Life, Love, and Liberty

“Even when reading is impossible, the presence of books
acquired (by passionate devotion to them) produces such an
ecstasy that the buying of more books than one can
peradventure read is nothing less than the soul reaching
towards infinity … we cherish books even if unread, their
mere presence exudes comfort, their ready access,
reassurance.”

– A.E. Newton

From a Cleansheets Yahoo group digest

(I made one revision. My writing improvement continues!)

The Usual Drug War Horrors

US GA: Chain of Lies Led to Botched Raid

If such raids weren’t happening in the first place, then you wouldn’t have to worry about this type of thing.

No More Mass Murder, Please

Is the U.S . Already at War with Iran?

Are we seeing a repeat of 1953?

The Lies of the Times: NYT Pushes Bush Line on Somalia

The renewed U.S. intervention in Somalia has taken a backseat to the Iraq conflict.

Fight Terrorism: Get Out of Iraq

This is a very very good summary of the evidence for an imperialist foreign policy being a motivation for terrorist attacks on American soil.

From Canadian custody into cruel hands

I could put this under cultural issues — and it’d apply to enthusiasm for torture in current U.S. culture as well — too since the current Afghan landscape contains some extremely vicious personalities. This story is a horrifying reminder of their existence!

Voices of Iraq: Ramadi-Cards

I don’t watch CNN or FOX News much, but I wonder if they’d be highlighting a story like this?

Civil Liberties Versus Police Statism

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

Makes me wonder about whether it’s desirable to be a public dissident in these times or not.

Laughing Out Loud

It Wuz Always ‘Bout Tha Numbahs

I’ll just let it speak for itself

Please Don’t Take my Pawn!

A Delightful Game I Played

I finally updated the chess blog

Since 1998, nearly 200,000 aspiring college students have been stripped of their financial aid just because they have drug convictions, usually for small-time marijuana possession. Meanwhile, convicted murderers and rapists are eligible to continue receiving federal student loans and grants.Thankfully, Congress is currently considering getting rid of this harmful and unfair aid elimination penalty. But legislators won’t act unless they hear from you!To make taking a stand as easy as possible, we’ve created a pre-written letter that you can edit and send to legislators.

Just thought folks may be interested in this.

(Also posted at the Carnival of Anarchy)

Pacifism gets a bad rap; a very bad rap. At least, by those eager to place brutality and violence upon a pedestal (1). Indeed, I have experienced moments where my own inclination has been to romanticize the violently confrontational militant. I was once very much enamored with the imagery of the black bloc — and I mean the Starbucks window smashing kind — and participated in one at the IMF/World Bank protests of 2002 (2).

I relate all this personal history to illustrate how my perspective has changed dramatically over time. I now consider myself a near pacifist and anarchist philosophy to represent a striving towards the ideal that pacifism aims for. I haven’t rejected violence as never legitimate, but believe that all realistic non-violent methods of dealing with others should be exhausted first.

Only in the narrowest of circumstances — and those circumstances would only sanction defensive force –, do I see violence as justified. It’s only because I cannot view defensive violence as evil that I don’t call myself a pacifist (3). It holds a great appeal for me because part of my attraction to anarchist thinking is its identification of the state for what it is; an institution representing cold and inhumane organized force (4).
This is why anarchism is actually very pacifistic in the sense of positing the ideal of a society not reliant on coercion or the threat thereof. An unadulterated anarchy of this kind may never be realized, yet this is no reason to not view it as an inspiring vision worth attaining.

Notes:
1. I realize that individuals who don’t wish to celebrate brutality or violence also reject pacifism. It’s not my intention to accuse any critic of the doctrine of an eagerness to embrace violence or brutality.
2. In case anyone is wondering, I didn’t engage in any property destruction or witness any. This black bloc experience involved marching in a huge crowd through the streets of Washington D.C. I am almost entirely sure that this march had all of the required permits and/or clearances.
3. It’s my understanding that pacifism is defined by its moral opposition to all uses of violence.
4. I was thinking of Nietzsche’s quote about the state being a cold dead monster or something to that effect.

Courtesy of Brad Spangler.

