randomWalks

Ralph Nader to Tommy Thompson: nationalize Cipro.

originally posted by xowie

Attention! People of Afghanistan, United States forces will be moving through your area. We are not here to harm you! We are here for Usama bin Laden, Al Quaeda, and those who protect them! Please, for you own safety, stay off bridges and roadways, and do not interfere with our troops or military operations. If you do this, you will not be harmed. Do not approach United States forces. Stay in your homes! We are not here to occupy you, or to overrun your country. If you see United States forces, you need to find shelter and not leave it until we have left the area. This is for your protection. Roadways and bridges will be unsafe for travel. Your home will be the safest place. Do not listen to the Taliban or Al Quaeda. We will not harm you if you comply with these instructions.

originally posted by xowie

October 22 actions against police brutality and murder. (via movementbuilding.org)

originally posted by xowie

I reminded the audience that ABC correspondent Cokie Roberts had been asked if there was any opposition to the war. ‘None that matters,’ she replied. ‘Well,’ I continued, ‘would you all care to join me in saying, ‘Fuck you, Cokie Roberts’ when I count three? Okay, one . . . two . . . three . . . ’ And it came at me like an audio tidal wave — thousands of voices shouting in unison: ‘FUCK YOU, COKIE ROBERTS!!!’

originally posted by xowie

L.A. porn stars strike back against terrorism. Also, a day in the life of an adult video store.

originally posted by xowie

"I always have men come up to me afterwards and ask me questions and say: 'Is it true that (Muslim) women have to walk steps behind their husband, is that true?' I say 'Yes, they look better from behind'."

originally posted by xowie

The effects of drugs and prostitution over time. “This is a series of arrest photographs of the same individual taken over the course of 10 years.” Disturbing and fascinating.

"People are reading," Henry said hopefully. When I asked what they were reading, he said, "Nostradamus, and books about germs." Myself, I wanted to buy every book in the store and stack them into a windowless castle for myself, I wanted to stroke their papery bodies, I wanted, a little, to burn the store down. Language is metaphysics, and I hate metaphysics today. I hate the religious and philosophical lies which estrange me from the immediate life in favor of lost or imaginary kingdoms and gardens, in favor of paradisiacal or hellish afterlives, all lies. Today I want to eat and fuck.

The Gap wanted us to be in a commercial and we said 'no' and everyone said, 'why not'? It's almost as if, if people are willing to give you that much money, you are insulting everyone you know by turning it down. People's opinions about selling out seem to have changed over the years.

In my own English Department at George Mason University, when the radicals wanted to create a program to push Marxist propaganda under the heading "Cultural Studies," the internal memo describing this new offering had this wonderful defining paragraph:

Cultural Studies can be understood as the working title for an assemblage of theoretical approaches that are often interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary but also anti-disciplinary. Such work focuses on the analysis and critique of culturally constituted cultural forms and practices and on historically constituted social identities and agencies in the context of their imbrication with the asymmetrical relations of power that permeate the production and reproduction of the economic, political, and ideological dimensions of specific societies.

I love that opening: "can be understood." By whom?

Www.randomwalks.com will stop working at some point today or this weekend. You will still be able to reach randomWalks at 216.92.165.104. Things should be back to normal early next week.

Do some good at Windowbox.com: change the world with urban gardening.

AT&T has a text-to-speech software demo that blows away anything I’ve ever heard. You can type in up to 30 words and download a small audio sample of either a male or female voice speaking the text. If you’re at a loss for what to type, try some favorite song lyrics or cut and paste the following:

God, if only that War on Drugs hadn’t been so effective! I could really use some fucking marijuana right now!

Iron your letters. This problem can be solved.

City of Berkeley says stop the bombing.

originally posted by xowie

"We are in the process of putting a proposal together and analyzing what it would take to get to get something running in a matter of a small number of months, like three months, 90 days. We think we could put up this technology very, very quickly."

"I made this offer not because the government can't afford to pay for the software, but [to] shut up the critics who were saying, `Gee, Larry Ellison wants to build a national database because he wants to sell more databases,' which is pretty cynical and bizarre."

Ellison said that if he does donate the software, maintenance and upgrades won't be free.

Check MacSurfer for links to lots of speculation on just what Apple might announce next Tuesday. The widespread assumption is that it will be a digital music device, but even that seems to be a guess. All Apple has said in their press event invite is that the “breakthrough digital device” is “not a Mac.” All I can say is, whatever it is, I want one. (Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my chin.)

From the watch-what-you-say-watch-what-you-do department comes an admonition from extremist and patriot John Ashcroft that government agencies must use caution in complying with Freedom of Information Act requests.

As if you need another reason to visit BoingBoing regularly, they’ve added a sideblog edited by a rotating guest. This week’s editor is science fiction author and school teacher Pat York. Not this Pat York, mind you. A different one.

Read the list of ingredients. If you want something that simply looks like a hamburger and has no taste of its own, then a list headed by soy is right for you. But if you want something that actually looks like the vegetables with which it is made, that has texture, taste and appeal, look for an ingredients list that has lots of vegetables and maybe a little rice or cheese as a binder.

Steven Baum’s Ethel the Blog has an interesting take on the “powdery substance” sent to dozens of abortion clinics across the country.

On this cool, autumn-hazy day in the waning year 2001, the richest country in the world is dropping bombs on the poorest -- America has invoked the right of "self-defense" against Afghanistan. But in that poorest country in the world, winter approaches, and six million people are now living on the razor-edge of starvation. How many will die as a result of America's bombing campaign?

7,000? That would be miraculously few.

When will Americans wake up to the dirty secret that they are even now suffering and hurting other people for the sake of an imperium?

More excellent news for Californians: emergency contraception just became lawful here.

originally posted by xowie

Brutal repression of Muslims in Uzbekistan.

originally posted by xowie

Anyone who complains to me about their job will be forced by me to read this incendiary tract about the nature of work and power structures and false consciousness. This was the first thing I have ever read in the bathtub and worth every soggy page.