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Mute Magazine. Our wall is a house of cards, and it's falling. [Nov. 10th, 2009|01:47 am]

powerswitch

[smashboredom]
In Times of Crisis: Act!

Monday, 9 November, 2009

It has been 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. We are ‘celebrating’ this anniversary at a time when global capitalism and liberal democracy, the so-called winners of the Cold War struggle between East and West, find themselves in one of the deepest economic and political crises since the Wall Street crash in 1929 and the global turmoil that followed. Perhaps more significantly, however, this is the first crisis that Eastern Europeans are experiencing since their so-called ‘transition’ from a state socialist to a capitalist ideology. What should we make of this transition since 1989? Rather than engaging in a traditional analysis of the winners and losers of this transition, I am interested in what today’s capitalist crisis has perhaps in common with the crisis of state socialism in 1989. I will explore this question by engaging with the German film Good Bye Lenin!.

Crisis, What Crisis?


The press is currently reporting – on an almost daily basis – that we are in the midst of one of the deepest and most serious economic crises since the 1929 Wall Street crash. While it is clear that most of the media has not quite given up on capitalism – for example, the Financial Times’ motto seems to be ‘Capitalism is dead; long live capitalism’ (Wolf, 2009) – it is nevertheless significant that even the most outspoken apologists for capitalist free markets see a real danger in the capitalist system itself being under threat.

As someone who grew up in East Germany and went through a life-defining crisis in 1989 – the fall of the Berlin Wall – I find the current capitalist crisis strangely satisfying. Not that I do not have a heart for all those who are currently suffering because of this crisis. There are those millions who have lost their jobs, those who live in constant fear of job insecurity, and the millions who are affected by the massive cut-backs in social spending. The current crisis has unprecedented implications throughout the world. Latvia, for example – one of the ‘Baltic Tigers’ that until recently were celebrated for their ‘transition’ successes – has had to be bailed out by the IMF. This forced the government to cut the wages of public service workers, such as teachers, by up to a half(!), reduce state pensions by 10 per cent and the unemployment rate has risen from around 5 to over 14-15 per cent within two years (for more details, see Kuper, 2009). This is thus clearly a crisis that is affecting millions of people around the world in very real terms. What I find somewhat satisfying is not at all that people are suffering but that a system that just a few months ago nobody thought could ever come to an end is now in a deep economic, political and legitimation crisis. That is, what is good to see is that the over-confidence of capitalism – symbolized by astronomical increases in executive salaries, stock market booms and the construction of ever higher skyscrapers – has now experienced a real crack. For me, there are real parallels between today’s crisis and that of 1989. Back then, too, nobody – even those strategists of the West whose full time job it was to destroy the East – expected the state socialist system to crack and eventually fall in the spectacular fashion it did. Perhaps, then, we have not seen the end of today’s crisis!
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Champions of the Overdog [Nov. 9th, 2009|08:03 pm]
monbiot
Local papers are vanishing. Does it matter?
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three new blog posts from DAM [Nov. 9th, 2009|11:14 am]

antiwar

[sadie_sabot]
(cross-posted)

The Dialogues Against Militarism delegation, currently in Jerusalem, have posted three new blog entries. Check it out, and also forward/repost far and wide!

http://againstmilitarism.wordpress.com/

includes poetry, analysis, and gratitude. check it out!
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20 years later [Nov. 9th, 2009|01:38 pm]

solideogloria
[Tags|, ]



The Fall of the Wall

20 years ago I was three. 20 years ago, on this day, the world was changed. The Berlin Wall, which separated East from West and was the physical representation of a divide that ran long and deep, came down on November 9, 1989. The wall coming down was the physical manifestation of events that had been happening and building for years by that time. Hungary and Austria had opened in 1988 so East Germans could get into the West by a rather circuitous route. So it seemed that everyone knew that the wall, which had separated so many for so long would come down, but no one knew when it would actually happen. Then just like that then wall was dismantled, East and West Germany were on their way to reuniting, and the glorious socialist future seemed to be turning into a rather nasty and present reality. The journey after the fall of the wall, reunification, and the independence of the Eastern Bloc nations has been anything but easy. Nations that depended on the USSR for support in all areas of life lost that support and have had to find their own place on the world stage. East and West Germans(Ossies and Wessies) have had to learn how to live together again and that has not been without difficulty. Wessies feel like they are being abused by parasitic Ossies because the economy of the DDR was in a shambles after the Soviets left. The Czechs and the Slovaks would go their own ways in an aptly named revolution(the Velvet Revolution). Most of the Eastern bloc nations are full fledged and contributing members of the European Union and the few that aren't will be soon. They have come a long way since that autumn day in 1989 that seemed to start it all. Each nation has chosen its own path. These nations have had to figure it out on their own and they've done a marvelous job. This is a momentous anniversary which we can all celebrate!

