It seems as though anti-war protest tactics have changed. I find this interesting because, while i’m adamently anti-war, i have yet to feel any meaningful anti-war *community*. I mean, my friends and colleagues are all super anti-war and i’ve been supporting Not In Our Names in a variety of different ways, but i really don’t feel connected. I guess attending the protests would remind me that there are other people involved, but everyone who i know who went to SF’s anti-war protests felt great about going, like it was a festival, but they didn’t come out feeling more connected to an anti-war community…

secured liberty… prisoner style. I love that the ACLU has a section on the art of civil liberties!

The Detroit Project has developed a series of TV ads aimed at SUV drivers, reminding them how they are supporting the terrorists. Based on the anti-drug ads, these pieces are just poignant reminders of how the public just doesn’t get it. And, of course, there are plenty of TV stations refusing to air them.

The NYTimes has another great article about the US becoming an empire and what this means. Although i don’t entirely agree with the author’s bent on the situation, i think that he clearly articulates some of the historical precedents for empire and what our behavior means, what role we are playing and the problems with playing that role. Anyhow, interesting read.

In 1984 DOW Chemical created a major disaster in Bhopal, affecting thousands. Lawsuits have continued for decades and many of those affected were not properly compensated. To celebrate the anniversary of this disaster, a group of folks created a spoof website and emailed thousands in protest; this action was severely censored. At the same time, many of the women survivors did a silent protest of DOW Chemical in India to object to their treatment of this; DOW Chemical is suing these peaceful protestors for costing them money because their employees were distracted. This situation is a reminder of why it is so problematic that our society and governments are controlled by corporations with greedy motives and minimal social responsibility.

Against Their Wills is a magnificant (yet terrifying) article about the forced sterilization that has occurred in North Carolina and why it lasted so much longer than in other states. Aside from being an amazing article, the stylization of the article is fabulous.

Don’t you hate it when you see disaster emerging and yet you feel so ineffective at stopping it?

The civilian population, in other words, has willingly embraced the technical prerequisites for a national surveillance system that Pentagon planners are calling Total Information Awareness.

Well, duh… They think that they’re building a Castle, right?

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Does anyone else think it’s odd that JCPenney is selling a Christmas toy (ages 5 & up) with a soldier standing above a bombed out home?

Well, we are certainly becoming a new roman empire (and most likely we will also fall). And finally Osama has decried his reasons for which we should. Reading through that is quite impressive. As a disbeliever of all Zoroastrian-derived religions, i couldn’t help but disagree with his world view in relation to religion and sexual/social morality, yet so many of his points regarding policies, politics and ethics were so accurate and the wakeup call that i wanted the US to have after WTC that it was quite eerie to read this message, regardless of who its author might actually be. Aside from his statements about our foreign policies, one point struck me in an interesting way:

You are a nation that exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools calling upon customers to purchase them. You use women to serve passengers, visitors, and strangers to increase your profit margins. You then rant that you support the liberation of women.

Oh, and friends have also pointed out similar articles of interest:
– The Push For War
– Our Way: The Trouble with Being the World’s Only Superpower

“Terrorism Is Society’s Condemnation of Itself” – Jean Baudrillard

The despair of having everything

The West’s mission is to make the world’s wealth of cultures interchangeable, and to subordinate them within the global order. Our culture, which is bereft of values, revenges itself upon the values of other cultures.

Is globalisation inevitable? What fervour propels the world to embrace such an abstract idea? And what force drives us to make that idea a reality so unconditionally?