randomWalks

originally posted by xowie

Finally the 'War on Terrorism' is achieving its policy objectives. Osama bin Laden is looking haggard. We may not have caught him or brought him to justice but, at the cost of thousands of innocent Afghan lives, billions of dollars of US citizens' money and the civil liberties of the Free World, we have got him looking haggard.

originally posted by xowie

NPR’s Morning Edition 12.31.01

Shazia Mirza is unique among standup comics. Mirza is a practicing Muslim – and a woman – who likes to poke fun at her own culture. “People ask me,” she says. “Why does your mother walk five steps behind your father? I say because he looks better from behind.” Join Morning Edition Monday to hear more of her unique humor.

The American Library Association has announced a third annual list of the Best Free Reference Web Sites.

Alarmed, perhaps, by such patent lunacy--and also by the danger that America's own coalition against terror, in which India and Pakistan have vied for leading roles, will be busted up--the White House, through its spokesman Ari Fleischer, counsels "restraint." India is unimpressed. Counsel of restraint from a nation that has just overthrown the government of one country and now has five or six more in its gunsights can hardly be expected to carry weight with one whose Parliament has been attacked, as it believes, by its enemy of almost half a century.

When the Bush Administration began its war on terrorism, announcing that if you weren't with us you were against us, did it imagine that from the dizzying heights of its sole superpowerdom it would command the nations, rewarding some, raining bombs on others, and dominating all, according to its sole interest and pleasure? The nations have had other ideas. Preferring American practice to American preaching, they have taken up arms in their own causes, just as previously many built nuclear arsenals whose use again urgently threatens the world. We have not one unified war on terrorism but many clashing wars. It's hard to say which are more dangerous--those that, like Israel's, seek to join the American one or those that, like India's, seem to undercut it. All are burning out of control. For now, the instruments that alone might stop them--negotiation, treaties, a readiness to compromise, measures of disarmament--have been cast aside.

“Literary Traveler is an online magazine dedicated to the exploration of the literary imagination. We hope to bring you inspiring, informative, and unique articles about writers, and creative artists, and the places they traveled.”

“It’s a new style of terrorism."

What I read on my Blogger vacation: Ginger toonies. War on karaoke. Wynton Center. Al-Qaeda manual. Paul Battaglia. LA Weekly lists. How to subdue. “Strike Hard” campaign. Asteroid belt. The Metamorphosis.

originally posted by xowie

Poor White Racism (a reply to A Question of Privilege)

In order to put and end to poor white racism, you have to understand the situation of poor whites. You do not learn how a gun works by inspecting bullet holes, you inspect the gun. The gun metaphor is very appropriate for poor white racism, because poor white racism is a mindless weapon. Someone else is pulling the trigger. (…)

This kind of racism is unique from the garden variety racism that is typical of, say, the middle class or upper classes (i.e. the kind of racism that has at least the potential to be remedied by the kind of therapy group work that people like Chris Crass devote all their time to). Garden variety racism comes from a presumed, mostly unconscious sense of superiority, which is reenforced by the dominant culture, of course. Even certain kinds of “anti-racism” are really just manifestations of this garden variety racism (i.e. “I’m such a big- hearted white boy for ‘helping’ those poor people of color”). (…)

Just as avoiding the issue of racism is a cop out, making semi-mystical claims that racism is an uncurable disease that we may never be rid of, is also a cop out, it allows people to relinquish their responisbility for stoping it, it also allows people in the white left to shirk the hard, ugly, unpleasant, and often unrewarding work of really trying to put an end to racism amongst white people in general. Racism, like rape, is fundamentally about power. Poor white racism is both a conscious and an unconscious false expression of power by a powerless group over an even more powerless group. (…)

Because the white left is largely middle class we end up with the spectacle of white suburban ARA youth fighting white working class skinheads. We have the oddity of having white activists dealing with thier own racism, or insisting that “everyone is oppressed”, but refusing to organize in poor white communities because those communities are racist and sexist.

FYI for those, like us, still dependent on Blogger:

Blogger has had a security breach. It appears no permanent damage has been done, but as a precaution, we advise you change your FTP password if you had it stored on Blogger. U: Also, it wouldn’t hurt to change your Blogger password, as well (go to one of your blogs, select team, and then click on your name).

De preacher was up preaching and he said, 'Every tongue got to confess; everybody got to stand in judgment for thyself; every tub got to stand on its own bottom.'


One little tee-ninchy woman in de amen corner said, 'Lordy, make my bottom wider.'

Iceland launches energy revolution (BBC News)

People my age will see the first steps towards the hydrogen economy. My children will watch the whole transformation. My grandchildren, when they are grown, will live in this new economy where Iceland will be totally independent of imported energy, and where all the energy in the country comes from clean renewables.

The various ZNet Watch Sites have been reorganized and collected into this great index page. The page is worth visiting for the A’s alone: activism watch, africa watch, alternative media watch, anarchy watch, animal rights watch.

Shoe bomb graphic (Guardian Unlimited)

Stop! It is illegal to spray graffiti here! We have just taken your photograph. We will use this photograph to prosecute you. Leave now!

Replica of WTC in Christmas lights.

originally posted by xowie

Saudi Arabia’s Apartheid (washingtonpost.com)

One of the (still) untold stories is the cooperation of U.S. and other Western companies in enforcing sexual apartheid in Saudi Arabia. McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and other U.S. firms, for instance, maintain strictly segregated eating zones in their restaurants. The men’s sections are typically lavish, comfortable and up to Western standards, whereas the women’s or families' sections are often run-down, neglected and, in the case of Starbucks, have no seats.

Stop American Billions for Israeli Bombs by Alisa Solomon. More here, here and here.

originally posted by xowie

Did you know? Some people enjoy sharing books via binary newsgroups and even p2p!

originally posted by xowie

Far out PYL home game. (No trivia questions, just prizes and whammies.)

originally posted by xowie

The primary goal of Ftrain.com, the goal which all other goals serve, is to make the site fully conscious and self-aware by 2051.

Nathan Crombie -- who plays a creature called an orc in the blockbuster movie trilogy -- claimed he and a group of fellow actors got high EVERY DAY on ultra-strong grass called Thunderweed. They would sneak away between takes in New Zealand to smoke spliffs at the top of a tower on the set.

originally posted by xowie

Mumia lives! Now let him disappear by Dan Kennedy. Harsh, with interesting links.

originally posted by xowie

Your own body is a phantom, one that your brain has temporarily constructed purely for convenience. I know this sounds astonishing, so I will demonstrate to you the malleability of your own body image and how you can alter it profoundly in just a few seconds.

Rachel’s Compendium of Online Book Discussions, et al. – “Currently there’s a lot of interest in book clubs, and, as far as I know, there’s no place on the Web to find a listing of all of them. Hence, I’ll give it a shot. To be a book club, in my mind, I believe there needs to be some type of time-sensitive element, and, preferably, some type of guided discussion. I’d further classify book clubs in four ways: Web-Based (text and comments on the web); Web-Enhanced (books read off-line and discussed via a web site); E-mail-Oriented (discussion occurring via an e-mail list); and Live Chat (via IRC or some other medium).” This page has a good set of links to mine for active book clubs and other resources.