The Big 5-0

Well, it's coming up on that time. On February 28 at 7:30 p.m. I will have reached the ripe old age of 50!

In the past few years, the local activist community has created a wonderful new tradition. We celebrate anniversary birthdays by asking friends and family to donate to a worthwhile local cause. I've chosen the local non-profit, all-volunteer, non-sectarian bookstore Mayday Books as the source and beneficiary for my B-day celebration. I'm looking forward to a roaring good time this Saturday night.

50. Boy or boy, that is a ripe old age, isn't it?

What if?

I've been watching the news about Muslims all over the world protesting the racist cartoons printed in a right wing Dutch newspaper. The right wing is eating it up, of course, calling those who protest "animals" and the like who hate free speech. The left wing is forced to explain how these simplistic views are wrong.

But I've been thinking about it in a different way these last few days. I've been thinking "What if?" thoughts.

What if, when Goebbels initiated his campaign of racist propaganda against Jews in 1933, thousands of Jews and their supporters had demonstrated around the world?

What if, when Stepnfetchit and Sambo were popular, thousands of Africans and their supporters had demonstrated around the world?

Do we really want to go on record as being AGAINST those who protest racism?

Serendipity

David Rees Get Your War On has been made into a play in Austin.

Piling on

I'm adding to the cartoon editing over at Pandagon with a nod to "Get Your War On" by David Rees.

First draft on Author Talk at Mayday Books

Yup. Keeping busy with the leaflets. I'm just posting and running!

First draft in Spanish

More Silly


width="240" height="180"
alt="Ravishing Amorous Vixen Exchanging Naughty Massage and Necking"
border="0">

Whee!

Your results:
You are Supergirl

Supergirl 70% The Flash 70% Green Lantern 65% Superman 60% Spider-Man 60% Wonder Woman 60% Iron Man 60% Batman 40% Robin 35% Catwoman 30% Hulk 30%

Lean, muscular and feminine. Honest and a defender of the innocent.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Now you know!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Ravenmn!

1. It takes 17 muscles to smile, and 43 to frown at Ravenmn.
2. If the Sun were the size of a beach ball then Jupiter would be the size of a golf ball and Ravenmn would be as small as a pea!
3. Ravenmn was declared extinct in 1902!
4. Ostriches stick their heads in Ravenmn not to hide but to look for water.
5. If you lick Ravenmn ten times, you will consume one calorie.
6. Four-fifths of the surface of Ravenmn is covered in water.
7. In Japan, Ravenmn can only be prepared by chefs specially trained and certified by the government!
8. A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but Ravenmn can not!
9. Ravenmn is the traditional gift for a couple on their third wedding anniversary.
10. Baskin Robbins once made Ravenmn flavoured ice cream!

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

More Koufax

I hit the jackpot, I do believe. Continuing my search through the Best Post awards over at Wampum, I found this terrific article post about Rosa Parks, Misremembered at a blog I've never heard of called Little Wild Bouguet.

The myth of Parks as a pre-political seamstress who was too physically worn out to move has such staying power not because there's any factual basis but because it appeals to an all-too popular narrative about how social change happens in America: When things get bad enough, an individual steps up alone, unsupported and unmediated, and spontaneously resists. And then an equally spontaneous movement follows. Such a myth makes good TV, but it's poor history.

Movement-building takes hard work, no matter how righteous the cause or how desperate the circumstances.

No shit, Sherlock! This is why I find it hard to join in on bashing political movements that are not perfect, whether it's the dust up over ANSWER vs. UFPJ or the left and right wings of the Environmental movement or the various housing rights advocates locally. There will always be political differences between activists working for any cause, but the one thing you can be sure of is that the majority of activist work is just that: work. It takes time, tenacity and just plain hard work, for the most part unpaid and unappreciated.

Those folks who said they would never march in an ANSWER-organized protest again because some ANSWER volunteers have some political believes that differ from their own are forgetting the hard work and dedication that goes into building a mass movement. It is extremely selfish and just plain stupid. To claim your political experience is ruined by having to listen to somebody talk about something you aren't personally invested in (North Korea, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Palestine) is to ignore all the hard work of all the people who have come together for a cause.

