speculators must be shot on the spot".

Found at - of all places - The Financial Times in an article titled Speculators feast on soaring commodities prices. H/t Lenin's Tomb.

An air of inevitability?

Sure seems like it.

Another sign of the times

Gated community ghost town

The spirit of 1968 lives

Check out some graffiti from the May 1968 student & worker uprisings in Paris. Words live on and continue to resonate. A few clippings worth highlighting:

Warning: ambitious careerists may now be disguised as “progressives.”

[snip]

The boss needs you, you don’t need the boss.

[snip]

We refuse to be highrised, diplomaed, licensed, inventoried, registered, indoctrinated, suburbanized, sermonized, beaten, telemanipulated, gassed, booked.
We are all “undesirables.”
We must remain “unadapted.”

[snip]

You can’t buy happiness. Steal it.

[snip]

To hell with boundaries.
You can no longer sleep quietly once you’ve suddenly opened your eyes.
The future will only contain what we put into it now.

That first line seems especially pertinent now as we witness "progressives" of one stripe or another profiting madly from their "gate crashing." I can guarantee you, these new "bosses" need you much more than you need them - that's the dirty little secret of power.

Image and link h/t to Marisacat.

"We Get Off On Warfare"?

Yup...he really said it:


A summary of Rod Parsley and pal John McCain can be found here. Obama (who for reasons mentioned elsewhere I refuse to endorse) was ripped several new holes regarding his now-defunct friendship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright for statements by Wright that really are not much more radical than MLK Jr. Yet there is nary a peep about McCain's pastor friend who is apparently a genuine hatemonger.

Threads

Since I'm suffering from a very nasty bout of writer's block, I thought I'd offer up some threads that make for a beautiful tapestry. Consider them sufficiently related in a number of ways: opposition to neoliberalism (or what has been referred to here and elsewhere as predatory capitalism), promotion of connectedness as opposed to the hyperindividualism endemic to US culture, dreams of possible futures.

From my blog:

A Dream

Connectedness (largely a repost of something found at Liberal Streetfighter)

Why all the silence? An initial attempt at weaving a narrative

Stop Traffic

The future's so bright I gotta wear shades!

Huh and Boycotting the elections: you are not alone (read these together)

Zapatista (a film)

From Lenin's Tomb read Crisis and hegemony

From Arthur Silber's blog read the following: Choosing Sides (I): "Why America May Go to Hell," and Feeling Young Again, Choosing Sides (II): Killing Truth and Hope -- The Fatal Illusion of Opposition, and Choosing Sides (III): Let the Victims Speak; as well as The Tale That Might Be Told.

That should give you an idea of where I've been heading and am likely to continue heading.

Beavis and Butthead Explain: The Free Market

h/t Lenin's Tomb

War on drugs boondoggle on crack

That's what "Plan Mexico" amounts to:

Soon the U.S. Congress will vote on the Initiative, popularly referred to as "Plan Mexico." The little-known appropriations request has been tagged on to the multi-billion dollar Iraq supplemental bill and has been presented as an unprecedented effort to fight burgeoning drug trafficking and violence related to organized crime in Mexico. But the "regional security cooperation initiative" goes far beyond cooperation in stopping the flow of illegal drugs. It would fundamentally restructure the U.S.-Mexico binational relationship, recast economic and social problems as security issues, and militarize Mexican society.

[snip]

Under the rubric of "Counter Narcotics, Counter Terrorism, and Border Security" the initiative would allocate $205.5 million for the Mexican Armed Forces. Over 40% of the entire packet goes to defense companies for the purchase of eight Bell helicopters (at $13 million each, with training, maintenance, and special equipment) for the Mexican Army and two CASA 235 maritime patrol planes (at $50 million each, with maintenance) for the country's Navy.

Most of the $132.5 million allocated to Mexican law enforcement agencies also lines the pockets of defense companies for purchase of surveillance, inspection, and security equipment, and training. The Mexican Federal Police Force receives most of this funding, with Customs, Immigration, and Communications receiving the remainder.

Yup...those "defense" contractors stand to make a killing on this particular boondoggle. H/t Arcturus.

From the ABC files: Hillary for Imperial Wizard?

h/t kraant at Political Fleshfeast.

See also, American Leftist.

La lucha continúa

Found over at My Word is My Weapon:

Less than a year after it began, the Zapatistas and the Other Campaign suspended their campaign against the Jungle Ejido Union (UES in its Spanish initials) and its partner and distributor Cafe La Selva. The Zapatista Good Government Council in La Realidad decided to end the boycott and protests against the coffee companies after UES members withdrew from 24 de Diciembre, the Zapatista community it terrorized for one year and nine months.