Grace and Peace
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(no subject) [Nov. 9th, 2009|10:15 am]

retrofire

http://www.borowitzreport.com/
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Comic for November 9, 2009 [Nov. 9th, 2009|12:00 am]
dilbertdaily


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'Archaeologist of erotica' revives world of brothels [Nov. 8th, 2009|04:13 pm]

retrofire
PARIS – The sign hung at 12, rue Chabanais, in the days when the building housed the most prestigious of Paris' infamous bordellos, read "Welcome to the Chabanais: The House of All Nations".

With the brothels closed down 60 years ago, nowadays the skinny eight-storey building on a tiny street near the Louvre houses an employment agency and a bunch of flats. But right across the road, at number 11, a gallery is keeping its memories alive.

Nicole Canet, who runs a gallery-cum-boutique of erotic pictures and historic sex toys, is holding an exhibition there on the heyday of France's legendary "maisons closes", or authorised brothels.

"I love going back in time, playing detective," Canet, a 50-something former dancer, told AFP.

Along with a selection of whips in rhino-horn and other suggestive bits and pieces, the show revisits the life of the brothels from 1860 to their forced closure in 1946 in some 400 old photographs, etchings and books.

The Chabanais, for one, was a routine stopover for foreign dignitaries, who would be sneaked in secretly by French government officials. One of its most distinguished visitors was Britain's "Bertie", then Prince of Wales and soon to become King Edward VII.

"Bertie" had his own room there, as well as a giant copper bath -- with a half-woman half-swan figurehead -- that he liked to fill with champagne before jumping in, and a so-called "love-seat", a weird contraption said to be for threesomes.

Worlds apart from sordid back-rooms in cheap hotels, the high society brothels evoked in the show were luxury palaces with sumptuous decors designed to cater to any fantasy.

Au Bonheur du Jour - Galerie d'Art

Read more... )
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Forest clearances sealed ancient civilisation's downfall (Explorator) [Nov. 8th, 2009|03:46 pm]

retrofire
Archaeologists examining the remains of the Nasca, who once flourished in the valleys of south coastal Peru, have uncovered a sequence of human-induced events which led to their "catastrophic" collapse around 500 AD.

The Nasca are probably best known for the famous "Nazca Lines", giant geoglyphs which they left etched into the surface of the vast, empty desert plain that lies between the Peruvian towns of Nazca and Palpa.

The depictions have spawned various wild theories, including that they were created by aliens. Most scholars now believe that they were sacred pathways which Nasca people followed during the course of their ancient rituals.



Other aspects of Nasca history and culture remain less clearly understood, however. In particular, experts have struggled to explain why a society which clearly prospered during the first half of the first Millennium AD then collapsed into a bloody resource war and eventually vanished.

Some have argued that a mega-El Niño, which hit the region at around that time, may have been the cause. However, a team of researchers at Cambridge University, suggest that the Nasca inadvertently wrought their own demise.

Using plant remains gathered in the lower Ica Valley, the team found evidence that over the course of many generations, the Nasca cleared areas of forest to make way for their own agriculture. Studies of pollen samples taken by co-researcher Alex Chepstow-Lusty, of the French Institute of Andean Studies in Lima, showed that the huarango tree, which once covered what is now a desert area, was gradually replaced by crops such as cotton and maize.

As the paper explains, however, the huarango was more than just a tree - it was a crucial part of the desert's fragile ecosystem, which enhanced soil fertility and moisture and helped to hold the Nasca's narrow, vulnerable irrigation channels in place.

