"I am watching Bush repeat his patented mantra for the
514,346th time. It's filled with lies, mischaracterizations
and simple-minded gibberish, as always, and I'm watching
it go out unfiltered, in its entirety, unchallenged by the media,
no Democrats in sight, on every cable channel. The day I
no longer have to listen to one more word from this immoral,
dishonest, delusional prick will be the best day of my life."
-- digby,
1. Overthrowing Government of the Deceived, by the Deluded, for the Demented.
In 1972, George McGovern was defeated much more decisively than Kerry. Within two years, Nixon was gone thanks to the rot in Washington. His crimes pale compared to what is going on today.
2. Corporate malfeasance, privatisation and plunder of public/natural resources (Am I fun to hang out with, or what?)3. Alternative Media, especially Public Access Television. Also check out Air America Radio and Democracy Now
etc. Modern dance, movement therapy, Butoh, somatosensory awareness, electronic countermeasures, forensic psychology, intelligence as a self-aggregating phenomenon, catalyzing increases in the rate of aggregation.
Okay, looking this over, it's clear I need to schedule more fun. Any organic dance classes, authentic movement or contact jams in SF or LA, please let me know. I wanna go hiking, camping, and any kind of boating. Something new and different? Hell Yeah!
I'd like to meet:
Satan. A person who has for untold centuries maintained the imposing position of spiritual head of four-fifths of the human race, and political head of the whole of it, must be granted the possession of executive abilities of the loftiest order. In his large presence, the other popes and politicians shrink to midges for the microscope. I would like to see him. I would rather see him and shake him by the tail than any other member of the European Concert. ---Mark Twain --
Music:
Hanson, New Kids on the Block, Britney Spears, Vanilla Ice. Ha. No, really - Amorpheum, Sibabwe, Scrumbulumptious, Kewloop, Inverse Jesus, The Picnix, Degenerate Groove Slugs, Decomposing Bushes, Al and the Qaidas. Okay, if you got this far, here's a slice of the real stuff: Savoy Brown, Chambers Brothers, Blind Faith, John Mayall, Depeche Mode, Shawn Colvin, Seldom Seen, recent Johnny Cash, Thievery Corporation, Afro Celts, Massive Attack, Rusted Root. I used to like rap, but now I hate 98% of it, so I think it was an old school thing, like Curtis Blow and Run DMC. I generally can't stand metal, but Under Oath rocked my world not long ago. And finally, my favorite band name: Amish Jihad. Maybe I'll hear them someday.
Movies:
Harold and Maude, Natural Born Killers, Snatch, Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels, Hearts and Minds, Butterfly Man (hat tip to Cucalorus Film Festival), The Man who would be King, Brazil, Blood Simple, Big Lebowski, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Battle of Algiers. Fellini Satyricon and 8 1/2 were a waste of time, but I loved Amarcord.
Television:
"The television business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs." Hunter S. Thompson
The Daily Show uber alles. Simpsons are fun, but I rarely make the time. Sopranos and West Wing. Most of the rest is a vast, cerebrally-necrotizing wasteland.
I haven't seen any myspace profiles with production entries in this spot, only consumption. Video cameras and editing gear are everywhere. Why aren't more people making content for their public access channel or, at least, video-projector equipped bar? (Viva la TeeVee Show at the Soapbox!). Hell, you can upload video to indymedia if its topical. Check out our home-crew's entry, The Job Review in moveon.org's bush in 30 seconds contest. (We placed 28th - not bad out of 5,000 entries)
Independent media can tell the truth. Fox, CNN, MSNBC, ClearChannel, et-al. don't.
Books:
GEOPOLITICS and TERRORISM:
Michael Klare, Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict
Daniel Benjamin, The Age of Sacred Terror : Radical Islam's War Against America
Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives
Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror
Edward Herman, The Real Terror Network
Alan Friedman, SPIDER'S WEB: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq
Michael Chossudovsky, War and Globalisation: The Truth Behind September 11
Noam Chomsky, ROGUE STATES : The Rule of Force in World Affairs
____
Jonathon Kwitny, Endless Enemies: Americas Worldwide War Against Its Own Best Interests
____
Noam Chomsky, The Culture of Terrorism
WHY ISRAEL SHOULD BE BOYCOTTED:
Justin Raimondo, The Terror Enigma: 9/11 And the Israeli Connection
Israel Shahak, Jewish Fundamentalism In Israel
Abraham Ben-Zvi, Decade of Transition : Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Origins of the American-Israeli Alliance
Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001
CORPORATE-GOV'T MALFEASANCE & GLOBALISATION:
James Henry, The Blood Bankers: Tales From the Global Underground Economy
David Cay Johnston, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else
Vijay Prashad, Fat Cats and Running Dogs: The Enron Stage of Capitalism
Robert McChesney, Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy
Greg Palast, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy
Edward Herman & Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.
RELIGION AND SOCIETY:
Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet
Mohammed Bamyeh, The Social Origins of Islam
Edward Said, Covering Islam
Fatima Mernissi, Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World
Amin Maalouf, The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
Frederick Clarkson, Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy
Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence
Israel Shahak, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel
Benjamin Barber, Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism are Reshaping the World
Alexander Cockburn, The Politics of Anti-Semitism
Robert Basil, On the Barricades: Religion and Free Inquiry in Conflict
Bertrand Russell, Why I am not a Christian
Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God
DIGITAL CULTURE:
Karen Mossberger, Virtual Inequality: Beyond the Digital Divide
Eric Raymond, The Cathedral and The Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source
Lawrence Lessig, Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.
IT:
Lori Sanders, Windows 2000 User Management
Jeremy Moskowitz, Windows 2000: Group Policy, Profiles, and IntelliMirror (See? I told you I was fun)
"OTHER":
I stayed up till 4am to finish H.Potter and the Prisoner. That was fun. ...William Gibson, esp. the Neuromancer trilogy (where The Matrix really came from!). I'm still mulling over Love in the Time of Cholera. Favorite for 2005: Cryptonomicon!!!
Heroes:
Emma Vollers Hanson ...Nelson Mandela ...Susan B. Anthony ...General Smedley Butler ...Martin Luther King
...Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Bartcop
