Life, Love, and Liberty

I have discovered a new theme that I like quite well but need to fiddle around with it a bit more to see if it’ll entirely work out. It has a very pretty yellow flower but I can’t discover a way to put a tag line in it just yet. If only I had better HTML skills! Or some Wordpress themes don’t simply support tag lines.

Two things to unschool myself in ( : ( :

One new post to highlight is one pertaining to the gulags — and see an earlier writing that was also penned for English class on Iran by clicking on this link — maintained by the United States government.

Also, I show my appreciation for the Whores Not Wars! slogan in my latest post.

Just a Short Listing of Links This Time

Here are some links I collected this week in my Digest Materials favorite folder.

The Propaganda Machine’s Lies About Saddam Live on (I hadn’t thought about these particular lies in some time but this article helped refresh my memory)

Why the Republicans are Doomed (If only the Democrats would suffer a similar fate)

Get Off my Lawn (Afghan war questioning is important)

No Dancing in NYC Bars (Downright ridiculous!)

Mr.Contractor, Tear Down This Wall! (One wall fell in 1991 but still some more to go says The Onion)

Enjoy!

Kudos to the Sex Workers Outreach Project for the slogan of Whores Not Wars!

It gave me a real smile when I read it in the following email message sent out on the SWOP-USA mailing list.

Half of the proceeds for this event will benefit Food Not Bombs and The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers as well as other SWOP-AZ programs!

111 West Congress Avenue
Across from The Grill
Tucson, Arizona
Saturday, November 18, 2006
8:00 p.m.

The Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP-AZ) will host a WHORES NOT WARS PARTY featuring provocative live performance art, whore stories, lap dances, sexy soldiers, and anti-war, pro-whore activities on SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2006.

Prepare to be titillated, disturbed, outraged, pleasured, stimulated, and shocked!

Bastardized military gear, pro-peace costumes encouraged!
$5/door.
Cocktail Bar/Donations
8:00pm - until the war ends!
COMMIT WHORE CRIMES NOT WAR CRIMES!

Free table opportunities available for non-profit anti-war organizations, women’s rights organizations, LBGTQ organizations adult entertainment estabishments and
other organizations that see a need for more pleasure and less war in our world. (For-profit corporations just $50!)

Set up 6pm. Break down Midnight, unless you wish to leave earlier. Please bring your own table and chairs if you want them.

The event is located at 111 E Congress St.

For more information, email: swopaz@gmail.com
Or Call: 520-661-5884

I regretted not being able to attend but I am thinking about whether I could make the Sex Workers Art Show or San Francisco Sex Worker Festival in the future. I imagine you could meet some very interesting and eccentric individuals at events like this. A writer needs such life experiences to draw from in coming up with original material. I’ve got an interest in writing some pieces detailing colorful experiences in my life. Writing about a good time I had at a sex worker event would certainly be intriguing.

(Another piece I wrote for English class with revisions. It was in response to an online post so that’s why it starts with “All very important questions that you raise!” )

All very important questions that you raise!

I would argue that the American government already maintains the equivalent of Soviet gulags in principle. To make sure that I am not misunderstood when I say this, here’s a few definitions of gulag from Dictionary.com.

“1. the system of forced-labor camps in the Soviet Union.

2. a Soviet forced-labor camp.

3. any prison or detention camp, esp. for political prisoners.

Obviously, the first two can’t apply to any situation in the United States but the third quite rightly could. The prison-industrial complex does fall under the third definition. An unnecessarily large prison population exists in the United States. The United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population but a quarter of the world’s prison population. A great deal of those imprisoned are nonviolent drug offenders or other victims of cultural persecution.

Another example of how gulags connected to the United States are existent is Guantanamo Bay where the prisoners are held indefinitely (not being able to challenge their imprisonment in the courts system after the passage of the Military Commissions Act)

Good further reading on prison abuse can be found at Once Upon a Time under The Alice Miller Essays.

Scrolling down should eventually get you to a heading called About Prison Abuse and Torture in the U.S., and in Iraq.

