but will it make toast? find out at position is everything. not sure i could find something more helpful than that. unless it were to also, well, toast my bread.
wow! not doctored, but real. coulnd’t have written the headline any better ourselves…
The Israeli Occupation Forces have raided the office apartments of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Solidarity Movement in Jenin.
Jenin has been under 24-hour curfew for 5 consecutive days. During this time 4 children have been shot by the Israeli Occupation Forces, two of whom, age 14 and 15 have died. One 12-year-old is in critical condition and the other is hospitalized. Twenty-six houses in the Jenin camp and city have been occupied by soldiers for the positioning of snipers and other military purposes.
| This freaky puritanical wingnut of a politician, senator john minnis has put forward legislation here in oregon which may very well not pass. but the fact that he and it are being taken seriously enough to even be on the table is truly frightening. it’s short enough, so i’ll quote it in its entirety here: |  |
Senate Bill 742
Sponsored by Senator MINNISCreates crime of terrorism. Punishable by life imprisonment.
SECTION 1. (1) A person commits the crime of terrorism if the person knowingly plans, participates in or carries out any act that is intended, by at least one of its participants, to disrupt:
(a) The free and orderly assembly of the inhabitants of the State of Oregon;
(b) Commerce or the transportation systems of the State of Oregon; or
(c) The educational or governmental institutions of the State of Oregon or its inhabitants.
(2) A person commits the crime of terrorism if the person conspires to do any of the activities described in subsection (1) of this section.
(3) A person may not be convicted of terrorism except upon the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or upon confession in open court.
(4)(a) A person convicted of terrorism shall be punished by imprisonment for life.
it couldn’t be more obvious that this was designed to shut down dissent. what a sad, sad, little man. who hurt him so bad as a child that he has to take this crap out on citizens just trying to get by and speak their minds? sheesh! enough!
while browsing this interesting article in the CSM about European and Middle-eastern news coverage of the war, (via the ever-watchful, irrepressibly rich musings of Rob Brezsny), i noticed an odd link: “Permission to reprint/republish”. Up comes this window:
WHAT? Who the hell is “Rightslink” and where do they get off trying to charge me ten smackers to send this article in an email? People, unless you are makin’ a greasy buck off it, you do not have to pay someone to copy and paste their article. I repeat, it’s free, gratis, absolutely without charge! yes, and that’s the law. if you are concerned, slap this on the end of it:
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
Sheesh! some people, even the liberal CSM can be so slime-o-racious.
if, like me, you were starting to get into php and enjoying the huge flexibility and spare yet very powerful new coding ability it brings, get ready:
Warning : In PHP 4.2.0 and later, the default value for the PHP directive register_globals is off. This is a major change in PHP. Having register_globals off affects the set of predefined variables available in the global scope.
| for many this won’t be an issue but if you or your server admin decide to leave it off for security reasons, then there’s a whole new set of functions to learn, and where and how to use them properly is something that is evading me, despite my long time searching the sourcebook, the mother-lode, of all things php. julie meloni’s awesome little book on php was so helpful, but now i’m flummoxed, trying to figure out where to go to adapt all that code to the new rules. if there’s a php-head in portland or sf who i can take out for a beer, i’d so appreciate exchanging that for a quick phone, in person, or IM tutorial. |  |
i was outlining recently for action figures readers (and for folks in my family who’d asked for the info) where i was finding solid information about iraq and the continuing u.s. war in the middle east. and now there’s a few more (that i’m going to add to the sidebar, but haven’t yet) which i’m reading to better understand and cope with the insanity that the government is perpetrating against the people at home and around the world:
bonus, there’s also this amazing collection of planet-wide march photos.
if you are in the Bay Area, check it out! tiffany will be exhibiting with other artists at the Backroom Gallery at Adobe Books, 3166 16th street, (between Valencia and Guerrero). the show is open until the end of May and there’s a reception on March 28, 7-11pm. update: tiffany’s poem is also now up.
in the blender-settings for levels of radical direct-action organizing, i think we just jumped from grind to frappé - folks in the old home town haven’t just hit the streets, they’ve taken them over.
i’ve posted recently about poets and poetry writing in the face of war. add these irrepressible voices to the mix: Rob Brezsny’s Painful Blessings (also see his “War is Obsolete” links in the sidebar), the folks collected at PeaceLines, and a new one which i’ll post later today by our pal Tiffany.
an SF pal, a radical artist and activist whose community work has inspired me for more than 12 years, sent this note:
One president with a couple of lapdogs, an excellent media and legal team, but with very little popular support, is fully intending to kill thousands of Iraqi people to massively bomb the capital city of Baghdad - a crowded city in which nearly 50% of the population is under the age of 15 - and to destroy what remains of the social and technological infrastructure of an entire country in a military campaign called “Shock & Awe.”
