what time is it?

Daphne and I just got back from the 8th Annual SF/Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair, where we bought some fine books and things. I have two new patches, one of which says "THE MEDIA: Always ready with new & better ways of not seeing what's in front of you."
Daphne bought a pin that says "Another enemy of capitalism" for a dollar.
I also bought copies of Noam Chomsky's "Power and Terror" and a book called "Ivan Petrov: Russia Through a Shot Glass," from Garrett County Press (New Orleans).
It seemed pretty well attended (by white people, anyway); the vegan food was pretty good, and there were lots of books.
also, the weather these days is so gorgeous and warm I can hardly believe it.

Last night Claud and I went to a bonfire at Ocean Beach. I hadn't been to one for years. it was warm (for Ocean Beach); the light was beautiful, the ocean mesmerizing, the fire big and sparky (my favorite), and the small amount of whiskey just right. Even Muni was cooperative. Thanks, Claud. I needed it, and it was lovely.

Eli got arrested yesterday at a peaceful demonstration at the Federal Building. Here's his excellent write-up of the event.
my favorite part:
The handcuffs were no problem—instead of the metal or the plastic twisties, these guys use sort of a strong shoelace with a clip (incredibly loosely applied; in some cases you had to try hard to keep the thing on... which gave the whole thing a slightly kinky atmosphere). Sitting cuffed on the ground for half an hour, as they lined up batches of people before they were ready to process us, was a little more uncomfortable because I'm not at all limber, but at least we had some good music. Eventually we were all moved into a temporary area inside—basically the corner of the lobby. The friendliest cop in the world gave us a short speech about how we would wait here for our citations, and how we should stay seated on the floor if possible and not try to remove our cuffs; he pointedly avoided looking at a couple of people who had already wiggled out of theirs.

Here's the opposite side of the coin, however:
from Ftrain.com:
What's going on in Pittsburgh, by Rachel Lange.
I spent the next 30 hours in jail, being called a coward, an asshole, a fucker, a traitor to my country, ungrateful to the troops dying for my freedom, a bitch, a lesbian, a pinko (yeah--really, a pinko!), etc., while various officials tried to get us all processed as slowly as possible. I overheard how they went out of their way, breaking even their own rules, to punish us, the 'real' criminals. No kidding. I had the misfortune to get a right-wing veteran for a magistrate. He set my bail at $1000. I later met a crack whore, whose bail was the same. My father and sister waited 7 hours to try to pay it. “You know why you're here?” the police said to them, “Because your daughter committed a crime!” When they pointed out the whole 'innocent until proven guilty' thing, they were threatened with arrest.

Appellate Court Rules Media Can Legally Lie

On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast.

heart attack city

I was just sitting here in my kitchen, reading, when suddenly my smoke alarm beeped, twice. after 10 seconds it did it again. I went into panic mode. where's your passport? was the first thing that sprung to mind. I coudn't smell smoke, in my hallway or my apartment, and so I climbed onto a chair and took it down. there was a big, fanged spider running around in there. (with apparently very strong little legs.)
well, at least now I know it works in case of spider attacks...

and more about oil

this guy says:
it's about oil.

D.A. drops felonies against protesters / 'Ambiguity' cited -- S.F. supervisor, cops criticize Hallinan

In Praise of the Protesters
Interesting points about why this war isn't for oil:
"Daniel Yergin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian on the world oil industry, puts Iraq's share of the world oil supply at just 3 percent. And most of it flows to Europe and Asia -- not the U.S., which gets 90 percent of its oil from North and South America, West Africa and the North Sea.
Yergin writes in the Financial Times that due to technological advances in production methods, he predicts an increase in the world's oil reserves to a total of 175 billion barrels -- 50 percent more than Iraq's reserves and two-thirds that of Saudi Arabia's.
Where's all that oil coming from?
Not the Gulf.
It's from Canada.
And they're against this war, too.
So the oil issue is my minor quibble with protesters.
This isn't "Blood for Oil."
That was Gulf War I.
This one is just about blood. And dominance."

march 22, 2003

a few photos from Saturday's peace march:

the extra action marching band
(click for larger view.)

poem from the SF resistance
by Daphne Gottlieb

Doctors Without Borders:
"War in Iraq has already diverted scarce aid and attention from the enormous humanitarian needs around the world. Reconstruction of Afghanistan is far from complete, deadly conflicts persist in Burundi, Colombia, and Liberia, and the AIDS pandemic continues to kill millions worldwide. With donor and media attention focused on the war in Iraq, other urgent crises will not receive the funding or assistance they desperately need."