Eventually, they cut down so many trees that they reached a tipping point at which the arid ecosystem was irreversibly damaged. The authors do not dispute that a major, El Niño-style event then occurred - finding hard evidence for this for the first time. But they also find that the impact of this flood would have been far less devastating had the forests which protected the delicate desert ecology still been there.

source
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<3 Lucie ! [Nov. 8th, 2009|06:19 pm]

my_plastic_star


Just found this shot from Scopitone festival, Nantes, /france this summer..  :):)

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(no subject) [Nov. 8th, 2009|01:01 pm]

thechristophe

  • 22:18 Will have to find a way of making Paneer Tikka one of my five a day. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter also check out my political blog
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Comic for November 8, 2009 [Nov. 8th, 2009|12:00 am]
dilbertdaily


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Australia. [Nov. 7th, 2009|05:32 pm]

powerswitch

[smashboredom]
IN A HOT CLIMATE

In Australia they are part-way through a series of four Climate Camps across the country – because, as our SchNEWS correspondent says - it saves them “chugging across the country in dodgy hippy vans”, and causing more er carbon emissions.

As we covered in SchNEWS 691, the first was held September 12th-13th in Victoria, when over 500 people went to the Hazelwood coal fired power station in the Latrobe Valley, calling for an end to coal power and a switch to renewables. Despite a heavy police presence, 22 people scaled the fence to serve a Community Decommission Order on the power station.

Next up was South Australia, where from September 24th-27th a Climate Camp targeted a coal train running to Port Augusta. 50 people camped for four days and held a demo outside the Port Augusta coal fired power station, presenting a Community Decommission Order and 350 native flowers at the gate. Police had agreed that the coal train wouldn't run all weekend on safety grounds, but later – making a mockery of attempts to negotiate with police - it turns out that the train had run, at a different time, because apparently it had accidentally derailed.

NSW climate campers experienced some extreme climatic conditions, including gale force winds and heavy rain during their camp October 9th-11th. 200 people camped near the Metropolitan Colliery in Helensburgh for three days of workshops, campaign planning and direct action. The camp included a sovereignty tent, where Traditional Owners from around the country gathered to share stories of resistance. The camp was also visited by members of an Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory who have recently walked off their community in protest against the continuing racist 'intervention' in indigenous communities (for more info on that, check out http://interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com). Early in the morning of Sunday 11th October, four people entered the Dendrobium coal mine and locked on to a conveyor belt. Later that day 500 people attended a big rally through town, finishing at the Colliery where eight more were arrested after jumping the fence. Despite threatening drinking water supplies, the mine is set for expansion, so no doubt we'll be hearing more from local campaigners down there.

And even though Queenslanders didn't have a camp, on October 22nd, 20 people went out in kayaks on the Brisbane River attempting to stop a ship loaded with 90,000 tonnes of coal from leaving the city's port. See www.sixdegrees.org.au

As the Copenhagen talks come to an end in December, Western Australians will camp in the state's coal capital, Collie.

For more see www.climatecamp.org.au
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Message pour Lucie envoyer par ciel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 05-nov-09 [Nov. 7th, 2009|05:12 pm]

my_plastic_star
[Current Location |United Kingdom, northampton]
[Current Music |Leila - The Exotics W Seaming | Powered by Last.fm]

</div>

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Comic for November 7, 2009 [Nov. 7th, 2009|12:00 am]
dilbertdaily


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Books of October [Nov. 6th, 2009|04:17 pm]

solideogloria
[Tags|]

I read some very interesting books in October. Here's the rundown:

Kabul 24 You can read my review here. It was a great book! 320 pages.

Diary by Chuck Palahniuk was an interesting book. It's rather typical of Palahniuk and he's not my favorite writer but I did enjoy the book. 272 pages.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a fantastic study into the mind and actions of a murderer. He constantly wonders when he will be found out. This has been called a masterpiece of Russian literature and it certainly is. It is also one of the shorter Russian novels. 700 pages.

The Captain's Daughter by Pushkin is the story of a young man who is sent to the hinterland of Russia in service to the military and he falls in love with his Captain's daughter. I won't spoil the story but it's a good one. 105 pages.

Book of Common Prayer

This is a book that I have been familiar with for quite a while. This is the blueprint, the guidebook, for the Anglican Communion. It is a book rich in tradition and has impacted the faith of millions including me. The BCP holds several versions of the Eucharist that can performed. To read through these and reflect on the richness of a tradition of worship that extends back to the very earliest days of the Church is humbling as a Christian. There is a lot of repetition in the book(especially in the Daily Offices and the Eucharist) so it can be a fairly quick read. Don't let the page length scare you. I think it's a text everyone should read sometime.1008 pages.