But in America, there is a tendency to want to believe in individualism, even when in a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people. If you're going to a demonstration to fulfill your own personal needs, you are missing the point.

What words could mean!

I received this via e-mail and couldn't find the original link.

Once again, THE WASHINGTON POST has published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

The winners are:

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.

6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

Koufax Awards

Wampum is in the process of posting nominations for the Koufax Awards: awards given to blogs from the left side of the political spectrum.

I decided to read the posts so that I could see what kind of posts readers, especially readers on the left, appreciate most. I printed out the first third of the posts mentioned and have been reading them this evening. It's a lot of copy and lot of reading. Alas, I have found very few posts that interest me.

Granted, I am neither a liberal nor a Democrat, so I'm not the target audience for a lot of these bloggers. The posters have followed the stereotype of liberals as seeing only what's wrong. Reading example after example of how fucked up the world is can drive a reader to exhaustion and despair -- not the best starting point for effective political action.

There is a reason for this repeated listing of Things Gone Bad. It can be traced directly to the Bush Administration's penchant for seeing everything they do as The Absolute Good. Faced with that wall of blissful ignorance, those opposed to the right wing feel they have to talk to their fellow citizens like they would talk to ignorant children. Liberals often explain, with reference to irritating facts and pesky evidence, that the fantasy vision of America Uber Alles is wishful thinking at best. And they keep explaining. Over and over. Ad naseum.

Right wingers, however, have been educated to ignore and despise that brand of realism. They immediately default to the "Why do you hate America?" response. This method of "educating" clearly is not working with the right wing.

So what is appealing about these kind of posts for liberals and/or leftists? Are liberals so intimidated by the power of the right that they need to constantly remind themselves of how fucked up the world is?

Are liberals thinking they can advance their cause with their own brand of fear-mongering? Have they seen the success of fear-based politics on the right and believe they can use the same tactics with a left-wing perspective?

I may continue to read these nominees for Koufax Awards. Or not.

Meanwhile, check out some good news that I was introduced to in a speech by Alice Lynch, chairperson of Black Indian Hispanic and Asian (BIHA) Women in Action:

1000 Peace Women is an initiative and a book that recognizes women who are making a difference in the world today. Here's the blurb from their website:

Millions of women work day in day out to promote peace. They care for survivors, help with reconstruction and initiate a new culture of peace. To represent these millions, it is our aim that in the year 2005 a thousand women shall collectively receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in pursuit of peace. This political prize will show that the work they do is valuable and exemplary.

As their work is taken for granted and is usually unspectacular, it is neither acknowledged nor remunerated. With the exception of 12 women, the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, since it was first awarded in 1901, have been men. In negotiating termsof peace, many more warlords than peacequeens make decisions about security, reconstruction and new political structures. This despite the fact that women constantly prove that with their experience and competence, they can develop and put into practice sustainable peace programs.

Our focus is on women worldwide from all walks of life - e.g., the woman farmer, teacher, artist or politician – who devote themselves to a future free of violence. They have their own individual origins and backgrounds, which have offered them, as the case may be, maybe wonderful opportunities, maybe only restricted options. In order that the world become aware of their histories and their work, light must be thrown on their thousand profiles. Their thousand strategies for constructive conflict management should provide important impulses for conflict research and peace policies. The project will therefore be backed up academically. Last but not least, new peace networks will be established and existing ones strengthened.

There is a lot of good in the world. Despite all the incentives to be a selfish bastard, many people choose to do wonderful things. That is awesome.

"Out Now!" not "Support the Troops"

Joel Stein at The Los Angeles Times sparked a kerfluffle with an article about why he does not support the troops in Iraq. The article will be off line in a couple of weeks, but you can read a synopsis and response by Richard at American Leftist. Richard's comments are not only excellent in an of themselves, but they have sparked a great discussion as well. I couldn't help but join in because this subject comes up often in the anti-war movement and I've given it quite a lot of thought over the years. I'm copying my post here, but I encourage everyone to read the discussion both because it includes respectful and thoughtful arguments for different points of view.

