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Michael Rossman 12/15/39-05/12/08
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May. 13th, 2008 @ 03:07 pm
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http://mrossman.org/
Michael Rossman, one of the leaders of the Free Speech Movement, the UC Berkeley event that launched the era of student protest, died yesterday. He was 69 years old and was done in by leukemia.
I didn't know him personally, but a few years after a story I'd written on the subject of the Free Speech Movement was published by Pif magazine he found it online and wrote to me with suggestions and an invitation to reprint it at the FSM website if I could correct the many historical inaccuracies in the piece. I recall that a few of the old FSM participants had read the story and found my errors quite vexing whereas Michael had defended the story. I wish now that I'd found the time to rewrite the piece and get it on the FSM website.
Here are some links to Rossman's writings:
Looking back on the Free Speech Movement
The Betrayal of Lenny Glaser (at Counterpunch)
Michael Rossman essay on Political Posters
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Diet Soap Pizza Party Reminder
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May. 10th, 2008 @ 03:15 pm
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Just a reminder. The second issue of Diet Soap is launching tonight from the Writer's Dojo. Free beer and Pizza will be on hand. We'll meet at the Dojo around 7pm. By 8 we'll head over to the St. Johns Bookstore, just around the corner on N. Lombard. There we will enjoy readings from Diet Soap Issue #2. Then it's back to the Dojo and maybe we'll party into the pre-dawn Mom's Day hours.
Here some links for your enjoyment:
Map and directions to the Dojo
http://www.writersdojo.org/location.php
St. Johns Bookstore online
http://www.stjohnsbooks.com
Editor M.K. Hobson
http://www.demimonde.com/ and http://mkhobson.livejournal.com/ |
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Comcastic Conversation
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May. 9th, 2008 @ 07:22 am
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Boss: Doug, you're not to go into personal time right off the bat when you arrive. That's work avoidance. You've been here almost ten minutes and haven't even started yet.
Me: I had to use the facilities.
Boss: If you need personal time before you start work then you should get here early.
Me: Only I didn't get here early today, I got here right on time, and then I had to...use the restroom.
Boss: You've been here almost ten minutes and haven't taken a single call.
Me: ....
(later the boss apologized for his tone but reiterated the company policy on 'personal time')
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My New Hero
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May. 5th, 2008 @ 08:33 am
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I'm sure a good many of you have known about Mark Steel for years and I'm simply embarassingly out of date, behind the times, and daft for bringing him up. However, I've just watched his lecture program about Thomas Paine and have found a great many other of his lectures on youtube, and feel it's necessary to provide a link to these lectures.
These are fun. For instance, in the Paine documentary Steel describes the public reaction to one of Thomas Paine's books while being filmed sitting on the toilet. |
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Chomsky and the Golden Rule
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May. 1st, 2008 @ 09:16 pm
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I think this is the context to put the "outrage" about Reverend Wright and his comments.
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| » Where are you? |
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If you're in Portland, Oregon please leave a comment. If you are with the Watchers orbiting the planet, please ask the wise ones to finally intervene.
Apr. 29th, 2008 @ 12:36 pm
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| » 100 years hence |
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This is about 8 years too late, but I found this fascinating. I stumbled upon this website while trying to find the French equivalent of Highlights Magazine for Children. By the by if such a magazine exists and you know the title please drop a comment.
Apr. 28th, 2008 @ 12:55 am
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| » Next Diet Soap Cover? |
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Thumbs up? Thumbs down? I'm not attached, let me know what you think.
Apr. 25th, 2008 @ 01:16 am
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| » Diet Soap Pizza Party |
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The Second Issue of Diet Soap was due out a few months back, but is finally almost ready for its unveiling at the Writer's Dojo on May 10th and starting at 7pm. The St. John's Bookstore is also hosting a reading that night, and I'd love it if we could have an open microphone for maybe a half hour or an hour too.
Here is a link to the google map for the Writer's Dojo. There will be free pizza and beer.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=7506+N+Chicago+Ave,+Portland,+OR+97203,+USA&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=45.599026,-122.751017&spn=0.016815,0.027895&z=14&iwloc=addr&source=embed
Apr. 22nd, 2008 @ 04:42 pm
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| » Today's New York Times- a review |
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The first thing I look for when picking up the New York Times on my way to work is a color photograph that makes me either feel hopeless or really angy. Sometimes I'm let down and just feel numb, and today was such a day.
A Nazi Pope visited Ground Zero and then went on to touch New Yorkers, but when I looked at his funny hat and evil eyes nothing registered. I just don't care about this guy.
However, I can usually count on the opinion section to get me going, and today's column by Krugman put me over into a nice round funk. You may have heard about the food riots and recessions and oil prices and fallen currencies and so on, but today Krugman managed to say the obvious.