Working Assets Iraqi Emergency Relief Fund

"Shame on you, Mr. Bush. Shame on you! Anytime you've got the pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up!"
-Michael Moore at the Oscars

Mr. Moore invited all the other nominees for Best Documentary to go on stage with him; he'd warned them that he would be making remarks against the war and the Bush administration, and they were all glad to join him.

Here's my disclaimer.
I hate the whole hollywood popularity contest bullshit as much as the next person, but come on- did you go to see "The Hours" or "Chicago?" "Gangs of New York?" Then don't bother ridiculing the Oscars, because you've already participated. You've paid your $9.25 or $11.25. and guess what- that money isn't paying the schmoe who tore your ticket stub.
And as far as this year goes- Oscars and war. I've seen headlines this morning decrying the horrific fact of American POWs on one channel, tulle and satin on the next. Guess what? Every year during the Oscars, people somewhere were getting murdered, tortured, raped, starved to death, held prisoner, you name it- and I mean also in the good ole USA. Where do you draw the line?

Gael García Bernal was the classiest, sexiest speaker I've ever seen at those damn awards.
Catherine Zeta-Jones looked gorgeous and I hope she never loses any of that weight. and of course I'm not surprised that Salma Hayek didn't win Best Actress.
And yeah, okay, there are many parts of the whole proceedings that are ridiculous and disgusting. Did I sound like I was defending the Oscars? oh my.
The man who asked the Iraqi people for peace should have been booed.
can you imagine! I mean, can you imagine?

But Todd's wrap-up at Tremble is much better and funnier than mine. go read it.

Free State of San Francisco

"Need An American Husband?

I'm looking for a woman who's a citizen of a current E.U. member
state, who's interested in sharing nationalities, via marriage.
I'm 38, queer Boho type, single, a writer, HIV+ & HCV+, lifelong
U.S. citizen, and I'm getting deeply nervous about the
directions the USA is going, now & longer-term. (I'll always
love this country, but it's starting to look like it may be
safer to do so from a distance.) Ideal countries would be UK,
Spain, or Germany, but I'm flexible. Ideal woman would be a
punk dyke, or some flavor of Bohemian, and at least 30ish, but
again it's not critical. We'll need to get along reasonably
well, at least well enough to roommate for some years. Also, no
total flakes (if you keep ~meaning~ to pay rent on time, we
wouldn't work well together). Goals are lawful permanent
residency in the USA for you, the same plus enrollent in
national healthcare system in your country for me. Serious
applicants only, this'd involve at least 1-2+ years in each
jurisdiction, it'll be a long haul before we're done. RSVP to
warbride@imperator.net."

Demonstrators in Paris smash the front window of a McDonalds.
oh, like they haven't been waiting to do that for years...

Vive la France (part deux)

Conscientious objectors:
a list of people in the British government who have already resigned, and those whose resignations seem likely to follow.

is there a shrink in the house?

on sfgate.com, Harley Sorensen asks, "Is Bush a 'Dry Drunk?'"

and on Counterpunch.org, a wonderful article:
Addiction, Brain Damage and the President
"Dry Drunk" Syndrome and George W. Bush
by Katherine van Wormer, Professor of Social Work at the University of Northern Iowa, and Co-author of Addiction Treatment: A Strengths Perspective (2002).

Germans across political spectrum tongue-lash America / Anti-war fever feeds distaste toward U.S.

"Absurdism is a valid response to idiocy."
Vive la France, Charlie!

whee!
I got up extra early this fine Saturday morning to talk to my sister Erika in Kyrgyzstan! She's been staying with a fellow volunteer every other weekend, and that family has a phone. I managed to get through and we gabbed for over an hour. it was the nicest thing ever, to be able to hear my sister's voice for only the second time since October, through a huge network of tiny little wires (or whatever they're using these days), traveling all the way from Kyrgyzstan to San Francisco.

today I saw a cab that said "Worldwide Taxi" on its side.
I had to fight the urge to get in and say, "Paris, and step on it, please!"

in the mornings I usually listen to NPR while I'm getting ready for work. This morning, as usual, I was in a daze, not really listening, wandering around, looking for my cup of coffee, when I heard this voice singing, belting out a song like Patsy Cline's punk rock little sister - it was amazing... I would have followed it into the ocean, if necessary.
it was a story on Neko Case, whom I'd never heard of, but then, I never hear of anything until it's over.
if you go here and scroll down a bit, you can listen to the story/interview with song clips on NPR.

