a thaumaturgical compendium

I should be working, yet I’m instead writing speeches for our commander in chief.

Not exactly inspired, but fun none the less: Anti-Capitalist Scavanger Hunt. (Stating here for the record that I’m less than happy with the “whack a CEO” and a few other entries on that list.)

What exactly does this mean? Terrorists are expected to use caution when attacking the US? According to the “homeland security” folks, “Detained al Qaida operatives have informed U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials that al Qaida will wait until it believes Americans are less vigilant and less prepared before it will strike again.” Sorry, but am I then wrong in thinking that the move to “Yellow” is dangerous, and “Green” would be suicidal?

I’m pretty sick of news coverage about the “terrorist cell” busted in Lackawana. A bunch of guys went to the equivalent of a “weekend warriors” camp and they are now “al Qaeda operatives”? I don’t want to downplay their activities, but at the same time, the news media seem more than willing to assume guilt by association. I say let’s wait and see the evidence before our socks start rolling up and down.

Here’s an essay that agrees with my position and must therefore be correct. (It also contains more facts on the matter than the average “news” report.)

Not surprisingly (due to the subject matter more than anything all that original), journalists continue to be interested in the “Do-it-yourself journalism” chapter for the Pew report. It’s shown up in an LA Times article, as well as online.

Governments — and the armed agencies that served them — loathed intellectuals and artists and freethinkers of every stripe, but they didn’t particularly fear them. Not anymore. They didn’t fear them because in the modern corporate state, artists, intellectuals, and freethinkers wielded no political or economic power, had no real hold on the hearts and minds of the masses. Human societies have always defined themselves through narration, but nowadays corporations are telling man’s stories for him. And the message, no matter how entertainingly couched, is invariably the same: to be special, you must conform; to be happy, you must consume.
- Tom Robins, Fierce Invalids From Hot Climates

Pat Donovan at UW News Services, put together a press release on the Zapatista research Maria and I have been working on.