Just some food for thought!

(I forgot to mention the ghost prisons maintained by the CIA)

It’s that time of the week again! So, here’s the latest in my site news and some interesting links.

Writing and Website Update

Well, the website has partially returned to normal with the sidebar not being so funky anymore. I am thinking of designing a new theme or modifying the current one so it’s like I had created an entirely new one. It’s just that the font for links on the sidebar appears rather smaller now but the previous size of it may have been a cause for the problems. I’ll be messing around more with themes this week.

Advice from fellow WordPress bloggers is welcomed! Especially Jake Freeman of NO POLITICS whose design is quite lovely

Music is Good for the Soul

Being at odds with the political and cultural status quo can be downright frustrating. Where to turn when you’ve had enough of reading or writing about the latest statist or oppressive culture related disaster? To some good old music! I find that it’s a very therapeutic way to relax the body and mind.

In honor of that, here are some interesting musical links. One of which, I shamelessly “stole” from Jake Freeman’s link list. I hope he doesn’t mind! Lol

Banned Music

The rest are links to the websites of some musical groups I have a real appreciation for.

Hall and Oates

Ah, the sweet sounds of Hall and Oates!

Otis Redding

Queen

Politically, It’s Still Rather Dreary

Some good politically related links discovered during my web surfing this week.

College students take note, you should be able to evade the selective slavery system and still get some financial aid and/or job training in our current societal context. Here’s one non-governmental organization that seeks to provide opportunities for both.

Glenn Reynolds is more dangerous in his thoughts than I previously thought. Check out this piece to see why.

That’s all for this week but I do plan to increase the number of links for next week. I’ve created a Digest Stuff folder in my favorites so I don’t have to search through my other ones to track down items from memory.

Friends, family, and political comrades,

This week’s digest marks the beginning of a new design that separates the
links more clearly by category. I was pondering simply sending out an email with only a bit of the digest with a link to the blog post of it. I decided
to abandon that idea in case some folks had trouble accessing the web page. The big difference between the web page version and this one is a matter of what I do with HTML and link headings.

Having said that, here’s this week’s digest!

Is Iran the Next Target? And Other Good Readings on War and Peace

Looks like one campaign of mass murder may not have been enough for the Bush administration since rhetoric towards Iran is getting a bit more heated. My deepest advance apologizes to the Iranian people for any suffering caused by military action partly paid for via my money because of theft..oops I mean taxation

Here are a smattering of links related to the current Iranian debacle.

It Is No Use Blaming Iran for the Insurgency in Iraq by Patrick Cockburn

‘Ambiguous’ Intel on Iran’s Meddling in Iraq

Peace Train: These are Images You Don’t See Every Day

And a link related to the first and still ongoing campaign conducted in the
“war on terror”

The Others

I recall first reading this piece around the 9th grade or so and being very
moved by it. Recently, I had a sudden spark to google it when cataloguing
good writing and important news articles for future reference. Hope others
find it a worthwhile read! It’s rather depressing but relays stories worth
keeping in mind when yet another military action is being proposed.

After All That Death and Destruction, It’s Time for a Laugh

The Onion doesn’t always give me a laugh (I tend towards the sensitive side and it pretty much satirizes everything under the sun) but I did get a real kick out of this recent Onion piece called Seriously, Ladies, There Have Been Noise Complaints from everybody’s favorite stripper cop.

And for the Final Act, a Bit of Revisionist History

Kevin Carson explodes the mythology of regulatory statism in the meatpacking industry.

A must read for the progressive skeptical of letting the market run free. No need to embrace either the state or big business. You can say goodbye to both!

Lol, is it as exciting for you to read these lines as it is for me to write them? Just experimenting with digest styles.

(Once again, I’ve made some revisions.)

Friends, family, and political comrades

The second net digest is upon us and I shall be making a commitment to timely releases from now on.