“It seems the height of antiquated hubris to claim that the universe carried on as it did for billions of years in order to form a comfortable abode for us. Chance and historical contingency give the world of life most of its glory and fascination. I sit here happy to be alive and sure that some reason must exist for ‘why me?’ Or the earth might have been totally covered with water, and an octopus might now be telling its children why the eight-legged God of all things had made such a perfect world for cephalopods. Sure we fit. We wouldn't be here if we didn't. But the world wasn't made for us and it will endure without us.”
-Stephen Jay Gould

Two nights ago I was on my way home, sitting on the miserably slow 22, having low blood sugar and feeling morose. I was thinking about the fact that I've been here in San Francisco for ten years; about the vague choices that brought me here, and pondering what my life would be like if I'd never come. (a tip, gentle readers- never ponder these things before you've had your dinner.) I had this exact, very silly, melodramatic thought:
"what am I doing here?"
Just then the woman next to me got up to leave. I moved to another seat to make room for her to get by, and sat down next to a man reading. I glanced down and saw, at the top of the left page, the following fragment:
"because I'm there already, and there's nowhere else to go."
zoinks!
The reader turned the page to a new chapter. at the top of the new page it said, "Nature, History, and Statistics As Meaning," and on the other side, "Stephen Jay Gould." I can't find anything by that title, so it must have been a chapter title. I wish I had asked the guy for the name of the book.

Then I got home and found two emails from perfect strangers who'd discovered some of my silly photos from Paris online. One of them sent me my own photo (which at first felt a little like someone handing you your watch, and saying, "do you know where I can get one of these?" hey! but I got over it) of the sculpture of the Three Graces at the Louvre, and wondered if I could tell him who the sculptor was. (I couldn't.)
The other guy (bless 'im) sent me a photo of a section of the floor of the Sainte Chapelle, along with a picture of the tattoo he'd gotten of it on his arm. He said he saw that I had similar photos and wondered if I had any more- he's obsessed with getting something similar for the other arm. I wish I'd had something to send him.

how's your Russian?

Glasnost on War's Looted Art, in today's New York Times.
10,000 items of "displaced cultural treasures" (paintings, archives and rare books looted by Soviet forces in Germany and Eastern Europe during and after World War II and taken to Russia- although much of it was pillaged in the first place by the Nazis from their victims), are being listed on Restitution.ru, but the site is only in Russian.
My PC only displays some of the fonts, and what I can try to read is really, really small. I'd be very slow help.
There's also lostart.de, which was set up by the German government in 2000. It's got English, German, and Russian options.

read this now

Wayne Madsen: You Know Bush is in Trouble When Even Poppy Says Go Slow
via Free Will Astrology

"On February 27, John Brady Kiesling, a 20-year career Foreign Service Officer and the Political Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Greece, tendered his resignation in protest over Bush's war plans. In his letter of resignation he stated, "we have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known." Brady was joined by career diplomat John H. Brown on March 10. In his letter of resignation, Brown, who represented the United States throughout Eastern Europe , stated, ""Throughout the globe the United States is becoming associated with the unjustified use of force. The president's disregard for views in other nations, borne out by his neglect of public diplomacy, is giving birth to an anti-American century." Bravo Mr. Brown! Brown and Kiesling represent the best of the State Department."
(yeah, well, unfortunately, the best of the State Department now no longer work for the State Department.)

"Junior, let's face it, you have done more damage to the world and your country in two years than most tyrants have accomplished in decades. Your Dad now even believes you are way off base. Your predecessors Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton think you are an embarrassment. Your Dad's best friends and colleagues think your Iraq adventure is ill-timed and ill-conceived.
You need to either dump that aforementioned band of lunatics you stuck into your administration and who are steering you into political oblivion or you should let Laura and Daddy sign the papers and let the 25th Amendment take its course."

can I get an amen?

fun with Photoshop at 1:17 am!





thanks, Deb!

"A whole month of foreplay -- what's more pleasant than that?"

the penguins at the SF Zoo have stopped swimming! now they're ready for love. The report on NPR this morning said that their keeper has been playing "Come To Me," sung by Johnny Mathis.

"Quiet down! This is a library and people are trying to read the backs of the videos!"

Librarian Avengers.com
-don't miss "why you should fall to your knees and worship a librarian," and Stupid Research Tricks, where I found the true story of the Nauga, the critters that naugahyde couches are made from; and a good story about people looking for "The Source" (sounds like Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
via Booboolina

If librarian stories don't interest you, you may read here about "tounge of frog."

need a change of scenery?
hate your town?
buy a new one on Ebay.

today there was a great email from Erika!
(in case you're new here, Erika is my sister, and she's in Kyrgyzstan, doing two years service in the Peace Corps.)