The Devil by Leo Tolstoy is a short story that deals in many ways with the depravity of man and the need to fulfill the desires of the flesh that can eventually lead to death. Tolstoy believed that sex was despicable and that a celibate life was the only way to live. I have no idea how he planned for humanity to continue as a race. 58 pages.

Beautiful Mess by Diamond Rio

You can read my review here 288 pages.

The Death of Ivan Illych by Tolstoy - 48 pages

Grace and Peace
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Beautiful Mess by Diamond Rio [Nov. 6th, 2009|03:24 pm]

solideogloria
[Tags|]



Thomas Nelson's Page for Beautiful Mess
Amazon's Page for Beautiful Mess

I have been a Diamond Rio fan for a long time and so I had been wanting to get my hands on this book for a while. I've listened to Diamond Rio since I was very young. I loved the musically harmony and amazing lyrics that I heard from these guys. Reading this book and listening to their music again reminded me why I'm such a big fan. As a lover of country music the names of the people that Diamond Rio has worked with read like a Who's Who list that made me smile in acknowledgment and remember some great mucic. I was enthralled with their story of their hard road to stardom from page one. Combine that with a very easy to read writing style and you have a great book.

These six guys have made something work that very few others have, they are six person band loyal to the music but most of all to each other. The book tells the personal stories of each of the band members and yet in the end the book is about their story as a band as parts of a whole. They have faced the fickle country music industry with a solidarity almost unheard of. The lead singer of the band, Marty Roe, developed vocal issues that were having a decidedly negative effect on the bands performance. Through years of bad performances, changing things around to make his out of sync vocals less noticable, and talks about the problem the members of Diamond Rio stuck it out and banded together as a group to fix the problem. Eventually, a solution was found and the old Diamond Rio, lost for so long was back. They did it as a group, a community, a family. In comparing solo artists versus a six man band they write: "Solo artists can make decisions-- about songs, about tours, about managers--in a snap. A band has an extra layer of friction: it requires extra meetings, lots of communication, and an uncommon willingness to sacrifice personal goals for the good of the team." They believe that it is the journey not the destination that is important. It's not so much about the awards but what it took to get to the awards. Diamond Rio is also a very giving group and the book chronicles this quite well. Even from their earliest days the guys in the band were very giving. They understood that people had helped them along the way and they wanted to give some of that back. They believed that "the biggest part of getting a blessing is not keeping it." Diamond Rio would join a Christian label, Word Records, and record an album telling of their journey of conflict and redemption that centered around Marty. Marty said that he believed that God had brought them to a place where they were going to do something bigger than themselves.

This is a great story of loyalty, solidarity, conflict, and redemption. I personally hope that these guys continue to make music for a long time.

Grace and Peace
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(no subject) [Nov. 6th, 2009|01:30 pm]

retrofire
Mark Sanford is still Governor of South Carolina

"I have apologized repeatedly for my moral failing and the measure of any of our lives is in how we get back up, as I believe God can use people far from perfect in all walks of life. I have also said repeatedly that the original moral failure was mine, but that doesn't make it right for some in politics, or media, to continue to spread inaccurate information out there because they think it will help them climb politically, or that it is payback time politically, or in the media world that it would help them sell papers."

He needs a good rectal smoking.
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[Fan Fiction] L'Arabesque de Scène [Nov. 6th, 2009|09:05 pm]

metallic_sweet
[Tags|, , , ]
[Current Location |empires of faith unravel]
[Current Mood | mellow]
[Current Music |"Take Me Away" - Globus]

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )
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(no subject) [Nov. 6th, 2009|10:32 am]

retrofire


thank you [info]sasha_bogdanov
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Comic for November 6, 2009 [Nov. 6th, 2009|12:00 am]
dilbertdaily


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DAM delegation arrives in Be'er Sheva [Nov. 4th, 2009|01:03 pm]

antiwar

[sadie_sabot]
*cross posted *

The Dialogues against Militarism delegation has arrived in Be'er Sheva; here is their very first blog post.