My Writing and Website Update

The website has undergone some very cool graphical changes with librarything.com search engine and display images being added. I hope to keep my online catalog up to date as I acquire new material for adding to it over time. A hearty thanks to Jake Freeman for alerting me to it when I happened upon it on a visit to his new site.

Some other new graphics include one for advertising the Yahoo group and a flashing Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign! graphic. I’ll be adding a few more in the coming week and fiddling around with WordPress so I can change the overall theme.

On the writing front, I’m looking to release three posts this week. A feminist analysis of Beauty and the Beast , critique of Keith Preston, and an exploration of the non-aggression ethic’s potential compatibility with certain actions of the Animal Liberation Front.

Also, I’ve started writing general explanations for each of the phrases in my tag line. Those interested in viewing them can click on the ol greetings link.

Politic Linking - It’s Silber Time

Arthur Silber has thankfully returned to much more active blogging again. Unfortunately, he’s suffering his usual severe financial problems so I ask those who can do so to consider donating on the basis of any value they may find in his work.

On that note, here is a healthy sampling of relatively new Silber:

Eyes on the Prize: About that Oil…
Sullivan’s Monstrous and Inhuman Calculus

And an older piece:

More Cartoon Lies: Authoritarians for “Freedom”

Humor Stuff

I love reading Silber but he writes on incredibly depressing topics so some funny stuff would be good for a nice balance. Two sites worth browsing for comedic material are The Onion and Fafblog. One of my all time favorites is this parody of James Dobson.

Enjoy!

I was recently reading an article titled The Next Jihadists: Iraq’s Lost Children that sparked an idea for a photo blog. Some of the pictures portraying the suffering in Iraq were incredibly moving and I decided it would be a worthwhile project to catalogue such images. I was going to call this new site The Death of Iraq but the idea has changed to one for a blog documenting the horrors of what the United States empire has wrought or assisted in numerous places.

I am thinking of calling it Pax Americana: The Brutal Reality.

Sound like a decent title? Suggestions for pictures are welcomed too. Just send me an email at nickmanley@lifeloveandliberty.com.

(I wrote this for an English class I am currently enrolled in. Figured it would make a decent blog post too.)

Many individuals became rightfully disillusioned — although some were not supportive from the get go — with the gang of war criminals currently holding power in Washington after news stories like this one started coming out. The popularity of the Iraq war and the Bush administration started taking a much delayed and deserved nosedive. Unfortunately, we may be faced with another Middle Eastern military adventure if some recent rhetoric from the government is any indication of what is to come.

“SEVILLE, Spain - Serial numbers and markings on explosives used in Iraq provide “pretty good” evidence that Iran is providing either weapons or technology for militants there, Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserted Friday.”

Given what we experienced before, claims such as this should be looked upon with the utmost of skepticism. Even if true though, I don’t think one should be especially surprised that such things are occurring. Iranians or the Iranian government have a very rational self-interest in deterring the United States government from attacking the territory they inhabit.

The best way for the United States government to convince them otherwise is to start serious withdrawal from Iraq and tone down its threatening rhetoric towards Iran. Such a policy would save the lives of countless Americans, Iraqis, and Iranians. Surely, such a preservation of human life is preferable to another unnecessary slaughter.

The archiving continues!

I’ve made some minor revisions and use of graphics — after discovering the joy of smilies — in porting these digests over from the Yahoo group.

Friends, political comrades, and family,

Welcome to the first edition of my weekly net digest covering some of the more delightful topics in this world. A combination of the anarchistic spirit with chess and wonderful doses of sexuality plus anything else worth taking a look at.

Who wouldn’t get excited? Time for the fun to begin!

All of your email addresses have been hidden for the sake of individual privacy.

Nick’s Writing and Website Update

I’ve steadily been sprucing up the website over time so I’d like to highlight some of the juicy additions. The links on the sidebar have been listed on a separate page of their own. Each link has been given a description of its contents to better help individuals find what they need or are clicking on.

