January 27, 2004
Leak against this war
an article from today's guardian from Daniel Ellsberg enjoining people to leak against war
"I can only admire the more timely, courageous action of Katherine Gun, the GCHQ translator who risked her career and freedom to expose an illegal plan to win official and public support for an illegal war, before that war had started. Her revelation of a classified document urging British intelligence to help the US bug the phones of all the members of the UN security council to manipulate their votes on the war may have been critical in denying the invasion a false cloak of legitimacy. That did not prevent the aggression, but it was reasonable for her to hope that her country would not choose to act as an outlaw, thereby saving lives. She did what she could, in time for it to make a difference, as indeed others should have done, and still can."
see also comments on previous entry
January 23, 2004
January 22, 2004
Anti-Semitism: A Practical Manual
Uri Avnery (the founder of Gush Shalom, the Israeli Peace Bloc) offers a primer on anti-semitism on alter.net.
this may be of some use to the israeli ambassador to sweden after his destruction of "Snow White and The Madness of Truth". (haaretz's columnist tries to have it both ways on the incident while thier letters page has a rather more thought out response from one of thier readers; second letter).
January 21, 2004
the most serene republic of flambingo
make your own nation state, this is off the jennifer government site, a book who's critical reception can only be explained by most critics never having read any utopian / dystopian literature. ever. this however is infinitly more intrested that the book.
unsuprisingly the most serene republic of flambingo has an excellent environmental and civil rights record but low levels of investment. the SRF is currently applying for UN membership and has recently rejected a proposal for compulsory voting
UN Category: Liberal Democratic Socialists
Civil Rights: Excellent
Economy: Developing
Political Freedoms: Superb
Location: The North Pacific
The Most Serene Republic of Flambingo is a tiny, environmentally stunning nation, remarkable for its devotion to social welfare. Its compassionate, intelligent population of 5 million love a good election, and the government gives them plenty of them. Universities tend to be full of students debating the merits of various civil and political rights, while businesses are tightly regulated and the wealthy viewed with suspicion.
Crime is well under control. Flambingo's national animal is the leopard, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its currency is the bingo.
January 19, 2004
the past of the future
containing all the leitmotifs of utopian literature: an obsession with clothing and it's subclause decorum, superfast transport demolishing distance, the technological regulation of reproduction, the mass specification of housing and the destruction of the nation state.
“You are now in the capital of the world—in Peerless City, on the island known to the ancients as the Island of Borneo.”
“Then the world has ceased to be divided into nations?”
“Bless you! yes, long ago. The last nation to come into the general arrangement was an old republic on the continent of America called South Carolina. You will find the whole story in the school histories.”
“And what has become of the old nations?”
“Most of them have disappeared altogether......"
--------------------------------
Originally from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 12, iss. 68, January, 1856.
under-reported news: katherine gun
Katherine Gun, a GCHQ translator who leaked documents concerning the british secret services attempts to bug UN delegates in order to enable the US to better 'negotitate' support from smaller countries for invading iraq is due in court today for a pre-trial hearing.
naturally this is seemingly only reported* in the new york times.
"Katharine Gun has a much better grasp of the true spirit of democracy than Tony Blair. So, naturally, it's Katharine Gun who's being punished.
Ms. Gun, 29, was working at Britain's top-secret Government Communications Headquarters last year when she learned of an American plan to spy on at least a half-dozen U.N. delegations as part of the U.S. effort to win Security Council support for an invasion of Iraq.
The plans, which included e-mail surveillance and taps on home and office telephones, was outlined in a highly classified National Security Agency memo. The agency, which was seeking British assistance in the project, was interested in "the whole gamut of information that could give U.S. policymakers an edge in obtaining results favorable to U.S. goals.""
* as p. lukasiak [comments] has pointed out this was not a news report by the nytimes but rather the subject of an opinion piece by one of thier regular columnists (21.01.04)
January 18, 2004
scientific proof
the morning brings proof that almost pure contenment can be manufactured using only the lakeland plastics catalogue tucked in the sunday papers.
speciality tupperware heaven.
January 16, 2004
sublime supersolids
Frozen helium has been turned into a solid that behaves like a superfluid.
from nature
January 15, 2004
more under-reported iraq news
even while iraqis protest against an appointed interim government the governing councils overturns the secular rights of women and places family/womens affairs under religious control.
RAWA (remember afghanistan? the last bush of the desert adventure, the one to end the oppression of women?) says it best. The new afghanistan where incidently married women have been expelled from education by Karzai's government to "protect unmarried girls from hearing explicit details about sex from their married classmates".
meanwhile amongst american allies women protest for rights in saudi arabia.
real world rule in unreal cities
"Game companies are not like phone companies, which have a legal obligation to carry all speech over their lines. They are more like a private club, which can reserve the right to expel members at will. And the Constitution does not protect speech once it has been signed away by contract, which is what players do when they subscribe.
But that could change as virtual worlds increasingly intersect with the real one, some legal experts contend. It is considerably more painful to switch game worlds, abandoning pets, property and friends, than it is to switch phone companies, they note. Games may come to be regarded in the same gray area as shopping malls, which several state courts have ruled can be forced to uphold free speech rights despite being private property."
January 14, 2004
IRC bible
* Jehova has joined #tohuwabohu
Jehova Let there be light.
Jehova...
Jehova Well, let's call the light day, and the darkness night.
Jehova Yes...
Jehova Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters
Jehova Now... let's call the firmament... erm, Heaven!
Jehova Yes...
Jehova nn
* Jehova has left #tohuwabohu
* Jehova has joined #tohuwabohu
Jehova mornin
Jehova Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear
Jehova k
Jehova the dry stuff will be land, and the wet stuff sea
Jehova uhm...
Jehova Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed,
and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth
Jehova heh
Jehova short day
Jehova ron
* Jehova has left #tohuwabohu
January 13, 2004
divide and rule
this is quite impressively mad. mind you its from townhall.com which makes peter hitchens seem quite sane. gay marriage (this is in america, creation of the enlightenment) is bad because black communities are disolved by single parent families which will...in some fashion...be even more prevelent with these fake marriages of homosexualists.
splendidly insane.
random names
now with the random name generator i can relive the endless amusement of watching the credits for strange names without having to sit through the programme.
yeah yeah, happy new year, month off, really nice...y'know.