They want to begin immediately.
Simultaneously, there is a peace community that is larger, more global, diverse, and connected than any liberation movement in known history. United, we have postponed this brutal slaughter. But we haven’t stopped it.
We tried lobbying politicians.
But it didn’t work.
We tried petitions.
1 million names from around the world in 5 days.
But it didn’t work.
We tried marching.
11 million people around the world on the same day.
But it didn’t work.
Women tried spelling Peace and No War with their naked bodies.
More than 30 actions spread like a smile around the world.
But it didn’t work.
We tried going to Iraq,
meeting these beautiful,
yet war exhausted and impoverished people,
and sharing their stories and photographs around the world.
But it didn’t work.
We tried praying and meditating, fasting and magic.
In every language and tradition, in solidarity and faith.
But it didn’t work.
We tried performing the Lysistrata,
a Greek classic
in which the women argue
against the inhumanity of war.
Over 1000 productions on the same day around the world.
But it didn’t work.
France, Germany, Russia and China
tried to block the US through the UN
but it didn’t work.
We tried exposing the lies and corporate profits,
chanting no blood for oil,
but that didn’t work 12 years ago,
and it hasn’t worked since.
So we’ve decided to shut the city down.
To try one more non-violent tactic
to stop the business of war,
the business of killing for profit,
the business of privilege, of ignorance, and of denial.
We enter the streets unarmed, eyes open, creative, present, now.
And we refuse to leave.
Better to disrupt our own lives now,
to fulfill the promise of our love,
to risk our comforts, to fill the streets, to go to jail, freely,
than to wait for CNN to chill us with the statistics of death.
I urge to go beyond your previous actions and intentions
in any way that you desire.
There are hundreds of ways to take direct action to stop the war.
[shutting down portland info here, and a day-of critical mass as well.]
| continuing to be inspired, i’ve been reading up on what my old SF pals are doing, in their organizing efforts. Direct Action to Stop the War is calling for widespread noncooperation; Instead of going to work or school, we call on everyone to resist this war by participating in or supporting mass nonviolent direct action, particularly focused on the corporations, financial districts and other institutions involved in the war. there is thorough analysis, legal support, well organized affinity groups and a spokescouncil, direct action trainings and more. |  |
if you needed more evidence of israel’s willingness to scoff at international law and worse in its war of occupation, sadly, there’s been lots more of late (see these pieces from the International Solidarity Movement). from yesterday’s newswire:
Rachel Corrie, 23, was killed on 16 March when she was run over by an Israeli bulldozer. Rachel was trying to stop the bulldozer from demolishing the home of a Palestinian doctor in the Gaza Strip. Our hearts go out to her family and friends.
 |
so, the revolution may not be televised or motorized, but you can bet it will be full of gorgeous and commpelling detail, and rich with metaphor. this past week, i had the honor and pleasure of hanging with members of the beehive design collective. we organized an event for them to present their incredible new story-poster on plan columbia to an audience of about 30 here in p-town. they also had a very successful gig earlier in the day at the environmental middle school. their work, thier truly revolutionary vision, is changing the way i think about organizing and education. if you haven’t seen their stuff or you are not in a city where they are headed on tour, spend some time viewing their site, or contact them to find out how you can get involved. |
many of you know that i recently wrangled extensively with a major state bureaucracy, the staff of which put me in a deep quandary, which led to a giant career shift.
