BroadSnark

First off, I’ve started an anarchist meetup group in DC.  If you are in the area, or know someone who is, check it out.  Our first meetup will be on March 28th.

Second, I must apologize to all the women who responded to my post about a women focused gathering.  I wasn’t able to get a message out before vacation, but I promise it is going to happen!

There’s been an update on the snowball war.  The cop who pulled a gun is going to get a staggaring ten day suspension for…wait for it…not filing a report. (HT @InjusticeNews)

Doesn’t it make you all warm and fuzzy that nuclear waste is being shipped around the world? (HT @tovX).  Aren’t you glad Obama has changed his mind and now wants to join the nuclear energy party before we have a safe way to get rid of the waste?

Ever feel like you are being watched?  In what is turning out to be a series of post links, more students have had their rights violated by their school.  Webcams on student laptops were used by the school to spy on them and their families.

Perhaps they were looking for an excuse to put kids in solitary confinement? (HT Joe F)

At least the students weren’t publicly harassed and humiliated in order to get their names into a public database filled with information on New York’s minorities.  Oh no.  They won’t do anything rotten with that information.

But hey, we aren’t yet arresting people for listening to rap music, like in Australia.

All of which reminds me, now would be a good time to learn Seven and a Half  Things You Can Do to Resist Mass Incarceration.  You also might want to consider taking Dave Chappelle’s advice.

I made it back from Florida with my sanity and only a minor drinking problem, so things are good.  I’ll get back to my regular posting schedule next week.  In the meantime, you can check out a couple blog carnivals I participated in.

Carnival of the Godless

and

Carnival of the Liberals (I know I’m not exactly a liberal, but…)

No posting this week, as I am in Florida soaking up the sun and trying not to let my relatives drive me over the edge.  If you don’t hear from me by next Wednesday, send a rescue team.

I know there are some people who really believe that enforcing anti-prostitution laws will help women, but it is really hard to have patience for those people when I read things like this.

On a more inspiring note, these women in South Korea are bad asses.

Howard Zinn recently spoke about the myths of Americas three “good wars.” It is most definitely worth a listen.

Great article on Tranarchism called Why I am Still an Anarchist.

Amazing article by Amy Hamilton called Why I Broke Up with the Anarchist Community.

And finally, how about a little old school Kropotkin on prisons.

Great post by Jason Laning In Defense of Anarchism.  In response to the idea that anarchists wouldn’t be able to “resist power-seekers who want to dominate and control others” he says,

That is, his hypothetical scenario of an anarchist society doesn’t seem to have many anarchists in it. Instead, it’s full of roving fascists (which seems more appropriate for a hypothetical society of roving fascism, no?)

Love it.

Radley Balko has a nice summary of the snowball war drama in Reason.  If this story doesn’t clearly show how far gone police and corporate media are, I don’t what would.

At the Republic of T there is a response to Newsweek’s recent cover about the “People Who Matter.”  Some interesting quotes on “rankism”, which I know nothing about, but it seems like a theory that just needs a little push into anarchism.

Kevin Carson’s post at CSS calls out the hypocrisy of people who claim the surveillance state isn’t problematic…until it effects them.

At Anarchist6[zero]6 there is information on a study that shows how power corrupts.

And, finally, on the Daily Beast there is a lengthy post about Pope Pius XIIs collusion with the Nazis and the Vatican’s current attempts to canonize him.  (If you have never read Hitler’s Pope, I would highly recommend it.)

Breaking news isn’t really my thing, but it does bring the traffic.  The article I wrote after attending CATO/Glenn Greenwald’s release of the Portugal decriminalization study was the most popular post this year.  And the snowball war post came in at number three.

White America’s Existential Crisis was the second most popular post this year, and the one that garnered the most discussion and cross-posting (I think).

My post about how hard some Americans worked to exclude non-Christian immigration was fourth most popular.  I have to thank the Carnival of the Godless for some of that.

And the fifth most popular was the one I wrote about the movie Revolutionary Road.  I was surprised at that one, as it didn’t get a lot of hits at the time.  But they keep trickling in.  I have the distinct impression that kids are getting assigned this movie in school and are looking for paper material.

As for all time popularity, the first two slots for 2009 actually beat out the former all time front runner (which now comes in at number three) – Would you Rather Have Balls or Heart.

So my takeaway is that you want me to talk about drugs, cops, discrimination, the despair that is American life, and balls.

Everyone wants to think that they are a good person.  But the truth is that all of us are capable of doing horrible things.  As a Nadder! points out in Milgram, Rape & Silence, “It is much safer to acknowledge your violent potential since then you’re better placed to watch out for signs things are going wrong. And to help maintain social circumstances that curb violence in others.”

