Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
steal this book
Steal This Book is a book written by Abbie Hoffman. Written in 1970 and published in 1971 the book exemplified the counter-culture of the sixties. The book sold more than a quarter of a million copies between April and November 1971. The book, in the style of the counter-culture, mainly focused on ways to fight the government, and against corporations in any way possible. The book is written in the form of a guide to the youth. Hoffman, a political and social activist himself, used many of his own activities as the inspiration for some of his advice in Steal this Book.
The main author of the book, Abbie Hoffman was one of the most influential and recognizable American activists of the twentieth century. Abbie Hoffman was born in 1936 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Hoffman wrote several books and other works such as Steal This Urine Test: Fighting Drug Hysteria in America, Revolution For the Hell of It, and The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman. Steal this Book was written in the climate of the counter-culture, in which opposition to tradition and government was rampant, and experimentation with new forms of living was encouraged. In short, it was written in the time of “sticking it to the man.” Although the book was published in the seventies, it is truly a relic of the sixties.
Steal this Book is broken up into three sections, “Survive!”, “Fight!”, and “Liberate!”. Each section has several sub-chapters each pertaining to its section. The section “Survive!” is all about getting “free” things and as its title indicates, surviving. It includes chapters on how to acquire food, clothing, furniture, transportation, land, housing, education, medical care, communication, entertainment, money, dope, and other assorted items and services. The section “Fight!” is all about the counter-culture imperative of rebelling against the government and corporations. It includes chapters on starting an underground press, guerrilla radio, guerrilla television, what to bring to a demonstration that’s expected to be violent, how to make an assortment of home-made bombs, first aid for street fighters, legal advice, how to seek political asylum, shoplifting techniques, stealing credit cards, monkey warfare, gun laws, and identification papers. This section also includes advice on such topics as growing cannabis, living in a commune, and obtaining a free buffalo from the Department of the Interior. It discusses various tactics of fighting as well as giving a detailed list of affordable and easy ways to find weapons and armor that can be used in a confrontation with law enforcement. The section advocates rebelling against authority in all forms, governmental and corporate.The third section is “Liberate!” with the chapter headings: Fuck New York, Fuck Chicago, Fuck Los Angeles, and Fuck San Francisco. The book also includes an appendix that lists approved of organizations and other books worth stealing.
As the book ages, the specific details of the various techniques and advice Hoffman gives have become largely obsolete for technological or regulatory reasons, but the book iconically reflects the yippie zeitgeist. (read more)
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Rest in peace Ernest
Ernest Borgnine (born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American film and television actor whose career spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, winning an Oscar in 1955 for Marty. On television, he played Quinton McHale in the 1962–1966 series McHale's Navy and co-starred in the mid-1980s action series Airwolf, in addition to a wide variety of other roles. Borgnine was also known for his role as Mermaid Man in the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. Borgnine earned an Emmy Award nomination at age 92 for his work on the series ER. (read more)
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Rest in peace Andy
Andrew Samuel "Andy" Griffith (June 1, 1926 – July 3, 2012) was an American actor, director, producer, Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer, and writer. A Tony Award nominee for two roles, he gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan's film A Face in the Crowd (1957) before he became better known for his television roles, playing the lead characters in the 1960–1968 situation comedy The Andy Griffith Show and in the 1986–1995 legal drama Matlock. Griffith died on July 3, 2012 at the age of 86. (read more)
Monday, July 2, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
The Inherent Frailty of the Currently Accepted Economic Model
The growing social
and economic instability in Western Europe as exemplified by the turmoil in
Greece and Spain and that is likely to spread to Italy as well as the severe
economic dislocation of millions of American citizens is indicative of a
deep-seated malaise that haunts the very nature of the economic paradigm that
lies at the heart of modern capitalist-based economies. There are a number of seminal issues that lie
at the core of the problem.
Economic success has
become intimately linked with the continual expansion of global markets on a
planet possessing finite resources; this dependence flies in the face of
reality. It is not difficult to predict
the inevitable future outcome of such a strategy – eventually human societies
will devolve into the brutal economics based on scarcity. This is a prospect we should not wish on
future generations.
The underlying
motivating force for participation in economic life has been stripped of its
humanity. This has been particularly
evident in the unscrupulous and cavalier machinations of the financial sector
that has effectively impoverished so many of the world’s people and at the same
time rewarded the very few who have risked the livelihoods of the many to
enrich only themselves. The blatant fact
that these individuals have walked away unscathed is a demonstration of the
inherent corruption of the system.
Furthermore, in the
United States, politics has become inextricably tied to wealth. The Supreme Court has sanctioned this
relationship by establishing that corporations are people and that money in the
form of political contributions is equivalent to free speech. These are by no means accidental legal
pronouncements, for they represent a strategy of retrenchment in order to
solidify and codify the ascendant position of the affluent class. This effort has been breathtakingly
successful.
