What happened when the British troops left the American colonies?

Last night I went to a reception for Sami Rasouli. He was asked what would happen if U.S. troops left Iraq immediately. His response began with the line above and continued:

What happened when Ghenghis Khan left Iraq? What happened when the Turks left Iraq? What happened when the British left Iraq?

The conclusion is obvious: you have to remain totally ignorant of history in order to believe the U.S. troops must remain in Iraq. Unfortunately, the majority of Americans never learned this history.

Pretty Pictures!

Circlevision.org has loaded some pictures. I copied a couple of them for display here.

4200 March in Minneapolis

Awesome. Way more than I expected. Apathy has not triumphed. My fellow human beings impress me yet again. Whew!

I'm just saying

Let's suppose you've been spending weeks into months working to build an event that you hope will have an impact on public policy. Suppose you've been making flyers, posting banners, creating press releases, calling your friends and co-workers. Suppose it's a big date -- like the anniversary of the start of a war, perhaps.

And suppose you've been making contacts with activists across the spectrum. Suppose you've been contacting your representatives in congress. Suppose you've been following the news, every day, seeing the devastating effect of your own country's policies in a far away place.

Suppose you've been reading and writing and working and struggling and pushing, pushing, pushing to get a response that you know would come if people had the chance to pay attention and make a choice.

And suppose you've spent these weeks and months doing whatever you can. And finally it's a day away. Less than a day. Say it's only a matter of hours.

And you don't have clue what might happen.

Could you sleep?

Nope. I didn't think so.....

News Release for March 18

Ravenhub and I are constantly writing News Releses for the movement, so I decided to post one here. If any Fly By Night readers want to use it for their own events, feel free to steal from it as much as possible:

News Alert


For immediate release:
Tuesday, March 14, 2006


Saturday anti-war protest
in Minneapolis to mark anniversary
of the start of Iraq war with call to
“Bring the Troops Home Now!”

An anti-war protest will be held in Minneapolis on Saturday, March 18, calling for an immediate end
to the three-year long U.S. military intervention in Iraq and a demand for immediate withdrawal of
U.S. troops in Iraq.

The event begins at Hennepin and Lagoon Avenues at 1 p.m., followed by a march to the Basilica of St. Mary for an indoor program at 2:15 p.m.

The U.S. war against Iraq began with the bombing of Baghdad in March 2003. The war has now cost over 220 billion dollars, the lives of thousands of Iraqis and over 2300 dead U.S. soldiers. Across the U.S. and around the world, including in Baghdad and Basra, Iraq, anti-war protests are planning to mark the anniversary of the start of the war.

- more -
Saturday antiwar protest page 2

The local event is being organized by the March 18 Coalition, a group of peace, anti-war, student, faith based and other organizations. The coalition supports four major statements of purpose:

Not one more death!
Not one more dollar! Act now for peace!
Bring the Troops Home Now!
Stop the U.S.War in Iraq!

The protest will assemble at 1 p.m. at the Library Plaza & Mall Area near Hennepin and Lagoon Avenues in Minneapolis. At 1:30 p.m. there will be a march to the Basilica of St. Mary (17th & Hennepin Ave.) where an indoor program will be held.

Joining the Minneapolis protest will be a contingent of members of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO). MFSO is a national organization composed of family members who are opposed to the war and who have relatives in the military. A member of MFSO will be among the speakers at the event.

In the global call for antiwar activities, the three major national U.S. anti-war coalitions, United for Peace and Justice, the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition and the Troops
Out Now Coalition (TONC) are working together toward one goal. They hope to bring together as many people as possible to express their opposition to the continuing war in Iraq. Each coalition lists dozens of events in cities large and small on their websites. UFPJ reports over 400 events are planned across the U.S. March 18–20.

Among the groups helping to build the March 18 event in Minneapolis are Women Against Military Madness, Twin Cities Peace Campaign, Anti-War Committee, Youth Against War and Racism, Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers and many others.

-30-

Fundraiser

Another event I produced a flyer for was the Meal & Movie fundraiser. This time we're raising money for KFAI Radio.

Mothers Walk for Peace 2006



We've had an anti-war event for Mothers Day every year for several years now. This is a flyer I made for the latest version.

The art is from Another Mother for Peace and has become iconic since it was created in 1967 by Lorraine Schneider. A couple of years ago, Ravenhub bought me a lovely necklace with the medallion you can buy directly from "Another Mother" at their website. The price is reasonable and the cause is good.

New ad for Mayday



Women Against Military Madness is encouraging their members to "break the chains" and buy at locally owned businesses. In April, it's Mayday Books' turn for an ad. I threw this together yesterday. Hope it brings in some business!