well, as bureaucracy is the one true constant in the universe, i am being hassled with again in a number of ways: the awesome technology education program at oregon state university has accepted me with open arms, based on my many years in tech work and my work with high-school students when i was coordinating and working with PARC (and other requirements i’ve met). yet the graduate school has rejected my application for admission out of hand, without review, due to my “non-standard” transcript from the college where i got my B.A., Western Institute for Social Research. like UC Santa Cruz, they don’t issue letter grades. so, to get accepted to OSU, one must have letters of advocacy, layers of appeal to different committees, yada yada yada.
hopes are high that they will soon see their way clear to allowing me to study there (well, here, as the program is all on the web and my practicum experience will be at an awesome alternative magnet school here in p-town). the other agency i’m back-and-forthing with is the state teacher standards & practices commission, as they balked at my having been arrested at a demonstration (in SF) back in 1997. now i’ve got to get records from first the cops, then the courts, get things notarized, etc, etc, and show that everything’s been discharged, expunged, or otherwise thrown out. now i bet you need a nap. i’ll let you know when it’s all over.
speaking of letting us know, S, where’s the blog?
the slingshot organizers for the last couple of years have included essays in the back. last years was on anarchism and this years was on the struggle for liberation as part of everyday life. these essays were’nt on the web. until now. they are both now posted here. the first, What is Anarchy, besides looking at the many flavors of anarchism, breaks down the sham of democracy:
The very idea of a “capitalist democracy” is an oxymoron, since the minority, by virtue of their economic power, have the means to control the government structures and trump any results they dislike at the ballot box. This trump card can be in subtle ways — as where the economically powerful determine the questions open for debate in the media they own and contribute money to the campaign coffers of their chosen candidates who are then in a position to prevail with mass media persuasion — or less subtle ways — as where election results unfavorable to the economically powerful are simply annulled or unsympathetic governments ousted. While a capitalist “democracy” may have laws making all people “free” and “equal”, there can be no real freedom or equality where the majority must work for the minority or starve. |
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the second essay, Living Freedom Now! tackles — among other issues — burn-out in movement work:
Living liberation requires physical support as well as mental support and communication. It doesn’t only mean dropping out of the system, which can leave others, who aren’t as hip, with their nose to the corporate grindstone. There doesn’t need to be an ‘us vs. them’ delineation, “us” with the enlightened analysis vs. “them” who still seek fulfillment in a sexy fast car. Living liberation relies on broad community structures that empower everybody to keep energy and resources people-centered and in the community.
both are worth reading and passing along.
though i’ve never quite fit the lifestyle anarchism of some of the @ folx i know, i’ve long understood that as one who jibes with anarchist organizing princliples, the commies would sell us all out first. if you’re not sure what i’m blabbing about, then see the excellent flick Land and Freedom and read how other commies feel about the RCP. suffice to say that working alongside leninists and maoists, whenever my activism has necessitated it, has been either frustrating, boring, or rage-inducing, or all three. so i was struck with an oh-they’re-not-so-bad feeling when i saw this weeks ads. and these are just two among many great ones. the mercury has come unhinged, and it seems p-town is on fire this late winter. happy reading.
MC PUMA Tristan, I love you and miss you with all of my revolutionary heart. The Commie House yearns for your beautiful face. Please don’t run away forever.
SARAH W. IS HOT You are the eco-defender of my dreams. Us communists miss you over here on the other side of town. I send you a kiss and a revolutionary hug.
via the irrepressible, way-too-many-amazing-posts-to-link-to-any-so-just-go-read-it ampersand, trish wilson posted the hilarious McDonnell Douglas military aircraft registration card.
for my great aunt Sarah’s Gooseberry pie, the recipe for which my grandma Bhamba wrote down for me to pass along to the family. well, welcome to the family…
Gooseberry pie
4 cups fresh Gooseberries
combine:
sprinkle over berries until well blended, pour into pie crust & dot w/ 1 TBLS butter (or your flavorite vegan alternative)
extrayum.
yes, but not this one. that one.
Inaccessible houses impede the lives of people who use wheelchairs, walkers or are mobility impaired in other ways. Being a visitor in an inaccessible house means the dangerous possibility of being dropped down the steps, the worry and embarrassment of being kept from using the bathroom, the social awkwardness of being carried, the frustration of not being able to knock on the door to see if someone’s home.
folks promoting the construction of visit-able housing have got me thinking about this. the way they respond to people’s misunderstandings is indeed compelling.
