14 Ways to Use Twitter Politely
Margaret Mason has good tips on how to use Twitter respectfully.
Interview: Anarcho-Primitivist Thinker and Activist John Zerzan
Freud saw civilization as the cause of neurosis; Jared Diamond called domestication (the basis of civilization) "the worst mistake humans ever made." It isn't so hard to come to a radical conclusion about it; what is harder is to project an alternative.
The Conflation Conflict
Carson is back, and he effectively ends the debate over big business that blossomed from Cato Unbound's series on the subject
New Frontiers of Connectedness: The Case for "Twitter Conversations"
This morning, a bunch of us on Twitter got into a spontaneous conversation over that instant micro-blogging communication network about its application for conversations. I started it with two tweets (what a post to Twitter is called, or at least what I call it):
People who knock conversations on twitter forget that there's not a good alternative for public micro-conversations.
and
Bells shall ring!
Congratulations to my sis-in-law Kristal and John on their engagement! They're great for each other and a hell of a lot of fun to have as relatives.
Tasha and I found out about it on Friday Saturday, which was also the date of a birthday celebration for John at Southside Plaza Bowl (I reviewed the establishment a few months ago here). So it was good to celebrate two happy occasions, eat Kristal's awesome carrot cake she made for John, and rock some duckpin bowling.
While the upcoming year is going to be hectic (and a bit scary) for all, I can't help but feel encouraged when people make such a commitment to each other. Marriage is not easy, but if the unexamined life is not worth living, then marriage is a crash course in that examination and a concrete investment in a worthwhile life. As I see it, anytime people resolve to share their lives with another they make this crazy planet a little more human.
I wish them much happiness as they lay the foundation for this next stage of their lives.
What Happened in Mumbai
William Lind suggests the attack was intended to divert Pakistan's attention from fighting al Qaeda by reigniting the IndoPakistani conflict.
The Meaning of Mumbai
Justin Raimondo warns that the Mumbai attack may fuel a Hindu nationalist war fever that will conveniently align with U.S. plans to move the war on terror into south Asia.
Polycentric Order: Market Anarchism as a Spectrum
"I consider market anarchism to be neither utopian or dystopian. Rather, I consider it to be a framework or context in which experimentation can take place in the process of trying to appease human needs and wants, and the enabling of peaceful co-existance. Uniformity in terms of personal preferances and cultural attitudes is not necessary for market anarchism to function, and such things become greatly reduced in their significance in the grand scheme of things as the emphasis is placed more on the generation and pursuit of economic incentives."
Infoshop News - Police Officer Speaks Out Against Taser
Nick Dial was a police officer who volunteered to be Tasered. Since then his health has suffered to such an extent that he can no longer work. And he's not alone; other police officers have suffered serious health problems, from vertebrae misalignments to heart arrhythmia and stroke. "In its video, Taser International claims that nobody has suffered a serious injury or death as a result of the Taser, but that just isn't true," says Dial.
Bailouts are funding overseas investments, not lending at home.
"While the infusions of federal money were designed to expand the flow of credit in the United States, banks are using some of the funds to expand their foreign operations and investments. They are taking our money and running overseas. " These new ventures include purchasing and starting new banks as well as snapping up recently privatized infrastructure.
Return of the Militant Union?
Looks like some workers have discovered they have more options than simply striking:
Workers laid off from their jobs at a factory have occupied the building and are demanding assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay that they say they are owed.
...During the peaceful takeover, workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building, Fried said.
"We're doing something we haven't since the 1930s, so we're trying to make it work," Fried said.
The above quote is from the A.P. article, but the Socialist Worker one is more detailed. While this is an encouraging development in the labor struggle, I wonder if such radical tactics will catch on as the economy goes to shit. This is a step in the right direction, though: labor homesteading the means of production that only exist in capitalist hands because of a statist title system, instead of begging the government for mercy.
Quote of the Day
When you think about the importance that Proudhon does place on "collective beings" and collective "reason," you might suspect that one of the ways we have screwed up association thus far is to attempt to dictate a law of organization to entities which will have their own, emergent purposes, while at the same time we have hampered that emergence by attempting to live by the law we have externalized and alienated from our own individual interests. You can see how a sort of "natural law" ethics might emerge from this stuff that would not insist on universalizing judgments and might not lend itself to the establishment of natural rights.
- Shawn Wilbur on the Graveyard of the Gods forum
Also, note that the above mentioned forum has had several discussions of mutualism that I've found very beneficial. Kudos to Cork, neverfox, Francois Tremblay, and Shawn.
The Partial Observer - If I had a billion dollars . . .
"If Leedskalnin and/or others really did have the an understanding of the universe that made a perpetual-motion machine possible, by all means we should try to discover it. The reason we don't is that too many self-interested parties fear what the discoveries might lead to. And that's one reason to distrust offices of power and those who hold them."
'Anarchist' looked like someone's mom
Newspaper reviews reports from law enforcement infiltrators of the RNC Welcoming Committee.
