In loving, living memory, John Melançon 1928 – 2007
Connecting plastic bag tents to heating vents, very much one of the coolest things I've seen from a practical, moral, political standpoint. (But I refuse to call it paraSITE, as the creator does.) My comment over there:
I second the request for a how-to on building these things, as I haven't seen one in Boston so there's definitely more opportunity to use this survival and visibility tool.
So the dollar and much of the U.S. economy is screwed, and I don't even know what my Pax World Balanced Fund Roth IRA that I put money into each year puts that money into.
I searched for "invest in Venezuela," "socially responsible foreign investment," "Latin America SRI" and such, without much effect.
[A post of mine to the Grassroots Radio Coalition listserve.]
A friend of mine suggested that someone had it in for Don Imus. Now, I
think he's right.
I don't care that Imus may be fired; if you're highly paid to say offensive
things and you say something highly offensive and get fired, that's an
occupational risk still far better than the job security most of us have.
My friend's point, which others have made in different contexts, is that you
can listen to any fifteen minutes of any of Imus or dozens of other radio
The law – collectively – has lost its legitimacy with the enforcement of just one law.
Orlando police arrested Eric Montanez for feeding people for free, and confiscated the stew. Orlando is a city that has banned giving food to homeless people.
News items like this make one wish there were take action buttons next to them. Until people who give a damn gets up to speed, there are these things called search engines that work pretty well too:
Hat tip to BradBlog for covering the important issue so constantly.
And of course Black Box Voting (dot ORG) for that as well, and more.
The blog division of Melançon Enterprises has joined a million blogs for peace and should probably find somewhere permanent to display this strange icon:
For the record, the blog division is strongly against any additional war against Iran, Afghanistan, any country in Africa, or any other country in the world where the government has not organized an army and attacked first.
My point, actually, is that headline should speak for itself.
A week or so ago I read about a poll of United States residents' opinion of – and grasp of facts regarding – the U.S. war on Iraq.
News (Opinion?) Flash: "77% of Americans find the level of civilian deaths in Iraq unacceptable."
This is a U.S. public that (according to the same poll) thinks the number of Iraqis killed is oh, just under 10,000 people– not, say, more than 600,000 mostly noncombatants.
George Lakoff tries to save humanity with clear language: The Words None Dare Say: Nuclear War.
Jake and I have identified the precise analogy for what's going on among the leaders of this planet:
A whole bunch of people on a raft fighting over whose raft it is with a big wave coming.
And Dick Cheney drilling for oil through the bottom of the raft.