Here's me:

First, yes, and by all means, the people to be concerned about are the Iraqis, not the men and women who are under orders to kill them.

Second, the only honest way I can support the troops is by doing whatever I can to bring them home -- Out Now! I cannot say I believe the war is unjust and at the same time support those people who are participating in that war.

What the antiwar movement can do and did do during the Vietman War is support those troops who refuse to fight. They set up GI coffeehouses so troops could talk about what they experienced. They helped produce newsletters so troops could teach each other the truth about what they were doing. They supported GIs who refused to carry out orders in Nam. This was the anti-Vietnam War movement whose history has been grossly distorted by right-wing propaganda.

I can't remember the book's title, but one researcher found absolutely no documentary record that any returning Vietnam Vet was spat on by anyone in the antiwar movement. Ever. The movement was not making those mistakes. In fact, it's history has been deliberately distorted.
And when the antiwar movement talks about poor body armor, lack of medical care and budget cuts to veterans, it cannot be in order to build a better killing machine, but is instead a method of showing just how callous our political leaders are in carrying out their imperialist wars. They don't care how many Iraqis die, but they also don't care very much about what happens to the people they hire to carry out their grand plans.

Support the soldiers who tell the truth and refuse to carry out orders. Support the soldiers who refuse to deploy. We do a great disservice to these brave and honest women and men if we lump them in with the group who have not yet or will never open their eyes to the horrors they inflict on Iraq.

We have a location!

Another iteration. With desktop publishing, everyone seems to know how easy it is to update these things, and so I manage to do each flyer several times. That's cool.



Check out Troops Out Now and/or A.N.S.W.E.R. for an event in your area. They should be listing them soon!

See also in the UK Stop the War and A.N.S.W.E.R. in Los Angeles.

Franklin, 1; Students, 1; Gonzales, 0

Students protested Attorney General Gonzales' defense of domestic spying by turning their backs and unveiling a banner:




Now this is the kind of college athletic event I would pay to attend. Way to go!

Flatten Image

In Photoshop, you can set up different layers to work on particular parts of a composite image. But before you can save the file in some of the printable formats, you need to choose "Flatten Image" on the layers palette. This means your image has lots its depth and is no longer as easily editable.

My body has entered "flatten image" zone. For the first time in three years, I've got a bug and it has taken me down for two and half days. I manage to get dressed and breathe and that is the extent of my capabilities. I am all surface material and no depth. I am a congested nose, a sore throat and a voice from "The Exorcist". Can't read, can't concentrate on anything for long. I've flipped through the channels on cable and managed to read a couple of blogs on the net. Then I get exhausted and have to take a nap.

Enough whining, already. Later.

After the committee

Well, not a lot of changes, which is good. The copy changes are the committee's. The art changes are mine. I adjusted the lighting on the Guernica images so that they have the same gray levelss. Picked another detail to add. Looking OK, I think.

Just a draft

Trying to work up an agreeable leaflet for the March anniversary of the War in Iraq. This one will go to a committee, so I haven't put a lot of work into it.

Sad news

This is not an uncommon event in Iraq, but it happens to be affecting the family of a friend.

My uncle Abdulrazaq (My father's younger brother who is 50 years old) was in Iraq (in our local city of Smarra Iraq) on Thursday January 5th, 2006 and at 8pm went to go meet with his business partners to finish financial exchanges and on his way back he was killed by American troops. Upon stealing the $10,000 that were in his coat pocket the troops that the Americans are so proud of and support, found that he did not have any weaons or explosives and then they dumped his body at the local hospital and walked away with his money.