The economic troubles we're experiencing could be tied to the fact that we're running out of planet to exploit. It could be that these high prices for commodities are connected to the loss of our natural resources. Now that the bees are disappearing, the birds are disappearing, the fish are disappearing, the trees are mostly gone, the oceans are dying, the ground is drying up, and the oil supply is running out, things like clean water, food, and electricity are more expensive. Krugman suggests that the destruction of the Earth might actually be a factor in our economic decline.
There. That does the trick.
The reality of our ecocide is suddenly fit to print and, after drinking a Starbuck's coffee (and after looking around and noticing that Starbuck's is rebranding, returning to their original logo in an attempt to bring back customers after a sluggish couple of quarters) I found myself ready to go hop my train to Beaverton. I was already looking forward to a Comcastic Day.
Apr. 21st, 2008 @ 10:49 pm
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| » Nonsequitur/Point of Logic |
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If someone says something you find to be unlikely or backwards or even just untrue try to remember that discrediting the person who spoke does not actually discredit that person's claim.
Apr. 15th, 2008 @ 02:39 pm
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| » Linked In and my New Job Opportunity |
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I'm excited. After slugging it out in the corporate sector for the last ten months I'm already getting used to the idea of flexible employment and with my network of online connections I've managed to schedule a preliminary screening that may lead to an interview with what looks like a very exciting company. Check out their Mission Statement:
Zephyr Holdings aims to build and consolodate leadership positions in its chosen markets, forging profitable growth oppurtunities by developing strong relationships between internal and external business units and coordinating a strategic, consolidated approach to achieve maximum returns for its stakeholders.
And now that you understand go ahead and check out their website: http://www.zephyrholdings.com/index.html
Apr. 13th, 2008 @ 12:24 am
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| » Conspiracy Reading/Parallax View |
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I just read Loren Singer's book the Parallax View, after having rented the movie last week and, while the book was pulpy and the characters thin, I found it compelling reading. What was most compelling was what made the 1974 movie starring Warren Beatty such a solid and entertaining work, namely the process of induction into the corporation and the indoctrination once the protaganist arrives. In the film this is mostly presented in a stunning montage sequence:
In the novel this brainwashing isn't cinematic, but is more reminiscent of the kind of testing that we've all experienced in school or in job interviews, only the pressure is increased by a factor of a hundred and the employer requires that your soul and conscience is obliterated before you take the job, rather than the usual process of working itself.
After this fascinatingly mundane treatment of propaganda and mind control, what was most interesting was googling up tidbits about how the book draws on some of the controversies involved in the Kennedy assassination as a basis for its premise.
For instance: The Parallax Corporation = The Permindex Corporation
To what extent any of the Parallax View reflects reality, especially in regards to MKULTRA and Permindex I can't say. What I can say is that we are living in a time in which much of our military has been privatized. If such an organization as Parallax were to exist the proper structure or form would be that of a corporation. The state sponsored intelligence community has surely already blended with the corporate espionage community, and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that this trend has been going since the fifties and sixties.
Finally this book reminded me to remember that to the extent that seeking to reveal state and corporate conspiracies discredits these institutions is the extent to which such efforts are vital. On the other hand, the extent to which seeking such revelations discredits social critics, and worse creates another disempowering object of consumption for the fringe market of America, that is to the extent that such obsessive inquiries are counter-productive.
On the other hand, Guy Debord said it best (as is usual):
The conspiracy theory of history' was in the nineteenth century a reactionary and ridiculous belief, at a time when so many powerful social movements were stirring up the masses. Today's pseudo-rebels are well aware of this, thanks to hearsay or a few books, and believe that it remains true for eternity. They refuse to recognize the real praxis of their time; it is too sad for their cold hopes. The state notes this fact, and plays on it.
Apr. 11th, 2008 @ 11:56 pm
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| » Recommend a song |
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Please recommend a good song. Thank you.
Apr. 9th, 2008 @ 06:20 pm
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| » Obama in 2007 (a peace candidate?) |
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"The war in Afghanistan and the ill-advised invasion of Iraq have clearly demonstrated the consequences of underestimating the number of troops required to fight two wars and defend our homeland. That's why I strongly support the expansion of our ground forces by adding 65,000 soldiers to the Army and 27,000 Marines."
"Former Secretary Rumsfeld said, "You go to war with the Army you have, not the one you want." I say that if the need arises when I'm President, the Army we have will be the Army we need."
"No President should ever hesitate to use force - unilaterally if necessary - to protect ourselves and our vital interests when we are attacked or imminently threatened. But when we use force in situations other than self-defense, we should make every effort to garner the clear support and participation of others - the kind of burden-sharing and support President George H.W. Bush mustered before he launched Operation Desert Storm."
Apr. 8th, 2008 @ 11:46 pm
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| » My Son on Youtube |
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Mar. 29th, 2008 @ 01:27 am
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