This kind of
reassertion of the inherent power of wealth is now being acted out in Europe as
well. This tendency has unfortunate
repercussions for future generations, for the economic model upon which the
system rests is bound to implode. An
economic system in which human compassion and the central concern for the
well-being of all members of society are purged from consideration is bankrupt
by nature. It will necessarily lead to
an amplification of a two-tier system in which only a very small minority of
individuals exerts inordinate and extreme economic power over everyone else –
this is a new version of the blighted model that dominated societies at the
beginnings of the industrial age. In the
so-called democracies, it is allegedly the will of the people that determined
future policy. If that relationship is
real then it would be unfortunate, indeed, if the collective voice of the
people echoes the will of the powerful and fails to question of the validity of
the harsh and unforgiving economic realities as determined by fiat.
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Lonely Tears
Half-sitting, half-laying
His hat in the street
A few coins twinkle there
Nearby, a drummers beat.
His eyes barely open
For what's there to see
A businessman passes
Throws two quarters, maybe three.
Out of guilt or compassion
I'd say the former not the latter
For his eyes never left his watch
As though he doesn't even matter.
But the old man doesn't care
He's already learned how to cope
What he really requires
Is for us to give him hope.
A bard in me, I say to you
You that cannot see his pain
For it does indeed show itself
Time and time again.
If you peer closely
At the corner of his eye
Ah, but first you must sit a spell
And let the sun creep through the sky.
Until time then rewards
It now begins to swell
A lone tiny tear
Has finally climbed the well.
Slowly it builds
Its journey long
Vibrating in rhythm
To the drummers song.
It finally falls
Sliding over the cheek
Pounding through the stubble
Gliding where it's sleek.
Hanging from the chin
Posing in its singularity
And showing all
In utmost clarity.
Only a man
With a broken heart
Cries with
Lonely tears.
His hat in the street
A few coins twinkle there
Nearby, a drummers beat.
His eyes barely open
For what's there to see
A businessman passes
Throws two quarters, maybe three.
Out of guilt or compassion
I'd say the former not the latter
For his eyes never left his watch
As though he doesn't even matter.
But the old man doesn't care
He's already learned how to cope
What he really requires
Is for us to give him hope.
A bard in me, I say to you
You that cannot see his pain
For it does indeed show itself
Time and time again.
If you peer closely
At the corner of his eye
Ah, but first you must sit a spell
And let the sun creep through the sky.
Until time then rewards
It now begins to swell
A lone tiny tear
Has finally climbed the well.
Slowly it builds
Its journey long
Vibrating in rhythm
To the drummers song.
It finally falls
Sliding over the cheek
Pounding through the stubble
Gliding where it's sleek.
Hanging from the chin
Posing in its singularity
And showing all
In utmost clarity.
Only a man
With a broken heart
Cries with
Lonely tears.
Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima Daiichi: What is the Link? on Vimeo
Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima Daiichi: What is the Link? on VimeoCCTV's Margaret Harrington hosts Maggie and Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education. Arnie and Maggie discuss their recent travels to Italy to take part in and to view an opera on the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident, entitled "La cortina di fumo" ("the smoke curtain"). Arnie and Nobel Peace Laureate Dr. Shirin Ebadi first participated in a symposium about the "Smoke Curtain" regarding the governmental smoke curtain that covers the truth about nuclear power accidents. Ms. Harrington and the Gundersens discuss the impact of the Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima Daiichi disasters on the environment and people's health.
Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima Daiichi: What is the Link?
Fairewinds Energy Education
Thursday, June 28, 2012
The feeling of discourse
An MRI study reveals that emotion, not fact-sharing, promotes social interaction and facilitates interpersonal understanding. What researchers discovered is that emotions ‘synchronize mental networks’ between individuals. Synchronized network activity focuses attention on shared experience and produces a common framework for understanding. Sharing other people’s emotional state during discourse enables us to perceive, experience and interpret what others say in a like manner ..without separation [ link ].
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
David Suzuki on Rio 20, "Green Economy" & Why Planet’s Survival Requires Undoing Its Economic Model
As the Rio+20 Earth Summit — the largest U.N. conference ever — ends in disappointment, we’re joined by the leading Canadian scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster David Suzuki. As host of the long-runningCBC program, "The Nature of Things," seen in more than 40 countries, Suzuki has helped educate millions about the rich biodiversity of the planet and the threats it faces from human-driven global warming. In 1990 he co-founded the David Suzuki Foundation which focuses on sustainable ecology and in 2009, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award. Suzuki joins us from the summit in Rio de Janeiro to talk about the climate crisis, the student protests in Quebec, his childhood growing up in an internment camp, and his daughter Severn’s historic speech at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 when she was 12 years-old. "If we don’t see that we are utterly embedded in the natural world and dependent on Mother Nature for our very well-being and survival ... then our priorities will continue to be driven by man-made constructs like national borders, economies, corporations, markets," Suzuki says. "Those are all human created things. They shouldn’t dominate the way we live. It should be the biosphere, and the leaders in that should be indigenous people who still have that sense that the earth is truly our mother, that it gives birth to us. You don’t treat your mother the way we treat the planet or the biosphere today." [Includes rush transcript]
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