My cousin is a resident physician at the local hospital. The Americans had notified them that they were bringing in a dead body and to come and receive it. Upon going to receive the body from the Americans outside of the hospital he was shocked to find that this is his uncle. At home his wife was very worried as he was extraordinarily late for dinner. She called other family members who called the hospital (which is something people typically due since so many people are dying since the U.S. invation) to see if he had an accident at which point my cousin answered informing them that his body was just dumped at the hospital. Our family was contacted and they came to receive his body. He was shot in the head, abdomen, and in one of his kidneys and it is believed that he died immediately, though the details of whether they robbed him before or after they killed him and when decided to dump his body are unknown. He left behind a wife and two daughters age 4 and 5. They are still not sure how to break the news to his daughter.

My uncle had spent 16 years as a prisoner of war in Iran. He was freed on April 9th, 1998 (even though the Iran/Iraq war ended in the late 80's). Upon starting his life again in 1998 he married and had two beautiful daughters. Although it was always hard for him to talk about the torture in the Iranian prisons, his daughters Shayma (5 years old) and Yamama (4 years old) always had a way of transcending words.

My uncle Abdulrazak is not the only one, there are thougsands that have died in this way. This is the face of American terrorism. Our family is so numb. Our hearts are swollen with grief, resentment, and sorrow. American soldiers sign up to risk life and death and when one of them dies it is though the earth stops its rotation, but when an Iraqi civilian who is working hard to support his family and is forced to live his life in the midst of an American occupation is murdered and robbed by sweet American boys, he is dumped like road kill. What makes their lives more worth living?? Is it the blue eyes and blond hair? or is it the cross that hangs on their necks?? I wonder what defense they have for this one. Did he part his hair on the wrong side? Did he wear the wrong color? Was he driving "suspiciously"? What would they say he did to deserve being murdered? How about robbing him? It must not have been a robbery. Maybe they were afraid that a doctor would steal his money so they kept if for safe keeping. Maybe they wanted to take the money and buy a gift for his daughters. Whatever it is it must be good because they are Americans! In fact as they provide this hypothetical justification (assuming they would be prompted to do so- which wouldn't happen because Americans answer to no one) I can just hear the national anthem playing in the background. My uncle's murderers will come home to their families one day to tell of the heroic stories but humbly refuse to be called heroes and instead insist that they were merely doing their duty, but in their soiled hearts they will carry the ugliness of what they have done and who they became and it will eat at them until it destroys their lives and the lives around them.

This email will not have an end-just as these killings do not...

The Problem In Iraq? Bad BRANDING!


Image from Haha Funny Pictures. Go make your own!

Wikipedia describes branding this way:

Marketers seek to develop or align the expectations comprising the brand experience through branding, so that a brand carries the "promise" that a product or service has a certain quality or characteristic which make it special or unique. A brand image may be developed by attributing a "personality" to or associating an "image" with a product or service, whereby the personality or image is "branded" into the consciousness of consumers. A brand is therefore one of the most valuable elements in an advertising theme, as it demonstrates what the brand owner is able to offer in the marketplace. The art of creating and maintaining a brand is called brand management. You're creating the story.

Failed colonial administrator/puppet Mark Etherington told Terry Gross on Fresh Air yesterday that he and the Ukranian troops who were protecting his sorry ass got kicked out of Iraq because of bad branding!!

The key to this business is this: as one goes in, first of all, you have to project your brand. People need to know what it is you stand for and they need to be conscious of your particular identity, your profile. One has to project this early. It's important to set the tone. And the reason it's so important is because one has, typically, a finite period of time in which, really, to win the consent necessary to prosecute these reforms.

Now our difficulty was that Iraq is a large country, and we had insufficient numbers of troops, to lend the public that sense of security that is so essential. And what that meant is that in villages in my province, for example, is that they might see a military patrol once a month or something on that order. And this was really not enough for them to feel confident in the kind of role that we were trying to play. And what this additionally meant was that it placed a lot of pressure on the military forces there, many of whom hadn't really done this before.

Now, of course, althought the Ukranians -- and I'm not singling them out -- The Ukranians, of course, did their best, but I think few would argue they are very experienced in peace-keeping terms. And this is a parculiarly sophisticated art -- this business of capacity-building -- in fact it's more than peace-keeping, it's capacity building as well, it's state building.

My head just exploded.