HELIOLITH

H’s input on our Bush/Kerry family debate was so excellent I decided I had to include it here. This is a guest entry and I will attribute the excerpt when I find out its origin. Its brilliance will have to suffice for the time being. Leave it to H to respond in rhyme! (origin […]

I am reading Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a Vietnam War novel published in 1990. This is an excerpt:
“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done. If […]

I visited the International Center of Photography last week, on 6th and 43rd. In a small room downstairs, there are photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison. They are photographs that most everyone has seen already. They are unframed, printed on regular printer paper, downloaded from the internet. They are tacked on the black walls at […]

In researching the Black Panther Party, I came across a website dedicated to illustrating the positive history of the political group. I found a quote on pacifism that resonates meaningfully, especially in the weeks before an election that threatens to reelect a war-minded leader. Huey P. Newton:
“The Peace Movement is extremely important, more important […]

Wired this morning (2a.m.) ran a story on the mysterious seizure of Indymedia’s european server hard-drives. They ran a very plausible possible explanation, which reported that the FBI had been called on by Swiss authorities for help, since pictures of cops photographing activists were posted on indymedia. Apparently they (the Swiss police) wanted […]

I’ve got to say that frequently my feelings about email “forwards” align more closely with Anil’s in this rant, but tonight is special. I endured the debates, all of them, and then struggled to find common ground with more conservative family members. It’s a good cause, and was actually fun, but a succinct […]

El EZLN y El Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos siguen luchando en Chiapas. Cuando estudiaba en Oregon, tuve una profesora que nos sugirió leer los comunicados del líder de la rebelión. Desde aquel entonces, ni he buscado ni leido esos comunicados, pero como que ayer ví la peli de Gabriel García Bernal tan impresionante, me dediqué hoy […]

Michael Michael Motorcycle, how I have been dreaming about a homemade motorcycle since–well, since last night when I saw the Motorcycle Diaries. In addition to deciding I had to read it again, this time in Spanish, and also try to reread Subcomandante Marcos’s revolutionary writings, that movie made me want to build my very own […]

It bears repeating, in case like most Americans, you misunderstood the code-speak reference to Dred Scott. It turns out that Bush was not talking about slavery, but rather about abortion!
Paperwight’s smart and timely post uncovers something too many will never put together or uncover. He translates the fundamentalist codified reference into plain […]

So both the Bush and Kerry have been called on their distortions and lies. Factcheck.org (not .com) calls them on it: “Bush forgets he owns a tree-growing company. Kerry again inflates job-loss figures.”
Kevin Drum called Bush one very critical lie Bush repeated last night, that
Non-homeland, non-defense discretionary spending was raising […]