Evo Morales is often vilified in U.S. media as another leftist friend of Chavez.  Admittedly, I haven’t been closely following his policies, but the fact that the New Bolivian Constitution Guarantees Sexual and Reproductive Rights makes his government put ours to shame.  It’s particularly incredible in the context of Latin America where women are dying or jailed because abortions are illegal.

Migrants and refugees are a permanent underclass all over the world.   Whatever rights citizens have managed to claim for themselves have only left non-citizens that much more vulnerable to abuse.  And the lines between migrants and refugees, always fuzzy, are only getting more blurred.  Today’s refugees are joining other poor people in urban slums.  This isn’t just an appalling injustice.  It’s a powder keg.

Speaking of violence, Aretae has an interesting post up.  Is brief physical pain actually less harmful than long emotional pain?  Interesting question.

And I leave you with yet another post from Trust is the Only Currency wherein Mira Luna says:

If you want to wait to get permission to have an economic (r)evolution from the same kinds of people that created the need for one, then fine, please do. But I am not going to sit around and wait for permission. I am starting one here in my community right now. And if we do it right, it make be so attractive so as to create a spark that lights the world on fire… this time in a good way.

It’s time for my annual holiday season bitching post.  Feel free to skip this if you are not in the mood for a rant.

I get it.  Like 76% of people in the United States consider themselves Christian and you all think Christmas is a big f’ing deal.  I’ve written before about the violence and discrimination Christians used to make this a 76% Christian nation, so I won’t go on about that here.  But I would like to point out a few things:

1.  76% is not 100%.  Try not to act shocked when someone tells you that they don’t have plans for “the holidays”, cause they don’t actually celebrate your holidays.

2.  To my fellow Jews.  We all know that Hanukkah is way, way down on the list of important Jewish holidays.  There isn’t near enough suffering involved in Hanukkah to make it a big deal.  Yom Kippur, a day of starvation and guilt, is a Jewish holiday.  Passover – nights of sitting around a table for several hours while someone occasionally feeds you a bite of some repugnant, symbolic item they claim is food – is a Jewish holiday.  I know many parents tried to pump it up to make us kids feel less left out during the month of December, but we don’t really have to keep up that farce do we?

3.  It is completely inappropriate that we have a Christian holiday for a national holiday.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a paid day off from work for anything.  I’d celebrate Hitler’s birthday.  But you don’t get to claim that it’s secular.  Which brings me to…

4.  The rule is, if you are in the majority, you don’t get to tell the minority how to feel.  I don’t care if you think Christmas is secular or if you insist that it isn’t exclusionary or if you think it is perfectly harmless to have life in December revolve around the births of Jesus and materialism.  You don’t get to tell me what to think about that.  I assure you that I do not find it secular in the least.

5.  Christmas cards are dying.  Let them go.  I know some of you think they are a quaint way to keep in touch with friends and family once a year.  We don’t need them anymore.  I’m on Facebook.  I know what you ate for dinner, what you thought about the last episode of True Blood, and that you found a black sheep on your farmville.  TMI.

6.  If on a personal level you insist on killing the trees, so be it.  However, the sending of Christmas cards from a business is absurd.  The sending of Christmas cards from a business that is supposed to be “green” like mine is super absurd.  The sending of Christmas cards from an organization that is supposed to be international and culturally sensitive is just gross.  If you tell me, the atheist Jew, that I have to help you send out these Christian, tree killing, pointless cards – you are going to get some attitude.  Deal with it.

7.  I’m all for parties, even Christmas parties.  I’ll be happily attending the snow ball tonight and Santarchy tomorrow.  However, to all of you organizations that wonder why you fail miserably at diversity, you might want to rethink your Christmas party policy.  Do you think having your biggest deal of the year revolve around a Christian holiday sends the right message to your non-Christian staff?  Not all your Muslim employees will find jokes about their getting drunk at the office Jesus party to be hilarious.  And for Christ’s sake, stop throwing in vague, obligatory mentions of other holidays.  You are making a public display of your Christianness.  You don’t get to pretend otherwise.

And finally

8.  I will not participate in any obligatory gift giving.  I do not want any more candles, lotions, picture frames, or t-shirts with pithy sayings.  I will not be going into the heart of darkness (the mall) to buy you a candle, lotion, picture frame, or t-shirt.  I can; however, be talked into a drunken trip to the mall parking lot to change people’s Jesus fish to Darwin fish.

And with that, I go to eat my Christmas cookies.