Two fun things: I created a new slogan for the store: "Not making a profit since 1975". Also, Tom, one of our volunteers, is always complaining that activists never provide maps on their flyers. So I added a special little note to Tom in the small print. Hope he sees it.

Yugoslavia

Slobodan Milosovic died over the weekend and the event has led to an interesting discussion at pandagon. I'm posting more than usual there lately.

I created three flyers for upcoming events this morning as well as an ad for the bookstore. I'll post them later when I get them finalized.

They're back!

Found this little gem via Metafilter:

Posted on Thu, Mar. 09, 2006

Nuns to face librarians in spelling bee

Associated Press

ERLANGER, Ky. - After a five-year hiatus, the Sisters of St. Walburg Monastery in Villa Hills are ready to show whether they are superior spellers.

The sisters were champions of the annual Corporate Spelling Bee for Literacy in northern Kentucky for years before giving others a chance to win.

But now the nuns are back, even if they're a little timid about challenging the reigning champions - a group of Boone County librarians.

"Librarians give us a scare," said Sister Mary Carol Hellmann, who says she's been brushing up on Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Spanish root words to prepare for the bee. Some of the other sisters say they use the Internet to practice.

Meanwhile, the librarians say victory won't come easy now that the nuns are competing.

"They have that strong Latin background," said Cindy Brown, director of the Boone County Library. Brown said her spelling team is made up of "voracious readers with a certain verbal attitude."

The winners will be decided Thursday during the ninth annual bee, which is a fundraiser for a Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission program that helps adults with literacy skills. Twenty teams made up of adults from local businesses, schools and nonprofit organizations will participate.

-----

Now that's the kind of competition I would enjoy!

Project Runway, a partial esplanation

Over at Pandagon, Jedmunds expresses his outrage at the final results from Bravo's reality show/contest for fashion designers called Project Runway.

I could write a post explaining why I believe Chloe deserved to win and why her collection showed both exceptional construction and a coherent vision. But there's no need to do that because Jedmunds' commenters have expressed it better than I could.

Fuck all that.

I want to talk about why Project Runway is an important reality TV show.

The show's set up has 16 fashion designers who are brought together and assigned a series of outrageous tests. These tests are supposed to challenge the designers to be both creative and efficient. The results are sometimes embarrassing, sometimes amazing, but often just mediocre.

Guess what? That's not reality TV, is is actual life for us "creatives" in the capitalist world. I totaslly recognize that reality.

I have spent years honing the details of my craft, typography, and I know when type is good and when it is great and when it sucks. Every single day I am offered the ability to use this knowledge to create something that is just a little bit better than ordinary and far better than the commonly accepted.

BUT.....

There's almost never enough time to create an outstanding piece of work. There's almost never enough material or vision or time to create an amazing product. There is just the hope that what little I can contribute will make the end product a tiny bit better.

That is what Project Runway illustrates: outrageous demands upon creative people with the occasional spark of genius. More often, we achieve the merely acceptable.

The people on this show, as well as the vast majority of us, could create amazing things if we had the time, the education, the encouragement and the materials to do so.

Capitalism totally sucks because it does not allow this vision to become reality.

Happy International Women's Day

"I want a women's revolution like a lover. I lust for it, I want so much this freedom."

by Robin Morgan

And now for your activity for today. Bill Napoli is getting google-bombed for his offensive comments about rape victims.

Get the real story over here and thanks for your support!

Birthday card

I used a variation of this as an invite to a benefit party. I'm using this version to send thank you cards. I deleted my name to maintain the illustion of internet anonymity.

Strawfeminists, continued

Amanda at Pandagon does a great job of counteracting anti-feminist arguments when she talks about the Strawfeminist that anti-feminists tend to use in their arguments. The Strawfeminist is some bitter, ugly, paranoid feminazi who hates all men and wants to destroy the future of the planet.

Today, however, she expresses joy at one such poster on her website for coming up with the argument that feminists believe human breasts aren't sexual.

Amanda explains the thought process:

1. I don't have breasts at all.
2. I don't have sexual feelings.
3. I'm so embittered about this I deny that breasts are sexual.
4. Strawfeminists ride unicorns around Vaginastan.

Of course, that slapdown led to a lot of fun responses in the comments that you should definitely read. In addition, I was struck by this interesting comment from alsys39.5 whose website is in development and also looks interesting:

Seriously though, the weird thing about the sexists who make a fetish of evolution to suit their own prejudices is that they, like the Bible thumpers, want everyone to surrender their will to an all-powerful force. With them, it’s EVOLUTION. With the fundies, it’s GOD. Either way, dissent is not an option. You will be assimilated. :/

Unexpected

I suck at math. My motto: if 2 + 2 always equals 4, what good is it? Heh.

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 8/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

The Latest March 18 flyer



Added the address for the Basilica and the new contact: St. Joan of Arc Church in Minneapolis.