please post the link to their blog anywhere where folks are doing anti-militarism work and Palestine solidarity work!

http://againstmilitarism.wordpress.com/
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(no subject) [Nov. 5th, 2009|09:41 pm]

antiwar

[ruderod]
I wonder if this soldier who killed the 12 people had been to combat before? If he was a Major, my guess is that he may have been to Iraq or Afganistan before? This is sad. I have read about people who during combat (or afterwards) snap and just go crazy. I remember a story about a sniper in Vietnam who just started to shoot his own troops. . .now and then he would just pick off one of his own comrades. Took them a while to figure out why they where losing troops. They say the sniper just stopped caring about who he shot. War is a hell and people don't realize the emotional and mental anguish it causes people. I can only imagine as I have never been shot at in war.

This was a sick thing that this guy did. Odd that media was reporting the shooter was killed. .. .yet wasn't. Well really not that odd, military incidents are never opaque to the media.
All I can say is that combat takes it's toll. Maybe this officer just saw too many battle worn young men, men whose minds had been twisted with death and destruction. If that is the case, the battle came home via our own troops, not some terrorist that is visiting with a green card. The battle came home people, think about that next time you see a veteran or see our troops going off to war. The mind doesn't shut things out so quickly. You can't just send a young man to war then believe he will come home and be a fine young citizen. It doesn't always work that way.

It's sick how fast you can kill people with bullets. Whether it is a freaked out officer killing his own peers or a machine gun in the battlefield, flying lead is incredible killer and it's really sick how fast you can die from a bullet wound. I am sure the families of the twelve dead are thinking about that right now. All of a sudden their loved ones are gone.


Officials: Fort Hood shootings suspect alive; 12 dead

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/05/texas.fort.hood.shootings/index.html
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Still around [Nov. 5th, 2009|06:49 pm]

arielanna
[Current Mood | sad]

I'm still alive! I've just been super busy. I will try to update more often.

I just wanted to ask everyone out there to say a little prayer or send up a thought about those effected by today's shootings at Fort Hood in Texas.
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(no subject) [Nov. 5th, 2009|03:15 pm]

moralxdilemma
I get the feeling sometimes like I am Neo from the matrix.  Yes, I know how stupid that sounds.  I feel like my understanding of the world is fake; an illusion fed to me to keep me in ignorance and asleep.  I want to wake up.  Sometimes I feel like I am on the verge, as if true understanding was imminent.  It's a very frustrating feeling, and I have a great deal of angst as a result.  It makes formulating and pursuing goals very difficult.  It makes simply being happy practically impossible. 
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(no subject) [Nov. 5th, 2009|12:11 pm]

retrofire
Horry County man accused of having sex with horse pleads guilty

Mr. Vereen was arrested for having sex with Sugar Thanksgiving Day in 2007. He was put on three years probation and was ordered to register as a sex offender. He was arrested again this past August with the same horse, this time caught in the act on surveillance camera. The Judge sentenced Vereen to 5 years in prison, suspended to 3 years in prison and 2 years probation.

Sugar
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It's Time to Rebuild Our Passenger Railroad System [Nov. 5th, 2009|09:35 am]

peakoil_prep

[plizak]
It's Time to Rebuild Our Passenger Railroad System

Restoring the American railroad system is an excellent place to start recovering our sense of national purpose and faith in collective enterprise.

By James Howard Kunstler, Chelsea Green Publishing
Posted on November 4, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143716/

The following is from the foreword of Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service by James McCommons (Chelsea Green, 2009).

The world economic fiasco, which I call "The Long Emergency," may be speeding us into a future of permanent nostalgia in which anything that is not of the present time looks good.

Read more... )
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(no subject) [Nov. 5th, 2009|01:01 pm]

thechristophe
  • 21:00 Spooks! #
  • 23:10 Not even in government and Cameron and Hague have already pissed off the French, where will I get my Brie?: j.mp/3gUROS #
Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter also check out my political blog
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Comic for November 5, 2009 [Nov. 5th, 2009|12:00 am]
dilbertdaily


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Speakers for sale. [Nov. 5th, 2009|01:16 am]

smhpunk
PS: If you or anyone you know needs guitar speakers, I'm selling two Vintage 30's.

http://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/msg/1452207677.html
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Girls, Gear, Goofballery [Nov. 4th, 2009|11:55 pm]

smhpunk
Oh man. If there was ever a point where I questioned why I decided to major in creative writing, reading back on my old entries certainly provided an answer. There are some pretty profound truths in here, at least profound to me. Short lines and passages buried by time, laziness, and self-consciousness, all of which still apply to me and are in perfect working order. Like finding a guitar that's been sitting in the closet for years, in its case, still in tune.