New York, NY - April 18, 2007. Elaine Brower, Tom Good, Sally Jones, Ben Maurer and Barbara Walker were arrested on March 23, 2007 in Congressman Vito Fossella’s office. Their crime? Reading the names of the (US) war dead aloud and demanding a meeting with their representative so they might discuss the extreme positions he holds on the Iraq War. These 5 activists are charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. They are demanding Fossella drop all charges and agree to a meeting.

Show your support - tell Fossella to drop the charges and meet with his constituents. Sign the online petition: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/fossfive/petition.html

Please show your support!

Courtesy of The Onion.

In an attempt to increase public support of whatever the fuck it is he thinks he’s doing, President Bush trotted out the same old whoop-de-do you’ve heard over and over at a solemn-yet-resolute speech attended by soldiers, or religious leaders, or firemen, or some mix of ethnic-looking people from one of those countries.

“We have to give this plan time to wop bop a loo bop, a wop bam boom, ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang,” President Bush may as well have said. “May God [help/bless/save] the United States of America.”

LOL, and I actually did laugh out loud when I read that last part

(Just a bit modified from the discussion group)

Drug War Debunking Continues

Marijuana History and Timeline

Charts the history of marijuana.

Newsbrief: The Next Prohibition? Surgeon General Supports Banning Tobacco

Will they break down your door for tobacco? I hope not!

Keith Preston had some insightful things to say on this issue.

“I suspect tobacco prohibition will be implemented slowly. These things usually come in increments. It started with the movement to ban smoking on airlines back in the early 1960s. Then television advertising for cigarettes was banned in 1972. We see how it’s escalated since then. When I was a teenager in the early 80s, no one ever dreamed it would be illegal to smoke in bars one day.

An interesting thing about this, however, is that if tobacco prohibition comes about, it will radically expand the criminal market for illegal substances. The huge US prison population is mostly because of drug prohibition, and a substantial number drug arrests are for the use or sale of marijuana (I think it’s about 700,000 annually). Tobacco prohibition would radically up that number, I suspect. At the same time, it would be harder for prohibition officials to demonize tobacco users/growers/ sellers the way they do users of pot, coke, X, etc. because tobacco has a long history as a cash crop and a product used by “normal” people as opposed to “deviant” drug users.

Quite frankly, if this happens it will be in the context of full-blown totalitarianism a la Josef Stalin. No state can imprison that many of its subjects and wage war against that large of a population without an unencumbered police state.

The upside, of course, is that tobacco prohibition might well motivate many ostriches to see through the drug war, prohibitionist ideology and, for that matter, the state itself or at least the present state. Such a withdrawal of public confidence may well be the beginning of the end for the powers that be.”

The source of the quotation is here (not sure if people who are not members of the group can view the message, but I did want to source my quotation), and is from a Yahoo group.

Got the Warfare State Blues

South Koreans: Many killed after letter

The atrocities in the Korean war are not as well known as they could be.

Meeting Resistance: A film by Steve Connors

I’m keeping my eye on this one since it looks quite interesting.

Meeting the Resistance in Iraq

The interview that tipped me off to the above.

Economic Goodness

Ghetto Capitalism

Tis the counter-economy in action!

The Ethics of Labor Struggle: A Free Market Perspective

Kevin Carson gives us a provocative piece on the ethics of labor struggle from a free market perspective. Labor lawyers should give this one a read!

It’s a Cliche to Say but Laughter is Good for the Soul!

Fighting Chinese Piracy Info graphic

Lol, I got a real kick out of the Steven Spielberg one.

Feeling a bit Aroused?

Silk Stockings and Sexy Eyes

More erotica for your reading pleasure!

A Chessic Announcement

My long dormant chess blog will actually be updated sometime soon. I have plans for annotating games, fleshing out a romantic-bohemian conception of the chess spirit, and anything else I can think of.

Drug War Ridiculousness Continues

Marijuana Prosecution Appears to be a Political Mandate

I thought they’d backed off from persecuting this fellow!

Missouri Bill Calls for Crackdown on Sale of … Baking Soda

I kid you not! It’s something you’d expect to find in The Onion.

Green Zone Down: Bomb Hits Parliament as Bush Moves to Make Baghdad a Prison

Will the Iraqi equivalent of the strategic hamlet program in Vietnam come to pass?

Chlorine, Chlorine, Last Night I Had an Awful Dream

Which links to this.