Some new links have been added, including, but not limited to:

Anarcho-Din

Another Day in the Empire (Kurt Nimmo)

Al Jazeera English

Annie Sprinkle

Disney Musicals on Broadway

Anyone who wants to donate towards a “help Nick see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway fund are encouraged to do so ( :”

U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives

Two new posts to highlight are: Comic Relief in Dreay Times and Studies in Dialectical Libertarianism: Dedication Page.

Parody of the horrific James Dobson followed by a nice dedications page for Studies in Dialectical Libertarianism that dedicates the book to Arthur Silber.

Future posts to come include a lot of discussion about dualistic thinking as it pertains to everything from drugs to romantic love.

Two feminist analyses are in the works. One with a focus on the similarities between patriarchy and empire. The second is an analysis of the feminist consciousness at work in the Disney film Beauty and the Beast. General thoughts to be gained on gender from it are also discussed. A critique of Keith Preston’s work is still being finished.

Now, it’s time to highlight some of the best material I’ve run across on the net.

Interesting Stuff I’ve Learned From Being an STR Guest Editor

Good thoughts on the nature of political writing and blogging.

Rain Dance

The imagery of this erotic writing has always enchanted me. Substitute your attraction — of any gender or sexual identify — for the person described in the piece ( :

Hi-tech T-shirt turns air guitar into the real thing

Intriguing article for music lovers!

Fischer Thoughts-Another Perspective
Fischer Thoughts-Rothbard Follow up

A mixture of the political with the chessic (not entirely sure if that is an actual word lol)

Feedback and discussion via my Yahoo group is welcomed.

I’ve decided to archive my digests — although I’ll still be sending them out via the Yahoo group and anyone who requests the digest using my email account– on here from now on. This is the latest and I’ll be posting the other three so far soon.

Thanks to Tom Ender for producing an uber cool net digest since it inspired me to start my own

Folks,

Just a short digest this week but one with quality mentions.

Insightful Political Insights (I couldn’t resist such a funny title )

“As part of the military crackdown in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki intends to disarm all armed groups in the city. In other words, gun confiscation. Maliki wants to leave weapons only in the hands of the Iraqi government. “Trust us,” is the underlying message of Maliki’s gun control policy.

It goes without saying that the U.S. military will be carrying out Maliki’s gun control policy.

Question for Mr. Maliki and the U.S. military: If the Iraqi people are disarmed and if the Iraqi government is the only entity that remains armed, how do the Iraqi people protect themselves from the Iraqi government? You know, the death squads, the kidnapping squads, and the torture squads. Ironically, not even Saddam Hussein disarmed the Iraqi citizenry. Isn’t disarming the citizenry the hallmark of a tyrannical regime?

As America’s Founding Fathers understood so well, history has shown that a disarmed citizenry is a submissive, passive, obedient citizenry — and all too often an enslaved citizenry. That’s why it’s not a coincidence that the right to keep and bear arms was enshrined in the Second Amendment.

What a shame that as part of its brutal and deadly occupation of Iraq, the U.S military is not only engaging in such things as unreasonable searches and seizures, denial of due process and jury trials, indefinite detentions of detainees, censorship, and cruel and unusual punishments, the U.S. military is now being used to disarm the citizenry of Iraq.

Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.”

-Jacob Hornberger

It’s interesting to note that this measure would make the new regime more tyrannical than Saddam in at least one department. If Saddam’s gun control polices were truly as loose as I’ve read they were. I have a blog post planned sometime this week that has some thoughts on the dynamics of militias and firearms in Iraq. I’d write it in this digest but I feel like my head is going to fall off from sleep deprivation

Justin Raimondo’s latest is quite good and worth a look. I have a post planned that addresses the incredible condescension and paternalism involved in the “let’s just blame the Iraqis rather than accept any responsibility for our own role” crowd about the current fiasco in Iraq.

And the final politics link comes to us from Thomas Van Wyk who recently penned a very good essay about counter-cultural anarchism.

Sex is Good for You

Anyone into sexuality and the arts can look to see if the Sex Worker’s Art Show is coming to a location near them.

Look for a much more ambitious digest this Sunday.