I can say with an unfamiliar sense of pride that I really impressed myself. Good writing draws you in, better writing gets you to think, and the best writing holds true long after it's been read. Hopefully I can one day fall into all three of those categories.

Stef and I are still going well. It's truly amazing how I've felt myself learn to compromise and question a lot of the things I believe. It's not necessarily to conform to any kind of standard I'm being held to, but more so to examine the things I've arrogantly held to be true without having ever explored the possibility of viable alternatives. I feel like I've been trimming the fat off of my soul (maybe I can finally lose the spare tire around my waist. Not a good look for '09...ever) and streamlining myself, eliminating what I find superfluous useless and eschewing obfuscation avoiding needless complication. The big, scary "adult" questions that loom ahead seem simple and less threatening now...like revisiting the old episodes of "Are You Afraid of the Dark" and realizing they're not nearly as terrifying as the less mature version of myself made them out to be.

And now on to the much less introspective portion of my entry, brought to you by the experience I had at Subway today:

"You know, eating that veggie patty is going to give you cancer because of the concentration of soy protein."

"You dropped your cigarettes."

gear talk )
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(no subject) [Nov. 4th, 2009|10:48 am]

retrofire
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Red Veg [Nov. 4th, 2009|02:18 pm]

ukvegans

[dansette]
It looks like Red Veg in Soho has closed down - it's been compulsorily purchased as Crossrail is demolishing the building to build their ticket hall under Dean Street.

http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/59154/pages/13837

I will miss it! Does anyone know if there are any plans to open on new premises?
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(no subject) [Nov. 4th, 2009|01:00 pm]

thechristophe

  • 18:10 Eggnog Latte liberation front (ELLF) proclaims success as @starbucks caves in and brings Eggnog Latte's back! #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter also check out my political blog
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Comic for November 4, 2009 [Nov. 4th, 2009|12:00 am]
dilbertdaily


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CJF update- 3 days to go! [Nov. 4th, 2009|02:10 am]

powerswitch

[smashboredom]


Hello all Climate Justice Fast! supporters!

Three days to go until the world's first international hunger strike for climate justice, and we couldn't be more excited. With over 80 people from 14 different countries now involved, we hope to make CJF a beautiful and inspiring call for responsible, moral action from our leaders, and a rallying cry to all world citizens to get involved and help stop climate change before it's too late.

Please watch (and share on your fb, twitter, etc) a campaign update I've jut uploaded- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtHca6kkN7I



Peace and Love,

Paul
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Makes me think of republicans... [Nov. 3rd, 2009|03:43 pm]

retrofire
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The Month That Was [Nov. 3rd, 2009|10:09 am]

solideogloria
[Tags|, , , , ]

I realized when I looked at my blog to see when the last substantive thing I had written was, that it had been almost a month ago, which is a testament to the busyness of the past month. School is going well. It's keeping me busy and my friends are keeping me grounded. It's good times. I realized tonight that we have a little over a month before the end of the semester. I have my plane ticket and it will definitely be exciting to go home, relax, and see my family and friends back that way. In recent news I went to New Orleans/ Baton Rouge with some friends a couple weekends ago. We spent two hours searching for a hotel, hung out on Bourbon Street(interesting times indeed), had lunch with Anna, saw a naked guy in the street near LSU, chilled on the quad, went to the LSU -Auburn game and had an all around awesome weekend. I went to a Blues Travelers concert with Clark...that was so much fun. I've never seen anyone play harmonica that way. Then, I spent most of the week sick...yay! I missed the costume ball, but next year...next year Gadget! Clark's birthday was fun. We went and had Philly Connection for lunch and just hung out. It was fun. Living together Clark and I see each other all the time but we don't get to hang out much. Friday, Brandon came in and was here for the weekend. It was so much fun to have him back. We had a party for Clark, Trevor, and Jimmy at Josh's on Friday. It was so much fun! We got to hang out and play rock band. There were so many people there! Saturday night we all went out to a Mexican restaurant here in town that holds some pretty special memories for me. It was the first place I ate at in Tally when I moved here in the fall of 08. Sunday was a crazy busy day with church, praying for one of the old interns, lunch, and a few different meetings. Yesterday, I had two exams. I think they went rather well. :) Last night I watched the Saints win in a game that was down to the wire. I'm not normally a fan of the NFL but that was a great game! 7-0!!