This argument was too bizarre to not highlight. It does show you how little of a strong case there truly was/is for the existence of WMDS in Iraq. At least, this particular argument doesn’t point in the direction of a good case.

Economics: From Property Rights to Workplace Organization

Coke Censors Art

Wow! All I can say is wow….and another reason to dislike intellectual property rights.

No Urination Until You Sign This Confession

Roderick Long links to an article that reminds us of the tyranny that can be exercised by organizations allegedly “separate” or actually separate from the state. Here is the horrifying story.

Cultural-Misc. Items

Caring for your Introvert

Be proud of your introversion!

Exquisite Rebel: Voltairine de Cleyre

My kind of feminist!

Orgasmic Delights

The Bookstore on a Rainy Afternoon

Mmmm…rainy erotica.

For your Favorite Chess Nerd

Walking the Path

Tactics, tactics, and more tactics.

Drugs Never Seem to Get an Honest Take

Who’s in Love with Mary Jane?

Some important and utterly horrific statistics contained within.

Inside the FDA: The Business and Politics Behind the Drugs we Take and the Foods we Eat

Is the FDA really necessary?

Too Much Death and Not Enough Sex; Where is the Lovemaking? (hat tip to Justin Timberlake’s Where is the Love)

A Provocation Backfires

The Coming War with Iran

Thankfully, the question of whether Iranians will suffer mass murder or not is still up in the air. Let’s hope it stays that way!

Note: In reading over this before I released it on the blog, I realized that I wanted to write an additional post to explain my conception of romantic love and sexuality. I’d also like to touch on the general nature of feminist philosophy since self-described feminists have a tendency to disagree on its meaning in the same manner that self-identified anarchists debate the nature of anarchy. I’d just like to make sure that individuals understand what conception of feminism I subscribe to since there are positions taken by self-proclaimed feminists that I disagree with. More on that to come in the future and here’s my piece:

Disney’s classic Beauty and the Beast has some positive ideas to impart about gender. Examples of a feminist — whether intentional or not — consciousness is on display with the character of Belle.

Our first taste of this is given to us in the beginning of the movie with Belle’s introduction as an incredibly beautiful — leaving aside debates about what constitutes beauty in the first place — young woman whose “peculiarity” lies in her accompanying appreciation for books. Her character is also an independent being resistant to the advances of the domineering male suitor Gaston. He simply cannot come to terms with the idea that Belle has aspirations she considers more important than a marriage to him.

What can be gleaned from all this is the utter ridiculousness of traditional assumptions about gender. Belle’s combination of intelligence with beauty is a rebuke to the common cultural idea that splits the two. Think of all the images in our culture of the beautiful blonde who is simultaneously represented as a complete dunce.

Who is frequently held up as the ideal woman to seek out? The shallow but stereotypically drop dead gorgeous girl rather than the “nerdy” or “strange” but far more interesting stereotypically ugly lady.

Gaston is interested in the dorky or weird protagonist but only for her physical beauty. His alleged romantic attraction doesn’t seem to have any room for a care in the world about her own passions or the entirety of her character.

The contrast between the persona of Gaston and the beast is very revealing. In the former, we see the archetypal buff attractive guy who doesn’t appear to have much going on in the head while the physically unappealing beast gradually becomes a rather gentle soul over time. His eventual sensitivity to Belle’s needs and desires is not accompanied by an inability to physically defend himself or others when needed. Something that runs counter to the popular identification of empathy or sensitivity with an unwillingness to physically defend yourself.

This combination of two usually opposed traits is shown in two scenes where the beast is forced on the defensive. When Belle makes an escape attempt after agreeing to perpetually stay in the castle in exchange for her father’s release, she is attacked by a pack of wolves. The beast comes to the rescue after having regretted his rough treatment of Belle. This situation is repeated near the end of the film when a struggle ensues between Gaston and the Beast because of the formers attempt to do away with him.

In the end, Beauty and the Beast offers us a vision of an androgynous individual that transcends the limitations of narrow gender roles. This is all for the better since the ability of people to comfortably create their own souls is an essential ingredient of a world worth living in. American culture has a very very long way to go in this department and I am not always optimistic about the potential for change. I still end up choosing to believe it’s possible most of the time but such a spirit isn’t always easy to maintain. Perhaps, it will be easier someday and one can only hope this comes sooner rather than later.