As far as football goes FSU has won their last two games which is good news because the season wasn't looking so good there for a while. Oregon beat USC this past weekend! I love the fact that USC can't seem to win a game in Oregon! LSU is still handling their business which is fine but soon they'll be playing my Bulldogs...and yeah I'm afraid to watch. This weekend they're in Bama..should be a good game. Indiana almost beat #4 Iowa this past weekend. That would have been so unbelievably sweet. Tech almost won their game...they lost by one So in quick recap here are their records: Florida State: 4-4, Louisiana Tech: 3-5,#9 LSU: 7-1, Indiana: 4-5, #8 Oregon: 7-1, Oregon State: 5-3, and Washington: 3-5. Notre Dame played Wazzou this week and slaughtered them. Normally this would make me happy but it's Notre Dame!!! As it stands we're looking at a UT-UF national championship. If that's the case then Hook 'em Horns!

The RCC welcomes Anglicans

This is a news story that has been of intense interest to me as of late. I'm taking a Christian Tradition class which has added to the knowledge that I already had about Catholic-Protestant divisions. The divisions between the Anglican and Catholic communions have always been a bit perplexing. As far as the everyday workings and the laity would be concerned the churches, in service and belief, are very similar. Why did they split in the first place? It was the classic control problem. Who has it? The Pope or the King. They disagreed, Leo wouldn't grant the divorce, and Henry packed up his marbles and went home. With all the instability in the Episcopalian Church in the US(i.e. women and gay people in the ministry) the RCC offers a stability that goes back to St. Peter. There are those in the ECUSA that for years have been willing to put aside their differences with the RCC and come back into the fold. Now, Benedict has made that easier. I think it's a really great step for those who choose to make it. It'll be interesting to see what comes of this.

Here are some pictures and video from the last little while. Enjoy!

Pictures and Videos )

Thanks for reading. Hopefully it won't be quite as long before I update again.

Grace and Peace
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Comic for November 3, 2009 [Nov. 3rd, 2009|12:00 am]
dilbertdaily


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(no subject) [Nov. 2nd, 2009|08:29 pm]

retrofire
Jon Corzine has to beat that Fat Sack of Hot Air Chris Christie tomorrow, he just HAS TO!
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Guardian. Times. [Nov. 2nd, 2009|10:20 pm]

powerswitch

[smashboredom]
Artists to use public money to fund Copenhagan summit protest
Bristol-based project may use installation made from old bikes and funded by Arts Council to blockade streets in Copenhagen


Artists and activists have been given public money that could be used to take part in civil disobedience at the Copenhagen climate change conference.

They are working together at the Arnolfini art gallery in Bristol before the Cop15 conference, which is expected to attract thousands of demonstrators. Most are producing work intended to draw attention to climate change issues, such as inviting people to bring in unwanted trees that will be planted in a community wood or perhaps along a cycle route.

But many will be travelling to Copenhagen, and some admit that they will take part in acts of civil disobedience.

One of the most striking projects is being organised by a group called the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination – Lab of ii.

It will be designing a huge "carnivalesque" installation out of old bikes that it may use to blockade the streets in Copenhagen or to trap fossil fuel lobbyists in their hotel.

President Obama won’t talk climate change in Copenhagen

President Obama will almost certainly not travel to the Copenhagen climate change summit in December and may instead use his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech to set out US environmental goals, The Times has learnt.

With healthcare reform clogging his domestic agenda and no prospect of a comprehensive climate treaty in Copenhagen, Mr Obama may disappoint campaigners and foreign leaders, including Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, who have urged him to attend to boost the hopes of a breakthrough.

The White House would not comment on Mr Obama’s travel plans yesterday, but administration officials have said privately that “Oslo is plenty close” — a reference to the Nobel ceremony that falls on December 10, two days into the Copenhagen meeting.
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